How Was the Gig: a live music podcast
In every episode we break down the latest live gigs we’ve experienced. Tune in and relive the music with us! Sharing the vibes from Naarm/Melbourne.
How Was the Gig: a live music podcast
2024 wrap up: including Nick Cave solo, Chemical Brothers, Floodlights, Playlunch, Teen Jesus, Cash Savage, Haiku Hands AND MORE
From fresh finds like Floodlights and Haiku Hands to faves like Cash Savage and Nick Cave. Epic tunes, failed stage dives, scandalous festivals, and plenty of bogan funk!
Mandy (00:04)
Hey, welcome to How was the gig? Where Andy and I talk about the latest live music gig we've been to this time. It's a bit different. Well, let's do a wrap up of the year. There's a whole bunch of gigs that we didn't cover in our previous episodes. So what do reckon Andy? Yeah, a wrap up of the whole year. but you know, looking at the year though, I think that, I think we saw, I saw the floodlights three times and I saw cash savage three times.
So, and you only saw floodlights twice. Yeah. I guess overall cash salvage is the standout of the year for me, but you know, best moment. I'm not sure. What about you? What's a floodlights where my standout find that when my standout find that were a lot of fun, but they did this year. saw, I read on their, on their feed.
52? Yeah, 52 for the year and they released two songs and they had all their gear stolen. It'll probably come back. think musicians are pretty small circle. I don't know. Oh, I hope so. Yeah, that was a bummer. But yeah, floodlights definitely my highlight because I discovered them this year and then when I saw them live, we went to the forum and we didn't have this podcast at the time and I'm
But yeah, we saw them at the forum upstairs and it was this sit-down venue and I was really shocked. I was like, are they a sit-down band? Uh-oh. But they rocked out. I've got a little bit of footage. We got on the stage. The stage was so easily accessible. It's just one step up and we were all on the stage. They acknowledged that it was a weird sit-down vibe. And I was like, I don't know if this seating thing is going to work. But by the end of it, I was like, my God, I love this band so much.
And then I saw them at Northcote theater. You weren't there at Northcote yeah, you saw them three times. Yeah. Okay. Wait on, how did we see them three times? I just saw them at Forum in Northcote. have I only seen them twice? thought I saw three times. Yeah, maybe only twice then. I saw them at the ability festival. Yeah. So that one at the Forum, it was such an interesting gig. The warmup, the support act was just so trippy.
Her name was Nuu N-U and it was just her sitting down with her laptop and this amazing angelic voice and I think she described it as a live coding session and the backdrop was her computer screen. It was a coding video of some kind and yeah it was trippy and I did not expect Nuu. Walking into that
And then they had this, this crazy thing. People used to go get drinks all the time. Everyone's sitting down and they're walking in front of the stage constantly. It was so annoying. And it just came across as really disrespectful to the band because it's more like a theater setting. You know what mean? But then people are like, well, I'm seeing a band. I want a drink. So I'm not criticizing anyone. was just a really bad layup. And then they had that guy says, can we stand up? And then he's like, yeah, okay. Later you can stand up or you can come down the front and dance. And it was just, yeah.
Yeah, that guy was the catalyst. And then once we got permission, we were like, cool, let's do this. But then when they were playing a quiet song, they said, you can sit down now. Yeah. Well, that was like, yeah, it was good. It was okay. But you know, at the band, look, he's the shy front man, I guess. He didn't control the audience. We had to kind of ask, somebody had to ask him, what do we do? That's a good, that's a good point.
Yeah, they are great. I did, was, upset on the ability festival. They were on so early in the day, but I guess I haven't got the following that, other bands did at the ability festival, but you know, they are on like second, I think, which is crazy. You know, people are just wandering in and it was pretty empty and I was front row rocking up one minute before they started. So anyway, yeah, that was great.
Yeah, I think there was a difference in the audience between the Forum gig and the Northcote Theatre gig. It felt like a much younger audience at Northcote Theatre. I think they're hopefully the next festival, I doubt we'll see them play the Devonshire Tea crowd. The floodlights are great and hopefully they'll be the next killers.
Oh, is this a segue? No, think, you know, rock and roll. But I always mentioned the floodlights whenever someone like my mum was talking the other day about, you know, the music nowadays, not as good as it was back in the day. I said, yeah, you know what? It's, it is. You've just got to find, you know, you're looking for, I understand commercial stuff is on the radio is not great compared to, but yeah, if you want to find good rock bands.
