Yeah I don't really consider going to the eastern suburbs for a gig a good time, but Oren Ambarchi blissed everyone and their free noodles the fuck out. I don't know how long Oren Ambarchi gigs normally go for but 25mins leaves me wanting a lot more.
Oren Ambarchi - SuperDeluxe Artspace, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 33mb - 25 minutes
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Graf Orlock/Dangers House show
Yeah I went to a house show and took my recording gear, nerd alert.
Nice Guys opened up proceedings at the neighbourhood friendly time of 1pm, I only ever seen these guys one other time at their first show, and got damn they've improved. They got really good really fast. Eager to see them again after this.
Nice Guys - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 29mb - 20 minutes
Dangers were up next, and my impression was that the vocalist was trying to murder the crowd, he at one staged jammed me into a fireplace. Pretty darn good set but there were times where the vocals verged into the yelping territory, but the rest of the time they were really solid.
Dangers - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 40mb - 28 minutes
Graf Orlock last. It's not every day you attend a gig where everyone shouts along to movie quotes, but these guys really brought it. The mics clip a whole heap when shit gets rough but I managed to get a good sound out of it, sounds a bit fucked up as well when a few guys and I tried to jam him through the bannister. Classic ending of doing a cover of the Jurassic Park theme while crowd surfing through the room, through the kitchen and out into the backyard.
Graf Orlock - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 35mb - 25 minutes
Nice Guys opened up proceedings at the neighbourhood friendly time of 1pm, I only ever seen these guys one other time at their first show, and got damn they've improved. They got really good really fast. Eager to see them again after this.
Nice Guys - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 29mb - 20 minutes
Dangers were up next, and my impression was that the vocalist was trying to murder the crowd, he at one staged jammed me into a fireplace. Pretty darn good set but there were times where the vocals verged into the yelping territory, but the rest of the time they were really solid.
Dangers - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 40mb - 28 minutes
Graf Orlock last. It's not every day you attend a gig where everyone shouts along to movie quotes, but these guys really brought it. The mics clip a whole heap when shit gets rough but I managed to get a good sound out of it, sounds a bit fucked up as well when a few guys and I tried to jam him through the bannister. Classic ending of doing a cover of the Jurassic Park theme while crowd surfing through the room, through the kitchen and out into the backyard.
Graf Orlock - House Show, Sydney, 26/06/2010 - 35mb - 25 minutes
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Crow album launch
So this was pretty cool, never had a chance to see Crow before, though they mostly played new songs, they were done alright, but the older material was amazing and refreshing to hear. The PA system in the venue sucked balls and there were tech problems galore. Notes is a Vanguard-esque venue, which means it sucks. Also middle-aged drunk people. Can't get enough of them.
Crow - Notes, Sydney, 04/06/2010 - 120mb - 1 hour 22 minutes
Crow - Notes, Sydney, 04/06/2010 - 120mb - 1 hour 22 minutes
VIVD Festival: The King Khan & BBQ Show
This show, quite simply, was weird.
It started off good enough, with King Khan walking off stage, out the fire exit and up onto the balcony where Lou Reed was seated to try and play a guitar solo, unfortunately the guitar dropped out and it was left up to Mark Sultan to fill the gap. From there on the show was up and down. Great parts included the music, Mark Sultan, getting everyone to throw a rubber snake around, and feeding everyone, the weird parts were King Khan being a general douche, being incredibly racist and getting the person he was being racist towards to dance for him still, cracking the shits with people in the crowd, kicking a dude in the fucking face, and desperate chicks getting up on stage being desperate.
It was easy to tell what was part of the King Khan and BBQ Show and what wasn't, seemed to me like King Khan was just trying to hard to impress Lou Reed, who greeted him mostly with his heroin face.
So yeah, The King Khan and BBQ Show ended after this show, and King Khan was banned from the Opera House. They are no more. Read King Khan's side of the story here, though he quite obviously left a lot out, what was written there wouldn't have caused Mark Sultan to break up the band, but it's all very sad, they were great together.
