The View behave themselves at the Hi Fi

Salmonella Dub hit the Hifi

Words: Leah Holdsworth
Picture: Courtesy of Salmonella Dub

Saturday November 28

 

Salmonella Dub is a band that sure has good word of mouth. Branded as a band that defies the label of yet another alternate Roots group, at the Hi Fi in West End last Saturday evening Salmonella Dub sure showcased a splendid blend of roots and rock, mixed in with some electronic elements. It was perhaps these electronic elements that took me most by surprise. While it was clear the band would have a defined roots-based sound to their music, I was not so much expecting the influences of trance and dub. The deep bass rippled from the stage through to the crowd, who bounced off the energy created, reacting in funky dance moves and sheer energetic enthusiasm.

An interesting element to the band was the lack of frontman. Since former frontman Tiki Tanae left the band a couple of years ago in search of his own solo career, it seems guest appearances from singers have floated in and out. And certainly, this is what occurred throughout the evening’s performance. It kept the songs fresh and interesting, as each guest singer lent their own individual slant to the band’s music. One particular band mate stood out for me the whole evening. The keyboardist, Andrew Penman, was not only striking looking with his bright pink spiky hair, but his enthusiasm for the music was also truly contagious. I have never seen another keyboardist hit those keys with more gusto or passion. His presence was uplifting for his fellow band members as well as for the crowd.

The Hi Fi seems to be a venue that attracts fervour. Nestled in the middle of the main street of West End, it perfectly suits bands that don’t quite meld into the mainstream music scene of other Brisbane venues. Indeed, Salmonella Dub had attracted a crowd that was an eclectic mix of the eccentric, the tipsy and the music savvy. Everyone was there for a good time. The goal for the night appeared to be to listen to some sweet tunes, groove along to the beat and of course drink a couple of beers while doing so. Salmonella Dub achieved this ten times over.

Jezabels EP launch with SONGS @ the Clubhouse

Saturday November 28 2009

Words and pictures: Kate Scantleton

I am a very picky gig-goer when it comes to venue. Normally, I steer well-clear of any place that will be full of rude, selfish and uncaring-when-it-comes-to-music members of the general public. Walking into the Clubhouse, this is EXACTLY what I was expecting, being a small portion of the Family/Empire franchise and my previously bad experiences with such places. Much to my surprise, it was the opposite. Nice people, nice venue, nice gig all round.

Having never seen the Jezabels before, I can tell you now they are either a band that you will love to death or not appreciate at all. They have a very specific, artistic style of music – the kind of you can hear playing whilst looking out the window of a speeding train disappearing into the country-side at dusk on a sunny day. It certainly has a magic about it, and the mixture of beautiful, feminine vocal melodies, clean and delightful piano backing and fast-paced drumming creates a perfect melding of rock, pop and musical genius.

Touring off the back of their latest EP release, She’s So Hard, it is apparent that the Jezabels are a very hard-working, The set was beautiful, delicate, interesting and dramatic, the highlights being Disco Bisuit Love, Be A Star, and Unmarked Helicopters. It was easy to see that the crowd was awe-struck after the set finished, with people still milling around, waiting for more.

Next up was SONGS, whose mix of old-school pop and rock had the entire crowd entranced throughout the set… once the sound guy got things sorted. Having just released a new album, they had the repertoire to show their abilities as a serious pop/rock group, which they did with ease.

The night was one filled with the basic, no-frills pop/rock tunes that we seem to lose track of nowadays. Without bothering to embellish music with the synthetic sounds that we all find too common in this day and age, these two acts have managed to create their sound with the simplicities, and not compromise integrity whilst doing it in style. Nice people, nice venue, nice gig all round.

Blitzen Trapper Blitzes the Hifi Bar Brisbane

Saturday November 14, 2009

Words and Pictures: Kate Scantleton

It’s great when you enter a live gig with no expectations and walk out having been blown away. Such was the case of US band Blitzen Trapper @ the Hifi Brisbane last night. The Hifi Brisbane has, until this point in time, not stood up to the expectations of many (including myself) in terms of providing a great show. It can be safely said that after watching last night’s gig, the Hifi Brisbane has finally found its mojo. It was only a matter of time!

The ‘Trapper are the kind of musicians that refuse to be ‘boxed’ into any particular category, mixing country with electro-pop, grunge-esque guitar licks with sweet harmonies, and a capella melodies with synthetic noise. They make it work. Let me give you the heads up, these guys are destined to be the next big thing. Jump on the bandwagon now while you’re ahead.

Let me set the scene for you: Trapper are a six piece, all members of which chip in all over the place – drummer Brian Koch and guitarist Marty Marquis create the most amazing harmonies with lead singer Eric Earley, whilst the rest of the band, Erik Menteer, Michael VanPelt, and Drew Laughery, jump between bass, guitars, synth, keys and percussion. Mix these amazingly talent gents with catchy tunes and an hour and a half of non-stop music, and you have yourself one hell of a gig.

Blasting onstage with Sleepytime in the Western World, the band made it blatantly clear what the audience was in store for. Filling the rest of the set with songs from their numerous releases, highlights being Black River Killer, Silver Moon, Furr and Big Black Bird, the set was filled with both sweet, soft melodies and intense crescendos.

It was surprising to hear of a not-so-well-known abroad band touring Australia, and leading up to the gig I was a little unsure of whether their performance could actually warrant an international tour. I can certainly say that my attitude has completely done a 180. This is one band who have managed to capture the hearts of good music followers, and I personally have not been able to remove them from my mp3 player since. I’m very much looking forward to their future return to our welcoming shores.

Josh Pyke: The One-Man Show

Words: Leah Holdsworth
Pictures: Kate Scantleton

Memories and Dust as well as other less known (but no less enchanting) songs, he seemingly created an effortless calm ambience. One amazing thing about this talented young man was his ability to wholly enthral the crowd throughout his whole set. Dancing slowly on the spot, singing the lyrics softly under their breaths, the audience gazed up at him with total admiration. It was clear that this audience felt a personal connection to the words that he sung. Pyke himself seemed to be genuinely enjoying his own performance; it was particularly sweet to see the satisfaction on his face after every time he sung ‘I’ll just hold you tight and we’ll not let those fucker’s in’ during his rendition of The Lighthouse Song.

Josh Pyke started the evening with a solo set. Singing catchy tunes such as

Though the audience was certainly not becoming edgy, and in fact were rather visibly enjoying his soft performance so far, a set change took place and soon Pyke was joined onstage by a select few of his fellow band members. A quirky element soon became clear on stage, as little and cute instruments were used by the other band members. These additions included a toy piano (that had the musician hunched over in an eccentric, but nonetheless adorable, fashion), a miniature guitar, as well as Pyke’s own signature harmonica. The energy soon began to build, finally reaching a peak during the crowd favourite, Middle of the Hill. The song and the atmosphere was unreal and climactic – the audience truly ‘went off’.

And, though it did not seem possible at the time, a third set change occurred with yet another change to Josh Pyke’s performance taking place. A harder, rockier sound was added as another element to the evening, which created a delicious, delicate balance between soft acoustic, quirky rock, and an alternate rock sound. Overall, the evening was thoughtfully planned out, and Josh Pyke’s performance certainly satisfied the masses. Indeed, Josh Pyke managed to do more than just satisfy the audience; he created an evening that will surely be remembered fondly by all, as was clear by the smiles that played on each of the faces I glimpsed as I left.

Kiss me with a bullet

hers

Annie, get your gun… because you’re going to need it to rid the long line of people waiting to eat at this joint. On each corner of the main drag’s intersection lies an eatery, bountiful with pleasures of the sweet and savoury kind. On one particular corner though, the wait just to get in can be up to 30 mins… and they don’t take bookings. Though once you’re acknowledged, seated and coffee orders are taken the menu before your ravenous eyes is so generous, varied and detailed you’ll have a hard time deciding what your tummy wants best. One waitress even dubbed me “confused” after scribbling down the mouth-watering descriptions and flustering about to make up my mind before the obviously-in-a-rush staff came back for another attempt at taking our table’s orders. Of course being of 18-24 tick-an-age-box group, my sharp eye went straight to the vodka cured ocean trout, spinach, poached eggs, sourdough and herbed hollandaise ($17.50). Though on second thought the Canadian brioche French toast with bacon, caramelised banana, pecans and maple syrup ($15.50) could solve my argument with his that maple syrup and bacon go superbly well together. However, it was not to be as my poached-egg-loving, rumbling tummy decided to stick to the usual bacon, eggs and sides dish. I had the double smoked bacon, poached eggs, tomato, herbed hollandaise and Turkish ($13.50) with a potato fetta hash cake with herbed sour cream as a side ($4.50). his grilled swiss mushrooms ($15.50) were very hot and flavoursome, unlike my lukewarm tomato. The Toulouse sausage with sweet potato hash, rocket, poached eggs and bush tomato relish ($17.50) looked very tasty and colourful, the other meals slightly undressed in its presence. As I tucked into my tasty-but-not-hitting-the-top-notes brekky, the banana French toast flew past about a million times making my head spin and the linger of saucy aroma tickle my nostrils. Maybe next time I’ll pass up the eggs. The French toast also comes in the strawberry brioche variety with vanilla ricotta, berry coulis and hazelnut crumble ($15.50). The coffee was small yet quite lovely, but the smoothie that went past looked like it was worth the $6 or so you have to pay for it (though on closer inspection it was merely a milkshake). The atmosphere inside is chatty but relaxing, with two-tone rustic brick walls, minted vintage doorways and window frames, but the out-the-back area is spacious, green, breezy and just a tad tranquil… a rare experience in the rubbish-lined streets of West End. Much like Cirque, your eyes will be kept busy in the bathrooms, which are basically modern day outhouses with a communal basin (they’re not supposed to know we go!). The place does a lot of business with all sorts lining up to eat at the best breakfast restaurant for 2008 and 2009. Maybe if they removed the sign advertising these honours from the main road they’d do less business and wise up on the customer service front… but that’s not really the idea, is it? Picture pretty perfect, with one eye on the clock.

Food 4/5
Coffee 3/5
Service 3/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Price 4/5

his

The Gunshop cafe in West End is wedged between the formidable opponents of Three Monkeys Cafe and Freestyle Toút, on the corner of Melbourne St and Boundary Road, although all three restaurants provide a different kind of menu to a different kind of market. But one thing they all share in common is simple; they are awesome. As we waited outside for a table (not too long, we were ushered in quick as a bullet), and were gunning for a killer breakfast, we noticed Gunshop had won Brisbane’s Best Breakfast Restaurant 2009, so expectations were high from the outset. The inside itself was quite nice, exposed brick walls and intriguing artwork (I’m no art aficionado, so it’s all intriguing to me) lined the walls, with decent music (Bloc Party, La Roux for some examples) creating a pretty chilled out and relaxed ambience. Once we had placed our orders for coffees, we had to choose our eats, and let me assure this was a mean feat… Like shooting very small fish in a very large barrel. Everything on the menu looked spectacularly inviting (aside from the Black Pudding… seriously who actually eats that stuff?), so making our decision was harder than expected. As we rifled through the menu because we were starving, we began to see (on paper at least) why Gunshop had been awarded such a prestigious award. None the less, after a shotgun decision on the grilled mushroom, sourdough, creamed eggs and truffle oil ($15.50) we placed our order and waited for the plentiful bounty to arrive. The mushrooms were the best part of the meal, and combined with the eggs and truffle oil made for a pretty decent feed. I’m not the biggest fan of creamed eggs (I think they’re scrambled eggs with more milk and cream), but together with the sour dough and oil they were pretty damn good. One could see how Gunshop could have won the award for Brisbane’s Best Breakfast. However one could not see how such a competition could overlook Salt, which in my opinion was a slightly better than Gunshop in terms of service, food and coffee. None the less Gunshop was an excellent choice, which I would strongly recommend for anyone looking for a good, reasonably priced breakfast treat on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Coffee was also additionally tasty for some unexplained reason, and was just about worth the wait. Staff were friendly and always available to take orders.

Food: 3/5
Coffee: 4/5
Service: 2/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Price: 3/5

The Gunshop Café
53 Mollison St
West End
Ph: 3844 2241

Augie March and Gareth Liddiard grace The Hi-Fi

Words: Leah Holdsworth
Photos: Kate Scantleton

It is a sad state of affairs indeed when the support band eclipses the main act. And unfortunately, this was the case at the Augie March show at the Hi Fi last Saturday. Gareth Liddiard, the frontman from the Drones, with help from Dan Luscombe, the guitarist, played a mesmerising opening set. Gareth truly possessed a presence that demanded attention. While it may be true that half of the crowd stood chatting away, blithely unaware of the performance taking place on stage, the rest of us stood or sat frozen in awe. The Drones songs that the duo covered were exquisitely rendered almost new.

Though they played a long opening set, the audience was left wanting more.

Augie March had big shoes to fill after the pair’s out-of-this-world performance. Nonetheless, the crowd was quickly drawn to the soft presence of the band, who, walking onto the stage, drew an excited round of applause. The members of the band oozed a dreamy atmosphere that soon influenced the crowd’s mood.

With no greeting to the eager crowd of Brisbane, the lead singer Glenn Richards plunged head first into a less than passionate opening song. Eye contact was sparsely exchanged between the band members, who seemed to be trapped inside their own heads. It was if they were each individually jamming detachedly to each song with their heads tilted, lips pursed, and eyes closed.

Augie March is a band for drinking wine to, whilst lying back on a couch, with eyes closed. Richards’ Dylan-esque lyrics seek to sweep the audience into another’s tale. And certainly when I closed my eyes and swayed with the rhythm of the sparse yet sweet songs, I was able to appreciate the simple and quiet tempo that is Augie March.

However, Richards’ lukewarm renditions failed to captivate my attention, and likewise the crowd was subdued and dull. While Augie March is indeed one of Australia’s most critically acclaimed bands, their performance at the Hi Fi lacked the lush, intricate, and (most importantly) captivating detail that their studio albums do not.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Katy Steele strutted on stage in a black sailor-meets-butler jacket, high-waisted black shorts, with a sexy sequinned black bra that poked out the top of the jacket when she bounced a little too much. She opened with ‘Brother’ to an obviously loyal crowd at the Hi-Fi on this cool Wednesday night, packing the place like jam until sweat from the person next to you dribbled a little your way. Loving the attention throughout the gig, Katy repeatedly rockstar finger pointed to the ceiling and flicked her hair about, some fans mimicking her constant touches in the crowd.

The Little Birdy boys joined in from the second song ‘Come On Come On’ from their last album Hollywood. Despite what people are saying that Katy and the crew should stick to their soulful vocals and electro pop rock melodies, I adore happy song ‘Summarize’. Though I think it’s got something to do with the vintage-TV film clip where I first heard the delightful tune. One downfall of the track, which appears on their new album Confetti, is that Katy looks awkward (in person and on camera) dancing the way she does. Yes, it’s a dance-y kind of song, but there’s something about the moves that makes my mind think cop out. You can’t blame her for trying, yet I’m thinking the majority of us love her for her dark, intriguing ways and not her hip thrusts and high kicks. Aside from that distracting episode, nothing beats a singer that sounds harder, better, stronger than the digital recording.

They played some oldies, some newbies, and some big, big, lovely originals – and one instrumental, where Katy admitted afterwards she was yet to learn the cords and hence “mimed” the strumming. Next up was ‘Beautiful to Me’ performed solo as she did 7 years ago before the band had spread its wings (I had to fit one in, sorry!) with the crowd singing harmony.

They played a 16 song set before bidding us farewell, but secretly we knew they’d be back. I feel if a band is to do an encore it needs to be earned by the crowd aka through cheering, stomping, clapping, whistling, and proclaiming your love for one or more members of said band. When you know they’ll be back, it never has the same grand finale effect. Though back they came to play ‘Don’t’ from Hollywood, in which if you can tear your eyes away from Katy you actually notice the other members of the band – Barney on bass, Matt on drums, a random on keyboard, and Simon on lead guitar who puts on a really good performance if you can break the lust lines streaming from your lips, heart, and junk toward the star of the show.

Next they skipped to ‘Andy Warhol’ from Big Big Love and ended (for real this time) on ‘Confetti’, Katy yelling her final words “I want to taste this”. And we did as millions of colourful squares of confetti spurted from the ceiling, spraying the audience in what was rockin’ show. Note to Katy: where’d the sexy Chanel red lips go? 

The Hi-Fi Opening, feat. The Drones

Eight years in the making, The Hi-Fi Brisbane has finally flicked the switch on its automatic doors.

The legendary original venue in Melbourne has been running for over 11 years and is a leader in local and international headline music events in the southern state.

Now The Hi-Fi Group is bringing their decade of knowledge, skill and overall groovy-ness to the River City.

The venue’s appearance seems very suave for the sleepy suburb of West End and the young and old queuing to get in for the 7pm start were dressed in their Valley riches.

The main thing I have to stay about the venue is it’s delightfully clean, smells only of paint, and you leave with your shoes still shiny from polish, not spilled drinks.

Though at the moment it does lack a certain character so bolted into other Brissie iconic sound stages… whether the cleanliness has something to do with the crisp atmos, we’ll soon find out.

Kiran Nagesh, part of The Hi-Fi’s management team says it’s been a long journey and he’s very happy about the venue coming together.

“I’m very excited about tonight. It’s a big step for us,” Nagesh says.

Rumours flitted around that it was a similar layout to the Tivoli and was roughly the same size.

In the VIP mezzanine level, Brett’s Wharf catered and the free bar was a hit, running out of cold Coronas before 9pm.

Staff on the door seemed terribly unorganised and the wide-eyed 12-year-old-looking girl who informed me I needed a VIP pass to go upstairs was clearly unaware of the venue’s layout as everyone has to travel aloft to use the bathroom… unless they’d prefer I take a leak on the d-floor?

Hiccups aside (because we can’t be too harsh on an opening night), The Hi-Fi Brisbane offers a fancy venue to kick back and listen to some tunes, bust out on the dance floor, buy some merch and stumble home through the very close CBD.

Have you been to The Hi-Fi yet? Tell me if the floor is sticky…

The Drones Review
By Dave Callaghan

The Drones are either going to be a band you love or hate. There is no two ways about it. A band that does not take themselves too seriously, it’s good to see Australian rock is mixing it with the best of them. These guys are really popular in the UK and Europe and after seeing them live for the first time it is evident to see why.

Their musical performance, although loose at times, was good old fashion rock and roll and as a purist I found this very enjoyable. Although, some might say swearing at the crowd and giving them the finger is childish and a bit garage rock band. But you have to take the good with the bad.

Lead singer/guitarist, Gareth Liddiard’s twangy guitar really adds a unique dimension to the Drones that shines in their recordings. I felt as this uniqueness did not transpose well onto the live arena and found the guitar sound stock standard and very muddy. I will concede, however, that this was the Hi-Fi bar’s opening night and accordingly, there may still be some fine tuning needed with the venue’s sound for future gigs.
Sound issues aside, this may not have been their best live performance from what I have heard. Their popularity is well deserved but only slivers of the performance I was expecting seeped through; and intermittently at best.

The potential to wow audiences is definitely there. I can see why their recognition continues to soar and the accolades continue to come. The Drones are unquestionably on their way up and I look forward to catching another performance in the near future.