This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

The Nation Blue + Batpiss + Roku Music + Grieg @ Crowbar, 05.10.2013

Grieg are the latest Brisbane super-group featuring Jon from Undead Apes, Tamara from Hits and Alex from No Anchor. I think this might be their first show and there are probably more people here to see them than there are for the rest of the night. It’s one of those Saturday nights in Brisbane when there’s an abundance of gigs all across town, so some people have popped in early to catch them on their way to their final venue of choice for the night. It’s very heavy stuff, probably more metal than any of the other bands the three of them play in. It’s nice for once that Alex has some light on him so spend some time trying to get a few decent photos of him that are hopefully improvements on all the terrible ones I’ve taken at the Waiting Room.

Roku Music are tonight’s musical oddity, being a lot less heavy (at least in the more traditional sense) than the three other bands on the bill and the difference in musical style is even more marked when Batpiss play. I love the way Batpiss are set up on the stage, with the two microphones set up facing each other. I should have appreciated a whole lot more by not being lazy and busting out a much wider lens to capture all three members of the band. The trouble with venues like Crowbar is the horseshoe effect, when the crowd forms a semi-circle out from the stage as no one wants to venture too far to the front. I always feel way too self-conscious being the lone photographer parading around in that space between the band and the stage if I don’t have the safety blanket reassurance provided by a barrier.

Getting to see Tom Lyncoln playing twice in just over a week in Brisbane is a real treat. Harmony, who supported The Drones at The Hi-Fi last week, are one of the best new bands from the last couple of years in Australia. To be honest, I’d forgotten just how good The Nation Blue are. I can remember seeing them at The Troubadour with Sixfthick years ago but doing a search on the site for the photos from that night drew a blank. From memory they were really terrible, no surprise given the lighting at The Troubadour combined with a couple of bands who just don’t work at really slow shutter speeds (or without a flash).

I think that last time at The Troubadour must have been 2006, maybe 2007, and that’s just far too long to go without seeing a band this good. Watching the band play I just can’t help but think that the organisers should be begging them to play at Soundwave. They’d be a perfect fit and would have the chance to play to a big crowd and a new audience. Someone should get on AJ’s case for next year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 15th, 2014 at 8:30 am. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2013, Batpiss, Brisbane, Crowbar, Grieg, Roku Music, The Nation Blue, Tom Lyncoln. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.