Justice Yeldham @ KIPL (2011-03-28)

So yeah, more of a show that you actually need to be there to get the full effect but I thought I'd record anyway.

The first band (I believe it was Wife?) was two dudes standing on either side of a miced up ladder both using saws to hack at the top rung. I recorded but it went for about 5 minutes and it kinda sounds like nothing. You had to be there.

Fucked

Pretty great. Drums/saxophone/vocals trio. Not much else to say.

DOWNLOAD

Miles Brown & Shags Chamberlain

Duo consisting of synths and a theremin. Some bits were better than others but yeah, worth a listen.

DOWNLOAD

Justice Yeldham

First time seeing him solo. No bleeding was a bit of a letdown but I'm just a sicko.

DOWNLOAD

Rock The Bay 2011 @ Esplanade Hotel (2011-03-12)

Another great day out at the Espy, thanks to Crutey and Saltar Hype for delivering the goods once again. Now in its third year, Rock the Bay has provided us with some great up-and-coming local acts taking to the three stages in the Espy, at a very reasonable price. I hope to see this return next year; the event certainly looked like a success from a punter's point of view.

I'll admit I was a little more focused on just making sure I had a good day and not recording everything I saw. I think this is always going to be a bit of an issue with me, sorry Chris :) Nevertheless, I have a full set of Anna Salen, most of The Khyber Belt's awesome first performance ever, about half of Engine Three Seven and of course a full Sydonia set!

Anna SalenI've repeatedly sung the praises of this excellent young prog-math-heavy-rock (a little verbose on the genre but I feel that's the only accurate way to describe them) trio and this performance was just as great as the others. I'm a little bit disappointed that they've skipped over my personal favourite song Vacuous in recent sets, but it was bass player Paul Risso's birthday on the night and therefore he got to pick the setlist. Most of the usual favourites are in there and some of the band's newer material gets an airing as well. They certainly seem to be getting a bit heavier. Thanks to drummer Shaun Scott for helping out me out with the names of the new songs, and for giving me "official" permission to put this set online :)
SETLIST:
Falsified
Vehicles
Winter
How to Be a Man
Karate
Dinner's On
DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

The Khyber BeltThis was the first ever performance from this new Melbourne five-piece, and the band hadn't released any studio material prior to this gig, yet the Gershwin Room was pretty damn full. The reason for such a large turn-out? The lineup of the band is ex-Rook vocalist Forbes McKail and guitarist Tyson Fish, ex-Sleep Parade bassist James Livesy, and ex-Bushido guitarist Guy Shenfield and drummer Alex Dinic. Well! There was certainly a lot of expectation in the room with fans of the members' previous bands curious to hear what the mixed bunch would sound like. Well, there were really no surprises in store for us; The Khyber Belt sound pretty much like you'd expect them to. There were some unfortunate technical difficulties which meant that Shenfield's guitar was non-existent for a large part of the set. You'll hear them trying to fix it after Seed; I was going to removed this bit but then I thought I'd leave it in for authenticity. Other than that, for the most part, it was a really impressive debut performance from the band. They've obviously rehearsed quite a bit and the chemistry between them was good. It's also great to hear McKail singing in a band again. That voice should not be left unused. I left toward the end of the set because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of Tim McMillan, who was playing in the front bar. Oh, and there's a bit of mic crackle in this.
SETLIST:
(intro on recording)
Sun
London
Plant the Seed
Don't Look to the Sky

DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

Engine Three SevenHaven't really got a lot to say about this one; I've seen them a fair bit over the past year or so and their set isn't really changing all that much. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them; they're a bloody talented kit and there was quite a lot of appreciation in the room. Frontman Casey Dean introduces the first song by saying "Feel free to sing along at any point - or at all points", which you can certainly hear throughout the majority of the recording. The ever-present Melbournian muso extraordinaire Ezekiel Ox got onstage to help out with Have it All too, which was pretty cool. Again, I leave a bit early to go and catch the next front bar band. (THE BEARDS! Wish I had've recorded them but Shaun and I were just too drunk and having way too good a time by that point!)
SETLIST:
(intro on recording)
Atmosphere
Cops
Have it All (with Ezekiel Ox)
Hysterical Hysteria (extended intro version, woo!)
(and here the recording dies at the end, I think the rest of the setlist was a few older tunes)
DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

SydoniaWell, what can I say about Sydonia that I haven't said already? They've rapidly become one of my favourite Melbourne bands, actually, make that favourite bands of any country, and they put on another good set this time around, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as their recent East Brunswick show, or the previous Espy gig before that. I'm going to chalk that up to a solid day of awesome bands resulting in me being pretty exhausted by the time they got onstage, and also this setlist wasn't as enjoyable as the last few times. It's disappointing that Adornment came back and then got dropped again so quickly. But then again, it was nice to hear Sorry. Seems like it's been a while since that got an airing. On another note, from memory this is the only Sydonia gig I've been to that they didn't play Incoming. I can imagine that is a pretty rare occasion.
SETLIST:
1. Ocean of Storms
2. 3 Tongues
3. (unknown) (I initially thought this was a song called Nobodies, as it was on a setlist at a show prior to this one so I thought it would be logical for them to play that song again, and a friend of mine agreed. However, I've since heard (and recorded) that song, and it isn't this one. So I have no idea what this song is called.)4. Here
5. Bateria (guest drummers Zack Murray and Rod Whitfield) (with a Happy Birthday to Zack at the end)
6. Shame
7. No Woman's Land
8. Elbow
9. Sorry
Download MP3 here

Primus and Melvins, Palais Theatre, 03-03-2011

I never in my life thought I'd get the chance to see Primus, so I was pretty excited when they were announced in the first round of acts for the Soundwave bill. Then this sideshow came along and, being that I am also quite a big Melvins fan, I knew I had to attend.

Melvins played first, starting a bit early at 7:30. Last time they came here, well, it wasn't really a proper Melvins show, more of a convenience show while Buzz Osbourne and Dale Crover were here with Fantomas. With Trevor Dunn filling in on bass, they played as a trio at Ding Dong Lounge, doing the entirety of the Houdini album, which was pretty enjoyable. This time around it was the full band, with Big Business members Jared Warren and Coady Willis playing bass and second drum kit respectively. The whole two drum kits thing is always a point-scorer in my books. They played a really good set, but unfortunately they were playing mostly tracks off their newer albums, which I'm not all that familiar with. Nevertheless, Melvins are awesome; I highly recommend seeing them if ever they come back to Australia or you have some other opportunity. This proved quite a challenge to split the recording into the different songs as the moments of silence between tunes were few and far between; after one song finished, they literally went straight into the next one. Combine that with my unfamiliarity with some of the material and it was quite a battle! I've used Chris's SW recording as a guide as the setlist was identical except for the extra two songs and outro cover at the end because of the extra time they had.
SETLIST:
(Intro on recording)
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
The Bloated Pope
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Anaconda
Electric Flower
Civilized Worm
Blood Witch
The Bit
Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite (The Spaniels cover; a very humourous end to the show as they sung it entirely a cappella)
DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

From the moment the curtains pulled back on the Palais Theatre stage to reveal two giant inflatable spacemen, with projections displayed on their visors, I knew this was going to be a memorable set. Primus only just started touring again last year after a long time away from the scene, but they appear to have lost none of their magic. It was clear the fans were absolutely loving it, with the familiar joking heckle of "PRIMUS SUCKS!" being heard many times throughout the evening. Les Claypool is an absolute bass guitar wizard. And that whamola jam - WOW. Shame you can't hear the Whamola all that well in this. Sound could be a little better overall really, but it is the Palais, a big echoey old theatre for those that haven't been. And at least both channels came through! I should say the set was quite heavy on the jams too, of course. I'm not sure whether I've got the split right between The Eyes of the Squirrel and a very extended version of Seas of Cheese, as it all tended to blend together sometimes. Then there's Les going off on a tangent during Over the Falls, explaining why he has two microphones before finally handing things over to Larry LaLonde for an extended guitar solo. All in all, it was a pretty special gig.

SETLIST:
Intro
To Defy the Laws of Tradition
Golden Boy
American Life
The Eyes of the Squirrel
Seas of Cheese
Over the Falls
Drum and Whamola Jam
John the Fisherman
Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread
The Last Salmon Man
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
Over the Electric Grapevine
Tommy the Cat
----Encore----
Harold of the Rocks

Download MP3 here