You got to hunt, you got to hunt for them because there's a lot of stuff out there and there's a lot of good stuff that just gets completely swallowed up by, you know, just gets completely missed unless you look hard for it. Yeah. And how I found them was I got an email, I think maybe from the, I'm on the forum, whatever. And I thought, I'll just Google, I'll just listen to one of their songs on Apple music or whatever. And I listened to paintings of my time.
And I was like, shit, this is good. And it's so hard. think sometimes it's so hard to get into new music straight away. maybe it's when you're of a certain age, but I'm at that age when nearly everything just sounds. It's hard to grab my attention, I guess. And when I saw them live and they've got so much energy, that lead has so much energy on stage. I feel like he uses like he's he's the way he's stomping to the music and his guitar.
as an axe, I feel like sometimes or, you know, and, Ash, is it the bass guitarist? I don't know who's bass and who isn't usually, but, and how she stayed, she crowd surfed in Northgate theater and stuff. was like, when I saw them live, I was like, they are everything I dreamed of from a live band. I'm so glad they lived up to it. Yeah. and when we got off,
got up on stage at that first gig in the forum. I was standing next to Ash and she was playing her guitar at one point and she was like, you know, just leaning back into me a bit, like doing a move. And I was like, what do I do here? Do I, am I meant to be called back? Quickly realized, no, do not be an idiot right now. So that's my highlight floodlights. Is that your highlight of the year?
that's a good question. It's my discovery of the year. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it definitely is. No, I really liked them. So Amel was last year, so I can't include her performance. You can have a top five. Yeah. So if anything, would say as far as performance wise, floodlights and then hike your hands. I think I really liked them as performers. Maybe I wouldn't listen to their music in the car.
But as far as seeing them live and listening and just watching their performance, I thought it was great. It was just like, wow, I've never seen this band. They're really engaging. And it just like blew me away. Yeah. You know what I liken them to? I think I've tried to explain this before, but I liken them to like the Instagram versus the TikTok generation. Because now that we're on TikTok, I can see how overstimulating TikTok is.
and how it throws so many things at you from different angles. And there's so many flashing things and noises and it feels a little bit frenetic and you there's something happening on every inch of the screen. I don't know how to explain it, but it's so frenetic and crazy. And that reminded me of Haiku hands because there's so much energy. There's so much happening. They've got different face masks. They're dancing. Everyone's dancing differently. It's not, it's not like a
a Taylor Swift or Beyonce dance session where everyone's perfect and they're dressed perfect and that's what I call the Instagram generation when everyone had to have the right dance moves in the right, what's it called? everything's synced. Yeah, Yeah, when everything's in sync. I mean...
I say all that, but the Beastie Boys were the same kind of dancing around and jumping with all the members doing different moves and all the members singing or rapping more like rapping different lyrics. And that's exactly what Haiku Hands does. They are the modern Aussie Beastie Boys. and the Beastie Boys have nothing like, they're not the TikTok generation that I keep harping on about. So maybe I'm just talking out of my ass, you know, but.
Yeah, they just, saw them at miscellanea as well. Tiny little venue in Melbourne, upstairs on Swanson street. And it was so much fun. It was just so crazy. And I didn't get to do, we didn't get to do an episode on it. But yeah, they, yeah, it was, it was just so much fun. There were a lot of streamers thrown into the audience. Heaps, heaps of streamers, streamers, streamers. The crowd was.
Like a university student crowd, like an arts crowd, young arts crowd, but there were some Gen X's there, probably from the presets. Yeah, it was pumping and they used every single inch of that stage. They were jumping around. They jumped into the audience. Like we saw them do at the presets. They were just more hardcore because everyone knew their lyrics this time. People knew the words. And then I started listening to them in the car as we do. Just not the same.
Yeah. are. You know, some movies are like, have to see this in the cinema and some bands are like, you have to see them live. This is a band you have to see live. Yeah, it's true. Their music is not stand out as far as that genre goes. But live, they're amazing. And they've been around, I think they've been around before TikTok, yeah? They've been around for about five years or something. I don't know how old TikTok is, but that's a good point. I think they...
we're just kind of gaining some momentum before COVID. okay. Yeah. I'm not sure when TikTok came around, but it's not that old. The other one that I would say standout would be the Playlunge Night. And there were three bands, but I like the amount of brass that they had in them because we just haven't seen any brass in any bands that we've seen this year, really. I can't think of any.
