Browse 18003 Reviews & Comments (Page 272)

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 Vincent La Barca Concertarchives please change your records to Saratoga NY Springfield, Massachusetts, United States Apr 06, 2023
 Vincent La Barca The 5/15/71 Allman Brothers concert at Skidmore College was in Saratoga NY not Springfield Massachusetts!!! Springfield, Massachusetts, United States Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan The Jesus & Mary Chain – Enmore Theatre, 2 April 2008. The Jesus & Mary Chain's initial incarnation was renowned for potent, yet anti-social and anti-performance live shows comprising a static, microphone hunched Jim Reid murmuring through an impenetrable wall of squalling feedback. Twenty years on, the band is omparatively clean-cut, although at least William Reid has the same hairstyle. Instead of the barrage of unhinged white guitar noise that mark the band's albums, the songs within were excavated from the feedback and placed on a poppy pedestal. The more accessible, and most audience friendly moments - already only thinly coated in the usual JAMC cacophony – were pared back to their delectably sweet 'honey' and 'candy' centres. Some darker moments arose, 'Reverence' was particularly fearsome, but the overall tone of the show was unexpectedly upbeat. The only really abrasive sounds, when the guitars were left leaning against amps as the band left the stage, were quickly turned off by dutiful roadies. Maybe there is so much present in the music-world’s tide to flow against in 2008 that a band doesn’t have to take such extremes to go against the grain. The intensity of the youthful attitude and energy present when these songs were first written would have obviously been distilled over time, yet when your legacy is one of such importance, then why not give the songs a chance to be heard and digested in a more palatable manner? Buried under all the mesmerising and muddled noise present on The Jesus & Mary Chain’s albums are some rather potent, cracking, catchy almost-pop songs. While time has peeled away some layers of distortion and squall, it hasn’t dented the essence and spirit of the music. Maybe the more mature and the feedback fans would have had an unfavourable comparison with The Jesus & Mary Chain but for us younger folk, tonight was a very big notch in the musical bedpost. The Jesus & Mary Chain Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan St Jerome’s Laneway Festival – Phillip Park, March 2, 2008 The annual music festival which grew out of a small Melbourne bar’s back lane, once again took over Circular Quay. Summer music festivals have grown bigger and better in recent years, and the Laneway Festival – the boutique music event of the season - is no exception, spreading its wings from Melbourne’s back lanes to this year encompass Brisbane, Adelaide and lastly, Sydney. The early afternoon bands played in hazy sun giving a cruisy Sunday markets feel to early proceedings. Little Red tried to snap us out of it with their bass and tom blasting set. Okkervil River filled Reiby Place with the equally devoted and curious. The band played a great bulk of their new album Stage Names, a record which has helped the world catch on to how important a group they really are. Will Sheff writhes fragilely through his potent lyrics up front while the border-line loon drummer Travis Nelsen keeps the rhythmic shackles barely a touch above shambolic as the outcast orchestra comprising the rest of the band spread their deep textured noise behind. They soundtrack a view of the world that strikes a fine middle ground between the extremes of overly-literal bookish and misanthropic melancholy while dwelling in neither. They end with a bit too sincere ‘we love you’ and the soaring grand splendour of the murderous ‘Westfall’. In late afternoon what can best be described as the ‘Canadian Bracket’ commenced in the Park Stage. First up were Stars with their sweet as maple shared male/female vocals and pleasant pop, chips off the old block of the brilliant beard-led musically mesmerising ensemble Broken Social Scene. Building on their side-show earlier in the week, this was announced to be the collective’s ‘farewell tour’. As such it was an all-hands on deck no holds barred menagerie of musical magnificence, with guest ‘Stars’ aplenty and Feist and brass-section injections in equal measures. Electro-lunatic Dan Deacon played in Bulletin Place, the only area suitably boundless for his hyped-up musical explosions. Deacon proved you just need a power point and some people for a party to break out and even commanded a back-street full of folks to serenade two lucky staff of a second floor restaurant above. While the North American talent reigned outdoors, inside the Basement the home grown talent flourished. Darren Hanlon roped in a string section and the dueting duties of the ever-talented Pikelet to help fill his musical boots as the trod the Basement stage. The emerging grandeur of Bridezilla also filled the room with bodies and sounds. This is part of the