Sunsets tour!
SO THAT WAS AWESOME. I have a headache (too many flashy lights?) but dang, it was good. Won't be going again tonight but I am seriously considering trying to get a hold of some tickets for Powderfinger at the Music Bowl in October. And by that I mean if you hear about anyone with a free ticket, then for the love of all the little fishes TELL ME.
Anyway, about that gig.
I was a loser and turned up really early, so that I could sneakily listen to soundcheck, and also so that I could check out the merch. I was not willing to pay $45 for a Powderfinger shirt, no matter how cool they were, but I did enjoy laughing at the thongs.
The Vasco Era
I tried to describe The Vasco Era to speep yesterday and ended up with 'minimalist hardcore'. It's the first time I've seen them since they recorded their new album, and in the interim they've hired a keyboard player and a lot of the new stuff is much more melodic. (Their new album is all about the relationship between a stripper, Lucy and a deadbeat guy who hangs around the casino, Sam. The best song off it, apparently, is one sung from Lucy's point of view. In an all-male band. It's awesome.) I really enjoyed their set - melodic songs first, the more energetic and raw stuff at the end. Apparently they've been getting a pretty rough reception, the last two shows people have been yelling "bring on Jet" and stuff while they were playing, but nobody did that last night and they said they felt more welcome. There was also some tennis analogy involved, which I don't remember at all because I don't know anything about tennis.
They ended with Honey Bee (yay, my favourite) which is crazy intense and usually ends with Sid (the singer) screaming the lyrics even after the rest of the band have stopped playing, and then the other guys ditch their instruments and run to grab him before he gets so carried away that he runs off the edge of the stage. (No, really, this happens.) Except this time, the other guys stopped playing and Sid screamed a bit, but instead of falling over, he stopped abruptly and sang Otis Redding's "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" in full. Then played a blistering riff and screamed one last time at the end.
Jet
I already wrote a ridiculously long review of their set for ontd_jet, so if you want to know aaaall about it, head over there.
In dot points:
- They had really weird, science fictiony walk-on music. (Someone's been hanging out with Matt Bellamy too much.)
- 'Goodbye Hollywood' will be the next single
- they played a new song, in which Cam sings lead vocals. and Mark plays cowbell
- MOAR COWBELL
- I'd never realised just how MUCH Chris sings before.
- Nic made damn sure everyone was singing the 'woahs' in 'Seventeen', which I thought was gutsy for a support act
- seriously, though, MARK WILSON. I think he spent his break doing a short course in Frank Iero's Motherfucking Stage Guitar Method.
- Not a fan of the slicked-back hair, Mark, but heavily approve of the tight jeans and unbuttoned shirt.
- On a less flippant note, I think Jet are finally escaping from the shadow of 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl?' because it doesn't dominate the set any more, and there are a lot of other solid songs that are getting really enthusiastic audience responses as well. Aaaand blah blah blah, I love them, keep being awesome, Jet.
- Apparently the review in The Age said they didn't really take off, but I DISAGREE, THE AGE. Bah. It's still trendy to hate on Jet, apparently, but I don't care, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LOVE THEM. I LOVE THEM.
- The thought occurred to me last night, while hearing Jet's early stuff, that 'Get Born' is basically the album on which Nic and Cam explore the wide range of emotions that they experience after being repeatedly ditched by girls.
- ... I really like Mark.
Powderfinger
Ugh, this is hard, because I don't want to think about how it's OVER and Powderfinger are leaving me, but, well, okay.
It would be easier to list my favourite Fingers songs that didn't get played (All of the Dreamers, Waiting For The Sun, The Metre... that's it) than to figure out the set list. It's kind of odd that they didn't lean really heavily on the songs from Golden Rule like they have at more shows recently, but I guess when you get to the point of doing a farewell tour, it's not about trying to sell more albums any more.
Bernard started out making cracks about football. "It's okay that you're not across the road at the football, cause you get us!" and then "We'll get you a score at half time." Then a few songs later he gave us the score from a rugby game in Queensland, to grumbling from the crowd. "You all like the Titans, don't you? Oh, that's right, you have your own cheating rugby team." This was followed by some good-natured booing and Bernard going all "I'M SORRY ABOUT THE RUGBY THING CAN WE ALL BE FRIENDS AGAIN NOW PLEASE?"
It is hard to pick out standout tracks. Um, 'Burn Your Name' for sure, to pick a favourite new one. It's kind of cheesy I guess, but I love how it's such a straight-up, no-holding-back love song, and it's honest and all out there and good music too. 'My Happiness' almost reaches a Whitlams level of 'the crowd are the singers, we just stand up here and play the instruments'. I don't think I can describe how great it is in words. Same with 'These Days' or 'My Kind Of Scene'. Those songs are just... they're part of me. I will stop that line of conversation before I start talking about how Odyssey #5 was ALWAYS THERE FOR ME, but this was always going to be a rambly gig report.
