Muse - Sydney Entertainment Centre - November 17th

Well.

It. Was. Fantastic!

I don't know how many of you are into Muse, but it was an amazing show.

The Hun, middle bro, youngest bro and I drove up to Sydney on Saturday, checked into our hotel, went to the shops (a shirt for middle bro, shorts for youngest bro, thongs for The Hun, lunch snack for middle bro and I), went back to the hotel and then went to the the pub across from the entertainment centre. We settled in for a few (middle and youngest bro had had a few of their own before leaving the hotel) and once eldest bro and eldest bro's gf had joined us, we headed in (with a few drinks) so sit on the floor and wait for the support act.

The support act were called The Checks and aren't really all that describable - so here's their Wiki link. Our opinion was that the lead singer was feeling something that wasn't really there, and one of the bro's commented that someone needs to tell him he should be popular/succesful before dancing around like that. I mean, they were ok, but you couldn't really hear what was going on as it was so loud and his silly antics were kinda distracting.

Muse came on at 9:30 and they totally blew me away. I find it so amazing that three people (well, mostly one) can create something that can affect so many people! I have no idea how many people were in there (it was sold out) but to have that many people so excited to see you, and to be able to elicit such an extraordinary reaction from them is something very powerful.

It was the first time I've been in the standing section for anything (other than my one BDO) so I was a little nervous at the start, particularly once the crowd seemed to all move forward at once. Typically I would have bought a seated ticket because I am old and lame and lazy, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it half as much if I were seated. I felt a part of it - jumping and screaming and singing and pointing, but a good 20 metres away from the stage, I would say. We all stayed fairly close together, except for when youngest bro decided to go into the ACTUAL most pit - that is, I think I saw him on the big screen during one of the songs and when he returned to our group 10 minutes before the end he was absolutely soaked. He had sweated so much (and got himself covered in everyone elses sweat) to the point where he had to leave in the final (second) encore for water, so missed part of the show.

So yeah, where we was was pretty awesome - close enough to be in the thick of it, close enough to still have determined young things push past us to get closer and close enough to have sweaty wild-eyed things push past us to get out. And close enough to have two big sweaty guys hear me proclaim 'Oh F*CK no!' as they decided my line of sight was the best place for them to stand and flick sweat around with their lank hair. "It's a mosh pit, get over it" was the response I got, but whilst I was trying to get up the guts to point out that um no, actually it's not the mosh pit - the mosh pit is the bit where people are being lifted up over the fence and this is actually the bit where people stand when they want to totally rock but are too scared of getting crushed they must have realised for themselves because they moved over to where they belonged.

After that we headed back to the hotel (with a stop for some Gatorade and misery chips which I didn't really need but was hungry and why don't 7-11s have SALAD sandwhiches?!) and met up again this morning for the drive back.

(Note: I bought the tour singlet which is totally hawt from the ribcage up, but a little disturbing in the belly button region. It doesn't help that at dinner on fri night with gf1 and gf2 (before they departed for their tropical Lindeman island holiday which I totally should be on too!) gf1 told us how her brother had a friend that went to the doctor because she couldn't lose weight and the doctor told her to stop dieting because she was pregnant, even though she was on the pill and used contraception.)

The only other thing I'd say about the weekend (apart from the concert was awesome! Woot!) was that I don't think I'd recommend the Regent Hotel just off George street - we stayed in a twin share room as part of a mystery deal thing middle bro organised and it was tiny, there was no iron, the pillow hurt my neck, people were knocking on doors at 7am and there is no noise reduction between the hallway and the room, the room has a fake window with light in it and the lifts are jerky. However, for $88 for a room for a night, it was pretty frickin' awesome. Weigh it up, I guess!

Ticket fiasco

Ticket buying is getting more and more ridiculous - I'm pretty sure you remember my whinge about Big Day Out (if you didn't experience yourself and/or know people who went through the same struggle) and I know that we only just got in with Muse and Homebake too.

Well, it seems Bjork was no different.

My rambling dot points were right - it was THE most disorganised pile of dogsh!t there ever was. My Friday morning in dot point form:

• Open Festival website, see nothing indicating how to order tickets from site;
• Wait until 9am for BUY TICKETS HERE to appear, but nothing;
• Call Opera House 8 times in a row, fail to get a dial tone;
• Find list of phone numbers on festival site where tickets can be bought, ring all 6 a few times until one finally starts ringing;
• Commence 20 minutes of being on hold to Moshtix;
• Frantically refresh the Festival sites;
• Crankilly whinge to self about the Opera House site showing a combination of 'timed out' and 'results not found' when clicking on the 'Bjork' icon;
• Get through to Moshtix only to be told that they have no idea what I'm talking about, even though they are listed as a ticket seller for the event;
• Call The Hun and ask him if he can see anywhere to buy tickets on Festival site;
• Start searching Ticketek site for Bjork tickets;
• Get cranky at website because it keeps showing 'time out' whenever I select 3 tickets;
• Call The Hun and ask him if he can get them from Ticketek;
• Keep trying Ticketeck and Opera House;
• Call The Hun again and find out he has given up because he couldn't buy 3 or 2 or 1 tickets - turns out firewall was blocking ticket buying, not the website;
  
• Finally get through to Ticketek on phone - be told they are all sold out;
• Call The Hun to tell him they're sold out and struggle to hold back tears;
• Call middle bro to ask him to keep an eye on eBay for me for tickets to Bjork because I will pay anything to see her;
• Call the Opera House - be told that yes, they are all sold out.
  
• Email The Hun, eldest bro and middle bro a message filled with expletives bluntly stating dissapointment;
• Receive reply from eldest bro stating he hopes she'll hold a second show as there is a few free nights between her show and Big Day Out;
• Receive reply from middle bro stating he hopes she doesn't hold a second show - ignore;
• Receive reply from The Hun indicating a truck crash on the road we need to take to get to wedding - reply that my day can't get any worse;
• Call The Hun to whinge about how the firewall was making it look like the websites were down when actually they weren't and if only I'd know I could have got The Hun or middle bro to buy the tickets for me earlier or I could have started late...;
• Tell The Hun that no, I didn't reply to middle bro's email - why would I, he was being nasty hoping that there wasn't another show;
• Drop jaw in shock as The Hun tells me to open the attachment on middle bro's email that I obviously didn't see and find out middle bro managed to buy me the last ticket available from the Opera House site;
  
• Feel tears of anger turn to tears of joy.

So at this stage, I'm going by myself. The Hun will come up to Sydney with me, and may try to get in on the cheapo tickets they offer on the day, but that's pretty unlikely.

So, lemme know if you're going! OR if you know somewhere to get some tickets - the prob is they aren't sending tix out until January 7, so it's going to be a bit of rush to buy them that way!

Angus & Julia Stone - UC 13th October

After seeing them perform at the Big Day Out earlier this year and buying all of their EPs and their new album, I was really looking forward to seeing Angus & Julia Stone.

The line into the UC bar went right back near to where the hoppers were when we rocked up there at about quarter past 8 - doors opened at 8. Every person who bought a ticket was required to show their ID, plus it seems that a lot of people ordered tickets through Moshtix - meaning they had to swipe their moshtix/credit card as well. The advantage to it taking so long to get in is that while we were getting ID'd Angus & Julia were making their way to 'backstage'. Two things were evident - 1) They're both tiny; 2) Angus STILL has not cut his hair/beard. Very distressing.

We'd had a drink or two before we got there (more on THAT later) and so lined up for a drink. The story is that the Green Room used to be located somewhere else, but has now shifted to the UC Bar. Green Room: GET SOME MORE BAR STAFF. We waited 25 minutes to be served by one of the three bar staff (a fourth appeared jus before we got to the front of the line) and hey had no bottled water and no cruisers. So I bought two double vodka with coke premixes and a cup of water.

The support act was Orange Bird (who for some reason I can't find the MySpace page for) and they were all right - they looked pretty metal with long hair and flannies, but they did some soundscapey type stuffm some work with a big drum and some gongs and a crazy girl with a headband over on the left. I do recall the drummer being pretty damn awesome though.

Angus & Julia Stone came on at about 10pm, just as a couple of tall guys and some short girls walked past with the good ol' 'excuse me' and stood right. in. front. of me. Damn I hate that. As a result, I spent a good part of the show staring at the zit on the back of the guys neck and trying to get a glimpse between the heads of middle bro and youngest bro who were standing a few 'rows' ahead of us. So I didn't really get to see that much (each glimpse of Angus as a hairy monkey didn't really help much either). Most of the songs they performed were off the new album - for those of you playing at home, I think they played the following (not in order):

- The Beast
- Wasted
- Just a Boy
- Hollywood
- A Book Like This
- Soldier
- Another Day
- Mango Tree
- Paper Aeroplane
- Private Lawns
- Tubthumphing
- An untitled track

I think I'm missing some, so will check with the bro's and get back to you. I'm glad they did Paper Aeroplane as it was my first and favourite track of theirs; Tubthumping was played while we were in line for the bar so didn't really hear it (though The Hun's sister said she hated it) and the untitled track was a beautiful song they've written for a friend getting married that I do hope they release.

I do wish they'd done 'Sadder than You', 'What You Wanted' and 'All of Me' - Julia has a fantastic voice and she did a fantastic job of 'What You Wanted' at BDO - very piercing. I also wish Angus spoke up a bit more when he talked as he was a mumbler, and there were a lot people talking all the way through! Not to mention zit-neck guy in front of me; and the couple that decided to stand next to us and sway, bumping me and The Hun and my handbag each time - I had to release my elbows to my hips so they could 'enjoy' it as much as we did. Overall, I ranked the night a 9/10 (points off for not eating enough before going, making me a bit sulky when The Hun told me to shut up when I called out to middle bro to move his head to the right), middle bro ranked it a 10/10, as did one of our friends who hadn't heard much of them before but decided to come along after hearing some of the music on their houseboat weekend (even though I'd emailed everyone two months earlier telling them the must go!).

We were also stopped by one of the band members (the guy in the red bucket hat) on our way out, asked to sign the mailing list (that I had already done) and asked what we were up to now. Our sad result, being Canberra, was that we were heading home (after somone pulled the shifty and asked him where THEY would be going). I'm just that sad that I don't know good places to go hang out with awesome bands!

The final 'highlight' of the night was returning to the food van that I last visited about 5 years ago. I have a friend who lives in Chifley, and each time we went out to civic (ie, once or twice a week) we'd stop at Marty's food van - at that stage located in the servo on the main road. I would typically order a steak burger with just lettuce and bacon (no sauce) or hot chips (no gravy), and always one of those dirty foodvan dimsims. So I was a bit shocked when I went up to order for middle bro (my shout for him driving) and marty replied with 'and a dimsim?!'. I had to explain that I was vegan now (hence why I couldn't get my usual chips fried in the oil with nuggets and scallops) so I wouldn't need one. 5 years is a long time between orders!

Final word - if you haven't heard them after all this time of me raving about them, PLEASE at least check out their MySpace or look them up in YouTube or here and have a listen to one of my top five bands of all time.

Oh Golly, Oh Gee

You guys - I am SO excited.

BJORK. IS. COMING.

NEXT YEAR!!!

I am so spoiled!

I saw her when I was in high school, hooked after seeing "It's Oh So Quiet" on Video Hits. I bought a Marvin the Martian tshirt and a new overall dress, and sat with my mum on my left and two friends on my right and we squealed and squealed and squealed.

If only I had realised prior to that night how talented she was and how she would become my favourite artist of all time. If only I knew all her songs then like I do now.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS!

Plus....In a few weeks, we're off to see Angus and Julia Stone at the UC Refect:



In November, we're off to Sydney to see Muse:



In December, we're off to see Homebake, where I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Mr & Ms Stone again, but also Missy Higgins, Gotye, Sarah Blasko, Josh Pyke, Scribe and Architecture in Helsinki:



On Januray 23, Bjork will be playing a show on the Opera House forecourt:



In January, we will be attending the Big Day Out where she will play again and yes it is worth going just to see her:



Aren't I just the luckiest thing there was?!

Oops, have they done it again?

Got an SMS from the gf of my old housemate (I can't remember the nickname I gave him) asking for my address as she had to send me something. They live around the corner from us, literally. They are so close that we can see their front yard from our courtyard - when you stand on their front lawn you can tell if we're still up because you can tell if the lights are still on. I believe they can hear The Huns persistent cough each morning as well as my wannabe warbling in the shower each night - my current song of choice is Regina Spektor's (of course) Music Box - imbedded below for your pleasure:



So, what's the bet? Is this another set of friends engaged? Any other ideas as to what it could be? Because my initial thoughts (before guessing at engagement) was that she was going to send a bomb to my house (I have no idea why, shush now).

The Regina Spektor-cle

This is how it works - You're young until you're not
You love until you don't - You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry - You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe - Until their dying breath

Sound familiar?

Gf2 arrived at my place jus after 12 yesterday and we headed off to Sydney - arriving in Newtown at roughly 4pm. We wandered the street up and down for a while before settling into a dodgy Indian takeaway dinner at 5pm that lasted less than 15 minutes and is still having effects on my digestive system. MmmMMMMMmMMMMMM.

We then sat in someplace called the Blue Fig (I think!) which was next to the Enmore Theatre and very lovely - generously sized meals in a lovely atmosphere. Unfortunately I was too stuffed of oil to have room for anything, but we made a mental note to head there if we're ever up at the Enmore again.

Doors opened roughly 15 minutes late and, after buying a t-shirt, we headed upstairs - row K is at the front of the back section, meaning you have lots of leg room, however the toilets and bar are being renovated up there (leaving only four loo's for the ladies, all with short doors).

Only Son opened, and I think he was alright. He played two songs by himself, then pulled out an iPod to back him up for the rest of his 45 minute set... I don't know if I appreciate the fact that technology allowed him to do it with such good sound quality, or if I thought it was lazy.... I guess I can understand that maybe they couldn't afford to all come over, but still - it was a bit bizarre.

Anyways - Regina was on after a half hourish intermission.

She was absolutely fantastic - I am SO glad I got the opportunity to see her live. She is of just as good quality live as she is on CD - not one of those performers who suck when they're live. She plays the piano so well - it was just her and the piano the whole time, with the exception of the two two songs she did with the electric guitar and I was drawn in the entire time. It just seemed to be over so quickly but did come back for encore (luckily) after not too much clapping taking the show to just over 90 minutes.

She is so adorable - waify and tiny and politely sweetly spoken, saying thankyou for being here and how she has decided she loves this side of the planet. We were also somewhat suprised to see her tenderly walk on stage with a walking cane - I'm not sure what the story is there? If anyone with 1337 google skillz can help me out with the backstory it would be very much appreciated.

We got back in the car just before 11pm and made it back to my place just after 2:30am, when gf2 had to make the extra 30 minute drive to her place. The drive back from Sydney wasn't too bad - the best part about driving in the dark is that you trick yourself into thinking you're closer than you actually are - I was thinking I was almost at Goulbourn when I realised I was actually only at that high-wind part with the open cliffs. D'oh! There was also the part where I ran straight over a dead wombat in the middle of the road that I didn't see until it was close and I didn't want to swerve in the -4 cold for fear of sliding out (as dadsy always warns me) - plus when I try to slightly dodge something, I always hit it straight under my tire which would have been much worse. Unsurprisingly, I was quite short tempered this morning (due to the lack of sleep) and for the first time in my life I double barrel shotgunned and abused someone who cut me off. It was fulfilling and somewhat hilarious at the same time - highly recommended!

I had been quite down about the fact that I couldn't find anyone else to take the afternoon off to come up. No one. It may seem petty, but it was just like no one cared enough to take the afternoon off to help us out - friends, family, partners, workmates, whatevs. Even though gf2 was planning to come the whole time, she is proddly the only friend I have that fits into that whole 'a good friend bails you out of a jail, a great friend is in there with you laughing at it all' type thang. I was totally prepared to get a little star tattooed in the base of my left little toe to mark the occasion of a special friendship, but we only managed to find tonnes of dreadlock and rubber shops, no tattoo parlours. It was good that my social retardation didn't win out - there weren't any totally awkward silences like I was worried there would be - I freak in one on one situations, with only a few exceptions.

I did find out a few things about my concert going style and what pissed me off.

Continuing on from my anti-young people tirade of the weekend, there was a super annoying gaggle of 19/20 yo's p!ssing it up. Seems half of them had actually bought floor tickets and had then snuck up to hang out with their seated friends and the ushers actually let them bunch up into shared seats and sit in stairwells and empty seats. There were four boys sitting to my right and a REALLY annoying blonde thing who thought she was just it that was eyeing off our extra seat. I had a total scenario in my head where she'd sit in there and then I'd be all like 'you wanna sit there, gimme $100' and she'd be all like 'You don't own it' and I'd wave the ticket at her and then be all like 'get out or I'd get the bouncer, slut' and then she'd be all like 'how dare you' and she'd go to scratch at me like the feral she was and then I'd punch her in the face and my ring would leave an indent under her eye. Awesome.

Obviously, I don't really daytravel well.

So, my new rules are:

• Ushers - do your job and kick stragglers out.

• If you buy floor tickets, stay down with the plebs where you belong.

• If you want to drink through the show, buy the DVD and watch it from home. That way you can pause it when you continually get up to walk out to the bar/loo.

• Don't start an arm wave in the seating area because you are a tool and you're just giving us more reason to hate you.

• Don't call out to the artist while they're performing - particularly when it's just her quiet voice and piano - it's inappropriate, annoying and probably distracting.
  

• Yeah you're nineteen, but no, not everyone thinks your hot so stop doing that fake dance that you think makes it look like you don't care and are being silly but you actually think is cool and sexy.

• Pulling up your friends undies while she's leaning over talking to a guy does not make you a good friend.

• The quiet guy sitting in his own seat talking to the girls is going to be more succesful than the guy who acts so outrageous that half the audience think he's gay and the other half think he's just a tool who should get out.

• Boys should never have an overwhelming stank of hair product.

• If you spend half the song talking about how it's so beautiful and you love it then you obviously don't because you are not making the most of the opportunity to actually hear it performed live for you.

• You are not going to be discovered in the audience of a gig, nor is there a prize for knowing all the words. If you want to sing at a volume louder than a whisper, go sit in your car and sing to the CD.

That last point is the most important - at one point I actually stuck my finger in my left ear and turned the right side of my head to the stage so I could hear her rather than than the noisy woman sitting to my back left.

Do you think I might still be feeling a little tired?

If you don't get it, you're just not cool

Also - anyone know a sydney sider who wants to see Regina Spektor Wed night (tmr) at the Enmore theatre? We have a spare ticket and don't have anyone to come see it!!! EMAIL ME!!!

My week in a song

Please note, it's not as bad as it sounds.

But it's interesting to work through having known a song for many years, rediscovering it and finding meaning, then finding entirely new meaning within the same week. And, not knowing if you like it more or like it less because of it.

Must I Paint You A Picture - Billy Bragg.

It's bad timing and me
We find a lot of things out this way
And there's you
A little black cloud in a dress
The temptation
To take the precious things we have apart
To see how they work
Must be resisted for they never fit together again
If this is rain let it fall on me and drown me
If these are tears let them fall

Chorus:
Must I paint you a picture
About the way that I feel
You know my love for you is strong, girl
You know my love for you is real

It took a short walk and a talk
To change the rules of engagement
While you searched frantically for reverse and them claiming
That virtue never tested is no virtue at all
And so I lost my ignorance
And now the bells across the river chime out your name
I look across to them again

All your friends said come down
It will never fly
And on that imperfect day
We threw it all away
Crisis after crisis, with such intensity
This would never happen if we lived by the sea

Most important decisions in life
Are made between two people in bed
I found that out at my expense
And when I see you
You just turn around and walk away like we never met
Oh we used to be so brave
I dreamt the world stopped turning as we climbed the hill
I dreamt impossible dreams that we were lovers still

This is not a tribute...

It's a shoutout to middle bro, who turned 22 on Wednesday (after suffering through three days of a vomit bug and coming out of it six kilos lighter) and who had a bit of shindig tonight where he reminded me it was his "one year anniversary" of declaring his love "for the enny penny".

Happy belated birthday middle bro!

ALSO - you all know Bjork is my fav artist, right? Well, I bought Volta today and whilst I'm yet to listen to it all they way through yet, I defy you to listen to this song and not admire it's awesomness... enjoy!

Welcome to the Enny-McLeod

That's right - name change time.

Last night I nicked out of my tute a little early to meet up with dadsy and youngest bro and dadsy's long time friend at the Polish Club.

WTPolishClubF?

Merry Muse!

The bistro had closed so I popped over the road with youngest bro for a bag of hot cross buns for dinner and settled in to hear Women in Docs from 8pm - I believe I've seen them before at the Folk Festival and they were absolutely fantastic. The type of songs from the heart that are so suitable for careoke. After the show I came over all fangirl again (as per Holly Throsby) and bought all the CD's they had to sell and loaded them onto the EnnyPod as soon as I was home. I will say that they are one of the few bands that sound better live too - not that their CD's weren't awesome, just that they let loose a little more when on stage - and that's how I hear it when I listen to the CD's.

AND THEN>>>?!

The main attraction!

Mr Rory McLeod.

*swooooooooon*

I've mentioned him here before - most notably on this post after picking up a copy of one of his CDs. The long of the short of our history is that he was at the first folk festival I ever went to, after which I went home and memorised all the songs on his Kicking The Sawdust album which I still love and have always joked to The Hun that I was going to marry him. Youngest bro also ordered the entire back catalogue the other month so I cannot wait to hear all the ones I am yet to hear.

I mentioned to the family that I believed he was to be at the folk festival this year (courtesty of the blogmeet!) and middle bro checked out his website to see that there was unfortunately no mention of him touring the folk festival this year BUT he was doing a show on Thursday night.

Women in Docs were scheduled to start at 8pm - dadsy and youngest bro were seated at 6pm, while the setting up folk were still madly rushing around getting it all ready - hence reserving us a table right at the front!

Enough rambling - I just want to say that if you EVER get the chance, you MUST see him. He is so charismatic, passionate, funny and I wasn't the only girl in the room who was swoony for him! He proddly only played 8-10 songs in the just over 2 hours he played as they're long songs by standard but he was just able to talk to the audience in between each piece. And you know how sometimes you go to a gig and just want them to shush it up between songs and sing? He was not at all like that - I just sat and smiley gawked the entire time.

Similarly to the Holly Throsby show, there were also some rude biatches in the audience. Sitting right in front of me were two 30ish-something biddies out for a night on the town, who perched themselves at their table to share a piece of cake and whispered to each the ENTIRE WiD performance. At one stage, the older one of the two pulled out her mobile and wrote out an SMS and showed it to her biddy friend before sending it: Waiting for Rory McLeod and listening to Women in Docs, you'd really like them. Wish you were here. YES I'M SERIOUS! They would not have been 3 metres from the mic's into which they were singing and were brazen enough to disregard all manners like that! The non messaging biddy even had the nerve to turn around halfway through a song and ask me if they had CD's for sale - Grrrr.

Anyways, as Rory's show was long, people were actually getting up and walking out - I guess that's what happens in Public Service Town at close to midnight on a Thursday... but I was NOT upset to see those women get outta there.

The organiser guy was signing for Rory to wrap it up with two more songs and he put out a call for what his final song should be. Someone called out for the Fruit Shop song that I didn't know and he finished on it and he got loaaaaads of applause. So came back for encore and asked which one he should play now... dadsy and his friend were really keen for the Copper song but I couldn't help but cheer out for the Mariachi Love Song that is the final track on Footsteps and Hearbeats. And I'm so glad he played it (but feel a little bad I didn't support the Copper song for Dadsy and Co).

And the best part?


Oooh yeah - he is EVEN HAWTER when he is hugging you for a photo.

I've been giddily counting the days till he returns in 2008.

*fans self again*

Waste of a Day

Anyway that my day could be wasted today, was wasted.

I wasted time this morning sleeping in because The Hun watched the second last episode of the last season of The West Wing and I egged him on to watch the final (like you'd want to watch the last one by iteslf) - an error in sending the files to the Xbox meant that the final episode stopped halfway through and a scramble for network cables et al ensued, pushing bed time back until after 1am.

I wasted my day checking the fax for a bank statement that shitty St George need to send me. My original Guess bag (the one that played a starring role in NerdFest I: Where it all began) developed a tear in the lining above the zipper inside - it's less than four months old!!! I chucked out the receipt and don't keep my statements (my bad) so I have to get a statement faxed to prove that I did purchase it so that I can swap it over, and the bank charges me $7.50! So I got the fax yesterday and the waify slow teller dood ordered the WRONG statement (ie, before I bought the bag) though faxed it to me within an hour. I've made FOUR phone calls since yesterday lunch nagging him to send the correct one and it STILL hasn't arrived - I think they're having trouble working out how to send it to me without charging me a ridiculous fee. I also sound like a dirty perve because there's no direct number listed so I've been calling the home loan centre part in there and ask to speak to the guy with the ring of two hands holding a heart on his wedding finger. There was nothing else of interest on the guy and he was so slooooooooow at serving I was just staring at it.

My girly financial sense tells me that even though I have a new bag that I'm betrothed too, I'd be better off getting a replacement for old goldy than getting my money back - I got him on sale for $90 something when he was worth much more (there was a double discount at the time I bought it) but if I exchange it I PRESUME I'd get one worth what he was worth? I'm thinking of a lovely little black one, but I'll keep you updated on that.

I wasted an afternoon in my lecture as it was just a guest lecturer pitching his product at us. I didn't learn anything and it lasted less than hour of the two hours scheduled AGAIN.

I wasted an evening in the tute as I was told I was meant to have a draft ready of an assignment I didn't know was even going on.

And I've wasted my time almost posting a request for help with working out what accomodation is near the Hordern Pavilion as DAVE MATTHEWS HAS RESCHEDULED HIS SHOWS TO WHEN WE'RE IN JAPAN AND NOW I CAN'T GO!!!

I don't believe it!!!

Augie March - Cold Acre

Preface: I was thinking about writing this post this morning while watching JTV (The Hun is camping this weekend) and all of a sudden I received notification of a comment relating to what I was about to write about!

Rather than being some kinda bizaare jedi mind reading trick, I'd made reference to it in a comment on an earlier post. It was a very confusing couple of minutes before I worked it out...

So.

Those of you who may not have heard of Augie March before the JJJ Hottest 100 should definately know who they are now. But I have a question I'm hoping to get some help in answering.

Have you see their filmclip for 'Cold Acre'? I can't get it to work on their site, so here's the YouTube:



Anyways, can anybody give me any info on where it was filmed?! Because there are times I'm SURE it's filmed in Canberra, after the bushfires swept through the pine plantation near the parkway (this is what the commenter this morning said too)!

I can't find a way to contact them to find out... so any thoughts or info anyone could give me on this would be very much appreciated!!

Turn a new page, tear the old one out

Calm down
And get straight
It's in our eyes
It's how we operate

You're true
You are
I'd apologize but it won't go very far

Please come here
Come right on over
And when we collide we'll see what gets left over

A little joy
A little sorrow
And a little pride so we won't have to borrow
Wherever you lead, I'll follow

Turn me inside out and upside down
And try to see things my way
Turn a new page, tear the old one out
And I'll try to see things your way

Please come here
Please come on over
There is no line that you can't step right over
Without you well I'm left hollow
So can we decide to try a little joy tomorrow
'Cos baby tonight I'll follow

Turn me inside out and upside down
And try to see things my way
Turn a new page, tear the old one out
And I'll try to see things your way

The way that we've been speaking now
I swear that we'd be friends, I swear
'Cos all these little deals go down with
Little consequences, we share, we share

Turn me inside out and upside down
And try to see things my way
Turn a new page, tear the old one out
And I'll try to see things your way

And I'm gonna love you anyway
Try to see things your way
Try to see things your way
Try to see things your way

Hottest 100

Yeah yeah, I know it's a bit late.... but did you guys vote?

We managed to catch numbers 60-40 from Hyde Park in Sydney which was pretty awesome - I'd definately like to make a full day of it next time - get there early with grog and food and snag some shade...

Anyways, here's the top 100 (the ones I voted for are in purple)!

1 Augie March - One Crowded Hour
2 Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
2 Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
4 The Killers - When You Were Young
5 Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing
6 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
7 Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
8 Gotye - Hearts A Mess
9 Muse - Starlight
10 The Grates - 19-20-20
11 Little Birdy - Come On Come On
12 John Butler Trio - Funky Tonight
13 My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
14 OK GO - Here It Goes Again
15 Lily Allen - Smile
16 Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks
17 The Grates - Science Is Golden
18 Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
19 Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push
20 Regina Spektor - Fidelity
21 Youth Group - Forever Young
22 Tool - Vicarious
23 Hilltop Hoods - Clown Prince
24 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
25 Placebo - Meds
26 Camille - Ta Douleur
27 The Strokes - You Only Live Once
28 Saboteurs - Steady As She Goes
29 Tool - The Pot
30 Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down
31 The Killers - Bones
32 The Butterfly Effect - Gone
33 Cops - Call Me Anytime
34 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
35 Lily Allen - LDN
36 Bob Evans - Nowhere Without You
37 Bob Evans - Don't You Think It's Time
38 Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust
39 The Butterfly Effect - A Slow Descent
40 Basement Jaxx - Take Me Back To Your House
41 Hilltop Hoods - What A Great Night!
42 The Grates - Inside Outside
43 Angus & Julia Stone - Paper Aeroplane
44 Lady Sovereign - Love Me Or Hate Me
45 Karnivool - Roquefort
46 AFI - Miss Murder
47 Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats & Dogs (Is That They Die)
48 Regina Spektor - On The Radio
49 Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales Of San Francisco
49 The Strokes - Heart In A Cage
51 Something For Kate - Cigarettes And Suitcases
52 The Herd - Unpredictable
53 The Living End - Wake Up
54 Eagles Of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
55 Wolfmother - Woman (MSTRKRFT Remix)
56 Hilltop Hoods - Stopping All Stations
57 Josh Pyke - Private Education
58 Sarah Blasko - Always On This Line
59 Placebo - Song To Say Goodbye
60 Hot Chip - Over And Over
61 Foo Fighters - Everlong (Acoustic Live)
62 Justice Vs Simian - We Are Your Friends
63 TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
64 Something With Numbers - Apple Of The Eye
65 Bloc Party - The Prayer
66 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Phenomena
67 AFI - Love Like Winter
68 Darren Hanlon - Happiness Is A Chemical
69 Beck - Nausea
70 Ben Folds - Such Great Heights (Like A Version)
71 The Grates - Lies Are Much More Fun
72 Jet - Put Your Money Where Mouth Is
73 Matisyahu - King Without A Crown
74 Snow Patrol - Hands Open
75 Ben Kweller - Sundress
76 Jet - Rip It Up
77 Hilltop Hoods - Recapturing The Vibe
78 Placebo - Infra-Red
79 Sarah Blasko - Explain
80 Wolfmother - Love Train
81 Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone
82 Freestylers/Pendulum - Painkiller
83 Butterfingers - Get Up Outta The Dirt
84 Thom Yorke - Black Swan
85 Infadels - Love Like Semtex
86 Kanye West - Touch The Sky
87 Ben Harper - Better Way
88 Pendulum - Tarantula
89 Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum
90 Jurassic 5 - Work It Out (Feat. Dave Matthews Band)
91 Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom & Suicide
92 Lily Allen - Alfie
93 Lily Allen - Everything's Just Wonderful
94 Gotye - Learnalilgivnanlovin
95 Eskimo Joe - New York
96 Red Riders - Slide In Next To Me
97 Pearl Jam - Worldwide Suicide
98 Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
99 Audioslave - Original Fire
100 Blue King Brown - Come And Check Your Head

I'm really glad Augie March made it to number one - I love that song and I listened to it a LOT on repeat...

I also voted for Basement Jaxx - Hey U, Holly Throsby - Making A Fire, Jose Gonzalez - Hand On Your Heart, Lily Allen - Friday Night (which I think is not the one I actually meant to vote for) and Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches.

Did you vote? How'd you go?!

BDO Wrapup

Am back!

BDO was fantastic - my first and mebbe not my last? I will admit I was a little put off by the sheer number of lolly pop heads in shorty shorts, but there was also a fair share of the opposite, so it kinda evened out. That said, almost ALL the guys that were there were drunken d!ckheads, with the exception of a few old men who must've been going for years and just won't give it up.

We got in there at about 10ish and went straight through to get the grog wristband 'just in case'. A quick glance at my ID got me straight through (The Hun's ID didn't even get looked at!) and the lines were the quickest thing I'd ever seen.

We worked out where we were on the map and made our way to catch three songs of Richard In Your Mind. They were alright and cute - a bit geeky with all four were wearing glasses and shouting out "Who likes physics?!... huh huh, huh...."! They also had song about gravity and a memorable line "If the skeleton wants to dance, then I'm a dancer too" or something of the sort... pretty good for a new act, nontheless.

We then headed over to sit on the grass for Devoted Few who were also pretty good - we were sitting on a rain poncho (the whole day was overcast and the grass was wet) so couldn't really see through the crowd but the lady on the keyboard had a funky red fringe. The Hun has picked them to become more popular in the upcoming years, so keep an ear out.

We good some food and listened to a little of Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males but only heard a few songs - I didn't recognise any of it and was anxious to get a good seat for the next act... and a frozen red fire engine! They both won out and we headed in to see...

Angus and Julia Stone and they were my pick of the day! The place was totally packed out - we secured a seat and then managed to spot Middle Bro, Eldest Bro and Eldest Bro's friend on the stairs - just as Middle Bro was messging me to see where we were. We managed to save two seats but they dissapeared... only to find Middle Bro at the end of the show TANKED. Yup - I thought the lines and the prices and the grotty toilets would be a deterrant but there were a LOT of drinkers out there! Anyways, the music was fantastic and lovely folky, Angus is soooooo cute and Julia was telling us how she had her wisdom teeth taken out a few days ago and she was spitting out stitches through her trumpet. It was also during this show that I heard some young things pointing to an afro in the crowd and saying 'See! That's her! From Sneaky Sound system!'.... The Hun pointed out that they were talking about:

...her...

but actually seeing

...her...!

I think that's about when we went to look for where those turkish flat pide things with spinach in the middle were being sold but we couldn't track them down so stopped for a 'gourmet roll' - and the losers put mayo on my veggie wrap! I ate around it and then sourced some (more) hot chips and headed towards the Boiler Room - on the way there The Hun stopped for the bathroom and these two guys beckoned out 'Hey you! Come here! Can you put in my contact for me? Our hands are too shaky...' to which they got 'Ew! No! I hate eyes!' and a turned back. Until The Hun came out and I told him what happened and he coerced me to go back and offer to help... I tell you what, there is NOTHING as DISGUSTING as poking two fingers into some randoms eyes to get a dancefloor contact to sit - especially when you gotta do it a few times after it flicks back under his eyelid... ew! But, I got it in for him and went to do the other guys, but he just couldn't open his eyelids wide enough to fit the contact and he kept blinking when I got close which made me jump... and I DREAD to think of all the germs they were putting in their eyes!

Anyways, we made it into the boiler room to see Lily Allen - hooray! She was my third fav act of the day - mainly detracted by the pushy little b!tches who shove their way past without even offering a 'sorry' or 'excuse me'! I couldn't believe it!! There was one REALLY rude lil twat who was literally shoving her way through people - a guy pushed her back and she turned around and delivered one of those angsty emo middle fingers that only stuckup tweenies can deliver - hilarious! Anways, she was really good - the place was packed out - she took a pic to put on her MySpace as she said it was her biggest crowd yet, but it's not up yet! She also paid out Chris, the drummer from Jet who she said threw a lit cigarette at her face which she paid back with a glass to his face, and then dedicated 'Not Big' to him. We also stood behind Fuzzy the whole time! She's very small and thin and had a few girls wave to her and guy come up to ask her what time she was playing today - she must get that a lot! Getting out of The Boiler Room was CHAOS - it was like a cattler herd for like a few hundred metres - absolutely insane.

We managed to hear a few songs at the end of My Chemical Romance who weren't as good as I hoped - but then we didn't hear them all. With much prompting The Hun conned me into the D but we walked straight out as soon as we were in - it was too packed!

So we moved across to listen to Eskimo Joe who were pretty good too - I'm not that big a fan of the latest stuff, but The Chifley House had the album before in pretty much permanent playback the whole time I lived there, so it was good to be able to sing along to a few of the songs. There was also a bunch of wankers with a rug thing who were prompting people to lay on it while 12 others would fling them up into the air like a trampoline - it was always courting disaster. Some twiggy little thing decided to hold on to the edge of the cloth and got flung up and around - I was sure she landed on her head but she looked dazed and a lil shook up. The wankers kept moving forward and asking more pople to come hold the edges - as if! Luckily they stopped after not too long, but not before the mat went left as the guy went right - some poor guy stood up and was bleeding from his tooth. Wankers - they really needed their mothers there to tell them it was OBVIOUSLY not a good idea.

We moved back accross to see John Butler Trio but by this time I was getting just a liiiiiiittle tired - I was a bit pouty, my feet were sore and I was anxious about the crowds coming up. I also didn't know as many songs of theirs as I thought I did - I shoulda made MORE of an effort to get to know the songs!

We headed out for a trip to the bathroom where I got to hear my first lady spew of the day (disgusting!) and managed to find the vegetarian stand (yummy samosas and not as yummy spring rolls) and went to listen to Dappled Cities Fly who were WAY TOO LOUD - we couldn't sit in there! So we sat outside and were a bit dissapointed - their MySpace made them sound like they'd be really good and croozy, but they just weren't.

We then headed off to find The Streets but found the spinachy pide things - I HAD to have one after talking them up to The Hun but couldn't even eat half! I was such a piglet this weekend - back on the CalorieKing wagon this tomorrow! We headed in but he was hard to understand, though we did catch the song that I like - 'When you wasn't famous' which I love.

We headed back down to the main stage for Muse - they were absolutely fantastic!!! My second favourite of the whole day, awesome stage presence, great use of the stage and screen and I just can't help but love a group who rocks out so hard AND uses the piano!!! Very highly recommended - you missed out!

And then - one of The Hun's favourite bands - Tool. I though I knew a fair amount of their stuff, but there was only four of five that I could actually 'sing' along too. But they were also fantastic - my fourth fav of the day. It's fantastic that they're still playing and releasing, and hugging at the end of each set - they were really great and I'm glad I got the opportunity to see them.

When it was time to move along, The Hun managed to pick the rest of the boys we were with - The D was so insane that Eldest Bro's friend lost his shoes and he just had to get out of there. Youngest Bro also told us that his shoe fell off and he leant to down to fix it and got knocked down - he put his hand up and luckilly someone helped him up - that's INSANELY DANGEROUS! Not to mention the number of stories about the number of guys peeing in bottles... So we all headed off to see Crystal Method where we got split up again - I'd just bought my two glowsticks and started to get into it when we all got the message that everyone else was going home. The trains were packed and I got accosted by some guy on drugs asking if I was writing something about karate - I though he might have been talking about my tattoo but it wasn't on show... so I just backed away slooooooooowly.

That was pretty much that! Now if only Basement Jaxx would play in 2008...

Enny's Big Day Out

Tra-la, peeps! Off to Sydney v early tmr (with 12 others as organised by middle bro) for three nights in Sydney for my first Big Day Out!

My plan (in order of course!):

• Richard In Your Mind
• Devoted Few
• (start of) Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males
  
• Angus and Julia Stone
• (end of) Butterfly Effect
• Evermore
• Lily Allen
• (end of) My Chemical Romance
• Eskimo Joe
• John Butler Trio
• Dappled Cities Fly
• The Streets
• Must
• Tool
• Shapeshifter
  

AWESOME!

Lily Allen, Muse and Angus & Julia Stone are the ones I'm looking forward to the most - I can't wait!

Shall be back on Sat arvo, no doubt with a wrap up!

Say 'hullo!' to the overwhelmed looking girl with the Paul Frank cap!