A short and sweet Elbow Review: Saturday, 24th March 2012, The Tivoli.

I want to just briefly post about my last Elbow gig in March, as I've already reviewed them, and this performance was essentially song-for-song identical as the Enmore gig I first reviewed. Regardless, there are things to be said about this performance, and while I'm in danger of sounding like an obsessed and crazed band groupie, I have to tell you how good they were. 
I only caught the tail end of Bombay Bicycle Club, as gig buddy and I decided that the jazz band at Black Bear Lodge were good enough to sit through most of during pre-drinks. A little bit of research tells me they were the Low Down Jazz Quintet. They were really quite entertaining and their smooth sounds, coupled with the rustic feel of Black Bear, with corner tables and real candles, overlooking a bustling city, made me feel like I was in some 1950's lounge bar in New York. I also now want to be the singer of a jazz band. 

Anyway, Elbow. Oh Elbow. I was really excited to see them for the third time, and despite not trailing off the same setlist as last year's, they did not disappoint in the slightest. Frontman Guy Garvey was all charm as usual, perhaps telling the same stories as usual but with fresh spark and excitement to be there, and keeping us all amused. He also gave annoying hecklers (we heard you yell 'MANCHESTERRRR!' the first time) what for, not being afraid to tell them to shut the hell up. 
The weird thing about me and Elbow is I actually dearly love their earlier albums (especially 'Asleep In the Back', one of my favourite albums of all time), over their newer ones, while I do love them also. Over the past few years, none of these songs are touched on in favour of Mercury prize winning 'Seldom Seen Kid', and latest 'Build a Rocket Boys'. Remember, I love these albums as well, both are stunning pieces of work, they just lack the darker, more mysteriously complex and brooding side of Elbow that their first ones contain. Basically, Elbow are much happier lads these days and it shows. But what really helped me have the  ultimate best time at this concert, was that I am a much happier lady these days, and I can actually relate to the jovial, schmaltzier stuff that they are all about in their live show. It's of course not all love stories and 'today is grand!' moments, and those sweetly melancholic songs they go back to e.g. "The Night Will Always Win", and "Puncture Repair", are enough to bring a little moisture to the eyes. So ending on the uplifting "One Day Like This", is a necessary move, because it ensures their audience leaves with an ultimate high and smile on their face, and that they reflect on the night as a performance to remember.
I haven't even mentioned how GOOD the band is, how precise and delicate and moving their musical performance is, and how fucking emotive and delighting Guy's voice is. It's this, combined with their obvious love of performing, which completely gets me, and even if I'd probably die of joy if they played "Newborn" or "Asleep in the Back" from their debut, I'm still enamoured by their performance every damn time. They're not hip hop or indie rock or ambient-electronic aficionados go-to band by any means, but dammit they're probably the best live band I've ever seen and should be rewarded as such.
Anyway, here are some piccies!

'Mirrorball'. Schmaltz.

oh heavens.

'Weather to Fly'. Still much better than on record.

probably some audience participation bizo or whatev

If you love Australia so much why don't you marry it.

9... and a half... armpits out of 10. 

Bon Iver (with Sally Seltmann), The Tivoli, Friday 16th of March

Riding well off the back of his recent grammy win, in which even One Direction fans want to know who Bonny Bear is, Bon Iver came to Brisbane for a rare three (3) shows, to appease all the new and old fans that have multiplied tenfold in the last year. The shows were announced way back in December last year, at which time I was pretty excited, until Justin Vernon and co.'s 'flavour of the month' status overshadowed everything else.
It was easy to get back into excitement mode when a Thursday night concert goer friend raved about how great he was, and also went and met him not a kilometer from where I was doing nothing in my house. DAMMIT!

Old Sal

My gig buddy tonight was my dear brother who had joined in on the Bonny bandwagon around the same time I had. We rocked up in time to see New Buff... I mean Sally Seltmann. I could be biased, but Sally didn't have quite the same stage presence that she did a fair few years ago under the moniker of New Buffalo. Now that she is riding off the back of female supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper, I guess the audience wasn't as excited as they would have been had SLK been onstage, and hence she played a lot of their songs. She also gave us a few new songs from her self-titled solo album, as well as a couple I recognized from her later New Buffalo repertoire. Despite the disconnect, she sounded lovely and I very much enjoyed it- her angelic voice still comes across well onstage. Sally's also definitely migrated from her days of pressing play on a backing track while singing into a microphone, as she did the first time i saw her in 2005 supporting Bright Eyes. Somehow I just remember more people being a little more transfixed by her back then.

