Arrows

So many of my friends are obsessed with Arrows.

I can understand why. If you're into that noodly style 90's emo stuff that is having a popularity resurgence right now you would dig Arrows too. What makes it better is they are a band (mainly) from Brisbane. My roomate even works with one of the dudes. I keep saying it, but we do have some of the best music in the country right in our city.

I saw them once, in Melbourne of all places, opening for This Town Needs Guns. A perfect combination for a perfect noodly concert. They are a very hard bunch to catch live, as they don't play a lot of shows. However, we're going to get our second Arrows show in the last few months very soon.

October 1st, at Thriller. This will be my first time heading to Thriller since they moved from Rosies. It's now halfway between the Valley and the city at Hotel Orient. I'm hoping this venue is better than Rosies was for quieter bands. During Frank Turner all I could really hear was the music from the dance floor one room over.

Opening for Arrows is the always wonderful Jamie Hay. A former hardcore singer, he now does his own style of acoustic folk rock. But which former hardcore singer doesn't do that these days?

Arrows (with free MP3s)
Jamie Hay

Review: Title Fight/Touche Amore/Break Even/Headaches, Old Museum, September 8 2011

The Old Museum. Is there a stranger place for a hardcore show? For what could possibly be the best hardcore/punk show of the year? There probably is, but I can't think of any more odd than a 120 year old heritage building that used to hold a museum and is used mainly for orchestral stuff now.

That being said, it was a bloody nice and big venue inside. A huge stage, great lighting a more than adequate PA and lots of space in front of the stage. The problem was, being the kind of building it is, they took the "no moshing" rule to an extreme. Throughout the course of the night we were repeatedly warned that if one person stage dived or got out of control, the show would be over immediately.

Locals Headaches were up first and played to a fairly big crowd (of people wearing mainly La Dispute shirts). They were solid as always, but played only about a 20 minute set.

Break Even are the Australian band doing the whole tour with the Americans. They put on a solid set with the crowd really getting worked up and into it.

The crowd participation was closely scrutinised by the security on the stage. If it looked like one person was even close to getting out of control, they bore down on them like a hawk. At one point, someone jumped up to sing along and grabbed the lead singer's shirt. He was ejected quickly.

The guitarist from Fires of Waco was standing in front of me in the crowd and Break Even passed the microphone down to him to sing a song. The security didn't like that either. They kept trying to grab it back out of hands, despite the band reassuring him it was okay.

Touche Amore was the band I was really excited for. Their unique style of hardcore lends so well to a live setting and they just blew everyone away.

The set was quite heavy with songs from their latest album Parting the Sea Between the Brightness and Me, which I managed to pick up a special Australian tour 12" press of at the show for $20. In fact, all their merch was $20. Good on them!

The crowd was very well behaved following the repeated warnings by people before and during the set. But then again, they didn't need to get on stage to get involved, because the lead singer kept coming down to the crowd for sing alongs.

It was great to watch from the side of the stage. If you turned away from watching the band at any point and saw me, you would've seen a guy holding a camera and screaming along to the lyrics while pumping his hands in the air and occasionally taking a photo. To say I enjoyed it was an understatement.

Everyone cleared out after Touche Amore. I honestly thought they wouldn't come back for Title Fight, but as the guitar started swelling up, you could see everyone running back in. I don't know much about this band having only listened to their album Shed once or twice, but they were goddamn enjoyable live. Their punk/hardcore/orgcore style was great fun and led to a lot of guitar jumps. A lot.

I was standing next to another photographer on the side of the stage and we kept having competitions to see who could get the better guitar jump on film. It was a tough contest, but I like to think we both won, by just watching this band.

By the time they announced their last song, you could tell that things were about to get hectic. The crowd had been fairly well behaved but they were itching to really get into the music. Apparently Title Fight are always about stage dives.

When they started playing YoureYeah everyone started bumrushing the stage. People started jumping into the crowd and moshing like crazy. Security tried to stop them and it got quite physical. One of the "volunteers" (not one of the security guards) picked up a kid and tried to throw him off the stage to get him out of the way. The band manager did not take kind to this and tackled this volunteer. Right in front of me. The volunteer looked so scared and took off running.

Needless to say, halfway through the song the power was cut and all you could hear was the drums. The bass player threw down his guitar in disgust and the show was over.

I tried to get some photos of it at this point, but my flash ran out of batteries and it was dark. Of course it would happen at this point.

