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Kottonmouth Kings, Sen Dog, Literaries
Soundwave 2009 - Steel Blue Oval, Bassendean
Southbound 2009 - Sir Stewart Bovell Park
Disturbed, Altered Bridge, Behind Crimson Eyes - Challenge Stadium
Funeral For A Friend, Bayside - Club Capitol
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Band/Festival: Kottonmouth Kings, Sen Dog, Literaries Venue: Prince Of Wales Location: Bunbury, WA (Australia) Date: 24/04/2008 By Jamie
The Prince was probably half full and the sweet, sweet smell of mary jane filled the air like the memories of high school parties. Pretty much went solo thanks to everyone pulling out but luckily found a couple of friends in the mix of bogans, wiggers and wanna-be tough nuts. Had a few Amsterdam’s before and too many ted’s which gave me a head spin, followed by a self induced spew of yellowy goodness when I got home. I got to stop doing that, drinking too much on weeknights is not fun anymore. Anyway, back to the weed: We’re standing outside the back area and joints are being passed from bogan to bogan. A bouncer comes out and announces to cut that shit out or the cops will end the night. Everyone cheers and yells at the bouncer. Hilarious.
Two rappers called The Literaries were playing when I arrived. I couldn’t find anything online about them and they weren’t listed as supports so it was a surprise to see how good they were. It was their first time here in Australia so I’m guessing Bunbury wasn’t exactly what they were expecting. In fact it would be safe to assume none of the nights performers expected the first stop to be in a small town held up in a shitty old hotel. Still, they all went off and played like it was any other gig.
Sen dog started his new album with the help of The Literarie’s but no one there has really heard any of it, the crowd was not into the music. How can you be when it’s all new, you’re jumping around with no idea where the beat is going. He stops with the universal cutting action to the throat and kicks off what is now one of the coolest concerts at the prince ever. The familiar beat to Insane in the Brain starts crankin’ Crowd is jumping; people are acting as black as possible. It’s followed by Hits from the Bong, Rock Superstar and several other hits from Cypress Hill’s awesome catalogue. I was right up front for it all about a meter away from them, how fucking cool for me. He’s surprisingly small too, thought he would have been a big nut. After his set I thought I’d better do the groupie thing since I will most likely never get another opportunity. So I walk up and give him what can only be described as the most white boy hand shake ever.
Satisfied with everything I only caught half of Kottonmouth Kings and bailed around 10:40 because I didn’t want to feel like shit at work the next day. Not that it would have mattered since I made a berrocca looking hamburger mix in the sink. If you look at the poster of the band you will see six guys in the group. From what I saw, only three contributed to the making of sound and the two other weird looking guys jumped around on stage doing a lot of strange shit.
I got a few vids of the night I’ll put up when my IT homies figure out how to fix some bugs with them.
Ratings time
I’m a bit torn with the score on this for several reasons. Firstly the event wasn’t a sell out, far from it, which meant the mosh was no where near full. Which also meant the crowd wasn’t reacting as well as expected. But, I was a meter away from Sen Dog, part of the hugely famous band Cypress Hill, and another kick ass international band the Kottonmouth Kings. Most likely never have another opportunity to be so close to these guys so half of me is saying fark yes 6/6!!!11 but paying $60 for a half empty venue and not the crowd support you would expect I would be going 2/6. So going halfway, even though to me it was fucking awesome I’ll give it a 4 /6.
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Band/Festival: Soundwave 2009 Venue: Steel Blue Oval, Bassendean Location: Perth, W.A. Date: 02/March/2009 By Nicco
With a broad range of acts and some odd band shenanigans, Soundwave this year was sure to go off!
First cab off the ranks was Less than Jake , who if you haven't heard of are kind of like ska/punk with a trumpet. They proceeded to arrange the crowd into one giant pit, using the giant rotary swing as a size to aim for. At starters the pit wasn't quite to their liking, to which the singer replied "that pit is smaller than my ex-wife's vagina". They put on a good show and played most of the classics, me and Janelle also managed to get a photo with one of the crew later
in the day.
From the main stage we travelled round the corner to one of the smallest stages to watch the awesomeness that is Bayside. Neither the size of the stage or the size of the crowd did them justice, but they still put on a hell of a show regardless. Bayside aren't exactly the best at crowd interaction but it's the music you go to see.
