Friday - 24 February
Marilyn Manson, Coal Chamber, Wednesday 13, Motionless in White - Eatons Hill Hotel
At about 4pm on the Friday before Soundwave, I got an email. My photography pass had been revoked. In fact, all photography passes had been revoked for Manson for his entire tour. Why? Who knows. So, no Manson for me.
On one hand I was happy for this, it had been two almost 12 hour days at work in a row, Eaton's Hill is a long drive away, Soundwave was the next day and I had an opportunity to sleep for a bit. But come on, missing Manson and Coal Chamber? Disappointed. Plus, not to mention, it appears Manson allowed photographers again after Sydney. So I feel we got the short end of the stick. Can anyone provide me an explanation please?
Saturday - 25 February
Soundwave Festival - RNA Showgrounds
This was my first opportunity to photograph the amazing Soundwave festival, even though I've gone to every incarnation in Brisbane and a few other ones interstate. All up I saw 20 bands, 17 of them I photographed. I battled the mud, fatigue, the constant rain and rogue pyrotechnics. You can view my gallery of photos here.
As far as photography goes, I think it was one of my best outings ever. I got so many photos I was happy with. My favourite photo of the day was also one of my favourite sets of the day, one of the few I stayed for nearly the entire set of: Thursday.
I've never been a huge fan of Thursday, they've got a few great songs, but seeing this was their last set of shows ever, I thought I'd get along. Needless to say I feel like I'm extremely late to the party. They've got a new fan in me, even though as of yesterday it's now too late.
Other highlights include:
- Saves the Day doing a Weezer and set of classic songs. I knew nearly every line of every song.
- Mastodon. I wasn't happy to leave to photograph Thursday at the time, but kind of glad I did now.
- Dillinger Escape Plan. I was dancing around like an idiot in the camera pit singing along for most of the time.
- Devin Townsend Project. I wasn't going to go see him for some stupid reason, but Tim talked me into it. I was the only photographer there and he is such an excellent performer!
- Slipknot, despite the first pyrotechnic unexpectedly going off about a metre from my face.
Monday - 27 February
Death Cab for Cutie - The Tivoli
I got Penny a Death Cab ticket for Christmas, so I was there in a non-photography role. It was the first time seeing Death Cab for me and I swooned. Hard. Death Cab are one of those bands that I know are good, but I only know a couple of songs off the top of my head. Yet throughout the show I found myself singing along with most of the songs and having a good time, even ignoring my usual hate of the see of iPhones in front of my face recording everything that goes on.
The big surprise to me was their sound though. On album, Death Cab almost seem poppy. On Monday night though they became this loud post-rock machine, blasting me away with long slow-building-to-an-epic-climax intros. I guess this is because they played a lot of songs from Plans, which is my favourite Death Cab album, but has a very post-rock feel to it.
Tuesday - 28 February
Dillinger Escape Plan, System of a Down - Sydney Entertainment Centre
When Dillinger were announced on Soundwave I made a promise to myself, to go see at least one of their sideshows. It just so happened to eventuate they were playing with System of a Down and I managed to get a photo pass to it.
First off, apart from festivals, the Sydney Entertainment Centre was the biggest venue I have ever shot at. It was an experience for me, being able to take advantage of amazing lighting and setup that is not what I'm used to with my plethora of small punk and hardcore shows.
Saying that though, Dillinger went the opposite way. All strobe lights and fog machines. It was really tough trying to get a picture, especially with the frenetic energy of their perfomance. The crowd wasn't really into it (obviously waiting for System) and the frustrations of yet another set full of broken equipment while playing to a fairly unenthusiastic crowd showed through. But heck, they still put on a grand show.
But really, everyone was there for System of a Down.
They apparently recorded the day for a live album (or DVD? I wasn't sure). There were issues with the photographers being forced to leave the venue after their 3 songs, but I managed to stash my camera gear and get back in after only a song or two to see an absolutely amazing set. They covered all of their albums fairly equally, which given my love affair with self-titled, and most bands inability to recognize their old material, made me weak at the knees. Throw in a cover of Dire Strait's Sultans of Swing (but sung as "we are System of a Down") and getting Ben Weinmen of Dillinger Escape Plan out to play guitar on Aerials, all together it was an epic set.
Wednesday - 29 February
Your Demise, Letlive, Enter Shikari - The Metro
A bonus of being in Sydney was that I got to catch Letlive play a full set. After an excellent day spent being a camera nerd with Pacey I ended up waiting for what seems like an eternity in line to get into the Metro. The line almost went back to my hotel room. It seems that Sydney people like to get to a gig on time? When I finally got in (after discovering my name on the door list was Allman) I managed to get photos of Your Demise for only one song. Knowing nothing about them, I actually asked a fellow photographer if they were a local band.
There were a lot of younger kids really getting into Your Demise, which lead me to discover an interesting fact about the Metro as a venue. It's a 2 strikes and your gone rule. If you crowd surf, you get a warning. If you do it again, you're ejected. A lot of kids were gone before the evening had even started!
