Another Break In Transmission
As usual, I have several weeks of neglected blogging to catch up on!
2007-02-22
Entry tags:
An Anniversary Of Sorts
About ten years ago, Feb. of 1997 (yes, ok, so I'm mighty old :-P ) I made a conscious decision go to get into live music. Not a hard thing to do here in Melbourne. At the time I was heavily involved the the student radio station at RMIT - 94.9 SRA-FM which has since morphed into the yoof station 90.9 SYN-FM. In fact I helped run it for a couple of years, and built their first website - a far more mundane affair than their current site. But hey, this was 1996. I was playing lots of music on my shows, but it was mostly overseas stuff- Laurie Anderson, Einstrezende Nuebauten, Ministry (hey, it was the 90's, I didn't know any better!) A whole lot of musos used to wander into the station, dropping off tapes and stuff, and by some form of osmosis's, I leaned the names of some decent venues.
The first gig I dragged myself to was Something for Kate at the Empress - back before they got really famous. If that can be said to have ever happened. Over the next little while I spent a lot of time in the Empress, the Espy, the Punters Club (may it rest in peace), the Tote, etc. etc. etc. etc. Drank a lot of beer. Walked home a few times when I was too broke for taxi fare.
Used to follow a lot of bands around - Pre_Shrunk, SEK, BZark, Mississippi Barry, Three, Decoder Ring (before they got crap), New Waver, Sobriquet, Blood Duster, Snog and later Toydeath, The Drugs and TISM (ok, ok, forgive me that last one).
Anyway, this went on for the better part of... Gee, at least five years. Then, slowly, I got busier and I got older and, more importantly - most of these band split up. Of the above list, only Blood Duster, Snog and Toydeath are still going. I lie - Sobriquet still play sometimes, and Decoder Ring are a shadow of themselves. Once you don't have the time to be at a gig three or so nights a week (although my friend Richard still manages this) it gets a bit hard to learn who are the good bands worth seeing.
Plus (puts on old man hat) a lot of the music being played these days seems a bit crap. Jet? Airborne? Come on, derivative (successful) crap, which seems to have lead to many bands down the same road. Pre_Shrunk - two really good bass guitarists and a drummer, bZark - Cello and weird metal moments in otherwise quiet songs. These were interesting bands. SEK were great live... Anyway, if anyone out there can recommend some music I should go see, well, please do!
These days the only performer I see on a semi-regular basis is Justin "Bedroom Philosopher" Haezlwood. Nothing wrong with that - maybe I should get into comedy. At least I get a seat - my knees are getting too old to stand for four hours at a gig.
Ok, enough of this pathetic nostalgia :-)
The first gig I dragged myself to was Something for Kate at the Empress - back before they got really famous. If that can be said to have ever happened. Over the next little while I spent a lot of time in the Empress, the Espy, the Punters Club (may it rest in peace), the Tote, etc. etc. etc. etc. Drank a lot of beer. Walked home a few times when I was too broke for taxi fare.
Used to follow a lot of bands around - Pre_Shrunk, SEK, BZark, Mississippi Barry, Three, Decoder Ring (before they got crap), New Waver, Sobriquet, Blood Duster, Snog and later Toydeath, The Drugs and TISM (ok, ok, forgive me that last one).
Anyway, this went on for the better part of... Gee, at least five years. Then, slowly, I got busier and I got older and, more importantly - most of these band split up. Of the above list, only Blood Duster, Snog and Toydeath are still going. I lie - Sobriquet still play sometimes, and Decoder Ring are a shadow of themselves. Once you don't have the time to be at a gig three or so nights a week (although my friend Richard still manages this) it gets a bit hard to learn who are the good bands worth seeing.
Plus (puts on old man hat) a lot of the music being played these days seems a bit crap. Jet? Airborne? Come on, derivative (successful) crap, which seems to have lead to many bands down the same road. Pre_Shrunk - two really good bass guitarists and a drummer, bZark - Cello and weird metal moments in otherwise quiet songs. These were interesting bands. SEK were great live... Anyway, if anyone out there can recommend some music I should go see, well, please do!
These days the only performer I see on a semi-regular basis is Justin "Bedroom Philosopher" Haezlwood. Nothing wrong with that - maybe I should get into comedy. At least I get a seat - my knees are getting too old to stand for four hours at a gig.
