Local Shows

Two great (albeit heavier) local shows coming up this month!

Milestones/Little Shadow at Fat Louies, May 12. (free!)
The Mercy Beat/The Quickening at Basement 243, April 28. ($10)

Both some of my favourite places in Brisbane and both full of great local music. Follow the links for the Facebook event details, as well as listening to the bands!

Fat Louies: a tribute

For years, every Monday night, you'd find me and my mates at Fat Louies, throwing down half price drinks during happy hour, playing our own version of pool and getting so pissed off at the jukebox playing bad Asian rap that would waste our money playing the only good songs on there, which happened to all be 80s ballads.

Ah yes. It's my kind of bar. Dingy, pool tables, cheap drinks and not many people around to bother you. Heaven.

Then I found out they did shows. The first one I went along to was In Trenches and Anchors. A great hardcore and punk night. And I got some great pictures.

I didn't realize it was a common thing. But then one night, I got dragged there for some karaoke with the girl's friends. On the way into the booth I noticed a grindcore band playing. Which to me is about 100 million times better than karaoke. So I just sipped my beer and watched the bands instead. A great night was had.

See Fat Louies on weekends transforms into something else. It becomes a venue for great Australian music. Screw the crappy DAL clubs that are full of scene kids that don't give a rats ass about the music (even though the clubs get better international bands) you'll find the real punks, the real hardcore guys, the real music fans of those scenes in Fat Louies most weekends. It's all free and if you don't like the music you can just go around the corner and play some pool. Or around the other corner and make your own music in the karaoke booths.

The best part of these Fat Louies shows is that they feature the best of Australian bands, especially Brisbane bands. If it's an Australian band I've raved about, chances are I've seen them in Fat Louies. It's a great place to find new music, because you don't have to pay anything beyond the drinks you purchase. And they are reasonably priced.

I wish I was getting paid for this, but I'm not. I was just there on Saturday night, after watching my West Coast Eagles win their AFL game, sipping a whiskey and watching Headaches when it dawned on me how awesome Fat Louies is, and how encouraging they are of the music I like.

Check out their facebook for upcoming gigs, or just show up on a Friday or Saturday night. Not too early on the Friday though, their happy hour is becoming quite popular and packed.

Thursday night you can see Waiting Room and Nuclear Summer
Next Thursday you can see Stolen Youth
October 15th the Mercy Beat are playing there

Already, that short list has some of my favourite local bands. Fat Louies, how I love you.

Fat Louies Saturday night, in pictures (Downpour/Nuclear Summer/Castles Sunk Below The Sea)

Here I am, sitting around listening to some new music and playing with some photos. So I thought, hey, why not share the ones from the weekend's gig with you. It was a free gig at Fat Louies and half the crowd was made up out of people from other bands in Brisbane. I think Clus and I were the only ones not in a band.

One of the guys there was recording it all, so hopefully we'll get a nice EP or something come out of this gig soon.

I'd write a review, but being Fat Louies... well... I was a bit more than tipsy. Which may also explain the quality of some of these.

Downpour
These guys came down from Rockhampton for it.


Joel... you have something in your eye? Or just concentrating hard?

Nuclear Summer


I've seen these guys a lot recently, and I am constantly enchanted by this guitarist. He gets some great sounds from just hitting the guitar a lot. And some good finger tapping too.



Castles Sunk Below the Sea



Jake gave me the finger a lot while playing.

Of the 20 odd pictures I took of Zach, this may be the only one where he had a different facial expression.

This was normal for him. Good posture though Zach.



As always, there's lots more gig photos on my Flickr.

News Update!

The floods have come and gone, but I'm still stranded. I'm the last person on my street with no electricity (even the flooded houses have it!) and it looks like it may be another week until we get it back. As a result, I have almost zero internet access outside of work hours and can't do updates too much. This is why I'll bundle all of the news up into one post! And here's a funny comic to start with:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

HAHA KINGS OF LEON
So Kings of Leon originally decided they were going to do a stadium tour. Now they've decided to make the shows "more intimate" by downgrading their venues to something smaller where the punters can get up close. And by more intimate, they mean the Entertainment Centre. Read between the lines and you can see it written on the walls "ticket sales were shit. U2/Bon Jovi we are not."

I used to be a huge Kings of Leon fan with their first dirty, innuendo filled, blues inspired albums. They were fresh and amazing. Then they decided to (I think they even did an interview stating that they would) sellout and make as much money as possible. And started writing shit songs.

March 8, Entertainment Centre

Good Vibes loses yet another one to the Grammys
With Cee-Lo already pulling out of the February 19th event to perform at the Grammys, another artist has decided that playing the Grammys is better for her career than a field full of drug-riddled dance music poseurs. Janelle Monae is doing the same thing.

Thank God It's Monday
Carlton Dry kicked off the free Thank God It's Monday gig series last month, with the Hungry Kids of Hungary playing a free Monday show for us. For their second round of gigs, this month, Carlto Dry has one-upped it, with Philadelphia Grand Jury playing a gig the 31st of January at the Normanby Hotel.... Wait... The Normanby?! Am I seeing this right? So confusing. Hopefully the stop the flow of Bundy/fights for this show.

It's sponsored by a beer company at a bar, so obviously its 18+.

Gary Numan
It's been over 30 years since Gary Numan blew us all away with his synth-pop masterpiece that was the Pleasure Principle, released in 1979. Abandoning nearly all guitars and writing it mainly on a Moog, it went number 1 in the UK and lead the way for the hugeness of New Wave. So in celebration, he's touring the album.

Tivoli. May 12

If you don't know the album, you'll at least know this song (even though it's the Fear Factory version with Gary Numan singing).

God God Dammit Dammit
I am late on this, but most of my friends are already going. Tonight a 12 piece funk-punk party band called God God Dammit Dammit are playing a free show at Fat Louies with Headaches and Ironhide. Get in on that and have a great time!

MySpace

Club 299 Redeems Itself
Although switching from indie/hardcore hangouts to top-40 bad pop/dance music club in an effort to be profitable, Club 299 is still dedicated to the music. I'd hope so, especially since the owner is formerly of Her Majesty's Basement, a great old music venue buried under Queen Street Mall. Every Wednesday now they will be showcasing some of Brisbane's best young and unknown bands. Entry is free to students and there are lots of giveaways to be had. So head in, what else do you do on Wednesday nights?

Week of concerts (a photographic review)

So last week turned into a mega week of local and Australian bands. I ended up 4 gigs, 3 of them in 3 days, seeing about 15 bands. And it was a whole lot of fun. Two of them were at the HiFi, which for the first time ever did not allow me to take my SLR in. Boo. But here's photos of the gigs I managed to get.

First up was Friends with the Enemy/In Trenches/Anchors at Fat Louies on the 13th. I've already blogged it, so you can see it here: http://moshpitson.blogspot.com/2010/11/in-trenchesanchors-fat-louies-november.html

Here's In Trenches:

On the 18th I saw the Triple J Aus music month show, which was at the HiFi. That included Ball Park Music, Hungry Kids of Hungary and John Steel Singers playing with special guests such as Dave McCormack and Robert Forster. I put a video and a gig review up here: http://moshpitson.blogspot.com/2010/11/triple-j-aus-music-month.html

Friday saw me back at the HiFi for the Howl/Philadelphia Grand Jury show. The Philly Jays now have Brisbane drummer Suzie (from I Heart Hiroshima) and this was her first show back in Brisbane in ages. It started with her standing right behind me, rapping 99 Problems. They put on a short, but excellent, show playing most of their songs. It ended up almost where it started, back in the crowd near me.


Always an enjoyable party band.

The next day, after an unsuccessful fishing trip, we decided to hit up Punkfest at the Jubilee. We got there just in time to see the Black Market play their Rancid inspired punk. We even got to see what it would be like if Bob Dylan played bass guitar for a local punk band:

Yes, that's a harmonica.


A lot of other local bands played, including the hardcore boys Wheatpaste and Mouthguard, who were supposed to be playing no shows for the rest of the year. LIARS!

It's not often I'm the youngest person at a punk gig, but Punkfest always brings out the best of Brisbane's old school punk scene. Everywhere you looked were amazing tattoos, torn denim, girls in hot dresses and crazy-ass hairstyles. And of course, lots of mohawks:


But the highlight of the night was most definitely Melbourne's celtic-punkers, the Go Set. They started with a bit of a parade from outside, led in by bag pipes. Like any good folk-punk band, they had an arsenal of unusual instruments, including an accordian and tin whistle:


These guys were great. The crowd loved them too, with lots of skanking and moshing:

All up, it was a great night of local punk, ending an excellent week of Australian music. And there was even a drummer that looked like ?uestlove from the Roots

As always, you can see my gig photos at my Flickr. I like to think I'm getting better at this after a few weeks of practice.

In Trenches/Anchors, Fat Louies, November 13 2010

Due to a late dinner and the Rugby game at Suncorp clotting my train ride, I arrived at Fat Louies pretty late to catch this free hardcore and punk gig. As I walked in, I caught the last half of the set from a band I had never heard of before, Friends With the Enemy.

