Venue:

Metro, Sydney

Date: 28/04/2018

It was a sell out crowd at the Metro, the place was rammed and had a really nice atmosphere.

Dr John Cooper-Clarke opened and was hilarious. Having not seen him before I hadn’t realised quite how much his schtick is a blend of stand-up and poetry, done in a horse-racing-caller delivery. Priceless. Shame about the noise spill from the band next door, kind of spoiled it a bit making it a little harder to pay attention, and it needs your attention.

Following on from @SteveT back in 2016 (https://theafterword.co.uk/squeeze/) I think we might have got a similar show – opening with Please Be Upstanding and Hourglass, a fair few tracks off the most recent albums, and a canter through the hits. The band were rock solid, it sounded perfect….but….there was only Glenn Tilbrook from the old days. I know they’ve had a relatively stable line up for nearly 10 years and a couple of new albums, but… Difford “won’t fly”, the drummer looks a bit like Gilson (and he hits the skins bloody hard), but it still comes across as Glenn and a backing band.

The audience:

I’d be guessing » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Enmore, Sydney

Date: 10/03/2018

What a surprisingly fun night, on a balmy Sydney Saturday evening. We turned up to see the tail end of the support act, a very professional looking karaoke singe called Klue. We also found a polar vortex billowing around the auditorium, the air con turned up to 11. Thoughts turned to the merch table and a t-shirt for purely insulation purposes, but thankfully the crowd piled in and once the Enmore was rammed with people shared bodily warmth took over.

When Thievery Corporation came on (early I thought, at 8.30), I really didn’t know what to expect – I know very little about them aside from a couple of hits. What I wasn’t really expecting was a rotating roster of vocalists, 6 all up coming in and out of the proceedings. The blend of dub, hip hop, rap, rock, middle eastern, eastern, and all through the americas (well, Argentina to New York up the east coast) was a constant surprise. Really nice. Not so sure about the dancing dickheads around the place which caused us to move a couple of times, but when you’re on the dance floor whaddyaexpect.

For my tastes, the dub » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Camelot Lounge, Marrickville (that’s inner western Sydney for most of you)

Date: 17/11/2017

This was bloody brilliant. The whole of the Black Sea album (pre re-issues and re-masters), rendered so well that I now have to go back and reconsider Burning With Optimisms Flames because I think I misjudged it.

Then after an intermission a quick canter through the rest of the catalog, a few hits (like Nigel) and some famous tracks (Chalk Hills and Children). Great musicianship (as promised by Mousey), really authentic sounding. They even managed to emulate a lot of double tracking, for voices, guitars, keyboards, drums…and you don’t hear Travels In Nihilon every day now do you ?

The audience:

The audience was one of *the* amazing things – it was The Massive incarnate, like every Mingle photo I’ve ever seen extrapolated. If there was an Afterword demographic in inner western Sydney they all turned up – 200-300 in a pokey fire trap warehouse; what’s not to love.

It made me think..

I’ll be back for a Nonsuch night. And I finally realised (through a bit of googling) that when I actually saw XTC in Dunstable in 1981, it was their last-but-one UK concert. » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Factory, Marrickville

Date: 05/11/2017

Well, this was a very pleasant surprise. I didn’t know Clouds when they were a going concern back in the late 80s/early 90s, back when I first arrived in Oz. When I did become aware in recent years, the few Youtube videos I saw led me to believe they’d be a bit wan and fey – not my sort of thing at all. But I went anyway because I know one of the band, and the surprise was a very muscular sound, way more so than even their recent videos. I’d credit the drummer a lot for that, very solid, very tight, very sharp, and the lead guitar chopping around on top – very much my sort of thing indeed.

I still couldn’t tell you a single thing they played (entirely due to my general ignorance), but it was a really enjoyable night. A nice blend of tempos and dynamics. Worth catching if they’re round your way on an Australian national tour this month.

The audience:

As far as I could see, almost exclusively people who’d have been 20ish in 89, but that’s to be expected with a heritage act I guess

» Continue Reading.