However, not everyone can see a band’s live gig and a band
playing live is a good litmus test of their worth. It’s easy to sound good with
studio assistance, not so without.
Over the years, I’ve seen a whole heap of live music. Some
of it big names, others not so. Here’s an incomplete list, with venues and
years (if I can recall), and my mild thoughts and recollections.
**************************
Exhumed / Fuck… I’m
Dead / Vaginal Carnage – Arthouse, Melbourne – 2003.
I believe I went to this gig for the support bands as much
as the headliner, Exhumed. Maybe I was starved for seeing metal gigs. These
days Exhumed are considered a classic extreme band. I don’t recall their set
doing much for me. It’s pretty common for metal bands OS to be overshadowed by
the local Australian support. Vaginal Carnage were the ubiquitous goregrind
band of the night. The vocals were both brilliant and hilarious. At one point,
the lead singer for Vaginal Carnage mistook me for one of the Exhumed guys and
wanted me to come to the green room – ie where the bar kept the spare beer kegs –
and smoke buckets. He died later that year. Fuck… I’m Dead wore white shirts
covered in fake blood. They also used a drum machine. They were surprising
tight. There was also a Sydney band on the bill. Possibly it was Garbage Guts?
Halfway through their set they donned wigs and danced out YMCA. I also played a
game of pool with one of the members of The Kill.
Dillinger Escape Plan
– Corner Hotel, Richmond – 2003.
Pre Miss Machine. Chris Pennie was still in the bad. They
opened with ‘Sugar Coated Sour.’ When the song was finished, you could detect a
small pause before the crowd went berserk in appreciation. It’s hard to get
that reaction out of the fickle Melbourne crowd. I’m pretty sure Pennie
triggered the samples during the set, too. Greg threw his microphone at the
wall, Pennie wore headphones after the second song, Weinman played the guitar
behind his head for ‘Abe the Cop.’
Cephalic Carnage /
Akercocke – The Underworld, Camden, London – 2007.
When I was in Europe, trying to inseminate anything that
moved. Some mediocre Brit bands supported. Cephalic Carnage opened with
‘Hybrid.’ That’s the song that starts as brutal death slams, then grind, and
then morphs in space jazz. The band obviously didn’t have their own soundman
doing front-of-house cause the mix was a complete mess, which sounded just
right. Cephalic also played the title track off Lucid Interval, with all the
noodling, false intros. It felt like no-one in the crowd knew how to react. The
club in Camden didn’t do pass-outs, and I didn’t want to miss my train, so I
left before Akercocke played.
Nine Inch Nails – Big
Day Out, Bassendean – 2000.
Post the total destruction that was the Downward Spiral touring band.
Trent still flipped a keyboard. When Trent first addressed the crowd, he
sounded really unhinged and emotional but calmed down as the night progressed.
The performance was impressive, if as much for the light show and visuals than for the impact that the music had. When they played ‘Hurt’, a tone-death Goth sung
the entire song into my right ear as the crowd slow clapped.
Geek Show – Metropolis
Night Club, Fremantle – 2003.
Tomahawk – Big Day
Out, Claremont – 2001.
Mike Patton showed his dick to the crowd. He also deep
throated the microphone and lost a filling.
Whitehouse – Greek
Club, Perth – 2003.
Pungent Stench –
Amplifier Bar, Perth – 2004/2005.
I saw these guys twice. The second time, I was fired for
leaving my job early so I didn’t miss their set. I’ve always thought there
should be a law for touring bands, where if they play in Perth, they have to
include at least one ACDC song. Pungent Stench covered TNT. Both times they
were here. The song received the best reaction of the night. They also played
two grindcore songs.
Iron Lung – Hyde Park
Hotel, North Perth – 2005.
Bands never play on time. We didn’t want to turn up and wait
around Hyde Park for too long. We arrive fashionably late, twenty minutes after
the advertised set time. Iron Lung had already started and finished. I bought
their tour LP – it was in a DVD case. When the Hyde Park held gigs you had to
pay for, they would setup a partition between the pool room area and the front
bar. It was rather easy to stand on the other side of the partition and hear
the bands for free. Here’s
what someone else said about it.
AIDS – Grosvenor
Hotel, Perth – 2000.
Back when the Grosvenor supported live music. This was in
the front bar. Somebody I went to school with was having a twentieth birthday
party and asked AIDS to play. AIDS were an old school grind band, similar in
sound to Napalm Death, I guess. Short songs, but unfortunately no whammy bar
solos. When they finished, the birthday boy jumped on the stage and did some DJ
scratching as AIDS covered reggae.
Jed Whitey – Mojos
Bar, North Fremantle – 2000.
Jed Whitey started off as a stoner rock band but by the time
I saw them they were more proto-punk. This gig started out really good until
the band messed up the start to a song and the audience laughed. The bass
player called us hippy faggots and asked why we didn’t fuck off to the
cappuccino strip for lattes. Then Jed Whitey continued to play. To say that
there was a tension in the room after that would be an understatement. They
were loud enough that my ears were ringing for the entirety of the next day.
A Perfect Circle –
Somewhere in North Melbourne – 2003.
I used to love the first Perfect Circle album: Mer de Noms.
This was the tour for the second album, and Geordie White and James Iha were in
the band by then. There was paranoia about unsolicited filming, so no one was
allowed to bring a bag inside the venue. Security was frisking everyone and
there were huge lines outside every entrance. I had partial view seats. The
best part about the gig was the music they played over the PA before the band
proper. When the band started, I looked around at the audience and felt disgust
with how everyone were getting into the music. I left after three songs and
didn’t listen to A Perfect Circle for a long time after.
Snowman – Mojos Bar,
Fremantle – 2001.
