The Drones (23/4/2009)

Once again, we're at the corner hotel. The staff are friendly and it's full of smelly people. The pole is still in the middle of the stage. I can't think of one gig at the corner that looked different from another. Points for consistancy I guess. 

Witch Hats

(People complained about too much text... fixed much?)

Witch Hats are a local band who play noisy art rock. The lead singer kind of looks like a Green Day, but luckily sounds nothing like a Green Day. Their tunes have plenty of noise, which is fun, and while at times it became a little tedious, they managed to sneak in a little somethin-something to save it from being a big ugly mess. The drums were cool. And apparently the Drummer is only newish, so go him. 

Kev Carmody

In my ignorance, when I heard that the original support for the Drones (Qui) was replaced by Kev Carmody, I panicked. I don't want some 24 year old kid killing my buzz with a 45 minute acoustic set before the bucket-smashing Drones take the stage. Boo-erns. Boo-erns.

Luckily, it wasn't a 24 year old pimple, it was a cool looking old Aboriginal guy complete with headband. Win! And again in my ignorance, I found myself mesmerised, not only by his awesome guitar playing, but his ability to have everyone in the room transfixed as he (very cheekily)paid out on what city-slicking, uncultured, greedy, lost people we were. I wanted to give him to give me a hug and help me build a veggie garden. But he didn't... he just played amazing songs. 

Then he finished with 'From Little things, Big Things Grow'... which he wrote with Paul Kelly. My ignorance explode. I am a moron. I want to listen to more.

The Drones

I've said it before and I still find it hard to convince people. The Drones are the best Australian band in the WHOLE WORLD. No-one believes me. Jimmy... you're such a goon... what about Van She. What about Hilltawp? What about Pez? Watch the video above. It's a cover of a Kev Carmody tune, but I guess in the same way that 'All along the watchtower' is by Dylan. It is... but he never pictured this frightening. 

The gig was great. New tunes, old tunes... we got sneered at by Gareth and made to feel relaxed again by Mike and Dan. The pretty girl didn't say much. Then we got yelled at again by Gareth. He is one intense dude... I'm frightened of his jokes. My favourite band in the Stralia. 

The cool thing about putting youtube videos on this review is that I can spend less type writing. This whole thing took me 2 minutes... more time for drawing pictures of rayguns. 

Black Mountain (27/2/2009)

The corner hotel is one of the big guns on the Melbourne live music scene... even though the venue isn't particularly grand. As a pub, big thumbs up, but venue... meh. There's a big ass friggin pole dead set in the middle of the dancefloor in front of the stage. And the air con was on mighty high and it was chilly. But the quality of tunes more than makes up for it 90 percent of the time.

Son Hawk

Kind of sounded a bit like Neil Young most of the time, with the exception of one Triple-M sounding rock song which I wasn't really into. One song I noticed in particular was 'Wishing Well'.... long sprawly guitar song... it was fun. Definitely set the mood for what was to come. Very cool.

Lady Strangelove

You know how most prog-rock songs have slow bits and fast bits, quiet bits and loud bits etc. (pretty much the elements that define them as prog rock), well Lady Strangelove are a prog-rock band without the slow bits. From the first beat to the last it sounds like the most ridiculous part of a Mars Volta tune.... which is good for the first two songs... but by the end of the set I was getting a little... not tired, but weary... of the non-stop rockin. They sound a lot like Wolf and Cub, but with a lot more practice (see previous Wolf and Cub review)... can't really complain about them, if I had of heard one song they'd have been amazing, but a whole set is almost too much of a good thing.

Black Mountain

What better way to cap off the amazing Feburary of gigs, with Black Mountain. I swear, no shit, my hairs on the back of my neck stood up about 8 times... and it wasn't just the air conditioning. The songs are fantastically written, the band can perform stunningly without an ego in sight, and a 16 minute encore is just what a band needs to do to get me to use the words amazing, stunning and fantastically. 'Angels' is a future classic, 'Don't Run our Hearts around' was stupid fun, and the moment where the chick belts out that one line in 'Tyrants'... wow. It's a feeling even better than finding out you were still intact after you had thought you'd been castrated by a sociapathic teenager, but they only used a bulldog clip and some ice (I just watched Hard Candy... didn't actually happen to me). I love Black Mountain.

Shit review I know, but I can't put it into words... it a whole lot easier to write about something that is horridly bad than stupendously good.