great appeal of the Laneway festival, something new, great or just plain different awaits around every corner. Whether it be a critically adored yet criminally underselling artist playing a few feet from your face in a back street, a sublime open-air set in a park from which our very settlement sprang or some local soon-to-be’s punching above their weight playing a venue they may not ever otherwise play – Laneway Festival is all about boundary-pushing music in unique settings. Playing as the sun set, Feist was just commanding. Despite only coyly making her way on stage with the aid of a hand-held lantern, she owned the night from her very first note. She was brimming with engaging energy and possessed such a commanding vocal presence she pretty much stopped the whole festival in its tracks. It was simply the right person at the exact right time. Throw in some stark silhouetted visuals as backdrop and the full effect of the lightshow kicking in and the set was bordering on transcendent, plus it had the community service aspect of teaching readers of The Brag how to count to four. Simultaneously singing in the lane was the Andy Capp-capped Owen Ainsworth-led Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who seemed to be playing a word-of-mouth private party. There were sparklers shining and everybody singing along amidst the devoted crowd, a testament to the band’s self-made, slow burning success. So while most people were contemplating a trip to Whistler, New Zealand’s Brunettes opened with the utterly saccharine chant of B-A-B-Y – I should call you sugar. Their super sweet innocent pop was an utterly delicious end to the festival, except perhaps for diabetics. St Jerome's Laneway Festival Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Broken Social Scene – Manning Bar, 28 February 2008 Canadian Collective Broken Social Scene brought a very special guest for their Sydney sideshow ahead of their return Laneway Festival appearance. The bleak rainy weather did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm nor the shimmering music as Broken Social Scene (BSS) took to the Manning Bar stage ahead of singing in the Lane on Sunday. Kevin Drew was quite the amiable host, entering the stage and making a topical comment about Fred Nile and giving each of the six band members a brief introduction as they took their positions. Just to make it that much more of a personal experience. Drew proclaimed tonight would be about the exchange of human energy, as the band rolled rather pleasantly into an instrumental interlude. With the venue sold out and packed to capacity, the crowd would give as good as they got in the energy transaction, particularly after the next words from Drew’s mouth “we have with us here, for just this one night of the whole tour, Feist!” By God, the whole room just rippled with anticipation and when she bounded out bangs’n’all and strapped on a big ole cherry red guitar and chugged out some riffs, the whole crowd lifted as one in rapturous applause. There had been grumbles of discontent on a few internet forums – people complaining on forums!! Surely not! - moaning about the stripped-back six-piece ‘Scene as compared to the 14-strong band that last toured all horns blazing. However, the sheer presence of one Leslie Feist sure made up for at least 1-2-3-4 of the missing members. She was truly magnetic, a rose between two bearded thorns, and delightfully fleshed out a number of tracks with her commanding vocal presence, most compellingly ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’ and ‘Almost Crimes’. That’s not to say the rest of BSS were overshadowed by any means. The six musicians all seemed to operate in their own little individual zones. There was barely any eye contact nor clandestine cues between them; the fantastically buoyant backing noise was all seemingly done by pure intuition and each one’s incredibly attuned musicianship. An unscheduled intermission of a few minutes as some technical glitches were rectified was the only lull as they kicked back in with the cantering brilliance of ‘Fire Eyed Boy’ and the joyous jolly romp of ‘Backed Out On The…’. There were also new songs aplenty including ‘There is Water in Hell’, which isn’t that far-fetched a concept considering the deluge going on outside. The goodbyes and band bow came all too soon, Drew intoning to us ‘keep cheering, don’t stop cheering’. We didn’t and they returned for another blast and a parting farewell of “this has been the best show of the tour – you were great so this was our gift to you”. Aww thanks, you weren’t too bad yourself. Broken Social Scene Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Iron Maiden - Acer Arena, 9 February 2008 Metal masters Iron Maiden land in Australia - in their own customised Boeing 747 no less - on their Somewhere Back in Time world tour.