The King Khan & BBQ Show - Opera House Studio, Sydney, 03/06/2010 - 99mb - 1 hour 8 minutes
It started off good enough, with King Khan walking off stage, out the fire exit and up onto the balcony where Lou Reed was seated to try and play a guitar solo, unfortunately the guitar dropped out and it was left up to Mark Sultan to fill the gap. From there on the show was up and down. Great parts included the music, Mark Sultan, getting everyone to throw a rubber snake around, and feeding everyone, the weird parts were King Khan being a general douche, being incredibly racist and getting the person he was being racist towards to dance for him still, cracking the shits with people in the crowd, kicking a dude in the fucking face, and desperate chicks getting up on stage being desperate.
It was easy to tell what was part of the King Khan and BBQ Show and what wasn't, seemed to me like King Khan was just trying to hard to impress Lou Reed, who greeted him mostly with his heroin face.
So yeah, The King Khan and BBQ Show ended after this show, and King Khan was banned from the Opera House. They are no more. Read King Khan's side of the story here, though he quite obviously left a lot out, what was written there wouldn't have caused Mark Sultan to break up the band, but it's all very sad, they were great together.
The King Khan & BBQ Show - Opera House Studio, Sydney, 03/06/2010 - 99mb - 1 hour 8 minutes
Thursday, June 3, 2010
VIVID Festival: Melt-Banana
This was awesome.
The set starts out with 15/20 minutes of the Yasuko Onuki & Ichirou Agata collaboration that was shown at Noise Night, once again in complete darkness with nothing but head torches, before the rest of the band joined them for an hours worth of awesome Melt-Banana material. Yasuko has the craziest eyes ever when she's not being adorable and Ichirou is still blowing my mind as a guitarist. Encore includes them covering the Specials covering Monkey Man.
Not that any one that has any say in this will read this, but I really think the Opera House should have gigs in the Studio like this more often, and not just for international bands/established Australian acts. The sound is amazing and it's got a good vibe, plus the novelty of being the god damn Opera House.
Setlist - Thanks to Wiebke's awesome Melt-Banana live archive.
Phantasmagoria
T for Tone
Slide Down
One Drop, One life
Lock the Head
In Store
Cat and the Blood
Dog Song
Dig a Pit
Chain Keeper
Shield for Your Eyes, a Beast in the Well on Your Hand
RRAGG
Spider Snipe
Heiwaboke Crisis
Cat Brain Land
Too Rough to Scoop
The Call of the Vague
Loop Nebula
Leeching
Circle-Jack (Chase the Magic Words, Lego Lego)
A Hunter in the Rain to Cut the Neck Up in the Present Stage
Pain in Ash
Cracked Plaster Cast
Green Eyed Devil
A Dreamer who is too Weak to Face Up to
Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold
Blank Page of the Blind
Encore
Monkey Man
Spathic!!
Encore
Scratch or Stitch!
Melt-Banana - Opera House Studio, Sydney, 02/06/2010 - 113mb - 1 hour 14 minutes
The set starts out with 15/20 minutes of the Yasuko Onuki & Ichirou Agata collaboration that was shown at Noise Night, once again in complete darkness with nothing but head torches, before the rest of the band joined them for an hours worth of awesome Melt-Banana material. Yasuko has the craziest eyes ever when she's not being adorable and Ichirou is still blowing my mind as a guitarist. Encore includes them covering the Specials covering Monkey Man.
Not that any one that has any say in this will read this, but I really think the Opera House should have gigs in the Studio like this more often, and not just for international bands/established Australian acts. The sound is amazing and it's got a good vibe, plus the novelty of being the god damn Opera House.
Setlist - Thanks to Wiebke's awesome Melt-Banana live archive.
