VvvV

Marquis De Sade, Rennes, France.

VvvV - In Nantes

Electric tension : A great taster of the incredible VvvV live experience, so much pent up energy, threat and impetus barely constrained behind those cruelly mistreated keyboards.

This show was the last of a string of dates they did with mnttaB earlier in the year. The best one by a long shot, a big thanks to the KFuel crew and the crazies of Rennes for taking a break from destroying banks and punching police horses to dance their way through an intense and powerful set.


Look out for lots more shows in Oct/Nov and the debut  LP due for release through Detonic Recordings around the same time... 

Hi-Tec Emotions

Hi-Tec Emotions being fabulous, like they do. In the daylight, in the front bar of the Tote, kicking off proceedings at the Rack-off Fest.

Masses

Rack Off! - Tote, Collingwood. March 5th 2016

Another combo who are evolving with every show into an awesome live experience. I wasn't exactly blown away when I fist saw them play, but now they are one of my favourite Melbourne bands.
This track Hidden is featured on the new LP promised any day now. Recorded by Phil Calvert "Moloch" will be released by Mass Media Records and the bands Lost in Fog label.

This was recorded from the Rack Off Festival on the Tote Mainstage (too close to the Stack!) and sound was set wrong on the zoom so I had to fiddle around with it to get rid of the bass boom...still not the best audio I'm afraid.

Stations

Public Bar , North Melbourne. 30th August 2015

 

Great to see this combo re-invented after a very public disintegration upstairs at the Tote (which in my warped mind also counted as top notch entertainment).
Ive always had a soft spot for this lot and the feeling that they were always on the verge of complete chaos was for me part of the charm.
Anyway the two new synth players make the bands sound a more robust, reliable and tuneful proposition than ever before , killing it with a mostly new set perfectly topped off by the slightly unnerving Stepford air stewardess goes bad outfit.
This  track is of course an Oldie but goodie , featuring on a new compilation (alongside Prison) , check that out here.

Whitney Houstons Crypt

Bar Open, Brunswick. June 18 2015

5 Word Review: "...that chicks off her nut..."

Ampere

 

Stockholm Straight Edge, Stockholm, Sweden. 4th April 2015

Hey when the airfare is only $700 who wouldn't fly to Stockholm to see Ampere and Suis La Lune???
A day and a half in transit for 15 minutes of sheer sand blasted adrenalin.

Prison

 

Bar Open, Fitzroy, Melbourne . March 9th 2015

I fell in love with this band when they played on a dark autumn night in Fitzroy, it was a really magical evening, I ate a Falafel on the way home, it was dry. They played this tune and I'm counting the days until they venture forth from Denmark again.

 

Wolf Shield

Tote Hotel, Collingwood. Nov 16th 2014.

From the Launch party for the "Normalised" Compilation.https://detonicrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Schlager Music

Public Bar, North Melbourne. December 2014

Stations.

The Bower, Brunswick .Nov 8 2014

 

Botox

Catfood Press, East Brunswick. Sunday Nov 2nd 2014.

Botox are from Adelaide, up to Melbs for the Maggot Fest Festival...which I never even went near.. doh. 
This is a brilliant band - latest in the rising tide of totally informed, impeccably influenced , criminally low tech , synth-punk units that continue to crop up from nowhere driving forward an already strong sub-sub-sub Genre that is becoming an increasingly Aus. centric phenomenon.
Maybe not...but I loved 'em.

Catfood Press is of course an awesome (if at times uncomfortable) venue: I had been there a few times in the "days of scram" and this afternoons packed, heaving, sweaty and happy set goes down for me as one of the best  they've ever hosted.

Jonny Telafone

The M-Pavillion, Queen Victoria Gardens. Oct 26 2014

Where better for Melbourne's most nocturnal of tortured torch singers to launch his new single? In a coffee kiosk in the middle of a tourist infested City park on a pristine spring Sunday arvo...works for me....although some of the lyrical content (well one song particularly) wasn't exactly PG content..

I couldn't help thinking that this was probably the first time Jonny had been out in the daylight for some time, then he took his shirt off and it was obvious....

White Lung

Howler, Brunswick. Jun 9th 2014
I wrote a poem about this gig:

""the front row is all cameras, the second : boys with hard ons,

and all the punks saved their money, and the dykes went home early.

and the venue is lovely, the p.a is a dream.

and the nipples so pert, panty lines are unseen.

fuck off back to Canada."

Repairs

Grace Darling, Collingwood. 8th June 2014.

MY EYES MY EYES!!! This band is so good..but that strobe was sooooo brutal. This tune is (another) untitled work in progress from Melbournes most cool, most untogether , most suicide channelling band...

