I don’t need to tell you how good the Machine Head / Slipknot gig was… but I will!
We ventured off to Melbourne Park last night, a couple of Mad and ex-Madmen… It was the first time I’d seen Machine Head and I must say that I didn’t realise just how good Robb Flynn is. Technically the band was brilliant, but they were even better and getting the crowd revved up. The setlist was solid, especially the guitar work on Halo and the force of Imperium. Finishing with Davidian, they left everyone with sore ear drums but pumped for more.
Slipknot was quite the spectacle. Die hard fans (I’m talking to you Dave) will be glad to know that the nine masked members played just two songs off the new album, amongst a set which included Guitar Hero’s Before I Forget and the classic Spit It Out. But most interestingly, they played a host of songs off their self-titled album such as Get This, Only One and Prosthetics. But the key was seeing drummer Joey Jordison play (sic) in the air at 90-degrees. Insane!
You can check out The Age’s article, reviews, photos and setlists on Last.fm or have a gander at the photos taken by The Age photographer Viki Lascaris below.
Well, that should cap off my metal outings for the year, having seen Meshuggah and ‘tallica with me mate Dave in London in September, as well as seeing Down at The Palace two weeks ago. Phew! Here’s me and the pick I got at that show…
28th October 2008
Simon
Check this out. Funny stuff. Via some of the guys at work.
3rd July 2008
Simon
I’ve almost stopped listening to radio altogether. Except for listening to Safran and Father Bob, there’s very little that I find interesting on the airwaves. Being bombarded by commercial crap evey time I go to the gym, I just feel like screaming as if it will help give way to some much needed silence. Even stations like Triple J seem like pretentious marketing schemes to buy this or subscribe to that, which is a shame given that there is some great music out there in the world. But what frustrates me most is that artists — in particlular musicians — are more and more frequently given credit for what they could do rather than what they have done.
Take recent UK pop princess Kate Nash for example. Releasing her debut (a double A-side single) in February last year and an album in August, Nash has recently acquired notoriety and airplay in the US and Australia. And how did she make it? “Lily Allen placed Nash in her top eight, attracting attention from potential fans”, according to Wikipedia. And there’s that word again, potential. We’ve already had Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, so why not Miss Nash? Never mind that her music is rubbish. I suppose, if I was a young, English female, I’d probably be milking this flavour-of-the-month for all it’s worth. I might even get to do a duet with Common. Call me opinionated and rude, but I can hear that Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse have beautiful voices, even if they are a little ‘appropriated’. I can see that Lily Allen was different at the time she emerged and had clever lyrics. But Kate Nash, well I just can’t see it. And whatever happened to the Arctic Monkeys? I thought those guys were going to be the next Beatles by what the media said.
Which brings me to the next victim, 16-year-old Gabriella Cilmi. Yes, that’s her real name, and apparently it’s pronounced ‘chill-me’ 
This teenager from Dandenong is supporting the upcoming Australian tour of James Blunt (there’s a good bit of rhyming slang for you). Cilmi also made the front page of The Age this morning, which fueled me to write this post. Now I’m not trying to cut-down Gabriella Cilmi tall poppy-style and I shouldn’t judge her based on the one song that I’ve heard. The one song that repeats the line “there’s nothing sweet about me”. The song whose film clip has young men, presumably ex-boyfriend figures tied up and on their knees. She has a lovely voice and I’m sure she has potential, but for the time being it should probably be just that.
Apparently there’s nothing sweet about Gabriella Cilmi
But it’s not just in music that this occurs. Take Michael Jordan’s view, expressed in his interview with Oprah in 2005:
The difference in our sport, in all honesty, is [now] you get paid off of potential…
When you look back in our era — Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley — we earned what we got. I don’t mean to demean the young kids because I think it’s something that they have to learn and hopefully they will learn, [but] when corporate America came to us, we had a game that could validate their admiration. Now, [players] get that before they play one game… I think it sets a bad work ethic. When you get something so easily, you’re not going to work as hard.
I think this is happening not just in sport and music, but in the arts in general, entertainment and business. Look at the web boom, the start-up companies, the YouTube/Myspace/Facebook entertainment phenomenon, reality TV and Hollywood. Are we so busy looking for what’s next that we forget to see what is now? I suppose you could compare this concept to a political election. It’s as if we view a snapshot of what a person/artist/athlete/brand could potentially achieve and then vote them in, based on what little we’ve seen, to be our next leader, hero, product or idol.
And to end with the quote that The Age ended its story with. Asked where her unique voice comes from, Cilmi responded “I went to an osteotherapist and he said I can sing the way I do because I don’t stand up properly”. Now there’s the voice of our generation.
5th April 2008
Simon