As a rock show, they're odd ducks. I tend to think of Powderfinger as the kind of band who will give the same show whether they're playing to a hundred people or ten thousand, but having said that, they adapt better than I thought they would to a big stadium show. The half-circle screen at the back of the stage is back, and it works better than I would have expected. I mean, they're not a band that I think of as really needing a light show or anything, but even though i've seen them play with the screen before, it still surprises me how well some of the simple stuff they use works. Cloud images for some things, the palm trees for 'sunsets', a lot of water motifs. Nature stuff, basicaly, I guess. And during 'Passenger,' the last song before encore, they played this whole film that started out in space and if you stared into it it basically felt like you were gradually falling towards the Earth throughout the song until it ended on a close-up of cracked asphalt in a car park. Then they left the image up while they all walked off stage. It was amazing.
But with or without a giant screen background, they're not a band I would expect to pull big stadiums stunts, or do anything artsy. So I was a little bit surprised when, after one song, they put down their instruments, walked offstage, and started playing a montage of old black and white TV footage from space projects, with some music over the top that I think was in Russian. (Okay, I wasn't actually surprised because I heard about them doing it in Newcastle and I'd noticed something odd about the sound booth, but it was still exciting!) After about five minutes they all snuck through a back door to the floor, RAN THROUGH THE CROWD and climbed up on a tiny stage at the back of the stadium. (Really, tiny. It was about the size of a boxing ring, maybe smaller, and there were five of them in there.) And then they went into 'Like A Dog' and it was like what I always imagined it would be like to see Nirvana play on a tiny stage. That probably sounds stupid but whatever. IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING.
They played something else on the small stage, during which they seemed to be trying to break a personal record for the number of people they could get standing on a single drumkit. (It wasn't very successful but it was funny.) Then all of them except Cogs (the drummer) left the stage and he went into AN AMAZING TWO-MINUTE DRUM SOLO, and then everyone else except Bernard came back on stage as well, one at a time, and joined in, and it just kind of exploded. Cogs ran around the edge of the stage, leaning over to high-five everyone who was standing at the barrier.
And then suddenly all attention was back on Bernard, playing 'Whatever Makes You Happy' solo on the main stage again.
That wasn't the end of the show, but it seems like a good place to end the review. They played a stack of other songs, and an encore, and at the end they just turned off the lightshow, turned up the house lights, and all five of them stood up the front of the stage and put their arms around each other and took a bow. And while it made me go "NOOOO FINGERS WHY YOU GOTTA LEAVE MEEEE?", 'Whatever Makes You Happy' is kind of what I'm trying to take away from this. It's what they've decided. It's what they want. And I sure hope it's what will make them happy.
In the mean time, they have a full two more months of this incredible farewell tour to go, and I'll always have the music.
Anyway, about that gig.
I was a loser and turned up really early, so that I could sneakily listen to soundcheck, and also so that I could check out the merch. I was not willing to pay $45 for a Powderfinger shirt, no matter how cool they were, but I did enjoy laughing at the thongs.
The Vasco Era
I tried to describe The Vasco Era to speep yesterday and ended up with 'minimalist hardcore'. It's the first time I've seen them since they recorded their new album, and in the interim they've hired a keyboard player and a lot of the new stuff is much more melodic. (Their new album is all about the relationship between a stripper, Lucy and a deadbeat guy who hangs around the casino, Sam. The best song off it, apparently, is one sung from Lucy's point of view. In an all-male band. It's awesome.) I really enjoyed their set - melodic songs first, the more energetic and raw stuff at the end. Apparently they've been getting a pretty rough reception, the last two shows people have been yelling "bring on Jet" and stuff while they were playing, but nobody did that last night and they said they felt more welcome. There was also some tennis analogy involved, which I don't remember at all because I don't know anything about tennis.
They ended with Honey Bee (yay, my favourite) which is crazy intense and usually ends with Sid (the singer) screaming the lyrics even after the rest of the band have stopped playing, and then the other guys ditch their instruments and run to grab him before he gets so carried away that he runs off the edge of the stage. (No, really, this happens.) Except this time, the other guys stopped playing and Sid screamed a bit, but instead of falling over, he stopped abruptly and sang Otis Redding's "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" in full. Then played a blistering riff and screamed one last time at the end.
Jet
I already wrote a ridiculously long review of their set for ontd_jet, so if you want to know aaaall about it, head over there.
In dot points:
- They had really weird, science fictiony walk-on music. (Someone's been hanging out with Matt Bellamy too much.)
- 'Goodbye Hollywood' will be the next single
- they played a new song, in which Cam sings lead vocals. and Mark plays cowbell
- MOAR COWBELL
- I'd never realised just how MUCH Chris sings before.
- Nic made damn sure everyone was singing the 'woahs' in 'Seventeen', which I thought was gutsy for a support act
- seriously, though, MARK WILSON. I think he spent his break doing a short course in Frank Iero's Motherfucking Stage Guitar Method.
- Not a fan of the slicked-back hair, Mark, but heavily approve of the tight jeans and unbuttoned shirt.