And on that night, everyone seemed to have a saxophone or a trumpet on stage. So definitely Play Lunch were awesome with their brass section, trumpet and sax. yeah, they were cool. I have been listening a little bit of them in the car as well. So, but yeah, that'd be another standout for me if I was going to just say something, I wish, TikTok is 2016. So that sounds really old.
But it was called Musically before that, which is what I remember. You knew it as that? Yeah, Musically had a little controversy, yeah. And that's what Musically was. Basically what we call TikTok now, you would just do a dance on Musically and then they changed, they pivoted. So the first gig we went to this year was Cash Savage solo gig. That was at the gasometer in Collingwood.
What did you think of that gig? Yeah, that was a good gig. I liked it. The standout performance was that couple in front of us just like completely oblivious to the fact that there was a concert going on and thinking this was like, you know, a good background for their for their date. Yeah, they were making out and they were all over each other. God, it was like, what the hell? I just wonder where the cash savage noticed any of this crap going on.
They were right next to me. Yeah. It was bizarre, That's actually what I remember from that gig, unfortunately, as well as the amazing special guests that she had. But the standout was Kutcher Edwards, and it was an outstanding performance, very moving, haunting even. And I recommend if you, I recommend if you look him up to look up some music in interviews with him. He's...
Aboriginal Australian and has some very interesting things to say. And he sings about really important issues. Yeah, that was good. That was good. And it was powerful. You could hear a pin drop, which is what made that couple even more distracting. And but this is the thing with gigs and crowd etiquette. There's always something weird going on in the crowd. But yeah, at one point,
think it was like an emotional song and the woman put her arm around me. Oh, was that that one? She rubbed my back. Yeah. And I was like, because it was an emotional song. So I don't know if that was high. And I was like, I'm good. Don't do that. But I couldn't be loud. Like usually I'm very clear.
and use more direct words, but because you could hear a pin drop, was like, no thanks. I'm good. Nope. Plus afterwards, I also remember how Cash was signing and she was at the merch desk and my friend was just bought so much merch, the albums, the hat, which you have to do when you see local, you have to buy at least a t-shirt. Yeah, we were just piled with merch and we went up to Cash Savage to get some, I got some photos of my friend with her and
She was fantastic. She was so lovely about it all. She was laughing with us about how we were piled up with merch. then you got a shout out wearing that t-shirt and another Cash Savage in Frankston, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's on our Cash Savage episode. Yeah, so there you go. People of episodes back. It's important to wear your t-shirt. And then the next one I saw was Chemical Brothers.
yeah. That was besides Amal and the Sniffers, this was the loudest gig I've been to. I did not wear my earplugs for Amal and the Sniffers. I had my earplugs, God, for Chemical Brothers, but afterwards the guy next to me said my t-shirt was moving from the, how loud it was. my God, that's uncomfortable. And people were actually covering their ears.
But because it was so there, but that was amazing. Recommend chemical brothers. The highlights were like mad as hell. Got to keep on. Here are some clips of the amazing graphics they had on the big screen.
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when where I saw the presets. The presets were supporting Chemical Brothers with and they did a DJ set and the highlights of course which I mean they're all samples right? Of course they have their own songs which are amazing but they did sample Great Southernland.
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They sampled Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit.
and also Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name of. And they were, it was wild to be up the front during that. That was really good fun. And then we saw them again, presets later this year.
You know what?
I know we're not getting into low lights right now, but the presets I was, I had my, had a higher expectations, but that's, I know that's just a personal preference. I guess I like rock and roll more than electronica. Yeah. Yeah. The presets. Yeah. Well, that's what we saw Haiku hands though. So, you know, it was worth seeing it for that. Yeah. And they did their song Martini, the presets only once, not twice. Yeah.
Which we've covered in our presets episode. did. And that crazy guy coming up, we're going, who is this asshole? And he's like, turn it up. We can't hear up the back. hang on. Hey, this guy's got a point here. Apparently they couldn't hear up the back. It wasn't even loud enough to hear. It was the opposite of the Chemical Brothers. Yeah. That sounds uncomfortable. Cause I know that, you know, you can get your hearing permanently damaged at concerts like that. Yeah. And if you're a young kid who doesn't know this kind of stuff.
and you go along with no earplugs. It's crazy to think you have to have earplugs for concerts sometimes, yeah. You have to actually stop the noise that they're trying to produce. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Were you just near the speaker by accident or what? How far back were you? Well, it's a big stage. It's big outdoor venue, but I was up the front.
