I guess due to the size of the concert I didn’t find it nearly as thrilling as The Breeders last year (I was in the front row then) but I did spend the entire night with a grin on my face and my hands clasped in front of me. I bought an overpriced t-shirt along with a very pretty tour poster for which I will need to find a nice A3 frame.

*video montage*
Old Friends/Bookends
Hazy Shade Of Winter
I Am A Rock
America
Kathy’s Song – Art believes this is the greatest love song of “our” (his) generation
*chatter about Alice in Wonderland*
Hey Schoolgirl
Bebop-alula (The Everley Brothers)
Scarborough Fair
Homeward Bound
*video montage ending with a clip from The Graduate*
Mrs Robinson
Slip Slidin’ Away
El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

*Art Garfunkel*
Bright Eyes
A Heart in New York
The Perfect Moment/Now I Lay me Down

For Emily, Whenever I may find her

*Paul Simon*
Graceland
The Boy in the Bubble
Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes

Only Living Boy in New York
My Little Town
Bridge Over Troubled Water

Encore 1
Cecilia
The Boxer

Encore 2
Sounds of Silence
The Leaves That Are Green

Encore 3
Feelin’ Groovy

Here is my *fantastic* photo of the night from my camera phone, taken during the playing of Feelin’ Groovy

And here is a little video clip from my phone

Big props to them for playing for 2hrs 10mins, it was great to not have a support act and no intermission.

Some of my highlights would have to have had included The Cat Empire (so great seeing them live), Tegan and Sara (haven’t got into them on the radio but live they were great), The Kooks (they were so great to photograph), Skipping Girl Vinegar (just so fun, they made me smile), Blue King Brown (no explanation needed there), I Heart Hiroshima (Brisbane, fun, crazy and great).

The gallery from Day 1 is up on The Dwarf and both days are up in Sunset Sounds ’09.

Here is a selection of photos.

Last night I went to The Globe for a very special show. Dan Kelly and The Ukeladies are in town supporting Augie March (playing tonight/now at The Tivoli) and oh what a darling show it was. It was a show of great stories from love in the supermarket to attempting to scam the insurance company and how SUV cause climate change. As well as other suitable songs including a cover of the Sinead O’Connor/Prince song Nothing Compares To You. I now have oohh four gigs that I haven’t blogged about, three of those were gigs that knocked a bit of my socks off. I hope to get to them soon. I will share this one photo though from the show last night. A girl near me had a little bottle of bubbles and was having a great time blowing them round the room.

A couple of seconds after she started singing, I sat up a little bit straighter and took a deep breath. Man oh Man, where I have been? Such an incredible sound, the little trio, soon to be known as Holly Throsby and the Hello Tigers (as of Sunday night) were just so tight in their sound, it sounded like there was just one person on stage. One of the sweetest things or perhaps I should say one of the nicest things was that at the end of the gig, it was Holly and Bree who were the merch stand and as I bought On Night on Friday, I told her that I had been meaning to go a gig for years but never got there and tonight she had blown the expectations I had for the gig by about 1000%. I was so sold that two nights later I bought the other two LPS A Loud Call and Under the Town and I would have bought a shirt but I don’t do black shirts.

The set list for Friday was as follows
1) And Then We’re Gone
2) A Widow’s song
3) Now I Love Someone
4) On Longing
5) Don’t Be Howling
6) The Time It Takes
7) One of You for Me
Would You?
9) Some Night Are Long
10) Warm Jets
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) Things Between People
13) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided

17) The Shoulders and Bends

Friday blew me away but Sunday was bliss, a lot slower, a lot calmer, more talking and the music just leading the night away.

Set list for Sunday was as follows
1) To Begin With
2) If We Go Easy
3) On Longing
4) Now I Love Someone
5) The Time It Takes
6) One of You for Me
7) A Widow’s Song
Don’t Be Howling
9) Come Visit
10) Things Between People
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided

17) The Shoulders and Bends

There might have been one or two songs that were changed around but my lists are from the set lists that I picked up off the stage at the end of the shows.

