Take a little trip back to the stone age with me

Lime Spiders, The Devilrock Four and Screwtop Detonators
19 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

In my continuing series of seeing old Aussie 80s bands, I wasn't sure about the Lime Spiders. Yeah, Slave Girl is a pretty awesome song, but is that enough? I had an early morning the next day as well. But it is at the Northcote Social Club, like 5 minutes away, it seems silly not to go.



Not a lot of people there when I get there. In hindsight, the Screwtop Detonators shouldn't have been enough to get me there early either. Their myspace pages quotes a lot of old punk bands, mostly 70s NY punk, but I just wasn't hearing it so much. Some day when they are bigger than Blink 182, they can have proved me wrong, but for me there was something about them tonight that was just a huge mess. I also see that they have recently lost their drummer and have a new one now. I think that was a whole lot of their problem. The rhythm seemed to be a mess, it seemed like every time he did a drum fill, he would be late on the beat, or something that totally threw it all off. The singer at one point complained that his vocals were too loud in the monitors, he hated his voice, could they turn it down. Hmm, not a ringing self endorsement.

The crowd didn't warm to them very much (the 20 people who were there at the time) and the band made those silences between the songs rather awkward by being a little upset about them. Maybe they were having an off night, or they just weren't that great to start with. Although, they did do a version of Police On My Back, which I have a bit of a soft spot for, I have to admit having been in a band which did a version of it as well.



The Devilrock Four start and yeah that's more like it. I had a better feeling while they were setting up, the guitar player played along with TV Eye which was one of the in between set songs. Two guys were in back shuffling through their cds, playing stuff between sets, some of it cool - Saints, Celebate Rifles, and some of it not - Blink 182, I think. But Devilrock Four, launch in and I think, yeah, better, a little bit like the Fluid. They aspire more towards more harder punk, Radio Birdman or there about, than the Screwtops who wanted to be more pop. They also solved the problem of silence between songs Husker Du style, that is don't stop between songs.

But after a few songs, it starts to sound the same and I get a little bored. I mean they are fairly tight and have a pretty good sound but it just doesn't hold my interest past a few songs. There is a rather strange guy jumping around and dancing in the audience, spinning on the ground and whacking his own head with his hand. I assume that he wasn't quite all there. He was slightly entertaining yet I spent most of the set (and the next one) worrying that he would run into me, step on my feet, or whatever.



When the Lime Spiders come on, they don't quite match my picture of them, at Mick Blood and the famous voice. The rest seem grizzly enough, two guitars, bass, drum and that voice, I believe at least one guitar player and bass player are original members (or at least from the 80s when they did the bulk of their work). I enjoy their version of Are You Loving Me More (Electric Prunes). Slave Girl, they have to play it, is about 2/3rds of the way through and pretty much lives up to my expectations. I suppose Slave Girl is mostly why I showed up, you know, the one song that bands have that so far exceed anything else they ever did. Not to say the rest of the set isn't good, I like a lot of their other songs but really Slave Girl is like a perfect song.

They do a pretty decent version of Iggy Pop's I'm Bored. I spend a lot of the show closer to one of the guitar amps, some loud and cool sounds coming out of there. But yeah, I'm pleased I went to see them, it was a good set of loud psychedelic fuzz with that unique voice in the middle. They do one song for an encore then leave. At least they don't drag out the whole encore thing like some people do any more. Then home isn't far away, I'm home and in bed a few minutes after the show.

Old time rock and roll

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, Dan Kelly
11 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Every time I see a show at the Corner, the crowd is completely different. Yeah, obviously, the Hard-Ons are going to attract a different crowd than the Church. But you know, I'm the same at all of them, why don't they all just look like me? Tonight, the crowd looks a lot like Sha Na Na, a fair amount of pompadour hairdos in evidence. Even though tonight is sold out and it should be packed, I'm hoping there won't be as much pushing and shoving as normal.

