2011: Best of gigs

2011 was my most musically productive year, in regards to gigs. Over the last 365 days I went to 64 gigs/festivals. This smashes my previous years by a long margin. I imagine the increase is due to my photography, but I like to think it was just a great year for live music in Australia!

There was the normal year starter of Future of the Left, followed by festivals in torrential rain, festivals in crazy heat, multiple trips to Melbourne and Sydney for shows, in-store performances, orchestras, flood-benefit shows, cover bands, friends' bands, classic bands playing arena shows, bands I've waited most of my life to see, my favourite band of all time and lots of new bands I'd never heard of before yet became instant fans. What a year.

Despite my bemoaning of the death of the festival, there were too many good ones for me to pass up this year. Most years I'll go to 2 or 3, but this year I went to 6, 2 of them as a photographer. Considering one of them was a 2 day festival (in torrential rain a few days before the floods), it was quite a tiring year.

With so many gigs (I think I saw 237 different sets), it's really hard to do a top 5, so I made an internal compromise and came up with my top 8 gigs of the year that was 2011.

8. Off With Their Heads/Against Me! (4 May, 2011 @ the HiFi)
If you've ever seen Against Me! live, you'll probably realise their inclusion in any best-gigs-of-the-year list is mandatory. Through an extended set you could just see them enjoying playing as much as we were enjoying watching. It's rare to get a synergy between a band and a crowd at a venue of a large size like the HiFi, but everyone in the band and the crowd had massive smiles on their face. Throw in a long set list full of classic songs designed to get the crowd pumping their fists and singing along, bring along another great international punk band in Off With Their Heads and you get a great night of punk rock.

(click here for the original review)

7. Sufjan Stevens (26 January, 2011 @ the Tivoli)
This was my first time seeing Sufjan. Although more of a fan of his acoustic-folk, I knew this set would lean towards his newer electronic stuff. I figured it was worth going just to see the few songs I really, really like. What it ended up being was an ethereal all-encompassing experience. Not just a gig, but a whole show. Sufjan conducted a light, laser and balloon show that added incredible depth to his music, allowing me to appreciate it at a new level. And he still played some of the folk classics.

(click here for the original review)

6. Melvins/Primus (3 March, 2011 @ the Palais Theatre, St Kilda)
No surprise this was going to be on my list. Primus is my favourite band, no matter what, and my trip to Melbourne was purely for this show. The venue was sitting only (heavily enforced by the ushers), but it was in ridiculously comfortable leather seats with plenty of room. Kim and I were right near the front of the upper balcony and we first watched an all-out aural assault by the Melvins with 2 drummers following a classic set of Primus, including a few new songs as well.

(click here for the original review)

5. The Chariot (20 April, 2011 @ Sun Distortion Studios)

Their first tour of Australia and they absolutely slaughtered the venue. The opening bands weren't really to my taste, but when the Chariot came on I no longer cared. The stage broke and was carried out in pieces. A yellow pages phone book was ripped in half and thrown in the air. The bass guitar broke a string, something I thought was nigh on impossible. The bass player was carried out of the venue still playing. Everything was destroyed in a full on noise-assault. It ended with everything in pieces and the band slumped to the floor and me wanting to see it all over again.

(click here for the original review, picture gallery and bonus video)

4. Modest Mouse (21 July, 2011 @ the Prince of Wales Bandroom, St Kilda)
I travelled to Melbourne just for this show. There was a fight in a mosh pit (what the fuck Melbourne indie fans?), there was no Johnny Marr, but it was still one of the best times I've seen Modest Mouse play. They played something off almost every album (fairly rare) even a few impromptu acoustic songs that Isaac has obviously forgotten most of the lyrics for... stopping to apologise at the second or third verse. The kicker for me though was the fact the encore saw them playing for an hour and a half longer than they were supposed to. Is there such a thing as too much Modest Mouse? No. Not at all.

3. Harvest Festival (Kevin Devine/This Town Needs Guns/The Holidays/The Walkmen/Mercury Rev/TV on the Radio/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah/Bright Eyes/Mogwai/The National/The Flaming Lips/Portishead) (19 November, 2011 @ the Riverstage)

Granted, any festival featuring the Flaming Lips will blow you away with their fully immersive spectacular. But this festival was enough to make me actually enjoy the whole day, instead of suffering through a day of mediocrity just to see one or two bands I really like. Harvest restored my faith in the music festival. It wasn't just about music, there was plenty other things to do that were actually interesting as well as plenty of art and installations. The grounds were laid out perfectly with no noise-pollution between stages and the bands were top-notch. I may have also cried when the Walkmen played The Rat. What a magnificent day it was. I wish all festivals were even half as good as this.

