2012 Gigs: Too Many To Blog (A LIST)

If you're about to start uni and need something to procrastinate with during lectures or study etc. then this is the post for you! It is long, with lots of hopefully not boring anecdotes, about the gigs that occurred in 2012 that I have not blogged for you, and would like to just snapshot for you, now, here, today. It's one omission is Radiohead, which deserves its own post, and maybe a gif of me kissing Thom Yorke's lazy eye repeatedly in gratitude and fanatical obsession. But here it is, all the gigs I saw last year for your reading pleasure, plus some other experiences of note. It was a pretty amazing year for gigs, I have to say, and I am very appreciative of being able to see the cream of the crop. 2013 is shaping up to contain some memorable moments as well, and I hope I can get to as many as possible. No longer sharehousing however = not as many dollars in my pockets. But we'll see. Here's to a late but hopefully great list!

Ashley Naylor of Even

Even and the Fauves, The Zoo, Saturday 7th of July

The Fauves

I was a tired and cranky bitch for this gig, but had paid my money and was going to see all the bands. The Fauves and Even are both Melbourne bands who are still kicking along since their mid to late 90's heyday, in which I was a young radio listening fan. How good that they would tour together at the Zoo for my reminiscent pleasure! The Fauves were the opener, and played an extremely energetic, solid set. There were none of their slightly gimmicky pop song favourites such as "Dogs Are the Best People", "Bigger than Tina" or "Surf City Limits", that I remembered best. This was probably not a shame really, as it gave way for their more impressive creative and heavier moments. "Celebrate the Failure" and "The Charles Atlas Way" was thrown in for Triple J friendly measure. Even was next, and their lead singer Ashley Naylor won the crowd with his enthusiasm and charming nature, playing just as solidly as the Fauves. While I was pleased to hear tokens "Black Umbrella" and "Shining Star", I was pretty enthralled with the whole thing, as they bring that slightly Beatles-ish catch to all their songs, and remind you what a good asset to Australian music history they are. People need to remember these bands more! It should have been a sold out show that night, and wasn't.

Bright young chaps.

Herman's Hermits, Sherwood RSL, Sunday 2nd September (Father's Day!) 

It's not often you get to see a 1960's British pop group for $33 in the comfort of your parent's local RSL. But I did, father's day 2012, after completing the Bridge to Brisbane 5km run in 31 minutes 57 seconds (1 second longer than the year previous), and feasting on Sherwood RSL's fathers day buffet. This also happened after we had the world's oldest and worst jokes told to us by some old bloke as pre-show entertainment. During his jokes,I went through the wrong door for the bathroom, and promptly bumped into a Hermit, who looked a bit stunned and pointed me the right way. We learnt that they weren't really the original band, in fact only one of the musicians were there from the beginning (Barry Whitwam), but that didn't spoil the music, which was very well executed in such a weird setting. I also may have got a shout out when one of the band members said "A young lady walked into our dressing room earlier- but we haven't had groupies for years!" ... Oh god. They performed, smiling and blissed out to be there, not phased by the dining room venue, 4.15pm commencement time, and upper middle class aging audience, minus me and some hangers on. They did so many songs I recognised without having realised they were them, as well as a few cover medleys of songs around their time. The show became a really nice history lesson on the 60's, as well as a realisation that there were other bands besides all the The's - Beatles, Kinks, Who and Stones... and these guys were in the forefront. Well worth it. Also if you need a cheap drink and don't care where you are, RSL's are the shit, especially if your dad is a member.

Dexy's: Runnin'.

