Dead Meadow @ The Corner Hotel (2012-04-01)

Dead Meadow are a band I don't really listen too as often as I'd like. In fact: I only have one album by them which is 2005s 'Feathers'. I got a ticket to this show because I saw them at Melbourne Music Festival 2010 (download available here) and loved that set and to be honest.. this one was just as good. On the night I found a lot of songs familiar but listening back they played vastly different sets both shows.

This was recorded in my usual spot at The Corner. Towards the left emergency exit quite close to the speaker stack. As usual the sound is good and I'm very happy with it.



Setlist:
1.  I Love You Too
2.  'Till Kingdom Come
3.  1000 Dreams
4.  What Needs Must Be
5.  Indian Bones
6.  Heaven
7.  Good Moanin'
8.  All Torn Up
9.  At Her Open Door
10. Sleepy Silver Door
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11. Beyond The Fields We Know

Length: 1:19:43

Sound Quality: B+

Download Here

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Dick Diver @ Polyester Records (2013-03-15)

When your favourite band has a little preview show for their upcoming album it's always good to head along and hear a few new cuts. Even better when it is free (and BYO) like this one. For myself.. I had already seen all but one of the tracks but regardless, enjoyed this show as much as any other show I've seen by these guys. It is always a pleasure to see Flying Tea Towel Blues live and is the only song in the set that dates back to the first time I caught these guys.

This was recorded from the front row directly in front of the band on the left side/entrance to the shop. It's always a little hard recording in Polyester but usually I'm happy enough with the results.

Setlist:
1.  Bondi '98
2.  Flying Tea Towel Blues
3.  Water Damage
4.  Amber
5.  Lime Green Shirt
6.  Calendar Days
7.  New Start Again
8.  Languages of Love
9.  Alice

Length: 39:14

Sound Quality: B

Download Here

Fuck Buttons @ Foxtel Festival Hub, 25/10/2013

...Or, "Why I'm going to be a bit more proactive in buying tickets next time one of my favourite bands is touring". So Fuck Buttons get announced as part of the stellar lineup for ATP's Release the Bats festival, cool. Then Melbourne Festival scores them for a headlining performance, even cooler. Despite the fact that I've been flogging the shit out of their awesome third album Slow Focus, financial reasons meant that I had to keep putting off buying a ticket to this - until it was too late. Damn, it's sold out, I'm not going. Timetable for Release the Bats gets released, oh fuck, there's realistically not much chance of seeing both them and Sleep (and Sleep were the ONE band I HAD TO SEE). So in the week leading up to the gig, I knew that I was going to try literally everything I could think of to try and get there, but the Facebook statuses and the constant eBay/Gumtree searches were all proving useless. In the end, I thought, "What the hell" and decided to rock up to the venue early anyway in the hope that there'd be tickets held on the door/box office, because hey, that happens sometimes, right? No harm in trying. It didn't happen in this case, but what did happen was just as cool - as I was asking the lady at the box office if any tickets were available, a gentleman behind me overheard my situation, and informed me that it didn't look like a mate of his was going to make the gig, and I could have that ticket if that was the case! So after a quick phone call to said mate, the ticket became mine! RESULT! Alright, so yeah, that was a long-winded introduction to this gig, but fuck, I was pretty stoked with how it all unfolded. TO THE GIG ITSELF! Absolutely awesome performance from the dudes - the purpose-built temporary venue for Melbourne Festival was a little unorthodox, but it worked pretty well really, especially for a performance like this. Must say that the lighting/projections/silhouettes set-up was great too, after all Andrew and Ben aren't the most entertaining live performers in and of themselves. But yeah, really solid gig, except it felt like they could've squeezed just a few more songs in, what with their songs being a bit lengthier than average, and three albums under their belt. Also, I think they could've chosen a better song to finish with than Space Mountain, especially seeing as they fucked it up a bit. Hang on, it's starting to sound like I didn't enjoy the gig - BUT IT WAS AWESOME! Just thought I'd mention the very minor things that could've made it even BETTER. But yeah, I guess the moral of the story is, if you want to try getting into a sold-out gig, it never hurts to rock up early and see what happens!

