Tag Archive for "DZ"
Went and caught a couple of shows when I was working down in Melbourne in September, including DZ‘s Thursday night gig at the Birmingham Hotel on Johnston Street. It’s always interesting to see how well Brisbane bands do when they go out of town. For a while it looked like it might be a really tiny audience in attendence but by the time they started there was a reasonable crowd.
A couple of Melbourne bands supported; Mother & Father and Sharpie Crows. My initial reaction to Sharpie Crows was that they sounded really awful but as their set went on I started to really like them; like a cross between Nick Cave and PIL, both of which are acquired tastes so they did pretty well to achieve that over the course of maybe 30 minutes.
The main support was the really terribly named Mother & Father. The singer dressed like Kurt Cobain, had the same haircut as Kurt Cobain, had the same onstage mannerisms as Kurt Cobain, played a Fender Jaguar (like Kurt Cobain), sang like Kurt Cobain and the band sounded like Nirvana, with songs being a mix of loud distorted sections and quieter chourus-ed guitars. I guess some people are really hanging their hopes on the grunge revival really taking off.
Unfortunately DZ didn’t bring the strobe light with them in their luggage, something that really adds to the enjoyment of watching their performance. They play the standard set that they’ve been playing in Brisbane and go down well with the assembled crowd. They also help their cause by buying a few jugs of beer to entice the audience to move forward to nearer the stage; a stroke of genius and something I can’t remember seeing before, despite the ongoing reluctance of audiences everywhere to stand anywhere near the front.
The show is the launch for their debut EP, DZ Ruined My Life and there’s a little merch display on the table by the door. So it’s annoying to find at the end of the gig that whoever was manning the door/merch had already given up and packed up. Surely the optimal time to get punters to part with their cash is straight after the show? Writing this blog five months later in mid-February I still haven’t managed to get a copy of the EP; I keep checking in Brisbane’s record shops but to no avail. So if anyone can point me in the right direction I’d greatfully appreciate it.
A few more photos on Flickr.
For a few days back in September I got to play at being a proper bona fide photographer for a few days when I was commissioned by the organisers to be part of a three-person team of photographers covering the Big Sound conference in Brisbane. The work involved covering the panel discussions and also all the live music in the evenings. The sessions were divided up between the photographers, meaning that we each had to cover two half-days at the conference. The live music was roughly split up so that each photographer covered two of the six venues being used, with a bit of fine tuning to allow photographers to also choose some specific bands that they really wanted to photograph. I wasn’t needed to photograph the conference on the first day, so instead got to relax and listen to some really interesting sessions, particularly Noel Mengel’s Keynote Interview with the very inspiring and very legendary Van Dyke Parks and the very lively ‘Blogging, Twittering & Online Publishing: Time Wasting or Tastemaking?’ panel discussion, obviously a subject very close to my heart.
The live music started early with the invite-only Dew Process/Universal Music Showcase at Alhambra Lounge, with sets by Matt Walters, Washington, Dew Process’s latest local signings Last Dinosaurs and Yves Klein Blue, who replaced the late-cancelling Bluejuice. The showcase was the calm before the storm, with another ten acts photographed in three venues over the course of the evening. It was very much a case of turning up a venue, photographing the first few songs and then moving on to shoot the next band, allowing a bit of time in the military precision planning to move between and to also get into the venues. As such it was hard to properly check the bands out. Based on sheer numbers, The Middle East at Family was the show to be at, although sadly, and in typical Brisbane fashion, most of the crowd disappeared before Robert Schneider played.
A selection of photos is on Flickr, with all the conference photos on Big Sound’s website.
Robert Schneider
The Middle East
Sola Rosa
Rocketsmiths
Ladi6
Philadelphia Grand Jury
The Optimen
Hungry Kids of Hungary
Romy
DZ
Yves Klein Blue
Washington
Last Dinosaurs
Matt Walters
Another chance to catch up with DZ, this time away from the small stage of The Troubadour, supporting I Heart Hiroshima at The Zoo. I had hoped that the larger venue, larger stage and better lighting might make it an improved photographic experience but it ends up being almost the opposite, with the band being swallowed up by the much bigger stage and the strobe light having much less of an impact in the smaller confines of The Troubadour. So I stuck with shorter shutter speeds and didn’t really try to get any of the multiple exposures that I had done before when seeing them at two Troubadour shows, a headline 1am show and supporting Philadelphia Grand Jury.
Tonight’s show is the launch of ‘Shakeytown’, the first single from their second album, ‘The Rip’ and it’s a great little pop song and a really cool and clever video clip.
However, the video highlights the most annoying thing about photographing the band, with Susie providing all the focus and Matthew and Cameron both shoegazing with their eyes shut most of the time. I did manage to finally get a few of Matthew giving some eye contact at the start of the last song but guess will have to wait for another time to get something from Cameron.
A few more photos on Flickr.
I Heart Hiroshima
DZ
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.
A friend asked me a few week ago who my favourite new Brisbane band was.  I replied that I didn’t really have one; most the Brisbane bands I like have been around for at least a couple of years and when you become more ’successful’ in photographing bands, getting the opportunity for higher profile gigs, you sadly lose touch with the grassroots music scene and what’s new and upcoming to some degree. But all that changes tonight with DZ firmly installed as my favourite new(ish) local band and their 1am Troubadour show being the best show I’ve seen in a long time (I had seen the band before at last year’s MereNoise Xmas Party, but with them being the first band I’d photographed with the new camera I’d bought a few days earlier, I wasn’t giving them my full attention).Â
It’s amazing stuff and despite my usual views on photographing in venues without photo pits, there’s still something really exhilarating about trying to photograph from within a really energetic crowd and being in the midst of it; you feel a true sense of documenting what is happening as opposed to the more sterile environment that exists when there is a barrier separating the audience from the stage, even if it makes it a whole lot easier and a much more pleasant experience for photographers.  Â
It definitely is a case of suffering for my art, with the hand operated strobe lighting being held right in front of my camera lens at one point, giving me an unhealthy flash of bright light from point blank range. Having not actually left the house on Sunday, it’s not until Monday that I really notice it , with my eyesight being really shimmery and finding it hard to keep my eyes fully open at work, as it just seems far too bright outside my office window, even though it’s overcast and rains on occasions during the day and feeling like I really need to be wearing sunglasses indoors. Looking at my eyes in the bathroom mirror is worrying as almost two days after the gig my pupils aren’t dilating, but by the Tuesday everything seems back to normal. Â
I don’t normally put videos on my blog; I’m never sure of the copyright implications and I’m also trying to keep it focussed on still photos but here’s some video footage from the night.
And this is DZ’s must-see video clip for ‘The Mess Up’. Stick with it to the end; you can probably guess how it’s going to end.
More photos on Flickr.
