13th & 14th December

 

The Nevada Strange & Ghosts of Television

 

Saturday

Annie and I never go out on Saturdays and we figured out why – because filth from every corner of Sydney seems to run loose through the city on Saturday nights. We went to Spectrum where we saw The Nevada Strange, Dead China Doll, Ghosts of Television and Reptiles play. Out of those bands, I’d only ever seen Ghosts of Television before, and I wanted to go just because of them, and they were brilliant, as always. They must have been playing new songs because I didn’t recognise any. My only complaint is that they didn’t play their cover of Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy which is seriously the best thing ever! It was my first time seeing Ghosts of Television whilst sober, and yep, still as good! They really remind me of Kicks Joy Darkness which adds to my immense love for this band. I’d heard of The Nevada Strange before, and heard good things about them, and they did not disappoint. They had a stand-in drummer who didn’t even know their songs and they were still great! The singer is absolutely fucking insane, as though always on the brink of being violent. It was amusing watching them play. They could seriously be something incredible. Dead China Doll were also very impressive. I wasn’t expecting anything like their sound. Was very good. Reptiles were good, obviously a talented bunch of guys, but they just weren’t anything special and I got bored pretty quickly. I left a few copies of Feels Like Friday #8 at Spectrum. On the way home I made up rhymes about the City via Granville line – “Minto, the place to go.” “Campbelltown, party town.” “Canley Vale, epic fail.”

 

Sunday

Today consisted of listening to Bad Brains and Minor Threat, walking down to the shops to buy the newspaper, sitting on the living room floor reading the newspaper, simplifying my resume so that it says “hey, I’m not headed anywhere more than a part-time retail job, please hire me”, having a one-woman Girl Talk dance party in my living room and thinking up my Top 10 Albums For 2008 for Those Walls, Your Ears. Obviously a really exciting day…

 

Oh and my sister basically cornered me into admitting I smoke (various substances). The surprising thing was how nonchalant she was about it. I was expecting her to break my neck or something…

 

Photos by ANNIE LY.

9th December

 

Tuesday

Because Zig made last-minute changes to her going-home plans, Tuesday was the last day I got to hang out with her before she left. I walked down Oxford St looking for a present for Drazen (ended up buying him a Richard Pryor DVD) and then met up with Zig near COFA, we went to pick up her photos (which you can see here) and had coffee at my new favourite café – new favourite simply because it’s called Ampersand. (When I grow up I’m going to tattoo an ampersand and a semi-colon on my left arm, just below my elbow on the inside.) Then we wandered down to Hyde Park where we hung out and watched army helicopters do rounds through the city – it was probably just training but I imagined that perhaps we were under attack… Annie joined us also and we hung out some more before Zig had to head off. We walked with her to COFA where she was catching a shuttle bus, then I got all mopey when she had to leave. Everyone seems to be leaving Sydney. Annie and I walked back towards Central-way. She headed to Ultimo to meet up with some people and I got cake from Chinatown and then literally ran to Central to make the train which my sister was also catching so that neither of us would be bored and alone on the long journey home. I had underestimated the distance from Chinatown to Central Station but I made it on time!

So police think they have the authority to kill a minority

Last night I went to one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a long time. Sydney music…seriously, it’s fucking incredible.

 

   

 

Leesy, Jo & I are from the WEST SIDE.

Zig & I are obvs raging lesbians.

I like to stalk Annie.

 

Annie & I headed to the city on a train that seemed to be headed to Eternal Damnation. The lightning and thunder and dark dark sky were all pretty frightening, especially when stuck on a really old train. But we made it out alive except that when we got to Central, it started raining like a motherfucker out of nowhere and we had to hang around waiting for the rain to calm down. When it eventually did we made the uphill trek to the Hopetoun (where we met up with Zig) and by the time we got there, were pretty much soaked. Fuck this weather! It’s the worst when it’s hot AND raining.

 

First, The Vignettes played and they were awesome, as always! As someone later said “he’s a great little guitar player, isn’t he?” They’re so much fun to watch and their music is great. Go down to your local JB Hi-Fi and grab a copy of their EP Out of Home, On Our Own. I assume Red Eye should also have some copies. It’s really good. Or come to their next gig and you could get a copy for free! I did the mailing list rounds for them after they played and gave away a bunch of copies of the EP.

 

Then Leesy, Jo and two of their friends whose names I’ve unfortunately forgotten rocked up. Leesy brought her grillz, yo! Her ghetto alter-ego is Rude Boy and last night she wrote a new song on the back of Feels Like Friday #8. I feel so honoured to have been part of the process! BALLZ DEEP!

 

Chaingang played next and they were really, really good! The singer’s stage presence is just amazing. I’d seen them once or twice before but I was never as impressed as last night. Despite the ridiculous heat inside the venue (seriously Hopetoun, some air-conditioning would be nice. Or a fan at least!), they put on an incredible show. I’m so excited to hear their future recordings.

 

Then the headlining act of the night – The Wahas. It’s no secret that I love this band and think they’re pretty much the best band in Australia at the moment. They just get better with every gig they play. This was their first headlining gig and it coincided with their End of the HSC celebrations. And it was fucking amazing! Seriously, this was the best gig I’ve ever seen them play. They were INCREDIBLE. The set was a nice mixture of new and old songs, with the highlight being “Cheap Stuff” (that ending is brilliant) and the fact that they played “Loads” (I think it’s called) made me happy. Just…wow, they were so, so good! If you haven’t seen this band yet, WHAT THE HELL MAN?!

 

After the gig, we hung around outside the Hopetoun being ghetto for a while and then we all headed home. The rain before just made me really unwilling to do anything afterwards except take a long warm shower and sleep.

 

  

 

On the way home, Annie and I got stuck in Merrylands. When the train doors opened at the station, a guy ran out yelling “HELP! HELP!”. The train had to stop until the guards and drivers figured out what was going on. All we knew was that some guy was bleeding all over the place, claiming to have been attacked in the last carriage. There was a lot of confusion, paranoia on my part, boredom and annoyance at the mystery of what happened. Annie and I befriended a girl on our carriage who was coming home from work, and two kids outside the train who had come from the last carriage but hadn’t heard anything happening. One of them thought I was someone who went to her school and then it turned out we knew some of the same people. The Serbian community in the south-west is rather small…

 

After quite a while, the ambulance and police arrived. The police ran through the train, looking like they were desperately trying to put on an image of importance but seeming rather incompetent. They ran straight for every Samoan kid on the train, demanding to see their tickets, asking them questions. They completely ignored us. We could have murdered someone and they wouldn’t have asked us a thing. Apparently girls aren’t violent. Oh and it could be all this N.W.A I’ve been listening to, but – racial profiling, anyone? It couldn’t have possibly been the white girl and her Vietnamese friends, nor could they have possibly seen a thing; let’s harass the Samoan kids, they must be the violent ones. If they figured we didn’t hurt anyone, that’s annoying but sort of understandable, but the fact that they didn’t ask us a thing, nor check our tickets like they did with those kids is just fucked up.

 

All photos by ANNIE LY, except the one I took as I was stalking ANNIE LY…

When the light goes down, the wolves come around

This is Outrun. I may be just a little in love with them because they are fucking brilliant and their music makes life better. I like lots of bands but these kids are on my list of bands I really love. Anyway, they are playing a show in Sydney on the 21st at Candy’s Apartment and I think you, whoever you are, should come. The more people there are, the better for them & the sooner you see this band live, the better for you! This will be their album launch show and it will be amazing! So be there! More information here.