(click here for the photo gallery I shot of the day over at Tone Deaf)

2. The Mercy Beat/Trash Talk/H2O/The Bronx (25 February, 2011 @ Step Inn)

The night before the Soundwave festival and this was a hard-to-get-tickets-for flood fundraiser in the tiny-ass band room of the Step Inn. Originally supposed to be featuring Terror on the line-up, flight connections meant they missed out, but it didn't stop one of the greatest gigs I've ever been to. Trash Talk played an insane (as always) set, going all out with amazing energy. H2O showed why they are one of the best hardcore bands and featured guest spots by members of New Found Glory and Terror (who just showed up) and the Bronx wowed us all the way through to the wee hours of the morning, even playing a song they never play live: Strobe Life.

(click here for the original review and photo gallery)

1. DZ Deathrays/Fucked Up (9 December, 2011 @ Alhambra)

They put out one of the best albums of the year and then they came out on a stadium tour with the Foo Fighters. Luckily they threw this gig together quickly. Alhambra didn't know what hit it. Fucked Up played an awesome set that had security confused and saw Damian spend most of his time shirtless in the crowd with everyone going crazy (which of course is his normal routine, but it's still great to see). He even stopped the band and retrieved an evicted punter when security got a bit too over the top. It was full of great songs, DZ Deathrays were the secret opening band playing their first Australian show in god knows how long and Fucked Up were nice enough to stay behind afterwards and meet everyone. Of course there's a bit of fanboy-bias in this choice, but it was just an amazing night.

(click here for the original review and here for my Tumblr-based photo gallery)

Review: Sufjan Stevens/Tim Hart, Tivoli, Jan 30 2011

Brisbane's hipster elite were out in force last night, even waiting in line at 7 to try and scope a place to see their poster boy: Sufjan Stevens.

As everyone jostled for space by the barricade and on the floor, I was entranced by the gear setup on the stage. There was hardly room to move with all the instruments. When the opening act, Tim Hart, came out, this was very evident. He stood out the front of everything, just a man with a microphone and an acoustic guitar.

He was good. He's part of the band Boy and Bear, but last night, I liked his solo folk music much better than his band. He had excellent finger picking guitar skills and such a great folk voice that even most of the hipster crowd stopped talking and listened. He told us a bit about the songs and the stories behind them, but he was just gushing in enthusiasm for the fact he was opening for Sufjan. I mean, what local folk artist wouldn't?

If you were also there and you liked Tim, you can download one of his tracks for free, right here.

After Tim left the stage, there wasn't much waiting time as all of the instruments were already set up. The lights dimmed, it got dark and a plethora of people invaded the stage, all self-illuminating with bright colours from lights on their clothes and black lights. Right from that point you knew that Sufjan didn't just bring his music on tour, he brought an experience for us all.

Straight away he launched into an explosively long and all-encompassing cacophonous version of the Age of Adz. Everyone just stood there in awe. He was surrounded by 10 other musicians, he had a light show, he had a video loops playing along with the music, he had so many layers of sounds that I felt like a kid with ADD, unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds at a time.

And it was in this state that over 2 hours of music went by with me hardly even noticing. I want to note here that although I liked his new album Age of Adz, I didn't think it was amazing. Sure, it was different for him and rather complex, but I just thought it was a mediocre experimental electronic/folk crossover album.

But then I saw it live.

This is how the Age of Adz should be listened to. It's not an album as much as an experience. Sufjan took the time to apologise to all the kids "standing in the crowd wearing Illinois shirts and wondering what the hell is going on", referencing his folk past. He told us that today was dedicated purely to playing his new album and EP. When he wasn't crafting each song out to almost Mars Volta-esque lengths and jams he was explaining everything to us. The motivation to the songs, to the album. Why he did it this way. Where the art work came from. Every thing. Although he didn't look at ease talking to a crowd plainly falling head over heels in love with him (lots of fidgeting while talking and looking down) his conversation with the crowd added an even deeper dimension to the music. Deeper than the 10 extra musicians added.

And then it got even better.

With about 40 minutes left in his set the music swelled up, the balloons fell from the sky and he ripped into the song Impossible Soul.


I have no idea how long this song lasted, I'd wager half an hour though. But with the balloons bouncing in the air, everyone dancing, the musicians having fun, the crowd singing along... it was an ethereal experience. I never wanted it to end.

But unfortunately it did. But then he came out on stage, having lost all of the bright colours and the over the top get up of the show. It was just him and his guitar. He played two songs off Illinois (I think, I wasn't quite sure, I was still in some post-gig euphoria). John Wayne Gacy Jr (maybe) and Chicago (definitely). We weren't expecting him to come out and go folk at the end, but it was a brilliant end to the show, giving a little back to those that probably came just for the amazingness that was the Illinois album.