 Harvest Festival (Sunday 18th November, Brisbane Botanic Gardens)

John McCrea: Champion of the world

2012's Harvest weekend will always go down in history as a hugely memorable day, for many reasons. I'd just moved in with my boyfriend Tiptoes, in a beautiful house in Bardon (whee!), my friend was staying with us for the weekend amongst our moving of shit, and the weather was abso-fucking-lutely raging in freak hailstorm season. We all went along with tired but high spirits, and caught some of the best of what was on offer. Dexy's Midnight Runners were so cheesy it was sickening, but were clearly having a good time, and everyone danced to "Come On Eileen" no matter who or where they were. Dandy Warhols oddly didn't really suit the festival vibe as I expected, and choosing to play slowburners like "Good Morning" and "Godless" (while favourites of mine) probably didn't help get the crowd going. I still enjoyed them because I always will, but my group was bored. Liars were kind of weird and dark and brooding and slow, and I wasn't too enthralled, but may have been in a different context. Cake was fun and solid while they opened with "Frank Sinatra" and played "Never There" and ended with the "Distance". Lead singer John McCrea however ruined the fun by shouting at us all sorts of political statements more relevant to the US than here, during and in between songs. After I'd secured a great spot for Ben Folds Five, it was announced we were all to evacuate due to a hail storm and the entire festival found shelter at the QUT grounds, while bits of ice thundered down upon us. It felt apocalyptically weird! Only about an hour or so was lost however, and the show went on, except that I had to miss bits of both Ben Folds Five and Beck due to the new timing. 

Ben Folds Five

BFF were great, I have to say, although having seen Ben enough times solo, my focus was on drummer Darren and bassist Robert, who are fantastic musicians. It was amazing to share the experience with another once (or still) obsessed fan too, and to sing along with old favourites. But I had to scurry over to Beck, who was SO much fun. He played a weird amazing group of songs, lots from later albums 'Guero' 'The Information' and 'Modern Guilt', but also some gems from 'Seachange', and 'Odelay' favourites "Hotwax" (omg!), "Devils Haircut" and "Where It's At". Tiptoes and I danced our little hearts out. Beck had a weird, lazy, fun presence, so much better than his disappointing sickly presence at V festival in 2006 when last I'd saw him. 
The show wasn't over though, even though I was ready to go home, and we caught a captivating set of gorgeous melodies from Grizzly Bear, a bit of Crazy P, and most of Santigold's energetic, dancetastic set, which made me fall a bit in love with her. Then we walked around for half an hour to get a cab and collapsed forever. Another great year Harvest! Please be as promising this year.  

J Spaceman: photo by captainsdead.com

Spiritualized, Hi Fi Bar, Tuesday 4th December

This show crept up on me, on an exhausting day involving a massive heatwave, and I wasn't sure how I was going to enjoy it in the state I was in. Luckily it was the perfect kind of gig for such a mood. At a low capacity Hi Fi, Jason "J Spaceman" Pierce, was seated comfortably at his piano and/or guitar, with his other sombre band members astride, and a couple of backing singing ladies, supported by a projection of all sorts of Windows Screensaver-esque visuals. Together with the music, this set up created a very soothing, moving experience, gently rocking me into a peaceful state. Jason's voice was not much stronger than on the latest record (see my previous entry!), but it was forgiven as you contemplate what the dude has been through... years of drug and alcohol abuse, becoming critically ill with pneumonia (he stopped breathing twice) in 2005, and now being diagnosed with liver cancer and going through chemotherapy... a weaker voice seems fitting. Regardless, his presence and musical energy was strong, and the songs flowed freely. The sound grew better with the gig (or my ears adjusted?), from the seemingly distorted first song, "Here It Comes", on to a selection mostly from 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' and the latest 'Sweet Heart, Sweet Light'. I enjoyed every moment, my highlight being the tug-at-heartstrings title track to 'Ladies and Gentleman', an ode to either drugs or love... transcribed oddly, but well to the live experience. 

Grimes + Dancers

Grimes, The Zoo, Friday 8th December

I have never seen so many young girls with hairs in high bunches, untweezed eyebrows, and bindies all over their forehead. Grimes played her hotly anticipated show at the Zoo, and i got to see what all the fuss was about... well I already knew, her album Visions is an exquisitely catchy piece of music, and worth the 40+ dollars. I was there with my sister and her friends, her first 18+ show since turning said age, which was to me an exciting achievement. I've never felt as old as i did this night, not only surrounded by teenagers I knew but those I did not. Since when did they get so damn cool? Why wasn't I that cool? What do you talk about with them these days? Ahh, youths. Anyway Lady Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) performed like the giddy school girls who adore her, giggly, bashful and babbling, and chuffed as anything to be there, flanked by dancers sharing her craziness. I couldn't understand a word she said or sang but the music was replicated wonderfully, and I felt like one of the kids in Skins for a few seconds if I tried not to remember what I looked like or who I was.

