Tag Archives: Music

“Purple haze all in my eyes, Don’t know if it’s day or night.. You’ve got me blowin, blowin my mind.. Is it tomorrow or just the end of time?”

So a few weeks ago (an eternity in blogger time) I dragged a friend of mine to The Ed to see my local obsession Lady Strangelove, a first for him but I was already privy to the wonder of this band. Having heard them months ago on an island in the sun at the Kangaroo Island music festival for the first time, I was drawn to the stage by the psychedelic sounds of what sounded like the reincarnation of early Santana, funky electro and Led Zeppelin. In my high-on-life state, drawn like children to the pied piper me and my girls gravitated to the front and stood there slack-jawed, transported to a time where music made you feel something; turned you on, made you feel like you could melt away, kiss the person next to you, change the world and be free as a bird. Next came me posting about this life-changing experience, Facebook friending the band, Fox the drummer F-Friending me and the countdown for the next time they were performing in Adelaide.

I have a partner in crime my close friend, P.A (if organisers ask) and fellow gig groupie/bandAid who I drag along to as many gigs as I can courtesy of my reviewer’s pass + 1. But this time it was on me, because I was not missing out on exposing fresh ears to a musical eclipse and I wanted to see if they were really THAT good or it was the potent mix of booze, high-life and good times festival vibe. First was support act URTEKK.. by the way guess which ONE photo was Photoshopped..

Being stone cold sober the only thing I remember about URTEKK was that they were pretty good.. which doesn’t mean that they were average because I have a vague recollection of Stasi the vocalist being quite mesmerizing it’s just that I was so excited to see Lady Strangelove that I blocked out a lot…

..the verdict = they were freaking awesome. My friend who normally boogies and grooves to every gig we go to was just standing there in awe. The freaky, trippy  projections on the wall and the psychedelic lighting all added to the mood and even though the crowd wasn’t big it was just the way I like it.

It’s really weird meeting someone officially after you have chatted through Facebook and already blogged about how amazing they are, I get really shy and slightly starstruck. And I’m the first person to say I don’t understand how people can go ga-ga over celebrities but musicians, and really talented ones that I admire I go all ‘Pamela de Barres’. So it was really cool to have Fox come over like we were old friends and give me a big hug and say thanks for the support.. (I may have fainted ever so slightly).. chatting with me and my bandAid I just had to ask.. “So if the world was going to end in 15 minutes, what three songs would you want to listen to?” .. (those who follow my interviews for The Mouth will understand this question) but I lost the piece of paper that I wrote his answers down on but I remember one of them being ‘Hearts A Mess’ by Gotye because I love that song as well but funny enough he messaged me on Facebook a couple of days later, having truly given my question some serious thought and  ”I have been thinking about my “gonna die in fifteen minutes” song choice. I think that I’d like to make a change! I would like to choose one song only… Claire Delune by the composer Debussy” 

So another two hugs later, I’m floating home after a great gig, talking about the night and smelling of another man’s sweat.. success

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“Oh, take me to your best friend’s house.. Marmalade we’re making out.. Oh yeah! Take me to your best friend’s house.. I loved you then and I love you now”

GROUPLOVE have ruined me. For the rest of the year I am going to find it very, very hard to find another band that has rocked my socks off as much as they did last Wednesday at The Gov. They are so great that even my severely mainstream younger brother who has the likes of LMFAO on his Ipod and never goes to any gig with less than 2000 people in the audience was head banging, jumping, screaming and singing at the top of his lungs. It. Was. Awesome. I will look back fondly on this day, as a great moment of brotherly-sister bonding and a moment unlike no other. Kind-of like when I took him clubbing illegally for the first time at the tender age of 17, it was a friends 21st and we were all going out after and I wanted him to come. With his poorly styled haircut, baby face and no facial hair it was not going to be easy but one borrowed American street-cap later, club promoters & MC’s as friends and a large group of over 21′s with expired licenses and no ID’s, destiny met fate and he was in, hands in the air, to the window to the wall and booty, booty, booty, booty rocking everywhere. That was the last great memory (before last week) of being with my brother, both of us letting loose, having a great time and most importantly opening his eyes to a new exciting world. This time the world was the; seeing-a-band-before-they-hit-complete-mainstream, in a fantastic intimate setting, the smell of sweat, moshing, both the audience and the band feeding off each others energy and transcending spiritually, mentally and musically…

The Head and the Heart kicked off the night…

…GROUPLOVE came on the stage like a boxer to a ring to the sound of Kanye & Jay-Z’s ‘Monster’..