Forever the Sickest kids were up next, a band I hadn’t heard before butt seemed to sound alright. The highlights of their set were the various objects thrown on stage and the random crowd surfer who jumped up on stage with a huge sign that read something like "these guys suck".
I’ll take a break now to list a few of the weird characters that were seen during the day, these include.
- A 7 foot something behemoth with his hair in piggy tails, wearing a beater and a camel-back.
- Countless emo's and goths wearing black everything, huge boots with 100 buckles etc.
- A dude with the longest Mohawk I have ever seen ( this thing was like a 30-40cms in length)
- 2 lesbians making out, then yelling at each other, then making out again
- Various other crazy fuckers
At 3pm we jumped again from the main stage to a tiny corner stage to watch Rival Schools, who had been suggested by a fellow forum member. They tried their hardest, and I reckon they sounded pretty good, but the crowd just wasn't feeling it.
Now it was time to go see one of the headliners The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus who, from the sound of their album and the rise to fame, I had great expectations for. They come out on stage, the crowd went nuts, and (I can't remember if they played a song first) but the singer asks the crowd "do you wanna hear a song of the new album, or a cover" the crowd shouts cover, and they play some random ass song from another band no-one has heard of. After this the crowd is a little more settled and they break into one of their hits. Which the catalyst that created the worst act of the day. The guitar drowned out the singer, the singer kept screaming in parts that weren't right (i think he was off his face), infact nothing even sounded remotely good and about half the crowd started leaving half way through. I must add this is after they had appologised about cancelling a gig last year, what they're gonna make it up by sounding like shit and putting on a half assed, crap show? FUCK YOU Red Jumpsuit!
Thankfully the concert vibe was resurrected by another headliner, and one of the best sets of the day Bloodhound Gang. Now the thing that made their set extra awesome, wasn't the music (which was good) but the 2 frontmen, Jimmy Pop and Evil Jared who you may have seen on TV's Viva La Bam or various other MTV productions. At one stage Evil Jared ran through the tent and was on stage with Dillinger Escape Plan, still playing, abusing their crowd. Halfway through the set Evil Jared walked to the left of stage and came back with a jug of be, which he then proced to scull, yak back into the jug refilling it, then sculling the whole thing again...awesome. For the rest of the show at random moments, Jimmy Pop would get spew blown all over him, just because, and the show basically ended with Jimmy Pop standing on and amp, legs spread and Evil Jared yaking into his crotch, then into Jimmy's hat, which he put back on again. Just a bit of harmless fun.
The next stop was the furtherest back stage to watch Houston Calls, who were pretty good and because the crowd wasn't overly huge, we managed to get basically to the front. Now I hadn't heard much of these guys, but had been told they were a good band, and they held up that reputation. Got all the crowd going and sounded sic, evn though it was nearing the end of the day and everyone was knakered.
After that we moved across to what would be the last act we saw of the day Billy Talent. These guys are awesome, and although we only managed to see the last part of the set, you could tell they were going off.
And that pretty much sums up Soundwave 2009, was a day of many bands and many sunburned appendages.
I have to say that my memory sucks ass and some of what I have said may be complete bullshit, but I'm pretty sure it happened. Janelle (my co-writer/co-signer) will be adding more to this as we go, because her memory is a whole lot better than mine. I will be posting pictures soon.
I give this one 5/6
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Band/Festival: Southbound 2009 Venue: Sir Stewart Bovell Park Location: Busselton, Western Australia (Australia) Date: 02/01/2009 – 03/01/2009 By Ryanator
I will apologise in advance for this vague review. Not knowing 90% of the bands at Southbound 2009 led me to finding alternate means of entertainment during the festival. If you hadn’t guessed, I’m talking about alcohol. My memories of the festival are blurred at best thanks to the numerous cans of Heineken and Toohey’s Extra Dry, and the copious amounts of Red Bull and Vodka consumed. However, in my drunken haze I did manage to take down some notes throughout the two days. The following is taken from these notes. Enjoy!
DAY 1
We arrived at Sir Stewart Bovell Park around 3:30pm, meaning we had already missed a few bands. No big loss, as I didn’t know who they were anyway (with the exception of Pete Murray). We were expecting a fairly casual day, as the first day of last year’s festival was apparently quite laid back. Not this year, though! There were punters everywhere! This year was the first to have two full days of festivities, making the first day just as big as the second day.
bluejuice
First on the list for us to see was bluejuice. I must admit that I have never even heard of bluejuice before. Despite this, I found their live show to be pretty damn impressive. Their energy and enthusiasm throughout the set was amazing. They constantly encouraged the crowd’s participation while pulling off some of the most bizarre on-stage antics I have ever seen. The performance was only tarnished by a shirtless, drug-fucked, pimple-covered shithead dancing in front of us (but bluejuice can hardly be blamed for that).
Architecture in Helsinki
Next on the agenda were Architecture in Helsinki; a band I have heard of, but have never actually heard. I can’t say I was too impressed with their music. It just didn’t do anything for me. After the first song we decided to bail out and hit the bar.
Birds of Tokyo
After smashing down several drinks and a pizza, we were primed and ready for Birds of Tokyo. This was my first time seeing them live and, after all I had heard about their live show, expectations were high. It seemed that just about everyone else at the festival had also planned to see them play. We managed to get there fairly early so we were in a good position to see the show. As Birds of Tokyo began rolling out the songs the crowd appeared to get bigger and bigger. This is where things became very frustrating. Everyone wanted to be up front. Throughout the entire set, people were shoving past trying to get close to the stage. If you want to see a band from the front row, you should get there early. Don’t plough through everyone mid-set, then stand your big melon head in front of the people who made an effort to get there early, you assholes! Getting back to the review, Birds of Tokyo put on a solid show. I now see how they have garnered such a reputable status with their fans and the Australian music industry. I look forward to seeing them play again some time soon.
The Hives
The band I had waited all day to see. Unfortunately, by the time they hit the stage I was knackered and ready to head back to the unit for a few ice-cold brews. It had been a long day and the combination of sun and alcohol had quenched any desire to see more live music. We decided to stay for four songs. What we saw of The Hives was incredible. Their confidence and swagger throughout the performance outshined every other band that day. Looking back, I wish I had hardened up and stayed for the entire performance, as it is not every day that The Hives play in Busselton.
DAY 2
After waking up slightly hung-over and incredibly sore in the leg department, we got our festival gear on, fuelled up on hash browns, bacon and beer, and made way to Sir Stewart Bovell Park once again; this time arriving at about 10:30am.
Tame Impala
Tame Impala were first off the rank for us on day two. Their brand of psychedelic rock drew a fairly sizeable crowd. Like many, though, we opted to watch their set from the comfort of the bar area. It was too early in the day to be tolerating festival-goers with only a few beers under the belt. I can’t say which songs were played as, once again, I have heard of this band but have never actually heard any of their music. However, this didn’t stop me from enjoying their performance. I’ll be adding them to the list of bands that I must check out again soon.
Santogold
Prior to seeing Santogold play, I’d heard her name mentioned several times around the festival. It was no surprise then, with the hype she was receiving, that she would draw one of the biggest crowds of the festival. Unfortunately, the snowballing hype had led to some very high expectations. What did I think of Santogold? Rubbish. Before all you Santogold fans start sharpening your knives, though, remember: I am not a fan of this type of music. I’m sure there were many others who enjoyed her show; I was just not one of these people. We stayed only for a few songs and then slipped off to the bar.
Lykke Li
While standing at the bar, ordering another round of drinks, I was greeted with the sounds of Lykke Li. “Who the fuck is this?” I remember pondering sophisticatedly. I was caught completely off guard by her unique sound. Wandering back to my group of friends, drinks in hand, I discovered that Lykke Li had also caught their attention. We sat on the grass with a few other punters and watched the remainder of her set. It was a definite highlight of the festival for me, which even led to me buying her album, Youth Novels.
Cut Off Your Hands
New Zealand’s own Cut Off Your Hands were next in line. Another band I have never heard of and another band I watched from the bar. My notes describing their performance contained only a single word: “Awesome”. While I don’t remember seeing most of their set due to the many beers consumed, I do remember seeing vocalist Nick Johnston cutting sick at security for being too aggressive with their fans. It was an amusing sight to see, one that also made it into the papers a week later!
Atmosphere feat. Brother Ali
While I don’t listen to much hip hop, I was persuaded to see Atmosphere feat. Brother Ali by my cousin, Peter (who we all know as “Putter”). It was an impressive show that I’d rank in the top-end of the festival’s performances. I called Peter mid-set and left a live track on his voicemail to show my appreciation for his recommendation. How’s that for mad rhyming skills?
