Feist @ Prince Bandroom (26/2/08)

I still have a hard time believing it.After months of putting to her album on endless replay and still finding new ways to love it-I was shocked to hear that Feist was coming,first as a major headliner to the St. Jerome's Laneway Fest then for a one-night-only solo gig at the Prince Bandroom.I bought tickets immediately,two days later they were declared sold out.

Wanting to get the most from the experience,3 of us went to the St Kilda venue 2 hours before the scheduled door opening time-loafed around the entrance before being let in as the night's first,most overeager patrons,quickly securing a small space directly in front of the stage-and it was all worth it,when Feist finally came on after opened by local band The LuckSmiths (frontman pictured) played for 90 minutes-she was near enough for us to reach out and tear off her pretty blue sequin dress.Which we did not do,because,we are not animals.

I was kept fully captivated for an entire 2 hours-not a single moment did I slip out from that spellbound state,only growing mesmerized the whole time.She sang only a handful of songs-20 the most maybe,missing out Secret Heart,Leisure Suite and BSS
number Lover's Spit-but she more than made up for the small number,belting out all the songs from The Reminder (which,for the 5000th time-I must say,is just unbelievably good) except Past in Present.Not one song sounded the same live-Sea Lion Woman was amped up into a full-on rock song,old tunes like Gatekeeper & When I was a Young Girl were strictly vocal-driven,My Moon My Man a fast-paced pop rock song,and Inside & Out a wild,jazzier version that was vastly different from the original.Overall it was a tremendously enjoyable set,but for me,So Sorry & Sea Lion Woman stood out.


The audience-a crowd of nearly 400 crammed into that small rathouse-clung onto her every lyric,singing along quietly as to not ruin that magical effect Feist had over us.Only until the second-to-last tune 1234 (before Stay True),when Feist chose to go acoustic up to the second chorus-during which emerged Architecture in Helsinki with fancy trumpets and whatnot-did we finally feel safe to sing and clap along indiscreetly.Other surprise guest performers included BSS-member Andrew Whitemen,clad in tight white jeans and sporting an old-fashioned,orange half-beard (someone yelled out "El Rancho!"right before he sang a cute tune called Blackberry),New Buffalo and 1234 writer Sally Seltman.

It's rare to see a performer come alive with so much passion-she sang each new song with so much energy and enthusiasm,and I was close enough to see how,as she sung,her lips twitched lightly,the back of her heels were lifted,her fingers caressing an imaginary flow as she delicately touched high notes and freed her impeccable voice.Only few times was her back turned,and between songs she'd crack a couple silly jokes (how she remembered having been here many years ago,after revisiting the backstage toilet's "particularities") and waited for people to shout out songs they wanted played or whatever (one girl right smack in front of Feist actually screamed out "Lover's Spit!"-something I just wasn't brave enough to do-to which Feist smiled,pointed down to the girl and agree said "Ahh")-and as I said before sorta,we were all just connected with the music.


Lastly,a few random things.

1. After recording about 4 vids,some blonde bloke came up from the side of the stage and told me to stop it (making the "cut it out" neck-chop gesture)-after which I was forced to use extremely sneaky tactics to still record vids without letting off Generic Aussie Guy.
2.Interpol was playing on the night before,when CYHSY was on.Damn
3. I'm surprised how cheap the tickets were (a bit over $40) for a Feist gig-other nobody's and has-beens like Jason Mraz and James Blunt usually charge around 75 (an amount I'd be willing to pay for someone like Feist,but Jason Mraz?!Who the fuck do you think you are charging people prices like that?).But hey,cheap tickets never bugged anyone-even tickets for Cat Power's gig in March costs around a justifiable $60.Still contemplating on that one.
4. All y'all who missed her this time around-don't fret,she announced at the end of last night that she'll be returning with her band in October.I'm so there.
5. Psst.The new Goldfrapp album's pretty damn good.

Pictures.

Watching the fire as we grow old
(Mushaboom mushaboom).

Good

Some have this very superficial concept about friendship, and it really pisses me off.

Thing is,it's a bit complex you see.I might be a terribly good friend-I'll be an attentive listener so you can confide in me,I'll even offer you helpful advice or,just appear supportive if that suffices for you.You can call me anytime of day,I'll be there in a jiffy.I'll try to be honest with you,I'll share my deepest secrets and gravest concerns-my Unthinkable Worries and Darkest Fears-in return you'll treat me with acceptance and kindness,and through sharing our miseries and happy times and all that crap our bond reaches a new level.I will be nice to you,I won't hurt you and I'll be the Good Friend you always wanted.

