Joanna Newsom @ The Tivoli, 04.03.2011
First published on Collapse Board, 13.03.2011 Ironically, after the self-inflicted debacle of photographing Roxy Music earlier in the week, I get a second chance to make amends for a previous photographic misdemeanour, in the form of Joanna Newsom, who’s playing at The Tivoli for the second time in fourteen months. The last time she played at [...]
Robert Forster @ Brisbane Powerhouse, 18.09.2010
I really like Robert Forster and have enjoyed all the times I’ve seen him play live but there was something disappointing about tonight. It was billed as ’15 Songs About Brisbane’ so I expected 15 songs about Brisbane. I didn’t doubt that there would be a fair number of Go Betweens’ songs, the early songs [...]
The Hold Steady @ The Zoo, 09.03.2011
When it comes to flicking through the shelves of CDs at my place to decide what to put on the stereo, more often than not the conversation starts with the following opening: Girlfriend – “Every time I think there can’t be any more Bruce Springsteen albums, I manage to find another one”. What can I say? I [...]
Gang Of Four @ The Hi-Fi, 25.02.2011
Incredible, just incredible. I didn’t know what to expect from tonight but even more than two weeks after the show I’m still completely blown away by just how good it was. Having spent a couple of days before the gig re-familiarising myself with Entertainment! and Solid Gold I’ve hardly listened to anything else since. When bands [...]
Roxy Music @ The Riverstage, 01.03.2011
Well. To say that I royally fucked up tonight would be a bit of an understatement. Being led through the backstage to the front of the Riverstage, the photographers are greeted with a seated audience and a barrier pushed very close up to the stage, with the gap between the stage and the barrier being [...]
Deadshits #2 @ Woodland, 28.01.2011
A mixed evening of highs and lows: The Highs Boomgates Assassins88 Superstar Per Purpose Bands playing on the floor The hard lighting from those cheap external working/security lights (usually painted yellow, with grille over the front) The Lows Circle Pit Holy Balm, mainly because of the huge gap between Assassins88 and Holy Balm playing, despite [...]
Deadshits #1 @ Woodland, 05.11.2010
I didn’t write down any notes from this night, which is a shame as the specifics of the night, as experienced by me at least, have been lost to the ages. It was a good night all around though, and I do remember Blank Realm being fairly outstanding; they’re definitely one of Brisbane’s best bands [...]
Sufjan Stevens @ The Tivoli, 30.01.2011
I think out of all the new artists I heard in the last decade, Sufjan Stevens has turned out to be my favourite. Ever since I first bought Seven Swans, completely old school, purely on the basis on a couple of reviews and without having heard a note of his music (something I still regularly [...]
Black Mountain + Night Terrors @ The Zoo, 17.02.2011
The third of my three mid-week nights at The Zoo; tonight it’s Black Mountain Thursday, which comes after Swervedriver Wednesday and Caribou Tuesday. Gentle Ben Friday and Good Vibrations Saturday are yet to come and they’re stories for another time. Despite knowing the least about Black Mountain and their music it ends up being my [...]
Swervedriver + Giants Of Science + Loomer @ The Zoo, 16.01.2011
The last time I saw Swervedriver was at the ATP MBV-curated Nightmare Before Xmas weekend back in December 2009, in a still-yet-to-be-written blog post. It was supremely loud (not as loud as MBV, but then nothing comes close to that) and frustratingly the band played in the dark, making photographing them the usual, frustrating low [...]
Caribou + Four Tet @ The Zoo, 15.02.2011
In the cold light of the morning after the night before, I’m annoyed with myself for taking home a such a bad set of photos from the Caribou/Four Tet double-header. Firstly, there’s Four Tet. There’s only one thing worse than taking photos of keyboard players and that’s taking photos of laptop musicians. At the very [...]
Owen Pallett + Jessica Says @ The Old Museum, 25.01.2011
One of the easiest ways to really irritate a music photographer is to wait until they arrive at the venue, tell them that it’s the first three songs with no flash and then play in almost complete darkness. Owen Pallett achieves this with aplomb tonight, although unlike many artists with a seemingly irrational hatred of photographers, the [...]
