Archive for December 2009
As I said at the time, I was very impressed when I first saw Timothy Carroll, when he supported Texas Tea at their album launch last year; a set of really nice songs, with excellent melodies sung beautifully, especially the vocal contributions of The Troubadour’s Corinna Scanlon who I didn’t realise sang up until that point.
Tonight is a launch for Timothy Carroll’s debut album, ‘For Bread & Circuses‘. There is a strangeness about attending an album launch gig on Sunday, even though there is a very good turnout at The Troubadour, with most people appearing to be on their best behaviour in advance of a return to work the following morning, a change from the more raucous Friday and Saturday night album launches.
Texas Tea’ Kate Jacobson, playing in solo mode, opens the night and plays a couple of superb new songs which hopefully means that it won’t be too long until their next album. McKisko also supports and as before her best songs are those where she loops her voice and instruments.
From memory all of ‘For Bread & Circuses‘ gets played over the course of the evening, with Cori Scanlon’s enchanting ‘Forest‘ also played and the night ending with a new song ‘Deepest Dive’. If there is a weak point during the set, it is the cover of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘It’s A Heartache‘ that opens the encore, a song that was terrible the 1970s and is way past any sort of musical redemption, even with Kate Jacobson singing on it. But other than that one small point it’s another night of great Brisbane music at The Troubadour.
A few more photos from the night are on Flickr.
Kate Jacobson
McKisko
Timothy Carroll
I put in to cover this show more for another chance to see DZ play as opposed to getting to photograph the headline act. They had their strobe out in force again so took the opportunity to play around with long exposures again, as I had when I’d seen them before. I was less lazy than I normally am and moved around the stage more than last time. Ended up pretty happy with the photos that I got; I think they are a better set than last time.
I don’t know who does Philadelphia Grand Jury’s press but they definitely deserve some sort of award. They’ve been inescapable over the last few months, be it in the press, on TV, on the radio, all over the internet, just everywhere, culminating in a nomination for album of the year from Triple J and a Top 10 placing in Mess+Noise’s 2009 critic’s poll. And whilst they’re not a bad band, they’re not a great band and somewhat undeserving of all the attention that has been paid to them, although ‘The Good News’ is a great track.
Much is made of their live show and again it’s alright but nothing outstanding. Having said that I leave at the start of the encore (being a Thursday night and with the photos due in the morning) and miss bassist MC Bad Genius stripping down to his underwear, which all the following week’s street press publications make a note of focussing on. So maybe taking your trousers off is the key to success in the modern music industry…
More photos on Flickr.
The +1 Records showcase at The Zoo provided a chance to catch up some local bands that I hadn’t seen for a while.
Having said that, Black Mustang were one of those bands that I had never gotten around to seeing, although they had one of the best songs on the Brisbane Sounds 2009 compilation, ‘Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea‘. As it’s the only song of theirs that I know it’s the obvious highight in their set.
The Blackwater Fever disappointed me when I saw them last time at Brisbane Sounds 2009, mainly because I think there are better two-pieces covering similar ground. Tonight they frustrate me by playing in near darkness with no front lighting and very little back lighting, meaning that their set becomes an exercise in trying to second guess when there might be an occasional flash of light in which to take a photo.
I can’t remember the last time that I’d seen Mexico City, but have a feeling that it might have been at The Rev, a venue that became an R&B club at least a couple of years ago. There’s been a change in their line-up, with Tanzie from Giants of Science now playing bass for them and they seem to have a lot harder sound than I remember them having but maybe I wasn’t paying full attention, concentrating on trying to get some decent photos at the usually poorly lit Rev.
I have always enjoyed Rollerball when I’ve seen them, the last time being at the Ding Dong in Melbourne last year. As well as being a showcase for their record label, the band is also launching their new album, ‘Submarine‘, tonight and so play a fairly substantial set, although I think it’s probably too long and they would have been better off playing a shorter, punchier set. More photos from the night on Flickr.
Gemma Hayes
Lilys
A Place To Bury Strangers
Th’ Faith Healers
Swervedriver
EPMD
mum
Bob Mould
Dirty Three
my bloody valentine
School of Seven Bells
The Tyde
The Membranes
Sun Ra Arkestra
Harmony Rockets
The Pastels
That Petrol Emotion
J Mascis & The Fog
The Horrors
Spectrum
Sonic Youth
Robin Guthrie
My Bloody Valentine
No Age
Fucked Up
The plan for ATP Nightmare Before Xmas was to edit all the photos from the weekend, write all the blogs and have everything uploaded by the end of the following week. However, the Monday and the Friday were lost to moving chalets, the Wednesday was the steam train trip along the coast and nothing much got done on the Tuesday and Thursday. Then a various bouts of extreme tiredness, flu, apathy and Christmas/family stuff meant that it’s been very slow going. The main lesson learnt is probably don’t do 10 days of music festival and don’t photograph 60 bands in that time (I didn’t have a pit pass for the 10 Years of ATP weekend but no one seemed bothered about people with cameras in the crowd apart from the one security guard during the Dirty Three, so photographed a few bands over the second weekend from outside the pit).
Here’s some from Day 1, with more on the way and proper blog posts when I get around to those and the other 21 blogs that I’ve still got to start/finish. So much for catching up on everything whilst on holiday and starting the New Year with no backlog of photos and blog posts.
Josh T Pearson
De La Soul
Primal Scream
Television Personalities
My Bloody Valentine
Buzzcocks
