Tag Archive for "GoMA"
Having been in Mildura when Brisbane’s Andy Warhol exhibition at GoMA started in December, with a set of Velvet Underground covers by Robert Forester, I was able to make the closing night show, which featured a 45 minute set by Wolfmother.
Times have changed since I first photographed Wolfmother back in May 2004 at The Hopetoun in Sydney. Back then they were the opening band on a bill with The Ross Orbit Stack and Vanlustbader headlining. This was their fifth ever gig and the first gig that I photographed in Australia, using a single roll of HP4 for the whole gig and only taking 6 or 7 shots of Wolfmother… Before there were afros, ipod adverts, double-neck Gibsons and Grammy Awards they looked like this:
As with any gig at The Hopetoun no one battered an eyelid at me taking photos; this time there was a contract to sign, the bottom of which was torn off and was given to the photographers as a receipt. One of the clauses was that I had to provide any photos that I might have taken if the band’s management requested me to do so. No mention of payment or anything. Based on recent experience, it feels like this is becoming a standard clause on concert photography contracts.
Although the $20 included entry to the exhibition, which closed off just before the band started, the place seemed fairly empty until the last half an hour. By the time they came on stage the place was packed. The set included some new songs, which made a bit of a change considering they have been playing the same set for much of the last four years. Although Andrew Stockdale has apparently been recording demos with Resin Dogs’ drummer Dave Atkins it hasn’t heralded a move away from a 1970s rock sound into hip-hop… The song definitely remains the same…
The fact that this was their first gig in 9 months really showed. They were pretty ragged, especially Andrew Stockdale’s voice, which was all over the place and coming nowhere near hitting the high notes. Still, the crowd lapped it up as you’d expect, even a pretty woeful cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day‘, with Mick Ronson’s string arrangement replaced by widdly-widdly guitar playing…
There was a photo pit at the front but it was very crowded, with about ten photographers and four or five burly security guys. Additionally, lighting didn’t seem as good as when I photographed Buck 65 at one of the first ‘Up Late’ gigs. And on top of that I just seemed to be having one of those nights when my timing kept being off…
More photos on flickr.
Another day, another gig and so second gig of the year was on 4th January: Buck 65 at GoMA - Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art - as part of their Andy Warhol Up Late season.
It’s a great concept; $20 for the Warhol exhibition and the gig and get to avoid all the kids who are at the exhibition during the day time. Also it finishes at 9:30pm so you’ve still got time to head back to the Valley for more music. Bit of a strange venue with it being cavernous and somewhat sterile compared to the normal spit and sawdust joint you’d probably go and see small gigs at but it worked well for Buck 65, possibly as it was just him, laptop and possibly some decks (couldn’t see probably so not sure if the scratching was vinyl or electonic. Not sure how it will sound with a full band with drums though. There’s some good stuff coming up there though in the coming weeks including New Buffalo, Ed Kuepper, Caribou, and Trans Am so I think I’ll be back there at some point.
Having berated Girl Talk a bit in the last blog for being one man and his laptop, although it was the same for Buck 65 you got more of a human element from his rapping and inter-song chat than with a laptop-based DJ. Not really a huge hip hop fan but again it was a recommendation from someone and I liked the stuff that is up on his myspace site.
Lighting was pretty good if a bit all over the place, which is why some of the photos are a bit blown out on one side of his face. If you went to the side of the stage you could get his relection in the glass and got a couple of nice shots from there. As it was only one guy didn’t take that many shots so some here and a few more on flickr.