Phantasmagoria
T for Tone
Slide Down
One Drop, One life
Lock the Head
In Store
Cat and the Blood
Dog Song
Dig a Pit
Chain Keeper
Shield for Your Eyes, a Beast in the Well on Your Hand
RRAGG
Spider Snipe
Heiwaboke Crisis
Cat Brain Land
Too Rough to Scoop
The Call of the Vague
Loop Nebula
Leeching
Circle-Jack (Chase the Magic Words, Lego Lego)
A Hunter in the Rain to Cut the Neck Up in the Present Stage
Pain in Ash
Cracked Plaster Cast
Green Eyed Devil
A Dreamer who is too Weak to Face Up to
Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold
Blank Page of the Blind
Encore
Monkey Man
Spathic!!
Encore
Scratch or Stitch!
Melt-Banana - Opera House Studio, Sydney, 02/06/2010 - 113mb - 1 hour 14 minutes
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
VIVID Festival: Noise Night
Holy. Fucking. Shit. What. Did. I. Just. Witness?
To start off it's hard to believe that these bands are all playing the Opera House, let alone all on the one night. Always knew tonight was gonna be special, but no idea it would end up being this huge. Not the loudest gig I've ever been to but definitely one of the most sustained.
We walk in to find about 30 people on stage setting gear up and just a dull drone that goes on for about 20 mins before the almighty Zond begin playing. Now if you went to Flip Out last year, you'd know barely anyone got a chance to see them since they opened the doors after they had already started playing, I was always bitter about this, this set was great though, album is out today on RIP Society in fact. The set ends with a massive drum solo from the drummer, doesn't make sense on the recording, but if you were there, you would have seen that like clock work, the entire stage was flooded with crew bumping out all their gear and setting up for the next band while the drum solo went on, they even removed and replace pieces of the kit while he was playing, then the bassist and guitarist from Melt-Banana come out and fill some time with feedback leading into their set.
Zond - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 32mb - 21 minutes
Melt-Banana weren't really suited for the seating environment, but I was blown away by them, the guitarist is beyond amazing. Some really cool sounds and great, punchy and fast songs. Based on this performance I've decided to go see them on Wednesday night as well now. Them pumping out 6-7 songs in their timeslot is pretty funny considering later on Boris only got through one.
Melt-Banana - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 31.6mb - 21 minutes
It was hard to tell but the next set was actually Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun. It was odd to see such a legend play so far back on the stage while the sound crew wheeled out all of Boris's gear, but it was actually really good, this is what I was expecting to hear last night, Laurie Anderson really added a lot to it.
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 19.4mb - 13 minutes
Oren Ambarchi played a short ambient set in the lead up to Boris, I've never had the opportunity to see him, I've only heard various live tapings of his and all sorts of praise from my friends. Totally blown away, this guy is amazing, I wish he was around more often. Some of the highest calibre of music I think I've ever heard.
Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 15.1mb - 11 minutes
Oren Ambarchi remained on stage and joined Boris for one the most face melting 20mins of my life. This was just amazing, they only got through the final Untitled track from Smile, but all of it was amazing. This band, this is the band. Perfect way to close the first half of the set. People really got into it. Four fucking guitars at once though.
Boris & Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.3mb - 22 minutes
Now there was an intermission, I don't know if people were only there for Boris, or didn't know there was an intermission at all but half the people left, to be honest I didn't know there was going to be one but had just assumed as such when the house lights came up, but I've heard a lot of stories of people missing the second half of the show, which is when shit got crazy.
Rice Corpse opened the second portion, Lucas Abela playing the fucking Opera House, too be honest it didn't really suit it, I find his performances to be quite confronting and a great time, but a lot of that comes from how close and involved in the crowd he usually is, rather than on a stage 15 or so metres away from anyone. If was after this set that I realised the second portion of the show would have really poor flow, though the biggest cheer of the night was when a vacuum cleaner was brought out to clean up Justice Yeldham's mess, with every cheering for it to be turned up. Noise Night guys.
Rice Corpse - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 17.3mb - 12 minutes
Bardo Pond were up next after a bit of awkward silence, with guest spots from Marc Ribot and Miles Brown. This was probably the loudest part of the night, shame it didn't go for longer but everyone had their time slot I guess. Marc Ribot was amazing to watch.