I instantly liked them. Playing a melodic style of hardcore punk, they musically sound a lot like two of my favourite bands: A Wilhelm Scream and Strung Out. But this Gold Coast band does something a lot different, which in my books make them more awesome: they have an amazing female singer (check out their MySpace or get a few free MP3s from their Unearthed).

The temperature was building to a ridiculous level in the little band room at Fat Louies by the time In Trenches took the stage. I saw these guys open for Cancert Bats not too long ago, but due to my increased level of intoxication and a late arrival because of events leading to that increased level, I don't remember seeing much of them. Which is a pity, because they are a very tight and amazing live band.

Despite the oppressive heat and humidity of the room, they put a lot of energy into their set, jumping around the room.

Their metal/hardcore style was luckily fairly free of breakdowns, although a few of the punters thought they'd have a bit of a hardcore dance. At the last song, In Trenches put everything into it, with the guitarist and the singer ending up on the floor in exhaustion, probably from the heat.

The quality of their live show was apparent when Anchors came out to play, as the lead singer mentioned that they shouldn't be the headliner, following the quality of the acts before them. Although the lead singer's voice wasn't keeping up too well, with quite a few adolescent voice cracks. But he still gave it his all, dancing around and jumping off the kick drum. So much so that I struggled to get pictures of him.


The crowd didn't respond well at first, but they found their groove as the set played out. They also lost a lot of clothing with each song due to the crazy heat in the room. Being from Melbourne, I'm sure they had never felt anything like this before. It's unfortunate it took them most of their set to get a sound together, but their last few songs (including a couple of new ones) were great, especially with the punk gang vocals.


Despite me visiting a lot (it was the third time this week alone) it was the first time I had gone to Fat Louies purely for a gig. And despite the heat, it was a great show, highlighting the talent that abounds in the Australian hardcore and punk scenes.

All of these pictures, plus heaps more I took of this and other shows, can be found on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nunchukakatta/sets/72157625075862092/

Fat Louies Hardcore!

Last night I went drinking. In Fat Louies. I also listen to hardcore music. So put those two together and you get this:


In Trenches recently opened for Cancer Bats. They rocked. Hard.
Anchors have a free track at their Bandcamp. They rock less hard, but that's only because they are more punk.

Get to it, it's 18+, cheap drinks, cheap pool and free entry. AND BLOODY GREAT MUSIC. It's also this Saturday.

In Trenches
Anchors

Another lazy post!

Yes! I know you're excited, it's another one of those posts where I just list off a bunch of shows and news, because I haven't had time for anything else.


Belle and Sebastian new song
My favourite Scottish indie-pop group have released a new song, for free, from their new album due out in October. Download here. I love Belle and Sebastian and their take on 60's style pop/twee. I'm on my way to slowly getting all of their releases on vinyl, so you know for sure I'll be pre-ordering their new record Write About Love (also the name of the free track).

U2 sells out (in the 80s), but adds a new show for their Brisbane concert sell out
Yep, not just their music, but their shows (surprisingly) sell out amazingly fast. They've added a second show with Jay-Z at Suncorp on the 9th of December.

Die! Die! Die!
New Zealand's best noise/gaze/random band are putting out a new album soon, so they'll be doing the tour of our country playing their noisy garage rock, which I love. October 14 at the Club House (Tempo Bar). If you like a noisy and energetic great live show, do yourself a favour and go!

Soundwave bands
Added to the lineup we now have:

• Bring Me the Horizon
• Bullet for My Valentine
• H2O
• We the Kings

I've seen the first two and have no desire to see them again. The only one I'm keen (actually really excited about) is H2O, one of those few old-school straight-edge hardcore bands still kicking.

The Mess Hall
A great Australian two-piece garage-rock band, had a pretty big song with Metal and Hair in 2005 and a great album in 2007 with the Devil's Elbow, are going out on tour. September 17 at the Zoo. 18+

Philadelphia Grand Jury
Although they packed and moved to London only a few months back, they are coming back for their biggest run of shows yet. Catch their garage-party-rock November 19th at the HiFi. 18+. This is sure to be close to selling out, like their last show did at the Zoo. They are just a fun band to listen and dance to.

Fat Louie's Local Hardcore Gig
September 25, at my favourite pool bar/after work place, catch a great hardcore show and get some cheap drinks. Between the Devil and the Deep, Marathon, Headaches and the Quickening. All great heavier (mainly local bands) at my favourite haunt. 18+ of course.