Tonight’s set list was eclectic, yet wonderful and perhaps slightly orchestrated around SM’s slightly hoarse voice:
Silence Kid
Father to A Sister of Thought
Stereo
Frontwards
In The Mouth A Desert
Rattled By The Rush
Date w/ Ikea
Grounded
Range Life
Unfair
We Dance
Kennel District
Cut Your Hair
Stop Breathin’
Summer Babe
Gold Soundz
Two States
Fight This Generation (Figh This Generation)
Shady Lane
Conduit For Sale
Then encore one consisted of:
Debris Slide (which included a joke about WA being the mining state and that there might be a lot of debris slides)
Give It A Day* (including some excellent banter about AC/DC and how people in Perth are about the lyrics)
Perfume-V
Fin
Encore Two consisted of:
Lions (Linden)
Zurich Is Stained
No Life Singed Her (which included SM jump into the drum kit, with guitar in hand, leaping of Westie and off stage and Westie taking an amazing catch to keep the guitar from crashing)
The band were in fine form, joking about the AC/DC concert also in town (*SM quipped that Bon Scott is a lyricist, Brian Jones a performer).
Gersey played a solid set and their last song they were joined by Spiral Stairs who played Subiaco Shuffle from The Real Feel. Apparently most of Gersey are in SS’s touring band and hence the connection.
Another amazing show by the finest band in the world, my second in four days.
I’m more than just a little excited about this. Even if he doesn’t play a single Pavement song, the show is bound to be spectacular. With the Doves having just been here, 2009 may well be the year of ’seeing bands you always wanted to but weren’t sure you ever would’. I should probably come up with a catchier phrase and snappy acronym. In the meantime…
I was trawling the internets looking for cover art images to totally deck out my library with the appropriate images as is my obsessive compulsive way.
In doing so, and in being up to ‘M’ for ‘The Mountain Goats’, I stumbled across this little gem of a quote from Mr. Darnielle himself, in response to a rabid fan trying to track down a never actually released EP ((Jack and Faye):
no I disagree! the worst thing about our present age is that people are always trying to deny oblivion to things that have earned it, it is OK for there to be things that nobody’s ever seen or heard & in fact it’s GREAT that there are such things, that is like my deepest religious belief
Quite possibly never a truer word has been uttered. There is something so cloyingly desperate about our modern society that requires us to try and maintain every semblance of everything that was. And I’m certain we’re wrong. Maybe that bird is supposed to be extinct, maybe that friend from high school was meant to drop out of your life and not look you up in facebook. Maybe you were meant to get on with your life.
Maybe we’re all just so riddled with guilt that we have to cling desperately to what we know in the face of a brave new unknown world? I know what I’m choosing.
Perpetual indie rock darlings Death Cab for Cutie have recently announced, perhaps somewhat low key, that they’ll be returning to our shores early in 2009, nay six months since their previous visit. Given there hasn’t been a new album in the ensuing time, we can only assume it’s a tour to celebrate Ben Gibbard’s recent engagement.
Death Cab have a run of dates across Australia in February from the 19th to the 28th and at this stage are ably supported by Youth Group, though one suspects they may add a local support at each stop.
In Perth, the band plays the wonderful Fremantle Arts Centre south lawn as an outdoor venue and tickets are avaialble here.
In part two of my review of the year that was, I’ll take an in depth look at my favourite gigs of 2008.
While 2008 was somewhat less endowed with gigs than what I was able to attend in 2007 (around one for every two the previous year), it was certainly a diverse year which contained many highlights. The fact of the matter was almost every gig I attended was a highlight hence the length of this list.
I became somewhat disillusioned with attending live music to a certain extent in 2008 mainly due to the current shift towards selfish audiences only concerned with over indulging to the point of collapse and with taking photos of themselves for their facebook pages while talking about how they have vapid, shallow lives to their equally vacuous friends while the music plays in all its glory on stage.
To that end I penned a guide on how to behave at gigs and also stopped going steady with outdoor music festivals. It’s my attempt to try and change this worrying culture and shift it back towards people actually going to gigs to see music; not just to be seen.
Rants aside, the music was great and following are twenty of the best, in my eyes, for 2008:
# 20 - Cut Copy at V Festival, Esplanade Perth, April 2008
The V Festival is, more often than not, an odd mix of artists performing. Indeed, the organisers seem to adopt a policy of trying to supply a little something for everyone and 2008 was no exception. One didn’t have to go far to see The Jesus and Mary Chain appearing before Modest Mouse or Duran Duran preceding The Smashing Pumpkins. In amongst all that though was the little Aussie electro-New Order-cover-band-that-could Cut Copy that had one of those very awkward time slots for an electro based band at around 3pm. None of the lights make a lick of difference and in most cases, the drugs haven’t kicked in yet for the punters. Rising above it all though, they delivered a fantastically synth infused set of rock pop that for me upstaged quite a few other acts on the day. Blending a generous smattering from their much vaunted In Ghost Colours to the decidedly underappreciated Bright Like Neon Love, the hits and the rock continued to flow. The highlight for me, though, was them playing a medley of That Was Just a Dream and Zap Zap; these two tracks are quite possible the finest piece of electro/syth/pop to arise from the mid 2000’s obsession with 80s revivalism.
