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