Sunday doesn’t exactly go to plan, with the slow editing and general Sunday morning sluggishness meaning I manage to miss both Danananananakroyd and Jack Ladder and despite aiming to get onto site to photograph White Lies, the traffic means I miss half of their set. So the day starts at a more leisurely starting time than planned of 3:15pm, with Friendly Fires’ set in the Mix Up Tent.

Flaming Lips

Hilltop Hoods

MGMT
 

Gutter Twins

Doves

Bob Evans

Friendly Fires

Technology-wise, things didn’t go quite to plan, with the house we were staying in having no mobile reception for me to use my phone as a modem and upload some photos yesterday morning.  Saturday morning’s blog post was made by parking my car on the top of the nearest big hill and uploading from the front seat, but I didn’t have time to do that again yesterday, with editing going really slowly (despite my 6am alarm) and I didn’t have the time to go in search of an internet cafe either.  Onsite there were more technology glitches, with mobile connection being unreliable so tweeting was in fits and starts when I could get connected, meaning I had to revert to the old ways and use a pen and paper to jot some notes down.

So here, somewhat belatedly, are a few photos from Saturday.  More on Flickr, more on their way

Bloc Party
 

Happy Mondays

Sarah Blasko
 

The Living End

The Specials

Little Birdy
 

Birds Of Tokyo
 

You Am I
 

Bluejuice
 

Dappled Cities
 

Bridezilla

Yves Klein Blue
 

Leader Cheetah

Manchester Orchestra

The closing hours of Thursday bring with them rumours that Jane’s Addiction – of all the bands on the 2009 Splendour bill, the one that I most what to see and the one that I most want to photograph – have cancelled their whole Australian tour. Friday morning brings confirmation of this, with Stephen Perkins hospitalised in LA with an elbow infection. The misery is further compounded almost instantly with news that the organisers have drafted in The Living End to replace them. Of all Australian bands, The Living End.

In theory you would think that it just couldn’t get any worse and yet there’s a nagging feeling that this isn’t rock bottom. There are a number of occurrences that would make the current situation even worse than they already are: Firstly, The Living End will inevitably either include a Jane’s Addiction cover or at the very least segue one or two of their own songs into JA songs for a few bars. And this will more than likely want me to start throwing things at the band. Heavy inanimate objects, small sharp implements, anything close to hand; the choice is endless. Secondly, if JA reschedule their shows it will either be when I’m out of the country or I’ll be put forward to photograph them and they’ll whip out their current rights-grabbing contract five minutes before they’re due on stage and I’ll have to walk away. It just doesn’t feel that this story that has a happy ending.

I’m not sure how the news has been taken by Splendour’s paying punters. Part of me can’t help but think that the majority of Splendour’s main demographic will be delighted at the changes to the line-up, especially as I’ve experienced similar Jane’s Addiction ambivalence before. At the Leeds Festival in 2002 Jane’s Addiction played on the main stage at the same time The Vines were playing one of the smaller tent stages. You could have walked straight up to the barrier without many problems and watched Perry Farrell etc from the very front if you wanted, whereas you couldn’t even get anywhere near getting into the tent to watch The Vines. Oh, how we laughed. And a similar thing happened a year later at an MTV2 gig at Brixton Academy when The Darkness, at the height of their fame, supported Jane’s Addiction. Half the audience left after The Darkness. What is wrong with these people?

The rest of Friday doesn’t really improve; despite being a day off I end up going to work to try and clear the backlog of overdue reports and proposals, which means I don’t leave Brisbane until 3:45pm, hit the Friday afternoon rush hour and take almost 3 hours to get down to New Brighton, just north of Brunswick Heads, where I’m staying for the weekend. And just as I leave the motorway, the heavens open to an extent that I can hardly see where I’m going, even with the windscreen wipers on their highest speed. It’s some sort of navigation miracle that I manage to find the house.

But here now and enjoying good company, good food and a few drinks. And it’s suddenly 12:30am and it all starts in less than 12 hours.

 

Another year, another Splendour. 

It’s been a hard few weeks, what with a combination of work, working weekends to make up for the days I’m having off to go to Splendour, gigs, next day photo deadlines and The Ashes, so instead of feeling well rested and full of energy for a hard weekend’s photographing I already feel exhausted.  And I wish people around me would stop being ill with flu; this sore throat I’ve been developing over the last couple of days is an ominous sign.

I’ve worked out my plan for the weekend, a combination of things I really want to see/photograph (Jane’s Addiction, Gutter Twins, Specials. Flaming Lips) things that I’ll go and check out (i.e. Doves, White Lies, Friendly Fires) and things that as I’m there I might as well photograph to fill in time and for something to do (i.e. Hilltop Hoods, Little Birdy, Bluejuice, Yves Klein Blue.  Actually, to be quite honest, about  half the bands I’ve put in my plan…). 

Saturday

Sunday

If there’s one upside it’s that my plan looks a lot less manic than last year’s Splendour, when I seemed to spend most of the weekend walking between the Big Top and the GW McLennan stage and ended up shooting 31 bands in total.  This year it looks like being 22 bands, although no doubt this will change by the time the weekend is over, with bands starting on time (or not) and ease of movement between stages playing a major role in what gets photographed.

Unlike last year, when I was stressing slightly about a poorly camera that was having exposure meter issues and using my old film camera as back-up, I’ve actually got my old digital camera as back up, so hopefully I won’t be worrying too much about my camera dying on me.