† Australia has endured a wait of 15 years to see Iron Maiden. The palpable tension and overflowing anticipation was broken with black-and-white war footage accompanied by Winston Churchill's famous "we will fight them on the beaches" call to arms sounding out across the Acer Arena. The curtain lifted and all hell broke loose. Almost taking Winnie's words literally, a four-strong battalion toting guitars stormed the stage in a wave of tight black pants, flailing follicles and scorchingly strummed strings backed by an incessant thudding of gun-shot strength drums. Bruce Dickinson then bounded forth and leapt to the front looking like a wharfie in a fishing vest, black rubber pants and beanie. Aces and devil-fisted arms were high. It was his first of many guises for the night, as he would re-emerge later personifying 'The Trooper' and the 'Ancient Mariner'. The stage and the set was based mostly around the Powerstage album, with a hieroglyph-covered antechamber complete with changeable backdrops, a maze of ramps and walkways and three personal stages up front, filled with what must be the most heavily foot-printed foldback wedges in music. A Vincent Price voice-over and a blistering barrage of fireballs forewarned the demon-summoning power of 'The Number of the Beast'. The show-stopping highpoint of the set came with the quinella of 'Run to the Hills' and 'Fear of the Dark'. The two songs were seemingly bigger than the band themselves, touching every last person in the vast arena and ensuring a booming word-for-word sing-along from the delirious crowd. This could easily have been enough, with the crowd worked up to the point of satiated climax, but the pummelling continued with 'Iron Maiden' featuring a brief cartoonishly-menacing appearance by their mascot Eddie. The band left the stage after a few more obligatory 'scream for me Sydney!'s, though the restless, frenzied and impassioned chanting and stomping meant you didn't have to be 'The Clairvoyant' to sense they would soon return. Heaven can wait but the crowd couldn't, and we were treated to another dose before the band pulled up a pew and graced us with some heartfelt pleasantries and platitudes and promised to return soon before leaving off with a rattling 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'. Kick-arse Iron Maiden Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan The National – City Recital Hall, January 22 2008 One could not conceive a bigger contrast then going from beers and betting on the greyhounds at the rissole to being led into the salubrious catacombs of the City Recital Hall for astonishing musical collective Clogs. Looking like the type of people that would be really proficient at fixing your computer but actually being more proficient at stirring your soul with the most wondrous music conjured from mostly classically based, but also some rather more whimsical, instruments that may need a botanist to name them. The National’s Dessner brothers ambled on to lend assistance on six and four strings in some of the more structured numbers, almost as if they were the musical straight men to the abounding and varied virtuosity around them. The National just come on, plug in and go about their business barely wasting a note the entire evening. They are just so utterly astute, committed and entirely drawn into their own songs. Most ending with a beautiful fragile raggedness that comes from sheer exasperation as each song takes on its own dynamic, evolving force and is seemingly experienced by the band, not merely performed. When various members of Clogs appear on-stage through the course of the set, it is like someone placing a food order ‘with all the trimmings’. It is as if every last possible strum, structure and tuning has been mined for even the slightest addition of musical lustre. The night ends in the only possible manner to do it justice – a standing ovation. The National / Clogs Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Crowded House – Sydney Entertainment Centre, 5 November 2007 After a farewell to the world that is still talked about in revered tones more than a decade later, the Crowdies don’t dream its over. The Walls begin the evening with a jaunty blast of Gallic rock eked out from a plank-sized strip at the front of the stage. They sound like The Babyshambles could if they only dabbled in the occasional pint of Guinness instead of smack and supermodels. Augie March were nervously in awe of the occasion, making the best of their short set by playing “a good representation of what we’ve done over the years”. Some wolf-whistles and encouraging shouts from the audience in response to their opening song prompted the drummer to reveal “I’ve waited a long time for a man in a stadium to call out the name of my band” to which singer Glen hastily rebuked “well I’ve had to remind you a few times”. The band told of the touring weariness they had recently experienced from a month and a half of shows just completed in America, lamenting the ongoing tiredness meant ever-dwindling energy to write any new songs. Instead we were treated to a rollicking ‘This Train Will be Taking No Passengers’. When they finish with their poignant and prominent single ‘One Crowded Hour’ its not that much of a stretch to