Cut Copy with the aforementioned medley – be sure to watch in high quality! If the breakdown at 2:09 doesn’t get your hair standing on end, nothing will!
# 19 – Supergrass, Metropolis Fremantle, October 2008
If you’re around my age and have been into music for a similar time frame as I have, Supergrass are one of those bands that have always been there. Even if you’re not conscious of their releases, there’s at least half a dozen songs in their back catalogue that you know and probably even know the chorus to. For me my appreciation of them was slightly above this, but certainly not in the fanatical state.
Faced with a a conundrum for the evening (The New Pornographers, whom I’m also not completely obsessed with, were in town that night as well – the rant about why promoters would schedule two international acts on a Wednesday night will be saved for another day) I settled on seeing Supergrass, figuring that it could be the last time they’re in town and forearmed with the knowledge that Canadian Indie Supergroups are known for their immortality – only the members change.
And what a rewarding evening it was. It was actually surprising how much of their varied back catalogue I knew but perhaps not as surprising was how much rock was wrought on the evening. Lead by possibly one of the best frontmen who wields a guitar in the business, Gaz, who was donned by a mighty fine hat, Supergrass smashed out some of their classics with the fervour and passion of a band on their debut EP. Mary was fantastic, but my highlight for the show was absolutely Richard III, quite possibly one of my favourite live music moments of the year. A bonus for this gig was the very strong support of Perth’s own The Panda Band.
Supergrass at Glastonbury 2004, playing Lenny and Richard III. Unfortunately Gaz doesn’t have an awesome hat on.
# 18 – Birds of Tokyo, Metropolis Fremantle, August 2008
It’s a testament to the strength of the live music witnessed in 2008 that such a tight and ascending band like Birds of Tokyo rank down at #16. As I’ve mentioned numerous times on this site Ian Kenny, the man with the pipes for Birds and also Karnivool, has one of the best voices kicking around in any form of music, though it is certainly one that lends itself well to the melodic rock/post grunge of his bands.
Supremely honed musicians with a vocalist as good if not better live as he is on record made for a fantastic show. It also produced the first ever instance I’ve witnessed of a keyboard player climbing up onto hey keyboard mid-solo.
The Panics played Club Capitol in May and front man Jae Laffer proudly proclaimed that they had achieved one of their ambitions set when they became a band which was to sell out the iconic Perth venue. This show was about the prodigal sons returning, local lads made good and a celebration of their success far afield and abroad on the back of the successful Cruel Guards long player. The band played with a relaxed joy and the zeal of a group of musicians there simply to enjoy their music and share it with friends. The mood permeated the crowd and made for a special evening, which included Drew Wootton dancing a merry jig after his guitar gave up the ghost during an encore rendition of Cash.
# 16 – The Smashing Pumpkins at V Festival, Esplanade Perth, April 2008
As a longtime fan of the band one of my larger musical regrets would definitely be not having seen The Smashing Pumpkins circa 1996 (my largest may well be not seeing Led Zeppelin circa 1971, for which I blame my mother’s slackness in not conceiving me earlier1). Seeing them re-badged in 2008 was the next best thing even though it was a reworking of something that is perhaps of an earlier time.
I feel sorry for Billy Corgan; he had it all in The Smashing Pumpkins and he made fantastic music in doing so. He made a few stupid decisions (like sacking Jimmy Chamberlin) and found out that the sum of the parts were greater. In bringing himself back as The Smashing Pumpkins, he seems to want to forget the legacy which most people only wish to remember. The Police played a fantastic comeback tour which they weren’t trying to feed something new to fans of yore (except maybe Fergie, who’s only fit for being fed to lions).
Billy’s caught in the proverbial rock and hard place; in one sense he wants to create something new, but his vehicle for being heard is something he created 15 years ago.
Regardless of the turmoil that I pondered as I watched him, it was still impressive to see this enigmatic, crazy man on stage and to witness Jimmy Chamberlin, one of the finest drummers of our time, deliver.
Plus, he played Porcelina, and well, that’s pretty much guaranteed to win my heart.
The Smashing Pumpkins – Porcelina of the Vast Oceans, circa 1996
#15 – The Jesus and Mary Chain at V Festival, Perth Esplanade, April 2008
Another of the eclectic line up at 2008’s V Festival, I knew little of this band prior, though knew both of their legacy and that they should be on the list of ‘things to check out when I get a chance to check out things that I should check out’, something I have subsequently done. The live show, however, was fantastic. Their sound is relevant and many other bands on the day are derivative of them. They played with a passion that belies their 25+ years in the industry (minus the obligatory hiatus!). Most importantly they brought the rock, though most of the drunken kiddies wearing fluoro t-shirts didn’t seem to notice. But, I noticed, and further discovered their place in the ongoing evolution of music. The Verve proved last year that a band can return from a significant hiatus and still produce valid music. It’ll be interesting to see if the Jesus and Mary Chain can do the same.
