BIG DAY OUT MELBOURNE 2012 - Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne (January 29 2012)

So apparently this year’s Big Day Out was supposed to be a bit of a dud. The line up was apparently crap. Kanye West is too mainstream. Ticket prices had gone up. Well that last one may be true but it certainly didn’t stop eager music lovers turning up to the now 20 year old festival in droves in the scorching heat. On the way there I made up my mind to watch and review three very different artists (of course we ended up catching bits and pieces of other bands and artists as well, OFWGKTA in particular, was simply intense. Tyler the Creator’s Yonkers set the crowd into a wild frenzy).  

First up, the New Zealand pop starlet Kimbra (pictured). In a word, adorable. It was hard not to be a little spellbound by her funky little musical conductor/magical wizard arm waves and constant bobbing all over the stage. Not to mention she is quite a fantastic performer in front of a live band. Fan favourites Settle Down and Cameo Lover were exquisite, as was her cover of the Bobby Brown classic Every Little Step I Take. 

It was party time in the Boiler Room from start to finish with mash up king Girl Talk. Ludcaris, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, Black Sabbath, The Ramones, The Rapture, Daft Punk and Gaga were just some of the artists and bands cut up and mashed together in his epic hour long set. It takes a certain level of craziness, mixing skill and balls of steel to drop a crazy remix with something like Adele’s Rolling In The Deep and know that everybody in the whole tent somehow knows every single word (the curse of the pop song) and will unashamedly sing along as loud as possible! He capped off the wild party antics with everybody’s favourite Isley Brothers’ song Shout!, needless to say everybody did. 

Last but not least, Kanye West. Late too, I might add. Ballet dancers twirled on stage for what felt like forever. The crowd waited, some patiently, others impatiently for some sign of the mega hip-hop star. Finally making his entrance, rising high above the mosh atop a scissor lift rapping Dark Fantasy over a booming bassline. After coming back down to Earth and a long walk back to centre stage he set Flemington Racecourse a light with new and old hits while dozens of ballerinas twirled about on stage. Good Life (featuring a little MJ tribute with an extended Pretty Young Thing intro), Strongerand Jesus Walks were some of the standouts. Newer tracks such as Power and Runaway were also amazing, although had a tendency to drag on. Towards the end of a few of those newer tracks he and his band would go into a jam session of sorts, improvising and extending a track as long as possible before its dramatic conclusion. It was a self indulgent demonstration of his musical production prowess, although parts of the Big Day Out crowd grew agitated and restless at times as they ached for his next song. But when his next song eventually did come around the crowd would still go absolutely nuts (American Boy was a nice surprise)! Kanye put on an impressive (and long!) show, finishing off a truly memorable performance and festival with Hey Mamma, a tribute to his late mother.  

Oh, and those that were able to catch his sideshow the following Tuesday at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl witnessed an even better performance. It was a glorious ending to the Australian tour in such an intimate venue full of true fans.

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This review also appears in issue 526 (09-02-2012) of Forte Magazine. Big thanks to all those involved for giving me the opportunity to go to this years festival and practice my reviewing skills!

KANYE WEST - Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne (January 31 2012)

Wow. So much better than at Big Day Out Melbourne. Sidney Myer Music Bowl was a perfect setting for such an epic ending to his Australian tour. The sound is heaps better in there compared to a large festival venue and we had fifth row seats so the view was a lot better! Sneaky Sound System were a great opening act, although I felt they could’ve stayed on for a bit longer.

Kanye started late, as usual, rising high above the centre of the crowd on a cherry picker shrouded in smoke, opening with Dark Fantasy. After coming back down to Earth and joining the dozens of beautiful ballerinas on stage, Kanye smashed out hit after hit after hit. Power, Jesus Walks, Stronger, Flashing Lights, Good Life (and the accompanying Michael Jackson P.Y.T intro/tribute), All Of The Lights, Run This Town (“I love this song too!” he exclaimed), Through The Wire and Gold Digger just to name a few. One of my personal favourites of the night was Estelle’s American Boy, I forgot how cool that song is!

