Gyroscope at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom

Band: Gyroscope with Young and Restless
Venue: Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom
Date: 17th may 2008
Reviewed By: Lyn Harder
Young and Restless started the night in a blaze of rock and roll. The band seemed to be fully into their set, showering it with all their must. I felt the crowd weren’t as into the band, maybe the main band was all they wanted, of course there were many cheers but didn’t set the crowd alight. There were those few moshing at the front, but needless to say, doesn’t mean they don’t rock. The band has been together since 2005. Karina, ever the rock chick, belted out the tunes, and when she removed her skirt to show us an almost ‘Sandi from grease’ outfit, the boys in the crowd stood up!
Gyroscope started with a bang, four hunky boys on stage and the crowd went nuts. Not my kind of hunky, but judging from some girl’s reactions a few would have taken any member home. The lead singer and guitarist Daniel Sanders and drummer Rob Nassif remind me of boys found on chapel st in pink and white tops and trendy hair do’s, Zoran Trivic looks like a rapper and Brad Campbell is the rock of the group. First song ‘weapon’ got the punters shaking and moshing. Other songs include ‘midnight’ ‘these days’ ‘ok’ 1981’ ‘driving’ ‘safe forever’. Daniel decided to join the crowd for the song ‘safe forever’ and he stayed in the crowd singing for a while. Brad sung great backing vocals. More songs were ‘all in on one’ ‘beware’ and ‘Doctor’ rocked with backing vocals by Brad.
Finished with ‘snakeskin’, which really is a fantastic song. They only played for one hour literally and managed to fit in 17 songs all up! I’m not used to such short gigs and my friend and I thought maybe the kids of today haven’t the energy to listen to a band for longer!!? I admit I am yet to own one of their cd’s so I didn’t know a few songs but overall these guys put on a great show, the crowd loved them. A sold out hi fi bar tells me this band will be around for a while.

Atmospheric Cog

Band: Cog with Kora and Jakob
Venue: Palace Nightclub
Date: 15th may 2008
Reviewed By:Lyn Harder

Photographs By: Mark Geisel

Tonight was my first night at the new palace venue and I must say hats off to the management for fixing the place, love the fact the bar which used to be in the middle of the room is now on the right hand side. Jakob were already playing on arrival. A truly remarkable instrumental band. Watching them makes me wish I could usher everybody out of the room then place a bed on the dance floor and have my way with my partner! The music was hypnotic, flowing and amazing.
After a long break NZ band Kora arrived and brought with them a mix of electronica, rock and even some island sounding tunes. Most of it I enjoyed, the more electronica isn’t my thing, but the crowd certainly thought it was. One almost thought the Haka was going to break out.
After another long break (way too long –45 mins) we are entertained with John Farnham’s ‘You’re the voice’ blaring out of the speakers, and who would have thought it, but most of the crowd in their black tees and tattoos were singing to good ole Johnny! Cog came on stage and started with ‘No other way’ then crept into ‘Bird of feather’ which sounded fantastic live, such a brilliant song. Other songs include “Resonate’, ‘Are you interested?’, and ‘Four Walls’. ‘Spine' got the crowd going and pumped us up even further. An amazing live song and one of my faves (I just can’t go past the guitar solo, one of the best). “Sharing Space’ which is the latest album title , ‘Real Life’ which included drum solo, and speaking of the drum kit, what an amazing piece of equipment, looking like a space craft, part illuminating and part ‘who can not look at it in awe’. The drum kit was placed high up in the middle of stage like he was king on a throne.

Other songs were ‘The Movies’ an old classic ‘Moshiach’ ‘Swamp’, ‘Town of Lincoln’, and ‘My Enemy’. They ended on a different song ‘Bitter Pills’, adding acoustic guitar it was rather a nice ending to the gig, a creeper of a song that is slow then fast. I’ve been following Cog for about 3 years now and they are a fantastic live band. Though I have to ad ‘sharing Space” for me doesn’t get me going like ‘The New Normal’ or ‘Just visiting EP’s’ and I wish they’d sing more off the latter mentioned EP. Apparently Sharing Space was supposed to be recorded in 5 months and ended up taking 10 months, recorded in the US. The lighting guy did an amazing job, really added to a lot of songs. I did notice the gower boys didn’t have lights directly on them so they looked like were in fog at times, not that that was a bad thing. I was asked to mention by a guy called Lachy that Cog sound like atmospheric frog stomp music! Cog is about the music and putting on a great show and that I must say, they do.

James Blunt takes on Rod Laver Arena

Band: James Blunt
Venue: Rod Laver Arena
Date: 6th May 2008
Reviewed By: Danelle Lee

Photos By Lyn Harder:

I think as far as a venue goes, Rod Laver really is too big for solo artists although for James Blunt the arena does try to create a more intimate space by curtaining off the top tier. This still makes an artist work hard to keep a 10,000 strong audience feel included in the performance. However James made it seem effortless with a few songs in recognising all audience members from General Admin through to those in the stix, complimenting Australia as one of his strongest fan bases and this Melbourne gig being one of his biggest turnouts. I don't know what this says about Australians but from my observation of the fans I'd say that it's pretty mixed, with a reasonably large percentage going to the 40+. Yes Mr Blunt is someone you wouldn't take home to meet your mother because she'd most likely try and get a piece of his well spoken, four day furry fuzzed, spoken face all for herself. Regarding the male turnout begs the question of how many were dragged by their girlfriends. However due to the amount of shout outs during the show, it seems that Blunt has a reasonable independent male following as well. The Show opened with 'Give me some Love' from the new Album All The Lost Souls, this track set the president for a show that was never going to be fast paced with huge feats of physical stage dominance but about creating an atmosphere that encouraged the audience to think about the content of his songs hitting an intelligent chord and not just an emotional one. This was backed up by the opening video which was a preview to Al Gores " An Inconvenient Truth" and later enhanced by footage of war torn Kosovo during "No Bravery". There is something of the social activist in Blunt (even though to some he might seem like a commercial sellout) commenting during his dialogue with the audience, on societies celebrity obsession "with whether Britney Spears is wearing knickers or not", adding that 'his first album did things that he never thought would and possibly didn't want to'.I would have been very suprised if any fan in the audience didn't have both of Blunts albums and he kept everyone happy by playing a huge selection of songs from the first album as well as his new one. 'Goodbye My Lover' was the crowd singalong and was always going to be a personal favourite of mine, along with 'I Really Want You' and 'Shine On'. It was amusing to find out that 'Goodbye My Lover' is the No# 1 song played at funerals and 'Your Beautiful' No#1 at weddings, which is quite ironic if you think of it. I'm not too sure why but alot of his songs seemed to take on a slower tempo, particularly during 'I Really Want you' which is one song that I would have liked to have kepted up beat. His band were great however i'm not too sure how long they've been together, with Blunt as the star of the show his interaction with his band fell short of any personal connection and felt strictly professional. As for the stage design it felt like someone had ravaged a prop box and desided to use whatever they wanted whether it was apropriate or not, for example the Gong making one brief appearence at the end of 'So Long Jimmy' and disappearing. Then there was the Disco ball for '1973' and the net of lights that at some point during the show were rigged up and several songs later pulled down, never really adding or devaluing anything from the performance. However as I stated at the beginning, the show wasn't about theatrics but the music. I just wish whoever raided the magic box would just put all those gadgets back in it, they just weren't necessary. All in all I had a very satisfying evening, even though when I stood up half way through the very last song '1973' some old lady tapped me on the shoulder to sit down, to which I replied she should stand up, the cheek. James pushed all my buttons and I would gladly let him push some more, there really is just something about the way he sings, speaks and his furry face that just makes me ripple with that loving feeling.