NUN

Odeon Hobart (DARK MOFO) June 21st 2014

So, I won flights to Hobart from Quantas..and who wouldn't want to be there to see the last ever Total Control gig? The weather was unbelievable (considering it was the shortest day of mid winter) and I never expected to be eating outside on solstice..unfortunately this factor bought out the locals so it was impossible to get into any of the festival events..there was a 500m queue for the foodhall and the Afterlife "party" was just dangerously stupidly overcrowded....they put HTRK on first , so we missed them and then Native Cats went on an hour early so we nearly missed them (after pushing through a crowd trying to get in or out of one of 2 bars in the building (next to the second stage)) but NUN delivered bigtime (phew : it was a really dodgy set at the Bendigo the week before!!) looking very cool under the inverted cross...Funny how I managed to tape Kino...again..

After that it all got really unpleasant (if you weren't as wrecked as the locals) and we watched a typically daggy scruff garage rock TC set from the balcony upstairs ...only song I recognised was "Meds" (again) ...none of the magic promised by the hype for the new LP ...rest in peace I guess.

Stations

Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. June 8th 2014

A Really brilliant nights entertainment from the "minimum wage" crew, the 3 bands each played (surprisingly?) excellent sets, it was free, Upstairs at the Grace is a good place for bands and the sound was great..shame it was a Sunday really.
Stations get better every time they play, tonite they were so tight, vocals sounded great, keyboards spot on. A little bit of Xmal, a little bit of Danse Society....Ok so the singer needs to trade a bit of the enigmatic for the energetic maybe but hey what do I know?

Im not sure if this is half a song or the end of one and the beginning of another but it sounds awesome to me either way.

Red Red Krovvy

Red Red Krovvy. Northcote Social Club. May 19, 2014


I don't really know anything about this band, I think they are from Queensland. 
Guitar, Drums and Vox. playing straight ahead Punk Rock with none of the trappings.

The brutal/swift/ramraid songs from the minimal lineup, with largely untreated guitar and vox manage to pack a  surprisingly hard and exhilarating impact...do they remind me of things like Action Pact, Rubella Ballet, Avengers? probly ..might just be cos of the girl singer though...there's definitely none of the postcard punk aesthetic, RRK are very boy/girl next door in their appearance, and I think thats a lot of the appeal.

Gold Class

Gold Class. The Catfish, Fitzroy. 12th July 2014
Missed the first band, Cold Life, after taking an hour to get to Fitzroy from Northcote on

the scenic route . The bit I heard sounded good while I was buying a beer but many points lost by the dude sitting at a little table behind the p.a.
School Damage are old pros now, playing their 2nd or 3rd gig! The set is packed with hits and they really take off on the couple of songs when the Indie Sonny/Cher ..err Lennon/Ono errr... Donny/Marie (stop it)vocals combine.

Gold Class on the other hand don't even need a runway, I had a listen to the bandcamp tracks before we came out and I was thinking at  best we may get a shambly-jangly pseudo-manc-rant type outfit... nope: it was all Class of the Gold variety.

The singer (in Bronski Beat Ben Sherman) sang with hands in pockets , his voice so strong and fitting the music brilliantly, the band was yer regulation guitar,bass and drums but I kept thinking there were keyboards cos the sound was so full, tight too : sounded like they have done their time in the rehearsal room.
 It reminded me of seeing the Smiths in the early days but they are far from a retro act..touches of Interpol in there for sure so I reckon its a sure bet they will be  "Coming to a stadium near you" imminently!!
I live in a cave so I hadn't seen Go-Genre Everything before...wasn't really sure what to expect but they were great. The set started with a song I knew for some reason  and included a cover of Snappers' "Buddy"...with an immense racket coming from the guitar/drum duo start to end.
A couple of times the band was having almost unbearable "play-skool presenter " amounts of fun, but hey the audience was too so we can forgive them that minor transgression.
Thighmaster bought the shambly-jangly so it was time for a swift Tequila in the bar downstairs and then off home to bed...the express way.

Masses

hmmm new geschflect editorial policy is - same as before : no slagging, but now 10 words or less...its the only way I can keep up. so...

Enjoyed much more than last time, exciting, floor, good,  new guitarist, energy, better haircuts.

Dead Boomers

Dead Boomers. Northcote Social Club, April 7th 2014.

Tonite was the first time Id seen the Dead Boomers, and they were fuckin mind-blowingly intense. Noise, Noise, Noise and furious demeneted distorted vocal bark. With foot on monitor , Emo hairdo dangling over low slung equipment table and those concrete crushing Big Black binary beats : its just so Rock And Roll and so ANTI Rock and Roll.

 
I love those hand grip things the guys use ( hang on where did I see that before? Hans Harms? yep now I remember: batteries run out ..great set) literally SQUEEEZING the hideously mangled sound out (or whatever it is the thing actually does) in some sort of macho inverted muscle building death-grip spasm... Awesome.