The stage for Bon Iver was made up quite ruggedly with hessian draped around as if we were in a cabin in the woods. He's come a long way since those 'For Emma, Forever Ago' days, as he came on amid huge cheers. Everyone wants a piece of Bon Iver now, and I guess three sold out shows are testimony to that. As predicted by my brother (with a very accurate imitation of the opening chords), Justin and the band started off with the first song, "Perth" from the latest album 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver'. Live, it was a spot on, moving interpretation of the record, which is what I imagined it to be. From the quiet, building opening notes, to it's crashing crescendo, every sound filled the theatre, leading into the second song "Minnesota, WI". It was quite magnificent, and when Justin started to sing, I didn't expect it to sound quite so hauntingly beautiful. He sounded so true to recording, strong and echoey, I wondered if there were any effects going on. And even if there was it was still impressive.
The excellence went on from there and he played a wonderful selection of all the fan favourites, including "Blood Bank" off his title EP, and even "Brackett, WI" which he did for the brilliantly compiled 'Dark is the Night' compilation. 

The musicians were fantastic, and you really couldn't fault them for a second. As they left and Justin took the stage solo for "Re: Stacks", it was a delicate, gorgeous and sniffle-inducing moment. The only thing you could fault was that I realized just how similar their songs sounded and how much of a style Bon Iver have created. It is a style that is is not to everyone's taste, and can at times be in danger of getting old. In fact, there were a couple of moments where i did find my mind wandering... but to be honest that does happen at gigs, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I can think through an entire problem situation at a gig; it can be a nice place to reflect. (Unfortunately I cannot count gigs toward psychological professional development).

Old mate

Coupled with the brilliant music was the band's, and particularly Justin's, laid back manner. Despite the opportunity to be high and mighty, there is no pretension with this man, and he engaged the crowd as a genuine, down to earth fellow who could be your mate, just doing what he loves and having a good time. 


I have to mention the worst part of the show however. I became so mad about a group of metrosexual-appearing guys behind me that I wonder if i am actually getting quite senile, bitter and twisted. In addition to one of them doing the '*tap shoulder*, *look the other way*' routine to me before the performance, these guys nattered and laughed through the whole performance (because obviously Bon Iver is also a comedy group???). It reached breaking annoyance point when one of them said 'Where are we going afterwards?' and another asked 'Who is this guy again? He's good.' This happened while "Skinny Love" was being played. I was looking forward to hearing the ultimate sad times/break up/depression song transcending onstage and letting it wash over me, but I COULDN'T thanks to their giggling and chatting. I detest that feeling of someone laughing behind you; you wonder if they are laughing at you, know it's probably ridiculous, but continue to be unsettled anyway, and want to punch them all in their collective face. Instead of doing this however, I looked around and glared at them evilly. It did nothing, but I felt slightly more satisfied than if I had just stewed in my spot.


I just DON'T UNDERSTAND, if you don't know who a band is and you'd rather go pick up chixx at the Met, then why are you paying $65 to see a musician at a venue full of his fans? If you're not a fan, and are going to talk the entire time, then go away. I know this may sound hypocritical, because I did do this at Gareth Liddiard's show a year ago, but I was at the window rather than in the crowd, and he was a complete dickhead and sounded like shit. Sorry Drones fans, but not really. Bon Iver on the other hand were amazing, and I felt they were disrespecting the band by doing this. Support acts can suffer from the audience talking through their set, but that is kind of expected since people aren't there to see them, but during the main act... there is an exit. 
Now that rant is over, I feel dirty and like I should be writing to mX or A Current Affair. I just think there should be some mosh pit etiquette to follow. Why don't we list some etiquette rules now since we're in this mind funk?? No? Too bad. 


1. Don't fart. Hold it in. Go to the toilet. Don't fart. For the love of god. 
2. Keep your laughter and loud chats and stupid opinions to yourself. If you want to say a lot of things, use the text on your phone.
3. Don't lean on me, I'm not a pole, or a chair.
4. Do be expected to have your personal space ratio go out the window, and expect it to be somewhat smaller. Don't get too bothered when people accidentally touch you. Having said that, you are entitled to a bit of breathing space..
5. If you want to jump/dance/go mad, please be respectful of people who don't want elbows in their chins and their face on the floor.
5. If you want to drink, buy a couple beforehand. Don't try to go to the bar and get back to the exact same spot you were before, unless you're happy to be cursed by a lot of people. 
6. Putting your arm up in the air and pointing throughout the entire song is not only bad for your arm health but I don't want to watch/ take a photo of your arm. Feel free to point it up and down though, I can kind of work with that.
7. If you have diabetes, take your insulin. If you don't have your insulin shot, and you're about to faint, get the fuck out of the mosh pit. Don't eat my lollies out of my hand with your slimy tongue. I don't care how big of a Björk fan you are. 


