Triple J Aus Music Month

So last night I went along to the Australian Music month show at the HiFi, put on by our youth network, Triple J. It was an amazing night of Brisbane music. First up were Ball Park Music, playing their funky rock.

They rocked pretty hard, but I about lost my shit when they bought out a special guest for a song: Dave McCormack (of Custard and the Polaroids fame). Sure, he just played percussion and a single song, but it was amazing.

Next up were the Hungry Kids of Hungary, who my friends were excited to see. I've seen them a few times before, and their live set was slightly less exciting than Ball Park Music. However, for a few of their tracks they bought out a bunch of friends to play extra instruments and sing the backing vocals for a Kylie Minogue song. That was definitely the highlight of their set.

Finally were local boys the John Steel Singers (plus a chick from Little Scout playing glockenspiel. I totally swooned for her). These guys get better everytime I see the, and I am just sad that their recordings don't do the grandeur and large sound of their live set any justice what so ever.

And the best part? They bought out Robert Forster (from the Go Betweens) to play a few songs. He played about 3 covers with them, and even did a stint on acoustic guitar.


The whole night was an amazing show of just some of the talent Brisbane has on offer. But it didn't end there. Oh no. All of the artists came back out for an encore, including Robert Forster. Massed on stage together they covered the Saints' Know Your Product. And I recorded a crappy quality version of it:

Once Triple J post the recorded audio for the night, I'll redub it to have it sounding awesome. Great night.

EDITED: For the redubbed video

Brisbane Festival 2010

Every year the Brisbane Festival celebrates art and everything that is Brisbane. Starting with the fireworks frenzy that is Riverfire (sans F-111s for the first time this year, sad), it also includes concerts throughout the festival run (September 4-25).

The "bigger and mainstream" acts occur mainly in the Spiegeltent, set up in King George square. It features music every night (at 7pm), cabaret most nights (at 9pm) and Jazz on Sundays. Although there are plenty more shows scattered around our fair city. Some of the acts I'm considering this year are:

Paul Dempsey - The lead singer from Something for Kate has been striking out on his own for a while now doing his solo acoustic act. And sold out many a show in our town. He's playing September 5, 6 and 7 at the Spiegeltent.

http://www.pauldempseymusic.com/

Ed Kuepper - The founder of Brisbane's (and possibly the world's, I've got in many debates about this) first and legendary punk band the Saints and now touring guitarist for Nick Cave. September 15 at the Spiegeltent.

Robert Forster - The last surviving half of Brisbane indie legends The Go-Betweens. He'll be playing everything old, new and lots of covers. September 18 at the Powerhouse.

I'm sure there'll be more announcements and more I'm excited for!

The Go-Between Bridge

Why am I posting about a bridge? More importantly, this bridge:

Not very pretty, is it? This concrete behemoth is the Go-Between Bridge, named after the iconic (read: no one actually knew who they were in their day) Brisbane band, the Go-Betweens. And to celebrate the opening of this bridge, there's going to be a concert. On the bridge.

In the spirit of the extreme indie-ness of the Go Betweens, the concert features all Australian indie. Angus and Julia Stone for some reason are headlining over the last remaining half of the Go-Betweens: Robert Forster. Also included are Josh Pyke, Bob Evans, Yves Klein Blue and locals, the John Steel Singers.

It's the afternoon of June 25th, on the West End side of the bridge and will be about $50.

The sad thing is, the Go Betweens are still relatively unknown in their home country and town, but were incredibly large in England. You may know the Go Betweens from their song in a Sunday Mail ad a few years ago: