THE STABS / IVY ST. AT CUBBY HOLE 24-04-10

A great show with two interstate bands, Melbourne's Stabs and Hobart's Ivy St. Anzac weekend regulations meant the venue had to be completely shut down by midnight, cutting the Stabs' set short which was a damn shame. Way to give Brisbane a reputation, regulation jerx.


THE STABS





With both the crowd and the band visibly frustrated by the midnight curfew, The Stabs set is intense as they milk everything they've got out of the 20 minutes or so they've been forced to play within. The second video is of their last song (6ft Rodent) complete with audience stage invasion, collapsing PA and a 5 minute noise meltdown at the end.


IVY ST.



One of Ivy St.'s last shows for the whole year which sucks because I love this band. This song is the A Side from their new 7" "Oh Their Faces / Talk to Strangers".

CHROME DOME / FEATHERS AT BURST CITY 23-04-10

Burst City is a brand new venue in Brisbane, it's an old community hall situated across the road from the museum dinosaurs in South Bank. This was my first time there and although there were some sound/lighting issues I have no doubt that once the place gets settled down (or doesn't get shut down) it's going to be one of the best places to see bands play in Brisbane.


CHROME DOME



On tour for their new album and their first time in Brisbane, Melbourne's Chrome Dome are living the hedonistic wastoid dream to the fullest. This is artistic expression at it's most pure as the songs are an uncompromisingly harsh soundtrack to their fucked up lifestyle. There is no separation between the people/music here folks, this is the real deal. I wish more bands were like this instead of living their art only on the weekends inbetween uni assignments like some lame arse indie rock band. Chrome Dome live this shit 24/7 and deserve your respect.


FEATHERS



The last time I saw Feathers was at least 2 years ago and I can barely remember it which makes for a weak opening to this paragraph. Since then they've lost members, acquired some new members and written a bunch of new songs. I was looking forward to filming them but the lack of lighting in the venue made it hard. I've added some sepia brightness effect crap to this to make it watchable because I thought the song was really good. I promise next time Feathers play I'll get some Grade A premium beef footage because they're worth it.

SKY NEEDLE / THE SCRAPES AT THE TROUBADOUR 21-04-10

A painfully sober Wednesday night at the Troubadour for the Brisbane launch of The Scrapes' new album "Electric Mourning Blues". Not drinking at shows is weird but I somehow managed not to buy any beer while there to save a few $$$. Not recommended.


SKY NEEDLE



I tried to describe Sky Needle when they played at the Newstead Gasworks last year, basically they've invented and made their own instruments and then they get together and improvise and you get this uniquely strange sound that is as captivating as it is odd. They even had a scale model of the iconic Brisbane Sky Needle they were named after on stage with them as a prop. Spared no expense.


THE SCRAPES



The Scrapes are very technically adept. The Scrapes practice a lot and have spent years diligently studying their craft within the confines of University. They can probably even read sheet music. I still like them though. For fans of Dirty Three etc. but they have their own style and if you're in the right mood (Example: you've gone out to a show because the idea of spending the night alone in your room depresses you but you're hungover from the night before and don't want to party either so you're pathetically crying for that middle ground) it can be pretty nice.

THE FIGHTING LEAGUE / ASSASSINS 88 / ALPS OF NEW SOUTH WALES / KITCHEN'S FLOOR AT THE PHOENIX 18-04-10

Canberra on a Sunday night. My expectations were low because we went there in 2008 only to find out our show had been booked but not promoted. There was literally noone there so we didn't play and it was pouring rain and freezing and we spent the night at a random guy's house in his housemate's beds who he said 'may or may not be coming home' that night. At the time I was like 'fuck Canberra, this place is shit' but that was then and this is now. I met heaps of great people and the show was awesome and totally worthwhile. Canberra, we are cool.


THE FIGHTING LEAGUE



I had never really checked out these guys before except for an obligatory glance at their myspace and was nicely surprised by what was a very entertaining show. A+ for showmanship.


ASSASSINS 88





A set with less emphasis on the 'heavy' than their Brisbane shows in November, Assassins 88 switch the bass for guitar and the noise for melody. Suited perfectly in this venue, totally underrated as they're one of the best bands around.


ALPS OF NEW SOUTH WALES



A very solid set from Alps who revisits some old favourites.


KITCHEN'S FLOOR



Filmed by Lachlan from Assassins 88 on his own camera. Thanks Lachlan.

HOLY BALM / BED WETTIN' BAD BOYS AT THE FRIEND IN HAND HOTEL 17-04-10

The R.I.P Society endorsed "best pub in Sydney", the Friend in Hand Hotel hosts the dual 7" launches of Bed Wettin' Bad Boys and Kitchen's Floor with Holy Balm as support. The turn out and enthusiasm at this show was awesome, Sydney knows how to party.


HOLY BALM



Holy Balm kick out the psychadelic dance jams and completely hypnotise me with unabashed adoration for this band. Fan for life right here, mate.


BED WETTIN' BAD BOYS





Sydney's best/worst band Bed Wettin' Bad Boys play an uncompromisingly loose set of hits turning the whole place into a massive party. Awesome.

BARE GRILLZ / ALPS OF NEW SOUTH WALES / WHORES AT NEWCASTLE HOUSE SHOW 16-04-10

Eternal Soundcheck finds itself on a suburban Newcastle patio on a Friday night faced with a killer line up of bands from Sydney (Whores, None Music), Brisbane (Kitchen's Floor - no footage) and Newcastle (Alps, Bare Grillz). I'm pretty sure most people left this with a brutal hangover and the vague memory of having a good time.


BARE GRILLZ



Local residents Bare Grillz perform for the very first time and despite the treble on the guitar amp cutting through my squishy edible brain like an epidural into the spine, they were really enjoyable. The last song ruled and was the best but I didn't film that one so this last sentence you're reading don't have nothing useful for you.


ALPS OF NEW SOUTH WALES



An international world first australian exclusive - Alps playing guitar! and it sounds good, I'm liking this direction a lot. First 10 seconds of video are highly unprofessional, sorry gang.


NONE MUSIC



A new project from Sydney's Nic De Jong (Ghosts of Television, NOTV), None Music is really good quality noise. He played in grim darkness so I've added some cosmic brightness effects.


WHORES





By this time everyone was smasheddddd, mannn. This communal inebriation suited the doomed apocalyptic swamp punk of Whores nicely and resulted in a generalised exodus into the dark unreturnable abyss.

EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING / KITCHEN'S FLOOR AT THE ZOO 8-04-10

This is special not just because it's ECSR but because for these videos I've collaborated with Brendan who does Turnitupto10, he's recorded hundreds of shows over the years in amazing quality. I've sync'ed his audio to my video so you can uh, rush to relax. This was their sold out Brisbane show of what is almost an entirely sold out national tour. If anyone deserves that kind of success, it's these guys.


EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING





Enough has been written about ECSR and everyone knows who they are and what they sound like so I won't bother with any of that. I loved their passion and dedication to what they're doing and they were cool enough to let me film from the side of the stage and made sure I didn't run out of beer later in the night. The two songs here are from their new album 'Rush to Relax'. Tuning Out is my personal favourite.


KITCHEN'S FLOOR





I feel weird writing about my own band so I won't. The first video is a new song though. Myspace.




You can download high quality recordings of the whole show here. Thanks again to Brendan for letting me use the audio.

PER PURPOSE / LOOMER / MOTHER AND FATHER AT ROSIES 10-04-10

Argh. The Brisbane CBD on a Saturday night. Totally depressing. This show however was worthwhile enough to warrant an expedition into it's hellish epicentre and luckily the footage turned out not too bad too. too. huh?


PER PURPOSE





Per Purpose is improving with every show they play. This set was solid and I reckon by the end of the year everybody will be talking about them. Even the guy with the weird smile down at the deli.


LOOMER



Probably the best Loomer set I've seen. I've had horrible luck trying to film these guys before but this turned out pretty good so check it out.


MOTHER AND FATHER





Melbourne band Mother and Father's final show for this tour they've been doin' for their album nothin'. I was a bit skeptical about this band and wouldn't of gone had it not been for the supports but I ended up enjoying it and I liked how they weren't in denial about their influences but enthusiastically embraced it in a 'Hell yeah, we've all heard this kind of music a million times before but that's because it's awesome. Let's get drunk and party!' kind of way. I'll happily drink to that.

IMMORTAL WARLORD / BIRTH GLOW

I think Adelaide is fast becoming my favourite city for music in Australia. I never would have imagined writing that sentence a few months ago when I knew shit all about the place but the city has some really great bands. Here's two that are currently residing in Adelaide and their respective music videos.


IMMORTAL WARLORD



ANOTHER project from Liam and Pat, the prolific guys who brought you Bitch Prefect, Dud Pills and many more awesome bands. Immortal Warlord is their foray into the realm of psychadelic pop and damn can they pull it off. This video/song is dreamy lysergic bliss at it's most euphoric and any brutally intense nightmarish acid freakouts are very far away from here.

Check out Pat's youtube video channel, he's the guy who makes the videos and it's a damn fine body of work.


BIRTH GLOW



I played a show with Birth Glow about 3 years ago and I can barely remember it because I was pretty messed up at the time but they had this song about Batman that I heard way too many times (Suburban Revolution compilation CDR, anyone still got a copy that isn't scratched to death?) and it screwed up my idea of the band. Watching this video blows away any doubt I had - It's really incredible and as soon as I can I'm getting a copy of their album to make up for lost time. The video is from a few years ago but I just found out about it recently so if you haven't seen this and you like things that are awesome, check it out.