imagine them with a stadium to themselves not too far down the track. It was almost as if Crowded House farewelled the band and released their songs over to the people that November day on the Opera House forecourt back in ’96. While the band whole-heartedly presents many songs off their latest album “Time On Earth’, they are happy to share the singing with the audience when they dip into their greatly revered back catalogue of hits. After the crowd feverishly accompanies a call-and -response rendition of ‘World Where you Live’ Neil praises us with “you’re in the game now Sydney”. The greatest reason Crowded House are so well loved is their almost humble approachability. Nearly every between song break bought some jovial banter or horse play, whether it be mucking about with a pencil camera, attempting ballet moves, bird noises or an impromptu jam of disco hit ‘Born to be Alive’. A particularly hirsute Liam Finn was bought out for a couple of touching songs with his old man and guest guitarist Davey Lane was joyously grinning through the whole experience as if it was granted by the Make A Wish Foundation. While some of their newer material had a bit of a hard sell to a Monday night audience, the second half of the set veered more to the classics built into a wonderfully delirious conclusion. The set proper finished with a rousing ‘When You Come’ before paring back into ‘Distant Sun’. A quite unnecessary “On your feet Sydney” introduced the first encore whose quality is such I merely have to list them: ‘Locked Out’, Something So Strong’ and ‘Weather With You’. A brief respite and we were lulled into the brilliant Four Seasons in one day before the cracking ‘Italian Plastic’ was dedicated to the sorely missed Paul Hester. A spine tingling, hair raising finale saw the whole room plunged into darkness and a swaying volley of mobile phone screens illuminate the cavernous ‘Ent Cent’ like a mass of slow-dancing glow worms as the strains of ‘Better be Home Soon’ emanated from the stage. Unforgettably brilliant. Set List Private Universe World Where you Live Don’t Stop Now Fall at your Feet Whispers & Moans English Trees Heaven that I'm Making Love you till the Day I Die Silent House Don’t Dream it's Over Pour Le Monde Walked her Way Down When you Come Distant Sun ENCORE - Locked Out Something So Strong Weather with You ENCORE 2 - 4 Seasons Italian Plastic Better be Home Soon Crowded House / Augie March / The Walls Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Peabody – Spectrum, 7 October 2007 The new four-pronged Peabody takes to the Spectrum stage to launch their new EP ‘The Devil For Sympathy’. The Golden Age were the last minute lead-in replacements for this evening after The Instant were a last minute scratching. They, along with the headliners, have also gone through somewhat of a recent rebirth and line-up change of their own. They play a sneering, swirling mix of heady guitars and attain some masterfully noisy moments of pure rawk. For those after a ready reference point think Sonic (in their) Youth with the same intricate and intensive guitar work and the similarly shared lad/lass vocals. Peabody has gradually settled into their new quartet incarnation. The pub-rock frivolity has been replaced with a new fierceness. In simple terms they’ve evolved from the Friday night punchy good-time band to develop a new level of simmering seriousness – you now need your ears as well as your beers. The music and songs are denser, deeper and delivered straight from the devil too if the new single is to be believed. They have also delved a bit deeper into ’epic’ territory with a number of songs and have a lash at some harmonies to sweeten the deal too. Previously synonyms with the blaring jukebox and beery bluster of the top floor of the legendary Newtown late-night dive the Townie, they now reflect some of the more adult, poignant and meaningful conversations held there later in the piece. Everybody has to grow up at some stage and Peabody has seemed to have reached a musical maturity. The stupid boys and their abundance of alcohol still rear their head and there are still the cheeky oblique references and smart-arse lyrics. Bruno is still the effusive focal point but on a whole Peabody come across have struck a new grandness and could be posed for bigger things with their impending album Prospero. Peabody / The Golden Age Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Stereo Total - York Theatre 12 September 2007 The setting for this special performance in a lecture theatre gave it a somewhat restrained educational sheen. However it was partially fitting considering the two members of Stereo Total are so exceedingly well versed in the ways of love, life and linguistics – so much so we were often given the choice of four or five languages in which they could sing particular songs. The way the audience were seated in particularly civil, brightly-lit auditorium seating didn’t really reconcile with the fact that Stereo Total’s music is endlessly danceable. The lack of a proper stage and a large empty gap of floor also created a bit of an audience/artist stand off and chair dancing was the order of the day til some brave souls finally breached the dance floor void. Basically the band is one of great contrasting clashes. The French Francoise is almost comically rigid and curt while Berliner Brezel is an effervescently manic eternal-teen. Their music - concocted largely from a hot-pink keyboard/sampler, drums and a most quirky box-guitar- is broadly-speaking, joyous and bounding Euro-tinged Electro-pop. Despite the dreadful image that may evoke, even those that are lactose intolerant could enjoy it as it is not at all cheesy. The pair share a mutual and deep-seated respect and fondness for pop music ranging from a sassy cover of Salt N Pepper’s ‘Push It’ to your more classical Serge Gainsbourgh-esque romantic balladeering. They have some immensely silly moments including the dubiously saucy offering of “Let’s go to a Holiday Inn/and I will show you something” or the simply dinky ‘I love you, Ono’ but the fact they are delivered with such lashings of good spirit and infectious fun make it easily forgivable. Stereo Total manage to safely tread the fine line between catchy and disposable pop music, while their lyrics would never really be considered heavy or deep, the songs sure ain’t no throwaway forgettable flavour of the week numbers either. Ironically the bounding finale of (I Hate) Everyone in the discotech signalled the unleashing of the pent-up crowd into a heaving heap on the dance floor surrounding the duo for a smiling satiated send off. Stereo Total Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan The Buzzcocks Century Theatre - September 9th 2007 Initially the crowd were respectfully distant and reserved in their appreciation, understandable really; it had been thirty years since the band first blazed onto the scene. Here standing before us was one of the major driving forces of punk music and the instigators of the do-it yourself ethos, they were worthy of some dues. But the strength of the band and the reason for their deserved legacy are the songs. While the snarling ferocity in their delivery may have been toned down over time, the themes within the songs still ring true. Nearly everyone present, whether barely legal or the wrong side of 50, would have surely fallen in love with someone (they shouldn’t have), questioned at some point what on earth they were going to do with their life, and well I’m sure they’ve had an orgasm or two too (and I suspect, quite liked it). The Buzzcocks have not at all been merely trading on past glories; they come brandishing their latest album Flat Pack Philosophy, their fifth since reforming in 1989. The band are still questioning the way of the world, but instead of kicking against a world they are yet to, or not wanting to, be a part of, they are more objective and reflective. The regretted love is still present with Wish I Never Loved You, the stomping Sell You Everything and the album’s title track question the money and product focussed world we now occupy. The crowd soon loosened both their voices and inhibitions, many people who were probably old enough to know better venturing to the front of stage to join a spirited, if not overly physical mosh-pit. The true timelessness of the Buzzcocks’ most notable moments were proved, with the songs both delivered and sung along to with the same passion and relevance some three decades after they were written. The band’s second ever gig would shape the minds and next musical generation of their home town of Manchester. While I’m not holding much hope for the emergence of a world-changing music scene in Sydney in 2010, with all its protagonists similarly in attendance at the Century Theatre on September the 9th, I sure know there would have been some great old records pulled out across homes in Sydney that night, some dusty guitars may have been strummed in rudimentary chords, and perhaps a leather jacket or two were dug out from a space bag. And hopefully there was a harmony in one or two heads. The Buzzcocks Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Powderfinger & Silverchair – Acer Arena, 9 September 2007 The Across the Great Divide tour rolls into Sydney as two of Australia’s biggest bands combine for a slew of stadium shows. The entree for this evening was Youth Group providing an almost medley-esque burl through some of their larger sounding songs. They are no strangers to the big stage these days and even had the crowd swaying along to their breakthrough cover of ‘Forever Young’. Just because you have a stadium full of fans at your disposal doesn’t mean you have to use them at every given opportunity Mr Johns. We – as in the city of Sydney – were thanked about fifty odd-times, asked to give it up another dozen, instructed how to clap another handful of instances and most peculiarly asked to “make some noise so you make me feel like I am famous”. The band covered the broad spectrum of their career from the tense, naive power of ‘Israel’s Son’ as a three piece to fleshed