Band Going Strong
Hello there all coolest ones,
Wow, I have been so busy and having soooo much fun that I’ve hardly had a minute to sit down and write about all the adventures I’ve had and great music I have witnessed…and played!!
So in no particular order of dates, let me mention some of the more memorable nights!
Firstly, my band Antibody has now got 4 gigs under the belt. We even had to cancel one gig- apologies to the other bands; Breakfast of Champions, Fort Mary and Mustang. Most of the gigs we have played 1st on at The Tote, The 9th Ward and The Punters Club but we headlined a show at the Esplanade Hotel. Woohoo! The gigs have been well received except I think the hardest gig was at the 9th Ward, supporting the Gamma Rays’ for their ‘Girl on a Motorcycle’ CD launch, cos our guitar amps AND the bass amp all blew up before the show and we had to borrow amps that were not quite the sounds we were used to.. oh well! I must say that they Gamma Rays were fantastic and I had a great time on the dance floor! It’s just great that we have finally unleashed our music upon the world after rehearsing for soooo long.
Our next gig is…Thurs 24th at The Tote, with Baby8 and The Spazzies, should be a great night of chick rock, followed by 13th Feb at the Evelyn Hotel…we are on first so you better be there early! I must thank the grrrls from Porcelain who have given Antibody and Moler gigs recently! Thanks grrrls, you ROCK!
Speaking of Porcelain, this grrrl group just keeps getting better and better!
One of Moler’s highlight gigs was with them late November at the North Melbourne Town Hall Hotel. Lots of people crammed 
in and great vibe, you just can’t help but rock out. Other best Moler gigs were in the Gershwin Room/Espy with a great band, ‘James Dean is Dead’. Moler also visited Adelaide and Sydney just before Xmas to do a couple of shows. You can catch Moler’s next gig at The Empress Hotel on the 26th of January with supports, Nation Blue and The Great Guns.
Ron Rude and the Resurrection played upstairs at Revolver in December. A highly anticipated gig to launch the punk rock compilation CD, ‘Can’t Stop It’, featuring the underground music scene of the 80’s. RR and R were the headline act, I didn’t quite know what to expect but, Ron and band were brilliant, covering a wide range of musical styles; kinda punk, gothic, rock meets cabaret!
I loved Ron’s outfit, an all white suit covered with glitter. He even did a bit of a costume change into some monkish type robe, then stripped off to bare chest! You could tell he was having a great time and it was infectious. Watch out next time they play.
Life without Buildings, Scotland. Never heard of them before but went and saw them play at the Punter’s Club purely on recommendation from a friend. I wasn’t disappointed, although it was one of those nights when it was too hot and crowded so I hung down the back. The singer never stood still for a second, bouncing up and down all through the set. A bundle or words and energy. Clean guitar sounds. Groovy stuff but my sox were already blown off!
A major highlight, the Spencer P Jones featuring Cow Penalty CD launch for ‘The Lost Anxiety Tapes’ CD album at the Punters Club. Dan Kelly and The Drones supported. My god these two bands have got to be my favourite bands of the year. Mind boggling! Absolute STARS in their infancy!
Dan Kelly or Dank Alley as he sometimes calls himself, plays beautiful moody, sparse and tense music and reminds me a little of his famous uncle Paul Kelly, with the lyrics, kinda folk story telling. His voice is way cool. I still have one of his songs reverberating around in my head, it is that catchy, it only takes one listen…’at the Hall, the Lutheran Hall, everybody’s waiting for the axe to fall’. The other highlight song is ‘Nasty Streak’, “you got a nasty streak, and it’s 12 miles wide”. Brilliant, world class music!! If Dan doesn’t become the biggest star, if he doesn’t make it big overseas, I don’t know what will! That goes for The Drones as well. I can’t remember the lyrics from The Drones all that well but that’s because this band is loud and dangerous. They remind me of Sonic Youth crossed with Nick Cave. I hadn’t heard such passion in noise guitar…the two guitarists work so good together and the bassist, Fiona (who is drop dead gorgeous) plays a mean bass guitar. The drummer does a great job as well, never overplaying or trying to outdo the guitars….amazing! Believe the hype…SEE these two bands….they’re gonna be huge!!
Anyway, back to Cow Penalty, we rocked as well! Spencer had everyone who played on his record there…not all at once but for the tracks they played on the album.
3 drummers- Des Hefner, Steve Boyle and Harold Fischer.
1 sax player- Steve
1 keyboard player- Matt Heydon
3 bass players- Steve Hadley, Dan Kelly, me.
3 guitarists, Steve Boyle, Locky and Gareth from the Drones got up for the encore.
Highlight songs for me were; ‘The Spy Who Drugged Me’, ‘I need a Hand to Hold when I go to Hell’, ‘This song aint about the Colour of you Hair’, ‘If you think You’re Life is Fucked Up, Look at Mine’ and a crackin’ cover of ‘Crackwhore Blues’. Overall, an intense and inspiring night of music. Cow Penalty also has just supported the Models, a band that was big in the 80’s who have reformed to do a handful of shows. I heard their hits when I was younger but never got to see them cos I was still a young whippersnapper in the country. So I finally got to see them and I was impressed! Sean Kelly, the singer/guitarist, was awesome. He’s still got that star quality. I was surprised at how scar influenced they were and kinda 80’s new wave with Ash Wednesdays’ synth keyboards but with a dash of a punk/pop. They played songs mainly from their first album, most of which I had never heard really, all their big hits were a little later on in their career! They pulled a huge crowd to the Gershwin room. Great to see Graham Scott playing drums who played as steady as a rock..great kick drum patterns…Top night.
