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 […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 4
The evening before Soundwave I’d seen a fantastic set by Gang Of Four, who were playing a sideshow at The Hi-Fi. It was so good that I decided that I really needed to go see them play again at Soundwave. They are playing Stage 3, the stage furthest away from anything else. There should be a […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 3
The late starting Bullet For My Valentine means there’s not enough time to head over and photograph The Gaslight Anthem on Stage 3. The size of the festival is even bigger than last year and with the stages all starting within 20 minutes of each other, photographing a band and then moving on to get to another […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 2
Although the day had ended triumphantly with Iron Maiden’s headline set, the beginning of the day gets off to a much more inauspicious start. I get to the front of the queue at the Guest Tickets booth to pick up my photo pass only to find it’s just a green paper wristband with “Photo” written […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 1
I’m now at a point where I’ve photographed hundreds of gigs and think I must be closing fast on having photographed 1,000 bands. But out of all those hundreds of gigs and bands, I don’t think any of those times has been as thrilling as being in the pit for Iron Maiden tonight. When it […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 4
If Two Door Cinema Club are the type of band that makes you question whether you’re just too old to like popular music, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are the type of band that makes you question whether you’re still in tune with the more leftfield side of music, the music that’s been critically acclaimed and […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 3
These days I find it almost impossible to keep up with all the new music released in the year and so tend to catch up on things I’ve missed when the music industry does its ‘Best Of’ lists at the end of each year. The last Beach House album was one of those albums and […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 2
“Les Savy Fav played. Some other bands were also present” This is where I try and remember anything about any of the other bands that played… I guess the writing was on the wall for Laneway’s status as a boutique festival this time last year, when some canny booking meant a bill that boasted Florence […]
This Is Not A Photo Opportunity Has Wood
Seems like only yesterday…. Yep, we made it through another year and scarily have made it all the way to five years of blogging, our Wooden Anniversary. When you start out you never think about the future or that in five years time you might still be writing about poor lighting at Brisbane venues, shows that […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 1: Les Savy Fav
They might not have been the headliners or even playing on either of the festivals two main stages, but whoever tweeted “Les Savy Fav played. Some other bands were also present” perfectly summed up this year’s Laneway. The original plan was to photograph the first three songs and then go and photograph Deerhunter but seconds […]
Good Vibrations @ Gold Coast Parklands, 19.02.2011 – Part 2
As the day goes by, the numbers at Parklands increase to a respectable number, and there’s a decent number at each of the stages. I’ve never seen some many shirt-off bogans and chest tattoos in all my life though. Highlight of the second half of the day is Kelis, who, as with Erykah Badu, has […]
Good Vibrations @ Gold Coast Parklands, 19.02.2011 – Part 1
It’s Saturday morning and if there’s one place I don’t want to be today it’s Good Vibrations. I mean I did, once, when I said I’d head down to the Gold Coast for the day and photograph it, but that was when the two main drawcards (for me at least) – Janelle Monae and Cee […]
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 […]
Powderfinger + Jet + You Am I @ The Riverstage, 13.11.2010
In a way I’ve already summarised Powderfinger’s last ever show in the post about the Vegas Kings’ last show, which took place later that same night. On one side of Brisbane, down by the river, Powderfinger are playing the final show of their illustrious 20 year career. Surprisingly, given the demand, that is the fourth show […]
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 […]
That Was The Year That Was 2010
Somehow I’ve managed to make it into the second half of February without the traditional round-up of the previous year. Every year I get to this post and start off by saying the year was even more hectic than the one before and 2010 was no different. Year-on-year the number of gigs I’m photographing (and […]
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 […]
Sunset Sounds 2011 @ The Riverstage: Day 2, 06.01.2011
First published on Collapse Board (13.01.2011). It’s traditional for street press reviewers to miss opening acts and then use their limited word count to tell the world that there were ‘public transport issues’.This precedent has obviously rubbed off on me, but with Sunset Sounds I managed to take it to a new level and due […]
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 […]
