Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Something for Canberra

There is something attractive about the ability to make a spur of the moment decision to jump on a bike, ride to a park, lock your bike against a tree, and walk 50 metres to see your favourite band play. This is exactly what I did on Sunday evening. The concert was in honour of Canberra's 93rd birthday, the venue was Canberra's "Stage 88" in Commonwealth Park, and the band I went to see was Something for Kate.

I have been a fan of SfK for many years now, since I first listened to their 1999 album, "Beautiful Sharks", which was just brilliant. I'll admit, there is a little bias mixed into my high opinion of them given their Melbourne roots, but they have recorded some fantastic songs over the years. The band has been rather quiet since 2004, which made this particular gig an interesting one to go to. SfK have just returned from the U.S where they finished recording their new album, which I assume will be released later this year. They played a couple of new songs from the album, one of which didn't even have a name yet, so I was particularly chuffed to be among the very first to hear it (it sounded alright too). They are pretty good live. Paul Dempsey, the band's charismatically indifferent front man, was in full flight with his deep, belly wrenching vocal work. According to females scattered amongst the predominantly male front row, Paul is apparently a great hunk-a-spunk as well.

The event, labeled "Celebrate Canberra in the Park", began at 12 noon and went right through to about 9pm. In true Canberra style, the event was a mix of slick, big concert style festivities, combined with plenty of hokey, country town family day moments. After almost a year in Canberra, I now realise this is a Canberra trade-mark, and one that I have come to admire. The best thing about this is that the beer is normally reasonably priced. The worst thing about this is that you end up getting some cheesy 40-something MC from the local teenie-bopper radio station shouting into the micro-phone: "Are you ready to rock?", followed by the obligatory, "I said, are you ready to rock?". Not to mention the irony that the radio station providing the MC would never actually play any of the music from the headline acts.

The organisers, quite rightly, included a lot of local acts, which made for some interesting contrasts. These included a hip-hop outfit known as Casual Projects, who I have actually seen before at the ANU bar and liked, and a solo female singer and guitarist, Ashleigh Mannix, who was an instant hit with the crowd, but sounded too much like Alanis Morissette for my tastes (which was confirmed when she covered Alanis' "Isn't it ironic", after I had already labeled her as this).

And for the bogans, Jake Roff provided an impressively boring set of songs dedicated to his love of Australian sport. I don't want to be too harsh on the guy - he did have a good voice, and could clearly strum a few chords on the guitar, but 30 minutes of songs about cricket and rugby, and a bizarre "John Williamson" style anthem for our soccerroos in Germany was probably taking things a bit too far (the chorus included the line "We are the soccerroos, what ya gonna do" and then another line that involved the word kangaroo). The most unfortunate aspect of Jake's performance was its scheduling, right before Something for Kate. I felt bad for him. It wasn't his choice of course. The crowd, by this time, had built up significantly, but unfortunately they did not exactly warm to Jake's passion for sports rock. This fact was best demonstrated by the bloke standing next to me who, after each song, felt the need to shout "You suck!" repeatedly.

Another slightly awkward piece of scheduling was placing the relatively unknown Ashleigh Mannix between SfK and Alex Loyd. Even Ashleigh herself took a none-to-subtle swipe at the organisers when she came on stage, and declared that it sucked coming on after such a huge band. To her credit, however, she played a great set, and won over many fans who were probably a little skeptical after Jake's bogan ballads.

Alex Loyd was the last act, and appeared to attract a bigger, and significantly more female crowd to SfK. I like Alex, but could not really get into this gig. Being surrounded by teenie-boppy girls didn't help. I suddenly started to feel a lot older than the average - so much so, that I left about half way through his gig, which I don't normally like to do, but I was pretty tired of standing up the front by this stage, and was happy to vacate my prime position for more devoted fans. I am sure Alex Loyd fans would have been suitably satisfied with the performance.

Overall, I am very glad I made that spur of the moment decision to go to this concert. It was equally satisfying to walk away from the stage, back to the tree where my bike was locked, and ride back home again. A completely painless day out. Good one Canberra!

Here's some sample happy snaps of the event:

Casual Projects - OK, but clearly lacking a little in crowd support.


Something for Kate


Stephanie and Clint


A happy crowd


Ashleigh Mannix


The only photo I got of Alex Loyd before my batteries ran out

6 Comments:

Blogger Parton Words said...

Hey Macca,

It's the cheesy 40 something MC here. I'm actually still in my 30's as it happens, but hey, what's a few years between friends.

The reason that Jake Roff and Ashleigh Mannix were slotted between Alex Lloyd and Something for Kate is that they both do pure solo accoustic sets. This allows for the set up of the major acts.

Mix 106.3, althought it rates quite well in the 18-24 demographic, actually targets 30-50 and this is our genuine core demographic.

We play a helluva lot of Alex Lloyd but not a great deal of Something For Kate

8/08/2006 04:50:00 PM

 
Blogger macca said...

G'day Mark! - wow - how does one respond when so blatantly caught out. There is really nothing I can say here that would seem anywhere near appropriate except perhaps

"isn't Canberra just a little too small for comfort" :)

Truthly though - thanks so much for popping by my humble blog! It's fantastic (and a little scary) to see just how broad an audience my blog can reach.

I re-read this post just now and realised how harsh I was on you mate. Needless to say, I took a little artistic license on that. For what it's worth, my main aim was to highlight the many contrasts of the day, which I found quite interesting. The MC, who I didn't know, and who surely would never read the post, seemed like a pretty easy and safe target. Apparently not.

You were pretty cheesy though mate :)

As it so happens, since writing this post I have tuned into 106.3 on a number of occassions and realised it isn't quite the station I thought it was. So I take all your points on that front.

If you get rid of all those annoying commercials, and play a few more local bands every now and then, and give some air time to the young and up-coming bands that desperately seek just 3 minutes of air time to get their songs heard, then people like me would listen more. Having said all this, I am not oblivious to market forces, and understand that your target demographic may not be as interested as I in this sort of thing, so I guess I'll stick with the J's, and my 2XX, but I'll certainly tune to 106.3 every now and then to get my fix of cheese (which everyone needs now and then).

Drop by again sometime Mark!

8/09/2006 09:46:00 AM

 
Blogger Parton Words said...

Hey Macca,

No offence taken. I totally understand. I find myself in the same situation often. You know yourself from your radio gig, that you find yourself in a position where you have to make some sort of comment on so many subjects. You don't want to be a boring fence sitter so you often say things that could easily be taken as criticism. I tend to not take things personally these days. I'm just glad I made enough of an impact on you that you remembered me.

Please put the boots in again if you see or hear something that warrants it. At the end of the day, you really have to call it the way that you see it.

Chat again soon.

The Cheese Maker
Mark Parton

8/09/2006 12:09:00 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

just like to say that i think your a wanker

9/07/2006 03:09:00 AM

 
Blogger macca said...

ooh - anonymous abuse - excellent.

any specific reason ? I'm keeping a tally.

9/07/2006 09:34:00 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jake Roff for PM

1/25/2010 09:06:00 PM

 

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