Local Brisbane Music extravaganza

Every few weeks I harp on about this, but goddamn Brisbane has some of the best local music around. So much good stuff is happening lately that I just have to share it with you all.

Snitch

I stole this picture from Jess. Sorry, but it was the only one I could find of the month's poster. I'm normally not a fan of any Destroy All Lines clubs. They have good bands ocassionally, but the crowd of scenesters isn't my favourite at all. They just kind of annoy me. But this month I'm going to have to make an exception with so much good music coming up at Snitch, their Thursday nightclub.

This Thursday, the 3rd of November, old Brisbane punk rockers The Gifthorse will be playing an acoustic set, while two of my favourite (and not to mention great) bands Fires of Waco and Quiet Steps will be playing full sets.

Then come 24th of November, my friend's band Castles Sunk Below the Sea will be playing their post-rock/emo stylings alongside Jud Campbell (former singer of the Disables doing acoustic), Fires of Waco and Perth's hardcore giants Break Even. It is two great Thursday night gigs of great Brisbane bands. Get on it.

Quiet Steps
Speaking of Quiet Steps, they will be playing the last ever show at Sun Distortion Studios. Come New Years Eve, they will be playing a show with Nuclear Summer as well as the awesome Italian screamo band Raein.  I may have squee-ed out loud when I heard of this show.

Lofly records
Also on this Thursday night (but at the Zoo) the local record lable Lofly will be putting on a showcase of their local acts. Included on this will be Mr. Maps (who's new music video you can see me in) and Re:Enactment.  It's $10 for great indie and post-rock.

Balance and Composure

For people that go around in my circles (at least the punk/hardcore one), Balance and Composure is one of those big buzz bands for the year. My one sentence review on Twitter compared their sound to as if a young Silverchair decided to do an emo album. And I stand by that. It's definitely not an insult. Frogstomp is a classic album and I see Separation by Balance and Composure being a big winner in best of 2011 lists.

So when a band is hot, of course they're going to go on tour to Australian.

On Thursday the 18th of August we will be blessed with two shows in Brisbane. One, a free acoustic one at Kill the Music, the best store for punk/hardcore in Queensland. And then that night they'll be playing Boys and Girls at X&Y (18+).

Touring with them will be the Brisbane band Fires of Waco, who, based off the number of national supporting slots they've nailed in 6 months, are going to be very big very soon.

Balance and Compsoure MySpace

The Flood

I bang on and on about the local music scene, but for good reason. It's bloody good up here in Brisbane. A bunch of rad people in rads bands making rad music. And they know this, so together, they've put together a collective and called it the Flood.

And to celebrate, they're having a show!


I feel as if I've gone on and on about these bands before, I love so many of them. So really, there's no excuse not to go if you like anything about local heavier music.

EDIT: Apparently demand is strong, so it's been moved to the Morningside School of Arts Hall, cnr of Thynne Rd & Wynnum Rd

Review: Defeater/Fires of Waco (The Alley AA and Thriller 18+), April 8/9, 2011

This review will cover two days and be simple, because... well, I got drunk this weekend. So it's been a bit since taking these photos and remembering what happened.

Fires of Waco. One of my favourite local bands. Always put on a tight show, even now they've dropped the crowd-pleasing At the Drive-In cover. More power to them though, they're starting to swell with popularity.

But the reason I went to the same show 2 days in a row was simply for Defeater. This year's album, Empty Days and Sleepless Nights, is one of my favourite albums of the year. Not just hardcore, but in general. So when they trooped down to our country, I just had to see them two days in a row. And what followed was one of the best gigs I've ever been to, and one of the worst.

The best was the Friday night all-ages show at the Alley. Earlier in the week it was announced the Alley is being shutdown to build a tax-office there (boo! HISS! RIOT! COMPLAIN!) So this was the second last show ever to be held there. And I'd hate to be the last show following up this penultimate one. Just amazing.

Hardcore kids love their music. Especially when they can go to all-ages. The lead singer walked out with his acoustic, sang the song I Don't Mind, put his guitar away... and then all hell broke loose.
The tiny venue, with the band playing on the floor, just couldn't with hold the energy the crowd put out to Defeater. They just rushed in, danced, jumped off speakers and left nothing behind.





