11 Days of Awesome.
6 gigs.
1 festival.
31 bands.
2 cities.
It all started almost a fortnight ago, on a warm Brisbane afternoon. Me and a few mates visited the Step Inn to see a little flood benefit show featuring the Mercy Beat, Trash Talk, H2O and The Bronx.
You can read about it here.
The next day I braved the scorching Brisbane sun to go to one of the best music festivals I’ve ever attended: Soundwave.
You can also read my review of that one here.
After a day of rest and recuperation, I decided to switch to the much icier climate of Melbourne. Wrapped up in more clothes than I’ve ever worn before in my life, warmed by a few drinks and Chinese food with friends, I ventured into Billboard the Venue to see some great punk bands play to a lacklustre Victorian crowd.
When I walked into the surprisingly tiny venue, Less than Jake had just taken to the stage and was trying their hardest to get the crowd moving. Of course, being me, I skanked it up and danced like a fool; singing along the entire time and thrusting my fist repeatedly into the air, apparently annoying some of the locals. They stuck to songs everyone knows best, hitting up the classics, mainly from Hello Rockview as always. However, they threw in two quick songs from their new EP: themes from Animaniacs and Spongebob Squarepants. It wasn’t quite enough to get everyone moving, but at least some of the crowd was warming up on this chilly night.
Of course, they were probably saving themselves for the main event, New Found Glory. Who as always, were solid live. They mixed up their set list quite well, playing songs from all their albums. The crowd was pretty into it finally. But of course, they all lost it with their final song of the day, My Friends Over You.
A day of shopping, eating and resting passed before I headed into this quaint rooftop bar called the Toff in Town. About 3 stories up, in a room holding a few hundred people, I settled in to watch two bands from Brisbane open for one band from the UK.
For the third time this year, I saw To The North play. But for the first time this year, I was able to actually make out the vocals and hear that they are actually a good band. And this time I got pictures too.
Next up were another Brisbane band, one that a lot of my mates get obsessed over. I’ve even heard them be hailed as “the greatest Australian band” of the moment. Full of beautiful melodies, they played a great set of 90’s inspired emo-esque tunes. They captivated half of the audience, while the other half chattered loudly at the back of the small bar.
But the band we all came to see was the band that really didn’t seem to fit in on the entire Soundwave festival bill: This Town Needs Guns. In fact, they mentioned that they didn’t feel quite right at the festival so they had to play their louder and faster songs. So as a treat, all of us at the Toff saw many of the laid back, slower songs, mainly off their album Animals. Mixing fast, yet clean, math-rock guitars with some gorgeous singing, they were truly an amazing band to behold. The band members looked very awkward on stage, with some very stiff dancing moves, but all up they were everything I had hoped for. I think seeing them at the Soundwave festival itself would have ruined their allure, so I was glad to see them play a small and intimate show.
The next day I trekked out to St Kilda for what was the main reason for this trip: Primus and the Melvins. The Palais Theatre, right on the water next to Luna Park, has to be one of the strangest venues I have ever been to. Walking in and seeing the beautiful old theatre facade, I couldn’t help but think that this was the perfect place to see Primus (especially after last seeing them in the gorgeous environs of the Riviera Theatre in Chicago). But coming in, I sat down on these magnificently large leather seats (designed for the “larger” theatre goer) with ample leg room and in the 4th row of the balcony. It was comfort to an extreme level. We were warned that we weren’t allowed to stand up, but it did not matter, it was too damn comfy to get up.
I came in as the Melvins were starting, and wow. Opening the theatre doors my face was just blown off with a mighty wall of sound. In the centre of the stage were two drummers, just pushing out all-encompassing levels of noise. On either side were the guitarist and bassist, dressed in what I could best describe as characters-from-Zelda-64 crossed with monks in space. Yes, there was even a space kilt.
But that didn’t matter. The Melvins are an amazing live band. Despite the venue, despite the crazy level of noise they were making, they still managed to play a tight set of grunge/heavy rock music. Sitting up in the balcony I could see everyone down the bottom nodding their heads in time to the music. Occasionally someone would get up to try and go crazy and dance along, but the ushers soon had the better of them. The only downside to all of this was the vibrations from the music came through my seat, and in my extreme comfort I almost drifted off a few times. It was definitely not the music’s fault, just the vibrations and leather seats.
To close it off, the drummers got up on their seats and everyone came together for a capella version of a classic 50’s song, Goodnight Sweetheart. During all of this the bass player was tossing out flowers into the crowd, following it at the end with the entire vase.
I wish I could see them again, I can’t say enough how amazing they were.
A quick turnaround and 20 minutes later Les was coming on to the stage. After the shortened Brisbane set, I found myself disappointed yet again. When they finished I said to Kim, “that was a real short set, I wish they had played longer.” In the end, it actually turned out they had played for over an hour and forty minutes. That’s how good this Primus set was.
They played all manner of Primus songs, but somehow managed to steer clear of anything of the Anti-pop album. To this day I’ve yet to see a song from the album that got me into them, but the rest of the set made up for it. Throughout the classic songs with the great crowd sing-along’s there was even two new songs: the song about Salmon he played in Brisbane and another one I had yet to hear. I’m not going to lie, they both sound like typical Primus songs, so you know the new album is going to be amazing.
The set included an extended version of Sailing the Seas of Cheese, the only song Les played on his upright (which meant no Mr Krinkle, damn). He also whipped out the whamola for a while, dancing and playing a frenetic pace like the mad-man he is. He got into it so much that he actually dropped it a lot while dancing around. Jay and Ler also got their fair share of solos (Ler looking like he’d just been pulled out of an early 90’s Nirvana music video), showing the great depth of talent and skill that everyone in Primus possesses.
Towards the end, Les challenged the audience to stand up against the ushers as he launched into everyone’s favourite song: Tommy the Cat. Unfortunately the ushers won (no contest) but we were still treated to a version that also included the long bass solo that is Awakening.
If you can’t tell, I’m a Primus tragic. And the whole night at the Palais was magical.
A few days later, a few drinks later and a short flight back to Brisbane later, I was fronting up to the Tivoli to see the classic hipster band, Belle and Sebastian. B and I walked in to the sweet sounds of Little Scout, and I almost swooned after seeing who was singing. Gorgeous! They played some absolutely beautiful songs but as always, the classic Brisbane indie crowd was talking over them. B also enjoyed them too, but I think that was mainly because they were selling Tea Towels.
Luckily the crowd shut up a bit for Belle and Sebastian, except for the group of drunken idiots right in front of us who kept leaving for the bar every 10 minutes. But that didn’t matter. Belle and Sebastian were everything I had hoped for and more. We got two hours of classic indie tunes. Even though many people think their best work was in the 90s, the songs from their new album Write About Love translated amazingly well live.
Through the course of the night you could tell that there were a few core artists and a plethora of musicians supporting them. All up through the course of the night there were 14 different performers in Belle and Sebastian, including a local boy on trumpet for two songs. There was a string section, keyboards, drums, everyone switching guitars, recorders and strange little toy instruments. And it worked so magically together with sound levels that were never too loud. Highlights for the night for me included them playing Sukie in the Graveyard and Stars of Track and Field. They even took requests from the crowd, and as such busted out an impromptu Monkees cover.
The lead singer, for an aging hipster, was also quite the entertainer. At one stage he decided to be a punk and climb up to the second level balcony of the Tivoli, climb over the rails and keep singing. Two hours wasn’t nearly enough, but it was still just as I had imagined it would be.
Then finally, after slogging through some long days in the office, I got to the last gig of my 11 days of awesome. I came in to a rather small crowd listening to the Gun Street Girls. They played a great mix of classic rock ‘n’ roll, pub rock and a little bit of rockabilly thrown in. Towards the end of their short set they really picked up the notch though, blasting out some fast rock numbers that I really enjoyed.
Later on someone mentioned that the lead singer/guitarist was from Dallas Crane. Which I guess would make sense given his sound. As they wrapped up the crowd really poured in, coming close to filling the Zoo. And once the Hold Steady came out, you could see why.
They were really some unassuming looking rock stars, except for the guitarist with tattoos. They just looked like some middle-aged guys that stumbled on stage. As the singer said “I’m not old, I’m old school!” But as the music started, well, I was blown away. I’ve always been surprised about how the Hold Steady aren’t one of the biggest bands in music. Their song writing is amazing with each song telling a story to some great rock music. The live show was just frenetic. The lead singer danced, screamed and even acted out his lyrics, adding a whole new element to the songs. And he was such fun to photograph.
Check out my Flickr in a few days time, I’ll upload a bunch of shots of him just having a good time.
And have a good time they did. They played a full set over two hours. And when finished, they came out and played 10 minutes past their finishing time. They seemed to be having as much fun as we did. There were old school rockers crowd surfing, huge sing-alongs, great crowd clapping moments and just a lot of dancing. Everyone loved it.
It was the perfect way to rock up an amazing week of bands. And now that I’m done with this review, I’m going to bed to try and recuperate.
No matter what kind of music you're into, there's a handful (or more) of people making it in Brisbane. Most of them aren't that well known; but for every Regurgitator and Custard we get a band like SixFtHick, who've been playing just as long, put out as much good music and are chronically underappreciated. But that's not stopping them, they still keep making music and playing shows.
