Lock Up Your Sons!

Last night I went to a concert. Correction it is now Friday so on Tuesday night I went to a concert.

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?
lock up your sons poster

Georgia Potter
Georgia Potter
Jackie Marshall
Jackie Marshall
Deb Suckling
Deb Suckling
Emma Louise
Emma Lousie

I have to be this way.

Friday night in The Valley.
The eve of Summer.
The Zoo.
85% sweaty males in black t-shirts.
Melbourne Bitter was the flavour of the night.
One of the greatest Punk bands.
Something special.
$35 was a bargain price.
It was The Bouncing Souls.
There is a reason they are who they are.
It was a very good night.

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.
The Gift Horse The Black Market

Then it was The ‘Souls.
Greg Attonito, The Bouncing Souls, The Zoo, 30/11/07 The Souls! Punks in Vegas Duet The Bouncing Souls, The Zoo, 30/11/07

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

Rock-Bottom Jackpot

Friday day. Another day in the office. Answering the phone. Doing the mail. Typing up quotes. Answering the phone. Chasing suppliers. All that fun stuff that fills my day between 8am and 4:30pm each day.

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.
[audio:09%20One%20Drop%20High.mp3]

some photos of course. The rest are over here in a Flickr set
Gus, Dé Jah GrooveHarley, Dé Jah GrooveDave, Dé Jah GrooveLach, Dé Jah GrooveDelaney, Dé Jah GrooveWill, Dé Jah Groove Dé Jah Groove Dé Jah Groove

The Cool Calm Collective
Georgia, The Cool Calm CollectiveThe Cool Calm Collective

Heavyweight Champions
Heavyweight ChampionsHeavyweight Champions

The Colour
The Colour

…just some words from my heart…

Xavier Rudd

Last Wednesday I went along to the Tivoli to shoot the Xavier Rudd concert for The Dwarf and had a ball 😀 It was my first gig with a true blue press pit and much to my astonishment, I was the only photographer there. Quite interesting. The support act Jeremey Fisher was a total treat and Xavier was well he was Xavier. The venue seemed to be lacking a little bit in terms of energy but it was still great music. That said when he started playing Let me be, I think the whole place just lit up smiles on faces or when he did a remarkable Australian version of Bob Marley’s classic Redemption Song in which you could feel Xavier beating in your heart. It was a good night.

Jeremy Fisher & Crowd

CMF Sunday

The last day of a very music filled 2.5 days at Caloundra. Part of me was glad for the festival to be over but another part of me was sad, as I had heard so much great music over the course of the weekend. Will be really interesting to see how it will be run next year and what the line up will be.

Some more Dé Jah Groove photos. I had enjoyed these boys at Woodford but at Caloundra they really blew me and just about everyone else away. I am still listening to the CD every few days and looking forward to when they come up in a couple of weeks time.
Dé Jah Groove, WillDé Jah Groove, LachDé Jah Groove, DaveDé Jah Groove, GusThose Dé Jah BoysFoley, Lach, Dallas & Jeff

Another big highlight of the w/e was Kaya. Another group I had seen at Woodford and were blown away by. Kaya are four ladies who sing with such passion and soul in their voices you would think that they have been told that after this show they will not be singing anymore
The Kaya Ladies

I think it is pretty well known round these spaces that in terms of “Brisbane” bands, Women in Docs pretty much top the list for me and for the Sunday show they played Tin Roof which is always going to make me smile.
Women in Docs, ChanelWomen in Docs, RozWomen in Docs

Tijuana Cartel
These guys were pretty classy to, mixing up classical guitar with some “rap” elements.
Tijuana CartelTijuana CartelTijuana Cartel

Lisa Hunt, the last act on the main stage and by george can this lady sing.
Lisa HuntLisa Hunt

What a weekend it was, great music all weekend, fun times with my camera and of course meeting a great bunch of people 😀

Mia Dyson & Co

Last Saturday night I headed along to The Zoo for The Dwarf for the Mia Dyson & Epicure concert. You can see all the photos from the night at The Dwarf gallery. Mia Dyson reminded me how much you never know how much you will like a band till you see them live. You can hear them on the J’s day in and day out but until you see a live show you really just don’t know. Mia Dyson had just the the right amount of rock/country/etc for me, really enjoyed her set. Epicure were great as well, I had thought that they were going to be a lot more rockier before the set but they didn’t disappoint. Matt Walker was the support as well as been Mia’s guitarist and he provided a very nice welcoming set.

Epicure Mia Dyson Epicure Mia Dyson Mia Dyson, Matt Walker