I have no anger towards the security at this gig. They did their job well. Moshing and stage dives were banned and they enforced it well. The crowd went along with it fine too. It was actually a job well done by all to keep a hardcore show in quite good check. My beef goes to the organiser. Why choose this venue? You know that the crowd was going to behave exactly like it did. And you know the venue bans it. So why have the show there? We were actually just lucky that everyone was so well behaved and the gig went as long as it did.

Still, a great night all around. So happy to photograph it. You can view the full gallery over at AltMusicHub.

Blog Update

Apologies readers. I've been a bit slack lately with blog updates. As I'm sure you're aware, I've started taking concert photos more often for more than just shits and giggles. The result of this taking up a whole bunch of my free time, coupled with work, travelling for work, girlfriend and napping has seen me not update as often as I would like.

It's not that I don't want to. I have a "To Blog" list in my email drafts box that's huge. It'll get done soon. I promise. I'll still bring you all the concert announcements. They won't be within 2 minutes of the announcement, like other music blogs, but I'll put them up in plenty of time. I'll still post all the rants, mix CDs, photos, reviews and other goodies whenever I get a chance too. Especially Free Music Friday. I love that.

So no, I haven't forgotten about you. It's just I get to go places now and take photos of people playing instruments. And jumping. While playing instruments.

Stay tuned this week. I'll be pumping through my "To Blog" list. Which will hopefully also include some web page improvements all around.

Meanwhile, enjoy my recent galleries for AltMusicHub.

Title Fight/Touche Amore/Break Even/Headaches, Old Museum, September 8 2011
Man Overboard/I Am Villain, The Globe, September 3 2011
Jim Ward/Jud Campbell, Alhambra, August 13 2011
The Get Up Kids/City Riots/We Set Sail, August 5 2011
Periphery/Tesseract/Iron Hide, July 29 2011

The Arena: a tribute

Last night's Teenage Bottlerocket and Frenzal Rhomb gig was a blast from the past. Not because of Frenzal Rhomb (although they did play a plethora of really old songs) but it was because it was the first time the Arena has played host to a concert in years.

Ahh, the Arena. For 5 years it was a second home for me. One of the first shows I ever saw after moving back to Australia was Cypress Hill there. Inside the painted black walls with the sticky floor and the slightly dive-bar atmosphere, it just seemed right that everyone would light up joints right in front of security. Because that is the beauty of the Arena, no matter the band, they never seemed out of place. Over the years I saw indie, hip-hop, metal, punk... I pretty much was able to satisfy all my musical desires in the one venue.

Walking back through the thick red doors last night, it all came flooding back to me. I felt bad for Michael, my friend who was with me, as he moved up from Adelaide after the venue shut. As such, he had to listen to me ramble as I strolled down memory lane. I had to explain to him about the low ceiling in the men's toilet, and how the air conditioning vent at one corner meant you had to limbo to get to the urinal. About the dancer's cage on the second floor that used to be able to hold people, but would probably collapse now. The beauty of having bars both upstairs and downstairs and how they would only open the upstairs ones during all-ages shows. The two giant poles in front of the stage, right in the mosh where you don't want to get pinned to it. The couches hidden at the back and the even more secret back room on the second floor, full of couches and away from the noise.

But you can't blame me for this old-man reminiscing. I've seen so many good shows at the Arena that for a person like me, with such a religious-like link to music, it is my temple. I still can't forget when the Norma Jean lead singer climbed up to hang off the roof in their final song (Memphis May Burn maybe?).

Or the first time I saw Rise Against. I lost my belt in the mosh, then my pants, but I stayed up the front singing along to their acoustic cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I was probably the only person in the crowd who knew the song.

Or the very first time I saw Frenzal Rhomb and was in fact pinned up against the pole on the left side of the stage.

Or the very first time I saw NOFX. Phil got knocked out in the first song, but I had my shirt torn off me by the third song by a violent mosher and the rest of the night was a blur of a minor concussion.

Or the entire crowd singing Sink Florida Sink while impatiently waiting for Against Me to get on stage.

Or how the dickhead Frenzal Rhomb crowd kept spitting on the Lawrence Arms to get them off stage so Frenzal could play.

Or the epic 3 hour Mars Volta set (no opening act) with one of the first times they ever played the song Frances the Mute live.

Or when the firehose got pulled out during Less than Jake and sprayed all over the crowd and stage, shorting out the equipment.

Or when Moneen joined Alexisonfire on stage to sing Accidents together. After that song I lost Phil, only to find him walking the streets of the valley wearing only a single sock.