I went up the back for the last couple of songs when my friends were, and it was up the back where people were actually holding their hands. yeah. Multiple people in the audience. was that loud. I think it progressively got louder. It wasn't like that from the start, but I've never seen that before where people are covering their ears. my God. That's terrible. I couldn't do anything. I noticed someone had their kid with the big earmuffs on it. Yeah. yeah. They were being responsible, I guess.
That's all I think it's really cute when you see the kids with the giant earmuffs. but yeah, when we saw Amal and the Sniffers last year, it was extremely loud, not as loud, I don't think as Ken Brothers, and I forgot my earplugs. And I was like, I have to have something in my bag that I can put in my ear. My ears, just something, anything. Cause we were up near the speaker.
And I grabbed, I had an elastic band, a rubber band in my bag, so I rolled it up and I put it in my ear that was closest to the speaker and that's how I got through. But I remember thinking, damn, and then after the show when we were waiting out the front, this guy drives past in his car.
And he, and he's hanging out his car and he yells at us. I'm deaf. can't hear anything. It was so loud. can't hear anything. It was like that. we're like, yeah. It's true. so after chemical brothers, guess where we went? pandemonium. Yes. Pandemonium festival. That was a weird one. Yeah, that was, so the highlight of that, I dunno, I think.
I guess the surprise would be is a Wheatus. Yeah. Teenage dirtbags. is another band that sounds very similar. So he was good. I thought, I thought it was really good. Quite engaging. Good singer. Good, concert. but then I was surprised at how good Alice Cooper was. kept on like, let's go. Let's go. And it's like, hang on. This is pretty good. Let's go for one more song. Yeah, that's pretty good. It puts on quite a show. It's a crazy show. Alice Cooper. Yeah.
Cause you were like, I can't go. He's brought out a straight jacket. Yeah.
head chopped off and this renaissance looking, this renaissance looking chick was like carrying his head all over the stage, holding it up high. There was a snake at one point, of course, Alice Cooper and snakes. was a set of stairs and this weird like 15 foot high puppet. He knows how to put on a show, but there was the backdrop of disappointment of seeing, not seeing the bands that we wanted to see.
that were cancelled. Did you ever get your money back for that? What the hell? Yeah, it's so controversial. yeah, this festival and this was the show that we went to was the first of this festival, which was touring around Australia. And I didn't know how the crowd was going to be because there was so many disappointments among us. So many like the lineup was cut in half, basically. And
We weren't getting our money back and we, you know, whatever. but huge names that were on the night we went Blondie, which was a highlight, Weedus, Alice Cooper, they're big names. And I don't think that, I think it was a tough crowd. I think it was a tough crowd cause we all felt a little bit of disappointment. We all didn't know if this was even going to happen. The communication before the event was so poor. We were relying on.
statements that Alice Cooper and Blondie put out on their Instagram page, which if you don't follow them on socials, I don't even know if an email was sent out. When I was like, this is going to be worth it to see Teenage Dirtbag though. I just wanted to see it live and I wanted to see the audience go nuts. And I really don't think that audience went nuts. Not as nuts as they should have.
said I got tickets to Iron Miaden
Friday don't say maybe, a teenage dirtbag baby like you.
just think there was a bit of a mood over the crowd. Yeah, I think so. But I really wanted to see Placebo and then I read this Reddit post and someone said, what's the worst gig you've ever seen? And someone said Placebo was the worst gig I've ever seen. He didn't care or whatever. He didn't want to be there. And I'm like, oh, OK, so maybe I didn't miss anything else. So I don't know. But it was interesting and it super dark, of course, the gig. we've kind of gone through bit on a podcast.
But yeah, guess, yeah, that would be a bit of a low light, think. Not getting the refund was a low light. Hang on. Did you get, didn't you go for merch instead of refund? No, I didn't go for merch. okay. Yeah, you didn't get a refund. Well, that's, yeah, that's, but some people got refunds. I think some people complained to their banks. They might've got refunds that way or have they actually got refunds? I don't know. I have no idea.
