Tag Archives: Live Review

Live Review: Birds of Tokyo + Regular John + The Guppies – The Enmore Theatre (17.03.13)

Posted on by
Pictured: Birds Of Tokyo at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (c) Natalie Gardner for Mosca Media

Pictured: Birds Of Tokyo at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (c) Natalie Gardner for Mosca Media

Birds of Tokyo took to the stage and the Enmore Theatre quivered with applause and screams from the crowd. This show marked the end of a tour for Birds of Tokyo with their new album ‘March Fires.’ They get straight to it with a song off the album.

The crowd, whilst not the most lively, are taken on a journey from the bands most recent stuff, to their early songs, and they are receptive.

Ian Kenny, the vocalist, keeps the front of the crowd moshing by dancing along to the tunes on stage.

The backdrop lights up in flashing images, telling a story to accompany each song.

A woman next to me leans over to her friend and says ‘what do you think?’ The friend replies ‘thank you SO much for introducing me to them. They are amazing!’ She then gets back to gyrating and head-banging with the rest of the crowd.

The big winners aka the most popular songs, ‘Plans’ and ‘Lanterns’ got a round of sing-alongs from the audience, and coming from such a large audience, this was a delightful experience.

Whether you’re a newcomer to Birds of Tokyo, or a seasoned fan like myself, you will love their live show.

Their new sound, while not a huge leap away from their previous albums, is slightly more melodic and careful. That said, though, I think anyone that is a fan of their previous albums will love ‘March Fires.’

You really can’t lose with this band, because they are simply such a fun night out.

The support act for the night was Regular John. You might have heard this band doing the rounds on Triple J lately with their tracks ‘Sky Burial’ and ‘Strange Flowers.’

If you haven’t heard of them though they are a red-hot, psychedelic, punk rock four-piece band from New South Wales.

Their set-list on the night consisted mostly of songs from their most recent album ‘Strange Flowers’ and some from their previous album ‘The Peaceful Atom is a Bomb.’

Regular John have made up a huge step up from their first album to their last and have evolved into a sophisticated hard rock band.

They are still slightly experimental, particularly with their latest album, simply in that no two songs quite sound the same, but that’s something that, personally, draws me to them.

These guys are a gold-standard support act and I definitely recommend checking out one of their stand-alone live shows.

The Guppies are your standard teenage-y-punk band from Newcastle, which I guess is not that standard. They are great, all the same.

They have a fluid musical styling with a penchant for easily-accessible, very catchy tunes, like ‘Never Liked Mondays,’ and ‘Bad Blood.’

As terribly cliché as this might sound, the three-piece just simply know how to rock out on stage and gave us all a ‘rocking out’ lesson on Sunday night.

I also have to recommend catching these guys live.

Rating: 4/5

Snakadaktal (The Dance Bear Tour) – Metro Theatre, Sydney (11.08.12)

Posted on by

The Dance Bear tour headlined by the dream-pop Melbourne band Snakadaktal with supporting acts from Sydney locals such as the Blizz Beat dynamic duo Fishing and the captivating indie-pop quartet Sures made their mark at the jam-packed Metro Theatre. Mid to post-teens surged with Red Bull fuelled energy as they danced, pranced and gyrated across the sticky floor to the smell of stale beer and the sound of wonderful music from a talented pool of up-and-coming musicians.

The night was capped off by a groovy performance from Fishing. A pair of hipsterish DJs, Doug and Russel, made hips stir in the crowd with their own creative genre of Blizz beat, a fusion of electro-pop/house/dub, enhanced by catchy and repetitive loops of instrumental and vocal melodic harmonies, conjured with modern gadgetry synthesisers, keyboards and electric drum. They have a distinct sound which appealed to the masses but also a mellow vibe that could be compared to the instrumental side of Moby and Neon Indian.

The next performance was from the Sures, a band which bore features of the pop-rock/punk 80’s and 90’s, and the brimming with potential. Aside from a flamboyant introduction that the crowd deliriously reciprocated, their opening felt raw with some hiccups in the vocal harmonies. However, this did little to mar the rest of their fantastic performance. One of their songs, ‘Romeo’, benefits from an intricate drum line whose melody was simply classy.

