Luke ‘n’ Kim

melbourne bdo 2007 - is it just me?

29 January, 2007 – 9:00 pm

…so after not really sleeping that well from suspected broken ribs, i woke without an alarm (sweet!) and readied myself for the big day out… arrived in the city to find all trams going there were full, not really a surprise i guess but the internerd had told me earlier that there were going to be extra ones to compensate! damn.

me and some other guy crossed the road to catch a tram on the same route, going the other way, so we could then bunt and eventually end up at the right place in seated bliss (as opposed to cramped torment)…

so i got there, met jones, and we quickly made some deals as to who we would see and when…

i’m not gonna write out the whole story but here’s a list of who i saw (some or all of) in order and some thoughts to follow;

• macromantics

just saw the end of the set, kinda angry? but very good, freestyling plus decks…

• butterfly effect

guitar level excellent, very similar to album sound, not sure how they’ll do overseas? hopefully well if they don’t opt into the soft rock world…

• the vines

pre-vines we went and bought some bar tokens and promptly exchanged them for goods/services (ie, beer), the vines gig was packed, everyone was really into it, they played a lot of old stuff (which is good), i didn’t realize how big craig nicholls has gotten? guess he got the munchies a bit much, and his metabolism slowed a bit…

• my chemical romance

the were really tight, excellent punk, the guys next to me (i quote): “promised themselves they’d see any band except MCR”, apparently they were there to see muse & tool… it was kinda funny to me because, the music was good, but these guys couldn’t get over the emo kids and the makeup and stuff, even when it was really good, i could tell they were holding themselves back from getting into it… also, the band had to stop so that some kids wouldn’t get trampled in the mosh pit, i thought to myself, “the emo kids just didn’t want to mosh with the other conformists”… hehehe

• kasabian

a walk around the “lilly pad” arty laid back area, more beer, then the trek to kasabian, it was first time i’ve ever heard them, live or otherwise, sort of a driving rock sound, interesting, although i get the feeling i’d find the album a bit boring? oh yeah, the lead singer came out in a scarf! nice work… clown.

• peaches & hermes

…were surprisingly good, i actually knew the some of the songs they were playing, even though i’ve never actively listened to a peaches cd… lots of electric drums and crowd involvement, very cool…

• spankrock

pretty cool, dj set, jones tells me they were a lot better when he saw them in
new york…

• the killers

the place was packed, the killers were a big draw for a lot of people i guess, we saw a couple of songs, but the fact that the venue doesn’t have any sort of gentle slope really sucks, constantly moving to get a better spot, they sounded really good though, too bad the wind picked up and the volume would go in and out constantly…

• dj diplo

we watched diplo as jones said “refugee style”, (from behind the fenced off drinking section), he was pretty cool, lots of cutting the music for mic checks and self styled humour…

• the streets

mike skinner relied pretty heavily on the backup vocals, we didn’t see any old stuff, frustrating, but good, he looked hard case hey, like a typical englishman on holidays, pasty white, in a white tee and bodgy light tarten style shorts…

• hot chip

very cool, 4 or 5 person dj’ing plus various instruments, inc more electric drums! i kinda think the fact they look so geeky is quirky and cool, the music though, excellent…

• jet

i left hot chip thinking about how i was going to get into the front section for muse, looking up i saw the green lights were on! woohoo, i could make it, jones and i spoke quickly about how we’d meet up later, but having been to a few festivals doubted we’d see each other again… anyways, i ran to the crush of people and tried to get as close as i could, finally i was at the front and the guy said “that’s it, no more in!”, just as i came to the gate, he then grabbed me and pulled me through! cla-click! the gates shut, i couldn’t believe it… i looked up, the lights turned red, amazing… oh yeah, while all that was going on, a little band called jet were playing, a lot of people around me were saying, “oh wonder why the lights are green now! jet suck, blah blah blah”, snobs man, oh you’re too cool to appreciate jet because you like tool? good one. their music was in the back of my head for much of the pushing and shoving, and i’ve decided to give their newer album another couple of tries, i have a feeling it might start working for me…

• muse

wow, the stand-out, can’t wait for the solo show tomorrow night. everyone was pumped, except, for the 7ft tall guy next to me. i had a quick chat to the girls to my right in between them singing and yelling along, but this guy on my left, stoic. he just would not be moved by the band, quite an amazing feat. weird, but amazing.

• tool

well, i can’t say i have been a tool fan for long, i’ve only really listened to the most recent album… first up they played 3 songs i hadn’t heard and then the guy says almost out of nowhere, “sydney was louder”… i think he was trying to pump up the crowd, but it seemed to me like melbourne just folded it’s preverbial arms at that point and said “oh, really.”. i left. i waited for jones to show up at our predetermined meeting point, but turns out i was AN HOUR early, hahaha….

• the presets

i caught the last 20 minutes of their set, and it was excellent, the crowd was loving it, and the crowd actually seemed really decerning? hmm, i tried not to think for a while and just enjoyed, i even did the obligitory camera-phone picture (just like everybody else)…

• the crystal method

…i decided to hang in the boiler room after the presets to see the crystal method, some kids in front of me weren’t all there and kind of ruined it, stepping all over the place and what not… from what i saw the dj set itself wasn’t great, although maybe i expected a lot having listened to them for almost ten years now…

all in all, a great day…

btw the ear plugs blocked too much out, i didn’t end up wearing them for more that 5 minutes at a time, maybe the gold coast last year was louder?