Tegan and Sara
Previous to Southbound 2009, I had heard a lot about Tegan and Sara from many different people. Unsurprisingly, I was keen to catch them while they were in town. We arrived just as their set begun. Sadly, my first impression of their music was not great. Luckily, it turned out to be sound troubles, not the music itself. After these initial problems were fixed, the set continued and the fans were happy. We stayed for four songs then headed off. Where did we go? You probably guessed it. To the bar!
Faker
I am not going to bullshit you; I have no recollection of seeing Faker at all. Moving on…
The Grates
After topping up at the bar once again and going on a few rides, we stumbled on to see The Grates. All I can say is that it was a bloody quirky performance. Good fun, though! There were blow-up palm trees and twisted ankles galore (courtesy of Patience Hodgson). Their energy and excitement was contagious and you couldn’t help but get drawn into their show. Unfortunately, their set overlapped with Franz Ferdinand’s set so we had to cut it short and head off to the next stage.
Franz Ferdinand
The final set for Southbound 2009. Franz Ferdinand have been a favourite band of mine for a long time now and the anticipation of seeing them live was killing me. We arrived at their stage just as the set was beginning and, surprisingly, managed to get a decent spot about mid-way to the stage. Franz Ferdinand hadn’t quite drawn the crowd I thought they would have. No big deal, though. If they had drawn a massive crowd I would have been stranded at the back with my dick in my hands and a sad face on. They kicked off the set with a few hits from their debut self-titled album and a few from their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, before throwing in some new material. After getting warmed up, they unleashed “Take Me Out”. It was amazing to see this song played live. Following the explosive build-up into the song, the crowd began chanting the lyrics so loudly you could barely hear front man Alex Kapranos singing. It was an awesome sight to see and an amazing moment to be part of. After seeing Franz Ferdinand play their biggest hit, I was satisfied that I’d seen enough and was ready to call it a day. We made way to the exit.
Taken as a whole, Southbound 2009 wasn’t a bad festival; it just wasn’t a great one, either. In all fairness, though, I had never heard of most of the bands before and admittedly, spent a little too much time holding up the bar. For now, I can’t say whether or not I’ll go to another Southbound. I guess it just depends on how many bands I know are playing and whether or not I’ve curbed my drinking ways.
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Band/Festival: Disturbed, Alter Bridge, Behind Crimson Eyes Venue: Challenge Stadium Location: Perth, Western Australia (Australia) Date: 29/08/2008 By Jamie
The morning the tickets were released the credit card was ripped out. Three tickets arrived several days later for myself and two good friends – the count down begins. Metro’s in Northbridge, Perth was the venue but obviously that venue can only hold a couple thousand, and this isn’t your local AC/DC covers band. It sold out fast as shit and due to demand it was moved to Challenge Stadium. This also meant pushing the date back another two weeks, shit balls, but at least we had the first run of tickets, the mosh tickets instead of the crappy seating where you couldn’t get anywhere near the stage. Still, it sucked having to wait a further two weeks after already counting down the days.
I booked the cheapest hotel I could find online that was close to the clubs and concert. No opening windows and no working air conditioner, two single beds bent like a spina bifida sufferer’s back and the catalyst for a good night: three loud retards. Well, two really, I prefer to think of myself as the most switched on out of the trio.
Behind Crimson Eyes, according to the internet was to start at eight. Getting there at 7:30pm they were almost finished. Congratulations for fucking that one up Ticketek. I have never heard of Altered Bridge before but it could have been the stadium, the adrenalin or the six-pack of Beam I had previously but they got the crowd pumped for the impending awesomeness. During much of this set we were in that semi-drunken state wondering around doing different stuff instead of watching the band. Like your mind is on autopilot with seeing Disturbed as the priority. This is my excuse anyway for not seeing or remembering much of them.
The atmosphere was insane, a sea of black shirts packed the stadium, everyone in the seated area is stamping on the wooden floor…BOOM…BOOM…BOOM….BOOM getting faster and faster until Disturbed busts out kicking seven layers of shit from our collective ears. You know when you see some bands and it just doesn’t seem right? Like the band has no energy or they’re not into it? Well this wasn’t, it was just like the albums, so much so you could swear they just cranked up a CD to LOUD AS FUCK. You could feel the energy, everyone going mental jumping. The pit was going off with a few hundred people sweaty as (no homo) getting thrown around.