People have different reasons.I might just be your Good Friend because I'm lonely and having someone who would listen and to listen to and have ups and lows with brings some sort of meaning to my day to day life.I might be a Good Friend because I have this very specific,but easy-to-follow idea that friendship is basically learning to give,finding ways to bring joy to others or whatever simple faith I have and choose to practice over everyone else.It's like a packet of 3-in-1 coffee with very particular ingredients and the end result being True Happiness.Or I might just be keeping around because I find you repulsive and weak and that makes me feel a whole lot better.Etc.

Friendship is not something I want to exploit and fix to achieve something profound.It's not a tool.You can't use people to make yourself happy.I don't see the point in being nice or investing too much time/effort into people who think themselves as Good Friends for basically following the Good Friends Handbook-life's short and you should get it Right even if it means having to be a bit mean.So when you're being Entertaining and looking Entertained,when you tell me I can trust you and You'll be there For Me-and I sense how insincere you've become from the desperation,I can't help but feel disappointed.There goes another.

Golden

Sleuth-The film,adapted from a theater play-can easily be divided into two very distinct parts:first,the exposition during which the two (only) characters first meet and Michael Caine plays predator to Jude Law,and the second,which launches with a pretty cheap "twist" before delving into the medley of dangerous mind games the two characters play.The first part is surprisingly decent,but the second crumbles under the unfortunate weight of Jude Law's ridiculous overacting-the second he leaves the unsuspecting,yes-yes young guy persona and steps into scheming psycho mode the movie becomes desperate,irrelevant and tastelessly over-the-top.

Michael Clayton-I don't get the big hype behind Clooney's performance here-all the way he has that "serious" face of constant fretting and worrying,we get it-he's angry and dealing with a totally fucked-up case that usually sees the calm,ever-ready Clayton tear up from the pressure of a difficult lawsuit,assassination attempts,divorce,debt etc but his acting never really varies from that one look of deep aggravation-but not to worry,the plot's build-up is handled expertly ,but most of all,Tilda Swinton just blew my brain.Her character was intensely disturbing on so many levels,and by the end I was wishing for her own spin-off.

There Will Be Blood-The only real problem I had with it was Paul Dano's performance.He's just atrocious in this-giving off the impression that he's way too young for the role,whenever a scene demanded that he act all possessed and insane he came off looking dumb and unrealistic like it was all one drunken parody.It's a shame because it's written as pretty solid and interesting character,just spoiled by Dano's poisonous acting.Other than that,it's pretty fucking brilliant.

Martian Child-Okay,fine,this was sheer cheesiness.Lookit-recently widowed father meets socially awkward orphan who does cute things like move around in a big box,and they both learn to complete each other or something like that (*cringe*).Amazingly,even with a couple huge imperfections (namely the aforementioned cheesiness),it still worksJohn Cusack & Amanda Peet are really likable,but the kid however,is something else.That tiny speech he makes,quoting Cusack's words-that moment he grows up from being a whiny troublemaker to some sort of emotional maturity-saying to "never ever ever ever ever give up"-that was the film's tear-jerking climax,not the final scene in which Cusack predictably says something like "I'll always love you no matter what" (although at that point I had already dissolved into a squishy marshmallow-so that got to me too).

Oscars soon-I think No Country's locked to be the night's big winner-not a huge fan,the film's pretty much the "big deal" this awards season.Most nominees this year are pretty meh,nothing mind-blowing (random addition:..unlike LOST this season).Whoever wins,in five years it'll be more or less inconsequential.Except maybe Julie Christie and Daniel Day-Lewis' performance,Paul Thomas Anderson's directing for There Will Be Blood,and the films Away from Her,Atonement & Into the Wild.They were both quite exceptional,so to see either Amy Ryan or Tilda Swinton win in the Supporting Actress category would be great.

Forest

"If you get far enough away you'll be on your way back home".
Tom Waits-Blind Love.

Explosions In The Sky@Ruums KL

AH.MAH.GAH.

Explosions In the Sky@Ruums KL,best instrumental band evah (preceding Mogwai) and I'm still high as a kite from having seen them live.

Right,first off I'm going to warn you that I'm going to make very little sense because the 'gig',to me at least,wasn't merely a bunch of white guys performing on stage-it was an ethereal experience that moved my very...SOUL.Half them time I stood with eyes completely shut and palms inside pockets-I felt like the music playing and I shared a precious,intimate solitude so that every time I did open my eyes (mostly during interludes) the sight of a crowded room fronted by a stage bearing three looming figures who were banging furiously (I'm not kidding-they were fucking bashing those machines) at their guitars,momentarily seemed unfamiliar and strange.Starting off with a couple songs from their recent album,they then ventured to The Rescue then How Strange,Innocence-they never held back,constantly unleashing torrents of wild guitars that seemed like chaos and pure noise at first-shooting off at every direction-but quickly shaped into something coherent in it's own beautiful way-all that loud mixing of different sounds resulting in something emotionally epic.It was like being in a trance-a good one,not the type where you wake up feeling dizzy and molested-feeling like you've lost your own being,put in this other universe the music created where you'd observe in grand disasters,entire planets being made and destroyed at once.

