Tag Archive for "Ben Corbett"
Having seen Sixfthick and Rollerball the night before, the weekend of Brisbane-In-Melbourne continues back at The Ding Dong Lounge with Gentle Ben And His Sensitive Side. And in a role reversal from last weekend in Brisbane, Kim Salmon (albeit playing solo and without The Surrealists) is supporting.
Gentle Ben was showing no signs of the Sixfthick gig the night before; I often wonder how he does it, especially when Sixfthick do things like their upcoming European tour and play 16 gigs in 16 days. That’s gotta hurt after a few days without a break. One of these days I’m going to have to crash a Sixfthick tour and do some more tour photography, even of it’s just a few days down in Melbourne or Sydney. It’s been just over a year since I was away in Melbourne with Butcher Birds, so about time I did it again.
Tonight’s gig was for a 7 inch launch, which I didn’t realise they were releasing. Good to hear they’ve been recording again and can’t wait until the next album. In retrospect I probably should have bought a copy of the single, but not having a record player in Australia would mean a long wait until I could get to listen to it. I miss my record player. And my approximately 2,000 record collection…
From X at The Ding Dong Lounge, it was a bit of a magical mystery tour to Roxanne Parlour, despite the venue only being just down the road. Eventually, after a walk around the block, going into a somewhat random building with no sign outside saying that this was the place and getting the lift up to the second floor, we were there.
Sixfthick became my most seen live band a long time ago (beating the previous record held by Spiritualized), but this was the first time that I’d seen them away from Brisbane. The most noticeable difference between most Brisbane shows and tonight’s Melbourne show was the crowd, who were just wild. As well as mosh pit collapsing onto the front of the low stage throughout the gig, Gentle Ben returned from one of his forays into the crowd with his underwear pulled up above his jeans and looking ragged. At which point he decided he would deprive the audience of their fun and just rip them off through his jeans… As you do…
They played a similar set to the ones they’ve played recently in Brisbane, including their cover of X’s ‘The Feel’, but even having seen them play so many times, you just can’t get tired of seeing them. They have the songs and they have the show. It’s heartening to see them get a sizeable crowd in the Melbourne, something of a graveyard for Brisbane bands. In a fair world they should be being booked to play every major festival in Australia and hopefully that time isn’t too far around the corner.
A few more photos on flickr, with maybe a few more to come when I have a bit more time.
What I learnt from last Saturday night:
(a) I don’t take very good photos at The Troubadour; and
(b) I don’t take very good photos of Jean Nicotine.
Actually, I already knew both of those things…
A few more here.
SixFtHick
Mean Streaks
Out of all the dates definitely the night that everyone had been most looking forward to. Jo forgot to put me on the door, so it’s a good job it was SixFtHick and my money was going to a good cause, otherwise it might have been an early night for me…
The Mean Streaks played a good show, not as good as the night before at The Rev, but better than the Byron Show. Although that night evened itself out if you viewed it from the comedy angle…
Eat Laser Scumbag put on another impressive show, following on from the gig at Fat Louie’s the weekend before, and the Vegas Kings followed suite.
But everyone was there to see the Hick, and they were the best seen them in my short life in Brisbane. The usual carnage but on a bigger stage than seen them before. The night ended with Ben swinging from the rafters, Geoff crowd surfing and a large chunk of the audience on the stage.
A few shots from the night below and more can be seen at: Six Ft Hick Album Launch
The Mean Streaks
SixFtHick