Crowd interaction was at an all time high. The smaller, more intimate venue provided a better connection between fan and artist, which Kanye took full advantage of and quickly had the entire bowl eating out of his hand. All Of The Lights came to an abrupt stop after the first line, Kanye urging fans to rap along and even gave his permission to yell a certain N word as loud as possible. He did this twice more, with the whole Bowl eagerly getting involved and rapping along at the top of their lungs. It was clear that Kanye and co. were making sure each other and all the fans had fun for their last show of the tour!

Towards the end of a few songs he and his band would go into a sort of jam session, improvising and extending a track as long as possible before its dramatic conclusion. It was a self indulgent demonstration of his musical production genius. He captivated us with half song, half rap freestyles, opening himself up to fans like never before with stories about ex girlfriends and being booed during his early days because he didn’t look like a typical rapper.

He finished off the tremendous night and truly memorable experience dedicating the show, and every show on the tour, to his late mother with Hey Mamma. ★★★★★

JUSTICE - Festival Hall, Melbourne (January 6 2012)

Justice was freakin’ INTENSE last Friday night at Festival Hall in Melbourne. Their set comprising of ✝, Audio, Video, Disco and a few other tracks such as We Are You’re Friends and that Disco! Disco, Disco! song was insane. The opening band Canyon’s were pretty cool in that psychedelic sorta way. Busy P’s dj set was an eclectic mix of old school rock, electronica, metal, 80’s pop and a few French tunes thrown in too. It was about as close to a rock concert you could get without having an actual rock band! I really don’t have much else to say except that I really hope they release another live album once this tour is finished, especially for fans that missed out on the experience. Here is a .gif I made from one of brief moments everyone (including me) was not head banging or jumping around and I actually got a decent shot of the stage, lol. ★★★★

AUDIO, VIDEO, DISCO - Justice

In a move that is sure to alienate some fans, Justice have taken a step in a new and unexpected direction with their highly anticipated sophomore album Audio, Video, Disco. Replacing Justice’s signature hard-hitting, in-your-face electro anthems such as Waters of Nazareth and Stress (and even the more light hearted tracks such as D.A.N.C.E. and Dvno) is an album heavily influenced by their love of classic rock. Whereas their debut album ✝ was made for tearing apart dance floors, Audio, Video, Disco was designed for tearing down entire stadiums in a way that classic bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen did back in their prime. In a genre where almost everything is done on computer Justice have managed to make this album sound very human, finding the perfect mix between classic rock sounds and modern day electronic composition and vice versa. The word ‘epic’ is commonly used nowadays in every day language (last night was epic!) though listening to this album as loud as possible definitely brings that particular word to mind in the way it was originally intended. Opening track Horsepower, New Lands and Ohio (which features the voice of Vincent Vendetta of Midnight Juggernauts) are among some of the delightfully nostalgic, air-guitar inducing tracks found on this album. You can almost feel the electrifying guitar riffs in Canon reaching across thousands of people in packed out arenas (sidenote: the inevitable mashup of both albums for their upcoming live shows is going to be craaazy). The Justice boys Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Auge have been known to say that they don’t try to stay relevant by following today’s latest trends. Rather, they only listen to - and find inspiration in - music they truly love, and it definitely shows in their latest album. Those of you that have been waiting five years to hear ✝ “part 2” may be a bit disappointed. However come into Audio, Video, Disco with a clean slate and you will be pleasantly surprised. ★★★★

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Footnote: To further fuel the comparisons between Justice and fellow French musicians Daft Punk, both duos released their second albums five years after their first (Daft Punk’s Homework, 1997 and Discovery, 2001 to Justice’s ✝, 2001 and Audio, Video, Disco, 2011). Both second albums were also very different in musical stylings (Daft Punk turned pop, Justice to rock) from their respective first albums. Neat!

WATCH THE THRONE - Jay-Z and Kanye West

One is an attention seeking rapper and producer who is not afraid to push the boundaries of traditional hip-hop in his quest to impress. The other is quite simply, one of the greatest rappers of all time. Whether you like them or not, together Jay Z and Kanye West are two of the biggest hip-hop stars of the 2000’s. Maybe even ever. So what happens when they decide to join forces and make an entire album together? An instant classic? A clash of egos? The answer is somewhere in between. Watch The Throne is something of a very boastful victory lap for the duo and at the same time a cheeky message to other rappers and producers that they have a long way to go if they want to catch up. As far as production and musical direction goes, this album is undoubtedly more Kanye West than Jay Z. Yet it is Jay Z that comes away with the better lyrics of the two, his smooth and untouchable flow contrasting West’s hard hitting punch lines. Their different styles complement each other nicely for the most part, creating some impressive (and at times very self-congratulatory) stand outs like Otis, Lift Off, Ni**as In Paris and the more down to Earth Murder To Excellence. The things that prevents this album from being the masterpiece it could or should have been however, is the overall lack of consistency and polish that one of their solo records would receive. If you can put up with their self-proclaiming lyrics, some awkward production experiments and a few bizarre musical interludes than you’ll find Watch The Throne to be a very enjoyable yet flawed album by two superstars at the top of their game. A disappointment, but only by the standards they’ve set themselves. ★★★

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This review is a version of my very first published piece of writing! It was printed on 25-08-2011 in issue 514 of Forte, where I work as a graphic designer. I think I’ll leave the writing to real writers from now on, lol.

Saw Gorillaz live last night at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, and I’m putting it up there as one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Their stage presence was spectacular, they really got the crowd involved throughout the show, and of course their music was amazing. The visuals were fantastic as well, with old and new videos being played on the big screen rather than the usual live stream of the action on stage. There was an impressively large number of band members on the night, including a string quartet, a small funky brass band and part of the Syrian National Orchestra, coming on and off the stage for each song. Little Dragon and De La Soul were great opening acts, both coming on stage throughout the headline act to lend their talents. Stand out performance of the night was Gorillaz’ hit Feel Good Inc. performed with De La Soul. ★★★★★

I had the chance to see U2 in Melbourne after work last Friday night after the ticket I had originally given away had become available again (long story). Now I have to honest, I’m not even a fan of U2 (I’ve always liked and respected their work, but I have never bought or downloaded one of their songs) but they absolutely rocked the house down. The 360 ‘space ship’ stage was an amazing sight to see. It was so big that the top was poking out of the stadium! They really put on a terrific show from start to finish and the whole crowd loved it. Check out this video from the UK tour to get a bit of an idea on how huge the show was. I was really impressed (what else would you expect from the biggest band in the world right now?) and was glad I ended up going. ★★★

The only bad thing about the whole night was that I missed out on seeing Jay-Z perform! :’(

Been listening to Girl Talk’s new album All Day, all freakin’ day. You could almost call his mash ups a work of art, like a pop-art-collage of 100’s of different songs from all types of genres. I must admit it is not as good as his last album Feed The Animals, but it is still an awesome album and you’ll have a damn good time listening (and dancing around like crazy) to it. And in case you haven’t heard, Girl Talk has released it to everyone for FREE! So you have no excuse to not give this a listen. You can download it here. ★★★

PS. His live shows are AMAZING.  ★★★★★

Devil In A New Dress (featuring Rick Ross) is one of my favourite tracks off Kanye’s very impressive My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. I hear people say he’s too ‘main stream’ but I think whenever he puts out a new album other artists end up copying his style, therefore making it main stream. If you like Mr. West I highly recommend you buy this album. If you dislike Mr. West but like hip-hop I still highly recommend you give this a listen. ★★★★★