And especially who can forget the Parkway Drive show. The one that supposedly sounded the death of the Arena and the changing of the all-ages licensing laws in Queensland, seeing the demise of all-ages shows in licensed venues. The riot police, the fire alarms, the little kids going crazy and apparently the fire lit in the venue that started it all.

After that night, the venue was doomed to shut down. A few months later Frenzal Rhomb played the last show there. It then became an R & B nightclub. Oh how my heart ached at the misuse of the venue! All the shows that would normally play there got moved to the HiFi. The HiFi, don't get me wrong, is a lovely venue. It's just too nice. It lacks the gritty character and even to this day, after the amazing shows I've seen there, it still doesn't seem to have a connection with me. It's a great venue, but it has no soul or spiritual signifigance to me. It's just a venue.

I hope now the Arena comes back in some form. Walking through the doors last night you could tell things had changed. The walls had satin material. The dance floor had been relaid. The toilets fixed (and a bloody odd mirror placed directly above the urinal). The couches were nice and new. There were plants inside! The bar fixed. New lighting! Most importantly, a working air conditioning system. But under that slight face lift, it was still the Arena I know and love. That little bit of botox and cosmetic work could not hide what the venue truly is. As I moshed along to Teenage Bottlerocket, continuously slipping on the floor, I couldn't help but smile. The old girl, she's back.

Cancelled: Monster Magnet

I was really looking forward to this gig next week: Monster Magnet playing their great album Dopes to Inifinity in full! But nope, it's been canned. Here's the statement:

A number of circumstances have conspired to form the perfect storm and we are disappointed that this planned tour has been a casualty. The Monster Magnet “Dopes” tour will visit Australia at a more appropriate time. We appreciate
your continued support.

Considering they were out here in February, maybe ticket sales weren't as good as they had hoped? It's sad the amount of international tours getting cancelled in the last year or so. It breaks my heart.

Refunds available from the point of purchase.

A musical tribute to god

When I say god, it's obvious I mean the god of Australian music, Mr Nick Cave.

I'm pretty sure if there were some sort of statistics about the song most people commit suicide to in Australia, this would be number one. Heck, it even featured in He Died With A Felafel in His Hand as the suicide scene.

He's been one of our country's best performing artists for almost 40 years, across everything from his early post-punk music, his sad singer-songwriter stuff, his movies, his books and even some gospel and pop music. This man is good at everything he tries. Right now he's kicking ass with the garage rock band Grinderman.

It's good to see that I'm not the only person that thinks this, as Triple J are putting on a Nick Cave tribute concert to celebrate his career. The artists performing in the tribute includes:

Abbe May
Adalita
Alex Burnett (Sparkadia)
Ben Corbett (SixFtHick)
Bertie Blackman
Dan Sultan
Jake Stone (Bluejuice)
Johnny Mackay (Children Collide)
Kram (Spiderbait)
Lanie Lane
Lisa Mitchell
Muscles
Tim Rogers (You Am I)
Urthboy (The Herd)

I'd pay money to see a lot of those performs together, but with the musical catalogue that is Nick Cave's entire career? This will be one spectacular night.

November 20, the Tivoli.

One sentence album reviews (#17)

After some constructive criticism over drinks this weekend about my Twitter reviews, there may be a change soon. But for now, here's the ones I've posted recently:

The Vines - Future Primitive (2011): It's been 11 years since they were hailed the future of rock and they still sound the same: Whiny. 2/5 

The Weeknd - House of Balloons (2011): a modern RnB album with a lot of dub/electro overtones. Great rainy day  or laid-back romance music 4.7/5

William Elliot Whitmore - The Death Valley Sessions (2003): Sounds like Woody Guthrie soundtracking O brother Where Art Thou in an open field 5/5

The Wonder Years - Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing (2011): A pop-punk album with a theme. The songs show depth not known to the genre and aren't generic or whiny. 4.5/5

Noah and the Whale-Last Night On Earth (2011): He seems to be much happier than his last album and thus migrated to radio friendly rock 3.6/5

Wugazi - 13 Chambers (2011): It's Wu-Tang songs mixed with Fugazi songs. This does not need a description to why it's amazing 4.4/5

The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once (2011): At stages sounds like AFI, The National and Titus Andronicus. A bit confused, but well rounded indie 4/5

Big D & The Kids Table - The Damned, the Dumb & the Delirious (2011): An album where they finally balance their ska-punk & dub-reggae sides 4/5

Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra (2011): The musical trip down nostalgia lane is quite excellent... until Fred opens his mouth. Worst. Lyrics. Ever 3/5

Junior Battles - Idle Age (2011): yet another Canadian band that sounds similar to Billy Talent, but a hell of a lot more pop-punk! 3.9/5

Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud (2011): an indie album that sounds dangerously like a 90's pop album 3.7/5

August Burns Red - Leveler (2011): a rare "metalcore" album that is composed of more than just breakdowns and screaming for no sake 3.8/5

Algernon Cadwallader - Parrot Flies (2011): fairly lo-fi midwestern emo album. The lo-fi makes it more raw and shows more emotion 3.4/5

Cake - Showroom Of Compassion (2011): Without the wit and comedy of their old stuff, it just sounds like a poor man's Presidents of the USA 3/5

Departures - When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted (2011): dark and dirty hardcore that just attacks you with raw emotion 4/5

Sublime With Rome - Yours Truly (2011): He has a voice like Brad, but not the lyrical ability or background to write the gritty songs 1.5/5

Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs (2011): Ukulele = happy. Eddie Vedder = sad songs. Ukulele + Eddie = a surprisingly odd yet enjoyable serious album 3.8/5

Dead By April - Stronger (2011): An album that sounds like a really shitty techno synthesiser collided with a real crappy metal band 1/5

Farewell To Freeway - Filthy Habits (2011): Alright metalcore, which doesn't have one hint of synthesizer or auto-tune (bonus point!) 3/5

The Fresh & Onlys - Play it Strange (2010): I kept thinking I'd picked up a 1960s garage rock vinyl from a thrift shop 3.3/5

Haram - Drescher (2007): Another good album from the old school of post-hardcore, but with a bit more of a jangly guitar element 3.8/5

Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (2008): a 2 hour trip through a shoegaze, garage rock & ambient landscape that I want to do again 4.7/5

Hold Tight! - Can't Take This Away (2011): A nice DIY styled pop-punk/orgcore band; takes me back to the good old days of late 90s punk 4.2/5

The Hotel Year - It Never Goes Out (2011): This is shaping up to be the year pop-punk gets good again, thanks to great albums like this 4.6/5

Joyce Manor - ST (2011): Quirky and fun orgcore/pop punk. Fun to listen to. 4.4/5

Lionheart - Built on Struggle (2011): The most typical "good" hardcore album ever: breakdowns, gang vocals, catchy lyrics & short solos 3.6/5

Millionyoung - Replicants (2010): I think I finally understand what the chillwave genre is. It's this. And this is happy lofi-pop music 4/5

New Lows - Harvest Of The Carcass (2011): hardcore with a low and sludgy sound that makes you wonder if they used broken recording equipment 3.5/5

Salva - Complex Housing (2011): good dubstep album (it exists!) in that it's more of a minimalistic techno feel than just wub-rinse-repeat 3.8/5

Cancelled: The Casualties

I may be a bit slow on this, but one week out from their gig I was informed that the Casualties have cancelled their show at the HiFi. I wanted to see this, so you think I'd be sad. But, I'm not. You see, it's the same night as Touche Amore/Title Fight, which had precendence for me.

The HiFi says

ALL tickets remain valid from the 8th September postponed event for this show.  Refunds will not be accepted after Fri 16 September 5pm.

So if you want your money back, jump on it this week.

Free Music Friday 28!

What happens when the guitarist of the Gaslight Anthem (the greatest modern working-class punk band with huge shades of Bruce Springsteen et al) gets together with his friends?

Something you were never expecting happens. You get a sludgy hardcore album. Ever since I first heard the band Dangers (at which point I decided to make a blog, name it after them and spread the love of their awesomeness) I've been in love with this style of hardcore. Taking a lot of credit from metal and grindcore, they keep it really low and deep, fast, slightly depressing and full of anger.

This is the kind of band that Something About Death or Dying are. It's glorious to me. Maybe not to all of you.

They have an EP out which you can get for a small donation at their Bandcamp page. Or if you look hard, you can see there is a link for the free copy nestled in their too.

I'm not going to lie, I think I like this more than the Gaslight Anthem.

Jim Ward, August 13 2011

My photos from the Jim Ward gig are finally up online at AltMusicHub. Check them out.

It was a great night. I fan-boied so much over seeing Jim. At the Drive-In and Sparta where such big bands to me when I was younger and his solo stuff is just amazing. Being able to stand less than a metre from him and be allowed to take photographs was a privelage.

Unfortunately, Alhambra is a moody nightclub, and it shows in the pictures. There was only one stage light, from the right hand side and the mirror behind him made it difficult, but I think I still got some good ones in there. The picture above is my favourite, because the lights above the bar can just be viewed and it looks almost mystical.