The Troubie whilst I love it and love it and love it is not a venue that is at all friendly for people wishing to take photographs. The lighting is two lights and a floor lamp but I wouldn’t change the fact that there is comfy lounge chairs, carpeted floor to sit on and a trendy bar. There were just so many cute, quint, funny bits that just made me smile. At the show on Sunday night, Holly asked if anyone had come to the gig on Friday night and raised my hand ever so slightly and she said that she had been thinking about wearing the same dress tonight but decided against it just in case people such as my self from Friday turned up on Sunday as well. Next time Holly Throsby is in your town make sure you go! If you don’t and I find out, well it may not be pretty.

Here is a youtube video of Holly doing Berlin Chair, the You Am I cover at the gig on Friday night. This user also has a few more videos from the two Brisbane shows.

Another thing I can’t contain my love for is the design of the CDs. All three follow the exactly same design for the CD and sleeve artwork. It is just perfect! Such a tiny thing like the fact that the

The rest of the photo gallery is here.

Charlyn likes to remind me round the net that I was super excited and well I must admit she is telling the truth. Man the grin I had on my face was a grin that has never appeared on my face at a concert before and probably never will, well the only time I think it will reappear will be if I ever get to see The Breeders live again and let me be honest and truthful I am by no means counting my eggs for that on the flip-side, I had a thought at the gig on Monday night that I could so see those girls pushing 70 and still singing their songs on the stage. I will have to wait and see I guess but those few hours will be a night I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I still find it so hard to believe that man oh man I saw the Breeders. I will be sitting at my desk at work or walking to the train station and I find myself smiling at the thought of how magical Monday night was.

Gaslight Radio were the supports and to be honest I didn’t really think much of them. They had one or two alright songs in their set but that was about it. The lead singer had quite good stage presence but it was really let down by some of the other band members. One of the guys spent the entire set with his back to the audience playing his guitar??? what the?????

My favourite photo I took during their set was not of them but of a piece of A4 paper I saw on top of an amp.

mmmm yeah! The set list. I close to fainted when I saw that Safari was on there. Still that didn’t stop me from yelling out for them to play it during the set and then Kim said something back to me and they they played it and well Helen went into a state of euphoria. The deviated from the set list a bit I think with the addition of one or two impromptu songs that I can’t recall. Looking at the order of the songs in the photo above and the set list from the show in Boston it seems that the set list for the shows on this world tour are pretty much the same.

01. Tipp City
02. Huffer
03. Bang On
04. Shocker In Gloomtown (GBV)
05. Divine Hammer
06. Night of Joy
07. No Aloha
08. Pacer
09. We’re Gonna Rise
10. It’s The Love (Tasties)
11. Mercury
12. New Year
13. Cannonball
14. I Just Wanna Get Along
15. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Beatles)
16. Iris
17. Safari
18. Saints
19. German Studies
20. Empty Glasses

21. Overglazed
22. Fortunately Gone
23. Here No More
24. Drivin’ on 9
25. Full On Idle

I would have really really really liked to have heard and Flipside and Hag and When I Was a Painter and Son of Three and well the 100 other or so songs in their discography. Though I am really kicking myself for not yelling out for the Buffy theme as that would have been so fricking cool.

I don’t know where to start about the Breeders set. It was just magical. The sold out crowd was a real mix of ages; people my age, people a bit younger and plenty of people who are more Karl’s age. As there were so many people like me who had been waiting years and years to see them, the atmosphere in the crowd as they started to play the songs and banter was just incredible, Kim and Kelley interacted with the crowd a lot and seemed incredibly at ease on stage.

You can see the rest of the photos over at helenpalsson.com.au or at The Dwarf

If The Breeders come to a town near you any time soon, go! (and ask me to come along too )

The Harp Man

One of the things I loved watching was his fingers dart over the strings, it was so magical!

Doesn’t Julia just look so happy to be up on stage?

I love the focus on this one though, sigh nice borrowed glass.

Angus had his hat on all night which meant some pretty nasty face shadows so this is about the best I grabbed

The siblings Stone

and the rest of the photos are over here in a gallery

When we eventually went up the steps, the support act were playing their last song and it would only be a matter of time before Custom Kings took over the stage and had the floor of the Troubie bouncing like I have never seen it bounce before. It was a great night with good tunes and a happy crowd.