Ok, enough of this pathetic nostalgia :-)
Entry tags:
Bairnsdale and Back By Train
A few Friday's ago (must be nearly three) ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evildoom_bunny and I had to go to Bairnsdale. Not for happy reasons - the father of one of my aunts (the grand father of my cousins) had succumbed to old age. We went up for the funeral.
Bairnsdale is a long, long way from Melbourne.evildoom_bunny and I both have cars of various vintages, but the thought of driving all the way there in my 18 year old un-air-conditioned Subaru didn't appeal! Not to mention the likely non-survival of said vehicle. So we decided to hop on the train.
So there we were at Flinders Street Station at 7.54AM, waiting for the V/Line train. Did I mention it's a heck of a way to Bairnsdale? We arrived, on time, via Dandenong, Tarralgon, Moe, Sale (not necessarily in that order) at 11.25AM!
The funeral was interesting - in parts. That side of my family are Norwegian (for obscure historical reasons I won't go into) so there was singing of hymns in Norwegian etc. In fact, the grandfather in question delighted in the first name "Thor", which is actually pronounced "Toor" or "Toour" perhaps. This all took place in a church, which made the atheist in me a bit uncomfortable. But I was mostly there for my many cousins and their many kids.
I had a small part in the ceremony - carrying Thor's coffin from the hearse to the grave. Which is always an intense experience. The ground there was soooo dry, the soil that had been dug was almost sand, and blew around in the strong breeze. We took turns dropping soil onto the coffin after they'd lowered it into the ground. Although I was reluctant until Indi, my little relative who adores me, insisted.
And then, after barely five hours in Bairnsdale, we got back on the train back to Melbourne.evildoom_bunny and I were joined by my brother, my cousin and a first cousin once removed! So we took over a total of ten seats - four on one side of the aisle, and six on the other, and made ourselves comfortable.
All in all I spent seven hours of that day on trains. But hey, these things are important.
evildoom_bunny and I had to go to Bairnsdale. Not for happy reasons - the father of one of my aunts (the grand father of my cousins) had succumbed to old age. We went up for the funeral.Bairnsdale is a long, long way from Melbourne.
evildoom_bunny and I both have cars of various vintages, but the thought of driving all the way there in my 18 year old un-air-conditioned Subaru didn't appeal! Not to mention the likely non-survival of said vehicle. So we decided to hop on the train.So there we were at Flinders Street Station at 7.54AM, waiting for the V/Line train. Did I mention it's a heck of a way to Bairnsdale? We arrived, on time, via Dandenong, Tarralgon, Moe, Sale (not necessarily in that order) at 11.25AM!
The funeral was interesting - in parts. That side of my family are Norwegian (for obscure historical reasons I won't go into) so there was singing of hymns in Norwegian etc. In fact, the grandfather in question delighted in the first name "Thor", which is actually pronounced "Toor" or "Toour" perhaps. This all took place in a church, which made the atheist in me a bit uncomfortable. But I was mostly there for my many cousins and their many kids.
I had a small part in the ceremony - carrying Thor's coffin from the hearse to the grave. Which is always an intense experience. The ground there was soooo dry, the soil that had been dug was almost sand, and blew around in the strong breeze. We took turns dropping soil onto the coffin after they'd lowered it into the ground. Although I was reluctant until Indi, my little relative who adores me, insisted.
And then, after barely five hours in Bairnsdale, we got back on the train back to Melbourne.
evildoom_bunny and I were joined by my brother, my cousin and a first cousin once removed! So we took over a total of ten seats - four on one side of the aisle, and six on the other, and made ourselves comfortable.All in all I spent seven hours of that day on trains. But hey, these things are important.
Entry tags:
Oh For Shame
Bumped into an old acquaintance the other day at a gig at the Public Bar (more on that later). He related the following tale of woe:
"I used to be a producer on [community television station] Channel 31. We were putting together a variety show called "The Loft" with a bunch of channel seven has-beens. And we invited this young comedian along to be some kind of backup talent. It was awful. Eventually, we decided to get the has-beens to fuck off, and asked this young comedian if he'd like to host it. He said yeah, what the hell, without any great enthusiasm. So for four years he hosted this show we were making, and in about the forth season, you go see his little mind ticking over thinking "I could probably do this for a living". And indeed he did... We'd unleashed him on the world..."The young comedian's name? Rove McManus. Marc Morrell (the teller of this story) hang your head in shaaaaaaame!