The Espy (29/5/2009)

After a good free gig at the Prince of Wales on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, be walked around the corner where we had heard one of our favorite up-and-comers: The Fearless Vampire Killers were playing...

The Espy

Cool refreshing beer straight from the tap, why a venue would not have such a fantastic commodity beats the hell out of me - stick that Prince of Wales! The Espy is dirty, smelly, airless hot and awesome! Beer taps are a big part of venue rating in my books, but each to his own.

The Fearless Vampire Killers

Getting out of You Am I kinda late (1am) we weren't really expecting much more from the espy than a beer and a game of pinball but man were we in for a surprise - when we walked in the front door of the front bar, I am pretty sure we heard the start of the first song of their set as by the end I couldn't think of any of their other songs that I didn't hear. After their opening song they followed it with The Sinner (see my previous post on TFVK to hear it) - awesome song. They were playing well and the crowd near the front of the stage were either off their tits or overcome with a need to dance inspired by the music; I'm thinking it was a mixture of the two. In an unexpected turn of events and to phrase it in Sean's words "The kick pedal is fucked" - so whilst another friendly drummer on the night saw to that issue, the remaining members of the band on stage proceeded to continue the show without drums, they managed to pull of a version of something I didn't directly recognise but the style was familiar and heavily bass driven - it was interesting anyway. Luckily by the time that song was complete the drum kit for back to a fully functional state and they were ready to rock again! Around the end of their set I recognised the dudes from the frowning clouds were amongst the munters near the front of the stage and they were hilarious! One of the dudes climbed on to the stage in a crouched stance with a silver coloured serving platter full of spring rolls and crawled along the front of the stage distributing them to the folks in the audience. Once he arrived at the other end of the stage he stood up and threw them at people - funny stuff. Once he was out of spring rolls he frisbied the tray at some dude's head, then erratically ran the front-centre stage and launched himself like a horizontal javelin into the crowd in what I'm sure he intended to be a very rock-and-roll crowd surf but ended up resembling a wrestling spear tackle on 2 poor girls that failed to see him coming or everyone around them moving away. Greatly entertaining show, I cant wait to see which members of which bands will disgrace themselves at the next TFVK show!

Slocombe's Pussy @ The Toff (21/5/2009)

The VICMOD Ensemble

What I understand The VICtorian MODular Synthesiser Ensemble to be is a group of guys that use homemade modular synthesisers to perform wondrous sounds to live audiences. To can view their blog here. The show they put on was not exactly what I was expecting but it was a unique sight: 5 expressionless guys sitting in front of synthesisers on the front of the stage appearing to not move at all. My first impression was that it resembled a LAN party or this scene from southpark.

The sounds they were producing were amazing but I admit I couldn't get into it. There is no way in hell I would dare to make fun of something I don't properly understand though. This video below may give you an idea of it a bit better. Throughout the show they also have some imagery flashing around on a projector screen which added to the show. I think you would need to be a fellow modular synthesiser operator or be high to thoroughly enjoy this show.

Schweinhund
The red curtains opened wide to reveal a dark stage with 5 tyvek suited dudes using more traditional instruments (kind of) to play some psychedelic rock. By "kind of" I mean I only remember seeing one less conventional band instrument: one had what looked like a lap steel mounted on a stand, which added some interesting and unique sounds to the mix. It was refreshing to see a band that had semi original matching costumes (and not a goddamn suit!). I found the Seth Rogan look-alike lead guitarist a bit distracting but the visuals that were playing on the projector screen throughout the show were a nice touch. Please excuse the shithouse quality of these images - they were taken with a phone, not a camera.

I would want to hear more of them to get into a little more; as it was I can't say I found their music adversely skillful and I don't recall any awesome moments but don't write them off - it shat all over anything we saw on Wednesday night!