Due to a technical difficulty (let's just leave it at that) I had while tracking this, you may notice that the first three tracks are noticeably louder than those that follow. But I couldn't be bothered re-editing the thing, so it is how it is. Take it or leave it. On that note, the quality of this one certainly isn't amazing, and if you've downloaded any recent recordings from me, you'll have noticed that a lot of them have dipped. I've been down a channel for most of this year, basically, which sucks :(

SETLIST:
Brainfreeze
Surf Solar
Colours Move
Olympians
Sentients
The Red Wing
Hidden XS
----Encore----
Space Mountain

DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

The Butterfly Effect, 11/10/2013, the Esplanade Hotel

They're back! To be honest, even though The Butterfly Effect clearly stated that they did intend to carry on with a new singer, after their final tour with Clint Boge last year, deep down I thought that they would struggle to continue and wouldn't have been surprised if they did eventually give it up. Certainly I didn't expect them to return so soon. But at the start of September they announced this run of shows, with the revealing of their new vocalist Paul Galagher and brand new single Eyes Down coming a few weeks later - and before I knew it, I was at the good ol' Espy Gershwin Room getting ready for an exciting new chapter to begin. So yeah, when a band with three solid albums under their belt makes the very difficult decision to replace THAT VOICE who contributed so much to the band and those albums, you really have to try and go into a gig like this with lowered expectations. And Eyes Down, while undeniably catchy and powerful, certainly didn't quite hit the mark like their previous work. So, what would this gig turn out like then? Well, you only have to look at the tune they opened with to know that tonight, TBE certainly weren't here to fuck around - they wanted everyone to know that despite losing a (bloody great) vocalist, they hadn't lost the magic of their band! Paul's voice certainly isn't a perfect match for Clint's, but in some ways I think that's what you want when these kind of things happen - someone who can do the old songs justice in their own way, rather than just being a carbon copy of what came before. The only thing that was a little disappointing about this show was, well, I'm sure you can see it - just thirteen songs? It certainly seemed a bit short. But other than that, this show certainly felt like the band are ready to move on, and that they're going to succeed in doing so. I can only hope so, anyway.

SETLIST:
Interlude (over PA)
Filling Silence
One Second of Insanity
Phoenix
Window and the Watcher
Room Without a View
(New song)
Gone
Perception Twin
Reach
(New song)
A Slow Descent
Eyes Down
Crave 

DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

Wild Flag @ Golden Plains Festival (2012-03-10)

These girls we're one of my must sees of the weekend. Being a big Sleater-Kinney fan I got their album as soon as it dropped and have been loving it since first listen. As I was almost front and centre for this the vocals are a little low but otherwise a great show and recording. A couple of new songs in there as well was great.



Setlist:
1. Black Tiles
2. Boom
3. Electric Band
4. Future Crimes
5. Something Came Over Me
6. Short Version
7. Glass Tambourine
8.
9.
10. Racehorse
11. Romance

Length: 46:16

Sound Quality: B

Download Here

Download Key: Y8_GszBmntREGcOTX8wMPndTjk5c_JgLSBjfTGHjOBU

Two Door Cinema Club @ Festival Hall (2012-12-29)

Not the biggest fan of these guys but this was a pretty fun show. Pretty chilled out considering it was at Festival Hall and the type of music being played. Really wouldn't mind seeing these guys at a festival like Meredith. Would suit the slot Cut Copy did there a few years ago.



