Johnette Napolitano live at The Famous Spiegeltent (Melbourne): 2012

Venue: Famous Spiegeltent

Date: 15/03



The Famous Spiegeltent, a 1920’s-era tent/saloon bar, complete with its original fittings is one of the last of its kind in the world. Images of Marlene Dietrich seducing a crowd of absinth-drinking bohemians or a thrilling display by trapeze artists come easy to the visitor, but its another ‘last of their kind’ that's pulled a full house tonight. As striking as the venue is to the eye, it’s a real effort to take one’s focus away from Johnette Napolitano even for a moment during her short but engaging show in this iconic setting.

Not a lot of performers take stock of their career highlights with the relish shown by Johnette Napolitano, nor do they display the respect she does for her fans, and importantly, her own material. When the Italian/American singer is on stage, she is guttural, fragile, fascinating and hilarious as she participates in a one woman show as though there were multiple characters/musicians around her and the distinction between ‘them’ and ‘us’ is forgotten. It is occasionally disarming to feel such a close bond with the artist as she is performing on stage, but Napolitano is a great communicator above all things and for this one-hour session at least, sat in a bar somewhere, each and every one of us feel the warmth and ease of old friends chatting.

Being an actual career retrospective, poetry reading and storytelling set, there’s an added emotional breadth to the show. The fact that the concert is so short is one of the sadder aspects to it when you consider Napolitano’s incredible voice, prolific solo work and the many years fronting Concrete Blonde. Her appeal above many of her American contemporaries though is the fact that unlike them, Napolitano is apparently devoid of any ego and acknowledges that proper hard work is required to maintain any kind of life in the spotlight. She feels no sense of entitlement, but considers fortunate to be able to scrape a living from performing. At this stage, her three-night residency in Melbourne - titled A Self Portrait: 2012 - suggests she has arrived at a point in her life that needed a line drawn under it. Her last visit to Melbourne was for the 20th anniversary of Concrete Blonde’s breakthrough album, Bloodletting in 2010, but these solo acoustic gigs are clearly much more personal affairs for her.

The shows are segmented into music, poetry and significant tales of her life thus far, coinciding with a book she’s written about her song’s back-stories. The ‘songs’ element to the concert range from her first ever written piece at aged twelve – a charming but ultimately sinister conversation between a frog and a fruitfly – to cover versions which have become Johnette standards, and of course plenty of Concrete Blonde material. The poetry is good if not a little hurried as Johnette skips over her hand written notes as though she is concerned she is boring us. (She’s not). And finally, there is the storytelling. “This one’s a drinking song….” She offers at one point. “Oh fuck what am I saying… They’re all drinking songs!” And so begins the tale of Joey, Concrete Blonde’s most famous track. The subject in Joey, Marc Moreland from LA new-wave band Wall Of Voodoo – and former Johnette squeeze - succumbed to his drinking, she recalls, as the show shifts – but doesn’t dwell - into a serious tone. Her recently deceased father also receives a poetic tribute, and it dawns that Napolitano’s energetic, sharp wit hides a good deal of personal sadness.

Further key moments in tonight’s show include a heart-stopping Wedding Theme which Napolitano wrote for the Heath Ledger film Candy. Performing it seems to bring the singer close to tears, yet with Jonette there are always the many laugh-out-loud moments to balance the mood. A spontaneous clap-along of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab during Take Me Home, for example adds a tongue-in-cheek angle to a somber, reflective song on excessive boozing. Also a roar of laughter follows Johnette’s mock anger at how ‘none of her friends drive fucking Porche’s… They’re always begging for lifts’ in an acapella cover of Janis Joplin’s Mercedes Benz. “Any requests?” Johnette asks finally from beneath her gigantic hat which barely hides her copious amount of long black hair. “Wendy!!!” Comes the unified reply from various points around the room. Unsurprising, as Tomorrow Wendy was many Australian’s first taste of Napolitano’s voice and the song’s impact has never abated.

Musician’s biographies usually focus on a few on the road hi-jinx, album sessions and in-band relationships, but often they make the reader feel like they are peeking into a foreign, unreachable world. But within one hour of doing her ‘live biography’, Johnette completely broke down the wall between artist and fan. Her openness itself makes her relatable. Even if most of us don’t live in the Mojave Desert, or front alternative rock bands, Johnette’s driven by the things that connect us all. Her parting words to her audience is a reassurance to everybody present, as well as herself, as though she knows instinctively what draws people to her music in the first place; “The sun will come out tomorrow and things will be better. I promise.”



lEIGh5

Foster The People: live in Melbourne, 2012 (review)

Venue: The Palace

Date: 30/01

There are way more kicks on offer at a Foster The People gig than the Pumped Up kind, the lads prove at thier Melbourne Big Day Out side-show. In concert, L.A.’s Foster The People run a tight ship, showing great care and precision in each and every song’s delivery. At this stage, their relatively short set must feel deeply familiar following an intense year of touring debut album Torches, yet there are no signs of fatigue or boredom from the guys. It’s easy to see the love for these songs in the band’s faces as much as it is in the packed Palace audience’s. For me, 2011 belonged to Foster The People. I knew looking around at my fellow punters, almost everybody there surely felt that same euphoric joy as I did on first discovering this band. Listening to Torches was a sharp reminder that something quite prominent had been missing from music in a general sense. Here was an album that by-passed any kind of current trend and instead declared a most antiquated purpose: music to bring people together.

Yes, Foster The People with each sample and percussion-heavy track, serve up a big spoonful of Summer of Love - California style. The utmost contemporary, tricked out keyboard/sample pads favoured by, well almost every band and his dog, are somehow sweeter in the hands of Foster and their freelovin’ vibe. Vibe is the key word here though; peel away the layers and lyrically, very few of the bands songs would stand up to scrutiny in the Woodstock poetry tent. Houdini, being a possible exception, reminds us to ‘focus on your ability’ and break out from our ‘shackles’, and tonight as the set opener, is so mood enhancing, it may as well be sold as a prescription drug. There’s more’ happy-power’ in that one song than a Flaming Lips encore, and the metre very rarely dips below ‘stupidly happy’ from then on.



Even the bands few mid-tempo songs (Miss You, Waste) evoke enthused bouncing sing-a-longs, and its on those tracks especially the band allow themselves to really freak out and break from their recorded counterparts. Miss You descends into a wall of percussion, recalling Nine Inch Nails’ March Of The Pigs, boosted by frantic strobing as singer Mark Foster leaps from his seat at the keyboard to batter a huge tom lumped in front of drummer Mark Pontius’ kit. Throughout the whole gig, when the two Mark’s aren’t vibing of each other as duel drummers, Foster is on guitar, fret to fret with bassist Cubbie Fink or head-banging hunched over his sampler. The man doesn’t rest, switching as he does between various instrument duties, all while conducting the audience in sing-a-long. Indeed Mark Foster can add sublime showmanship to his already full bag of tricks, and frankly the determination he displays to connect with all who come to see his band shows up many a live act as detached and lazy.



Aside from playing every track from Torches, they cover Weezer’s Say It Ain’t So; “because I taught Pumped Up Kicks to River from Weezer one night a party, and they started covering it in their shows!” Mark reveals. Naturally it sounds better than the original, thanks to the the addition of the Foster ‘stamp of fun’ but I was more than happy for them to get back to playing their own tunes. Namely, Helena Beat which concludes the main set in grandiose style and damnit all if Mark’s vocals don’t sound so much better live than on the recording. It’s an unusual singing voice he’s packing, with frequent falsetto parts, whistling and near-whispered refrains here and there, he’s nothing if not dynamic. All of these aforementioned stylings of course come together on the highly anticipated encore.



Pumped Up Kicks was the song that gave rise to what began as Mark’s bedroom muck-about project and ultimately landed him global top billing on the festival circuit. Tonight, predicting the reaction to the song, FTP tweak out a couple of extra minutes of ‘sing-it-back’ time from the heaving crowd. Shifting the song’s tempo suddenly from ‘Ministry of Sound club mix’ to ‘Linkin Park earnest head-bang’, they somehow make the whole thing work, while retaining the swagger of the original as the audience continue to shout the refrain long after Mark has stepped back from the mic to take it all in; a rare moment of stillness for the singer, who deftly steps into the front row, held aloft by countless hands where he remains grinning until the houselights switch on and his band exits the stage. He knows it’s been a good gig. He knows he gave his best and the fans were united with him in that. How thrilling it is to see a band so full of confidence in their music, and ability to perform it, yet remain totally devoid of arrogance. Simply brilliant.

lEIGh5

All photos by Narelle Pfitzner.

*

PALACE SET-LIST, 30/01/12:

Houdini

Miss You

Life On The Nickel

I Would Do Anything For You

Broken Jaw

Waste

Call It What You Want

Don't Stop (Colour On The Walls)

Say It Ain't So 

Helena Beat

encore:

Ruby 

Warrant

Pumped Up Kicks

Jello Biafra interview: 2011

CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN'



Boulder, Colorado-born Eric Boucher began life ‘small-town USA’ style, in front of the television absorbing all the menace and mirth it could spew out into his young mind. Not being the sporty type, he fixated on music, cartoons and news broadcasts in his free time, growing increasingly fascinated - and disgusted - by how atrocious world events were televised and reported on by his country’s media. The anger and bewilderment he experienced, combined with a natural gift for writing and self-expression, ultimately gave rise to Boucher’s notorious - at first on-stage only – persona, Jello Biafra. Whatever life had in store for small-town boy Eric Boucher, it was surely crushed once the mighty Biafra was ‘born’, and to this day, it is the peculiar name of Jello that continues to raise eyebrows, hackles and conservative backs through-out small, big and all-towns-in-between, USA.

The mushy dessert of his name-sake, an easy to swallow, much loved children’s favorite may have been an ironic choice of pseudonym for the one-time Dead Kennedys' singer, but Biafra has always been an unashamed attention seeker. He knew when he chose his tag, that every kid in the USA would at some time or another been spoon-fed that very thing by a caring parental figure. Perhaps he saw his own high level absorption of crass news media as a rather tasteless kind of ‘spoon-feeding’, and so took a punt that if he was going to have a public forum to unleash his anti-establishment woes, then it was gonna come with a sweet and fluffy handle that nobody would forget!

Biafra’s most noted platform came in the form of punk legends The Dead Kennedys – once more, a name that was certain to stick in the public’s craw being a mere decade on from President Kennedy’s assassination – and perhaps for that reason, in their new home of San Francisco, Biafra and his band were treated as a blight on the landscape of a city under the spell of neo-hippie-dom and rising yuppie-dom. However, this didn’t prevent ‘Blight Biafra’ from raising sizable interest in his absurdest campaign to become mayor of San Francisco in 1979, or even prevent The Dead Kennedys from charting with singles like Too Drunk To Fuck and Holiday In Cambodia. Biafra had proved beyond doubt he had enough support to be the voice for a broadening sector of society not content to just ‘suck it up’, and its precisely that voice – one that’s never waned in its convictions despite the trouble it’s bought him and his band - that has earned him a new career as a spoken word performer. The gloves no doubt come off when Jello hits the stage for his Melbourne spoken-word debut in October – they certainly did when it came to answering some of my questions in this rare, but utterly engaging interview.

What can people expect coming to a Jello Biafra spoken word show these days? Well I haven’t done one in a while, so I’m not quite sure what I’m going to discuss at this stage. I’ll just pull it all together at the last minute I’m sure. I mean events and news stories happen so fast these days, and I like my show to be right up to the minute, you know.

Do you see a lot of your – especially political - subject matter as relatable in countries outside of the US?

Yeah, I mean it seems as if nobody is spared the heavy handed moves by the banks and the super rich to step on the gas and ramp up the whole corporate coup, pushing the idea that community is a bad thing, and it doesn’t work. They just want it to be every one for themselves, conditioned to just make more and more money regardless of how and who it affects and that mindset is why you see basic social services suffering. The banks are desperately trying to save their own arses and so its community and environment be damned. I’ve heard rumblings from Australia about a carbon tax, and I’m sure any argument against that would bare more than a passing resemblance to the American Tea Party – a grass roots movement who were actually funded by oil barons and the like. These guys know not to pull out the white hoods, but you can see clearly where their loyalties lie.