Devo: photo by Cam Ball

Simple Minds, Devo, The Church, The Models, Sirromet Winery, Sunday 9th December
(this was a loooooong week.)

The Church: photo by Cam Ball

I didn't think I would want to ever listen to Whip It again, due to having to sing it through, twice, at work, by a well meaning but mortifying team leader.... But once Devo came round at Sirromet, I was keen to see them in their ageing glory. We were a bit late for the event (yeah that was my fault) and had an awkward spot on the hill, but got to experience everything quite easily nonetheless. I only recognized a few songs by the Models, who seemed to play well but I did find to be a slight bore. The Church were more entertaining, playing strongly and replicating their hits with the passion of a younger band. It may just be that I'm a bigger fan though, as their presence really wasn't as strong as Devo's, who pretty much obliterated the festival, with costumes, video art, dance moves, and pure energy bouncing off the hills. As my family (naturally) agreed, lyrics were never their strong point, but goddamn Devo were, and still are, a fun band, without being the type of annoying that fun bands are resigned to these days. After expected classics such as "Girl U Want" "Whip It" (of course), and "Mongoloid", they ended on an extended version of "It's A Beautiful World" (or so it felt), with that weird baby faced masked boy thing singing the words. It was odd that Simple Minds closed, as they were by far inferior, with the lead singer hardly singing his words (leaving it to the crowd which is always a mistake), and the bands performance being solid but hardly excitable. It's hard to top the excitement of Devo, and after Simple Minds' signature "Don't You (Forget About Me)" we left to get a head start home.


OTHER THINGS I SAW

I went to Rockwiz for the.. third?? time, on Friday the 21st of September at the Convention Centre, which was of course laughs and music and the usual shebang. Bob Evans, Tex Perkins, Joe Camilleri, Vika, Linda, Marcia, even the guy from Even (Ashley). One day, one day.. I'll put my hand up to be a contestant on one of their tours. I could do it, I reckon, until they start asking about Dragon or Jo Jo Zep or even the Beegees... Hmm on second thoughts, I'm still too shy.

Exit? Yes please

I got practically dragged to Stereosonic on the 2nd of December thanks to a friend who works for a will-not-be-named company who gets free tickets to events so that she can check on music distribution licences (in a nutshell?). At the time I was like, a free ticket, why not! But as the day approached and I was unwell, it was the last place I wanted to be. I tried to enjoy myself during some of the dj sets (being most of the 'shows' on offer), but my god was it difficult to enjoy the same shitty, repetitive, blasting music shoved in my ears all day. Luckily my friend wasn't too fussed either, otherwise I would have been the worst company imaginable. Calvin Harris wasn't terrible, but I can kind of appreciate some of his things. Everything else was boring. I was gone before Major Lazer came out, which was probably the only thing that I would have really wanted to see. At least I can say I've been to a really shit music festival that the masses think is excellent.

Casey and Eric

Finally TIM AND ERIC came to the Tivoli on the 4th of October and it was a wonderful time. It wasn't what I expected however... sketches that we kinda had seen before (involving Casey Tatum, Spaghett!, and the Beaver Boys), interspersed with projections of favourite sketches, which the audience got to choose based on the loudness of cheering/clapping. It also seemed like a legit measure! The entire segments of "Just 3 Boys" was also shown to the audience via videoscreen. I thought using video footage was a bit of an easy move and not what we paid money for, but it was fun to watch as a group of fans of this fucked up show, and I will say there was some very interesting looking people in the crowd who will vouch for that. Also, an opening song consisting only of the words "Diarrhea", finishing tribute to Australia, and an encore involving a quiz of the show between 3 audience couples, made it all quite memorable. Also DJ DouggPound had some awesomely terrible opening jokes to kick it off. Follow him on twitter, now. Now Doug get off the track! STICK A FORK IN ME I'M DONE!

Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Rockwiz et al, Byron Bay Bluesfest, Monday 25th April, 2011

Here I was, yet another concert experience with my parents. This one was a little different; being a festival experience. How was I going to handle the idiosyncracies of my family at a festival? How were they going to handle the idiosyncracies of a festival?? We were there also to celebrate my uncle's 50th, so what better way than with a historical musical assortment?

We began by checking out the RockWiz show, my mum's favourite thing in the whole world, which of course my siblings refer to with disgust (luckily, absent) because as if you could enjoy something your mum likes?? I tried to get said mum to compete as a contestant, as Brian Nankervis was finishing up recruiting as we got to the stage, but to no avail. Half of me wished I had the guts to put my hand up, but the other half knows that my reaction time plus limited knowledge of anything I'm not a fan of, would make me look a right fool. So on with the show, and Nankervis entertainingly got the 18 selected people up for a few rounds of the game, so that the 4 best could be determined for the show. This was a bit of fun, and some of the personalities of the people up there were quite colourful, including a bubbly young girl in her 20's (or younger) who managed to make it through, and a young strapping hippy fellow, determined to throw as many corny pick up lines to her rockwiz highness Julia Zemiro, as possible. Julia is even dishier in real life as she is onscreen, (that picture is awful) and her charisma even bigger. It was very obvious that she's done this for so many years and things were pretty heightened and over the top, but to be 'on' for such a long period of time has got to be hard, and she does it well. She also handled sleazy hippy guy without batting an eyelid.

The incredibly charismatic and entertaining Henry Wagons, and put-out looking Kate Miller-Heidke were the guests of the day. I realised on this day, after an exciting little number from Henry, what I don't like about Kate. Kate prides herself on her quirky tunes with a little in joke involved (see that Facebook song, Australian Idol song, Psycho Killer cover), which could be misleadingly described as well written. Take away those jokes though, and you have some pretty vacant and awfully written songs. Also, that quirky fun personality that she tries to emit through her songs, just does not transfer through her on stage persona (or, as I have not seen her perform in years, televised persona). It certainly didn't today, and throughout the whole show, she looked like she would have rather been anywhere else. Julia tried to banter with her with very brief returns, and she really didn't provide much to the experience at all. Perhaps she was roped in? Perhaps she was hungover? Hmmmm.

"Henry, f*** off so I can go write a song with Bemg Folndes"

The greatest part of the RockWiz show were the regular musical guests from other artists at the festival, a lovely treat, as we were only there for a day and wouldn't have the opportunity to check everything out. We got some great performances from Irma Thomas (ahhh she just had to open her mouth slightly to make amazing sweet music come out of it), Eli Paperboy Reed, and Barrence Whitfield, finishing up with a group song at the end with the whole gang.

So the RockWiz part of the day could have been the most value, not just for the gameshow and Julia, but the performances we were treated to. I walked out of the tent to be graced with moans and groans from the oldies at their aching bones and backs and legs... and being the smug young thing I am, I had to say "This is only the beginning!!"

Catering for the older group, the festival had some differences that I was not used to at Splendour and Sunset Sounds and such, particular as it had designated places for picnic chairs, which diehard fans had set up in the main tent for hours staking their prime spot for Bob. So in the end, my dear father got us some chairs for us to copy, and I have to say it was nice to be able to sit and relax in between acts.

Before Bob, we caught a snippet of Tim Robbin's band, and a set from Buffy Sainte Marie. She was quite interesting, and I was surprised to find she'd written a few pretty well known songs, such as "Universal Soldier" (Donovan) and "Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong" (but we won't talk about that...). She was very passionate about her Native American upbringing and standing up for rights, and had a lot of energy and passion... I did feel nasty comparing her voice to Yoko Ono, but it really is quite unique and hard to warm to. Her set was much more interesting than the one that followed, by Warren Haynes of Allman Brothers' fame, a band I really know nothing of and doesn't seem to be my preferred style. I was very bored with Warren's set and could not get into it, but I think it's just a type of music, that country-blues-m.o.r. style, that isn't for me.