Setlist:
1.  Sleep Alone
2.  Undercover Martyn
3.  Do You Want It All?
4.  This Is The Life
5.  Wake Up
6.  You're Not Stubborn
7.  Sun
8.  Pyramid
9.  I Can Talk
10. Costume Party
11. The World Is Watching
12. Next Year
13. Something Good Can Work
14. Handshake
15. Eat That Up, It's Good For You
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16. Someday
17. Come Back Home
18. What You Know

Length: 1:09:17

Sound Quality: B+

Download Here

Download Key: CXAsLDu1uNAb0EPcR3zCDRN7Ft8XjdLVTuR-zByDK7o

Dick Diver @ The Curtin Bandroom (2012-09-22)

To be honest the reason it took me almost a year to get this show online is because I don't really remember it happening. I'd been to a wedding prior and made full use of the open bar they had there and only drank further once I arrived at the venue. A bad mistake on my part. At some point I spoke to one or more members of the band because they played The Keys for me and I'm not sure why I would request that song because I've seen it so much and there's other songs I'd love to see over it. But maybe drunk me just said the first song that came to mind.

The recording itself isn't that bad which is surprising. From memory I had the mics hanging over the balcony thingo on the right side while I went and did my thing which is good because I didn't talk all over it.

Also, I'm sorry Mark for being a drunken mess on the night and that you had to put up with it.

Setlist:
1.  Bondi 98
2.  Hammock Days
3.  The Keys
4.  Alice
5.  Water Damage
6.  Seagulls
7.  Lime Green Shirt
8.  Amber
9.  Calendar Days
10. Head Back

Length: 40:58

Sound Quality: B+

Download Here

Yellowcard @ Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom (2012-09-20)

The 3rd time I've seen these guys and just like the last two I'm not overly impressed. I guess had I seen them when I was a teenager I'd be stoked but now as an adult I've just grown past the music. Oh well... at least I didn't have to pay for this one.

The crowd around me were really weird so I moved paces a few songs in but the sound doesn't get affected much. Other than that it's a pretty good recording. Lots of crowd singing on this one.



Setlist:
1.  Awakening
2.  Rough Landing, Holly
3.  Breathing
4.  For You, and Your Denial
5.  Shrink The World
6.  Five Becomes Four
7.  Always Summer
8.  Hang You Up
9.  Sing For Me
10. Empty Apartment
11. With You Around
12. Drum Solo
13. Way Away
14. Believe
15. Only One
16. Lights and Sounds
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17. Here I Am Alive
18. Light Up The Sky
19. Ocean Avenue

Length: 1:31:58

Sound Quality: B+

Download Here

Download Key: c8glNHw7VW3BhyryaQDVSze9WWcOJULnkcLTbVa8ECs

Band of Horses @ Big Day Out Festival (2013-01-26)

I've seen these guys do two acoustic shows before so it was really cool to see them in a different setting and play a handful of songs I was yet to see. I'm pretty sure The Funeral is one of the best songs ever and I was really drunk during this and  yeah...
There is a bit of unavoidable wind noise throughout this. Take it or leave it.



Setlist:
1.  The First Song
2.  The Great Salt Lake
3.  Is There A Ghost
4.  Laredo
5.  Marry Song
6.  Electric Music
7.  Older
8.  No One's Gonna Love You
9.  Knock Knock
10. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
11. The General Specific
12. The Funeral

Length: 53:39

Sound Quality: C+

Download Here

Download Key: FHx_MFaf7YvDK3XlLte3x3G5NqVY1yfIzeAxj1pPio8

Foals @ Big Day Out Festival (2013-01-26)

3rd time seeing these guys and equally as good as the previous two. Being just a few weeks before the newest album came out this set featured a few songs that were new to me but I really enjoyed them. Looking back I wish they had of played more new stuff. Also, how good is Two Steps, Twice live? I mean come on!!



Setlist:
1.  Prelude
2.  Olympic Airways
3.  Miami
4.  My Number
5.  Balloons
6.  Blue Blood
7.  Providence
8.  Spanish Sahara
9.  Red Socks Pugie
10. Inhaler
11. Two Steps, Twice

Length: 58:40

Sound Quality: B+

Download Here

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