I guess I'm just a recent convert to Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. I've heard some of their recordings and they seem pretty charming. Reports are that the live shows are fun and good too, so I have pretty good expectations which I can report were fulfilled during the evening.

But Dan Kelly is just coming on as we get there. I looked him up before going, since I had never heard of him. Apparently he had some successful stuff out a few years ago, some a little political (Sleeping on Election Night) and has gotten some awards (or nominated or something). He also seems to be a the nephew of well loved Aussie star Paul Kelly. His band for the evening seems to have been hastily assembled for this supporting spot for the tour. No bass player, a keyboard player who looked like he was a little stoned (or just grumpy), a drummer who apparently used to play for Eskimo Joe (I would probably know more about them if I listened to Triple J more often) and is tapped to play for XX (can't remember the name but it might not have been finalized since he got a little annoyed when Dan mentioned it), and a singing duo the Ukeladies on backing vocals.



So, a few songs I liked, although there was something in the overall sound that didn't sit well with me. I could never quite figure out, did it just sound way too commercial (although it was all a bit rough and the band didn't seem really very tight). The song about bombing power plants and being on the run from the helicopters (complete with helicopter sound effects), although he did screw it up and had to restart the song part way through. Some apparently were his older songs, which I hadn't heard. He did a ukelaile version of Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O'Conner) which was kind of cute.

The crowd was funny and different tonight. I mean it was sold out and packed but when people tried to crowd up front half way through, they would get scolded, you haven't been standing here for the last hour, have you?



So, if you haven't heard, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are siblings and were like 12, 14 and 16 (I believe that was like 4 years ago) who play rockabilly on a variety of instruments. They are now joined by their parents, dad on guitar and mom (former drummer for the Raincoats) on stand-up bass. Ok, that last one is almost enough for me. I'm a real sucker for stand-up bass and she was pretty good and could really pull it off. Obviously, the whole family is pretty talented, all the kids switch off pretty effortlessly between guitar, drums, keyboards, trombone, etc.

They really have the fun bits of rockabilly down. It is quite funny to see somebody who started singing about getting her mojo going, learning from a gypsy woman when she was a pre-teen. They really pull it off though. I think the vast majority of what they perform now is versions of old rockabilly songs (like Mean Son Of A Gun by Johnny Horton), all of them probably obscure enough to modern audiences that they are new songs. They have started to write some of their own songs too.

They play for like 90 minutes, switching instruments pretty much every song, switching who is playing drums, playing a keyboard, strapping on an accordion. Part way through, they bring on Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton, a legendary Jamaican trumpet player, who has to getting on in his 70s now. He is quite cool. They play a bit of rockabilly ska with him and a few other numbers before he heads off. They play pretty much everything off their one record, and if you have heard it, it is pretty true to that sound, happy up tempo music that makes you want to dance. They impress too which their musical skills, long harmonica feats of endurance. The crowd eats it all up and goes home happy. For me, two great shows in two days (Akron/Family and this one), completely different in every way but both great nights out.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Akron/Family, Fabulous Diamonds
10 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

I'll just start off by saying, wow. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought I would like it but really, wow, how could I have known?

So, the normal stuff, super rainy day yesterday, hard to make myself go out into it, and sickness took down some others who were supposed to go along. A shame about that, they would have loved it. Fabulous Diamonds had just started when we got there. I hadn't heard them before and various web pages say things like minimal psychniks, classic dub, experimentalism and post punk mixed together. So, basically it could sound like anything. They are a two piece band, a woman on drums and a guy playing keyboards (and turning dials on effects pedals).

She reminded me of Moe Tucker on drums, sometimes using mallets, simple drum patterns, very minimal, but with cycles in them and a different sound dropped in each cycle around. Much of it was instrumental but the singing was like Dead Can Dance when she did sing. The keyboards sounded like horror film soundtrack organs, mostly simple back and forth between two notes (and between two different keyboards) but that also cycled while he played with the digital delay and sound structure, like how harmonics and beats create different rhythms within the main rhythm. I suspect that there was some music theory in all of it, carefully thought out and constructed. In between it all, they didn't move much or say much.