Bardo Pond, Marc Ribot & Miles Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 27.7mb - 20 minutes
After a way to long intro, there was only enough time for the Night Terrors to get through 2 songs, I could see potential but there just wasn't enough time for them to do their own thing, will be looking out for a solo show of theirs soon enough.
The Night Terrors - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 22.1mb - 16 minutes
Though not on any of the line ups, Yasuko Onuki & Ichirou Agata from Melt-Banana returned to the stage with a different set up and basically trolled the crowd, playing off synth pads, drum machines and all sorts of pedals, they played in complete darkness with only head torches on, playing a constant stop and start set, only giving people enough time to begin playing before starting to blast them with noise again. To be honest, I really liked it. Felt like it went for a life time though.
Yasuka Onuki & Ichirou Agata - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 10.5mb - 7 minutes
Then there was the collaboration. This was amazing, thought I'd never see anything like it, has to be heard to be believed, once again, what I was more expecting from Metal Machine Trio.
Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Marc Ribot - Guitar
Ichirou Agata - Pedals (Melt-Banana)
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Tym Krasevac - Drums (Zond)
Marney MacLeod - Guitar (Zond)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Miles Brown, Tym Krasevac, Marney MacLeod, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 36.6mb - 25 minutes
After this, Lou Reed thanked us all and hoped we enjoyed it, and then just sat there while everyone walked out. About 80 or so people decided they weren't going anywhere and stared demanding a Zondcore. After much talking with the various people on stage, the lights went off again and a second jam started for the people who were smart enough to stay behind, this was the much better of the two improv sets at the end and was one of the best things I have ever seen.
Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Ichirou Agata - Guitar, Effects (Melt-Banana)
Jason Kourkounis - Drums (Bardo Pond, Hot Snakes, The Delta 72)
Oren Ambarchi - Drums
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Jason Kourkounis, Oren Ambarchi, Miles Brown, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.6mb - 21 minutes
If anyone knows any more info/people I left out from the collabs, let me know.
To start off it's hard to believe that these bands are all playing the Opera House, let alone all on the one night. Always knew tonight was gonna be special, but no idea it would end up being this huge. Not the loudest gig I've ever been to but definitely one of the most sustained.
We walk in to find about 30 people on stage setting gear up and just a dull drone that goes on for about 20 mins before the almighty Zond begin playing. Now if you went to Flip Out last year, you'd know barely anyone got a chance to see them since they opened the doors after they had already started playing, I was always bitter about this, this set was great though, album is out today on RIP Society in fact. The set ends with a massive drum solo from the drummer, doesn't make sense on the recording, but if you were there, you would have seen that like clock work, the entire stage was flooded with crew bumping out all their gear and setting up for the next band while the drum solo went on, they even removed and replace pieces of the kit while he was playing, then the bassist and guitarist from Melt-Banana come out and fill some time with feedback leading into their set.
Zond - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 32mb - 21 minutes
Melt-Banana weren't really suited for the seating environment, but I was blown away by them, the guitarist is beyond amazing. Some really cool sounds and great, punchy and fast songs. Based on this performance I've decided to go see them on Wednesday night as well now. Them pumping out 6-7 songs in their timeslot is pretty funny considering later on Boris only got through one.
Melt-Banana - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 31.6mb - 21 minutes
It was hard to tell but the next set was actually Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun. It was odd to see such a legend play so far back on the stage while the sound crew wheeled out all of Boris's gear, but it was actually really good, this is what I was expecting to hear last night, Laurie Anderson really added a lot to it.
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 19.4mb - 13 minutes
Oren Ambarchi played a short ambient set in the lead up to Boris, I've never had the opportunity to see him, I've only heard various live tapings of his and all sorts of praise from my friends. Totally blown away, this guy is amazing, I wish he was around more often. Some of the highest calibre of music I think I've ever heard.
Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 15.1mb - 11 minutes
Oren Ambarchi remained on stage and joined Boris for one the most face melting 20mins of my life. This was just amazing, they only got through the final Untitled track from Smile, but all of it was amazing. This band, this is the band. Perfect way to close the first half of the set. People really got into it. Four fucking guitars at once though.
Boris & Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.3mb - 22 minutes
Now there was an intermission, I don't know if people were only there for Boris, or didn't know there was an intermission at all but half the people left, to be honest I didn't know there was going to be one but had just assumed as such when the house lights came up, but I've heard a lot of stories of people missing the second half of the show, which is when shit got crazy.
Rice Corpse opened the second portion, Lucas Abela playing the fucking Opera House, too be honest it didn't really suit it, I find his performances to be quite confronting and a great time, but a lot of that comes from how close and involved in the crowd he usually is, rather than on a stage 15 or so metres away from anyone. If was after this set that I realised the second portion of the show would have really poor flow, though the biggest cheer of the night was when a vacuum cleaner was brought out to clean up Justice Yeldham's mess, with every cheering for it to be turned up. Noise Night guys.
Rice Corpse - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 17.3mb - 12 minutes
Bardo Pond were up next after a bit of awkward silence, with guest spots from Marc Ribot and Miles Brown. This was probably the loudest part of the night, shame it didn't go for longer but everyone had their time slot I guess. Marc Ribot was amazing to watch.
Bardo Pond, Marc Ribot & Miles Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 27.7mb - 20 minutes
After a way to long intro, there was only enough time for the Night Terrors to get through 2 songs, I could see potential but there just wasn't enough time for them to do their own thing, will be looking out for a solo show of theirs soon enough.
The Night Terrors - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 22.1mb - 16 minutes
Though not on any of the line ups, Yasuko Onuki & Ichirou Agata from Melt-Banana returned to the stage with a different set up and basically trolled the crowd, playing off synth pads, drum machines and all sorts of pedals, they played in complete darkness with only head torches on, playing a constant stop and start set, only giving people enough time to begin playing before starting to blast them with noise again. To be honest, I really liked it. Felt like it went for a life time though.
Yasuka Onuki & Ichirou Agata - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 10.5mb - 7 minutes
Then there was the collaboration. This was amazing, thought I'd never see anything like it, has to be heard to be believed, once again, what I was more expecting from Metal Machine Trio.
Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Marc Ribot - Guitar
Ichirou Agata - Pedals (Melt-Banana)
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Tym Krasevac - Drums (Zond)
Marney MacLeod - Guitar (Zond)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Miles Brown, Tym Krasevac, Marney MacLeod, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 36.6mb - 25 minutes
After this, Lou Reed thanked us all and hoped we enjoyed it, and then just sat there while everyone walked out. About 80 or so people decided they weren't going anywhere and stared demanding a Zondcore. After much talking with the various people on stage, the lights went off again and a second jam started for the people who were smart enough to stay behind, this was the much better of the two improv sets at the end and was one of the best things I have ever seen.
Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Ichirou Agata - Guitar, Effects (Melt-Banana)
Jason Kourkounis - Drums (Bardo Pond, Hot Snakes, The Delta 72)
Oren Ambarchi - Drums
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)
Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Jason Kourkounis, Oren Ambarchi, Miles Brown, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.6mb - 21 minutes
If anyone knows any more info/people I left out from the collabs, let me know.
VIVID Festival: Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio
Don't know how I feel on this one. It wasn't quite as expected, I was hoping for a massive wall of feedback and noise with the associated feeling of discomfort through the whole thing, but it ended up being kinda pleasant. There were some very enthralling structured bits, but the improv used to link it all up was pretty sketchy at times. Lou Reed is looking pretty haggered these days, and he sorta just sits on his throne and orders his minions around to do the leg work for him, but overall this was very much worth it.
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 30/05/2010 - 127.45mb - 1 hour 29 minutes
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 30/05/2010 - 127.45mb - 1 hour 29 minutes
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