The song, Invasion of the Mind Snatchers from your last album, Enhanced Methods of Questioning digs neatly at the US’s problem with insane religious right-wing nutters getting into positions of power, but are people like Fred Phelps and Wolf Blitzer a genuine threat in your opinion?

Well, Fred Phelps hasn’t got a lot of support, but he’s obviously getting money from somewhere. I’ve been to his compound in Kansas, and they’ve taken over an entire block in a residential neighbourhood, apart from two houses whose owners wouldn’t sell, and so excluding them, there’s a gigantic fence around all the Phelps houses, which is floodlit 24 hours a day and it’s covered in the usual ‘god hates fags’ kind of crap, but that compound is really the only place he holds any power in thankfully. He has no political support, in sharp contrast to Blitzer and Sarah Palin, who are just as extreme as Phelps is, the only difference is, they know how to package themselves more cleverly.

What do you get out of spoken word performance that maybe is lacking from fronting a band, such as Dead Kennedys? Well for a start, activism, spoken word and music is all connected for me, but you don’t get the great adrenalin rush doing spoken word as you do playing music live of course, but then touring as a spoken word artist, you can go deeper into ideas and into people’s brains. I mean I never expected spoken word to take off, but I have to thank those fascists at the LAPD and hate-mongers like Tipper Gore who dragged me through court over the Dead Kennedy’s Frankenchrist album. (1985’s Frankenchrist holds the ‘honor’ of being the token reason for banning and censorship of music in the US, resulting in massive legal costs for Biafra and ultimately the end of the ‘Kennedys). That was the first time a charge of ‘distribution of harmful material to minors’ had been brought against a music album in American history.

Frankenchrist - killed the Kennedys?

Are fans encouraged to actively participate in the spoken word shows and enter into a discussion with you?

It all depends; sometimes I have time for questions sometimes not. When people come to see me though, I think they already have some idea of what I’m about and what to expect, and the kinds of things I talk about are what they probably discuss among their friendship groups already. So I’m just offering a viewpoint that can maybe add something to their own conversations. I mean I’m not afraid of being asked questions, but doing just question and answer sessions can quickly turn into a forum for a handful of conspiracy theorists wanting to debate the Roswell space alien or the whole 9/11 inside job thing.

Do you subscribe to any of the popular conspiracy theories yourself?

In my mind, the biggest conspiracy was that America went to war while being governed by Spinal Tap. But in reality, part of the problem was the FBI had all this so-called intelligence and voice recordings in several different languages that nobody in the US government could even understand. Conspiracy theories are great, but I much prefer to make my mind up using logic and fact. 9/11 happened because our (the US’s) powers that be at the time were completely ignorant.

Being in the privileged position of two public forums – spoken word/punk music - do you think you’ve always been successful in expressing your viewpoint?

Well yeah, I mean I’ve encouraged people for all these years to not hate the media, but to become the media. That doesn’t mean living your whole life on Facebook, and sending out little tweets from your phone, it’s about grasping the potential of the new media and saying what we’re being offered isn’t good enough. There’s a lot of people power going to waste on obsessing over pointless celebrity culture. But to answer your question, I’m just one guy and I’m not a mainstream force to be reckoned with, I’m just making a living off my art, and I’ve tried to use my art in a positive way, but now I’m saying it’s up to you to go out and inspire people in the same way I’ve perhaps inspired you.

Do you think running for mayor of San Francisco in hindsight, you were in fact much better positioned to make a difference outside of politics altogether? Yeah for sure, but I was never going to be that guy who put on a suit and went door to door telling people a different lie each time just so they’d vote for me. What I was trying to say is politics doesn’t have to be just that one thing, but as an artist I didn’t have to try and change a whole system to get up there and say ‘this is exactly what I believe in, take it or leave it.’ I’m living off my big mouth and bad attitude, yeah, but that’s gotta be better than bullshitting as a career.

Does coming back to Australia fill you with good memories of your last tour here with the Dead Kennedys?

What comes to mind immediately is, after a show in Brisbane one night myself, DH Peligro (Kennedys’ drummer) and members of The Johnnys were having a few drinks out on the street and a police car pulls up and they arrest Peligro basically for drinking while black! They didn’t go after anybody else and so that to me was a first hand experience of the banana republic dictatorship of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Then after a second show in Brisbane, fans were coming and telling me their favourite stories about Bjelke-Petersen, and I think the most outrageous one I heard was about a dude who got arrested in broad daylight for carrying a concealed weapon in a bag of groceries – it was a pineapple! I mean doesn’t Queensland grow like the entire pineapple stock for the rest of the country? You would think they would know the difference between a weapon and a piece of fruit is all I’m saying.

One of your most interesting ‘projects’ was helping launch the music career of Wesley Willis. Australia has a special kind of love for Willis’s brand of laugh out loud, apparently nonsense tributes to his favourite celebrities; Alanis Morrisette, Oprah Winfrey etc..; I wonder, what do you miss most about him? People say ‘oh such-n-such is a larger than life character’, you know, but Wes really was larger than life. I mean, every single person he came in contact with was just blown away by his energy and his wit, but Wes was utterly exhausting as well. I mean, I would be doubled up in fits of laughter and unable to breathe because of some bizarre observation or statement he would make. Like one time I had to get on a plane with him and make sure he was okay getting to where he needed to go, and this was only in a short space of time after 9/11, and we’re in the airport lounge and all of a sudden Wes just yells at the top of his voice, “Hey Jello, do you think if I hijack a plane they’ll put me in jail?”, and I just froze thinking there were going to be all these security dudes come running out and crash-tackle us or something, and I said to Wes, you know, “You gotta keep it down, man you can’t say that stuff!”, and so he went “okay”, and then sure enough ten minutes later, “Hey Jello, do you think if I hijack a plane they’ll put me in jail?”. He was always doing shit like that and that’s what I miss so much about him not being around. I thought a lot about Wes the night Obama was elected and when he got up to do his speech, all I could think of in the back of my mind was how much that moment would’ve meant to him. Wes would’ve been in that crowd at the White House, and even if he was 100 metres back, his booming voice still would have come through, and he would have been singing, “Obama is the greatest, he can really whip Saddam Hussein’s ass! He can really kick a mule’s ass!” That’s how Wesley was man - just a great communicator of emotions. Nobody could sum up the feeling of a moment like Wes.

lEIGh5

Hey Bono, Jello's onto you, you fatuous swine!

Motley Crue live in Melbourne, 2011 (review)

Venue: Rod Laver Arena

Date: 24/09/11

Motley Crue’s The Dirt is one of the most notorious reads in the entire genre of rock biographies, which lead to the LA glam/metal band to be crowned undisputed kings of excess and bad behavior. No surprise then that their live show is equally excessive and totally over-the-top in a way that suits the band’s image, yet at the sacrifice of its ability to perform. This current tour is in celebration of 30 years of sex, drugs, arrests, messed up shit… oh and some rock n’ roll as well for good measure. The tour also boasts that fans are getting Motley Crue’s original line-up of Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil - as if anybody could name the band member’s occasional replacements in the ‘down-time’, or early ‘90s to mid-00’s hit-free period – but then it is a testament to the ‘Crue that any of them are still talking considering the brutal in-band bitching that’s become as famous as their unhealthy lifestyles.



But Motley Crue are all now in their 50s, and have surely grown into well balanced men with a wealth of experience and know-how, right? Nah, who am I kidding!? The young bushy haired men who proudly sang about Smokin’ In The Boys Room and Girls, Girls, Girls refused to die, if the twenty-foot high expressions on Motley Crue’s craggily faces, peering down at us from the live-feed projection screens are anything to go by. Alas though the band’s aggression and prowess, much like their long-gone youth cannot be sustained for very long following the tremendous first rush of Too Fast For Love.



Despite the 30 years of ‘Crue action, its hard to ignore the feeling that Vince, Nikki and Mick don’t seem particularly comfortable with one another as they shift around the stage swapping mics so that fans can get a good look at each member. In particular, Vince’s attempt to finger Nikki’s bass strings mid-song results in a quick and very awkward retreat by Sixx, who gets a pretty stern glower in return. Meanwhile guitarist Mick Mars, with his frozen expression, begrudgingly joins the other two on a narrow raised platform in a woeful attempt to show solidarity that fails to translate as anything other than forced. The show is only three songs in, and already the seams are unraveling, so what a better way to distract from this fact than by wheeling out a huge mirror-balled grand piano that even Elton John would consider ‘a bit camp’ and getting drummer Tommy Lee to play it under a cool blue spotlight.

Tommy always had the 'extra spicy' curry before a performance.

Now Tommy Lee may be the owner of the most famous penis in rock, but he’s here to prove that there’s more to him than just an over-sized schlong, dammit! Lee makes a big show of prepping for his piano solo - as he would have done at every concert on this tour no doubt – and cue the big ‘80s power-ballad moment that, eh nobody appears to have been waiting for. Home Sweet Home, quite frankly dies mid-way through, as even from up in the bleachers, the audiences boredom is palpable. A rather telling long break follows and the stage lights are cut as the band hurriedly cross off every ballad from the set list and re-emerge with nowt but cock-rock left.

Next up, its stage two of Tommy Lee’s attempt to steal the show with an even more pointless display than his piano fiasco with the mother of all Spinal Tap moments; his kit, which has been mounted at the base of a circular vertical roller-coaster track, begins to edge up and around as he plays the most obviously not-live drum solo of all-time. Lee’s strapped in to his stool, so you know he’s gonna go the full 360 degrees, he does, and the effect is sickening, but not particularly ‘sick’. For about 10 minutes, Lee, after hauling a completely non-plussed fan up to join the ride, continues his rotating drum solo, aided by bursts of flame and showering sparks, but by now my mind is just wandering to things like ‘what happened to the rest of the band’ and ‘the level of insurance they would have to pay incase the ‘lucky’ audience member slips out of the restraints must be astronomical’.

Finally the rest of the band return, and we are in the home stretch of Motely Crue’s 30th anniversary concert, which so far has been every kind of absurd, but served up without a shred of irony. Not much so far has happened to cause any offense or ruffle feathers, but despite the long break off stage, Vince Neil appears to have given just about all he’s got and so he puffs his way through Dr Feelgood, forgetting half the lyrics and walking where he previously would run. The performance only continues to become more and more shambolic after this, and no amount of fire balls, smoke jets, sparks, cannons or revolving drum kits can hide the fact. Nikki Sixx barks into the mic to rouse up the audience as the show concludes – again with no sense of irony - “When we first got together, we knew we needed a singer like Steven Tyler, Robert Plant and Bon Scott… and with Vince Neil, we got all three!”

Even Vince wasn’t entirely convinced of Sixx’s comparison, but in a final act of forced unity, the band embrace and hold one-another’s arms aloft, and remind us how much better we were as an audience than… insert any capital city that isn’t Melbourne. But by then it was all too late for Motley Crue’s fans here at Rod Laver. I’m going out on a big general limb here, but if Australian audiences can be summarised at all, I think it’s safe to say, you just can’t bullshit us. Motley wanted to be loved so badly that they were literally turning on their heads to impress us, but in reality a few more weeks in rehearsals would’ve sufficed. The biggest shocker of all though is, who would have guessed the most notorious hard living, hard drinking, hard shagging band this side of the Rolling Stones damn well fake it?



lEIGh5

Concrete Blonde - 20 Years Of Bloodletting (live in Melbourne, 2010) review

 Venue: The Palace



In the twenty years since Hollywood natives Concrete Blonde released their defining album, Bloodletting, interest in all things vamp has skyrocketed, perhaps loosely benefiting this once nearly forgotten group. The title and content does reference Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, true, but the songs on Concrete Blonde's third album were never meant to be taken as literal tales of the freaky un-dead. Addiction and consequence were the songs thinly disguised subtexts – many of which were veiled pleas from the band's singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano to the people closest to her, including the rest of Concrete Blonde. But original drummer Harry Rushakoff and, to a lesser degree, guitarist Jim Mankey's substance abuse basically sunk the band less than four years after Bloodletting broke them out of obscurity.

 

In the last decade a rehabilitated and revived Concrete Blonde delivered the self-reflective 2002 sobered-up sequel to Bloodletting, Group Therapy and found their way out of the haze and put the wasted years behind them. Last year Napolitano paid a fleeting visit to Melbourne to test the waters with a small-ish solo gig and seemed genuinely surprised by the amount of slavering fans turning up she could still lay claim to. The time was right for her long-awaited musical return and both the artist and any fan despairing over Johnette's fellow Californian, seemingly plague proportion pop bitches, felt it at that show.



Napolitano is one of a dying breed of front-persons which has helped to keep her in good stead despite years of relative obscurity. The Concrete Blonde faithful don't waste any time - or volume either - in letting her know how much she's adored tonight at the Palace, as the dirty opening bass chords of Bloodletting's title tack are beaten into our ears. Australia was the first country outside of the US that Concrete Blonde toured, prompted by the album's reception here, and specifically the second single, Joey. It receives no encore placing either, but rather runs straight out of Bloodletting's feedback finish. Joey, like much of Bloodletting, runs at a mid-tempo pace, so the band hurl in a few bigger-sounding rock crowd-pleasers from other albums. Breaking away from Bloodletting - so far in running order - God Is A Bullet, Happy Birthday and True from Concrete Blonde's late '80s period, are especially well received.



Tonight's support band Graveyard Train had been the perfect pre-cursor to Concrete Blonde. The eight-member gothic blues group whipped up a bone-rattling storm that Johnette and co. rode in on, harnessed and wrestled into submission. Continuing their diversion from Bloodletting, the band haul Graveyard Train out from backstage to join them – as a kind of ghostly choir - for a momentous romp through Ghost Of A Texas Ladies' Man . The night was almost stolen by this near-forgotten single from the band's Walking In London album. The thrills were far from behind us though, and as Leonard Cohen's Australian live dates approach, a reminder that if he wants his song, Everybody Knows back from Napolitano, he'll need to pick up his game. Following that, a surprising cover of Hendrix's Little Wing gives guitarist Jim Mankey a chance to indulge himself a little - but not to be outdone, a barefoot Johnette indulges us all with some spirited flamenco dancing during two cuts – Heal It Up and the title track - from Spanish-flavoured album Mexican Moon.



The return to the Bloodletting tracks actually means some lost momentum built up over the side serving of nostalgia, a fact not lost on Johnette as her movements become noticeably exaggerated, including plenty of compensatory eye-bulging and eye-brow raising. The album was always more 'eight-parts-soulful and two-parts-rawk', so the decision to drop its beefiest moments – The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden and The Beast – is a very odd one indeed. The concert felt just a little incomplete from those song's omissions, but the frankly pissed-and-out-of-control audience don't seem to mind, especially once the stand-out sing-a-long moment Tomorrow Wendy begins. Johnette's near-accapella reading of the albums only cover track (it was an Andy Preiboy song) is a seriously powerful end to the set. Concrete Blonde receive a deafeningly raucous hand on their exit which is sustained for a good five minutes before the final encore of It'll Chew You Up And Spit You Out, which again is out of step with the mood built up by Tomorrow Wendy, but is no less a satisfying all-in-rock-out for the group and fans.



Although the running order of the songs needed a rethink, it feels like a triviality when in the presence of Johnette Napolitano, who never once failed to be completely mesmerising. Drummer Gabriel Ramirez and guitarist Jim Mankey made for outstanding accompaniment, but it was Napolitano's show for her sheer authority as a vocalist and bass player. The 20 Years Of Bloodletting tour winds down soon and the demand for them to tour again may never be overwhelming enough but Concrete Blonde proved tonight they are much, much more than just a 20 year old album.

 

lEIGh5

THE PALACE SETLIST: 22/10/10

BLOODLETTING 

JOEY

I DON'T NEED A HERO

DAYS AND DAYS

LULLABYE

SCENE OF A PERFECT CRIME

GHOST OF A TEXAS LADIES MAN

SOMEDAY

EVERYBODY KNOWS

CAROLINE

WHEN I WAS A FOOL

GOD IS A BULLET

RUN RUN RUN

LITTLE WING

HEAL IT UP

YOUR HAUNTED HEAD

MEXICAN MOON

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TRUE

TOMORROW WENDY

BEDS ARE BURNING

IT'LL CHEW YOU UP AND SPIT YOU OUT

Photos by myself and Fruitbat

Machine Head interview (2010)

RISE OF THE MACHINE

Although beginning in 1992, it was on the back of their last album, 2007’s The Blackening, that California’s Machine Head were finally elevated to metal god’s status. Its success, although a triumph, meant a grueling, wit-shattering non-stop three year tour that almost destroyed the band. Now marching on from near annihilation and towards Australian shores for the band’s first headline shows here, I catch drummer David McClain on a rare break at his home getting the jump on some domestic chores.



“I’ve been home for about a week now which is almost unheard of these days, and I actually just went out and bought some new curtains for the kitchen” He says, feeling a little absurd before adding, “Well obviously they’re black curtains, make sure you mention that bit.” David’s relief at being able to enjoy a non-music related activity is clear in his voice. Three of the four years since his band’s sixth album The Blackening was released have been one long tour, which resulted in the airing of more than a few demons and in David’s case, imaginative ways with vodka. “You mean the Butt Burner.” he laughs, referring to his bowel destroying creation; “How that came about was my drum tech and I barbecue a lot and there’s always a lot of sauce around so, one night I remember I was craving a Bloody Mary and we had the vodka but no tomato juice and I just thought what would happen if we just put a load of Tabasco sauce in it instead? Basically we only put it in there because it’s red, but it gets you really drunk and the heat also gets you really pumped up so it’s a very weird feeling.” He laughs, before sharing further stories of on tour indulgences. “I think the best drink was probably one that Pantera had made up. We used to get so hammered with those guys.” He recalls, “They would carry around their own supply of grape Pedialyte - which is like a super strong Gatorade for babies – they would use it to make shots so you get re-hydrated as you get drunk. The theory there would be no hang-over the next day, but that’s not possible when you’re drinking with Pantera.”

Pantera had been long-time supporters of Machine Head, inviting them to play support early on, but as David points out, gaining further support eluded Machine Head up until the break through album that was The Blackening, which allowed them previously unheard of billing; “Previously our longest tour cycle would have been about a year and a half, but this last one just kept on going and going. Before The Blackening came out, we never got offers to open up for anybody, I mean there was like a ten year gap where there was just a drought. All of a sudden The Blackening comes out and we’re getting offers from everywhere to open for some of our favourite bands.”



Metallica’s last tour was the breakthrough event for Machine Head, as their nightly opening act. David discusses. “Metallica really could have a puppet show opening for them and they’d still sell-out everywhere they played” He laughs, “But them asking us to be their main support band on the US tour says a lot about where they’re at right now, which is having fun with their music and each other again and also willing to take a chance on an opening band that would otherwise be playing small theatres.” The two band’s developed a strong mutual appreciation over the course of the tour. David exclaims. “Lars told me that they (Metallica) had been playing our album in the studio while recording Death Magnetic which is the biggest compliment to us as a band. When we were floundering for support slots we used to joke saying ‘…what we need is to be on Metallica’s bill…’ but we never thought we’d have a chance in hell really.”



The last Australian visit for Machine Head was as opening act for Slipknot. David points out how important their support was, perhaps even above that of Metallica; “When we opened for Slipknot we felt that we gained a lot of new fans from that tour than Metallica.” He states, “Metallica fans are a hard sell. I mean we’ll always be in debt to Metallica for taking a chance on us, but their fans are so much into what they do, we were always just going to be the opening act on that tour.”



The punishing tour schedule in support of The Blackening began to take its toll on Machine Head’s guitarist Phil Demmel. He collapsed several times on and off stage from exhaustion, David explains; “I think with that there were a lot of factors involved in that, more mentally than physically. He’s been dealing with a lot of stress and being on the road you don’t get a chance to work that shit out, everything on tour just becomes so exaggerated you know but thankfully he’s getting a lot better now.” In Metallica’s tell-all road movie Some Kind Of Monster the band allowed viewers a chance to see how destructive long tours could be for musicians. In a strange twist Machine Head would end up an off-screen imitation of Metallica. As their long tour rolled on, cracks began to appear within the group. David explains; “During the Slipknot tour in Europe, Rob (Flynn – vocals) and Adam (Duce - bass) started getting a therapist involved to sort out some pretty heavy stuff between them. They were having major personality conflicts and really Rob was done by that stage, he didn’t want to be in a band with Adam anymore.” He adds “Getting a therapist involved was a last resort and really it’s what saved the band from splitting up, which is what we were heading towards.”

David’s confident that the band’s leader Rob Flynn is still the main motivator within the band despite any conflict; “We all have things that keep us going I think, but I definitely believe Machine Head has kept going as strong as it has because of Rob; that dude is doing Machine Head stuff in his sleep. I don’t really like the business side of the band - I just love playing - but he’s doing all that, and he just never stops working towards his dream of wanting Machine Head to be the biggest metal band on the planet.”

lEIGh5

Faith No More live in Melbourne 2010 (review)

Venue: FESTIVAL HALL



Something very unusual was happening at Festival Hall prior to Faith No More’s second night as headliners in their Soundwave sideshows. Maybe the sight of hoards of neon blazered security staff pouring across the road to the venue has caused an outbreak of calm and chilled behaviour among the many gathered fans. The one night music fans don’t want to be singled out as trouble makers or likely to create a disturbance is upon us, and you can just feel the cool oozing out of the faithfully assembled. Anticipation for this concert is pointless to mention, this is the biggest cult band in the world.



Arriving half way through warm-up comic Neil Hamburger’s set, it’s obvious the guy was enjoying taunting the died-in-the-war Faith No More fans crazy enough to stand at the front. One Red Hot Chili Peppers joke follows another in an unbroken torrent of single themed gags; “Why did the Red Hot Chili Peppers go under the bridge?” shouts of abuse and thrown items; “because there was a pile of shit there and they hadn’t injected themselves with it before.” He continues, pretending to wrap up his act, only to throw in more jokes. It was funny in the same way watching somebody poke a fork into a power point is. Meanwhile we, the fans down the back in the general standing area are faced with stage-a obscure-a syndrome from the countless heads and hands. Yet later seeing the fans who braved the mosh resembling very ripe bananas after a cattle stampede, it’s a pretty good compromise.

After a wisely short intermission, Faith No More fill out a stage dressed in light peach matching dinner suits and for the next minute everything goes blank as the crowd roar, leap and punch the air in excitement. The cacophony is quickly replaced with the whimsical sound of a melodica calmly sounding out the tune to Midnight Cowboy - a chilled instrumental from the Angel Dust album. Faith No More’s refusal to be cast as ‘just a rock band’ is evidenced all through their show, however seeing them rip through The Real Thing and Land Of Sunshine like the proper metal band they sometimes are, is an unmatched thrill. The crowd tonight are on edge during every song, desperate to drink in every glorious moment of music. The heat generated by the capacity crowd was becoming overwhelming and before long, a scuffle or two broke out, only to stop almost immediately as the thought of missing any of Faith No More’s set apparently kicked in. Sound wise, Faith No More suffer the usual problems faced by bands at this venue – total muddiness – although Patton’s voice is perfectly designed to cut through the dirge. On Ashes To Ashes he soars over the heavy synths and drums showing off that signature range on the song’s explosive chorus without effort.



The second of Faith No More’s sideshows at Festival Hall is becoming more of a greatest hits show than the previous night where they were tacked on to the bill ‘last minute style’ with AFI and Gallows. Basically tonight it’s all of the singles – including the covers of Easy and I Started A Joke. After the latter song - made famous originally by the Bee Gees - Patton drawls into his mic; “You love your Aus-tral-ian songs huh, Melbourne?” He pauses as everybody cheers, “You’ll want some Jimmy Barnes next I suppose?” Thankfully, instead of a surprise Barnsey cover, the sweet sound of A Small Victory follows, earning the greatest response so far. It’s no small feat either, when classic songs Epic and Gentle Art Of Making Enemies had people practically ripping the floor boards up with their teeth in excitement. It’s well known that Patton doesn’t mind making a bit of time to meet his fans, but as he hurls himself into the frantic crowd I wonder if he had any regrets. After the surge towards him he eventually emerges over the heads of the front row while a fan tries desperately to relieve him of his shoes. The man handling from where I’m standing was brutal and crazed, time to take a break it seems. The crew retrieve Mike from the pit and the band exit the stage, shoes intact.



The encore was always going to be interesting; they have so far played everything that could make up a typical ‘go out with a bang’ type encore. Midlife Crisis, Ricochet, Caffeine and Surprise! You’re Dead! have all been played, so the jury’s out. Perhaps sensing the need to cool things down a bit, Faith No More decide to go a little go new wave on a cover of Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Switch. The long feedback heavy version seems like finishing, when suddenly it morphs in to Stripsearch – its synthesised strings and tense, slow ticking beat giving the Festival Hall crowd a chance to cool down a little. Patton - always the charmer – finishes this momentous show in his creepy uncle speaking voice, “Melbourne, thank you for your attendance, we’ll see you again some time.”

lEIGh5

FESTIVAL HALL SET LIST: 25/02/10

Midnight Cowboy

The Real Thing

Land Of Sunshine

Caffeine

Evidence

Gentle Art Of Making Enemies

Last Cup Of`Sorrow

Ricochet

Easy

Epic

Midlife Crisis

I Started A Joke

A Small Victory

Surprise! You're Dead!

Ashes To Ashes

Just A Man

Edge Of The World

Mark Bowen

Switch

Stripsearch

video: Surprise! You're Dead! - live at Festival Hall



video: A Small Victory - live at Festival Hall

Scott Kannberg (Pavement) interview (2010)

GROUND BREAKING REUNION

Within the confines of most bands there are often tough times of over familiarity, creative differences and even barely salvageable friendships resulting in either great musical output or complete implosion. In the case of Stockton, California’s Pavement - all of the above applied ten-fold by the close of the ‘90s. Now, telling his side of the story on the eve of the band’s reunion tour, guitarist Scott Kannberg comes across as the ‘amiable one’, who looked beyond the messy break-up to a great legacy of songs.



“It’s been ten years since we were all in the same room together… oh boy”, he begins exasperated, as though the thought had just occurred to him. The events of their last meeting have been documented as fraught with tension and certainly no love lost. During the lead up to the split, eccentric singer Stephen Malkmus took to riding on their tour bus hidden under a coat, avoiding any form of communication with his band mates. He even went as far as tethering himself to the microphone stand at their last show with handcuffs to represent his feeling of being ‘trapped in Pavement’. A Britney scale melt-down seemed imminent, and so with no formal warning Pavement came to an abrupt end during the last months of ‘99.

 

A decade after the ‘cries for help’, I wonder is Kannberg’s excitement beating his possible apprehension over the reunion. “Well we have all had a chance to go out and live our lives apart from each other, and we haven’t had, you know, ongoing communication in that time. The best thing so far in reconnecting with the other guys is that we’re all older and wiser but then in some ways it doesn’t feel as though much has changed at all. At the time I don’t think we realise what we had and so we kind of needed to break up.” Kannberg explains, “I mean for myself, I was only writing a song here and there in Pavement, so when we broke up I was forced to develop as a songwriter if I wanted to continue making music.”



Scott chooses his word carefully as inevitable reunion is drawing nearer; he clearly wishes to remain open to healing old friendships and to focus on the good aspects of his former band. However, nobody in the group are likely to have fond memories of recording their final disc, Terror Twilight as the time spent making it was a clear countdown to Pavement’s end. Scott’s own band, Preston School Of Industry made use of several songs he had written for Terror Twilight after Stephen Malkmus all but ignored his compositions and refused to add them during Pavement’s rehearsals. Scott remarks; “Well on the plus side to that, I enjoy making music and I always wanted to develop that as far as I possibly could and, who knows, maybe in Pavement that might have happened eventually, but the fact remains I was able to grow as a musician much faster outside the band anyway.”

After a successful run of albums in the ‘90s adored by indie crowds; Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Slanted & Enchanted and Wowee Zowee in particular, I wonder how Kannberg now views the band’s success; “I see Pavement as a kind of historical monument”. Scott’s voice suddenly lowers and he pauses before a dry laugh escapes. “We can’t go tearing it down again, either or that historical society group are gonna be after us.” His tone begins to brighten, as he switches from thinking about the ten year gap to the immediate future; “We were pretty confident about what we put out at the time, but I think this time around it’s gonna be a lot more modern. We’re all much better players now so we can’t just step up on stage and into our old indie rock shoes and be the cocky kids we were back then, you know.” He adds laughing “But we’re not gonna be fat old guys either”. Greater musical know how will be something fans can look forward to in the shows, but Scott assures me that won’t mean 20 minute guitar solos. “No, the songs are gonna be pretty true to the originals but I think the attitude is gonna be a bit more mature. I mean our audiences are older now too so hopefully it should work out. We’ll all have more highly trained ears I think.”



Scott’s ear in recent years was employed to collate Pavement’s entire back catalogue for a series of expanded and remastered reissues. He discusses; “I was always documenting every little thing, not realising at the time one day we could put something like this out, but they turned out nice. I always wanted to put everything in its right place, you know, finally put out the tracks that we dropped at the time to complete the story and the reissues have been a fun way to do that”. While pouring through the band’s catalogue, it’s hard not to wonder if Scott was inspired to pursue a new Pavement album in the future and pick up where they left off. “No, that didn’t really come into it.” He explains, “If this tour is really fun and everybody gets along and playing the old material spurs us on to write together again then I guess something could happen, but we can’t really say what we’re going to do next until the tour happens. I think it might be fun if everybody was up for it, and maybe this tour will inspire us. I certainly hope it does.” 

