Note: I wrote this a few days after the gig and forgot to post it. The Bad Seeds show tonight in Vancouver reminded me.... My third Bad Seeds show in just a couple of weeks and I expected this one to be different. Removed from the stately confines of the Sydney Opera House (and its orchestra/child choir accoutrements) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds treated the Enmore with a little less respect, a little more edge, and it made for a very different live experience. That said, it was the inclusion of [...]
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Sydney Opera House February 26 & 27, 2013 - Last week I took in the first two of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds three shows at the Opera House. Two great nights. Both nights featured sixteen members (all strings) of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as well as a children's choir from Annandale along with their two adult chaperones. - These were two spectacular shows...but not perfect ones (what show ever is?). So let's start with a couple negatives and move on to the many positives. [...]
Almost exactly two years ago , I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Vancouver after years of assuming I had missed my chance. Two years on and the band have actually released a new record and are still on the road. Thanks to the ATP Festival, the band are currently touring Australia for the very first time and on Thursday night I saw them pummel the Enmore Theatre. As is their habit, Godspeed came out one by one to play the Hope Drone which slowly built up and merged into Mladic from last year's ' ALLELUJAH! [...]
Natasha Khan is just LOVELY . I had never seen Bat For Lashes before last night's show at the Enmore and I didn't really know what to expect. Since 20092s Two Suns , I've slowly but continually become enamored with all three Bat For Lashes records, including last year's The Haunted Man (you would perhaps know this already if I had actually published my Best of 2012 list....it still might be coming). So there were lots of songs I was dying to hear - and she played pretty much all of them. [...]
Prior to Tuesday night's Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at the Metro, I had not seen the New York trio since 2004. Eight and a half years ago. 1. I am old. 2. That is a LONG time between shows. It's not like the band haven't been active in that time, just bad timing on my part (whenever they were in Australia I was in Canada on a holiday). Despite the years, I still had incredible memories of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs live experience from the two shows I saw when they were supporting [...]
Spiritualized Sydney Opera House December 2, 2012 The Opera House is such an iconic structure (especially to an outsider like me) that it is always kind of special to see a favourite band there (even if the interior of the building is, well, kind of ordinary). So I was pretty excited as I looked out over the harbour waiting to take my seat (Row 2!) for Spiritualized. Once inside, Spiritualized wasted little time. With no support act, the band were on stage at 8:05 with a brand new song called Here It [...]
I wrote more at length about Night 1 here so I'll keep this very brief. 1. Happy to see a show with Lotus Flower as the opener. 2. Airbag is always so great. Now, thanks to Clive, with sleigh bells all the way through. 3. Great to hear The Daily Mail again after not hearing it Night 1. 4. How To Disappear Completely...not played a lot this year but it's always so majestic. 5. The National Anthem !!!! 6. LOVED the first encore. Especially Kid A. Hadn't heard it yet this [...]
Wrote this ages ago...never posted it. Tying up loose ends before the end of the year. The problem with writing for At Ease is that I can feel a bit Radiohead-overloaded at times (mainly when the band is on tour as they were this year). The result is that I don't often feel the urge to write about the band here when I've already done it there. Like this belated review for last week's show in Sydney which I covered for At Ease . But that doesn't mean I wasn't blown [...]
Almost exactly six years ago I wrote about Godspeed You! Black Emperor and how much I missed them. At that point they were three or fours into a hiatus that seemed like it was heading into Never Going To End territory. A few years later I had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing the band live. Or of ever hearing a new record. In 2011 I finally got to see them live . And today I am holding a new Godspeed LP in my hands while the crushing music fills my ears. It's [...]
It's been a crazy summer. So crazy I no longer live in Vancouver. Amanda and I have returned to Sydney, Australia for the foreseeable future...more on that later I suppose as the show reviews roll in. But before we left Vancouver we managed to see some shows this summer. First up, we saw Florence + The Machine and The Walkmen at Deer Lake Park back in July. Amanda is a pretty big fan of Florence so this was a show that was definitely her bag. I went along knowing I'd at least [...]