out brooding sparse rock brackets with an additional keyboard stage left and broad electric washes from Paul Mac driving from behind. An almost solo acoustic spot was granted for Open fire (Ana’s song) contrasted with a singlet-clad Ben Gillies led crunch through ‘I’m a freak’. The new stuff sure expands into the spatial surrounds of the stadium. ‘Straight Lines’ sees a glowing Pean of mobile phone screens raised as a modern update to the cigarette lighter tribute and ‘If you Keep Losing Sleep’ whimsically careened the set into even greater heights. Powderfinger on the other hand filled the vast space not with faux accented platitudes but good ole fashioned guitar lines, and plenty of them. That is not to imply that the band have nothing of note to say, they most certainly do – and always have – it is just done in a more astute and effacing manner. This whole tour had as one of its main aims to encourage awareness and action on reconciliation and Indigenous issues. It is baffling to think then to think someone in the crowd thought a response to the line ‘A black man’s lying dead’ would not be ‘whoooooo, yeah’. To give benefit of the doubt, it may’ve merely been an exclamation acknowledging the band’s particularly astute song writing and stance making as Powderfinger for al their honourable outspokenness really are a well-honed and intuitively entertaining band. The songs rattle and roll and lurch upwards into great memorable choruses that lift even the less potent sentiments into instantly poignant moments. The sheer scale and breadth of the Across the Great divide tour is almost a milestone that these two bands are currently the two biggest bands in Australia today, sharing nine number one albums between them. What does having that sort of power enable you to do? Why call up oz-rock luminary Jimmy Barnes to come up and sing The Who’s ‘Substitute’ with you for an all star-jam finale, that’s what. Powderfinger / Silverchair / Youth Group Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Clue to Kalo, Anthony Rochester, Spectrum August 23rd 2007 Unfortunately a missed train meant that I jolly well missed part of Mr Rochester opening proceedings. Anthony is an utterly affable chap, just sporting a spiffing guitar and his invisible electrically provided backing band. The tunes were bright tales of awkwardness, worldly observations and tales delivered endearingly and oh so pleasantly, interspersed with pensive shuffling and not quite punchy banter between songs. Clue to Kalo were a musical menagerie, songs played out in between a music instrument swap-meet. In their brisk set the band members variously used a piano accordion, a harmonica, all manner of guitars - both acoustic and electric, a vibraphone, a keyboard and numerous other musical trinkets, not to mention liberal doses of hand-claps. Almost like Architecture in Helsinki, but with a stricter recruitment policy. Apologetically offering that they were from Adelaide, the band sure won some new fans, the crowd buoyantly smiled along, nodding serenely and quietly impressed. Then it was to Owen Ashworth, the chap who bills himself as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Alone was one thing he was not this evening, with the few gaps in the crowd readily filled by the time he commenced. Unlike many bands (and for that matter occasional overly exuberant early morning punters) who have graced the stage at Spectrum, this was a set delivered without any fanfare, hype or nods towards fashion. After a few minutes tinkering, Ashworth set about his business. A surprisingly tall feller, Ashworth comes across softly spoken and diminutive as he delivers his narratives hunched over and fiercely concentrating on his assorted electronic devices. The set largely featured songs from the latest Casiotone album “Etiquette”. It is his most expansive sounding album released thus far, with a wide array of instruments used in its recording, the songs still radiated live with just the basic rhythms and melodies Ashworth’s gadgets provided. Ashworth’s voice, a slightly world wearied drawl nestles above the simple instrumentation, with nothing further needed, for these are the tales of everyday disappointments and have no need for sugar coating. Each song a separate little story played out, his characters finding themselves in unremarkable, but relatible situations such as in New Year’s Kiss, which was delivered with a particularly morose poignancy. Mid way through the set Ashworth was joined on stage by guest vocalist and “Etiquette” collaborator Jenn Herbison. While another personality on stage may have threatened to dominate proceedings, she remained distantly respectful of the songs, taking her spot on stage as if an obedient choir girl. Her comparatively cheery voice lightened the tone of the set with Hobby Hobby and an almost joyous Scattered Pearls, a curt handshake her reward as she left the stage. Whilst Ashworth admits to being “The world’s biggest Smiths fan” it is not all bleak and sombre, there are many moments of great beauty and even humour, one wag in the crowd yelling out “I love your knob twiddling”. Smiles seem to be the most common accessory amongst the audience. We are even treated to an encore as after finishing his set as Ashworth “Felt stupid just standing around back there”, an intriguing cover of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” popped up and we had witnessed rare and lovely evening indeed. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone / Clue to Kalo / Anthony Rochester Apr 06, 2023