The band was intense and dynamic as the four bright-eyed talents conveyed their personality through their music. The closing was a bittersweet moment. An episode streaming with pure musical bliss and then swish, it was over.

Under the shower of rain and cold wind, Snakadaktal began their set with a steady lucid pace that satisfied musical appetites with their vivid melodies. The sounds of Snakadaktal is reminiscent of a Melbourne band Alpine, which also boasted some bedazzled bling in their faces and also opened up for the Jezabels. The Snakadaktal flavour blends the vocals of Sean and Phoebe to convey distinct yet complementary identities. The accompaniment was balanced, showcasing their animated talents and musical vigor.

The highlight of the show was when the song ‘Air’ was played; it was a hair-raising melody enhanced with soulful vocal ranges, a strong emotional bass and steady drums. Soaked from the glistening rain but awed to tears by such an epic experience the night was sincerely not bad. Not too bad at all.

Review Score: 4/5

Photographs from the night can be found by clicking here!

G3 Tour 2012 (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Lukather) – Newcastle Panthers (29.03.12)

Posted on by

Written by Daniel Fletcher

G3 (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Morse) at Newcastle, Panthers

Mention the names to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to a lead guitar player and they would agree they are up the top with the best in the business. Add the former Toto guitar player Steve Lukather, and we have the ingredients for an excellent G3 recipe for their 2012 Australian Down Under tour.

The masters of guitar (Satriani and Vai) have been putting on great performances all around the globe since the the G3 debut in 1996 where they travelled North America, on tour with adept guitar player Eric Johnson. Since then they have played guitar with great guitar players around the globe including Adrian Leg, John Petrucci and Yngwie Malmsteen. So how did they perform while on their Australian tour you may ask?

Newcastle’s Panthers Leagues Club Thursday March 29 set the scene as an environment for the trio. The crowd were wearing their various tribute t-shirts of their favourite artists, and there was excited chatter as the audience swap stories of past festivals and music collections owned.

8:30 pm people have settled in their seats filling the venue as Steve Lukather opens the night. Showcasing his greatest songs off albums such as Ever Changing Times and delivering an amazing performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, dedicating the songs to his late brother. Lukather prepared the crowd and set the stage for an interment and impressive show. Lukather’s Bogner amp and Music Man guitar combination sounded great, he seemed modest in contrast to Vai and Satriani but seemed to have great fun on stage with his band and created a great hype to start the show.

Steve Vai bursts out onto the stage with “The Audience Is Listening” – convenient song, and they most certainly were listening. Vai pulled out every trick in the bag, savagely abusing the whammy bar on his Ibanez guitar in songs such as “Bad Horsey” and finger hammered a guitar with blue illuminating dot inlays. His hair was blowing in the fan forced wind and he battled the keyboard player in an instrumental duel that finished with them playing their instrument with even their tongues. Vai had the audience captivated with “For The Love Of God”. One man even got up from his seat and began dancing like he was in a trance. He was standing in the middle of the rows of chairs waving his arms in motion of the music and swaying.

Joe Satriani followed Vai and kept the electrifying pace with songs such as “Surfing With The Aliens” and “Ice 9″. The song “Up In The Sky” from his Crystal Planet album was a delight to watch as legend guitarist pulled technical tricks only a true virtuoso could perform. The set list was diverse and he stunned the audience with a beautiful extended version of “Always With Me”. He performed songs off his new album too. “Premonitions” and “Dream Song” were well received and he played with feedback and sustained for “The Golden Room” song without squealing one brown note.

Finally the time everyone was waiting for had arrived as all three guitarists came together on stage for one massive showdown. The trio traded licks on the song “Little Wing” and jammed out with “My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama”. They ended the show with “Rocking In The Free World” and received their final standing ovation from the roaring and very pleased audience. Steve Vai mentioned a return visit to Newcastle which audience will no doubtably hold them to on future tours.

The night as a whole went very well – the stage lighting was a marvellous spectacle to behold and the sound quality, superb. Try as they might the audience couldn’t fault them as each performer on stage played flawlessly delivering a show that wouldn’t be soon forgotten.

Review Score: 4/5