the zoo – Page 2 – helenthura.com

January 28, 2008January 28, 2008

New week, new concert

Last Monday night, gee a week ago, I went along to The Zoo to photograph Enter Shikari and The Amity Affliction. I am really watching every dollar at the moment so am not going to any gig where it is going to cost me money to get in. It means I have got a lot of housework done 🙂

The Zoo has two new lights. They are LED arrays and are on either side of the drummer. They don’t seem to actually provide any light though. mmm. It was my first gig where I spent the entire time at iso 3200 and oh it hurt, it hurt so bad. However, I much prefer noise to blur so I have to accept it.

Lots of rude punters. I think that the odds of crowd rudeness increase significantly based on the music. mmm. It is not like you have any desire to steal their spot hanging off the front of the stage, all you want is 10/20 seconds to pop in front of them or lean over them, take a picture and move on. You have a big sticker on your shirt saying media and a camera in your hand that you can use as weights practice. The common answer at the gig however as you politely tap them on the shoulder, raise your camera and ask if you can duck in front of them for a few seconds was Get lost, Get or a grunt or shove.

Other than that it was a fine night, by no means my style of music but the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Photos are here.

The Amity Affliction
Amity
Amity

Enter Shikari

December 2, 2007December 5, 2007

I have to be this way.

Friday night in The Valley.
The eve of Summer.
The Zoo.
85% sweaty males in black t-shirts.
Melbourne Bitter was the flavour of the night.
One of the greatest Punk bands.
Something special.
$35 was a bargain price.
It was The Bouncing Souls.
There is a reason they are who they are.
It was a very good night.

I went with my little brothers and one girlfriend. There was Carter ambushing Kate, yeah that Kate as in Futon store Kate. There was a guy who was in my year at school breaking his nose in the 2nd song. There were the people who smiled at me when they saw my camera and let me pop in front of them or forming a guard round me to prevent stage divers landing on me. There was milling on Ann St after the show whilst Matthew talked to the various randoms/scene kids.

It was a night which was a good night. The support bands were good, The Zoo wasn’t as hot as it normally gets.

The supports were The Gift Horse and The Black Market.

Then it was The ‘Souls.

You can view the rest of the photos over here at Flickr

November 1, 2007December 24, 2007

Mia Dyson & Co

Last Saturday night I headed along to The Zoo for The Dwarf for the Mia Dyson & Epicure concert. You can see all the photos from the night at The Dwarf gallery. Mia Dyson reminded me how much you never know how much you will like a band till you see them live. You can hear them on the J’s day in and day out but until you see a live show you really just don’t know. Mia Dyson had just the the right amount of rock/country/etc for me, really enjoyed her set. Epicure were great as well, I had thought that they were going to be a lot more rockier before the set but they didn’t disappoint. Matt Walker was the support as well as been Mia’s guitarist and he provided a very nice welcoming set.

October 30, 2007October 31, 2007

Unlike a yoyo craze, unlike a marble phase

I love it everyday – Spaghetti Bolognaise!

Life is an interesting thing. Or perhaps more the internet is an interesting thing or even more precise Facebook. Last Sunday night Mum and I went to see Peter Combe. The very next day I got a message on Facebook saying that Catherine Riddle had added me as a friend.

Catherine and I grew up together. A fair swack of my childhood was spent playing in Catherine’s back yard, swimming in the pool, playing dress-ups in her Mum’s old ballet costumes and generally just having fun. We went to the same primary school but after her dad spent a year on exchange in England and they went up to Charters Towers to live/teach we pretty much lost contact. We have seen each other a few times over the years but I don’t think I have seen Catherine for probably four years now. I nearly fell off my chair when I got the notification on facebook because a few weeks before when I had joined facebook again as it now seemed like all my friends had it now, one of the first people I searched for was Catherine but she wasn’t to be found.

This is us when we are young tykes, Catherine and I had just turned 4 ( our birthdays are 10 days apart) and Matthew was/still is my little brother.

What made it all the more special was that the night before as Mum and I were walking down the steps out of the Zoo after seeing Peter Combe, Mum was commenting on how Margaret (Catherine’s mum) had introduced us to Peter Combe as I was mentioning that a lot of my friends had not been exposed to Peter when they were young and that she was going to send Margaret a letter and her Peter Combe ticket.

Peter Combe was a fantastic night. The Zoo was sold out and it was full of newspaper hats and pure glee amongst the punters who had forgotten just how much we had loved Peter Combe as children and that we would still sing those songs word for word. I can’t wait for him to come back north again as I would be there in a split second. I have gone to a fair amount of concerts and whilst there was no fancy lights or sound effects, I have to say I think it was the only concert I have been to where every single person there had a huge grin on their face all night long.