If Scott has any regrets about Pavement’s end, he remains guarded about them. Instead he comes across as contented with what they achieved and even pleasantly surprised at the interest in a reunion tour; “We thought we were making good records, but we never thought people would get into it so much that we would actually be able to come back ten years later and stage a kind of ‘best of’ live show. In some ways it feels so surreal.”

Its true Pavement never could be considered ‘hit song makers’, in fact their place in the musical scheme was never obvious at all. However being an American guitar band may just have been the one clause that allowed doors to open for them in the Nirvana-obsessed ‘90s. “Yeah, we got dropped into the whole grunge/slacker thing by the English press but really we were more into post punk than anything. Our sound came from us all being record collectors and just devouring stuff like Captain Beefheart, but I don’t think it was all that obvious what we listened to because our tastes were so diverse. It was never like Oasis loving The Beatles, but we were open to influence by great records and I love that I can still get blown away by some artist who I didn’t even know existed before.”



Of course, it’s Scott’s taste in music that dominates the rest of our talk; and just what does he think of what the kids are into now? “I kind of gave up listening to new music” He laughs, “I’m really into rediscovering things like mid-period Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and Beefheart right now. When I was doing the Spiral Stairs record (a solo project released last year) that music really got me going again. I didn’t listen to much of that stuff during Pavement, so now I kind of feel a bit stupid because I was part of this 90s thing, when so much music was just being rehashed and now I meet guys going, oh yeah I been through all that before.”



During our talk, there was no discussion about why Pavement are getting back together – money would be the boring answer – but in his closing statement, Scott expresses off hand what could be the only reason any band should reunite and tour again; “I know that when I go to reunion shows, I’ve usually got a smile on my face the whole time, so hopefully people will come along to see us and have as much fun as I do seeing a band I used to love playing together again.”





lEIGh5

Wednesday 13 (Murderdolls) interview (2010)

Joseph Poole (aka Wednesday 13) is lucky to be alive today. In 2007 the LA based singer, rolled his car several times resulting in broken bones and months of recovery. He was preparing at the time to launch his Skeletons CD onto the world and begin work on a country influenced side project called Bourbon Crow. His brush with death left him with a heightened sense of his mortality, as to be expected. "It's a big eye-opener to go through that and although it's a massive trauma, in the end when I got my head together I really did appreciate things a lot more." He explains. Wednesday 13 first came to Australia's attention with Murderdolls - a kind of antithesis of the serious to-the-point-of-absurd Marylin Manson. The project was based around the combined loves of Wednesday and Slipknot's Joey Jordison - 1950s schlock horror flicks, Alice Cooper and The Addam's Family. Now fully mended and back on the tour circuit, Wednesday's bringing his (sort of) solo show to Australia, and promising fans a sizable helping of the 'Dolls best loved tracks during his much anticipated return.

"I do a kind of greatest hits thing now because of all the different bands I've been involved with in the last few years." He divulges, "I won't be including anything from my latest band, Gunfire 76 because it isn't really known outside of the US yet, but I have a lot of stuff to draw from now." Pre-Murderdolls, Wednesday fronted the comic-horror groups Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 and Maniac Spider Trash. He remained the only original member of those groups as a revolving door of collaborators and guest musicians came and went. After many years of changing band members, I ask if life would be simpler with a set of full-time players to work with; "I know it gets a little confusing at times, with fans not knowing what to expect. They get used to me doing one thing and then suddenly I'm doing this entirely different thing, but I like working that way and hopefully every project can stand on its own. One day I'd like to be able to go on tour and just play a whole show of all the different music from band's I've worked in. That's the real goal here." 

One aspect of Wednesday 13 remains constant throughout his various bands - the man's striking, monstrous image. His look - something like a zombie drag queen - is a real tongue-in-cheek approach to the more typically grim made-up gothic acts. "It's kind of important for me to have a 'look' in the same way Kiss made it a big part of their act. I even have some outfits that I work on months in advance of a tour just because it's more fun than going up there in jeans and a shirt and just staring at my shoes."

His love of the deadpan Wednesday Addams in the classic Addams Family series was of course the inspiration for Poole's stage name, but why not Pugsly or even Gomez?; "Well in Frankenstein Drag Queens we dressed up in sort of horror drag and it was more fitting to pick the daughter's name for the character. Also I love that nobody is called Wednesday either, just this one psychotic chick and that really appealed to me!"

Much like his TV name-sake, Wednesday is a little misunderstood in the broader music community. He delights in my telling him how humourous I think his music is. After all, it is a word he rarely encounters when asked to discuss his songs. "That's a huge, huge part of what I do you know. I always try to explain that to people, but I kind of got dumped in this whole goth rock movement thing and I get that, we all have black clothes and black hair but I don't look the way I do because I'm into Sisters Of Mercy and vampires or all that. I always try and put some humourous tagline into my songs to separate me from the deadly serious goth rock bands who really buy into all that vampire shit. I really think music should be a fun and dumb, I mean it's alright to write about more personal stuff now and then, but I'd say 99% of what I do as Wednesday 13 is just stuff that makes me laugh." 

The current Wednesday 13 release in Australia is the Bloodwork EP - a very mixed bag of work ranging from the sublime (My Demise B.C.) to the nonsense (I Love To Say Fuck) in just six tracks. The former is an Alice Cooper-esqu haunted ballad while the latter revives goofball rockers Ugly Kid Joe. "That song was my attempt at writing the most non-radio friendly piece of music ever." He laughs, "I had that floating around in my head for some years and now it's become like our tune up song at the shows. Its great fun to play live and I think it kind of captures a real punk spirit, like it's just immediate and in your face but quite stupid as well." It's with that in mind; I wonder what level of importance does Wednesday place on being taken too seriously. "I don't know I guess I do want people to get what I'm doing but if they don't then they probably shouldn't. Some people go by face value and they're the ones who aren't gonna get what I'm doing, but who cares you know, my fans know what I’m about and that’s good enough for me."





lEIGh5

Check out the video of Muderdolls "Dead In Hollywood": 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7d44j9xXKo

And Wednesday 13 "I Walked With A Zombie":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw5LIr7tjPc



Some live pics from their Melbourne show at Hi-Fi Bar: