Social Media

I love social media. I would happily stand up in a Social Media Support group and say, ‘My name is Jodie and I am a Social Media-aholic’.

I have a Facebook and a Twitter account. I’m also on Instagram. I have a blog, but you know about that because you’re reading it. I’m resisting Flicka and Pinterest, just because I think I have enough.

I have a few pages and both my dogs have their own Facebook accounts, but I have to say they post more than me.

It’s not just the sharing of the details of my life in the vein hope that someone else actually gives a damn about what I’m up too; it about when I die, alone in my house, and have my face eaten by the cats that someone might notice my lack of posts and therefore come looking for me, that I like, it's other random posts from strangers that appear on my wall.

Today…I saw a post from such a random to pop starlet Nicki Minaj and it appeared on my wall because one of my friends had seen fit to add her voice to the 59,000 other comments.

It was a somewhat vitriolic post that included the phases ‘it makes me want to punch my cat’, ‘it has been proven that you can catch Aids from watching her music videos’ and ‘it’s (her music) cancerous to the earth’. Actually, if you look at the message as a whole there is some rather amusing imagery conquered up. It is still cruel and unnecessary.

If you don’t like her music, change channel and stop buying it from iTunes.

The starting message itself is interesting but some of the comments are hilarious, if not cruel in themselves!

Some comments were full of admiration for the original post and they agree with the sentiment (typed as they appear on the posting*):
‘Dude that kid gor balls…but no brains’ Jordan S-P
‘I think I love you, sir’ Naomi H.
‘Fu*k that b*tch nicki keep doing u boo…’ Ashley A.
There was more to that last one, but it became so unintelligible I couldn’t tell if it was supportive or abusive.

The religious and lifestyle ones always make me smile

‘That’s not very Christian’ Jesse G
‘(posters name), if you were Greek, you’d be Zeus.’ Jake M
‘Lolsomeone is pi*sed they don’t make the money she makes :)’ Billy S.
‘Ur gay’ Joe O.
‘2 words…STOP HATING’ Dsire B
‘If u think shes hurt by this u dimb as hell’ Tatiana FW. Do I hear the pot calling the kettle names?

Invariably though someone brings up the age old debate that haunts all forms of social media, and with good reason. Most people fire of comments and posts without a thought to the content and how it will appear. We’re all guilty of it, some more so than others. I know I’m not perfect, but at least I put a little effort in.

In this case I only saw Milo S’s attempt to set the world straight on the matter, but you just know there would have been others amongst the fifty nine thousand other comments. ‘Wow, most of these comments either have bad spelling or improper grammar. What a world where people can’t spell, at all.’

In some way I wish I was a researcher. I’d love to examine the way people are affected by social media. What would happen if it was to go away over night? What would happen to those that have grown up knowing no other way to communicate.

The days before mobile telephones when there was one telephone in the house and your dad had put a lock on it. When you made plans and stuck to them because there was no way to punk out at the last minute. When you physically had to invite everyone you wanted to come to your party because there was no ‘wall event’ capability.

‘Didn’t you get my wall invite?’
‘No, I haven’t looked at Facebook for weeks’
Sound familiar?


Most of all though how would they cope not being able to hurl abuse anonymously at all and sundry just because they felt like it and it was free?

Would they sit down with a pen and paper and write out the words ‘I don’t come to you respectfully as I don’t think you even deserve to be treated with sincerity’ (another line from the NM post means) and other nasty, down right mean spirited comments, fold it neatly, pop it into an envelope, put a stamp on it and place it into a letter box, after they had spent an age finding an address to send it too? Most likey the ‘Fan Club’.

I really don’t think they would bother.

I love social media. I really do. It’s helping me spread the word about my missing dog. It’s helping get word out about my business. It helps me stay in touch with family and friends who live overseas and far away places. It has even introduced me to many people I may not have otherwise come across.
In the words of Uncle Ben from Spiderman (2002) ‘With great power comes great responsibility’.
Please think before you press send.



* Swear words did not have * in them, they appeared in full in the original comments, but I'm a senstive soul that likes to have some modicum of manners :-)
Picture of telephone lock from here

On a lighter note

In the four weeks since I procured and commenced my recorder playing career I have mastered a few tunes, including but not exclusively:

Hot Cross Buns
Mary Had a Little Lamb
When The Saints Come Marching In
Snail

Now that my Tenor Recorder has arrived I’m working on Amazing Grace, and the cats have stopped leaving the room in disgust when I start practice.

Lottery Win

Natasha was from Spain. I thought she was the absolute bees-knees. She had an exotic accent and lovely skin. She was my friend and her Mum would make little cakes whenever I went over after school. Also, Natasha had three recorders, a normal sized one, a medium and a big one, all of which she could play. She could read music too. The recorders were mostly black but had creamy detailing on the mouth piece and banding towards the top and at the bottom. Aulos made these masterpieces of music, in all their smooth plastic glory. I remember that because they were so much prettier than the wooden ones the school lent to others.

I wanted to learn the recorder, but being from a big family I got to learn the guitar because we had one in the loft. It was massive and came in an even more massive hard case which I had to carry it to school in; switching it from hand to hand along the way. Mr Hardman taught guitar and he was school staff, no extra payments required. Recorder required an outside teacher and a one pound sub was required for each lesson.

I was eight years old and three months older than Natasha.

***

A few weeks ago I was out at a comedy club waiting for my spot. One of the other comedians went on stage with a guitar and played a tune and sang a funny ditty. Having never stuck out the guitar lessons, (mainly because the thing was such a pain to lug around) I have no musical instrument but it got me to thinking about how I could incorporate it into my comedy act without actually playing anything.

I came up with, take some drum sticks on stage and say, ‘I was gonna play you a drum solo, but some bastard nicked my drums!’ Boom Boom.

Then I remembered Natasha and her recorder. The idea of a 40 year old walking onto stage with a recorder would be a joke all of its own. No playing required.

***

A week ago I brought a lottery ticket for $23. I won $12. The first win in a very long time, but a win is a win, so I put the cash in my wallet.

I was walking through town on my lunch break thinking, as you do, when I found myself outside Allan’s Music.

With my $12 I procured a shiny new recorder. Not an Aulos, but a Yamaha. They make good motorbikes, so surely the quality of their products would be even. I also brought a book called ‘Recorder for Beginners, Book 1’. My lottery win was exhausted.

And now I have a new thing to learn. Maybe not master, but learn. I have my first lesson tonight.



I wonder if Natasha continued with her recorder playing.

Please hold!

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a call that has instantly been put on hold?
I have many times.
Ring ring, ring ring.
‘Good afternoon, XYZ Company, Melody speaking, would you mind holding?’ Click.

You don’t even get a chance to protest before your ear holes are being assaulted by some of the worst music know to man or a poorly tuned radio station. Plus, what would happen if you said ‘Yes, I mind holding’.

Today, someone at work was on hold, on speaker, so we all (those within a 10 metre radius) had to endure the tinny strains of synthesised Green Sleeves.

I remember many years ago when I was working for a start-up company as the office manage I had to get a telephony system put in. We were given a choice of hold music; radio, white noise, the classics played by fingerless monks of the moors of whoop whoop or our own messages recorded and played back. The MD selected the ‘Classics’ because he didn’t know what to say and he was too cheap to pay for the radio option.

After three months of countless comments about bleeding ears from customers he decided to write and record some nuggets of wisdom like, ‘Your call is very important to us, please hold’ and ‘If you’d like to leave a message press star and someone will get back to you’. They were powerful, but to the point. The customers stopped complaining.

Why do companies insist on torturing their customers with these crimes against music?

Also, the 80s have a lot to answer for with the invention of the keyboard you don’t have to play but could just press back beat buttons.

New Years Day

I started my year with music and photography. I went to Field Day at the Domain.

Of the 31 acts playing I’d heard of three. Moby, Calvin Harris and Gotye. As I was lucky enough to have a photo pass I was able to take photos while wandering around amongst the crowd.

I took advantage of this and decided to do a Street Fashion shoot for Fashion Studio. It was fun, because by 1.30pm most of the 20 something crowd where already a little or lot drunk. Most of the girls were in short shorts and even shorter tops and the boys were wearing much the same.
These Guys support Oscar's Law, so they can't be all bad

I saw two acts that I haven’t seen before New Navy and Spank Rock. New Navy was more to my taste.
Calvin Harris on Stage

I tested the waters with the photo pass and got into the Pit for Calvin Harris. I got a couple of good shots, but the set up of the stage made it hard for me to get the perfect shot. It was fun and so loud I could feel my glasses vibrating on the bridge of my nose. It was awesome, but I really must remember earplugs the next time I do this.

I got taken backstage about 5pm. I hung out with a few friends and met a few new ones…I love meeting new people. At 5.40 I went into the pit again and photographed the Goyte set. Being the type of festival that Field Day is, he played his more upbeat, drum heavy, toe tapping songs. Again my glasses got to jumping, and one of the girls in the front row laughed because I knew all the songs. She’s asked, ‘How do get a job like that?’

I replied, ‘persistence, practice and a little talent’.
'In your Light' by Gotye
I came away from the day sunburnt, but very happy and I got some great photos

The music will live on

A couple of weeks ago a musical icon passed away before his time. The press have loved the renewed opportunity to lay into him, fans have been lining up to pay their respects and communities have popped up all over the internet singing his praises.

Personally I never believed he did the things they said he did. I think his naivety of life and the lack of someone to say no to him lead him down a path of easy to make errors that had dire consequences. So I continued to listen to his music and enjoy it as I always had.

Now, I’m over it.

It reminds me of how I felt when Def Leppard released Hysteria. It was an awesome album, but the manager in Fosters, where I worked as a Saturday girl played it non-stop from opening at 9am to close at 5.30pm every Saturday for several weeks. I had spent my hard earned pennies on that album, but couldn’t bear to listen to it because I was SO sick of it.

The same goes for the music of the recently deceased. I’m having a really hard time at the moment because I know he was a genius musician and moved like no one else ever will, but enough already…

Just let him rest in peace and music companies, stop trying to make a buck or millions out of his passing.

My Favourite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright crimson high heels and feelings of smitten
Being outside watching veg grow in spring
These are a few of my favourite things

Listenin’ to music and wild meeting doodles
Fresh warm bread smells
And laksa with noodles
alpaca that run with the herd, what that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

boys in white t-shirts with blue demin flashes
Make up and costume that match fake eyelashes
memories of childhood and all that, that brings
These are a few of my favourite things

When the cat bites
When the bell rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel...so bad

Sing to the tune of My Favourite Things from the The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Great Lyrics

'I spent ages givin' head'.

and to think they made a fuss about 'relax, when you wanna come'

Gotta love Lily Allen

This Womans Work

Had my iPod set to Shuffle today and after about 300 od songs Kate Bush's This Womans Work came on. It's the first time I've listened to it since this. I made it to 'Give me these moments back' before the eyes started to sting and moisture sprung forth.

As luck would have it, Neville appeared to ask me about booking a meeting room in Outlook.

Morning Giggle

I seem to spend a lot of time on trains. Last night, on my way home a derailment caused my 45 minutes trip to be 70mins of unair-conditioned boredom (I forgot my book and my iPod) in 40 degree heat. I was glad to be home at twenty past seven so I could remove my sweat soaked trousers and jump a cool shower.

This morning, random stops outside Lidcombe and Newtown meant I had an extra ten minutes on the train, but a dramatic over night drop in temperature meant I got to work with a dry seat.

I had my iPod this morning (not making that mistake again) and I was happily listening to Cat Stevens and looking outside the window, watching the world whoosh by at 30kph. Our trains don’t move very fast.

I had noticed earlier in the ride that the Christmas reprieve was coming to an end and few people were having to stand. The people that did have seats had their noses buried in books, school work and newspapers, or just like me, had music soothing them towards another day at the office.

The three men sitting in the seat in front of me were a combination of newspaper, school-work and book. None of them had music. The guy next to me though, he pulled out an old Sony Discman that I remember having when I was 16, but I digress…

Back to the guys in front. The school-work guy was sat in the middle. Wedged in between the two larger guys like a party popper about to be pulled, he was looking at accountancy sheets. The print was large and bold, and very easy to read from my position. He was flipping the pages, reading about credit and debits and P&L before moving onto end of year. It was all so riveting just outside Stanmore he started to get the head bob.