New Years eve Cow Penalty played at the Esplanade Hotel, front bar, along with heaps of other bands…too many to even remember (it was NYE after all); Dallas Crane, Six Foot Hick, Matt Walker and The Twits were but a few.
I just got back from a tour with Cow Penalty to Adelaide and Ballarat which was fun. Thanks to Nazz as well who put us up for the night in Adelaide and cooked us a mean breakfast!! Ballarat went off! Can you believe that there was an 84 year old man, complete with hat and snow white beard, dancing with all the young lads right up the front! We also nearly had to 
resuscitate someone outside the venue, who hit their head on a parking meter and was knocked out cold….. luckily he was alright. Good to see The Dead Salesmen playing as a duo- Justin and Justin. They have been playing at the ’Bridge mall Inn’ as long as I can remember and are still as good as eva.
You can catch the next Cow Penalty gigs in Sydney and Brisbane next month. Supporting The Scientists at the Annandale in Sydney will be a great gig to see…The Scientists are yet another band from the 80’s to reform…but what a great band they were!! Kim Salmon – oz music legend!
Ok. I know it’s almost February already but here’s my little wrap up for 2001- like they do in all the magazines!!
Special mentions to all cool aussie bands, not mentioned above, that I liked seeing last year- thanks for a great 2001!
Earth To Nigel, Jape Squad, Baby 8, Moondriven, Mighty Boy, Working Class Ringo’s, Cashcow, The Cheap Shots, Devil Dolls, Shutdown 66, The BreadMakers, Terapin, The Drowners, King Daddy, The Exotics, The Sailors, Myagi, The Homewreckers, Double Agents, Magic Dirt, Tendrils, Penny Ikenger, Team Satan, Orange County, Gaslight Radio, The Impossibles, The Blue Stripes, Danmatsuma, Webster, Radio Dolls, Tri-State Lovers, Underground Lovers, Mach Pelican, Headcase …..I’m sure there’s more that I‘ve forgotten to mention!
Live Venue Guide of Helcat’s choice, Melbourne 2001-2!
Punters Club- closing down after 10 or so years…in Feb! Kinda down market cool…hasn’t changed much for years but have seen hundreds of great gigs there.
Nrth Melb Town Hall Hotel- small, groovy record covers on the walls, kiddie bedroom night light collection, cool beer garden.
9th Ward Can sound great, nice red velvet curtains and lighting display, it’s in the city! Open late with DJ’s The Esplanade Hotel- front bar, gershwin room, bottom bar! The owners and staff changed, looks the same, one of the last classic venues not to have disappeared from St.Kilda.
The Tote- great beer garden, cool bands, never changes. The Duke of Windsor Hotel- starting to have good bands…decor- pretty average..sporty…Mahammad Ali signed robe! Open Late! Open early!
Revolver- (friendly nickname revolting) coolest decor around plus lotsa DJ’s and Arty stuff…mean rear projections over live bands..asian food, open….mostly 24 hours!
The Continental- Sounded fantastic, a little snotty, cool international acts but now closed. aawwwhh
Prince of Wales- (if you can afford it these days) Used to be my favourite but is a little too classy now except the public bar.
The Pony- small but cosy, open real late, in the city.
Cherry Bar- not a band venue very often but does have cool music DJ’s..no doof!
The Aqua Room- it’s mostly aqua
The Evelyn- Good PA but decor sux
The Empress- Small but gets a good crowd, good food
The Laundry- nice couches
Fav albums (not necessarily released this year but played on my stereo this year chart)
1. The Sailors Violent Masturbation Blues
2. The Strokes Is this it
3. Dandy Warhols Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
4. Johnny Thunders Everything he’s eva done esp. the solo one, ‘So Alone’
My Best New discoveries
The Swans, LeTigre, The Hives, The Drones, The Strokes, Dan Kelly, International Airspace, David Bowie-the PYE years, Dr Dre & Eminem, The Sex Pistols’ demo recordings, Gorillaz, Missy Elliot, playing ukulele.
Worst Bands or i don’t eva wanna see them eva chart (the harsh chart) Area 7, Hi Five, Nikki Webster, The Little River Band (reformation), Jimmi Barnes, Silverchair (over it), Scandal’us, Bardot, Slipknot, Bob the Builder, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, and there’s plenty more that shall remain nameless!!
So there you have it…I have been having a supa fine time, in between selling hot dogs at the cinema! “Is that to have here or take away? Any extras, cheese, bacon or onion? Would you like any fries or drinks with that?” I know my lines well!
I hope you all have an excellent New Year 2002!
Stay cool
I am sooo not gonna have a bad year it’s all good, too easy.
luv your work,
helcat
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Leave a Reply