Venue:

Enmore Theatre

Date: 23/06/2017

So, off to the Enmore to see Icehouse. I had hopes given a longstanding love of their albums, saw them back in the 80s, and I was warm to the idea of a hits package. It seemed like a good idea, that they would have been well oiled from a series of dates earlier through the year. And yet, it was a huge disappointment.

Iva and Paul are very obviously the old stagers to pass muster for calling it Icehouse, just with the sound of a very competent tribute band / pub covers band behind them. That said, Iva could presumably turn up with anyone and call himself Icehouse. I couldn’t fault them technically as musicians, but it took me about 3 or 4 numbers to realise my main issue – they were playing them too fast, like they had to get through too much material before curfew. The drummer was good technically, even the joke drum solo was tolerably short. But every song was metronomic, right on the beat with none of the swing in the original tracks (at least how I hear them).

Then there were the high notes…that Iva isn’t » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Basement, Sydney

Date: 21/04/2017

Frontman from Jet previews his upcoming solo album with his Italian backing band, to an audience of what looked to be predominantly music industry types. Strangely enough it was a pretty good night anyway. We went on a gamble and it was worth it.

Support was Olympia, a solo singer/muso backing herself with pedals and loops, alternating between guitar and keyboards. This was pretty interesting and effective, building up walls of sound and stacked vocal harmonies. I’d listen to that again. Damned if I could remember what the lyrical content was about though, even as the songs finished. I may have been toasted by this point.

Then the main act came on. The songs came across really well. I have little or no knowledge of Jet, let alone this album which hasn’t been released yet, but it was a really good blend of hard rock and a fair chunk of soul. My only quibble was a couple of tracks that were basically wall-to-wall cliches musically and lyrically. But that said, the album will be worth checking out, and hopefully the recording will do the band justice.

The all-Italian backing was 2 drummers, keyboards, » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Giant Dwarf Theatre Sydney

Date: 23/03/2017

As advertised, this was very much a work in progress. Preparing for a London run in July, it was definitely a bit ragged around the edges, but it was an immensely charming evening.

I’d not seen him live before, only heard of his reputation in passing. Since reading Stewart Lee’s brilliant “How I Escaped My Certain Fate” praising him to the skies and insulting him mercilessly, and in the wake of the ComCom podcast (mentioned elsewhere) which carried a lorraluv, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Glad I did – well worth the trek across town in the rain.

Yes, his own closing assessment (“zero structure, some content”) was valid, and there were a couple of small patches that sounded like familiar themes from many years ago, on the whole it was thoroughly enjoyable. Even when he was struggling to remember his own threads of logic and material the crowd were happy to play along and have fun. The crowd work was interesting, and I’m pretty sure the observational comedy surrounding Tim Tams won’t make it to London. Worked for us though. Local jokes get you local work » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Metro, Sydney

Date: 10/03/2017

The Damned came to The Metro in Sydney. What can I say… It was heaps of fun, the place was rammed full, they played pretty much all the hits and most of Machine Gun Etiquette. I had spent the afternoon listening to the oldies and they had all the best stuff included. That old Proustian rush kicked in right away with Melody Lee as the opener, weaving through New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, Waiting For The Blackout, History of The World pt 1, Looking At You, Disco Man, Billy Bad Breaks, Stranger On The Town, Love Song, Noise Noise Noise, Anti-Pope (among others) and Smash It Up for an encore, it was great stuff.

The audience:

The crowd was about 80-90% in the 50+ age group, and 70-80% male, with lots of ill-advised singlet/wife-beater tee shirts and a couple of magnificent mohawks.

The dipsticks doing flash photography from near the mixing desk only got blinding flashback from the bald spots in front. There was even a bit of an OAP mosh pit going on in front of the Captain, although it seemed to be limited to pushing each other from side to » Continue Reading.