At the end,after an extremely intense 90 minutes-the music stopped,they bowed politely and the lights above came on-as usual,cue for audience to rowdily demand an encore-after around two minutes of that,one of the band members came out,took the mic and said "We're very sorry,but we can't play you anymore songs".A few seconds of silence,some drunken booing from the back-he continued,"We've put all our energy into playing those songs for you-and anything more we won't be doing it right".Just then the respect I had for this band grew more gigantic.After he went,some guy came on with the good news that the band's agreed to have an autograph session outside,instantly a group of teenagers rushed past me heading for the exit.The line outside wasn't that long,most who came were already outside-maybe they have the same idea.Thing is I don't care much about who the band members are,much less their autographs-I believe a band this great stands on the music they make alone,that's the real personality right there and sure the people making it are an insanely talented bunch,but to treat them as band members Alex and Ross or whatever their names are would be trivializing how bloody fucking amazing their music is.And secondly,they're an instrumental band-so no fancy-faced vocalist hogging the limelight and threatening to do a solo pop album or anything like that.It's like,serious shit.I'm not making sense am I.That crazy bag lady who eats leaves down the street would understand me.......STARLA!

Pictures.Taken with a T-10,as you can see-they weren't that big on lighting effects or stage gimmicks,which was good cos' it would've been distracting otherwise.


Ahhhh.

Bath

So,getting back to the UK trip.

The second day we drove West to Bath-stunning architecture,narrow roads and thousands of tourists grace this somewhat claustrophobic city.It's a very touristy place with shops and cafe's at every turn,but despite the whole hu-ha there's something deeply serene about it-the magnificent churches,the clean outlook,the photogenic nature of the aged structures and bumpy streets.It's definitely a place I intend to visit again,perhaps when there are less tourists around.


We spent about two hours there,before moving on to Salisbury then putting up a night in Northampton.Might dwell more on those another day.

Feist-Still True
Wilco-Side with the Seeds
Jimmy Eat World-Work
Oasis-Some might say

...

Oh,just received an email from Hi-fi bar saying I won some things for/from the upcoming CYHSY gig-a couple free drinks,some useless junk and "express queue-less entry" and they're calling the whole thing "the Jim Beam Experience" as if I've just won an overnight hotel stay and backstage passes.Blerg.I doubt there'll be a queue,but free drinks and a couple t-shirts won't hurt.

Morning

For some reason my body chose to come awake at 5am-after a dreamless sleep that afterward felt like a stress-induced headache,I came conscious to total darkness-eyelids batting and breathing heavily,before venturing to move one big toe.Okay,I'm...awake.And my brain's beating out its skull,the sides of my nose feel sticky with sweat.There is a reason I've come to wake up this early,and before the day ends I intend to find out.

The Raveonettes-Hallucinations
The Hoosiers-A Sadness Runs through him
Kanye West-I Wonder
Wilco-Either way
Jack Johnson-All at Once

The new Jack J album's full of serious message songs,which is fine if it's a Hilary 08 soundtrack compilation or something.I bet if you play the songs backwards there'll be secret messages about how people today are so forgetful and ignorant and you should recycle and protest to this/that.But whatever,Mr Banana Pancakes can sing about old people shitting their diapers and I'd still be stupid enough to love his music.

A new sun greets me not too shyly,gentle waves of heat trickling across my arms and face-then the drums come on,the marching band launches into chorus and school-going children press their eager faces against windows to see me fly into space.3,2,1 and we all explode into confetti!And all that's left are echoes of a place once bright and noisy,and finally an eerie silence that signals new beginnings.We're reborn into..ooh a new Breaking Bad ep just finished uploading.I'm out!

Pineapple

Trailer for Pineapple Express.

Shut up and watch it.

Who knows if this is going to turn out good-one thing for sure James Franco is a shit actor (both him and Hayden Christensen-just horrible crap actors,they screw up even the kiddiest roles) but,Seth Rogen rocks my socks and extra extra props for using a kickass M.I.A song in the trailer while making good use of the gunshot sound effects.

"It's like God's vagina".

