Music – Page 8 – helenthura.com

January 6, 2008January 7, 2008

Soul Food

The gig last night was quite possibly one of the most soul enriching gigs I have been to since the Misery and Redemption Fun back in August. I started to write some notes about the music of the night but that is not what the night was about. It was about this eclectic mix of people enjoying a really fine night of music that all falls under the wide Reggae umbrella some was on the Hip-Hop end, others were more on the rock end and others moved about the middle. I ended the night having been exposed to a wide range of people and really just had a really good night. It was also a night of the Watussi shirt as well.

I had a poke round Newstead on my way into The Valley scoping out some places I want to take photos of, walked round the Valley/New Farm observing the street life or more likely getting some exercise since the last week of rain has killed the morning exercise. Another night in The Valley. Another night at the Step Inn. The stage lights at the Step Inn work ok for your standard rock band with three or four members, however when you start putting reggae bands up there with perhaps six, seven, eight members the light just doesn’t work. It means that you get a number of decent photos of anyone who is in the centre front of the stage and the success rate diminishes as you move away from that. Back to photos and music though as that is what we are here for.

Shisha.
A jam band that was there just to provide some background music. A guy jumped up from the audience with a Sax to join in, after a while, I realised that I knew him. It was Jonathan Sri. He was three years below me at school but we were both in the various bands at school together, although then he was playing Clarinet and I was able to hit him on the head from where I was sitting with my Bassoon (sigh I miss her). Was nice to be able to catch up and do the required high school gossip exchange/catch up. Back to Shisha, it was fun stuff and a good start to the night.
Shisha

Cool Calm Collective.
The horns section never appeared and keys lady was late. It worked though (of course). Some of those lyrics are stuck in my head again. A nice change to Don’t Mess With The Dragon that I have had up there since April. This was a “shot that I have wanted to take for a while” and given the light I am pretty happy with the result, band framed by crowd.

Georgia

De Jah Groove.
Having seen this guys a couple of times in the last few months I had a photo planned. A photo that I have attempted to take the last few times but have not been happy with the result. I was prepared for it this time. The photo was going to be Dave throwing the Shekere up in the air. I was waiting. I was 99.9% that it would happen. However they didn’t end up playing the song so I didn’t get the photo. I was talking to Dave afterwards and mentioned it, he told me that it was on the set list and they just didn’t play it. Next time I will get it.

Harl

Grass Roots Street Orchestra.
GRSO were something. It was reggae with some hip-hop elements and I really loved it, which bowled me for six.
GRSO

GSRO

1:10am, the music is over and the instant mood swings security guy starts kicking anyone out who is not in a band. We all promptly step outside and some of the Poetikool Justice and some other guys start a beatboxing circle after a long while someone decides to take the next step and some words, it was really impressive. More chatting and then it was time to bid the St Pauls Terrace farewell.
jam

A crowd shot
crowd

The rest of the images are located in a gallery here.

January 3, 2008January 4, 2008

JosÃ© GonzÃ¡lez

damm. what a night it was.

Last night it was raining (no surprise here at the moment), people were standing outside the Tivoli wearing scarves and beanies. Inside a night of magical music was about to get under way. JosÃ© GonzÃ¡lez was in town and it was a sold out show.

Emily Barker.
She had just the right blend of folk, country and alt. It was the first time she had played in Brisbane and I am looking forward to her coming back and playing the Troubie as she was sort of drowning in the audience last night

JosÃ© GonzÃ¡lez.
I was blown to the wall. The music was so rich, deep and vibrant. The sound had this depth that just isn’t there on a CD. It left my heart feeling really nice and warm, the perfect antidote to a wet Brisbane night. The first half dozen songs he played by himself and then he brought the band out for the rest of the set. It was a very low key band. A guy and and a girl, doing some back up vocals and providing some percussion. Really well put together, minimalist but full of life. I walked out of the Tivoli with my brolly and the most peaceful feeling inside of me which is just what I need at the moment since life threw me some curveballs earlier in the week. I dearly would have loved to have heard his cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart as that would have been the cherry on top of the sprinkles.