You know the one, the I’m falling asleep and I have no control, one. I want to stay awake, but, I. Just. Can’t.

His black haired head was slowly swinging to the left, then jerking upward. Then back down again until his chin hit his chest, then back up again with a start. This went on for a few minutes and then his head came to a stop. Nestled against the shoulder of the man to his left.

I watched as Cat sang ‘The Boy with the Moons and Stars’ as the man slowly put his newspaper on his lap and with his index finger pushed the sleeping mans head into the upright position. The continued support meant he didn’t wake up. The finger was bent rapidly, taking it away from the man head, then the whole hand was slowly moved across its owners chest so as not to wake the sleeping neighbour. The sleeping man stayed like that for a moment, then despite his head already being upright, his head snapped back with such force his whole body spasmed, he stood up then sat back down again.

After resuming his set he looked around to make sure no one had seem him, then continued to read his school-work.

Concert

After my excess musical viewing (48 bands, 69 times) last year I have started this year slowly. I have yet to see any live music action. Tamworth was on the horizon, but I have to work, so no long weekend amongst hunky cowboys and slender drummers for me.

However, yesterday like a bolt of lightning I remembered I have tickets to see Rufus Wainwright soon, Tuesday night in fact.

Who could I take with me?

I racked my brain for people who may have heard of him. Then came the ‘who would appreciate him?’ I came up with a couple of people, I ennie, meenie minie moed, then sent an email. Then I read a few blogs while I waited for a reply.

Turns out the person I invited was already seeing him. But on Wednesday.

Now he’s seeing him twice!

It’s going to be awesome!

Sound Off, One Two Three!

Thanks to Syms Covington to the tip off about this video. It’s not my personal favourite The Basics song, but I thing the gang at CNET have done a great job and done it justice.

It’s Basically Madness

I had a bit of a The Basics frenzy last week.

On the Friday 26th October I saw them at The Spectrum on Oxford Street. They were supported by Jordie Lane and Crossed Eyed Mary. It was a packed house with many die-hard fans to encourage them to perform one of the best sets I’ve seen them do, ever. As usual the lighting was crappy so I got hardly any photos, but I have it all in my mind, indelibly marked from my front row centre vantage point. They rocked the joint!

Less than a week later on Thursday 1st November, I loaded the car up with Edna, June and myself and drove down to Wollongong to the Oxford Tavern. We walked in and it looked like a school canteen crossed with a bingo hall. The lights were on bright and the stage was tucked away on the far corner. We brought ourself drinks before planted our arses at the table near the front. The Saturns came on and warmed up the crowd of locals and the many groupies who had followed the lads form Sydney. One guy, clearly hammered asked where they were from, twice! They did a really good job and once again I was impressed with there set (I saw them at the Hopetoun, months ago). After a short break the The Basics took to the stage. Poor Wally looked knackered. His week had been hectic since his big award and his voice was suffering a little. But being the consummate professional this only affected the crowd by the absence of ‘Rattle My Chain’ and a slight change in pitch on one of the choruses. The local crowd took over the ‘mosh pit’ about five or six songs into the set and proceeded to behave like the cast of the Dawn of the Dead who’d run out of food.

Fast Forward twenty-four hours and the 2nd November saw Edna and I at Sounds in the Grounds. Sydney Uni had turned the Manning Centre into a mini festival venue for the night with eight bands playing on two floors. The Basics opened the downstairs set and managed to perform their short set very well despite sound issues and a fog machine that all but obliterated them from view. Also, I was confused and mildly disturbed by Kris’ bitching. It seemed to have stepped up a notch, but that may have been due to starting over an hour late, the overwhelming humidity or simply that his was pissed at something we weren’t party to. Regardless, the set was good. Meanwhile, The Tongue and bLuejuice played the top stage. bLuejuice rocked. A couple of hours, a few beers and much secondary reefer smoking later, Goyte (aka Wally, the drummer from The Basics) came onto the downstairs stage looking a little refreshed. He had with him his mini orchestra. I think everyone in the Manning had crowded into the area in front of the stage, the gallery that looked down from the canteen and every other vantage point. From my dodgy spot looking down onto the top of his head I enjoyed as he opened with my personal favourites ‘The Only Way’ and ‘Out Here in the Cold’ (or was it ‘What do you want?’). I felt my heart swell as everyone joined in with the chorus of ‘Hearts a Mess’ and realized I was standing amongst students, all at least twelve years younger than me and more than familiar with him music. Although I noticed they didn’t know the words to songs off ‘Boardface’ as well.