#14 – Hilltop Hoods at the Big Day Out, Claremont Showgrounds, February 2008
It was about 25.7million°C2 at the Showgrounds for the Big Day Out. Seemingly this festival is always geared around the hottest possible day in Perth and it never fails to deliver. That said, there was also some hot music on offer.
One of the acts to deliver in the heat of the day, around 4pm, was the Hilltop Hoods. Having seen the Hoods previously at a free gig in Scarborough back in around 2004 when I was in Perth for work, I knew that they certainly had the skills to pay the bills as it were live. Suffice to say, that first time I saw them they rocked out and had the entire crowd behind them; I was curious to see what they had added to their live show.
And holy crap, what a live show. Rarely have I seen a band able to get a crowd jumping more than the Hilltop Hoods, especially in that heat. With many a track that is ingrained in part into the Australian personality and way of life, the duo of MCs Pressure and Suffa deliver a fantastic live set ably backed by a live band and DJ Debris. You’re not likely to see a band with as much energy and crowd participation and it certainly brought a new vibrancy to a very hot afternoon.
#13 – Sparkadia, Amplifier, November 2008
I missed Sparkadia when they were around earlier in the year supporting the Thrills and much to my chagrin it was, by all accounts, a very good show (some saying that Sparkadia actually upstaged the main act). With that in mind and with Postcards being one of the stand out albums of 2008 I was quietly confident going into this show.
And most certainly, that confidence paid off in kind. Sparkadia play with an energy I’ve rarely seen in a live band. Recorded, their songs have a strong presence that ensures you look up and take notice. Live, you feel as though you’re swimming through their sound, breathing it in and leaning into the wind. It’s beautiful, impassioned, blissful music that you can’t help but walk away from smiling.
This is a band to see every time they’re in town and I’m genuinely looking forward to their next album.
A clip of Sparkadia performing Jealousy live this year.
#12 – The Black Keys, Fremantle Arts Centre, December 2008
As mentioned in the manyreviews for them, I’ve seen the Black Keys three times in the last 12 months, so picking out a favourite gig is pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel. That said, the idyllic setting of the Fremantle Arts Centre lends itself to the creation of a little magic and this night just two days before the New Year was no exception. As always the boys delivered a show with immense resolve. For an idea of just how much I like the band, read the reviews I posted earlier in the year. I’m certainly not one complaining that they’re here every six months. Quite possibly the best two piece getting around.
#11 – Okkervil River, Becks Music Box, February 2008
This was a last minute decision gig that fortuitously only came up due to my subscription to the Perth Festival email list. Not knowing a huge amount about the band I hadn’t bought tickets when they’d first come out and the event sold out. Then, one evening driving home from work I heard RTR playing Black Sheep Boy and thought ‘hey, that’s a bit of an alright; pity it’s sold out’. Then, the next morning I’m sitting at my desk at work when an email pops up mentioning ‘last minute additional tickets available for Okkervil River‘. I was on the phone within about five seconds of the email arriving and had tickets secured inside a minute.
And I’m glad I did.
An absolutely stellar performance by a band at the top of their game. Their back catalogue has a wonderful depth to it which translates live. Each song ecked out with a focussed concentration and measured delivery. A wonderful warm Perth night outdoors in the Music Box underneath the stars ensured this was a show to remember.
And that wraps up part one of the top 20 gigs of 2008. It’s taken a while to deliver, mainly because my day job has sucked hard at the start of this year, but hopefully part 2 won’t be too far away!
Quite a few of the featureimages at elementography.com this last week have been from a shoot at Kings Park in late Spring of last year. The trip was to see the wonderful new boab (which is actually quite old at around 750 years) for the first time. The back story to these images have now been uploaded for you to enjoy. In amongst the images of the boab are a taste of the wonderful colour of Western Australia’s thousands of wildflowers which never cease to amaze. I was lucky enough last year to venture out and see a lot of them in the wild and plan this year to follow them down the coast as they begin around Geraldton in July and make their way south to Albany in October/November and hope to document them as a bit of a series.
I’ll be sure to share that with you when the time comes.
With news that Gija Jumula has begun sprouting leaves, I imagine I’ll be back there very soon to see what’s happened since my last visit. Enjoy!
Dig Newshave posted an excellent interview from ABCRadio National of Steve Cannane interviewing Nick Cave. Cave is such an enigmatic character in all forms and creative guises. That said, the prevalence of more interviews like this in recent years perhaps suggests, with a grain of salt, that he’s at least shedding some light on who he is and how he creates.
Cannane as always (as he did back in his Hack days) asks thoughtful questions and Cave delivers in his usual intelligent and witty manner.
I’ve just now added a new gallery of images taken on the delightful shores of Lake Monger.
It continues to be a favourite spot of mine for the relaxing visage across the lake and the opportunity to sit with camera and observe the relatively tame wildlife run around and annoy each other.
For those of you bored of birds, the good news is I am taking photos elsewhere and I’m sure those galleries will start to appear here and on elementography soon enough!
For now though, enjoy the wacky shoreline shenanigans:
