Review: We Set Sail/City Riots/Get Up Kids, HiFi, August 5th 2011

The photos I took were for AltMusicHub, and you can find the gallery of them over at their Facebook. The following photos are the ones that just didn't make their gallery.

I was nervous as all heck for this gig. It was the first time I've ever had a photo-pass to a real life venue. There was a bit of a mix-up at the door, which scared me even more, as I had already sold my original ticket on to Jacob. Luckily I had printed out all of my confirmation details and I eventually got in with a nice little vinyl sticker to take home as a memento.

At this point We Set Sail were in their third song, so I was able to sneak into the photo pit for a quick couple of pictures in my allotted slot.

They're a local group of boys signed to Hobbledehoy Records and they were damn enjoyable. Featuring Paul (from the store Kill the Music and the band the Paper and the Plane) they seemed to be the perfect opening band for Get Up Kids. Enough of a shoegazey emo sound to be similar, but also a fair bit of punk and distortion to get everyone pumped up.

Even Rob, the roomate who came along only knowing a few Get Up Kids songs, enjoyed the living heck out of them. Do yourself a favour, check them out here, or at the Balance and Composure gig next week.

At this point I thought the crowd was quite sparse. Unforunately, it wasn't going to change much. The HiFi was over half empty, something I hadn't seen since the Comeback Kid tour. A quick survey of everyone around me showed that there was a large number of door spots and competition winners in attendance. A lot more than normal.

The next band didn't do much to help the crowd either.

City Riots, from Adelaide, just really didn't have the sound to go with the rest of the night. They were more of a straight up rock band, and honestly, I feel they would feel at home opening for the Vines or Jet.

But hey, they were quite photogenic and gave me lots of good shots.


But then, it was time for the Get Up Kids. They actually played a great set list, only touching a few songs of their not-so-well-received new album. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed, and here's why:

1. There was no Reggie. James Dewees, their normal keyboardist (who I'm a massive fan-girl of) is on tour with My Chemical Romance, so he wasn't here. Luckily I saw him at Soundwave a few years back where he did a Cure cover.
2. The sound. The HiFi is generally amazing for their mix on the PA, but this gig was a real let down. Way too bassy.
3. They didn't play Mass Pike or Petty Pretty Things

But if you take away my pettiness there, it was still a good 1.5 hours of classic Get Up Kids. The sparse crowd was obviously hard for the band too, as they made a lot of small talk about how the crowd was hard to read and there was a lot of silence in between songs. I still came away quite happy.

In the photo pit I was competing with about 10 other photographers, so I stood rooted on the one spot for most of the time. And that spot was in front of the bass player, who moved around a lot. He was by far the most energetic and the best person to photo during our 3 songs allocation.



Don't forget, you can view my full photo gallery here.