…A flurry of golden hair, fluffy cardigans, ripped blazer and inside out black flag tee, flaming hair, pearly whites, florals, crowd surfing, fairy lights, glowing drumsticks, wolf howling, screaming, singing, dancing, jumping and a mind-blowing performance. I came away even more in love with the band then before, I now know what it is like to be a cliché groupie/bandaid/fan of the 60′s and 70′s if I had the holiday time from work I would have definitely travelled round Australia going to every gig of this ‘Never Trust A Happy Song’ tour. Like I said I’m ruined now, it’s going to be very, very hard to beat for the rest of the year. =D

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“This speech is my recital, I think it’s very vital.. to rock (a rhyme), that’s right (on time), It’s Tricky is the title, here we go…”

As you can see the pictures started to get fuzzy and not so great after many drinks and such. Completed my review which will be previewed on The Mouth soon but a few details that I didn’t include were:

  • My favourite game to play at festivals is the “Southern Cross Drinking Game” when you see a Southern Cross tattoo everyone has to drink.. bonus points for the Australian emblem
  • If you walk around with a half decent camera everyone wants you to take their picture
  • I got wacked unintentionally in the face during Grandmaster Flash and got a blood nose.. cue me, head back, glaring at J. missing out on dancing to some awesome tunes.. luckily the white dress was spared
  • Hung out backstage courtesy of Plastik People DJ’s, watching Justice play alongside Busy P, drinking free booze and witnessed some pretty cool fireworks
  • Nearly got arrested/fined by the police by asking an officer to say ‘Please’ when he told me to get back onto the curb.. in my defence I stopped J. from walking out into oncoming traffic and we were already stepping back onto the curb & he was bloody rude. He then got even more aggressive saying he was ‘Saving my life’ and that it’s ‘hundreds of dollars of fines to step out onto the street’ blah blah f*ck you you fascist,  I can cross the street by myself ,  go stick your self-righteous power play and quota orientated policing  and stick it!
  • Awesome, awesome New Years!!
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“I’m itchin’ on a photograaaaph.. yeah I’m scratching on a thermostaaat, yeah I’m giving up on loooooking baaack, yeah I’m letting go of whaaat I ha-AAAAAD.. yeah I’m itchin’ on a photograph”

I would just like to preach about my latest musical obsession.. that being GROUPLOVE!! Interviewed vocalist Christian last week and he was very chilled which reminds me I’m definitely going to start posting my interviews on here soon-ish.. A new band that has had amazing success in the short space of just over a year.. the story of how they got together is pretty love-story-hippie-pixies-fleetwood-mac-awesome.. and who better to tell it then themselves.. The Bloom Documentary is about them, their story,  their struggles and it’s worth wasting 10 minutes of your life watching.. this band are so serious on the first day of officially deciding to start they’re band they all got GROUPLOVE tattooed on themselves.. I want to join the movement =D The cinematography is excellent..

The same guy does most if not all of their music videos and they’re pretty excellent.. they’ll be touring Australia in January and if I wasn’t a slave to the man with my Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and no Christmas holidays I would totally follow them around Australia and watch every gig.. seeing the sights by day and rocking, dancing, singing my lungs out at night.. probably in this van…

Saw this baby in the Barossa… absolute perfection! Wanted to leave a note under the wipers saying if they ever lost their mind and decided to sell it, to please call me

Just spreading the love…

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“Just like the white winged dove, sings a song, sounds like she’s singing.. woo woo woooooo”

There’s nothing more embarrassing then going to a gig saying “I’m on the guest list” and them not finding your name. Let alone at a big venue like the Entertainment centre and the gig in question is the Stevie Nick’s concert. I never like to get my hopes up especially when someone like Dave Stewart says casually during an interview that he’ll put my name on the guest list you kind-of take it with a pinch of salt but with two follow-up phone calls from his PR people double checking how to spell my name I guessed it was a sure thing. Then comes the night in question and I’ve invited my mum along because she deserves a night out and because she’ll appreciate it the most (plus I’ve given her hell for most of my teenage years and god knows I owe her). So there we are “sorry you’ll have to come back later maybe they’ll be here in half an hour”.. cue concerned look on my face and the walk of shame back to the pub for half an hour. But his PR team just have poor time management because on my return a white envelope with my name written on the front was handed to me.. I slipped my finger into the little crevice and sliced it open revealing my golden ticket!! Actually it was two yellow venue tickets and two purple GUEST PASSES BACKSTAGE! Yes it was amazing.. like Charlie Bucket on his way to see Willy Wonka but I wasn’t as humble, grinning like a Cheshire cat and telling myself to calm down wondering if I was going to have a groupie moment when the time came…

She was amazing all blood-red suede and sequined scarves, platform boots, voice breathtakingly incredible I was completely blown away.. fantastic, inspiring, strong, ethereal, wicked, humble, story-teller.. ..