I'm sure there are many rules that you, reader, could come up with and share with me. So maybe you should!!


Bonny Bear gets 8.5 "wanna be combovers and Minanite beards" out of 10.

Real Estate (with Feathers), The Zoo, Tuesday 13th March, 2012

New Jersey formed five piece, Real Estate, turned up for me kind of out of the blue for me about a year ago. They were shared to me on Dropbox, and after sitting there for a few months, became my latest new find. Soon Pitchfork were all over them like an electric blanket and they must have gained enough popularity to justify an Australian tour. So, investing wisely in a ticket (invest, real estate, geddit???!) I went to the Zoo on this Tuesday night with some rare-to-find fellow fans and got my property development happening. (this is the last bad joke.)

Supporting the band were a couple of indie-sounding-bands, and we got there early enough to catch some of Feathers. A couple of girls who look like they just discovered Warpaint and want to be their bffs, came onstage and began to commence a set of very obvious indie girl pop tunes. They were inoffensive and pleasant enough, but there was nothing really driving the music that stood out from the Tegan and Sara’s of the rest of the music world. They had similar musical stylings to that of Real Estate- summery, jangly pop vibes, but again, none of it really gelled to me- I was a wee bit bored.

They didn’t play for too long however and soon it was Real Estate time. I immediately recognised lead singer Martin Courtney’s very indie haircut (hello Dan Humphrey, the wavy dark mop may become trendy yet) which matched a lot of the audience's indie haircuts. This was a very pitchforkian occasion, but that’s the beauty of hipster gigs- everyone is one, so the wank factor goes into 'so bad it's good' territory, and you don’t notice it as much. It was clear though that everyone was here for the music, which, as they opened with "Fake Blues" from their first self titled album, was outstanding from the very beginning.

my one not shit photo.

In fact, I don’t remember a time when the Zoo sounded quite so good. The airy twang of the guitars and spacious drums were replicated perfectly, if not better than on record, and the sound enveloped the venue with such crispness. "Fake Blues" was followed by "Easy", the opener of their latest well loved album 'Days', and I found myself extremely delighted when hearing the opening chords. Martin Courtney had the quiet sensual frontman thing down with little fuss or fanfare, just pouring his soul into the words and chords. His voice was lovely and heartfelt, with that slight echoey effect which is covered all over the album tracks.

The songs churned out and each one had me bopping along even more than the one before it. Popular new ones "It's Real" and "Out of Tune" oozed sweet breezy goodness and every pulse was on the mark. 


Prior to the performance, a part of me had wondered how good this show was going to be, and if it may be one of the more boring shows of the year. WHY you ask? Well while Real Estate’s low-fi shoegazey pop is a celebrated thing right now, their music does have a very distinctive style that rarely crosses the boundary- and their second album is no great departure from their first. However, i realised just how much I enjoyed their songs as they played them, and their pristine production meant I was thoroughly, exceptionally entertained all the way through. It also says a lot about a band who can completely engage the audience not only with a catchy chorus accompanying pleasing music, but even while during their instrumental tracks, such as both incredibly melodic tracks "Kinder Blumen" and "Atlantic City" in which I found myself not even realising that there wasn't lyrics. That's what I think makes Real Estate a standout act, and why they have so much love at the moment; every instrument of their songs are tuned in perfectly with each other to collectively portray an outpour of emotion, encapsulated in every note, beat and chord. As a live band, they continue to do this effortlessly, and fed off each other like it was child's play. 


Time went relatively quickly, and before we knew it it was encore time already. At this point, the song that got me completely hooked on the band, the debut opener "Beachcomber", had not been performed, and I was not the only one waiting for it. I completely expected it to start up when they (very quickly) came back onstage, but I was sadly disappointed, and instead, the slow burning "Suburban Dogs" was chosen from the same album. I couldn't help but miss "Beachcomber", but their chosen song still left us in a quietly content, contemplative mood, as we slowly emptied from the Zoo. 
The greatest part of this gig was how much it made me appreciate their music more. I now have to stop myself from listening too much to both albums , as I have finally found a replacement for 'Watch The Throne' which is in now danger of being burnt out. I'm happy Real Estate exist and look to be not one of those 'so hot right now' indie darlings that burst onto the scene and then disappear, but a brilliant established band, that deserves its praise and a long progressive career. Well done indie kids!

9 tenancy agreements out of 10. (Sorry, I mean to say that was the second last bad joke.)