Live music Q1 2008

I've found it too much effort to write a blog after every gig I go to, by the time I'm home I'm so physically drained that it's hard to gather my thoughts and write up a satisfactory review. So I'm going to try something different this time and rely on my memory to recap the concerts I've seen over the last 3 months.

The shows
22/01 - Rage Against The Machine:
After my internal hype for this show, I couldn't help but feel slightly let down. RATM simply aren't the force they were a decade ago, but I still was excited to see the show. After downing a few too many brews pre-gig, I made my way into the middle of the floor at the SEC, and watched the 2nd half of the Anti-Flag set. It wasn't terrible, but not very impressive either. I like the band but the live show seems to cater around an undeserved sense of accomplishment playing to the wrong audience.

RATM themselves were solid, played a decent setlist with some of my favourites like Know Your Enemy and Vietnow. Tom Morello was my guitar hero growing up and inspired much of the music I create so seeing him live was a dream come true. A short set and limited crowd interaction from Zack made me feel the price was a bit steep but overall I was still glad I went.


23/01 - Battles / Warp Show:
My 2nd night in Sydney and with a bit of a hangover and not much sleep, I was still looking forward to rocking out to the experiment math rock quartet that is battles. The Warp Show was more than that, opening were two DJ sets with Melbourne band Pivot in between. Apart from some cool visuals taken out of 60s films interlaced with sexy images to a not-so-sexy beat, the music was just an annoyance to talk over. I found Pivot to be most entertaining, their music was good and their live show had potential. Now they are signed to Warp it will be interesting to see what they come up with in the future. After downing a couple of bottles of Beck's Beer, it was time to watch Battles.

The set was very heavy on material from Mirrored, which to me was great to see how each song is constructed. The musicianship was faultless and they were very energetic. It's the music I would feel like dancing to if I danced, but I was too busy standing in awe to really do anything else but watch & listen. As it was Sydney Festival, it made for a really odd crowd mix, though as a whole it was a nice atmosphere to be in.


24/01 - Brand New:
Day 3 of my four day Sydney trek and by now the youth hostel beds mean I'm really down on sleep. Finished reading the sublime novel Ender's Game, saw the captivating movie Cloverfield, and dined out at the Lansdowne to pass the time before the concert. With no opening act, Jesse Lacey came out and played 5 tracks acoustic. That was a nice opener, though I only recognised one of the tracks. The main set consisted mainly of tracks from their latest album, with the notable exception of Limousine. Millstone was probably my highlight of the night.

The Enmore is my favourite venue in Sydney, though the upstairs area is something of a let-down. It will be interesting to see what it's like once renovations are complete and the upstairs bar area is completed.


25/01 - Big Day Out:
It was my 8th Big Day Out, and it will probably be my last. I'm getting too old and impatient for Aussie festival crowds, especially when I see most the bands playing at sideshows. Skipped the early bands and didn't arrive until mid-afternoon. First band I saw was Regurgitator who were a lot of fun, and it made my brother happy to see his favourite band. After that, caught the end of the Spoon set and enjoyed what I heard. The Nightwatchman was a lot of fun, Tom Morello had really good crowd interaction. Unkle were alright, though someone taking a piss in front of me then watching people walk through it made me leave the boiler room quickly. Caught the end of Battles who were just as fun as two nights earlier, watched a bit of Karnivool then went to the mainstage to see the end of Arcade Fire and get in a good spot for RATM. Their performance was a little better than at the sideshow, but I was disappointed that the set only had one change. Would have loved to see Tire Me live. When they finished with Killing In The Name, the entire stadium was moshing, from the D-circle to the stands. It was the most epic moment I've witnessed at a Big Day Out.

And with seeing one of my favourite childhood bands, I really couldn't think of a better way to finish my annual trek to Australia's premier music festival. The travel is just too much, the crowds have gotten to me and I really want to do something more than use my holidays to see a music festival that I don't enjoy going to anymore. It's been 8 times for me, was hoping to get to double figures but I've had enough. The latent jingoism manifesting in the crowd is quite disturbing. Seeing people draped in Aussie flags for a music festival seems wrong. Fair enough it's one thing to be proud of your country, but it's been taken to another level where to an extent it's being used as a divisive symbol connotating segregation and xenophobia. The Aussie flag is the new black, evidence that our country is becoming more like the United States. It's so frustrating that a symbol supposedly being representative of a multicultural country is being used in such a manner. The shirts with "love it or fuck off" is jingoism on parade, and it's a parade I don't want to be a part of.