The crowd was crazy, except for Jacob. That's him above, standing in the back, kind of looking away.

It was insane. The crowd disrupted every song, but it didn't matter. The guitarists played above the crowd. Something I haven't seen since my all-ages gig days.

And the Saturday night Thriller gig was the complete opposite. I don't know if the lead-singer had lost his voice, but he spent most of the time giving the microphone to the crowd to sing. We hardly heard him, which really just ruined it for me.

Brisbane: great bands, free samplers

I've said it over and over again on this blog, but Brisbane has one of the best live band scenes in Australia, maybe even the world. And it's really pretty at night:

No matter what kind of music you're into, there's a handful (or more) of people making it in Brisbane. Most of them aren't that well known; but for every Regurgitator and Custard we get a band like SixFtHick, who've been playing just as long, put out as much good music and are chronically underappreciated. But that's not stopping them, they still keep making music and playing shows.

And shows is really what Brisbane is all about. I'm constantly surprised that when I head to a local show how the crowds can be bigger than a lot of international touring bands I've seen. How these bands from Brisbane end up being more well known in other places (like the Saints and the Go-Betweens anyone?) but still call Brisbane home.

This love of the Brisbane musical scene and local bands is obviously not just shown by me, as two free music samplers have been released highlighting some of the best bands Brisbane has to offer.

The first is Sounds Like Brisbane. A mix for more of the hipster side of Brisbane. It has everything: hip-hop, indie, electronica, mathrock, punk, folk, even old school rock and roll... everything that appeals to the hipster in you and me. It also does a great job of showing how diverse Brisbane's musical side really is.

You can get it for free right here.

It features some of Brisbane's best bands; Texas Tea, Regurgitator, I Heart Hiroshima and the Medics to name a few. But the highlight to me would be the instrumental mathrock magic that is Mr Maps. I've heard this name bandied around Brisbane and the internet for the better part of 6 months now, but I've not been motivated to listen to them. Luckily they have a track on this compilation and now I'm hooked.

The second free sampler appeals to the 50% of me that isn't hipster: it's punk and hardcore. Brisbane's punk and hardcore scene is second to none. I'm going to shows almost weekly in this scene, and that's just a small fraction of it.

You can get the link, and a nice little blurb, from this Swedish Hardcore blog (now there's a blog post I've been writing slowly for the past year or so: Swedish music (particularly hardcore)).

I've seen 90% of those bands live, most more than once. With most of them I've yet to hear recordings of their music. So this was an excellent chance to listen to them in a more quiet setting than the multitude of venues I've experienced them all in the past. The mix was put together by a dude in Fires of Waco, who's band really stands out as a highlight of this mix (and their album came out last week too, get on it). There's even some classic Brisbane hardcore on the mix, in the form of Dick Nasty, who've been playing together since before I first moved to Brisbane as a pre-pubescent.

These two samplers are really just the tip of the iceberg. I can think of so many other bands that should be included in this. And it just makes me proud, as a music fan, to be living in such a great city.

Fires of Cako

Cakes.
They're bloody delicious.

(I stole this picture from my friend Danelle. If you like baking, get on her blog)

Is there anything better than cakes? I think not.

But you know what would go great with cakes? These guys:


And to make it even tastier, both are coming together in a flood relief benefit. Yes, local (fast-becoming popular) hardcore-punkers Fires of Waco are putting on a bake sale/charity gig.

On February 5, at the Via studios on Abbotsford Rd. The day starts at 2pm and also features Capeweather and Wherewolves. Skip breakfast and lunch, come in, gorge yourself stupid on delicious baked goods, listen to some great music and support the RSPCA and the Premier's Flood Relief.

You'll feel good by eating great foods and helping out others in need. Now I just need to decided what I will bake for it...

Review: La Dispute/To the North/Fires of Waco/Nuclear Summer, the Zoo, January 25 2011

After not shutting up about this band for the better part of six months, the day finally arrived where I got to see them.

After a few delicious burritos, we rocked up early to catch locals Nuclear Summer. Their sound was similar to La Dispute in a way, however they took it to a much heavier end result with the singer at times employing an almost metal growl.

I raved about them after seeing them play Burst City a few weeks back, but I was more swept away this time, due to the much better PA of the Zoo. By far my favourite of the opening bands of the gig.