This was their third, or fourth, gig. It was pre-Triple J
airplay, Pitchfork, Perth Scene friends, Joe McGee doing vocals and everything
else. Back then they sounded more like an indie rock version of Radiohead, with
horror film obsessed lyrics. After catching them at this gig, I went out of my
way to see them whenever they played live, leading up to the band winning the
Next Big Thing competition. The band went into the stratosphere and I didn’t
have anything to do with them until a few years later, and by then it was too
late as they sounded completely different to me.
Fear Factory –
Metropolis Nightclub, Fremantle – 1998.
I do believe this was the first real live gig I ever went
to. Fear Factory were still the classic line-up. Burton C. Bell pulled off his
mix of grunts and clean singing convincingly. They also did an awesome version
of PissChrist, a song I never liked on the album, but had a new appreciation
for after. I was drinking Vodka, lime, bitters – don’t ask – which the bar
staff would serve in pint glasses. Fear Factory played Raped Souls, which made
my night.
Sleepy Jackson –
Amplifier Bar, Perth / Newport Bar, Fremantle – 2001.
Sleepy Jackson were getting a huge buzz around this time:
front cover of Spin; UK music press big noting the band. ‘The next thing in
rock.’ I went with a group of friends to Amplifier. They sounded like modern
country. I went into the beer garden after the first two songs. Friends loved
the band. I couldn’t understand how I didn’t like the band; especially after
all the attention they were getting. Sleep Jackson were playing in Fremantle
the next night. I went alone. Paid my thirty bucks. Stood at the front. I had
to make sure I was getting this right! They played modern country. I left after
two songs. Luke Steele, you have my sixty bucks.
(Eskimo Joe supported at Newport. I deliberately missed
them. They’re now huge in Australia.)
Converge – Amplifer
Bar, Perth – 2006.
Standing room only for this gig. After the first four, five
songs, the room was half full. I was disappointed that live, converge sound
exactly like the studio albums. I was expecting something volatile, spontaneous
- dare I say it? - dangerous. The choice of songs for the set-list left much to
be desired. My interest in the band dropped after this.
Cephalic Carnage /
Black Dahlia Murder – Amplifer Bar, Perth – 2007.
Another Amplifier gig! I went with a friend to this night.
We spent more time in the beer garden talking about music, than we did watching
music. Cephalic Carnage supported Black Dahlia, and as such played a shorter
set than they did in London. They played Anthro Emesis; which isn’t my
most favourite song they do, it also goes for nearly seven minutes! However, we
got to see John Merryman do this hand warm-ups, which was impressive. We lasted
half a song into Black Dahlia Murder before declaring, “Fuck this shit!”
Wolf Eyes / Cease /
Extortion / Cobilis – Rosemount Hotel, North Perth – 2006.
One of my friends was mates with the Cease guitarist, so we
go to visit the green room upstairs and drink the bands’ Red Bulls. Wolf Eyes
smoked a joint before they went on. Chris Cobilis supported with a laptop,
guitar and stool with his style of improvised, emotional rock with some loops.
Cease were in their pre-wearing dresses, pre-overt worship of OM stage, before
becoming darlings of the scene. I believe they didn’t sing with vocals this
night, and their volume was lower than it should have been. (I originally made this a separate entry
until I was fact checking the dates, I didn’t realise Extortion were the
support!) Extortion: I believe this would have been around the Degenerate
album period. Extortion has become a much better band since then. They played
with the Rupture drummer at one point but I don’t know if he played for them
this night. Rohan introduced a song with “this is about new movies, which in my
opinion are all fucking shit.” Wolf Eyes pulled a great crowd for noise music.
Besides from Stabbed in the Throat, they didn’t play much from the Subpop
album. It also felt like they were cheating with the home-made instruments.
They were more music, than actual noise. After the set, my friend and I did a
good impersonation of their sound in the Rosemount car park outside.
Metallica / Lamb of
God / Baroness – Perth Burswood Arena – 2010.
We arrived too late for Baroness. I didn’t even know they
were supporting. I also didn’t realise I was watching Lamb of God until the
end, when Randy Blythe announced, “We are Lamb of God!” Seriously overrated. My
mum – yes, I went with my mum – turned to me and said, ‘I liked the sound of
their guitars!’ Yep, that’s how extreme they are. Metallica? They played Orion!
Who cares how they were.
Abe Sada – The
Castle, Highgate – 2006.
This was an infamous band put together by Cat Hope, which
featured a revolving cast of local Perth musicians and identities, usually four
of them, all playing bass guitars. Yes, there were only bass players in this
band. On this night, there were four bassists. One of them was Chris Cobilis.
The music was unstructured – to me at least – improvisation. At the end,
Cobilis was banging the headstock of his guitar into the ground, creating a
sound that – to paraphrase Discharge – sounded like a giant door slamming in
Hell. My ears were ringing for three days afterwards.
Tool / Melvins –
Perth Entertainment Centre, Perth – 2002.
During the Lateralus tour. Tool sounded exactly like their
albums. I was sitting so far back the band looked like ants. The best part was
the visuals they played behind the band. When they played Anima, Danny Carey
hit the mystical gong behind him and the resulting sound made me think my
eardrums had popped. The Melvins wore black nighties with red love hearts.
Akron Family – Mojos,
Fremantle – 2011.
We had been looking forward to this gig for about a month.
Akron acted like prima donnas with the lighting setup on the stage; as in: it’s
shining in our faces! The band called us pussys cause we weren’t getting into it
more. The band played none of the songs we liked. Their improvised drum circle
crap was anything but – they play the same noise shit at every gig, the same
way. Major letdown, haven’t listened to their music ever since.
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