Being experimental, I would say I liked about half of it, half the experiments worked. Like the 2nd to last song was 10 minutes or so of the simple two note variations that generated some really interesting rhythms, just got really hypnotic and trance like. Then the last song was sort of a variation of that, another long 10+ minute song that just didn't really feel like it fit together very well, just sort of beats and notes and stuff but not really a song. I guess not a bad choice for an opening band. I usually seem to be about 50/50 on them, they just had that split within the one set.

Now, I've been listening to a fair amount of Akron/Family lately, but that didn't really prepare me for the show. The records have lots of pretty little songs, slow and gentle pieces that have strange touches and unusual layers added on top, sort of acoustic sounding strumming, rhythm that sounds like it is sometimes played on cardboard boxes, creaking chairs, with happy vocals backed by choir like three part harmonies, then lead into noisier longer pieces. They are on Young God Records (Michael Gira's label) and I can see how they fit in with that sort of quiet intensity like the direction the Swans and Skin went in their later years.



I don't know where to start, maybe in the middle or towards the end with my favourite moment of it all. So, the band is a three piece with drum, bass and guitar, although that was flexible, might be three guitars at a time, or two drums and a guitar, or just singing with strange noises from effects pedals. But this song had two on drums (one a stand up set, tribal sort of drumming) and guitar as well as the two guests from Fabulous Diamonds hitting whatever sorts of drums were on stage. Just 10 minutes or whatever of tribal drumming and noises and just a crazy intensity which I haven't really seen at a show forever, like Crash Worship kind of crazy, just totally hypnotic then the bass play pulls out a little shrill pipe and starts blowing on that, almost like a fox hunt call to arms, all I could think is what the hell was that, how could this get any weirder. Wow.

There was some guy from the audience on the corner of the stage, dancing and bobbing around. They left him there for 10-15 minutes, you know he was just sort of there not doing anything. Security then goes and tries to push him off until the bass player goes and grabs him and pushes him away, so he stayed and danced away for a few more songs.

Just really, I can't describe it. Songs would shift into completely different things, and they just were indescribable in the first place. You know, this song is completely noisy but it seems like there is an Irish jig under there somewhere. Or the sea shanty underneath their final song of the night which already seemed to have some sort of jazz funk already on top of it. So, I really loved it. Three minute little pretty sweet songs with 10 minute noisy strange segues (all I could think of was vaguely Interstellar Overdrive like) into the next three minute pretty part. What isn't to love there? What an awesome mind blowing experience.

Church bells may ring

The Church, ASTREETLIGHTSONG, The Kicks
5 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

The weather has cooled off quite a bit in Melbourne the last few weeks. It wasn't pouring rain like the last time I was down to the Corner Hotel. (Seems like the Corner makes up the vast majority of the shows I've been seeing lately.) It was cool enough to need a jacket tonight. The Corner seems to be obsessively punctual but at 8:30, people were lined up outside, had to actually wait a few minutes to get in.

The Kicks are on the small 2nd stage tonight. 2 guy/2 girl band, apparently 2 of them are siblings, 2 guitar, drum, and bass. They say it is their second show. Just a tip, change your name. In the age of the internets, a name that isn't searchable is just ridiculous. I consider myself pretty savvy and it took me a long time to find their Myspace page. You know how many have Kicks in their name?

Not that it seemed worth the search. My mind wanders a lot during their set, what makes a band good or bad, even if they are practised and can play their instruments. Their pace never really changes. They have different guitar textures underneath, different things going on in the songs, but they don't really seem to fit together with everything else. And it all sounded a bit muddled, like lots of high school bands. The lyrics seemed a little annoying (lots of baby oh baby). They do a cover, they say what it is, black something or other, but I don't recognize it. Guess I spend too much time listening to Triple R and not Triple J.