Fires of Waco came in next, showing why they are one of Brisbane's most talked about up-and-coming bands.


They played a fast melodic punk, which all of the scene kids got into. There was lots of dancing and even more sing-alongs with the microphone in the audience. Their stature is growing quite rapidly as a great live band, probably as they have one of the best drummers you'll find in Brisbane:


They finished off their set with a sublime cover of At the Drive-In's One Armed Scissor, getting the crowd nicely warmed up.

The final opening band was To The North, also from brisbane. It was because of them and their friendship with La Dispute that this tour happened. Unfortunately though, they were unable to connect to the crowd. They played a style of punky math-rock but the whole time the crowd seemed rather uninterested and you could hear the talking over the music.

I didn't manage to get any pictures as the crowd was swelling at the front of the stage in anticipation for La Dispute.

There was already a bit of bumping and shoving at the front of the stage when before they came out but it turned into an excited crowd singing and dancing when the music kicked in.

They met every expectation of mine. Although they only played a short set (about 7 songs in under 40 minutes), there was an energy and enthusiasm there that just radiated over everyone. They were truly thankful and excited to be there. Maybe less so when some of the asshole crowdsurfers kept trying to hug the lead singer and steal the microphone.

Sidenote: I'd like to congratulate 95% of the crowdsurfers on their behaviour. Most of them when landing on stage would just walk themselves directly off. That is good form. It's the other 5% that were idiots.


They played songs from their album and both of the amazing songs from their split with Touche Amore (How I Feel and Why it Scares Me). A notable omission from their setlist was the opening track to their album, Such Small Hands. I was non-fussed by this, as I consider it an intro track, but a fair percentage of the crowd (including a few of my mates) went along purely to see this song.

The set didn't seem long enough, but luckily La Dispute decided to do an encore of the song The Last Lost Continent. 12 minutes of pure emotional music. A great way to finish the set.


Do yourself a favour, go this afternoon to see these guys play Burst City. There are a few remaining tickets left at the door. I think in this smaller intimate venue they will truly shine.

Top Shelf Hardcore

It speaks abounds to the quality of some of Australia's hardcore bands, when they are ticketed above a great American band. But check out this poster for what will be a great tour:


Perth's Miles Away, above Defeater?! Huh. Random. But if you love your hardcore music to be more than just mosh breakdowns with stupid fashion and silly dancers, go to this. Featuring Defeater from the USA, Miles Away from Perth and our own rapidly-rising Fires of Waco (who have an incredible drummer and a new album getting ready to blow our minds away).

April 8, the Fort. AA
April 9, Rosies. 18+

Defeater
Miles Away
Fires of Waco

Local music day!

On Saturday I went to a superb local fundraising gig (I may even call it a mini festival) at Burst City full of local bands. And it just reminded me of how good the music in Brisbane is. I know I go on and on about it, but we have always had a great music scene. Like it or not, great bands have come from this city. Bands such as Powderfinger, the Go Betweens, Custard, the Saints, Regurgitator, Savage Garden, Wolfmother and tonnes more have all started within our city's confines, probably in the Valley. So I'm dedicating today to be Brisbane music day! Where I celebrate all things good about Brisbane music.

To kick things off, here's a highlight video of the benefit gig from the weekend:

More local All Ages Hardcore shows!

So it seems that Burst City may now be the place to go for all ages shows. Sure, it hasn't had as many big bands as the Fort, but it's getting more and more of the local stuff, which can be just as good. Case in point:

I've waxed lyrical on at least one of these bands before, Marathon. I really dig their new EP and they are a bunch of great guys. They play in a style similar to Cursed and seem to be playing any hardcore show I've been at this year.

Fires of Waco and Headaches are two newer locals that are starting to get their names heard a bit. Fires of Waco have a more of a post-rock sound (think old At the Drive-In or the Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower) while Headaches have spawned from the band that was the Gifthorse.

The one band that I've heard so much about but have never seen is Dick Nasty. I've been wanting to catch these guys for years, given the way they are spoken about and revered on 4ZZZ. They've apparently been kicking around Brisbane for years, playing a sublime mix of hardcore punk. So I guess this show will finally be the excuse I need to get off my ass and listen to them.