Jose

You can see the rest of the photos over in a gallery at helenpalsson.com.au

January 3, 2008January 4, 2008

A Very Voodoo Christmas

Quite a few Saturday nights ago , Mum joined Matthew and I at the Step Inn for A Very Voodoo Christmas. The reason? Cactus Cadillac were playing their second gig, I had missed the last one as I was in Melbourne and Mum didn’t go. This gig though was very much a family affair with numerous friends and family of Cactus Cadillac along for the ride 🙂

I like the Step Inn in theory, I like that they are booking a very wide range of shows from folk to dub to pyschobilly and everything in between. I have a love/hate relationship with the lights though. Sometimes they are excellent, sometimes they are good, other times they are crap and it changes drastically between bands on a night. Cactus Cadillac were the first band and they had dim blue lights on their faces but normal sunlight lights at waist level. For the other bands though it moved to just normal sunlight lights as the whole lighting which was focused at the very front of the edge of the stage which meant that most time band members were in the fall-off, whilst the instruments were in the full light. It was interesting. That is why most of these photos are just photos and nothing more. I would take red Zoo lights over patchy lights any day.

Cactus Cadillac.
Cactus Cadillac is fun. They are boys who have slept on our floor numerous times over. Whilst Carter may be my primary little brother, Tom and Yuki are round often enough as well that they are just part of the family. I enjoyed the set, it was by no means mind blowing it was only their 2nd gig and Carter was distracted by the cricket on the TV at the back of the room apart from that, they are doing what they enjoy 😀

The Dead Ringers.
I only saw a little bit of this set as I went over to Tounge and Groove at West End to see The Chocolate Strings (damm great music) with Clare as her farewell before she headed to Washington DC, where she will spend the next 9 weeks or so as an intern for Massachusetts Democrat Congressman, John Tierney. Jealous? yes. The Dead Ringers were a band that I found on myspace looking for local alt-country bands so I was surprised seeing them at a Bad Moon Show but they do have a fair bit of rockabilly elements in their alt-country.

Foghorn Leghorn.
Some nights you just need some Ska to keep you going and Foghorn Leghorn are always there to provide. They have this absolute cracker of a songs about Emo kids and cheering them up, there is actions that go with it, it is pretty darn amusing.

The Bad Moon Company.
What do you if a few songs into the set the double bass gives up the ghost? You become a rockabilly covers band whilst people attempt to fix the double bass. You get it working, you go back to playing your own blend of rockabilly/pyschobilly. Then the double bass croaks it again, repeat steps from before. It croaks again. You play it to the best you can. Everyone goes home early because it just doesn’t want to work. That was quite sad as I was looking forward to a big night of Bad Moon Co goodness.

To see the rest of the images from the night go here – A Very Voodoo Christmas

December 31, 2007December 31, 2007

I have to share something

I am 22. Well 22 point something.
For Christmas. I got a few books and a few CDs.
One of those CDs was a box set. 3 CDs of Peter Combe goodness. I have no shame admitting that. I want to know why Peter Combe is not playing at Big Day Out. The man is selling out venues across Australia. Could you imagine him at BDO? 50,000 plus people, many slightly inubriated singing along to Newspaper Mama, that would be magical. If I was booking a festival, he would be one of the first acts on my list.

This morning it is raining. What did I do after waking up? Why play Rain of course.
and the rain keeps tumbling down, listen it’s a wonderful sound. If you want to have a listen press the play button below.
[audio:Peter Combe-Rain.mp3]

The other CDs were from The Mountain Goats and Brindle that evens it out a bit.

Books.
Well one of them was instructing me on how to be an American Serviceman in Australia in 1942. I now know everything I need to know about Australia from the point of view of the Special Service Division, Services of Supply, USAF. It is 54 pages of pure gold. Put out as part of a series by the Bodleian Library, others in the series include Instructions for Instructions for British Servicemen in France and American Servicemen in Britain. Gold!

I particularly like this section.

Australia’s Democratic Traditions.
In many ways Australia is the most democratic government in the world. Certainly in the short space of 150 years, it has made many notable contributions to social legislation in which it has pioneered. it set up one of the first central banks in the world. Also the nation pioneered in social security and workmen’s compensation laws and developed a unique and workable system of industrial arbitration courts which have helped reduce strikes and disputes to a minimum. p.39

Australian Songs and Singing.
Australians, like Russians, are natural group singers. It’s one of the great differences you’ll notice between American camps and Australian – the singing. p.21

One thing I have noted is that throughout the book they continually point out that Australia is one of the greatest democracies of the world. 😀 well yeah.

At the back there is a section on Australian Slang. “Australians can give us a head start and still win”.
I will now use the listed slang to illustrate the bog standard New Years Eve party.
I might go to a shivoo (party) where the plonk (cheap wine) will abound, some people will get shikkered (drunk). It will be ding dong (swell) though. It won’t be a beano (gala affair) but I might be a bit crook (sick) in the morning.