.. .. the last song (before the encore) was my personal favourite ‘Edge of Seventeen’ Stevie disappeared out the back for a while and guitarist Waddy Wachtel had an extended guitar solo and intro that was spine-tingling. AMAZING and boy was I excited to meet her and Dave.. I had everything planned out all I wanted was a handshake and to take a photo with them both mimicking the hear the evil, see no evil, speak no evil pose.. .. because how cool would that be and a lot more fun for them than your average fan photo..

So waited around with a few other people who were chatting to Dave’s main back-up singer Amy (lady in the fro who has an amazing voice filling in for Annie Lennox’s parts) and by the way she is really nice.. and then I hear “Is anybody here to see Dave Stewart?” and I spin around and see the PR girl and some guy and I come over to them all excited with saved battery life on my camera awaiting this amazing moment to have her say.. .. “oh I’m sorry they’ve packed up, they didn’t set up a green room here so there was no space, I’m so sorry” with this pitying smile on her face and the tone of someone who obviously doesn’t realise how much this opportunity meant to me, who see’s these people everyday and doesn’t realise the impact this has on normal people like me. Then comes the final blow… “You should’ve come before the show“.. you know that information would have been a lot more useful to me yesterday when she called me personally to double-check the spelling of my name.. just thrown in a “by the way come before the gig Dave will be able to spare you a few minutes before the show”.. =(  Just a HEADS UP! I didn’t need red carpet treatment and I’ve never heard of people seeing stars before their show, never had this happen before with a big star so I’m not at all down with the protocol so SHE SHOULD”VE TOLD ME.. least to say I was pretty upset during that cold walk to the car. Not everyday that you get backstage passes to see Stevie & Dave.. .. would’ve like a photo with Dave it was such a good interview I imagine it would of looked something like this..

Hey not bad for fifteen minutes with Photoshop.. but anyway I was happy enough after the initial shock I got a great interview and a free gig that was amazing BUT BUT BUT.. got a message from my editor telling me to look on Dave’s twitter.. ..

A shout out to moi.. that’s consolation prize enough =D

P.S. Miss PR lady I’m still waiting for the new Stevie Nicks album you promised me if you want to throw in a signed picture of Stevie with Dave.. you’d make my year =P

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“No I don’t even know these people, but I don’t mind a little unfamiliarity, while I’m politely letting go”

Took a friend to see Ball Park Music and review their show at the Ed Castle and it was a rocking show. Never have I had to wait until nearly midnight to watch the main act but supports The Jungle Giants, Northeast Party House were freaking awesome so I was not counting the minutes. They’ve only been around for no more than three years and they couldn’t have picked a smaller place to play as everyone was squished in as they obviously underestimated their popularity. I made my girlfriend listen to the entire CD and got her addicted the night before and we even joked that we’d be the only people there who knew all the words, lighters in the air… HA!

I’ve taken so many pictures I’m posting in three’s so here is part one: The Jungle Giants…

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Complicated footwear for a gig… but who am I to talk.. they look cool anyway like someone went crazy with cassette tape roll

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Coolest clutch I’ve ever seen..

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It was so hard getting a picture of Andrew he was jumping around the whole time and it was great. Photographers nightmare, fans dream.. his enthusiasm was infectious and it was great seeing this up & coming band really have fun before the grind really gets to them

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Loving the loafers, haven’t seen many people jump around and rock out with these on…

 

 

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Cesira played nearly the entire set like this.. the girl is captivatingly beautiful…

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“Well if you don’t like it Go ahead, find yourself a saint go ahead now, Try to find a boy who’s gonna be what I ain’t”

Went to review The New York Dolls and it was the best gig I have been to in a long time… not very packed but loved it for that! Like your own intimate gig with one if the greats of the pre-punk-post-glam rock legends. Was in awe and very star-struck for the first time in my life, to be in the presence of Earl Slick who’s played with Bowie was just awesome…

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David was über cool yet super funny he had a note stand set up with all the lyrics to the songs in case he forgot them and while a few of the guys had water and alcohol he was drinking tea.. which he spilled over the speakers and laughed =D

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A little sad when the most rebellious thing you can do these days is smoke on-stage but awesome that they’re still sticking it to the man in their sixties…

Was Amazing.. Earl Slick winked at me and Sylvain Sylvain shoved his guitar in my face, handed me his pick and motioned me to play.. which I did frantically with my inferior left hand.. too cool

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“….I’ll only stay if you stay, I’ll only go if you go”

My new favourite obsession.. The Jungle Giants are getting frequent Triple J airplay and had the pleasure of seeing them perform live Saturday night supporting Ball Park Music.. awesome night. $10 well spent on their current EP… and this is their latest pop single with afro-beat tinge.. feel good song that sounded great live… will post the photos up soon!

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