I'm not following that thing anymore. Yeah. Alice Cooper was also a highlight for me for that. I just had no idea. And a lot of Alice Cooper fans there. You know, the good thing about that pandemonium festival was that you could get up the front, getting up the front, easily walk your way up the front for like to see blondie. and the psychedelic furs. yeah. They were on. They were so good. Yeah, they were good.
And for Weedus, remember when the psychedelic furs came out and we went from Weedus to psychedelic furs. And look, Weedus was great. They were, you know, he had a lot of energy. He was wearing glasses and he had a strap around his head. So I knew that he was going to rock it out. when the psychedelic furs came on, it was that sense of wearing good hands here.
The professionals have stepped out. It's going to be great. And I've never really heard of them much or anything, but it was just like, yeah. And he still moved exactly the same way he did when they were hit their peak. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. But hardly any lighting and hardly any security. Like, and you just walked in. You, you, you found a VIP wristband. Yeah. And the, the people at
the gates saw you pick it up, saw it fall down from their table. So you pick it up, put it on and they were like meh and you're like, oh, and they just let us through. was the biggest scam though. was nothing in there. would, I would be like a minute. So I came back again, like, what's the point of the VIP area? Yeah. It was just like $600 tickets or something. was to be a platform.
You know, where you can see blood, no, nothing, nothing was done. So I just had that backdrop of a scam. And then the ability festival, I guess would be a highlight for me because it was so cheap and there was so many good acts. was insane. It was just crazy how many good acts there were. And they looked after you. said. Yeah, they had raised platforms. Yeah, there's always, there's people walking around everywhere. You want some candy, you want some, you want some drink, you want some sunscreen. What do want?
What do you want, man? just want to just, just enjoy the band. and yeah, and they had a silent disco and DJ area. Yeah. And I just saw so many bands that pop up on every music festival that I see around Australia now. so it was a good showcase of, of all those kinds of festival bands that they're pretty big, but they're not huge. So, but yeah, but it was a long day.
It was a long day. I want a bed for a little bit. Can I have a bed and I'll lie down for half an hour? Maybe they'll bring them next year. Go on, what's next? Nick Cave. We saw Nick Cave's solo show.
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I'm vibro-
me now
I'm a big Nick Cave fan. I'm a bit over him to be honest. But since I was 16, huge Nick Cave fan, seen him live, I don't know, 20 times or whatever. And I'm just gonna sound old for a minute. The first time I saw him live, I rocked up on the night in Sydney at the Horton Pavilion and I paid 60 bucks to go see him. It's just impossible now. It's just unheard of. You cannot rock up on the night.
To any kind of gig and you know and get tickets at the box office I don't know and for $60 so we saw Nick cave. It was a solo gig I don't think I'm a solo kind of a person He did say you know this he did kind of introduce and say you know I won't be jumping around I won't be you know in the audience's face. This is a solo gig, and it was a sit-down thing and Yeah, it was so formal that gig mmm sit down
theater clap after the songs. So, uh, there was a bit of, know, it was interesting. did a bit of audience participation stuff. Maybe that's a low light. Do you think Nick Cave could ever be a light? He was so far away. It was. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a really formal, it almost feels like a corporate venue. I mean, it's massive. So yeah, not as exciting. I mean, as opposed to
cash savage doing a solo gig in a small venue which was really cool, really close. But I don't know, Nick Abe didn't have to pay the bad seeds, gets lots of money. Charges the same. Charges the same, exactly. I mean like why wouldn't you do solo shows? You know, Jimmy Barnes is doing them as well I think. You know, so, same fortune. Yeah, that was a forgettable gig. It was a bit forgettable. Yeah, I totally forgot I went to it.
Yeah, I guess we... that's not our thing. We love energy. Yeah. And where it is at its peak is the small gigs with unknown bands. They're the most like, hey man, I've got to... I'm trying to make it here. Like I'm going to go for it. You know? Yeah. Yeah, because I think that... I think these small up-and-coming bands have to rely on their live performances now to get popular.