That was over soon enough, and Dylan's time was now. As anticlimactic as the whole thing was, it was... truly a unique show. They had shut off the screens for the audience, so there was no closeups of Bob's anything. Because the crowd was so huge, all you could see was a blur with a top hat.

As the music began, I experienced the worst live performance of my life. From beginning to end, it was the dreadfullest. His voice was not a voice, but a crackle of spat out verses... not in sentences but in quickly strung together words. There were moments where he sounded like he was loosening up a bit, but it never really improved. There were so many songs that both myself nor my long-time-Dylan-listener family members could not identify. Even such obvious classics like :Tangled Up In Blue", "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and "Like A Rolling Stone" were impossible to pick until a poorly executed version of the choruses were played. If the band had been amazing, one may have been able to pick the tune, but even the band weren't anything to rave about... they did the job required, nothing exceptional, but nothing terrible.

From not being able to see much to not being able to hear anything worth hearing, it was much like a really bad session of karaoke, but one you did not have any patience for. Actually, at least a really bad session of karaoke is a bit cheaper and supplemented by egging on and alcohol. This was much much worse, and worser still from such an iconic musical hero to so many people.

By the end of it I was so happy for it to be over. It was embarrassing. I usually have no problem with ageing rockstars touring in this day and age, because they do often have some appeal to the new generation- and while they meant something different to the people listening when they were big, they mean something else to me now. But Bob Dylan needs to stop. right now. Brian Wilson was endearing in his lack of performance skills, and at least he seemed to be enjoying himself. And we all know he's crazy. Bob is ruining his music genius and influencer of all status, by making us pay squillions to squirm at awfulness.

If it weren't for Elvis (and RockWiz earlier) it would have been a total money waster.

What I love about Elvis Costello’s performances, this being the second one I’d seen (first being his QPAC Brisbane show in 2004) is his tendency not to mess around, but get straight into playing as many much loved tunes as he can, with only a small break of minimum crowd banter in between. He flies through one after the other smooth as a whip, swapping guitars now and then thanks to on-guard roadies. It makes for such an energetic show, coupled with the fact that this guy refuses to lose any momentum due to age. His voice is still stunningly powerful and full of emotion, his musicianship is still amazing, and he looks like he’s having a fantastic time, unlike Mr D an hour previously (well from what I could hear anyway). Elvis began with a classic guaranteed to move the crowd out of their depressed slumber, "Pump It Up", and moved quickly through an excellent selection of favourites, including a fair few from 'My Aim is True', 'Next Years Model' and 'Oliver’s Army' (the three essentials in my humble opinion). He also played a couple of new ones from 'National Ransom', and brought up Secret Sisters to sing one (1) word of the chorus of “A Slow Drag with Josephine". They sounded like sweet songs, with as much of the country element as the last toured album I'd heard, 'The Delivery Man'. We were treated to an emotional “Alison”. "Beyond Belief", and an extended version of "(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding". He didn’t play my absolute favourite that gave me tears in my eyes at QPAC, "I Want You", but I wasn’t going to hold it against him; its themes of dark stalkery obsession aren’t really festival material.

Once that whirlwind ended, the feelings of hopeless embarrassment were replaced with a warm fuzzy sigh of relief, and thankfulness that it all hadn’t been a wasted festival. I was so glad Elvis had headlined the Monday night and the best was saved until last, but still a shame that his performance was overshadowed by the folk king Dylan.

Upon writing this review, I’ve looked at a few other reviews of the day, and many sung the praises of Bob’s performance. I don’t know whether they were at the same show as me, or there is a little cognitive dissonance coming into play… justifying paying an arm and a leg (up to $150 a night??) for a terrible performance, by pretending it was awesome?? The inability to accept that such a legend can sound terrible? Geez, get a grip journies.

Post re-edited and re-posted! phew. 6.5 blog hosts out of 10.