one fellow's political coverage, music ramblings and general hijinks across decades under a range of guises at several locations often in a state of awe.
Metropolis Perth For the many kids who saw the end of the pop and pulp Countdown generation mutate into the all-embracing Rage regeneration, Dinosaur Jr has alway signified low-brow indie rawk and roll. In its early years, ABC TV’s Rage would screen the video of Dinosaur Jr’s Freak Scene every weekend as the epitome of … Continue reading “Dinosaur Jr, Sunday September 28, 1997”
Metropolis Concert Club, Fremantle Let us take a fleeting glance back to those high-rolling mid-1980s, a time of teen magazines like Countdown and Smash Hits, lime green shirts and a paisley power-pop outfit from Perth called The Stems. Their simple yet unassailable songsmithery endeared them to a huge European music public, propelled them on to … Continue reading “The Stems, Friday February 28, 1997”
The Regal Theatre, Subiaco Ably assisted by the most astute Mr Rex Horan, Bmus., and Cinema Prague bassplayer virtuoso. It has long been the tradition of jazz artists to take popular tunes and adapt them into “standards”. Herbie Hancock’s latest album, The New Standard, has the prodigious pianist/composer lending his deft hand to numbers by … Continue reading “Herbie Hancock, Tuesday November 12, 1996”
Interview with Donna Matthews When Elastica brushed, nay slapped, the testosterone from the stage at the various Big Day(s) Out this year, they had the Britpopping punters lapping at the railing for any number of reasons.
When a local band puts in the effort, it’s quite amazing how their organisational energies, lighting rig and fervent sticker distribution can turn a beer barn shindig into a sweltering mass of pogoing punters. Allow the band a little more room to act like rock stars – as in keeping the audience waiting in near … Continue reading “Eos, Swanbourne Hotel, August 9, 1996”
A dash of guitar grunt, a sprinkle of exquisite harmony, a few deft lines of lolling bass, all topped with some hit-squad homey humour … this year’s campus band competition ran the full gauntlet. And after experiencing simply a smidgin of the WA contingient, I’ll wager a barrel of pickled fish on each and all … Continue reading “The NAD Campus Band WA State Final, Planet, August 7, 1996”
Picture, if you will … the dark Planet innards dusted with stage smoke, brilliant streams of coloured light cutting the fog, the chamber full of 6 Mile High flunkies bounding to the beats and, through the floor from the basement below, the physical rumble of Napalm Death flexing their vocal chords for hundreds of extreme … Continue reading “6 Mile High; Lounge; Surveyor 4, Planet, July 27, 1996”
With a vast sea of fresh, frantic faces mingling with the local constabulary for the start of Kiss My WAMI volume 3, the Metropolis atmosphere was, for some, a bitter-sweet occasion. As the new look Fremantle ‘cleaners’ hovered about – badges and truncheons symbolising the new family-orientated Fremantle – the kids put their feet and … Continue reading “Squidfinger; Circus Murders; Cinema Prague, Metropolis, May 22, 1996”
What a great time to catch a couple of mooted maestros of our megalopolis! Ensconced in warm loungerooms throughout Perth, most of the local gig-going public were doing their benchpresses for this week’s Kiss My WAMI marathon, thus the hardest of hardcore heads got their chance to swing cats in near empty venues and check … Continue reading “Caterpillar Now; Team Jedi, Grosvenor Hotel, May 18, 1996”
The ‘Fly exists for gigs like this – punters armed with bottles of red, various cheeses and old whiskey barrels for the paddock-worn Blundstones to rest upon. Ah, and both kinds of music: country and western.
