Technically I spent the next hour watching Paramore, but I can’t say I was paying that much attention. Instead I took about twenty minutes to fight my way into the “mosh,” finally located my friends, and then chatted with them. I’m not even sure if I’d heard a Paramore song before seeing them, and they…
As Blink-182’s curtain dropped, the ground opened up in front of us and where there had been a milling crowd of festival-goers there was suddenly and surreally a dark chasm. There was nothing to do but to charge forward with everyone else; I can remember little about the first two songs other than being trapped…
The rest of the night was unsurprisingly anticlimactic. I caught a few songs from The Offspring, who were looking old: a gathering of crotchety uncles banging out pop-punk tunes. They started well with “It’s All I Want” and “Come Out and Play,” but I quickly realised that the only way I’d hear “Self Esteem” was…
When I was handed a pair of earplugs as I arrived at the Tivoli, my intention was to wear them throughout. My Bloody Valentine are famously loud live, and this: …only confirmed that earplugs were… recommended. Hearing the first torrential notes of “I Only Said,” I changed my mind and abandoned the flimsy protection to…
Many electronic acts’ live performances are little more than a reproduction of their recorded music combined with insipid banter and flashing lights. The Presets don’t do that. Their live show is actually a show – complete with a perfectly sequenced setlist, reinterpretations of popular tracks and a stage presence born of enthusiasm rather than uninspired…
The title of this review is misleading, as Bomb the Music Industry! were supporting Melbourne lads The Smith Street Band (alongside The Bennies and Toy Boats), but given I left the venue before those guys started playing, I’m going to treat it as a BtMI! gig. They put on a boisterous, shambling, living-room-jam of a…
When I first experienced the transcendent bliss of Loveless, the record was grown-up, eighteen years having passed since its difficult birth. It sent me on a desperate, fruitless search to find something comparable, downloading anything described as “shoegaze” or “dream pop” …but Loveless proved frustratingly inimitable. So it was with some trepidation that I purchased…
The peeps running the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival do an amazing job of picking artists many months before they make it big. A couple years ago it was Mumford & Sons and Florence and the Machine. This year’s lineup featured up-and-comers like Alt-J and Of Monsters and Men. What they aren’t good at is considering…
Cloud Nothings are a band with one foot squarely in the past, with a sound revelling in what actually made the “grunge” era of the nineties good (if you want to listen to a band who revelled in the worst of grunge, check out Creed – better yet, don’t). Their other foot, though, is stamping…
Japandroids have been one of my favourite bands since their incredible debut Post-Nothing. Their Australian fanbase has expanded rapidly since the recent release of Celebration Rock – a damn good thing, since it meant that the duo finally made the long trip over from Vancouver to play their first-ever Australian show in the gentle warmth…
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