Simon and Garfunkel was amazing. It was just amazing to hear those voices live, to see them on stage in front of me (albeit a long way in front of me -> I was in the very back row of the entertainment centre. I was so tempted to throw caution to the wind and book a flight and some expensive tickets and go see them in Sydney or Melbourne later this week but the sensible Helen said that would be a lot of money.
I guess due to the size of the concert I didn’t find it nearly as thrilling as The Breeders last year (I was in the front row then) but I did spend the entire night with a grin on my face and my hands clasped in front of me. I bought an overpriced t-shirt along with a very pretty tour poster for which I will need to find a nice A3 frame.
*video montage*
Old Friends/Bookends
Hazy Shade Of Winter
I Am A Rock
America
Kathy’s Song – Art believes this is the greatest love song of “our” (his) generation
*chatter about Alice in Wonderland*
Hey Schoolgirl
Bebop-alula (The Everley Brothers)
Scarborough Fair
Homeward Bound
*video montage ending with a clip from The Graduate*
Mrs Robinson
Slip Slidin’ Away
El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
*Art Garfunkel*
Bright Eyes
A Heart in New York
The Perfect Moment/Now I Lay me Down
For Emily, Whenever I may find her
*Paul Simon*
Graceland
The Boy in the Bubble
Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes
Only Living Boy in New York
My Little Town
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Encore 1
Cecilia
The Boxer
Encore 2
Sounds of Silence
The Leaves That Are Green
Encore 3
Feelin’ Groovy
Here is my *fantastic* photo of the night from my camera phone, taken during the playing of Feelin’ Groovy
And here is a little video clip from my phone
Big props to them for playing for 2hrs 10mins, it was great to not have a support act and no intermission.
Last week, Brisbane’s newest festival filled the Old Botanical Gardens with fantastic music on three stages over two mid-week afternoons. Sunset Sounds was brought to Brisbane by the same folk who run that festival down south called The Falls Festival. Overall it was a really nice festival and it was great to leave work and head down to the gardens and enjoy the music and the gardens.
Some of my highlights would have to have had included The Cat Empire (so great seeing them live), Tegan and Sara (haven’t got into them on the radio but live they were great), The Kooks (they were so great to photograph), Skipping Girl Vinegar (just so fun, they made me smile), Blue King Brown (no explanation needed there), I Heart Hiroshima (Brisbane, fun, crazy and great).
The gallery from Day 1 is up on The Dwarf and both days are up in Sunset Sounds ’09.
Man, today is the 28th of November and I am so glad that there are only two days left in November, this daily blog posting has been quite an adventure. I have no intention of keeping it up but hopefully it has taught me to blog more regularly. I think one of the reasons I have not been so regular (gee that sounds like an ad for All-Bran) is that since moving out of home, I haven’t found a really comfortable typing location. The chair isn’t right, the desk isn’t right, getting the laptop the right distance from the keyboard. ahh so many different combinations, none of them optimal. That is life though. and excuses are excuses, though other than my family and some friends I am not really sure who even reads this anymore so do me a favour and say hello!
Last night I went to The Globe for a very special show. Dan Kelly and The Ukeladies are in town supporting Augie March (playing tonight/now at The Tivoli) and oh what a darling show it was. It was a show of great stories from love in the supermarket to attempting to scam the insurance company and how SUV cause climate change. As well as other suitable songs including a cover of the Sinead O’Connor/Prince song Nothing Compares To You. I now have oohh four gigs that I haven’t blogged about, three of those were gigs that knocked a bit of my socks off. I hope to get to them soon. I will share this one photo though from the show last night. A girl near me had a little bottle of bubbles and was having a great time blowing them round the room.
Holly Throsby, man oh man what I can say about her and her duo of support (Bree van Reyk and Jens Birchall). I went on Friday night for The Dwarf and I went back on Sunday night to see her again. I have known who Holly is for quite a few years now and have adored her version of Not the Girl You Think You Are from the Tim and Neil Finn tribute Album She Will Have Her Way. However I have never gone to a concert, I have thought about it many times nor I have listened to much of her work. I did have a brief listen on Myspace before the gig on Friday night to brief myself a little but in all honesty listening to them on Myspace didn’t sell me on her. Clare was hoping to come along on Friday night as she was already in the Valley but by the time she got to the door the gig was sold out. I grabbed some floor space down near the front and caught the last bit of the support band Firekites and in all honesty I can’t remember much of their set three days later. By the time the support had finished the Troubie was filling up nicley and the security man walked through the sea of people sitting on the carpet and told us all to stand up and with much protest we all stood up. Then Holly came on stage and after she had said hello, a few people yelled out “Can we sit down?” to which she answered “I don’t care” and on that last word, everyone collectively sat down again. To which Holly made a few comments about that now she feels really tall.
A couple of seconds after she started singing, I sat up a little bit straighter and took a deep breath. Man oh Man, where I have been? Such an incredible sound, the little trio, soon to be known as Holly Throsby and the Hello Tigers (as of Sunday night) were just so tight in their sound, it sounded like there was just one person on stage. One of the sweetest things or perhaps I should say one of the nicest things was that at the end of the gig, it was Holly and Bree who were the merch stand and as I bought On Night on Friday, I told her that I had been meaning to go a gig for years but never got there and tonight she had blown the expectations I had for the gig by about 1000%. I was so sold that two nights later I bought the other two LPS A Loud Call and Under the Town and I would have bought a shirt but I don’t do black shirts.