But the reason I was there was for Letlive. And it was all of the insanity I was hoping it would be. It started with the guitarist playing with a coat hanger before de-evolving into a frenetic all out assault on our ears and the band's bodies. The lead singer's pure disregard for his own safety rivals that of Dillinger Escape Plan and made for one of the most enjoyable sets I've ever witnessed. It was hard going photographing them as they didn't stand still. Not to mention the microphone cord kept getting whipped out and hitting me in the head or wrapping around my neck.
Unfortunately the crowd didn't get into it as much, but I did. It was an incredible set. Letlive have rapidly shot up my list of favourite bands. Things I remember of the set include the singer playing a guitar case as a fake guitar, then using it as a surf board, climbing on the speaker stacks, the guitarist moving around the monitor speakers and using them to play the guitar before jumping off it, the singer using the microphone stand for all manner of thing and then simulating sex with it... and above all, playing their great songs.
Next was Enter Shikari. Last time I saw them I ended up with a concussion from a stupid fight dancer and don't remember much, except I enjoyed the music. It makes me wonder what I saw last time. As their set now has been deconstructed into a lot of electronic noise and standing around not playing instruments. The lighting conditions were horrible, with fog machines and strobe lights for most of it. After they played Sorry You're Not A Winner, and I got to do the hand clap thing, the songs all became the same bad electronic beat. So I left. Bit of a disppointment, but I could see it coming, given how their albums have pretty much lost most of the hardcore vibe now.
Thursday - 1 March
Quiet Steps, Army of Champions, The Smith St Band, Bomb the Music Industry - Between the Walls
Quiet Steps played as a two piece and sounded really good as it, Army of Champions as always did an amazing folk-punk-esque performance and then there were the two bands I was really excited for.
The Smith St Band have put out one of my favourite albums of the year and it seems a lot of people agree with me. As they played the venue (albeit with a fairly average crowd) were all hands in the air singing along. Unfortunately there was one drunk idiot that attempted to do a backflip off a monitor, before falling on to the concrete floor and knocking himself out. Once an ambulance had picked him up to get looked at, the show continued in a more sombre mode. With less backflips.
But they nailed an excellent set. I definitely spent more time singing along than taking photos.
I love Between the Walls as a DIY venue. The size is good (albeit it gets hot), the people are great, the sound quality is superb and it's in a great location for me to get to and park, or even public transport and drink. However, taking photos there drives me nuts. It's too dark for photos with no flash, even more so for this show. They've reduced lighting to one light on each side of stage with a coloured umbrella over it. And if I resort to flash, the roof is reflective metal, the walls are bright white and I get strange lighting bounces and shadows everywhere. I could point my flash in the artists' faces, but I always try my best to not annoy them. It's just plain rude. I struggle to take photos there and am never happy how they turn out. But I still have fun.
After the medical interruption and the end of Smith St band, there's still enough time for the headliner before the curfew. And the headliner was someone I've been waiting to see in ages, never imagining that they could afford to head out to Australia.
Bomb the Music Industry ends up just being the lead man Jeff, playing his guitar and singing with his iPod as his backing band. It's as DIY as you can get, which is how the band lives and breathes.
But holy hell it was a fun set. He played most of the songs I wanted to hear, and spent most of the time in the audience singing along with everyone else. At one point he even got someone up to play the spoons along to Sweet Home Cannada. I was very impressed at his dedication to the performance, even if it was just him and his iPod.
Friday - 2 March
Bonnie Prince Billy, Gallery of Modern Art
It had been a while since I did a musical GoMA up late performance. I tried to enjoy the Matisse artworks before hand, but the exhibition seemed to be just a collection of his old sketch books, with hardly any of his big works. More of a glimpse inside the mind of the artist.
But that's not why I was there, I was there for the music. And it seems despite the crowds, I was one of the only few there to hear him play. The crowd was over capacity, it was impossible to squeeze around the bar to get near the stage. But in a flashback to the crowds at Girls 2 years ago, none of them were there to see the band. Rather to talk. And when you've got the level changes that can occur in Bonnie Prince Billy's music, from the whimsical yet emotional quiet to the almost operatic loudness, it can kind of ruin it.
But if you take out the crowd, what followed was 1.5 hours of sublime music. His mixture of gospel, country and American roots (I personally call his style post-country) was backed by an excellent guitarist, an amazing Southern female vocalist and a great drummer. Each song was steeped in emotion. Even though I know none of his songs, it will go down as one of the best sets I've witnessed. It reminded me of when I first saw Mark Lanegan, the songs themselves as well as the ability and delivery of the singer create an experienec you can't forget.
Tuesday - 6 March
Manchester Orchestra, HiFi
Much like Death Cab a week prior, Manchester Orchestra were one of those bands whose songs I know of and I know I like. In the same vein they also had a set much louder, faster and more steeped in post-rock than what their recorded material appears to be. A thoroughly enjoyable set though, with a crazy keyboardist acting like he'd been kicked out of a band like Letlive and a singer that was eerily similar in look to the Mastodon singer but with a sound like the singer of My Morning Jacket.
Obviously at this point I was tired and exhausted from so many great live sets squeezed into a 10 day period (plus a few other non-music events I attended), but Manchester Orchestra were amazing. An excellent way to end the week.