I also think, guys and girls really do move differently with guitars. Both of the girls do that sort of curtsy knee bob bending backwards thing while the guys all sort of bop around moving their upper body.

ASTREETLIGHTSONG is up next on the main stage. Three guys this time, one on drums, one switching between bass and guitar and a third playing keyboards and singing (with that classic haircut, do all Aussie blokes dream of having their hair like that - straight down, like a helmet with spiky bits hanging over their ears and in their eyes?). Lots of it is sequenced too. And the drummer has a synth drum. Aack. Who ever thought one of those was a good idea, making even the greatest drummer sound like he is messing around with a Casio. But sweet dude, you can make handclapping sounds.

So, a totally cheezy 80s sound. I think, hmm, they sound a lot like Christian Death, although I haven't heard them in a long time, so I could be wrong. Keyboards way out there, bombastic, guitar so covered in effects that all the life has been taken out of it - just basically twangy midrange, and sort of gloomy vocals. So yeah, I didn't like them so much. I'm nostalgic about a lot of 80s music, but it reminds me there was a lot that also wasn't so great.



But the Church, they start with Tantalized. Looking at this review from Brisbane, they play pretty much the exact same set. I don't know, I'm not sure I agree with them. First of all, they think Astreetlightsong are great, which I didn't. And it seems a bit fanatical about the Church, I mean "guitar guru Peter Koppes emitting shards of freestyle noise from his Fender". It all seems a bit over the top.

I liked them but wasn't swept away by them. I know all the 80s stuff, sort of know the 90s stuff and haven't kept up at all with the recent stuff. After Tantalized, I think it is a bunch of the new stuff. They do an awful lot of guitar switching. Two guitar techs were on stage between each song, switching a 6 or 12 string and mixing up who is playing guitar and bass. Some of it was really great, although they have a tendency to wander off on long noisy jams, which got a bit long and dissonant (maybe out of tune). I did like Chrome Injury (I think, they said they wrote it in 1981, although I thought it had something about a coast in the title), which was long loud and noisy. It worked for them there. Despite reports to the contrary, they do actually move around while they are playing (besides the in between song guitar shuffle) and at times jumped around a little.

They did Milky Way about half way through, sounded good and it went over well with the crowd. People kept yelling requests and they ignored them, playing up their difficult reputation as ignoring what people wanted them to do and play. The cover of Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins) would have been nicer if it seemed more spontaneous. And despite what you might think of the Pumpkins, that song and sound does suit them, but not so much the Church, not enough spareness of the acoustic guitar. They said the Pumpkins covered one of their songs, so they were getting their revenge.

So yeah, nice but not as amazing as I hoped it might be. I found my mind wandering during the set, wondering things like why they are not the superstars that somebody like U2 is. I mean they are fantastic song writers, talented musicians, and certainly have songs that got huge and popular, why didn't they get huge? I know lots of accounts blame grunge for coming in and stealing away their momentum. That just doesn't jive with me, I mean R.E.M. went through that time too and after Nirvana imploded, they came out the other side. I think they is something about the long jams, a bit of deliberate inaccessibility that kind of kept them back. Anyways, that's a debate for another day.

What do I get?

Buzzcocks, Spazzys, and Royal Headache
Sat 21 November 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

After a week of burning heat, it started raining the day before and is still raining. Instead of riding my bike all the way, I guess I'll take the train most of the way. Even having done that, I still get pretty wet getting there.

The Corner Hotel seems to be obsessively punctual about their show times. I'm there on time but Royal Headache are already playing. It doesn't seem like that much of a loss. I've looked at their myspace page and some reviews of them and they seem to be fairly well liked, but I don't get it. In one interview, they say they sound like a Melvins song. Huh? Maybe it is a Melvins song I've never heard. The sound is vaguely jangly (sort of 80s Postcard like), kind of fast, and not very exciting. The guitar player (on a Rickenbacher, didn't help) and the bass player are just goofy happy and seem to be having a great time.