30/01 - Dream Theater:
Finally a band that would cater to my need for prog, technically and musically did not disappoint. 2h45m of standing was a bit much, but it went by so fast. The visuals were a bit of a let down, the stage production was still quite good but not as good as the press release implied it would be. Still having cameras on the instruments meant that I could get an appreciation for how technically brilliant the musicianship really is. My personal highlight was seeing In The Presence Of Enemies in it's 25 minute entirety. John Petrucci looked so effortless while playing, and John Myung performed one of the best displays on the bass I have ever witnessed. Fantastic show, it is the highlight of the year so far.


09/02 - Iron Maiden:
This concert was an interesting experience for me. I consumed a hipflask worth of Jager on the trip up, but by the time I got to the gig I was sober. Had a good day drinking in a pub in Newtown with veteran metalheads though. Skipped the opening bands in a futile attempt to keep my buzz, but Behind Crimson Eyes wouldn't have been worth watching in the first place, the reaction of booing from the crowd as they attempted to cover Ace Of Spades echoing through the halls of Acer Arena was quite amusing. Positioned myself just in front of the mixing desk, where the visibility wasn't fantastic but the sound would be at it's best.

I've got to say I'm not a huge Maiden fan, but the show was really solid. The band has a great stage presence, the musicianship was fantastic and the theatrics were amazing. The set was very Powerslave heavy, though that was to be expected, it still would have been nice to see a few more tracks of Number Of The Beast. Rime of the Ancient Mariner was my personal highlight, and there was enough soloing to keep me satisfied. A great show, I felt vindicated in attending.


31/03 - Coheed & Cambria:
First gig in almost two months, it left me a little underwhelmed and unsatisfied with just going to rock shows. C&C are one of my favourite bands, and it was a great experience to see them live, I'm just over the whole rock crowd. Again the musicianship was fantastic, Claudio Sanchez is a fantastic performer. He wasn't afraid to show off his skills even if some of the AFI-shirt wearing 15 year-olds that made up half the crowd didn't exactly appreciate it. The encore at the end was possibly the greatest encore I've ever witnessed, including the 20 minute version of the final cut with each band member performing an amazing solo. Though it was a shame the crowd as a whole were upset they didn't put in 2 or 3 more songs instead. I didn't care, I was there for the music and I saw some fantastic displays. Chris Pennie is a machine with the sticks.

Coming up
Over the next three months I have lined up:

• Porcupine Tree / Sleep Parade
• Helmet
• Alchemist / Pod People
• The Dillinger Escape Plan / Coliseum
  
• Cog / Jakob
• Rosetta

I'm expecting a lot, hope they can keep up with the quality I've seen so far this year. 4 of those gigs are in Canberra so I won't have to travel to Sydney constantly, that can only be seen as a good thing. Unfortunately I have to miss The Mars Volta as it's on a weeknight in Sydney, but that's life. I've seen them twice before anyway.

The Music of 2007

That time of the year has come around again, where the calendar reaches it's end and we need to throw it away and buy a new one, where we have an excuse to get drunk and watch fireworks, and where we draw an arbitrary line in the sand as a period of time to reference events. What an eventful year this has been, we've gotten a new Prime Minister here in Australia and buried the coconut, Bush has become a lame duck as all focus is on the potential candidates for next years election (18 month election campaigns are a total waste), England bombed their Euro 2008 campaign while Pakistan was bombed by Islamic radicals, Australia won the world cup for the third time in the most farcical manner, Al Gore won a peace prize for his slideshow presentation (it was a pretty good slideshow, and he was way more deserving than Mother Theresa), and a heap of stuff more that I probably should be aware of.

In the end the year has left me with a sense of cautious optimism for the future. It's great to see the world coming together and working towards a global solution for tackling climate change, there has been a greater focus on the rights of the individual even in countries where Sharia law persists. No, it's not perfect, yes there is a lot of shit going down, Pakistan is extremely volatile right now, Afghanistan is going bad again while Iraq is still a shambles. But there is hope persisting. It will be interesting to see the impact of Blair's convoy to the Middle East, hoping we can see a Palestinian state in the next few years. But all of this is irrelevant to this blog, I just want to focus on the music of the year.

Albums
Top 10

10. Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust
I've covered the crux of this album in an earlier post. At the risk of repeating myself I'll recap why I believe this is one of the great albums from this year. Saul Williams is at his lyrical best, the production values are amazing, and apart from the Drum and Bass Reznoresque cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday the album really stands out as a classic. Turn it up and listen to how an Industrial god puts most rap producers to shame. Online is the future of album distribution, great to see quality releases like this embrace the format.
Best track: WTF!

9. Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today
A great album to chill the fuck out to. It rivals the sheer crunch that was Melvins - (A) Senile Animal, it's just unbelievably consistent and the album flows seamlessly from beginning to end. Slow grinding riffs are brilliantly layered between fitting drums and solid vocals. It's one of those albums that you can appreciate just as long as you sit down and hear the whole thing.
Best track: Satanic Rites of Drugula

8. The Icarus Line - Black Lives On The Golden Coast
This album took a while to grow on me, in the beginning I was lamenting Aaron North's exit from the band and saying "boo, not as good as Mono", but the more I listened the more I enjoyed the album for what it is. They've done something different and they have done it well. It's more melodic than anything they've released before but that is by no means a bad thing. the album itself is a nice variety, oscillating from intense to laid back compositions, though the only criticism I could muster is sometimes the need for vocals overshadows the rest of the music. Though the lyrics seem quite irrelevant at times and the vocals become another instrument in the bands. Overall a solid release, worth listening to over and over again.
Best track: Slayer

7. Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
It's always good hearing technically proficient musicians working together, sometimes the precision gets in the way of the music quality, but not on this release. Dream Theater have gotten the balance right. The riff interchange between keyboard and guitar is seamless, reminds me a lot of UK's self-titled album. It's good to see a split track, In The Presence Of Enemies is both a fantastic opener and ender. This is a seminal prog-metal release, 78 minutes of everything that is great about the genre. I look forward to seeing some of these tracks live in a months time.
Best track: Prophets Of War

6. Rosetta - Wake / Lift
No this release is not The Galilean Satellites, the band has progressed their sound into something new. A much more Post-Rock release than their last, though it hasn't stopped this band from sounding as unique as they did 3 years ago. The music is so densely layered and the long winding compositions are so meticulously fine-tuned, it is a delight to sit back and just take in from beginning to end.
Best track: Wake

5. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
I was hotly anticipating this album on the back of the quality of Miss Machine. Despite Chris Pennie defecting to C&C and Brian Bennoit taking a break due to a hand injury, they've come back and done something fantastic again. Greg Puciato has taken a much more expansive role with his vocals, there is actual singing on this release. The album itself is technically brilliant, the interplay between drums and guitar is as sublime as we've come to expect from DEP, and the song writing is more mature than ever. There are parts that are going to piss off the die-hard fans of Calculating Infinity but who cares? This is a wonderful album in it's own right, full of aggression, mathematical precision and sublime musicianship.
Best track: Dead As History

4. Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
This is just an incredibly balanced album, Dark Tranquillity have gotten the balance perfect. Melodic Death Metal at it's finest right here. The interlay between the keyboard and guitar as the melodic instrument is done seamlessly, the interlaced piano transforms the album from solid to fantastic, everything has just fallen into place. Even the lyrics are perfectly fitting for the chaos surrounding them, yet never are overbearing on the sound. The metal release of the year for sure, just listen to Icipher and see for yourselves.
Best track: The Mundane And The Magic

3. Battles - Mirrored
This was a very pleasant discovery of 2007, decided to check them out after they were added to next years Big Day Out line-up. While being a perfect example of avant-garde math-rock, most of all this is a fun album to listen to. The almost chipmunk like vocals fit beautifully over the music, elaborate compositions that you just want to dance poorly out of time to.
Best track: Tonto

2. Deerhunter - Cryptograms
A perfect mix of ambiance, post-punk and noise rock, Deerhunter have created an album truly worthy of being called a masterpiece. It captivates from the first few notes of the intro and leaves you wanting more when Heatherwood finishes. The composition is sublime, each track flows so well into the next and the mix of ambient pieces spacing out the more rock style pieces is done just perfectly. Each listen just begs me to start over again.
Best track: Heatherwood

1. Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
What can I say? It's been a year of excellent prog releases. And Porcupine Tree have made the best of all of them. One thing this album does above all others is the focus on songwriting, the intense tracks come from a perfect balance of lyrics and prog styling in a way only Steve Wilson can deliver. It's one of the best concept albums I've heard in years, it really captures the apathy that is the offshoot of modern technology and culture. Sometimes the music is a thing of beauty, the harmonies hit just convey the meaning so precisely. Since it's release in April, it's had the staying power to be played all year despite the stream of other great music out there. And the subsequent EP Nil Recurring completed and complemented this release so well. The best praise I can give it is it's better than In Absentia. Well done Porcupine Tree.
Best track: Anesthetize


Honourable Mentions
So many good albums came out this year, so this list will be a little longer than normal, but all these deserve mention in some form. No particular order to this.

* Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
* Puscifer - V Is For Vagina
* Radiohead - In Rainbows
* Coheed & Cambria - No World For Tomorrow
* Alchemist - Tripsis
* Symphony X - Paradise Lost
* Clutch - Frome Beale Street To Oblivion
* Ministry - The Final Sucker
* The Ocean - Precambrian
* Minus The Bear - Planet Of Ice
* Unkle - War Stories
* Strung Out - Blackhawks Over Los Angeles
* Paradise Lost - In Requiem
* Down - Over The Under
* Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
* Rosetta & Balboa - Project Mercury (split)
* Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
* Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
* Regurgitator - Love And Paranoia
* Arch Enemy - Rise Of The Tyrant
* Daysend - The Warning
* Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
* 65daysofstatic - The Destruction Of Small Ideas

Notes
Just wanted to say a few more things. It's sad to see Ministry go out, been consistenly good for almost 2 decades, The Last Sucker was a fitting end to their recording career. Good to see NIN release something different and while it may not have pleased many hardcore fans, it's good to see Trent try something new. A Nick Oliveri-less QOTSA showed it could still rock, while Billy Corgan didn't quite match it for the Smashing Pumpkins reunion record. Baroness tried to copy Leviathan if it were mixed with a little Neurosis while The Ocean did a better job of staying on the forefront of what is great with modern metal. In terms of Australian music, Regurgitator released their most consistent album in a decade while Alchemist and Daysend showed that the metal scene here is alive and kicking. Radiohead captured the media's imagination with it's gimmicky fight against piracy while capturing Pitchfork's love of the band. Punk died a little more on the inside with Bad Religion's new release, though Strung Out did it's best to try something different. Marilyn Manson has faded into obscurity as his shock rock tactics grow weary and all musicians around him work on other material. And still no democracy in china...

Next year sure is shaping up to follow the spectacular. New Meshuggah, Opeth, Nevermore, The Mars Volta and Cog to name just a few I'm excited about, plus there is sure to be countless others and the second half of Year Zero. Something to look forward to in the new year I suppose.

The Gigs Of '07
2007 was my busiest year for live music ever, 12 live shows and 3 music festivals, it's left me worn out and my credit card maxed out. Still a lot of fun though.

Top 10 Sets
1. Nine Inch Nails (Hordern Pavilion, 16/09)
2. Tool (Sydney Entertainment Centre, 24/01)
3. Nine Inch Nails (Luna Park Big Top, 15/09)
4. Muse (Gold Coast Big Day Out, 21/01)
5. Slayer (Thebarton Theatre, 15/04)
6. The Cure (Sydney Entertainment Centre, 10/08)
7. Isis (The Metro, 03/02)
8. Bad Religion (Hordern Pavilion, 07/11)
9. Cog (Greenroom, 27/11)
10. These Arms Are Snakes (The Metro, 03/02)

Honourable mentions
* Kasabian (Gold Coast Big Day Out, 21/01)
* The Killers (Gold Coast Big Day Out, 21/01)
* NoFX (Manning Bar, 17/02)
* The Bronx (Greenroom, 28/02)
* Mastodon (Thebarton Theatre, 15/04)
* Regular John (Come Together Festival, 10/06)
* Mammal (Come Together Festival, 10/06)
* Shihad (Come Together Festival, 10/06)
* Alchemist (Bar Broadway, 17/08)
* New Pants (Greenroom, 05/10)

Next year I already have 6 gigs lined up, including the prize scalps of Rage Against The Machine and Dream Theater. I've been waiting to see RATM since I was 14, so the teenager in me is going into overdrive. The Big Day Out line-up is great though I can foresee many clashes. And with Tool, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Coheed & Cambria all rumoured for tours within the next six months and a Rosetta tour in June (so stoked they are playing Canberra) I'm already excited about the prospects, maybe even a Helmet show to these parts as well. Though finances will keep me away from V Fest unfortunately, though Smashing Pumpkins, QOTSA & Air are tempting me more than an open bottle of fortified wine.


It's been a great few years for music, and there still are plenty of albums I didn't probably check out due to time. I look forward to the next twelve months and can only wait in wonder to see what the music world can offer me*. Happy new year!

*a legal equivalent to Oink