This is the set list for the night I found on the net somewhere:
1. “Perfect Insanity”
2. “Liberate”
3. “Just Stop”
4. “Voices”
5. “Indestructible”
6. “Prayer”
7. “Land of Confusion”
8. “The Night”
9. “Deify”
10. “Rise”
I think it may have been here when they finished playing and went off stage before coming back for an encore.
11. “Stupify”
12. “Haunted”
13. “Ten Thousand Fists”
14. “The Game”
15. “Inside the Fire”
Before this was played the lead singer did a big speech about suicide. To the pale red head girl who was standing next to me at the time. FUCK YOU. I can tell by your blood curdling screams fucking my eardrums you have some sort of connection to this song’s content. I do not care. And I am sure anyone within 10m of you didn’t either.
I’m fairly sure this is where they left (most likely due to the cock holster above) and came back out for another encore.
16. “Stricken”
17. “Down with the Sickness”
We bailed fast as soon as it ended to get a taxi…
…An hour later we are walking back to the stadium to get a bus.
Drained of energy, clothes are saturated with sweat. The bus arrives in Subiaco train station. Another ten or so minutes on the train and drunken logic (read: tall buildings and the homeless) tells us we are near the hotel.
The hotel is a $10 taxi away, or a 15 minute parkour through the city (running around screaming, stacking it over the smallest obstacle and scaring jeebus out of passers by). The hotel never looked so inviting; Beam and coke sitting in a bath tub of ice ended any talk of calling it a night.
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Band/Festival: Funeral For A Friend, Bayside Venue: Club Capitol Location: Perth, Western Australia (Australia) Date: 11/09/2007 By Ryanator
More than a year has passed since I attended this concert yet I still think it is deserving of a review. Better late than never I guess! Being a huge fan of Funeral For A Friend (despite their release of the lacklustre Tales Don’t Tell Themselves), I had promised myself that the next time they came to Perth I would make the trip to see them live. At the same time I also promised to see Bayside if they ever toured Australia. Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were touring together! After a last-minute change of venue, the gig was played at Club Capitol. While it wasn’t quite a sell-out crowd, there were still a large number of fans packing the room. Looking around I had the feeling not too many people had heard of Bayside before. There were a lot of Funeral For A Friend shirts getting around and very few people flying the Bayside flag. This would change after tonight’s performance though. Bayside were first to take the stage. They opened the set with “Masterpiece”, one of the band’s most recognised songs in their ever-growing catalogue. Anthony Raneri’s voice sounded outstanding live, exactly how he sounds on a Bayside studio release. Regardless of looking slightly intoxicated, Jack O’Shea’s lead guitar work was flawless, throwing his guitar around charismatically without missing a single chord. The definite highlight of the set (and even the night) was “They’re Not Horses, They’re Unicorns”. The powerful guitar riffs and thumping drums created a sense of madness in the crowd and a huge mosh pit broke out. The only flaw in Bayside’s set was that it finished all too soon. After closing with the brilliant “Devotion And Desire” I was left wanting to hear more. Bayside should consider headlining a tour in Australia some time soon. I’m sure everyone who saw them play that night would agree. It was time for Funeral For A Friend to hit the stage. The crowd were already packed shoulder-to-shoulder, waiting in anticipation as the band members geared up. From the first guitar strum, the first drum beat, the first scream, bodies began ricocheting off each other creating a sea of havoc. Barely one song into the set a man was pulled from the crowd with a split head, blood running down his tired face. It had been a long time since I’d been to a concert with such manic fans. Funeral For A Friend played a good variety of songs that spanned over their whole musical career. At the time, their most recent release was Tales Don’t Tell Themselves. Not being a fan of this album, I was worried that it would fill most of the set. Luckily it didn’t. Seeing one of my all-time favourite songs, “Juneau”, played live was an incredible experience. Funeral For A Friend have clearly spent a lot of time on the road, crafting the delivery of their live show on a vast range of audiences. Front man Matt Davies looked to be at ease as he interacted with the crowd and encouraged their participation with the vocals. This kind of crowd involvement can really elevate a live performance to another level. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the entire set. Because of the venue change, I had to leave early to catch the final train to Fremantle, where my accommodation had been booked. On the midnight train ride back to Freo, all I could think about was the carnage that was more than likely happening inside Club Capitol as Funeral For A Friend belted out “The Art Of American Football”. I may not have gotten to see the entire set but what I did see was amazing. Both bands, with their live performances that night, justified their positions on my list of favourite bands.
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