- On a less flippant note, I think Jet are finally escaping from the shadow of 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl?' because it doesn't dominate the set any more, and there are a lot of other solid songs that are getting really enthusiastic audience responses as well. Aaaand blah blah blah, I love them, keep being awesome, Jet.
- Apparently the review in The Age said they didn't really take off, but I DISAGREE, THE AGE. Bah. It's still trendy to hate on Jet, apparently, but I don't care, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LOVE THEM. I LOVE THEM.
- The thought occurred to me last night, while hearing Jet's early stuff, that 'Get Born' is basically the album on which Nic and Cam explore the wide range of emotions that they experience after being repeatedly ditched by girls.
- ... I really like Mark.
Powderfinger
Ugh, this is hard, because I don't want to think about how it's OVER and Powderfinger are leaving me, but, well, okay.
It would be easier to list my favourite Fingers songs that didn't get played (All of the Dreamers, Waiting For The Sun, The Metre... that's it) than to figure out the set list. It's kind of odd that they didn't lean really heavily on the songs from Golden Rule like they have at more shows recently, but I guess when you get to the point of doing a farewell tour, it's not about trying to sell more albums any more.
Bernard started out making cracks about football. "It's okay that you're not across the road at the football, cause you get us!" and then "We'll get you a score at half time." Then a few songs later he gave us the score from a rugby game in Queensland, to grumbling from the crowd. "You all like the Titans, don't you? Oh, that's right, you have your own cheating rugby team." This was followed by some good-natured booing and Bernard going all "I'M SORRY ABOUT THE RUGBY THING CAN WE ALL BE FRIENDS AGAIN NOW PLEASE?"
It is hard to pick out standout tracks. Um, 'Burn Your Name' for sure, to pick a favourite new one. It's kind of cheesy I guess, but I love how it's such a straight-up, no-holding-back love song, and it's honest and all out there and good music too. 'My Happiness' almost reaches a Whitlams level of 'the crowd are the singers, we just stand up here and play the instruments'. I don't think I can describe how great it is in words. Same with 'These Days' or 'My Kind Of Scene'. Those songs are just... they're part of me. I will stop that line of conversation before I start talking about how Odyssey #5 was ALWAYS THERE FOR ME, but this was always going to be a rambly gig report.
As a rock show, they're odd ducks. I tend to think of Powderfinger as the kind of band who will give the same show whether they're playing to a hundred people or ten thousand, but having said that, they adapt better than I thought they would to a big stadium show. The half-circle screen at the back of the stage is back, and it works better than I would have expected. I mean, they're not a band that I think of as really needing a light show or anything, but even though i've seen them play with the screen before, it still surprises me how well some of the simple stuff they use works. Cloud images for some things, the palm trees for 'sunsets', a lot of water motifs. Nature stuff, basicaly, I guess. And during 'Passenger,' the last song before encore, they played this whole film that started out in space and if you stared into it it basically felt like you were gradually falling towards the Earth throughout the song until it ended on a close-up of cracked asphalt in a car park. Then they left the image up while they all walked off stage. It was amazing.
But with or without a giant screen background, they're not a band I would expect to pull big stadiums stunts, or do anything artsy. So I was a little bit surprised when, after one song, they put down their instruments, walked offstage, and started playing a montage of old black and white TV footage from space projects, with some music over the top that I think was in Russian. (Okay, I wasn't actually surprised because I heard about them doing it in Newcastle and I'd noticed something odd about the sound booth, but it was still exciting!) After about five minutes they all snuck through a back door to the floor, RAN THROUGH THE CROWD and climbed up on a tiny stage at the back of the stadium. (Really, tiny. It was about the size of a boxing ring, maybe smaller, and there were five of them in there.) And then they went into 'Like A Dog' and it was like what I always imagined it would be like to see Nirvana play on a tiny stage. That probably sounds stupid but whatever. IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING.
They played something else on the small stage, during which they seemed to be trying to break a personal record for the number of people they could get standing on a single drumkit. (It wasn't very successful but it was funny.) Then all of them except Cogs (the drummer) left the stage and he went into AN AMAZING TWO-MINUTE DRUM SOLO, and then everyone else except Bernard came back on stage as well, one at a time, and joined in, and it just kind of exploded. Cogs ran around the edge of the stage, leaning over to high-five everyone who was standing at the barrier.
And then suddenly all attention was back on Bernard, playing 'Whatever Makes You Happy' solo on the main stage again.
That wasn't the end of the show, but it seems like a good place to end the review. They played a stack of other songs, and an encore, and at the end they just turned off the lightshow, turned up the house lights, and all five of them stood up the front of the stage and put their arms around each other and took a bow. And while it made me go "NOOOO FINGERS WHY YOU GOTTA LEAVE MEEEE?", 'Whatever Makes You Happy' is kind of what I'm trying to take away from this. It's what they've decided. It's what they want. And I sure hope it's what will make them happy.
In the mean time, they have a full two more months of this incredible farewell tour to go, and I'll always have the music.