One sentence album reviews (#6)

Ólafur Arnalds - ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness (2010): modern classical music, much less brooding than his debut album, more happy 3.5/5

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz (2010): It's as if Sufjan had a late night encounter with Animal Collective and spawned this album. 4/5

Small Black - New Chain (2010): Very relaxed lo-fi, slightly electronic album. Perfect rainy day music 3/5

Sirens - The Gates (2010): First metalcore album I've enjoyed listening to in years. Probably because there's no cliche electronica. 3.5/5

Buckethead - Spinal Clock (2010): Avant garde, almost minimalist guitar album. Half of the tracks are guitar sounding like a shamisen. 4/5

Buckethead - Captain Eo's Voyage (2010): A more sombre and somewhat dreamy instrumental guitar album than his earlier blistering shredding days. 4/5

She Likes Todd- A Story Still Untold (2010): Fun pop-punk, in a bit of a late 90s style. 2.5/5

The State Lottery - When The Night Comes (2010): Very folky punk, with lots of random instruments; just what I like. 3.5/5

My Chemical Romance - Danger Days (2010): Better than the Black Parade. Story is confusing and half the songs rip off famous riffs. 1.5/5

Terror - Keepers Of The Faith (2010): Quality hardcore album, but funny, because there's a serious hardcore love song on it. 4/5

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History (2010): Upbeat dance indie, as if Death Cab for Cutie decided to get his groove on 4/5

The Walkmen - Lisbon (2010): The vintage-sounding indie of this album is how they should've sounded over the last 3 albums. 4.5/5

Ke$ha - Cannibal (2010): Autotune + cute girl = profit, but not good music. 1/5 (half a point is for her knowing and capturing her market)

Useless Children - EP (2008): Indie, screamo from Melbourne with a female singer. I'm in love. Reminds me of a better Young and Restless 4.5/5

The Black Pacific - The Black Pacific (2010): New band from former Pennywise lead singer stays rooted in 90s punk, sounds just like Unwritten Law. 3/5

Wolf Parade - Expo 86 (2010): I like thier music, but his wavering vocals still drive me insane on this album. 3/5

The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt (2010): I've yet to see a review not compare him to a young Bob Dylan. That's why this is good. 4/5

Weezer - Death to False Metal (2010): ...Wait, they released 2 albums this year? I could've sworn it was the same album. 1.5/5

Sufjan Stevens

A few weeks back I had a good old whinge, because apparently Sufjan Stevens was out touring and coming to Brisbane on the same day as the Laneway Festival. That would be an absolutely horrible idea, because they are the exact same type of crowds. Luckily, someone was a little smarter than that.

It's now the 30th of January at the Tivoli. Get your inner-hipster on and see what is supposed to be an amazing live show by what many label a bloody genius of indie music. Now I've just got to figure out if I want to go to the Opera House in Sydney to see this tour...

Sufjan rumours

My inner hipster is rejoicing today. But at the same time, he's crying. This is the reason:

Sufjan Stevens. The man who puts out album after album of great indie covering all styles, ideas and concepts. Although only 2 albums into his concept of an album for each state of America (Illionoise just blew him up massively), he's already taken a break and released a different strain of music, with his new album the Age of Adz. And for that album he will be coming to Australia.

For now, the dates apart from an Adelaide date are just rumoured. So why is the inner hipster crying? His date at the Tivoli is meant to be the same day as Laneway. The 4th of February. ARGHHHHHHH! Hipster Chuck barely gets out, and now he has 2 reasons on the same day! And I've alread bought my expensive Laneway tickets, so I'm just hurt now.

I hope they change it. It is only a strong rumour, I still have time to hope until the real announcement.

MySpace

The Ocarina of Rhyme

I'm generally not a fan of mash ups, that genre of music were different songs are mixed together. Artists like Girl Talk are one of the few exceptions, his amazing ability to form a new song out of so many pieces of other songs is mind boggling. Another one of the few I really like is Illionoize, where producer Tor has mashed up hip-hop songs with Sufjan Stevens. The indie and the hip-hop reallly mixes well together and you can get that album for free at this website.

But now there's a new one I like. And it mixes hip-hop with the music from one of my all time favourite video games: The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time.


It's put together by Team Teamwork, a group of guys that do mash ups, some video game related. I've been trying to buy a Nintendo-64 lately purely so I could play this game again and it was just blind luck that someone linked me to this mash up based off of the game. It features Spank Rock, Jay Z, Dr Dre/Snoop Dogg, Clipse, Aesop Rock, Busta Rhymes and Common amongst others. All set to my favourite songs and sounds from the game.

They put all of their mash ups out for free, so download the whole album here.