November Music

During the past month I have been to three concerts, only one of which featured International artists, the others being performed by local musicians.

Fleetwood Mac at Rod Laver Arena - 4 November 2015

The first was the Fleetwood Mac concert at Rod Laver Arena on the day after the Melbourne Cup.  I never was a big Fleetwood Mac fan, but of course their songs were familiar, so I went along with an open mind and enjoyed the the concert, it exceeding my expectations over all.

Fleetwood Mac played for over 2½ hours and their set covered 19 songs with the band returning for two encores.  They played all their hits, Rhiannon, Go Your Own Way, Landslide, The Chain and You Make Loving Fun etc.

We (that is my ex neighbour B & I) travelled to St Kilda for the second show on the 14th November,  a concert celebrating Neil Young’s 70th Birthday at Memo Music Hall.

A sterling line up of local Melbourne musicians performed songs from Neil Young’s repertoire over several hours.  Led by guitar maestro Shane O’Mara and his ace band,  it featured Lisa Miller, Rebecca Barnard, Chris Wilson & Sarah Carroll, Angie Hart, Nick Barker, Gallie and Simon Bailey.

It was the first time I’d been to the venue, which is run by the same mob who manage Caravan Music Club. It is a comfortable space at the back of St Kilda RSL in Acland Street.  I’d certainly go there again.

Angie Hart – Memo 14 November 2015

The concert was excellent, with the various artists presenting great versions of Neil Young’s songs, including Old Man, Wrecking Ball, Needle & The Damage Done etc, etc.

Nick Barker – Memo 14 November 2015

Gallie – Memo 14 November 2015

Chris Wilson – Memo 14 November 2015

Shane O’Mara – Memo 14 November 2015

An Evening With Robert Forster was the most recent concert I attended and it was closer to home at Thornbury Theatre.

Robert Forster live at Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

I must admit I am not familiar with the career of Robert Forster  formerly of the Go-Betweens, and would not have thought of attending the show if I hadn’t been invited by ex neighbour B to go. 

He is acknowledged as one of  Australia’s top singer songwriters and writes clever quirky songs that are performed with great panache. His music reminded me of Talking Heads and I believe they were one of his major influences along with Lou Reed and the 1970s New York rock scene.

He had two support acts, the first being a David Bowie tribute band, The Thin White Ukes. As their band name suggests they perform David Bowie songs with ukuleles and are very entertaining. They are Betty France (soprano ukulele) Michael Dwyer (concert ukulele) Rob Stephens (baritone ukulele).

The Thin White Ukes live at Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

They played a short set of David Bowie songs that included Starman. Ashes to Ashes and Golden Years.

Jen Cloher, singer songwriter partner to Aria winner Courtney Barnett was the second support and played a gritty set of tunes from her repertoire and included one Gillian Welch cover, Everything Is Free, in the mix.  I have never listened to her music before so wouldn’t have a clue as to the names of her songs, though she did mention the name of two of them, one written when she was in New Zealand to care for her ailing parents and entitled My Mother’s Desk and the other called Mount Beauty about obsessive love.

Jen Cloher live at Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

She also called The Thin White Ukes back to the stage for two songs.

Jen Cloher & Betty France live at Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

With the two support acts warming up the audience for over an hour, it was quite late in the evening when Robert Forster and his excellent band took the stage.

Robert Forster live at Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

They were worth waiting for and from the first song, I knew I was going to enjoy his act enormously and continued to be beguiled throughout his set.

He has recently released his first new album in seven years, entitled Songs To Play, and has been touring in support of it.

Several songs from the record were performed on the night - Songwriters On The Run and I Love Myself (And I Always Have), Turn On The Rain are three I recognise from the night

I must say his band was terrific. They were Scott Bramley and Luke McDonald of The John Steel Singers playing guitar, keyboards and bass, and Robert Forster’s wife Karin Baumler contributed  tasteful violin and backing vocals.

Scott Bramley & Luke McDonald – Thornbury Theatre 27/11/15

On December 11th B and I return to the Caravan Music Club for Jeff Duff’s  Bowie Unzipped performance. I’m not sure what to expect, but no doubt it will be entertaining and unusual, so thanks B for the invitation and for expanding my musical horizons with shows I normally wouldn’t attend.

The big news last week was of a return tour by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings after an absence of 11 years. They’re doing two shows in Melbourne, one with the regular duo, the other with the band known as The David Rawlings Machine a fortnight later.  I intend to go to both, and have tickets already for the second concert, buying them this morning on the pre-sale. Amazingly, I managed to score really good seats. Hopefully at the public sale tomorrow, I can get seats of equal quality for the first concert – cross fingers I get lucky.

I Just Got Blown Away – Neil Young & Crazy Horse at The Plenary

Well, I was pleased to find out that I wasn’t an old fogey who couldn’t tolerate a loud rock ‘n roll  band. In fact from the first song I knew I was going to like the show very much, and at no time did I even contemplate leaving.

It was a three hour marathon, full of sweet and gritty rock n roll. Yeah, sure there were times when I wondered how much longer the song, or rather the extended jam at the end of the song, was going to go on, but grinned and bore it. All the songs performed seemed to last at least ten minutes and in all there were 18 of them (see set list).

The sound was loud, but perfectly balanced and so scintillatingly dynamic that the thought of muffling it seemed anathema, so I ended up not inserting the ear plugs at all, or only briefly during a particularly vehement distorted jam towards the end of the show.

In all it was a great rock concert, and I am very glad I was present to witness it.

There was a brief three song acoustic interval, where Neil played Heart of Gold, Twisted Road and Singer Without A Song. During Singer Without A Song, a young woman carrying a guitar case wandered aimlessly around the stage, in some lame attempt to illustrate the lyrics. Rather corny I thought at the time and was relieved when the band got back to loud rock.

Though I haven’t kept up with Neil Young’s recordings over the past twenty years or so, the newer songs had a familiar ring to them, no doubt due to Neil Young’s unique voice and musical sensibilities. I loved the opening song Love and Only Love and enjoyed the heavy pounding rhythm of Walk Like A Giant, in fact the whole show.

My seat. I discovered was in the front row of the second tier of seating, so I wasn’t right up the front next to the stage. I had a good view and was grateful to be at a remove from the amplifiers. I took my small old Pansonic camera with me, to try and get a few photos, but was too far from the stage, so shot some from the big screens on each side of the auditorium. The photo above is one of them – not perfect, I know.

The venue itself is excellent, though rather hard to find if you’ve never been there before, hidden as it is in the bowels of the Melbourne Convention Centre. Neil Young commented on this in his sole brief engagement with the audience.

As mentioned before the concert lasted almost exactly three hours.  An extended version of Like A Hurricane was the sole encore, after which the audience rose for a standing ovation.

So all the previous reviews are correct – it was a great rock n roll concert and boo hiss to those who disagree.

As an aside, and as an example of the eccentricity of the evening, the show opened with a recording of The Beatles A Day In The Life and as the audience were filing out of the auditorium Greensleeves came wafting over the airwaves. Go figure!

 Set List

1. Love and Only Love
2. Powderfinger
3. Born in Ontario
4. Walk Like a Giant
5. Hole in the Sky
6. Heart of Gold
7. Twisted Road
8. Singer Without a Song
9. Ramada Inn
10. Cinnamon Girl
11. Cortez the Killer
12. Dangerbird
13. Barstool Blues
14. Prisoners of Rock 'n' Roll
15. Opera Star
16. My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)
17. Sedan Delivery

Encore:

18. Like a Hurricane

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Something completely different today, was a charming little show performed in store at Basement Discs, by young English folk artist Seth Lakeman.

 

A pleasant and comely young man, he is a skilled multi instrumentalist,  singer and songwriter, possessing an affecting and passionate voice.

Playing alternately a violin and bouzouki, he entertained the lunchtime crowd with a selection of songs from his repertoire, including Blacksmith’s Prayer, The Hurlers and a wonderful ballad about the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster called Solomon Browne.

Tomorrow Grizzly Jim Lawrie, formerly of Eagle and the Worm, performs an in store, and Friday 22nd Australian Rock legend Russell Morris will grace the Basement stage.

So much to enjoy, so much to look forward to.

A Musical Interlude

Normally at this time of year I would have a great many evenings booked for concert attendances. But this year I’ve been very slack and have felt uninspired by what was on offer. I’ve seen many of the touring artists before, and even though seeing them again would be pleasurable, I can’t summon the energy to book a ticket. Besides, I’m a bit wearied of going to things by myself all the time. Much as I enjoy solitary outings with only myself to please, other people’s company is also welcome and adds another dimension to the experience.

I have of course been attending the Basement Discs in store performances, and they’ve all been great. Last Thursday Woody Guthrie’s grand daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie with her husband Johnny Irion played a lovely little show.

And prior to that there have been The Livingstone Daisies, a local group composed of Liz Stringer, the Walker (Van & Cal) brothers and Michael Barclay, Jack Howard, who was most enjoyable, Chris Wilson and Geoff Achison and guitar ace Nick Charles.

My one solitary booking for the music festival season is for Neil Young & Crazy Horse at the Plenary this coming Wednesday. The ticket was purchased through the auspices of a Ticketmaster gift card from Nu Country.  I’ve got a great seat, courtesy of Ticketmaster. I originally booked for the show in the presale, and scored a pretty good seat. Then Ticketmaster sent me an email saying that they were upgrading my seat, as front row seating had mysteriously become available. So I’ve gone from Row Y in the tiered seating area to Row R, which happens to be the front row. There is a standing area at the front of the stage, so hopefully the tiered seating is raised or I’ll have heads obscuring my view.

I’ve never been to the venue before, nor seen Neil Young live, so it should be a great show, if very loud, as has been reported.  However, I’ve taken the precaution of buying ear plugs, as I find I can’t tolerate extremely loud music anymore.

Anyway I will report back on Thursday with my impressions of the show.