This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

Palms + Babaganouj + Tiny Migrants @ Black Bear Lodge, 04.10.2013

I always had a soft spot for Red Riders. They were one of the bands that I kept seeing when I moved to Sydney in 2004 and I always felt they were a cut about a lot of the other Sydney bands around at the time.  They just had the better songs.  Having moved to Brisbane, I saw them at the one-off Pauhaus Festival that Dew Process put on and went to buy their album at the end of the night, only to find that they’d done a Standish/Carlyon and left early and taken all of their merch with them.  I got excited last year when saw an album of theirs in Cash Converters for $3 so bought it but then realised it was their second album and it’s not very good.  The last time I saw them was at The Globe (which I see has re-opened as a venue after a couple of years being empty, which is great news (if they have a good booker) as it was such a good place to see a band) and they were obviously in the final stages of the band.  The night was more memorable for the show at the Globe (which also included The Cairos +Ruby Tigers as support acts) being completely eclipsed by DZ’s 1am show at the Troubadour that I decided to pop into on the walk back home.

I’d heard about Palms, knowing who was in the band but without checking them out.  It’s not a million miles away from Red Riders but possibly with more guitar soloing over the top of the songs.  It’s slightly weird watching Alex Griggs some 8 years on, playing the same sunburst Rickenbacker, pulling the same onstage moves but overall it’s nothing special, little matching the best songs from those early Red Riders’ EPs and early shows.

Tiny Migrants are either too drunk, not taking it too seriously or having a band night. Half way through Jacinta remarks that maybe they should have had a practice and it’s hard to disagree.  Having seen them a few times recently, it’s not their finest hour.

Babaganouj have been around for a few years, although they did completely drop off the radar for a long while but I’d never seen them before tonight.  It’s no surprise that when you name your band after a Smudge song you also take on their brand of indie pop as your main influence.  They do it well though and out of the three bands on show tonight, it’s Babaganouj who are the most impressive.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014 at 8:30 am. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Alex Griggs, Babaganouj, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, Red Riders, Tiny Migrants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.