Flipper + Sixfthick + Vaginabillies @ The Step Inn
I guess I had an inkling of what a Flipper show might be like to attend and tonight I get pretty much what I expected; you can get a sense just from listening to their music without having to even read a single live review. It’s a bitter, angry, alienated, disinterested, discordant experience and tonight Bruce […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 5
MGMT were really shocking when they played at The Tivoli at the end of last year; really terrible and disinterested, a band that had obviously spent far too long on the road. But in seemingly typical style the Splendour organisers obviously waited to see what songs were towards the top reaches of Triple J’s Hottest […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 4
All plans for an early start and a timely return to the festival site don’t materialise. The early start does happen but the time is spent editing Saturday’s photos, then thinking about making a move, waiting for other people whilst they think about it and then think a bit more about it, then have some […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 3
 From the sublime to the ridiculous; The Living End. There are so many things that are wrong before they even play a note; they’ve replaced the late-cancelling Jane’s Addiction, hardly a like-for-like exchange, they have just had The Specials essentially support them, the crowd reaction they get from the crowd as they walk onstage […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 2
 Bluejuice are a band that’s yet to win me over, having seen them at last year’s Splendour and then a few months later supporting We Are Scientists at The Zoo. As Stav from the band kindly commented on that post (and which shamefully I didn’t get around to replying to), they’re obviously not my […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Part 1
 Having arrived at our house for the weekend in New Brighton in the dark and just as a heavy rain storm passed overhead, Saturday starts with a quick walk around the locality to try and find if any mobile signal can be found so that photos and blogs can be uploaded. As not even […]
Deerhunter + The Rational Academy @ The Zoo
I will admit to be an occasional Pitchfork reader. I still hate the layout and the font size is still far too small and the wrong colour, but maybe once a week I’ll remember to go and have a look and read a few reviews.  If the physical act of reading reviews on their site wasn’t […]
Ladytron @ The Hi-Fi
Six weeks after the opening of the Hi-Fi Brisbane to a generally less than impressed audience, Ladytron‘s second Brisbane show in less than nine months means a return to the venue. To be honest not a lot more progress seems to have been made in those six weeks; the paint smell might have gone but […]
The Middle East + Little Scout @ The Old Museum
Despite the ever-growing acclaim and apparent international record label interest, I will admit to be slightly disappointed by The Middle East‘s debut release, ‘The Recordings of The Middle East‘. However, much of this disappointment stems by placing ‘Blood‘ as the middle song on a 5-track EP, raising the bar to such a high level that it almost makes the last […]
Red Riders + The Cairos + Ruby Tigers @ The Globe
I’ve always had a soft spot for Red Riders. They were amongst the first bands I saw after moving to Sydney, when they supported theredsunband at @Newtown in September 2004, with Matt emailing me after I uploaded the photos to a certain Australian music website to say that he loved the photos and since then […]
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead + Violent Soho @ The Zoo
When it comes to live music, I’m usually a ‘stay ’til the bitter end’ type of gig-goer. For the most part I can never fathom why people would purposely walk out of a gig after only a few songs; maybe it’s just the optimist in me that hopes however bad it is it will get […]
Brisbane Sounds 2009 @ The Zoo
It was only when I started processing these photos that the significance struck home; as a photographer you wait years, a lifetime perhaps, for that one perfect split second moment to create an icon, construct the legend or fuel the myth. I know that every few blog posts I end up including a link to this […]
Violent Soho + Boondall Boys @ The Zoo Carpark
Australia music seems to be intrinsically linked to a notion that the best Australian bands have to play to tiny audiences in tiny venues, get little attention in their own city, let alone the rest of the country, due to the parochial tendencies of each major city/state and the unhealthy competiveness that goes along with […]
Screamfeeder + Midget + Butcher Birds @ The Troubadour
Even at the time, 1996 was one of the best years of my life: my PhD was beginning to take shape but was in a worry free stage, still years away from having to write up a thesis, living in an amazing share house with great friends, a beautiful hot summer, a feast of football on […]
The Drones + Witch Hats + Hits @ The Hi-Fi
In an age when live music venues in all major cities around the world are closing, or being made to close, a brand new venue in Brisbane should be a cause for celebration, although it’s somewhat muted by the fact that it has coincided with The Arena closing as a live venue and being transformed […]
UnderExposed Closing Weekend Gigs
Having taken a roll of film at the middle-weekend Saturday night UnderExposed gig, I decided to go back to digital for the last couple of gigs. Not sure why, as I had been delighted at the results of using and developing a roll of film for the first time in over three years; possibly because […]
School of Seven Bells @ The Zoo
School of Seven Bells‘ debut album, ‘Alpinisms‘, has been on high rotation round these parts in recent weeks; it’s a pretty good modern shoegaze album, although being the modern age it’s way too long, especially so for a debut album, and would have benefitted by losing a 3 or 4 songs, possibly the ones where they sound too […]
Easy Star All-Stars @ The Zoo
Although it’s mid-week, there’s a more than healthy crowd at The Zoo for the Easy Star All-Stars and it’s been a while since it’s been one of those really hot and sweaty nights that you often get there.  Getting there just before the band start there’s the initial semi-circle of fear that arcs around the front of […]
Evan Dando @ The Zoo
The live experience car-crash reputation is something that Evan Dando seems unable to shake off, to the point where it feels like it’s almost compulsory to see him more than once on any tour to ensure that you get the full repertoire of one performance to remember for all the right reasons and one for […]
The Kills + Louis XIV @ The Zoo
A seemingly rare night of festival sideshow action in Brisbane… Louis XIV start much later than advertised, possibly because The Zoo was rather empty at the time they were supposed to start, although it gradually fills up in the interim.  Having seen them the last time they played at The Zoo in 2006, they don’t […]
The Duke Spirit + Jack Ladder @ The Zoo
Jack Ladder, recent Australian Music Prize runner-up and recipient of the Red Bull Prize of $15,000 “in recognition of outstanding potential”, is an unlikely support act for 60’s R&B influenced The Duke Spirit. Playing solo without his normal band and with just an acoustic guitar he possesses a deep, rich voice that evokes Bob Dylan and […]
Andrew Morris + Texas Tea @ The Globe
It’s the first time I’ve seen Texas Tea since their album launch back at the end of November. After an all-star cast that night, it’s back to just Kate and Ben tonight. The band sound as good as ever though. Having photographed them on so many occasions, including my very first gig as a Brisbane […]
The Stranglers + Wind & Brackets @ The Tivoli
The Tivoli is surprisingly full for tonight’s Stranglers show; there wasn’t much in the way of advertising for either the original date (in December, but cancelled with the GFC being blamed) or tonight’s show, and at $90 a ticket it’s a fairly pricey mid-week night out It’s been a long time I last saw Wind […]