V

-In addition to January's Big Day Out and a couple less big-scale music events,Melbourne's now officially home to Richard Branson's V Fest (official site) along with newbie Perth to an existing list of venues-Sydney and the Gold Coast.It's a pretty huge deal so I was curiously awaiting the line-up announcement,plus Melbourne rarely receives the big-ass international megastars aside from the usual 90s has-beens like The Police and Guns & Roses but the situation's definitely improving very very quickly.Anyhu,Modest Mouse was recently added to the line-up,complimenting an already mind-blowing set that combines the good kind of old (Smashing Pumpkins+Air+J&M) and a couple more recent bands (Hot Hot Heat+CSS)-for good measure,they've thrown in Roisin Murphy and Cut Copy and The Presets to cater St Kilda cigar-smoking hipsters who dig that kind of so-far-out-it's-in stuff.I mean,did anyone even listen to Roisin Murphy's last album?-it was dog puke personified as futuristic techno,and even that qualifies as a compliment of some sort.So you can see how everyone-or at least a a very varied group of listeners-will want to attend the goddamn thing,and take into account basic supply-demand economics you could almost see the logic behind charging $131.70 for a single ticket.Almost.At this point,I'm indifferent-seeing the above mentioned bands esp Billy Corgan & Co. and Modest Mouse live might be worth eating instant noodles for a few days weeks,but the exorbitant cost's still a considerable turn-off.

-Last night Grammy Awards was a snoozer-Aretha's performance started off ok but turned into a full-blown church gospel (it was fun watching her hyperventilate and threating to pass out,though),John Mayer was underused by a spotlight-grabbing Alicia Keys who was seriously overdoing it,and Amy Winehouse looked completely sober but could've done better.Still,it's nice to see Back to Black scoring 4 out of 5 noms-it's fair that they decided to give the one she lost out to some guy who's album I've never heard mentioned anywhere.Seeing Feist walk out empty-handed from 4 noms was sad,then again noone takes the Grammy's that seriously.Case in point,I love Foo Fighters but seeing their latest album-probably their most disappointing to date-win a Grammy (similarly,Maroon 5's winning sophomore album's nowhere nearly as good as the first),it just shows how eager these award-givers are to please some folks.

Return

Just returned from The Family UK Trip (the UK Family Trip?),I'M all zoned out after nearly or possibly over 24 hours of the journey beginning with the 2-hour bus ride from Milton-Keynes to Heathrow airport,where we numbly complied going through a dozen type of security checks before resigning to the 13-hour flight back home.

The trip was enjoyable,we spent our days driving across places all over UK-Brighton,Bristol,Salisbury,Birmingham,Northampton and a couple more-all with the help of Yat's nifty GPS travel TomTom thingy,which provided us an unprecedented sense of mobility and adventure.Passing beautiful green terrains,quaint fishing villages,the big cities-brushing past a countless nameless faces,emerging from the entire experience with a melancholic heart,a sense of comforting displacement and an unexplained speechlessness that blends too well with my pre-existing detachment from the world.

Sometimes I catch sight of my own reflection on windows,mirrors,sunglasses and see that I'm smiling-immediately the smile drops,replaced by a look of bemusement and wonder (eyebrows furrowed,lips pursed,eyes shot sideways) and I try to discover the roots behind that smile,but let go quickly because I think to myself just let it be.My thoughts wander off my body,I'm a person of spirit and feelings and this body or earth makes little sense sometimes-I think it's a good thing,but that tiny voice of doubt lingers around telling me "no,this is not right"-I am not healed and might never will,but I'm learning to live with the scars.I'm still shit scared,sometimes in the most awkward of times-waiting for a train,I feel my toes sweat-but I march on anyways,the mouth spits out what I think are words carefully strung into comprehensible sentences,and this face contorts accordingly as it laughs and frowns on cue and I project the idea of a brave new person and almost pull off pretending to be the New & Improved Al (More aggreeable!He Blends In like a Potted Plant,and Even Does Your Laundry and Babysits Your Children and Turns to Chocolate so You can Eat Him Once You're Done With Him!Now available in Tesco and all leading Hypermarkets for only $4.99!Buy now before it's sold out!) but then laugh it all off,return to my cynical,dazed,volatile,unapologetic and godknowswhatelse self and instantly feel like I'm not meant to be there,but I'll stay anyway.

This is who I am.Eat this!

So,we have here too many pics for fingers to count-I'll post them in order of how the trip went,whenever I feel like it.We'll start with the flight to UK,views from the plane.The vastness of the universe,something I don't fully understand-and hope to never will.



More to come.

Drawers

You had all the answers but no human touch,
Your life is subtraction,
Your number is up,
Your love is a fraction,
It’s not any more.

The Hoosiers-Goodbye Mr A