As last year, I will be tweeting from the site, something that was very useful last year as an aide memoire for when it came to writing the more detailed blogs, and I’ll also be trying to upload a few photos from the day before on Sunday and Monday mornings to my Flick account. 

I had planned to clear my backlog of blog posts and photos before this weekend but it wasn’t to be.  Actually it ended up being nowhere near close to happening, so posts about The Middle East, Ladytron, Flipper, Deerhunter, Wolf & Cub, Washington, the Incremental Records Launch, the Plus One Records Showcase, Philadelphia Grand Jury and Timothy Carroll will have to wait a few more weeks.

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). 

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.   

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.  

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.

As well as taking the usual digital photos at Brisbane Sounds 2009, as previously posted here, I also took a couple rolls of Ilford HP5, rating the ISO400 film at ISO1600 and then developing them for 14 minutes in ID-11 developer.  The results are very grainy, as was expected, although slightly less than the photos from the middle Saturday at the UnderExposed when the film was rated at ISO3200.

A few more on Flickr.

Screamfeeder

Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side

Vegas Kings

You just haven’t lived until you’ve seen a giant throw a midget at a couple of ninjas…

After recent lukewarm shows at The Troubadour and at The Hi-Fi, at the third attempt the widespread and vocal support of Hits in Brisbane makes perfect sense. In spite of all the odds, the worst sound possibly ever ‘heard’, far, far worse than that at the Hi-Fi bar a week earlier, Evil Dick having to hold two microphones up against his mouth to get any sort of vocals coming out of the PA, and yet somehow they pull it off with typical aplomb and bravado. Maybe the answer is that Hits work best when the sound is ultra-fuzzy and not the crystal clear sound that you normally demand from a music venue, with the vocals niceties largely lost in the mix, with the melodies turning into an integral part of the songs rather than being something that exists in a layer that lies on top of the guitars, bass and drums.  And, whereas the distance between the audience and the band was detrimental at the Hi-Fi show, when they’re in your face, on a stage so small they might as well play just play on the floor, the band’s exuberance and cock-sure swagger shines through.

The sound problems get even worse for Sixfthick, something no one present thought would be possible during Hit’s set, to the extent that the band end up split into two camps, with Dan, Tony and Fred continuing to play on the stage, whilst Geoff and Ben have to relocate to the mixing desk and plug their microphones directly into the desk. A typical Sixfthick show usually involves the band playing from both ends of a venue at various times during the course of the night, but tonight it takes on a whole new meaning.

More photos on Flickr.

Excerpts from an email I received a few days ago.

Dear Justin

Request for permission to archive: This Is Not A Photo Opportunity http://www.notaphoto.com/

The State Library of Queensland would like to archive your website to preserve it for future generations.

PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive, was set up by the National Library of Australia in 1996 to enable the archiving and provision of long-term access to online Australian publications. The State Library of Queensland cooperates with the National Library in order to build and preserve a comprehensive collection of Australian online publications. State Library’s brief is to enhance the Queensland presence in this national archive.

We would like to include the above website in the PANDORA Archive, and I would be grateful if you would let me know whether you are willing to permit us to do so. That is, grant us a licence under the Copyright Act 1968 to copy your publication in to the Archive and to provide public access to it via the Internet. This means that you would grant the Library permission to retain your publication in the Archive and to provide public access to it in perpetuity.

Specific information about the State Library’s role in the PANDORA Archive is available at http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/find/sites/pandora. Further information about PANDORA can be found on the National Library’s website at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/index.html

Yes, dear reader, future generations will get to explore my inner most feelings regarding the lighting at The Troubadour, photographing in venues without a photo pit and get to see some pretty pictures from the Brisbane music scene in the early part of the 21st century at the same time.

Note: The title of this blog comes from an interview with Steve Gullick, one of my most favourite music photographers, I read recently.

The first time I photographed Josh Pearson when he was doing Lift To Experience, he asked me, ‘Do you feel like you’re making history?’ Well, I’m certainly recording a very important aspect of it. I think it’s going to be difficult to forget much of the music many of these artists have produced. All I can do is show you what they look like.

I loved the question/statement and had it scribbled down for a future reference and possible use should I ever get around to staring up the new blog (more musing, less photos) I’ve promising myself to set-up over the last couple of years. So nobody steal it in the meantime, right?

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 close to The Cranberries for comfort.

In the live setting it’s just the three of them – identical twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza and ex-Secret Machines‘ guitarist Benjamin Curtis – and the use of a drum machine and bass backing track means that the songs tonight sound just about identical to the record.  I’m not sure if they have played with a full band before or whether it’s just a sensible and obvious money saving option for touring overseas, but even though the Deheza twins sing really beautifully together, it sounds very sterile and gives an overall impression, at least from a purely musical point of view, that you may well have just stayed at home and listened to the album on the stereo.  It’s a shame as the songs themselves are excellent, as for the most part is the album, but they would benefit substantially from a looser arrangement and structure, one that allows them to expand and explore, really take their sublime, dreamy, ethereal harmonised vocals to a new level, instead of being hindered by the strictness and military rigidity of the drum machine and backing tracks they’re using.  

For a change, and a very pleasant one at that, it was the best lighting I’ve experienced at The Zoo for a long while.  And, from a photographic point of view, with good lighting and a pair of exceedingly attractive female identical twins you can’t go wrong…

More photos on Flickr.