Anyway, all in all I saw The Basics three times in a week. It was an awesome treat that I’m sure will not be repeated for a while.

Awesome!

I happened to see V2 on Foxtel today and he was on. Singing his little heart out at the face of giant legged creatures on the moon in the video for 'Hearts a Mess' and then tonight, just now, I saw the 'Mixed Blood is number 9 in the most downloaded albums.

Go Wally, you deserve it, enjoy it.

He's a Winner

Holy Crap!...


Gotye won Best Male Artist at last night ARIAS, How good is that?

He beat John Butler Trio and got to stand next to Missy Higgins. Yee Ha!

PS. Pictures from the Arias website, go here for more.

UPDATE 11:11 - He was just on Channel 10 News Update and the pronounced his name correctly.

A Birthday Boys Adventure

Yesterday it was Todd’s birthday. He was five years off being 39 and his birthday treat was a trip to the theatre. More precisely it was a Darren Hayes concert.

The evening started with drinks in Roof Bar. I gave him his pressie (he loved the two books I had wrapped for him) while we drank champagne with strawberries. Dinner followed after we descended the single floor to Sky Phoenix Chinese restaurant. Rachel and Eve joined us for dinner and we feasted on chicken and sweetcorn soup, Peking duck, prawn sesame toasts, pork dim sims, Singapore style king prawns, Mongolian lamb, shredded beef and mixed veggies. We also polished off a couple of bottles unwooded chardonnay.

With only minutes to spare before the 8pm start we dashed the half block to the State theatre. The support band came on about three minutes after we had sat down. If you want the review, read the next entry, I’m reviewing our night here, not the bands. Anyway, we didn’t really want to see the support band so we all went out into the foyer and had another sparkling tipple or two. Just before Darren was due on, Eve and I convinced Todd that a true groupie/stalking would throw their pants onstage, so a quick trip to the Gents saw Todd pantless, but it fell to Eve and I to write his name and phone number on them with foundation. When the foundation hadn’t dried nearly thirty minutes later, I blotted it with my shirt…god I hope it comes out. Well, he couldn’t scrunch them up and throw them at Darren if they were all smudgy.

The concert was great. Lasers, moveable set and back up singers. The works!

Afterwards I collected a little of the paper that fell from the rafters as part of the finale, then Todd announced he was going backstage. We all looked at him in disbelief as he got up and walked towards the door marked ‘Authorised Personnel Only’, we quickly followed. He walked straight through; we said ‘we’re with him,’ and got through too. That’s where we stopped, but he just kept on going, bold as brass, past the wall of black transport cases before disappearing around the corner and out of sight.

The three of us stood like lemons in the corridor for about ten minutes before Eve said she had to go home and left, leaving Rachel and I standing there. Rachel had a mini breakdown at this point and started crying about how much she missed Todd and didn’t want him to leave etc. I consoled her until a guy asked,’Are you with the party?’

I wasn’t quick enough and said, ‘Nope, we’re waiting for a friend.’ D’oh! I must learn to fib quicker.

Having not heard from Todd after about fifteen minutes, Rachel and I decided to leave too. When we reached the top of the stairs, I looked at my mobile to see that I had missed three calls from Todd. At that point Rachel picked up a call from him saying ‘I’m in his room!’ before the call dropped.

We got back inside to be met by a rather giddy and very excited Todd. ‘I got kicked out!’ he shouted at us, but he was so happy about it. “I was one drink away from serving Darren Hayes!’

Further investigation (when he’d calmed down a bit) revealed that having got to DH room there was about 70 people in the room, but the bar was unmanned. So, being the resourceful old bastard that he is, he played bar tender. He served a lady who didn’t drink Merlot and spent ten minutes talking to Darren’s parents (his dad took two beers). He got rumbled just as Darren was about to be served.

When I asked why Darren was queuing for a drink at his own concert Todd replied,
‘Well, he’s not Madonna is he.’

Weekend Festivities

So I fitted most of what was on into one weekend. I did however, miss out on Supanova ‘cause I was too knackered form the day before. I stayed home and relaxed on Sunday with a little telly and some uni homework.

How many bands are too many to see in one day? This is the question I asked myself on Friday night when planning out my Saturday. I was off the Price Alfred Park and the Surry Hills Festival to see Watussi and bLuejuice before wandering up the road to the Hopetoun Hotel for the Slip into the Sun Festival. In total I had ten bands to see, eight of them I had never seen before.

Watussi played Jamaican influenced jazz that fitted perfectly with the sun, beer and outdoor style of the gig. I can imagine that at an indoor gig it would get annoying really quickly, but outdoors it was just chillin’ man.

bLuejuice came out to a very appreciative crowd wearing their trademark checked shirts, jeans and t-shirts and other random accessory. This time it was a leather face mask. They rocked the marquee and had a little help from a drunken audience member how insisted on getting onstage on three occasions. Finally, she was escorted from the premises just as the boys were finishing their sixty minute set.

After a quick walk up the road I arrived at a very quiet Hopetoun Hotel. There was the door Punk with attitude, the bar staff and a couple of others watching the first band of the day. It was broad daylight outside, being only four fifteen in the afternoon, and natural flooded the bar. It was actually quite pretty.

Dead Farmers was a three piece local band that played a classic Aussie rock set, loads of drum sounds and overbearing guitar. I can’t say I remember any lyrics, but that was because I couldn’t really hear the vocals.

Hand Me my Jet Pack the second three piece of the day. They had an odd mic set up. Rather than facing out to the audience they faced into toward each other, it gave the impression they were singing to each other and left little room for engagement with the audience. The drummer had impeccable comic timing, but that was ruined by the bands reliance of feedback, guitar shaking and tap tap of strings. Shame really because I would have liked to have heard ‘Our Cars Run on Maths’.

The Sky Falling was under prepared for their slot as three out of eight. The lead singer /guitar player had issues with both his six string and twelve string being out of tune as well as his singing. He was terrible. They didn’t even look like they played together. A mixture of jeans and t-shirts was highlighted by the good-looking guy dressed in head to toe ivory cotton wear (could have been hemp) with wooden beads around his neck. He looked like he was off to the ashram straight after the gig. Afterwards the lead singer said to me, ‘we’re normally better than that’, Punk with Attitude said, ‘No, they’re not.’

Skull Squadron looked the part and sounded better than any of the proceeding three. All three members were dressed in black, good, they looked they were together. They liked instrumental sections and there were plenty, heaps of waha’s and lots of kneeling resulting in pedal fiddling. Their songs all blended into one, but that may have been clever segues or just that they all sounded the same.

I didn’t like Sound like Sunset at all…it’s forty-five minutes of my life that I will never get back. All I could hear were the drums. I felt like Quasimodo and that’s never a good feeling to instil in your audience.

The place had filled up a bit.

Richard in Your Mind came on about 9pm. I had been watching bands since just after one. But this was a band I actually wanted to see. I’d seen back in June when I first saw bLuejuice and I wanted to see if they had changed. They had, they were even better than I remembered. With mixture of bird song, folky electro-pop and Indian soul they worked their way through their set. A strobe light lite up Richards Buddy Holy glasses very well and it was at that point that I realised every member of the band was wearing similar glasses. They were good.

Up next was Holy Soul. The lead singer was geeky looking but somehow it worked with the Pink Floyd crossed with Squeeze psychedelic sound. I’d had enough by this point and had stopped taking notes. I had decided to go with the flow and enjoy myself and the last two bands of the evening. The Punk with Attitude was having a time of it too, he’d been up since Friday morning and was hanging out til midnight for a couple of cans of Redbull before heading off to his second job, DJing at a club on Oxford Street.

The final band of the evening was Red Sun Band. They were good.

