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.
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