I guess the music isn't so bad, just not very exciting. The singing, I don't really like much at all. I keep racking my brain to figure out what it sounds like, maybe like some 70s singer/songwriter long story narrative, or I just can't place it. He paces back and forth and keep saying he is screwing up the songs. I don't disagree. The place isn't full yet but they seem to have brought a lot of their friends who yell for them and love them.

They leave, the curtain is pulled, and I work on getting my place staked out. A woman is in a wheelchair to the left, so that should be a good barrier for being pushed from that side. The other people around me take lots of pictures of themselves with their Blackberries. Don't know, maybe they can get pictures posted of themselves on the twitter quicker. They're drinking heavily and getting more and more annoying.

Curtains come back and the Spazzys take the stage, a 3 girl punk band. I like them a whole lot more. Bubble gum punk, sort of Runaways but with some Do Run Run Run in there. Lots of whoa-whoa, fast simple songs about my guy loves me, and they close with a theme song, Let's Get Spazzy, to boot. I think a theme song is generally a good thing for bands. Well, the Jonathans had one and they weren't that great but I still admire the effort.

The curtain is pulled again and the same tape plays again, some vaguely familiar 70s Brit punk pop (something like Toy Dolls or something) and then loops yet again. I guess they don't have much canned music for 70s Brit punk shows. I'm working hard keeping my spot, standing firm against the Blackberry crowd to my left and annoying dancing woman on the right, jamming her purse into me constantly (back turned dancing, or drunkenly lurching). No point in elbowing her or anything, probably too drunk to feel it until tomorrow. Until she starts tapping my shoulder, wanting to say some stupid things, ignore her, maybe she will go away.



Hurray, the Buzzcocks come on. Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and the two new guys. Both look a bit like they were in the Kaiser Chiefs. I look up the bass player later, apparently his London band gets compared to the Buzzcocks a lot, so appropriate then. I couldn't really see the drummer much, but he sounded fine. The bass playing was fine too, he just kept staring at the crowd though, it just seemed really strange.

They launch into Different Kitchen. You know, I'm not so sure about the whole album in its entirety format. I like the songs on the album and am familiar with them, but not to the extent of the singles. I still think the Buzzcocks are the king of singles. Insane that you could come up with that many awesome singles in just a few years, when you are still in your teens. It is a bit strange that they have to stand and wait for the sound effects (phone at the beginning of No Reply, for example) and all the Can inspired noodling around on some of the other songs (i.e.,Moving Away From the Pulsebeat). It felt a bit constrained playing the album instead of just playing songs. Still, I totally perk up for Autonomy (my favorite song) and some of the other ones.

They finish up the album and Steve and Pete do a bit of a high five with each other, good going, got it done, then into Love Bites. Ok, now this is getting a lot better, Real World, really starting to rock. Love Bites has a lot better songs, a lot more rocking. Just Lust is a bit of a mess but still pretty cool. Steve keeps drinking champaign and pointing his guitar up, sort of cheezy rock star moves but still fun. He gets his acoustic guitar for Love Is Lies and does a great version. After they finish up, they leave the stage one at a time, leaving the drummer to close it out.

Obviously they have to play more. Isn't it just expected that bands play encores anymore. They know why everybody came tonight, back on stage and into Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get, Ever Fallen In Love, Promises and then finish with Harmony In My Head. It is all pretty cool. I have to say, I saw them in Liverpool a couple of years ago and I thought they were a lot better. Partly because it was like the encore, single after single, all of them fantastic, with an occasional album track thrown in, still I go home happy. Well, I head out into the ridiculous rain storm (pretty torrential by now) and see about getting home. Hopefully the rain hasn't messed up the trains like it often does.