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Lily’s black-clad backing band snaps into action with Everyone’s At It and the girl herself makes a dramatic entrance as a larger-than-life silhouette before the curtain drops and strobe lights go mental.
She too is dressed in black, her diminutive presence allowing her vocals to take centre stage in what is a surprisingly intimate show given that ticket demand could have filled a much larger venue.
I have let this thing go since January, I’ve been so slack. So very slack.
I’ve shot so many bands: Howard Jones, The Waifs, The All-American Rejects, Hey Monday, Fall Out Boy, Amanda Palmer, Mogwai, The Stills, Kings of Leon, Counting Crows, The Who, Kean, The Greats, Little Birdy, Oh Mercy, Lady GaGa, Pussycat Dolls and Lily Allen.
I’ve also shot a bunch of festivals: Sunset Sounds, Soundwave, Big O, V Festival and the Victorian Fire & Flood Benifit concert in Brisbane.
I will upload some photos from the most recent shows I’ve shot but probably not ALL. You can however see most of them on my Flickr photostream if you’re really curious!
Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down, is next. A lot of punters here haven’t heard his solo efforts, eventuating in the 2007 album Elect the Dead. Tankian walks out in a white suit and white top hat.
Kate Miller-Heidke is stunning, in both looks and vocal range, appearing like a retro diva with a hint of burlesque in a black 80’s taffeta dress with sequins and gloves. She almost sounds operatic as she launches into songs about metro sexuals, scooters and super girl, with a voice like an angel and the smile of a demented Alice in Wonderland in a cute, yet sexy keyboard driven way. There’s something wicked going on in that little pixie’s mind and the audience love it!
After a stellar 2007 and a landmark set at this year’s Splendour In The Grass festival, The Panics touched down in Brisbane before heading off to write the follow up to the ARIA-award-winning Cruel Guards, and it was certainly a night to remember.
Blue King Brown made a grand entrance onto the stage with each band member appearing on stage and breaking into their individual pieces one at a time. Drummer Pete Wilkins entered first, then percussionists Salvador Perisco and Carlos Santone came on next, keyboardist Sam Cope, and then it was time for the three gorgeous female backing vocalists to appear with a cheer from the crowd. Trombonist Emily ‘G’ Mould and trumpeter Nick ‘Dub’ Wilkins entered with splendour and as a final point the bold and beautiful Natalie Pa’apa’a who recognized the traditional owners of our land.
The nine men behind masks are behind a black curtain until Joey Jordison’s drum warm-up cues it to drop. Slipknot sidle onstage amid purple-lit smoke that’s near-impossible to focus on, while Jordison waves bizarre tree-root/scarecrow-hybrid gloves at the crowd. The eerie screams and lazy bass-driven soundscape of Iowa is sampled as they take their positions and remain immobile for several moments. It’s a wildly successful opening tactic, as the appearance of these nine figures – still, silent, and representative of a marketing concept much larger than their physical make-up – is enough to incite pandemonium throughout the venue. Corey Taylor’s roar and Jim Root’s high-pitched lead riff introduce fan favourite Surfacing, a cut from their 1999 self-titled debut which surmises the band’s misanthropic, rebellious tendencies in three minutes of break-neck, down-tuned heavy rock. Continue reading