The set list for Friday was as follows
1) And Then We’re Gone
2) A Widow’s song
3) Now I Love Someone
4) On Longing
5) Don’t Be Howling
6) The Time It Takes
7) One of You for Me
8) Would You?
9) Some Night Are Long
10) Warm Jets
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) Things Between People
13) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided
17) The Shoulders and Bends
Friday blew me away but Sunday was bliss, a lot slower, a lot calmer, more talking and the music just leading the night away.
Set list for Sunday was as follows
1) To Begin With
2) If We Go Easy
3) On Longing
4) Now I Love Someone
5) The Time It Takes
6) One of You for Me
7) A Widow’s Song
8) Don’t Be Howling
9) Come Visit
10) Things Between People
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided
17) The Shoulders and Bends
There might have been one or two songs that were changed around but my lists are from the set lists that I picked up off the stage at the end of the shows.
The Troubie whilst I love it and love it and love it is not a venue that is at all friendly for people wishing to take photographs. The lighting is two lights and a floor lamp but I wouldn’t change the fact that there is comfy lounge chairs, carpeted floor to sit on and a trendy bar. There were just so many cute, quint, funny bits that just made me smile. At the show on Sunday night, Holly asked if anyone had come to the gig on Friday night and raised my hand ever so slightly and she said that she had been thinking about wearing the same dress tonight but decided against it just in case people such as my self from Friday turned up on Sunday as well. Next time Holly Throsby is in your town make sure you go! If you don’t and I find out, well it may not be pretty.
Here is a youtube video of Holly doing Berlin Chair, the You Am I cover at the gig on Friday night. This user also has a few more videos from the two Brisbane shows.
Another thing I can’t contain my love for is the design of the CDs. All three follow the exactly same design for the CD and sleeve artwork. It is just perfect! Such a tiny thing like the fact that the
It is Thursday night, about 71 hours since The Breeders walked onto the stage at The Zoo. I am laying on the floor of my bedroom with my laptop (oh yes, I got a laptop a month or so ago, it is pink, I love it) in my Breeders shirt, listening to Mountain Battles and loving it more and more. In those 71 hours all I have listened to is Breeders, The Amps and an itsy witsby bit of Kelley Deal 6000 and I could not love the sisters Deal more.
Charlyn likes to remind me round the net that I was super excited and well I must admit she is telling the truth. Man the grin I had on my face was a grin that has never appeared on my face at a concert before and probably never will, well the only time I think it will reappear will be if I ever get to see The Breeders live again and let me be honest and truthful I am by no means counting my eggs for that on the flip-side, I had a thought at the gig on Monday night that I could so see those girls pushing 70 and still singing their songs on the stage. I will have to wait and see I guess but those few hours will be a night I will cherish for the rest of my life.
I still find it so hard to believe that man oh man I saw the Breeders. I will be sitting at my desk at work or walking to the train station and I find myself smiling at the thought of how magical Monday night was.
Gaslight Radio were the supports and to be honest I didn’t really think much of them. They had one or two alright songs in their set but that was about it. The lead singer had quite good stage presence but it was really let down by some of the other band members. One of the guys spent the entire set with his back to the audience playing his guitar??? what the?????
My favourite photo I took during their set was not of them but of a piece of A4 paper I saw on top of an amp.
mmmm yeah! The set list. I close to fainted when I saw that Safari was on there. Still that didn’t stop me from yelling out for them to play it during the set and then Kim said something back to me and they they played it and well Helen went into a state of euphoria. The deviated from the set list a bit I think with the addition of one or two impromptu songs that I can’t recall. Looking at the order of the songs in the photo above and the set list from the show in Boston it seems that the set list for the shows on this world tour are pretty much the same.
01. Tipp City
02. Huffer
03. Bang On
04. Shocker In Gloomtown (GBV)
05. Divine Hammer
06. Night of Joy
07. No Aloha
08. Pacer
09. We’re Gonna Rise
10. It’s The Love (Tasties)
11. Mercury
12. New Year
13. Cannonball
14. I Just Wanna Get Along
15. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Beatles)
16. Iris
17. Safari
18. Saints
19. German Studies
20. Empty Glasses
21. Overglazed
22. Fortunately Gone
23. Here No More
24. Drivin’ on 9
25. Full On Idle
I would have really really really liked to have heard and Flipside and Hag and When I Was a Painter and Son of Three and well the 100 other or so songs in their discography. Though I am really kicking myself for not yelling out for the Buffy theme as that would have been so fricking cool.
I don’t know where to start about the Breeders set. It was just magical. The sold out crowd was a real mix of ages; people my age, people a bit younger and plenty of people who are more Karl’s age. As there were so many people like me who had been waiting years and years to see them, the atmosphere in the crowd as they started to play the songs and banter was just incredible, Kim and Kelley interacted with the crowd a lot and seemed incredibly at ease on stage.