Now it's through social media. It's not through buying albums. It'll be through social media and festivals and things like that. So you have to make a thing of it as a live performance. Yeah, absolutely. And then after Nick Cave, we saw a little, a little local. Sorry for laughing. It's just that someone, I just remember that from this gig, someone stage diving at the end and no one catching them.
they were okay. They gave the thumbs up and they were walking around, but yeah, we saw the Terry's at Frankston. yeah. The Terry's. Yeah, they were cool. They were cool. And they were supported by Le Chiv. They were also cool. Very bright. were also cool. Yeah. I still follow them. now they're both good. I liked their music. Yeah, their style. was really cool. I got to be honest. I don't listen. I was, I don't listen to the Terry's or Le Chiv, but I was at that.
gig observing and thinking this is wild. What has Andy taken me to? What are all these people doing on, what are all these band members doing on stage? Some of them weren't doing anything except vaping. was crazy. Yeah. I like their music, you know.
I definitely see them again. Okay. Yeah. Like again, those small bands, they just, yeah, that was pretty trippy though. It was on at the Peli bar as well, which is small venues. Small. Yeah. It holds 250. I'm not sure if it was sold out. Yeah. Like Play Lunch as well. You know, they did that small venue too, which is a pity because they're a big band. I guess they can't sell out the
the bigger room next door. cause I would have filled that stage really nicely. They were packed on stage. Yeah. They were just like the brass section was like here and the guitars and. Yeah. I think there's about seven people. Well, the Terry's had heaps of people as well, but I noted between the Terry's where someone kept trying to go on stage at the Terry's and the audience member kept trying to go on stage. And one of the band members was like, I don't even know if he was a band member. He's just kind of walking around.
I was like, no, you can't. mean, he's part of the band, but he's not playing any instruments. It's like, no, get off the stage. And then he'd try again and some kind of security or someone in the audience would pull him down and be like, And eventually he did make his way on stage and just out of nowhere, no warning. He just jumped into the audience, which isn't.
This stage is small, right? Like maybe two feet off the ground. the roof is small. And he just, he just fell. didn't see how he landed, but he just fell and he got up again, gave the thumbs up. But I noticed when we saw Playline chat, the Pali bar, they had a barrier. You couldn't get on the stage. So I wondered if that's what changed. But also at the Terry's, they, someone that were handing around a vape.
So someone gave them a bank in the audience. And they were just passing it around. It was just like, well, who is this guy? It's just like, I never knew any of you would walk up to the microphone and do the backups, know, back up like this. And there was one song where some of the band were just sitting down together at the back of the stage scrolling through their phones. But then Playlounge was so hot, you know, as it's just like...
You know, you want to talk about that gig. That was ridiculous. I don't know what happened with their icon in that venue, but, yeah, that's sort of hot. Yeah. was actually the room was too warm. So who was after the Terry's? Hey, one of your kind of, highlights, think teen Jesus, you called out that you called out that they were going to be big. They were great. Teen Jesus. We saw them in Frankston again at the pier hotels. So it's the larger stage.
next to the Pally. Yeah, 10 days were awesome and they supported Pall Jam and like as well. You missed them. Um but yeah, the the front girl in that is fantastic. She's a she's great and she can really sing. Um yeah, they're they're big and they've got they've got one pretty big song. So and they acknowledge that but you know, they could go on to something, you know, something good and they, know, when you discuss the Instagram versus TikTok.
...that of They're in the TikTok kind of people, kind of. They're new. They're new fad. But yeah, I love them. They were fantastic. Yeah, I felt like I was seeing a band who's new, who's green. I think this was their first stop on their tour as well, Frankston. And... I felt like these people are going to grow into something amazing... ...'cause the lead is so good. Yeah. And she was so engaging. Even after the show she recognised...
big fans in the audience and she went up and spoke to them after the show from the stage gave one of the girls a set list one of the girls who knew all the lyrics and was super excited to be there. They seem like really nice bunch of chicks. It's great to see another all chick rock band and they were supporting some other band that night who I've completely forgotten. I don't think we stayed for the other band.
I can't remember. Her name is Anna Ryan, by the way. So that would good. Yeah. That, one of my highlights for sure. I'd see them again. And you picked it. You were like, they're going to be the next Tamil and the Sniffers. I don't think we'll see him at Frankston again. Yeah. Well, hopefully, but yeah, we probably will. I don't know. Like I remember when DMA was huge. DMAs, you know, that band, they sing silver and then they played Frankston not long ago. So maybe it just goes around. They get a, they get a few bad albums or something and then they come back.
Hey, we're back. I said, do the regional tour of Frankston's always on there. But yeah, like I said, yeah, I hope they don't come back because that means they're successful. But I, I don't think Amel and Snifflis will ever come back. I don't see that happening. I think they're more, at least the forum size from now on. You know, as far as venues go. So after that, after Teen Jesus, we saw Empire of the Sun. Yeah, okay. Empire of the Sun. Big production.
Yeah, forgettable gig for me, but yeah, what'd think? I was just really surprised at the huge production that they put on. You know, it was fine. I'm not a huge fan, so maybe that was the issue. And I kind of only knew three or four songs. It was fine. What made it was these giant things on stage. There was so much to look at. The dancing was weird.
Yeah, it was pretty cool. I was kind of getting a bit of shock when he came out because I didn't I wasn't following the band and then I realized where's the other guy, you know? Yeah, and he wasn't there and apparently he's not coming out. I'm like, next song is gonna come out and everyone's gonna go crazy. But I didn't realize that he had gone. And so it's basically just a front man. It's just one guy. Yeah.
I thought it was interesting because the one thing about this band that I remember that kind of stands out, which is not a nice thing to stand out, I guess, is that they kind of got in trouble in the media about appropriation, cultural appropriation. this, all, everything, their costumes, the video, DJing stuff was all heavily, heavily influenced by Japanese culture. So I don't know if that matters, but I thought that was interesting.
Yeah, that's right. did write up a paper about that. I didn't think that meant anything. You know, I don't know. Next up was the Ability Festival, which you've spoken a bit about. that was awesome. Just had good, bands. Just the whole day. You didn't have to worry about losing your spot because there seemed to be enough room for everyone. And it was just a, yeah, it's just a great day. And your highlight, you mentioned a few times, Sunshine and the Disco. Yeah.
And we're seeing them coming up in about a week. Yeah. Philip Island. sounds. Anyway, yes. Ability festival. After that, I saw the floodlights again at Northcote. that's right. Yep. And they were great. Yeah. Yes. It was really good. I mean, I definitely prefer the forum. It was different to that upstairs at the forum. The crowd was younger. Big deal. That's not why it felt different. Just the venue was different.
and you couldn't get as close to the stage as we could at the forum. But you know, Ash did do the crowd surf moment during paintings of our time. There was a lot of friendly moshing going on. think we have, I think that was the first post that I put up on our Instagram page was about that. I'm gonna put up another post. I'm gonna put up a reel about them because I love them so much. Yeah, love that. Not a huge fan of...
Northgate Theatre it's because it's such a huge flat space. I like the forum downstairs because it's tiered. Yeah okay. Yeah yeah so the huge flat space is hard to see. Yeah okay yeah good point. So what's after that what's the next one? Cold Chisel with Tex Perkins and Birds of Tokyo. Yeah that was cool man seeing Cold Chisel.
Yeah. Iconic, iconic band, lots of huge hits. Tex Perkins, I know you love him. Pretty cool, wore sunglasses the whole time.
Birds of Tokyo who we're gonna see at Ocean Sound. Yeah, yeah, they were okay, you know, I was a bit like, I gotta see them again. It'll be good to see them again.
We'll know more songs this time. He is a good front man for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Cold chisel. That was great. It a great concert. We cover that. We cover all of them in our cold chisel. I was surprised that birds of Tokyo had it. They really rocked out at the end. See, that's what I'm looking forward to. Cause at the start I was like, Oh, this is kind of nice. And
you know, a little bit Coldplay-y and then they started to rock out at the end. had a few songs and then, you know, it got a bit more paramoury. Yeah. After that was...
Well, it was Pearl Jam, which we have a few shorts on Instagram and we've discussed in our Pearl Jam episode. And that's where we learned that value for money is terrible. We do not like stadium shows. Yeah, I think I'm hooked on the smaller venues. Like I saw the killers. They would have been the next one for me, I think. The killers was great. Look, they're great. It's a bit it's a big venue, of course. Oh, yeah, I haven't spoken to you about the killers. Yeah. It's a big venue. So I kind of get it hooked on the
small venues but they were fantastic. He knows how to put on a great concert, Brandon Flowers, he's a good front man. The visuals were great, the big screen was great. Rod Laver, you know it's a big, it's nowhere near as bad as Phil Jam. I could see, you I could make out his face. I could see him, it's a lot closer. Phil Jam was just ridiculous. I just didn't understand, so far away. Yeah, that was at Marvel.
Yeah, you had to look on the screen pretty much. But yeah, no, the Killers was good. It was definitely good. Yeah. All the big hits, you know, it's always good to see. went with my family, but you know, if I saw them again, I'll do Tixel secondhand tickets because we got two tickets for 120 bucks to the Killers. So was super cheap. I wouldn't be paying the 300 bucks when they first got released. Yeah, that wasn't really worth it. And who was the support act for the Killers? They were good as well. I'm going to look it up. Radio Free Alice.
Yeah, that's it. Melbourne based rockers. Yeah, they were pretty good. What sort of music were they? Geez, you're really, I didn't know there's going to be follow up questions about this so I was rocking music, guess. Were they? I think that might've had some saxophone actually, but you know, don't like put that on, you know, don't, I just remember thinking, that's pretty cool. You forgot. forgot.
I remember thinking, Alice, there's another band called Alice in Chains. So yeah, so, know, they could have an Alice festival, maybe, I don't know. Alice Cooper, Alice in Chains. Yeah. And that's John Alice. You know, there's a lot of the Alice things you could do. If they were popping up somewhere, I'd be like, yeah, okay, I go see him again. Maybe we should keep an eye out for him. So, I was going to ask you about this because in the past you've been like, it's not worth, you know, there's enough good stuff at good.
small local venues where you can get up close and you can pay a quarter of the price that you don't need to go to these big shows, big international shows. You went to one of these big international shows. What do you have to say? Yeah, well, for a start, the tickets were cheap. I got the Tixel tickets, you know, so 60 bucks, I think was pretty good. Plus, because my kids know the songs, I think they really enjoyed it, you know, seeing, I don't think, you know, especially my youngest doesn't.
get into music that she doesn't know. She's at that age. She can't just listen to a song for the first time and go, yeah, okay, cool. This sounds pretty interesting. She's got to hear it 10 times. so yeah. And Rhiannon's into a mix, my eldest, she's 15, a mix of music, but yeah, well, she's going to see Terry, Tyler, the creator. So he's like a big star at the moment.
Yeah, he's huge. We should try and get Tixel tickets to that. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, let's try and do that. in there to see what he's like. His music doesn't super excite me. I've heard some of his songs. You know, it sounds like a guy who's, you know, in his house doing some, you know, some pretty cool stuff with his music studio, but to do three shows at Rod Laver. Might even be doing four, I think. Yeah, it's crazy how big he is.
Cause I was really taken by his ad, the picture and his ad for, for the shows, chromo chromatica. So I looked up his show on YouTube and he stepped out on the stage, massive audience. And I was really into it like, this is going to be cool. He's a creator. No idea what I'm watching. Right. just purely going on these images that I've seen and the promo shots and stuff. And he gets on stage.
And he goes, how are you dickheads? And I'm just going, man, I'm out. I'm too old for this. Here I was going, he's an artist and this is going to be amazing. I'm going to discover someone new. And he's like, Hey, dickheads. He just dropped a few notches and I felt very old, but, anyway, we should definitely go.
you know what? I'm kind of up for a big spectacle, big international gig. That's the thing about it. Yeah. just don't want to be far away. And you get a seat. Yeah. Do reckon we'll get a seat? Not the floor. Let's try and get the floor, man. The floor is expensive. some reason. I know. Anyway, I don't know. I find the floor hard work. You've got to get there really to get a good seat.
I see you just rock up and you know, it's there the whole time. is peace of mind. So look, my favorites this year. I mean, my favorites always cash Savage, this year it's also floodlights and play lunch and haiku hands. about you? Yeah, that's it. That's that'd be my top four. think. Let's add to make five. Let's add team Jesus. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Cause I only saw the mines. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Teen Jesus.
So let's wrap up this year. just want to run through what we've got. I've got tickets to see idols start getting into them. Yeah. Yeah. We're going January 21st. got ticket. We're seeing the flaming lips. Like that's an international act that we got the floor section. Sorry. So that'll be fun. And, that's all I can PJ Harvey. All right. Well, that's the year in wrap up, I guess. That's a year wrapped up. It's been a good one. Thanks, Andy. Yeah. Cool.
Catch you for season two next year. Ciao.