It is a cracker of a book.

One of the other books I got is a cracker read. Titled A Teacup in a Storm: an explorer’s guide to life, it is set out like an instruction manual giving me advice on how to go about organising a grand expedition as well as how not to go about organising such an expedition. The sections include Getting There, Getting Along, Getting Started etc. The book was La Dolce Vita by Isabel Coe.

It is still raining. but now the Old 97’s are playing instead.

December 19, 2007December 21, 2007

a night at the Chelsea

Sunday night saw me jump on the Concord v2 for a special night at the Hotel Chelsea. Well not quite but close. Instead it went something like the following. My not so gallant steed for the night (The Pulsar) and I picked up Thor from her house before we headed into The Valley for some pre-show drinks/chatter/random events with Tom. After a name change issued to me on my behalf, it was into The Troubadoure for a night with a theme of the Hotel Chelsea. (side note, The Troubie stamp is pretty cool, if I got tattooed on my wrist, do you think they would give me free entry for life?) Tom Woodward was in town *for one night only!* and along with Ange Takats and Cameron Elliot they were putting on a show at The Troubie. Titled “a night at the Chelsea”, promising me a night of music by three artists inspired by the music scene at the Hotel Chelsea in the late 60’s. The promise was certainly delivered.

Ange Takats
I have been meaning to see Ange live for a couple of months now, the classic myspace syndrome, all these cool local acts and only so many days in a week. She was well worth the wait, as I was in for a treat. She opened the night by singing a song, just singing, no guitar, no backup, just her. Rather impressive. Throughout the night she by far spent the most time up on stage as at some point during the boys sets she provided some backup vocals. She has a tale/song about the curse of knitting for boyfriends who then leave with the knitted goods (the word on the street is that to stop this happening that you need to marry said boyfriend and then give knitted goods). That got a gold star in my book.

Tom Woodward
Well there was that rather very interesting guitar tuning interlude. There were a handful of new songs. There was “my song” (publicly known as Reminding me of Your) played in the December 07 style rather than the August 07 style, which is a bpm increase of oh about 60% and a much edgier sound, very different and I don’t know which version I prefer. It was top shelf stuff, could it have been any less? (that answer is most definitely no). I can’t yet offer any soundbites/textbites for the new songs though. Other than that that there is a video clip for one of the new songs at the end of this post. Press that play button!

Cameron Elliot
I didn’t get to *really* hear much of Cam’s set as I was chatting up the back. Which means that I can’t really offer any profound or non profound as the case often is about Cam’s music other to say that I did quite enjoy what I heard though and will be keeping track of him. Cam was the Tom Waits or perhaps the Leonard Cohen of the night, he was one of those two as Tom was the Bob Dylan and Ange was the Joan Baez/Joni Mitchell.

After the “solo” sets were over they got together for some good old fashioned supergroup fun. One of which was of course I shall be released and there was another really great tune they did which I can’t recall at the moment.

Then some time later the music ended. some time after that the night ended with this. Tom and Thor on the footpath. In the light of a streetlight.

I almost forgot, a Troubie shot 😀

December 14, 2007December 14, 2007

Lock Up Your Sons!

Last night I went to a concert. Correction it is now Friday so on Tuesday night I went to a concert.

It was called Lock up your Sons. It was a presentation of 4 guitar toting ladies, Georgia Potter, Deb Suckling, Jackie Marshall and Emma Louise. Each of the ladies were introduced by a man/boy who has had something to do with each of the ladies, that was a really nice touch. Each of these ladies had their stories to tell and each played with a special feeling about them. I have seen Georgia a few times so I knew that she would be good. I saw Jackie Marshall supporting Missy Higgins back in May and looking back now I don’t know why I have not been to see her again since then as she blew me to the wall, damm. I had no idea who Deb Suckling was till she was introduced and then I was blown away again, over the years of listening to the zed’s and reading the street press I have often heard about a local band called Brindle, turns out she is the singer from said band. The final member of this group of ladies was the youngest at just 15/16, her name is of course Emma Louise, she hails from Cairns, she won the 2007 Q Song Peoples Choice Award which tells you all you need to know and that is that this girl/lady is good.

To give you an idea of the night, here is the promo poster that was up round the place. Does it not sound like the most interesting night?

Georgia Potter

Jackie Marshall

Deb Suckling

Emma Louise