 Andy J Ryan Candle Records Farewell Concert, Metro Theatre 18 August 2007 Tonight is a sad occasion, the 2007 Candle Concert is the last ever to be held in Sydney. The usually buoyant and joyous annual celebration of Candle Records artists is somewhat of a wake, mourning the closing of the label after 13 years. Candle Records itself has been the ultimate in boutique labels. More of a co-op than a business, the Candle Records family has nurtured the careers of some of Australia’s best bands and foremost lyricists The label largely running on the labour of love and enthusiasm of founder Chris Crouch, release artists chosen because of the love of the music as opposed to their potential commercial appeal. If the label was to have a credo it would be: Give me your cheery, your quirky, your huddled musicians yearning to play pop. The whimsical lyricists of your teeming shore... Candle has a roster predominately penning guitar pop, with the integrity of the lyrics as the centre of the songs. The label has clocked up more than 100 releases since 1994; their acts may not have huge chart-busting followings, but passionately devoted ones. Tonight’s concert showcases seven Candle acts, each playing small bite-sized sets. There’s some pretty damn-fine and intricate music behind the lyrics too - from the grand soaring designs of Mid State Orange to the dreamy swirling strains of Small Knives. Best reflecting the song writing talents on show are the ever-honest observations of Rob Clarkson, who is back to solo singer-songwriter mode after a stint with the band Ruck Rover. Similarly Anthony Atkinson, the former singer-songwriter of The Mabels, now with his band The Running Mates, adding to the formidable, but largely under-rated legacy of his former band. Jodi Phillis and Trish Young took The Clouds to the very brink of something big in the mid 90s, their perfectly suited voices oozing out of the speakers like stereophonic honey. In the more stripped back setting of their current incarnation as The Girls from the Clouds, the wondrous working of harmonies and vocal melodies really come to the fore. A delight that is over too soon and ending with more effusive thanks for Chris and the label. The Lucksmiths are just a gem of a band, there’s a sprightly shimmering quality to everything they do. Endlessly charming and cheery, their songs are infused and trimmed with quirk, sunny melodies and bounce. They soon get everyone smiling, nodding and joyously tapping along and are even joined on stage by Russell Crowe (actually Darren Hanlon) on banjo. It is left to Gympie boy-done good Darren Hanlon to finish the show. Starting with a plaintive tune played out on ukulele he was soon joined by long time collaborator Bree van Dyke on drums and occasional glockenspiel bursts. Hanlon’s songs are almost anecdotal bursts sent to music, whether wry, wizened observations or just a pun or word play that’s been picked-up and run with. If happiness is just a chemical, then there were some big doses administered as an array of gests joined the stage. It wouldn’t be a Candle Concert without the all-star jam at the end, and musicians en-massed joined the stage for a ramshackle, but with much better haircuts than the original, version of ‘We are the World’. It was the end of an era for Candle Records, but the music will go on. Darren Hanlon / The Lucksmiths / The Girls From the Clouds / Anthony Atkinson & The Running Mates / Rob Clarkson Apr 06, 2023
 Paul Cranley Not sure of date, '67-'70 My first rock concert Chicago Apr 06, 2023
 Thekilburnoracle Rescheduled gig from 8th April 2020 Bauhaus / Hope (DE) Apr 05, 2023
 Idm1 This was 1 of 2 extra dates added as wembley and Birmingham had sold out. The ticket was automatically issued. David Bowie / The English Beat / Icehouse Apr 05, 2023
 Moe Man57 I don’t see a concert listed which I know I attended at Cincinnati Gardens - Hall & Oates in (I believe) January 1985. Cincinnati Gardens Apr 05, 2023
 Izzie Mack Had a p terrible experience before playing the show - we only found out at 6.56pm that the venue wanted us there for 7pm with a full backline (including an entire kit). We’d been emailing them for days/weeks before the show to get more info. Then when we got there we got talked down to a LOT. RBCF were super nice in the end but that initial experience really sullied (no pun intended) my experience of the show. Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever / Fern Sully Apr 05, 2023
 Izzie Mack In the Mourning heckin SLAP. In The Mourning / Fern Sully / Kicksie Apr 05, 2023