(844 words)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hinder with Small Mercies
Luna Park Big Top
4th October

In June I booked my tickets to see Hinder on my birthday. The fourth's my birthday you see, and I wanted to see a band that I liked on the day I officially became middle aged. So I thought a US rock band with a passion for foul language and a rather nice song about an affair was the way to go.

I arrived at Luna Park just after 7.30 with my mates, Small Mercies had just started playing. After I’d had my mints throw away by security (no food allowed, since when did mints make a meal?) and a bright orange band confirming that I was over 18 secured around my wrist I was allowed to go and watch and listen to the music.

Small Mercies, a band from Brisbane are travelling around Australia and making quite a name for themselves. With a deep guitar sound and a lead singer that can sing rather than relying on shouting, they had the audience captivated. They sang about being ‘Innocent’ and looked anything but. There was the guitarist in a black t-shirt and bleached hair tips, the drummer with longish hair dressed in jeans with a black t-shirt and the singer was of course, wearing khaki. The crowd loved them and I thought for one minute that they may even come back for a second go, but that just isn't done by the support. Shame really.

After a short break and quick change of instruments, the lights faded, everyone cheered, then the lights came back up again. Everyone booed! The house technicians having worked out how to use the lights, turned them down again and Hinder appeared on stage.

Something I have been noticing about gigs is the diversity in the audience. There are old girls, old boys with biker beards, young fellas wearing jeans showing a bit of butt crack and girls with blonde streaks dressed in more bling than Mr T. With a band like Hinder I would have expected black shirts and jeans, maybe the odd girlie on account of their flame burning Lips of an Angel hit. But this crowd was a diverse as it could get.

Lead singer Austin Winkler was wearing jeans and a waist coat with a beige scarf, his hair was hanging over his face and as he screamed ‘Hello Sydney’ he did a little jump and upsided the mic stand. Very Rock’n’roll. Through out the set he looked like he didn’t know what to do with his arms. He would put them up in the air, down by his sides and do the little teapot. He looked just like sixties Mick Jagger.

The guitarists Joe ‘Blower’ Garvey and Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden moved around the stage freely dancing with the crowd and Austin. The drummer, Cody Hanson, was of course, hidden at the back. They worked their way through their album starting with ‘How Long’, ‘Better than Me’ and ‘Homecoming Queen’ before playing a slower, acoustic new song. It sounded ok, but the sound in the Big Top, may be suited to dance parties a little better than rock gigs, I hardly heard a single spoken word unless it was shouted/and or a swear word.

You could clearly see the Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones influences in their performance, but that at no point diminished the overall effect. They had the audience in the palms of their hands for the duration. They threw the odd momento into the waving arms and played the whole of the Extreme Behaviour’ album. They saved ‘Get Stoned’ and ‘Lips of an Angel’ for the encore and closed on an up note. The audience called for a second encore, only to be disappointed. No doubt the band had already started celebrating Mark’s birthday backstage. Beers all-round!

Not so Happy Joy Joy

On Friday night, Edna and I went to the State Theatre to see Dead Man Walking. An opera based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean that has also been a movie with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

After trying to get rid of the spare tickets we had (two people committed to go but then pulled out without reimbursing Edna), we made our way into the theatre and managed to get ourselves seats in the front row of the dress circle. Sweet.

The opening scene was two youngsters canoodling on the stage in the buff, then being raped and murdered. It was harrowing, but then I suppose that’s was the point. The opera is about a murderer on death row and the nun that becomes attached to him and the parents of his victims. It ended as it started with the death, by lethal injection, of Joseph De Rocher, the murderer.

The whole thing was very well done, with the stage having three floors and the orchestra sitting on the floors in blue prison jump suits. There were film flashes of real events and real pictures. Edna was particularly impressed when Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Joseph De Rocher) managed twenty press-ups while singing. I was impressed by his abs.

Anyway, the whole was very good, but made for a less than happy joy joy evening. I went home a cried.

ARIA Awards

I know this is old news now (in some circles) but i have decided it needs to be shared with those hiding under rocks.

Gotye has been nominated for five, yes five Aria Awards!

Best Male Artist
Best Independent Release
Best Dance Release
Album of the Year
Best Album Artwork

Go Wally!