Upsize, The Radiators and the Angels @ Acacia Ridge Hotel – May 4th 2007

Upsize
The Basement Bar at Acacia Ridge Hotel played host to an awesome night where Upsize , The Radiators and The Angels played live and loud! Rock shall never die!

Brisbane rock band Upsize totally rocked the Basement Bar to over a crowd of a 1000. Upsize are playing gigs around Brisbane promoting their debut CD West End Delicacy . They were the perfect band to get the crowd worked up in anticipation of The Radiators and The Angels performances. Upsize’s performance was outstanding, playing all the songs off their debut CD plus a few others which had the crowd jumping and yelling for more!

The Radiators
When The Radiators hit the stage, a wave of people surged forward. If it wasn’t for the guardrail the band would have been engulfed completely. The crowd varied in ages, from late teens to mid to late sixties. The Radiators had everyone nodding, feet tapping, jumping up and down as well as singing along. Everyone, no matter what age, appeared to know all the words to all the songs.

The Radiators started with a few of their slower and older classics like Summer Holiday , and by the time they started playing You Gimme Head , you couldn’t hear the band over the crowd singing. After decades of playing live gigs, The Radiators continue to wow their audience with an adrenaline filled performance.

The Angels
The Angels. What more can be said? The name itself makes you want to bow down low and chant “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” The Angels have a repertoire spanning nearly 3 decades with countless hits including Take A Long Line, After The Rain, Mr Damage, Straight Jacket and their first major hit Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? , which were all performed to the delight of the audience. All that experience has been polished to the extent that you almost feel that you’re listening to the CD.

Friday night was surreal. Not only did we have more Australian rock’n’roll history than you could poke a stick at, the rock’n’roll was picked up and carried forward into the present by Upsize. As I said at the beginning of the review, Rock shall never die!

Reviewed for: FasterLouder.com.au 
Photos: Upsize flickr photo set  and   The Angels & The Radiators flickr photo set

Brisbane, Concert, Music, Review

EP Review – The Mares, Love billows from my soul to consume you splendid people as an avalanche does a mountain

The Mares

The Mares – Love billows from my soul to consume you splendid people as an avalanche does a mountain….. Now that’s a mouth full and a half. I think that in itself is a record – the longest name for an EP ever.

The beginning of the first song ‘Biscuit Tin’ reminds me of the song ‘Echo Beach’ by Martha and the Muffins. This of course, soon changes to the darker side – maybe to Goth Graveyard.

‘Silver Scream’ offers an electric, hard driven yet refreshingly upbeat song that deserves air play and is sure to get the populace up and jumping. J must have been wearing tighter pants to hit some of the notes that he sings, but, all in all – I LIKE IT !

‘New Day’ is my favourite of the five songs. Even though it starts off dark, this song is the only one on the EP that offers hope of life after the EP – it will make you nod your head, tap your feet and generally feel good.

‘Feel’ – What can I say to this? The lyrics are dark, the mood is dark, the music is dark. After listening to the EP fifteen times or so, you get a feel for the dark side of life.

‘Copilot’ – the grungy undertones, favored with resonating guitar bring this song together to form another dark, slightly unhinged mood. I swear that if I was on drugs I would enjoy this immensely.

After days of listening to this EP I feel that I have been (with tongue in cheek) enlightened to the Dark Side.

Seriously, this EP offers a great cross section of punk, grunge, rock and pop. Go out and buy it. Listen to it at least 50 times and you’ll never get it out of your head. Like me, you will be totally wowed.

 Review for:  Thedwarf.com.au

Music, Review

EP Review – Walrus – The End Of The Earth Show

 Walrus - The End of the Earth Show

If you’re into variations of blues, grunge and rock then look no further than the Sydney band – WALRUS. Five years of accumulated practice & playing the traps, has resulted in a fairly outstanding CD – The End Of The Earth Show.

Imagine this:

I was comfortably ensconced in my computer chair, head thrown back, eyes closed listening to one of my partners’ guitar pieces, which I had nicknamed “floating”, due to the fact that the music relaxes me to the point of hypnosis, when the song ended and the bluesy guitar of Walrus’ track ‘WAR’ filled my head. Suddenly Roland Smith was yelling at 50,000 decibels “NO ONE GIVES A F**K ABOUT THE WAR. At this point, my eyes flew open, my heart stuttered, my chair scooted back, my knees hit the top of the computer desk and my derriere promptly landed painfully on the floor. What had happened is similar to lying in the sun on a hot summers day and then having a bucket of ice cold water upended over you. Profoundly Shocking! I stayed on the floor for the rest of the CD either entranced by the music or still in shock. I haven’t yet made up my mind on that one.

This music is so full of attitude and basic raw energy, that I’m amazed my mind (and body) is still in one piece. The CD has 5 tracks, the first being ‘WAR’. The bluesy guitar start to the song is soon rocked to bits by Roland Smith with the start of the vocals, shaking up the pace and feel of the song straight up. War will soon have you jumping up and going Yeah! That’s only if you’re not sprawled on the ground in shock of course.

The 3rd track, ‘LIPS’, more of a softer rock is probably my favourite, but might not be the song for hard core rock fans. All in all, even though I’m more of a Rock N Roll person, I have to admit that after playing this CD five or six times, I found myself enjoying it immensely. With their tracks ‘Corn Coloured Vomit’ and ‘Armageddon With You’, I can imagine that this band would be great to see live!!!

Reviewed for:   TheDwarf.comm.au

Band Site: Walrus on MySpace

Review, Zombie

The Gin Club

The Gin Club are a Brisbane-based musical collective who have been performing since 2003. Their self-titled debut album, recently released through Plus One Records and distributed by Reverberation is an eclectic mix of traditional folk, blues and country styles, featuring five distinctive song-writing voices backed by cello, accordion, piano, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, harmonica and saxophone. Their influences include Hank Williams, The Band, Bob Dylan, Crowded House, and Neil Young. Live, they often perform covers by Will Oldham, Spiritualized and The Rolling Stones.

The Gin Club have performed extensively throughout Brisbane and have recently completed a tour of New South Wales with Sydney’s theredsunband. Their growing reputation as a powerful live act has seen them gain support slots for international artists Papa M and Iron & Wine, and Australian heroes You Am I. They have also been featured in TripleJ’s Aus Music month program as part of the ‘next crop’ of Australian artists.

Releases:


JUNK
Buy Now! Available from Plus One Records


Fear Of The Sea
Buy Now! Available from or Plus One Records


Gabriel + Drugflowers
Buy Now! Available on or Plus One Records


Self-Titled
Buy Now! Available on or Plus One Records

Links:

The Gin Club Website: www.theginclub.com.au
Plus One Records

Bio, Music