Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega at the Lyric Theatre in Star City. 

Not a bad venue at all. Pretty intimate and comfortable. It was nice to be a concert and just sit down and soak it all in.

Can't remember how I discovered Suzanne Vega. I do remember I was still in school. Around 'A' Level time. It started with Marlene on the Wall. Bought the first album (in cassette, he he) and played it to death. That track, and Small Blue Thing and of course 'The Queen and the Soldier'. Amazingly simple yet tuneful and probably the first album where I really started to get interested in the lyrics.

The second album was excellent too and my interest dwindled a little at album 3. Lost touch until her latest came out which is called 'Crime and Punishment'. Was a pretty good album with one amazing stand out track called 'A Pornographer's Dream'. Loved it and re-sparked my interest in her.

So, to the concert. A simple affair. Band of 4. Great musicians. Suzanne was very engaging with the audience and very witty. I expected her to be a lot more shy for some reason.

Since I only know 3 of her 6 or 7 albums that well I was pleasantly surprised to know about 80% of the set list. Well worth it. 

Big Day Out Melbourne

My first BDO in Melbourne and highly likely to be my last. Same line up as Sydney (see below) but this time including Bjork.
Her set list was similar but with 3 different tracks. One of which was "All is Full of Love", one of my favourites.
The crowd were more excitable which definitely rubbed off on her. She was a lot more chatty and the whole band seemed to be more into it.
So the concert had a whole different feel to it. And they cranked up the bass to an orgasmic level. Just how some her stuff should be played. Loved it.
Flemington racecourse is a terrible venue though. Too dusty and hot, no shade. The bar area was essentially a cage and boiler room was in a tent. Crap! We have it good in Sydney.

Set list for Melbourne:
01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar
02. Earth Intruders
03. Hunter
04. Pagan Poetry
05. Unravel
06. All Is Full Of Love
07. The Pleasure Is All Mine
08. Anchor Song
09. Army Of Me
10. Five Years
11. Bachelorette
12. I Miss You
13. Cover Me
14. Wanderlust
15. Hyperballad
16. Pluto
17. Declare Independence

I should probably give you some background as to why I went to Melbourne. Well part of it is a long story about having the flu and missing out on tickets to Sydney.
But that all got resolved. The other part relates to Bec and Craig ducking out of their world tour for a month or so and just so happen to land in Melbourne in time for Big Day Out. Since the last five years have been spent with them on this momentous occassion I thought it would be a cool idea to continue the tradition. Plus I got to see B again. Hence it was worth every penny.

Big Day Out Sydney

This is now my 5th Big Day Out in a row. Introduced to it by Bec and Craig and a summer staple for me now.
5 years ago you could get tickets on the day. In the last couple of years the thing sells out in under an hour. Mental.
For my overseas readers BDO is a NZ / Australia tour over 3 weeks. The same or similar line up visits Auckland / Brisbane / Sydney / Melbourne / Adelaide and Perth.
The line up is made up of mainly rock acts but with a heavy dose of dance / electronic. The venue for Sydney is the Olympic Park which with it's multiple stadiums is the perfect set up for 5-6 acts going on simultaneously. This year's headliners were to be Rage Against the Machine, Bjork and Carl Cox.

Everyone that knows me in Oz will be well aware that Bjork pulled out the night before with swollen vocal chords. Had I not seen her on Wednesday I would have been sobbing at this news but I took it like a man on the chin with the knowledge that she would be better for Melbourne 3 days later.

In spite of her absence I had a cracking time. Loved Unkle and Arcade Fire. Very pleasently surprised by LCD Soundsystem who put on a cracking show. Tried to appreciate Rage. Although I thought they produced a good sound I decided the music wasn't for me. Rounded the night off with 90 minutes of Carl Cox who was superb. Year 4 had been a bit of a disappointment line up wise but this year restored my faith in the festival. Year 6 looks likely.

Easy on the eye

No, I didn't go see Jack Johnson. When I googled Bjork at the Opera House his image came up. He does, however, have a voice that melts. And he's not bad to look at either.