Last year, Red Bull and BrainFarm collaborated on the most impressive snowboarding film I've ever seen. The Art Of Flight is such an impressive feat of digital filmmaking that it appeals even to those who could care less about snowboarding. The only way to describe the film is with the horribly overused word EPIC. When the producers were sourcing music to accompany the incredible visuals they needed to find music as expansive and impressive as the vistas and journeys shown in the film. Enter M83 . [...]
I think my ears are still ringing. Last night at the Rickshaw Theatre, Spiritualized once again managed to overcome pretty high expectations. While the show didn't quite reach the heights of a show in Sydney I saw a few years ago , I was still impressed with Spiritualized's ability to unleash such transcendent music in a live setting. Joined on stage by four other musicians as well as two backup singers, Jason Pierce led the band through a pretty extensive tour through the Spiritualized catalogue (easy to do when you're on stage for [...]
I often pass on giveaways I'm offered as they generally involve bands or artists I'm not really into. NOT THIS TIME . Jack White's debut solo record Blunderbuss is a really, really great record. When the White Stripes announced their split I was pretty bummed as they had been one of my favourite bands the last decade (and always killer live). And while a solo Jack White record was inevitable, I don't think I really comprehended what that meant until I heard Blunderbuss for the first time. What does it mean? [...]
Over the years my love of Dappled Cities has been well-documented on A Reminder so when I learned Dappled Tim was putting out a solo EP I was pretty excited. I've always loved the drama in Tim's voice and he has a knack for enjoyably, slightly unorthodox (at times) arrangements. His first solo outing, under the moniker Swimwear is a four song EP called The Kissing Machine . Both names are pretty indicative of the music found on the EP: it's all bright sunshine and unbridled enthusiasm. While Swimwear's homeland of Australia may [...]
Lost in the Radiohead trip a few weeks ago was Gotye's impressive show at the Vogue Theatre here in Vancouver. I first wrote about Gotye back in June 2006 when Wally was still pretty unknown, even in Australia. During the years I spent in Sydney I got to know Wally a little bit so what has happened over the last six months or so has been kind of surreal. I mean Glee ? A Billboard #1 single? Saturday Night Live ? Just madness. I saw Gotye a number [...]
On Easter Monday, we loaded up the car and headed down to Seattle to see Radiohead kick off the second leg of their 2012 King Of Limbs tour. Expectations were high. I hadn't seen the band since August of 2008 - the longest gap between Radiohead shows I've quietly endured in my 14 years of seeing them live. Setlists so far this year promised lots of new material and, like the band, I was keen to look forward not back over their career. While I still love The Bends and OK Computer [...]
Album #1: Let England Shake by PJ Harvey I've been a PJ Harvey fan for a long time and have loved nearly everything she's done. But if you had told me in January that her record would be my favourite album in a year when Radiohead released a record, there's no way I would have believed you or your hitler hairdo. But Let England Shake is such a brilliant record that it kind of forced its way here. In a year when some have argued there were no [...]
Album #2: The King Of Limbs by Radiohead The King Of Limbs is not my favourite album of the year, apparently. I go back and forth. But I must admit to experiencing an existential crisis of sorts with placing TKOL at #2. While it is certainly a "minor" Radiohead album (short, little publicity, no tour, no commercial single, etc), I still find myself listening to TKOL a lot. It's got a unique mood and feel and features some really great songs including the album's bookends - [...]
Album #3: Skying by The Horrors Very rarely does a band so perfectly encapsulate the sound and vibe of a record through both the title and the album's artwork, but The Horrors did just that with Skying . Much like M832s Hurry Up, We're Dreaming , Skying is a big, beautiful dream-pop record that could soundtrack any scene in a 1985 John Hughes film. From the woozy opener Changing The Rain to the split personality of Endless Blue to the shimmery Oceans Burning, The Horrors have once again [...]
Album #4: Absence by Snowman I don't think any other record so effectively created one mood like Snowman's swan song Absence did in 2011. At times Absence 's ethereal beauty is tempered with unnerving menace and a feeling of despair but it never ceases to be an engaging atmosphere in which you wish to remain. A powerful final statement from Snowman, a band who will be missed immensely. Snowman - Hyena * [...]
A Reminder
New Diarrhea Planet – “Separations”
Sexy Track // “Devil Or Angel” // Lou Doillon
