Lou Barlow – Annandale Hotel, Sydney 16th April 2012

This show is the 6^th time I have seen Lou Barlow live in 2012.  I saw him 5 times on the Weezer Cruise with Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh & Solo.  Of those shows my favourite show was definitely his solo show.  Not saying he isn't awesome with Dinosaur Jr or Sebadoh but I think he is at his best in a solo acoustic setting. 

When we arrived at the Annandale Hotel Lou was hanging out at the Merch desk selling T-shirts and CD’s.  There was a much large crowd gathered than I had expected.  Allot of this was due to talk of slow sales and the tour possibly being cancelled.  Lou’s set began with a number of very early tracks from the Weed Forestin’ cassette which had recently been re-released.  Played on a Ukulele these tracks were retained their stripped back feeling but had a nice clarity that Lou’s lo-fi recordings missed.  With New Worship, It's So Hard to fall in Love & Jealous of Jesus being standouts.  From the time Lou swapped over to guitar the set seemed to be created on the spot from audience request to new songs Lou wanted to give a spin. 

We were treated to 2 new songs, a new Solo tune and a new Dinosaur Jr song.  The new solo tune is a dark tune with some fantastic guitar playing which is has an English folk feel to it.  Looking forward to hearing this on a record some day.  The other tune which Lou described as a mix between Queens of the Stone Age and Elliot Smith was good but would certainly benefit from Dinosaur Jr treatment.  Many requests were unfulfilled due to Lou not being able to remember them but a nice mix of Sebadoh, Folk Implosion and Solo material were played in a nearly 2 hour set.   Soulmate, Think (Let Tomorrow Bee), Home and Foreigner cover Cold as Ice were highlights. 

Unlike most encores tonight’s encore was genuine and unplanned.  Lou who left the stage and made his way to the Merch stand to sell his wares returned to the stage after receiving much love from the audience.  A further 4 songs were played before it was all over. 

Thank you Lou for a  great night.  

Lou Barlow Setlist:

Poledo

New Worship

Ride the Darker Wave

I Can't See

I Believe in Fate

It's So Hard to fall in Love

Jealous of Jesus

Brand New Love

New Song

Take Advantage

Soulmate

Free to Go

Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)

Spoiled

Home

New Dinosaur Jr Song

On Fire

Ballad of Daykitty

Human Punching Bag

Natural One

Skull

The One I Call

Cold as Ice

Rebound

Together or Alone

Soul and Fire

Encore:

Punch in the Nose

Healthy Sick

Magnets Coil

Pearl

Mastodon w/ Gojira & Kvelertak – The Hifi, Sydney 01st March 2012

This Mastodon show was my first visit to the newly reopened Forum at Moore Park which is now part of the HiFi group of venues.  Upon arriving at the venue we were meet with a huge line around the building a full hour after doors had opened.  This you could put down to people turning up at the same time and it just getting congested.  But while waiting to get in the line was just crawling to get into the venue.  It became really apparent when we got closer to the start of the line that security was spending 5 minutes on each bag they came across.  This included girls small handbags.  Just a tip guy’s security in general is a good thing but it has to be reasonable and this was way over the top.   

Kvelertak were gone by the time we got into the venue.   So we waited and waited for Gojira to start.  15 minutes after their scheduled start time they arrived on stage to a rapturous response from the audience.  I was interested in seeing the band as Guitarist/Vocalist Joe Duplantier had played on Cavalera Conspiracy’s Inflikted album.  Maybe there was something I was missing but there was very little in the bands set that I found remotely interesting.  The bad sound didn’t help but Gojira is a prime example of why contemporary Metal bores me.  The riff’s all sound the same, there is very little thought about how parts of the song go together or how a song can progress in interesting ways and the Vocals are non descript shouting.  But hey I was a minority here and the black t-shirts around me loved it.

Gojira Setlist:

Oroborus

The Heaviest Matter of the Universe

Backbone

Love

Remembrance

Flying Whales

Toxic Garbage Island

Headliners Mastodon were next and they really showed how a band Metal band can create interesting and relevant contemporary metal.  There isn't the level of posturing that most metal bands roll out during live shows in fact the band said very little to the audience.  I heard the band described as a mix of Iron Maiden and Machine Head which is a very on the mark description of Mastodon.   The band delivered a set heavy with songs from their latest record The Hunter.  The songs from this record work really well in a live situation.  The more direct nature of the song and the almost pop melodies give the crowd ample to sing along to.  Dry Bone Valley, Black Tongue, Spectrelight the closer Creature Lives were fantastic examples of this.  Older songs such as Crystal Skull, Aqua Dementia and Blood and Thunder were fantastic though some other tracks such as Megalodon and Circle Of The Cysquatch missed the mark due to an at time muddy mix.  Probably the highlight of the evening was Crack The Skye who's chorus soared.  There is a reason that Mastodon is spoken with such reverence and it is because they are taking a path less travelled. This might not be for everyone but they are taking Metal and Progressive in new directions.   

Mastodon Setlist:

Dry Bone Valley

Black Tongue

Crystal Skull

Megalodon

Thickening

Blasteroid

All the Heavy Lifting

Spectrelight

Curl of the Burl

Bedazzled Fingernails

Circle of Cysquatch

Aqua Dementia

Crack the Skye

Iron Tusk

March of the Fire Ants

Blood and Thunder

Creature Lives