Slocombe's Pussy
From the moment the red curtains parted I think most people in the room would have been a little amazed by the spectacle on the stage: the five of them were dressed in robes - 2 had human faces 2 appeared to have loofahs for faces, the stage have bubbles raining down on it the whole time whilst being lit with predominantly green light with a strobe flashing away. It was quite a unique sight. You can check out their MySpace here and check out a live performance below.

A stand out moment for me during their set was the operation of a mysterious instrument I can only describe as a Scull Wand by pink loofah face. As he (or she?) moved it up and down it seemed to produce higher or lower sounds - very cool. The music was fairly hardcore, which I like but didn't really hook me in enough to want to see them again. Spectacular show though.

I haven't forgotten

Sorry about my lack of posts, I've been without internet for a few weeks.... currently doing this in an internet cafe. Stay tuned next week for a stupid amount of reviews. There's 23 bands I've seen recently that I haven't rwritten about...... stay tuned..

Tame Impala @ The Toff (18/5/2009)

Triple J hosted a fantastic free gig in the city of Melbourne for 300 lucky people to experience the wonder of Tame Impala. We were lucky enough to be counted amongst this group of keen punters.

The Toff -
Cool place, it was perfect for this kind of function, free entry and mood pouring out of it's walls creating a cosy, yet classy atmosphere.

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Oh Mercy -
This was the first time I had heard them, but first impressions: think of a slightly poppier Blonde Redhead and add a pinch of The Bends Radiohead? Maybe check out their MySpace and decide for yourself. They played a good show and I think they impressed the majority of the crowd. They had a decent sound and I would like to see them again!

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Tame Impala -
Fucking awesome gig, I might even go as far as to say...Best of the year? maybe it was due to the fact that I had seen them on saturday and all their songs were fresh in my head... I had an awesome time. I won't really understand how they pull such a massive crowd considering that psychedelic stuff doesn't always do it for everyone, but I guess MGMT might have provided a stepping stone for the modern mainstream alternatives into this genre; interesting.... I was having a great night, even though my taxi driver made me listen to some indo-pop on the way home nothing could get me down!
ok, so the show started with a usual familiar song (sorry don't know the names) and kept them coming until the third or forth song where they pulled a complete surprise piece and whipped out an awesome rendition of angel by massive attack. But the fun didn't stop there, I really can't express this effectively in words but suffice to say it had me smiling for the length show, so much so the guy next to me insisted I have a swig of his pint of wine! These guys play the style of music I appreciate most and you are in to the psychedalia, I highly recommend you see them.

Yah Yah's (14/05/2009)

Yah Yah's -

Great place - as we've said before. Free entry is excellent and believe it or not, so are good bands.

The Frowning Clouds -

When we arrived they were partway through their set and sounding remarkably The Who-like. They did a cool thing with that song "all the day and all the night" where they kind of played the song but put their own lyrics to it. Check it out:



I'm noticing that heaps of people love this band though...that's nice. I'm such a dick.

The Fearless Vampire Killers -

By this stage of the night I wasn't really sober and was enjoying myself immensely, man I love this song:

These guys are massively underrated, excluding our reviews of course, wow. Check them out!

Failed night out! (14/5/2009)

So we set out on an expedition to see Yolke (fantastic band we saw at the Summer Noise Festival) at a Melbourne instiution of live music - The Tote. After having quite a good time drinking beer and eating burgers at our Thurday night hangout (beer deluxe @ Fed Square; Beer + burger + chips = $8.50!), we arrived at the Tote at approximately 8:30pm to find the doors closed, lights out and definately nobody home. With no signs on the door to explain this unfathomable situation, we were imensely disappointed. It ruined our night.

Hoping to cut our losses we visited one of old favorites Yah Yah's as we were nearby to hopefully salvage what was a most dissappoint turn of events. Unfortunately for us, we lacked the patience to wait for a band (we did wait an hour or more though). Completely disheartened, we decided to give up on the night and go home...until we walked past:
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Blue Tile Lounge -
Seemed like an ok place, relatively small and had lots of skating memorabelia - which was cool. Drinks were reasonably priced and entry was free and music was pouring out the door. In futile hope I talked my co-blogger into entering against his better judgement.

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*Unknown Band Name* -

I'm sorry unknown band at the Blue Tile Lounge, we walked in when you were partway through your set, drank a beer and left before you finished. We wouldn't usualy do that because it's a bit disrespectful, but after this night we really weren't in the mood for some boring, vanilla rock and we just wanted leave.

APRIL OVERVIEW

I'm slipping something shocking. But I'll be getting better. I'm moving house. Now living in Rockville. May has some great gigs coming... exciting times. But April was fun.

TOP 5 BANDS IN NO ORDER
Taking into account talent, stage presence and how surprised I was at their awesomeness.

The Drones
Because I love them the most and never get tired of them live. Every set is different, the songs the always play get better, and the random songs they slip in are better than anything you can do. Yes... you. River of Tears as the Encore will be one of the best performances of a song of the year.

Zappa Plays Zappa
The best guitarist I will probably see all year. 3 hours of mind-melting music in a theater straight from the Muppets. Zappa is the king of music.

Kev Carmody
A BIG surprise. Pretty much making it into this list because he proved me wrong. I can be wholly enthralled, entertained and satisfied by a guy with an acoustic guitar for 45 minutes. He could have played for hours and I wouldn't have lost interest.

M83
Cool french sounds. Bad Audience. The last 3 songs made the set. I can't remember what they were... I think everyone needs a Guitar and a Heart in their life. That's one of their songs. Smile.

The Good China
I had seen them before and wrote them off as a bunch of obnoxious arty Arcade Fire fans. Which they probably are... but they are terrific. The songs are catchy, they have terrific stage presence and apparently they're going places.

Venue of the Month

Cherry Bar
I don't know why Pat chose the Palais over Cherry bar. Cherry bar is loud, full of booze and violence. The Palais had kids in it. I saw a photographer hit his head on a speaker because he was rocking too hard at Cherry bar. We sat down at the Palais, and the guy next to me filmed a whole Zappa song (approx 45 minutes) with no camera shakes. Cherry Bar was burnt down by Jamie Oliver (or something). Win!

THE BRUNO KIRBY AWARD FOR MOST BEST BAND THAT MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST BUT I SEE GREAT THINGS FOR THEM (And even though they're kind of a comedic actor they were in the Godfather 2)...

The JSB's
I don't like the name, but the nerdiest looking band in the world (Sorry Weezer) are great fun. They played songs with stupid names, stupid hooks, stupid beats and stupid roaming cow bell. Everything I like. The singer has a cool sort of David Byrne x with Lux Capacitor thing going on. Luv it. I went home, turned up my drum machine to 168 bpm and yelled for 30 minutes. Shit was so awesome. Inspirational. ALso, the singers name is James Murphy. That's now two James Murphy's that are my heroes. I wish I had a famous name. 

April Overview (PAT)

I have been a bit slack lately, I am seriously slipping! So much so, I deemed March as unecessary to blog about as I saw so little in comparison with previous months. Anyway, I'll get there - let's continue with the usual overview banter, come on!

Top Gigs
THE DRONES

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA

BOOTLEG @ CHERRY BAR

Outstanding Performances
KEV CARMODY
THE GOOD CHINA
JAMES HAMPTON

Best Venue
This is a bit of a tough one this month....
THE PALAIS? limiting booze areas but boasts fantastic sound and great atmosphere. I usually like revolver but it didn't quite do it for me this time around.

Top Bands (musically)
ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA - even if he didn't write it he still had the best catalog to work with
THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS
M83

AWARDS:
Minds Eye Award
I should just change the name of this award to the 'TFVK award"....
THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS

Biggest FAIL
THE D0 - We didn't even see them because when they were supposed to be supporting M83, they agreed to switching stage times with them for a reason unknow to us. Who wants to see the support after the main event? it's like all those races after the Melbourne Cup has been run...nobody cares - Bad move!