Review by: Lauren Sherritt
Known for catchy tunes, clever lyrics, playfully sung narratives and an outstanding energy, The Wombats played to a sold out Tivoli in Brisbane on Thursday night, giving their all to make it a night to remember for the fans attending.
So popular were tickets to the trio’s show that Thursday night’s gig was their second Brisbane performance, organised for those who had missed out on tickets for the original Tuesday night show. Being all ages, the evening started early, with doors opening at six-thirty and the band taking the stage just after eight. Populated mainly by teens delighted to be able to see the marsupial-inspired band in the flesh, the crowd got busy chanting for The Wombats early on.
Continue reading The Wombats @ The Tivoli, Brisbane – 5 May 2011 – Live Review
I headed to Sparkadia’s show on Friday April 8 at the Hi Fi in Brisbane with much the same feeling of trepidation that I had on hearing that the band was releasing a new album in March this year. Technically, I knew that the songs on the record were superb, just as I knew that the hype building about the The Great Impression tour and Sparkadia’s new live show had to mean something. I was troubled, though, by clear memories of a gig on the eighteenth of September in 2008 that had changed the way I viewed live music and made me worried that there was only disappointment to come by way of comparison.
Day two of Sunset Sounds 2011 arrives, bringing with it steady rain and a forecast of nothing but. Organisers have spread sand over some of the affected areas, but when I arrive on Thursday afternoon the damage that the combination of thousands of feet and a whole lot of rain did to the grounds yesterday is easily apparent. Areas that were grassy are now plains of squelchy mud ready to snatch unsuspecting thongs from feet and disappear them forever and the paths we traversed yesterday are now boasting small streams of rainwater.
Billed by organisers as the perfect way to cap off New Year’s celebrations, Brisbane’s Sunset Sounds has become renowned for its impeccable line-ups and alluring Botanical Gardens setting. With headline act Interpol leading the charge of an impressively diverse set of artists, the 2011 festival kicked off on the muggy afternoon of Wednesday January 5th.
Absolutely everything that was put in place by the organisers was solely for the enjoyment of the 16,000 attendees. I would find it really hard to find something negative to say about the whole experience.
The show begins before we’ve even entered the room. An usher approaches, explaining that to gain admission, tickets are not enough. We’ll need to remove our shoes and any socks and crowd into the shopfront’s store room, leaving behind our footwear. As compensation we will be given a small torch. Crammed into the dark room with forty other people and their exposed feet, we wait for the show to begin.
Jeff Lang was not always the teller of disturbed tales accompanied by face-melting blues guitar shredding. There was time – in the heady post-grunge days – way back at the beginning of this 15-year-long and counting career, that Lang appeared to fancy himself as a bit of a fringe-rock crooner. His then long locks and fresh face even graced morning television and he seemed always just on the verge of tipping into the mainstream proper. 