Bjork at the Opera House

Anyone that knows me well will be sick of hearing about this by now. The 23rd of Jan is of great significance in my life. It is the night Bjork performed at the Sydney Opera House.
This is the gig I got up at 5am to queue for tickets for just in case the internet decided to crash. I had a team of people getting up early to log on. My presence at the ticket office was insurance just in case they failed. In the end Danni came through and got my tickets. That was back in November and I've been counting down the days since.
Miss Guomonsdottir didn't disappoint. For me if I really like the music it's all about getting the best spot acoustically. Not so bothered about standing with my mates. (It's not like I would pay them much attention anyway when Bjork is in the house). She put on a brilliant show. Loved the brass section replacing her traditional string section. Added a new twist to everything. Loved how she moved between banging bass numbers to delicate molodies. Liked the fact that she didn't stick to the big selling tunes and played some of the more less known album tracks. Was blown away by the new version of "Who Is It". Loved it all. Was all over too fast. For my memory more than for anything else here is the track list:

01. Intro - Brennið Þið Vitar
02. Earth Intruders
03. Hunter
04. Unravel
05. Joga
06. Who Is It
07. The Pleasure Is All Mine
08. Pagan Poetry
09. Desired Constellation
10. Army Of Me
11. I Miss You
12. Bachelorette
13. Cover Me
14. Wanderlust
15. Hyperballad
16. Pluto

Encore
17. Oceania
18. Declare Independence

Tunng

I can be a creature of habit and I know what I like music wise. But every now and then, especially around the Sydney festival, I'll buy a random ticket to something I never heard of and see how I like it.
This year's toe dip in the ocean of unknown music was a British band called Tunng. I skimmed through the Sydney Festival website and checked out the odd band on www.last.fm
They sounded good. Folk meets Electronica. 2 genres I guess I'm fairly familiar with.
The gamble paid off. Saw them in the famous Spiegeltent. A venue worth the ticket in itself. Got there late but found a space propping up the bar....perfect. So Tunng now have a few hundred more fans. I loved em. Feel good, nice banter, 3 acoustic guitars on one stage sounds so good. Especially with some gentle electronic beats similar to the sounds Matmos make. I liked em so much I went out and bought the album.

Beach Boys

So we're at January 5th and it's the launch of the Sydney Festival.
Always a good time of year. Stuff in the Domain every Saturday night. A good excuse to try and listen to music in the open air with a few drinks and good company on a picnic blanket.
This year the launch had a lot of effort put into it. A good chunk of the CBD was closed off and there was stuff going on all over the place.
A dance party kind of thing in Martin Place. I dipped my toe in but wasn't in the mood for that kind of thing on this night.
I caught a little bit of Pint Martini in Hyde Park. I have one of their albums, "Hang on Little Tomato". Dare I say they sounded a little bit more pretentious live than they do on the recorded media. They seem more fun on the CD I have anyway.
The main attraction of the night I guess was Brian Wilson. He's getting on a little now the old chap but he had a good go and did most of the favourites from the Beach Boys back catalogue. Surrounded himself with a decent band and they made a good sound. A free and chilled way to spend a Saturday evening.

A musical slant

Since all I seem to be doing lately is going to gigs I've decided to turn this into a music blog.
I'm also writing retrospectively as life got a bit busy for a while. I might describe something other than music here and there. Will just see where the mood takes me.

So a review of who / what I saw in 2007. A pretty good year:

Crazy Penis
Dave Seaman
Muse (Big Day Out)
Jet (Big Day Out)
Eskimo Joe
Killers
Hedwig
Bjorn Again
Good Vibrations Festival
Carl Cox (Future Music Festival)
Ferry Corsten (Future Music Festival)
Groove Armada (V Festival)
2 Many DJ's (V Festival)
Pet Shop Boys (V Festival)
Tears for Fears
James Levelle

Hard-Fi
Daft Punk

Some thoughts:
Outstanding gig of the year: Crazy Penis

Worst sound quality: The Killers at Big Day Out

Overhyped by me by endlessly playing the brilliant live album over and over and over again before actually seeing the concert and going off the back of 8 nights out in a row but brilliant to see nevertheless but still disappointed with the sound: Daft Punk

Happy New Year!

Awesome! Simple as that. I was totally blown away by the fireworks last night. Sydney knows how to throw a show. This was the first time in 5 years that I've been around to witness this. Sydney people tend to be a bit blase about this spectacle. I guess they've grown up with it. But I've never seen anything like it. We watched the 9 o clock show from Gwen and Steve's roof terrace. This show was good enough. The 12 o clock show though was special There were about 30 of us at the party and we all strolled down to the harbour shore with bottles and plastic cups and cameras in hand. Everyone was pretty much plastered but all in good spirits.

I've woken up today with a bit of a hangover. No great surprise there. Despite the gorgeous day I am hiding in my room with the curtains closed. I may venture out later on.

Happy New Year to anyone that's reading.