Custom Kings, The Troubadour, 10/04/08 Gig Gallery

Grassroots Street Orchestra (herein referred to as GSO because that is a whole lot easier to say and makes me think of a SO when I say it) and Mister Laneous & The Family-Yah (herein referred to as Mr Laneous) played a late Tuesday night gig this past Tuesday and even though I stayed out way past my bed time (am not a uni student any more) as the show started a little bit later than they tend to it was worth every bit of it.

I had seen part of a set by Mr Laneous a couple of weeks ago when they were playing a Sunday afternoon slot at Rics and I had liked what I had heard for sure. This time I got to see a whole set and it was like I am tempted to say a spoonful of sweet chilli philly, though it was a more grittier feel than that. One thing I did make a special note in my diary of was this song which I will call Going Crazy/Crazy for You, which was a pretty sweet duet affair with Mr Laneous and Georgia Potter. Really wish now that I had taken more photos of them but I was a bit slack and I made up for it with photos of GSO.

GSO.
I remember the first time I saw an “ad” for a GSO gig in a Time Off and thinking that sounds like a pretty cool band and I should get up and go to the gig. For some reason I didn’t. I wish I had now because between then and when I first saw GSO live in January, I have missed a lot of opportunities. That is life though and as much as I wish I could go back and start things over I can’t so I move forward.

GSO was raw music, words, reason. It was not really about a band playing to an audience, it was a much more fluid environment with the band feeding off the energy of the crowd and the crowd absorbing every word, note and arm waving of GSO.

Side note: Something else I have come to realise in the last week about local acts over national acts and even more so over international acts is that whilst the sound of a local act may not be as polished or the stage show as an international, I think given the option nine times out of ten now I would pick seeing a local act as they live in the same city as you. They have to deal with the same politics, events, landscape as you and it is through the music that they express how they see it. I rarely accept friend requests on myspace from bands that are not local. I have so many ideas to develop and enrich the local music scene (in fact I have a notebook full) and one day I hope I am able to get at least some of them up off the ground.

Back to GSO. Apart from having total respect for how Surya wraps his tongue around those words, it is just the right music for life at the moment.

Gig Gallery

I really need to start writing these posts down on paper when I get home or the morning after to see if I can get more of the words and feelings out of my head instead of sitting here looking at a computer screen trying to figure out how I want to describe something which seems to happen more often than I want it to.

Back to Rics though. It was a delightful close to the weekend. It wasn’t packed to the rafters but it was quite pleasantly full. Just that right number of people. You know how you sort of forget how much you enjoy a band as for whatever reason? Or you forget just how great their music is? Or you forget just how much emotion is in the music? That was Sunday night. Or do you ever think about what it would have been like back in the day, watching those now big artists of the 70′s doing the bar scene? Sitting there thinking to yourself that you are watching something special and that one day, hopefully sooner rather than later that more people in the world will know too? I like those gigs. Gigs where the guitar is just right, the lyrics have meaning and everything clicks together? Or acts that even when sick still have a stage presence that holds the attention of everyone in the crowd or acts that look genuinely pleased and happy to be on stage.

Sunday was one of those nights. Banawurun & Georgia Potter both were delightful. I can not recommend enough clicking those links and listening to them on myspace.

In a dream world I floated out of Rics, although in the real world it was a whole lot more like one foot after another slowly, thinking more about not stumbling/tripping over something rather than the magical music.

This is possibly my favourite image of the night, it was also the first photo I took. It was nearing the end of Georgia’s set and I had spent a lot of time looking at the reflection on the door. Wanting to do something different I took a photo.

Banawurun.

Georgia Potter.

Gig Gallery

Last night it was raining (no surprise here at the moment), people were standing outside the Tivoli wearing scarves and beanies. Inside a night of magical music was about to get under way. José González was in town and it was a sold out show.

Emily Barker.
She had just the right blend of folk, country and alt. It was the first time she had played in Brisbane and I am looking forward to her coming back and playing the Troubie as she was sort of drowning in the audience last night

José González.
I was blown to the wall. The music was so rich, deep and vibrant. The sound had this depth that just isn’t there on a CD. It left my heart feeling really nice and warm, the perfect antidote to a wet Brisbane night. The first half dozen songs he played by himself and then he brought the band out for the rest of the set. It was a very low key band. A guy and and a girl, doing some back up vocals and providing some percussion. Really well put together, minimalist but full of life. I walked out of the Tivoli with my brolly and the most peaceful feeling inside of me which is just what I need at the moment since life threw me some curveballs earlier in the week. I dearly would have loved to have heard his cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart as that would have been the cherry on top of the sprinkles.

You can see the rest of the photos over in a gallery at helenpalsson.com.au

I like the Step Inn in theory, I like that they are booking a very wide range of shows from folk to dub to pyschobilly and everything in between. I have a love/hate relationship with the lights though. Sometimes they are excellent, sometimes they are good, other times they are crap and it changes drastically between bands on a night. Cactus Cadillac were the first band and they had dim blue lights on their faces but normal sunlight lights at waist level. For the other bands though it moved to just normal sunlight lights as the whole lighting which was focused at the very front of the edge of the stage which meant that most time band members were in the fall-off, whilst the instruments were in the full light. It was interesting. That is why most of these photos are just photos and nothing more. I would take red Zoo lights over patchy lights any day.

Cactus Cadillac.
Cactus Cadillac is fun. They are boys who have slept on our floor numerous times over. Whilst Carter may be my primary little brother, Tom and Yuki are round often enough as well that they are just part of the family. I enjoyed the set, it was by no means mind blowing it was only their 2nd gig and Carter was distracted by the cricket on the TV at the back of the room apart from that, they are doing what they enjoy

The Dead Ringers.
I only saw a little bit of this set as I went over to Tounge and Groove at West End to see The Chocolate Strings (damm great music) with Clare as her farewell before she headed to Washington DC, where she will spend the next 9 weeks or so as an intern for Massachusetts Democrat Congressman, John Tierney. Jealous? yes. The Dead Ringers were a band that I found on myspace looking for local alt-country bands so I was surprised seeing them at a Bad Moon Show but they do have a fair bit of rockabilly elements in their alt-country.

Foghorn Leghorn.
Some nights you just need some Ska to keep you going and Foghorn Leghorn are always there to provide. They have this absolute cracker of a songs about Emo kids and cheering them up, there is actions that go with it, it is pretty darn amusing.

The Bad Moon Company.
What do you if a few songs into the set the double bass gives up the ghost? You become a rockabilly covers band whilst people attempt to fix the double bass. You get it working, you go back to playing your own blend of rockabilly/pyschobilly. Then the double bass croaks it again, repeat steps from before. It croaks again. You play it to the best you can. Everyone goes home early because it just doesn’t want to work. That was quite sad as I was looking forward to a big night of Bad Moon Co goodness.

To see the rest of the images from the night go here – A Very Voodoo Christmas

Ange Takats
I have been meaning to see Ange live for a couple of months now, the classic myspace syndrome, all these cool local acts and only so many days in a week. She was well worth the wait, as I was in for a treat. She opened the night by singing a song, just singing, no guitar, no backup, just her. Rather impressive. Throughout the night she by far spent the most time up on stage as at some point during the boys sets she provided some backup vocals. She has a tale/song about the curse of knitting for boyfriends who then leave with the knitted goods (the word on the street is that to stop this happening that you need to marry said boyfriend and then give knitted goods). That got a gold star in my book.

Tom Woodward
Well there was that rather very interesting guitar tuning interlude. There were a handful of new songs. There was “my song” (publicly known as Reminding me of Your) played in the December 07 style rather than the August 07 style, which is a bpm increase of oh about 60% and a much edgier sound, very different and I don’t know which version I prefer. It was top shelf stuff, could it have been any less? (that answer is most definitely no). I can’t yet offer any soundbites/textbites for the new songs though. Other than that that there is a video clip for one of the new songs at the end of this post. Press that play button!

Cameron Elliot
I didn’t get to *really* hear much of Cam’s set as I was chatting up the back. Which means that I can’t really offer any profound or non profound as the case often is about Cam’s music other to say that I did quite enjoy what I heard though and will be keeping track of him. Cam was the Tom Waits or perhaps the Leonard Cohen of the night, he was one of those two as Tom was the Bob Dylan and Ange was the Joan Baez/Joni Mitchell.

After the “solo” sets were over they got together for some good old fashioned supergroup fun. One of which was of course I shall be released and there was another really great tune they did which I can’t recall at the moment.

Then some time later the music ended. some time after that the night ended with this. Tom and Thor on the footpath. In the light of a streetlight.

I almost forgot, a Troubie shot

It was called Lock up your Sons. It was a presentation of 4 guitar toting ladies, Georgia Potter, Deb Suckling, Jackie Marshall and Emma Louise. Each of the ladies were introduced by a man/boy who has had something to do with each of the ladies, that was a really nice touch. Each of these ladies had their stories to tell and each played with a special feeling about them. I have seen Georgia a few times so I knew that she would be good. I saw Jackie Marshall supporting Missy Higgins back in May and looking back now I don’t know why I have not been to see her again since then as she blew me to the wall, damm. I had no idea who Deb Suckling was till she was introduced and then I was blown away again, over the years of listening to the zed’s and reading the street press I have often heard about a local band called Brindle, turns out she is the singer from said band. The final member of this group of ladies was the youngest at just 15/16, her name is of course Emma Louise, she hails from Cairns, she won the 2007 Q Song Peoples Choice Award which tells you all you need to know and that is that this girl/lady is good.

To give you an idea of the night, here is the promo poster that was up round the place. Does it not sound like the most interesting night?

Georgia Potter

Jackie Marshall

Deb Suckling

Emma Louise

I went with my little brothers and one girlfriend. There was Carter ambushing Kate, yeah that Kate as in Futon store Kate. There was a guy who was in my year at school breaking his nose in the 2nd song. There were the people who smiled at me when they saw my camera and let me pop in front of them or forming a guard round me to prevent stage divers landing on me. There was milling on Ann St after the show whilst Matthew talked to the various randoms/scene kids.

It was a night which was a good night. The support bands were good, The Zoo wasn’t as hot as it normally gets.

The supports were The Gift Horse and The Black Market.

Then it was The ‘Souls.

You can view the rest of the photos over here at Flickr

Friday night. Another night in this not so sleepy city. Relishing that sometimes mellow, sometimes rock reggae sound floating out into the night air. The Dé Jah Groove boys were in town to release their debut album Rock-Bottom Jackpot and had pulled out two of the staples of the local scene The Cool Calm Collective and Heavyweight Champions and an up and coming band The Colour who were mighty impressive.

The venue was of course The Step Inn, in some sense the little train that perhaps just could of the Brisbane venues. It used to be the Shamrock, a place on the fringe of the “The Valley” which was more of a shall we say public bar establishment than a place to go to see fine live music. The last year though the Step Inn has really “stepped up” and became almost a go to venue. They play host to a wide variety of bands from pyschobilly to reggae dub to metal and I have a feeling that after we all stop saying, it is still the Shamrock, we will realise what a treasure it just might become though it has a lot of work to go yet in improving the venue.

It doesn’t have the nicest lighting mostly due to the design of the stage and the room in general. The lighting though does change a lot depending on the band that is playing which is a lot more than can be said for some of the other live music venues round The Valley. Friday night though I was at the extremes ISO 3200, lenses wide open round the 1.8-2.2 stop and my shutter staying at 1/200 because other wise there was no hope in hell of getting crisp photos because unlike some of your more folky acts. Those boys like to move around a bit. Back to the show though. It was a nice night, talked to a few people, missed catching up with some people who I had wanted to say hi to, running into some girls from Caloundra the other weekend, taking photos and enjoying that sound. I have to give it to the Dé Jah boys for playing a nice long set which will stay in my little memory box for the weeks to come.

This is one of my favourite tracks off the album – One Drop High. Enjoy.
[See post to listen to audio]

some photos of course. The rest are over here in a Flickr set

The Cool Calm Collective

Heavyweight Champions

The Colour