Back to the old venues again.. Wednesday night got to the Hopetoun and one of the guys at the door complemented my tatty april skies era mary chain tee. He asked if I’d bought it new which I obviously hadn’t seeing as I would have been knee-high at the time so he made some mocking remark but it gave me the chance to say I’d seen em 10 times and wander off in need of beer.
By the Sea started up the evening with a bit of a pissy sound/mic job but ignoring that the songs were sounding solid (I knew I should have scribbled a few thoughts down when I got home.. it’s only two nights later and words ain’t working but that could just be exhaustion).
In between bands I saw portekgirl who introduced me to the By the Sea lot, bumped in to media darling mr boud, and a few of the acrobat boys. Having wandered out for a minute I was caught on the arm coming back in by the the mary_chain_shirt_loving guy saying he wanted to hear more so we chatted all things jamc about how I cheated and saw all but one of the gigs on their final US tour in one lump and how he’d just purchased barbed wire kisses on cd a few days before to give his vinyl a break.
Somewhereinsummer sounded a lot more polished than the last time I saw them but they played the little 2bytwo ditty which still appealed. They could go top 40 in a short space of time, I can hear the mass appeal, but my cup of tea…. undecided.
Next break and I received a few more compliments on the tshirt and blathered along until acrobat were up… now that’s my tea and my coffee! The boys sound so truely whole unlike a lot of the bands I’ve seen around recently. The day after day song in the middle of the set got me again and the few words I know have been spinning in my head since, but it’s the composition of the song as well that’s rock goodness. The last few tunes in the set also stood out from the others but overall no dud moment, their guitars falling apart didn’t hold em back while one of the By the Sea guys turned guitar tech and supplier. Gig again please.
Thursday night over to trusty Spectrum with it’s slightly more camera-friendly lights and caught half of the first band, Sunroom. Not much I can say on them really.. a little tired so I just enjoyed watching the way the three band members looked so completely different – one homie, one hippy, one clubber. I could be completely off the mark. It’s just how it seemed.
Enter a few acrobat boys, mr boud, a few old friends, and on stage comes the lamento suite with elmo on drums. The place was packed, I squeezed through people snapping pictures (which haven’t turned out too bad) , they absolutely rocked. Did I see them years ago? I don’t know.. but I wish I had if I didn’t. That’s the sort of band performance that really makes ya smile. Anyway.. enough gushing (and lacking anything even close to a description of their sound).
I didn’t pay much attention to the Chronics.. the place had emptied out dramatically and they had their fanbase dancing around at the front.
Tomorrow night it’s the gig I’ve been waiting absolutely ages for.. the Morning After Girls. Come on! (note: not in the Leyton Hewitt sense, but in the mary chain sense)
edit on Saturday 12:33: what a ditz.. that lovely song of acrobat‘s is called static and you can get your ears feasting at mp3.com.au
sweet JAMC T shirts…… gets you where you are going….. sometimes!
Gotta agree with you there, Niina – ‘static’ is quite possibly my fave Acrobat tune right now. I have not been able to get it out of my head since Wed night!!
argh! look at that retarded drummer’s face! eek. no, love your work niina – thanks for coming and taking those ace shots.
Lamento debrief
Your uncle Dan popped out the bat cave last week to catch two of his favourite bands; The Lamento Suite and Acrobat. Quite possibly best shows ever from both groups. The Lamento Suite were particularly impressive considering their year…