HEALTH + The Death Set + DZ @ Woodland, 15-01-11
It’s interesting reading what I wrote about the last time HEALTH played in Brisbane towards the end of last February. Writing that “…you can’t help but think that in five years time it’ll sound really dated. Time will of course tell but it’s hard to tell whether their primary fan base will have moved on [...]
The Charlatans @ The Hi Fi, 10-11-10
I keep going to gigs in Brisbane and wondering about the atmosphere. Maybe it’s just old age and rose-tinted spectacles but I keep thinking that when I was going to gigs when I was younger, we used to have a lot more fun than punters seem to now. There keeps being a strange energy level and [...]
Deerhoof + Wooden Shjips + Tenniscoats + Jefferey Lewis @ The Hi-Fi, 05-03-10
The flotsam and jetsam from the wreck of the Lost Weekend festival has been salvaged into a number of highly attractive, hastily arranged, last minute gigs over the city this weekend. With the bulk of the bands still willing and able to play lined up for a mini, all-day festival at Rosie’s on the Sunday, tonight’s [...]
The New Pornographers @ The Zoo, 09-11-2010
It always annoys me whenever a New Pornographers tour is announced and the first comments on any forum always concentrate on whether Neko Case is touring with them this time around, as if she is the whole raison d’être for the band and the sole focal point. It’s a bit disrespectful to and unfair on [...]
Batrider + Kitchen’s Floor + Blank Realm @ Rosies, 20-05-2010
Something from the hard drive archives. I didn’t write any notes the following day so musically can’t tell you much about the night, other than Batrider had a much different line up from the last time I’d seen them at The Troubadour, with only singer Sarah Chadwick remaining. The one residing memory from the night [...]
Violent Soho + Scul Hazzards + Butcher Birds + The Seizures @ The Zoo 24-07-10
Three of Brisbane’s best bands, three bands I’ve photographed and blogged about so many times it’s hard to know what else I can say (plus opening band The Seizures, who I’d never seen before but who had my ears ringing well before the end of their set and me reaching for my ear plugs, a [...]
Otouto + Seja @ Tempo Hotel 06-08-10
Tonight is a repeat of Seja’s album launch show at The Troubadour back in April with the playing order reversed and with Seja playing a solo show to Otouto‘s headlining position. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to see a show at the Tempo Hotel in any of the venue’s incarnations and possibly the last [...]
Kasabian + Little Red @ The Riverstage 25-07-10
The chance to see and photograph a band that has won Best Live Act awards seems like an interesting prospect on paper. When it comes to reality it’s a whole different ball game: In fact, based on this, how Kasabian have managed to be nominated for, let alone win awards for their live show, defies [...]
Sally Seltmann + Parades + Little Scout @ The Zoo 09-07-10
Although Sally Seltmann is the headliner tonight, it’s clear that Parades are the drawcard, with Seltmann playing to a much smaller audience than the main support act. Whilst Parades are an interesting and intriguing band and have a lot of good things going for them, there’s something about them that just hard to actually like, [...]
Boy & Bear + Oh Ye Denver Birds + The Chemist @ The Troubadour
Although The Troubadour has sold out well in advance, and everyone is here to see Boy & Bear, it’s Oh Ye Denver Birds who are the most interesting band on show tonight. Sandwiched between the headliners and opening act, The Chemist, they’re interesting because of the mix of instruments, the mix of influences and because, [...]
The Gin Club + Rocketsmiths + Ridgeback County @ The Troubadour
Tonight is the third of three consecutive nights The Gin Club has sold out The Troubadour, albeit with a reduced capacity of 100 (as opposed to the venue’s more traditional 200 person capacity). Whilst the band have their reasons for wanting to do this, from a commercial point of view it probably doesn’t make a [...]
Chris Bailey + Ed Kuepper @ The Troubadour 13-05-2010
The prospect of Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper playing a series of mini-residencies – a three week tour, three shows a week, one each in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne at the same venues in each city – is an interesting and intriguing one, even though, based on past experience you know what you’re going to [...]
