Gig Lists - January to June 2003

Last updated January 2008

Jan \ Feb \ Mar \ Apr \ May \ Jun


January


73. BESIDE THE POINT, EL HORIZONTE, HEAVY WEIGHT CHAMP & SUBTRUCK
BTP Demo Launch @ Rosemount Hotel, North Perth, January 18th, 2003

My memory of this gig is pretty much non-existent.

Old perthbands thread about the gig


74. JED WHITEY, PC THUG & LAST YEARS HERO
@ Players Bar, Mandurah, Friday January 31st, 2003

 


This gig involved a very fun road trip to Mandurah for myself, Duceman and Donna.  There were only about 30 people in the audience at this show.  PC Thug were pretty good and Jed Whitey were entertaining as always, even though they were going through the motions a bit due to the lacklustre crowd.

Before JW's set, the band's drummer Dan Salter dared Duceman to stand directly underneath frontman Louis Dunstan for the duration of the set.  If Duceman did this, Dan guaranteed him free entry to JW's show the following night in Perth.  Duceman took up the challenge.  Not only did he stand underneath Louis for the whole set, but he head banged wildly for a hefty part of it - as you can see in the photo above!

As far as I know, Jed Whitey debuted the song No We Don't Like You at this gig.  Louis read the lyrics to the song off paper as he sang.  I souvenired the lyric sheets, and you can look at 'em by clicking on the thumbnails above.

It's also worth having a look at the gig poster, as it's quite amusing.


February


75. JED WHITEY &THE M16s
Stripped Down Fuelled Up CD Launch @ Amplifier Bar, Perth, Saturday February 1st, 2003


In February 2003  Jed Whitey  unleashed four new releases on the public - a split 7" with the Retardos, a split 7" with Ironboss, a four way split CD with Electric Frankenstein, The Puppies and Ironboss, and a double A-side CD single of their own!  As a result, the band returned to WA from the East Coast to launch all the new releases.

My memory of the gig is very hazy, but fortunately I have quite a bit of it on video.  Thanks to the video I know that Louis and Luke Mk.I from Jed Whitey spent a good portion of the band's set talking shit about Mandurah and heckling people in the crowd.  I think that the band debuted the song Hey Whitey at this gig.

The poster for this show is pretty amusing - click on the thumbnail above to have a look at it.

Old perthbands thread about the gig


76. BIG DAY OUT 2003
@ Claremont Showgrounds, Sunday February 2nd, 2003


BDO 2003.  As I walked into Claremont Showgrounds my ears were raped by the sounds of Spencer Tracy on the small stage.  Thankfully they finished pretty quickly and Cartman got stuck into things on the other small stage.  Unfortunately I only caught a bit of Cartman's set as Rocket Science were on at the same time as them on one of the other stages.  Rocket Science were great.  They only played 7 or 8 songs, but they included all of my favourites - Copycat, Burn in Hell, Going Away, One Robot, Economic Decline and Run Just Like A Gun.  At the end of the set Roman Tucker went nuts and his big keyboard collapsed on top of him.  Following Rocket Science I can't really remember what I did... I think I cruised around for a while and caught bits of Augie March, The Waifs, Kingpin, Millencollin, Lash (the singer Michaela had got really skinny and dyed her hair jet-black), Jebediah and Sparta, who were surprisingly cool. 

The Vines then played on the main stage.  They were terrible.  Craig Nicholls was prancing around with his guitar like a fruitloop and I think he was trying to smash it.  As the band's set progressed their crowd became progressively smaller as people left in droves.  In start contrast to the Vines, The Living End played an excellent 'greatest hits' set.  Queens of the Stone Age I found to be pretty disappointing, partly because the crowd watching them was enormous. I couldn't get a decent spot for QOTSA, unlike the last time they played the BDO.  Also they played a lot of songs off Songs for the Deaf, and I don't really like that record (I prefer QOTSA's first two records).  I think I then saw a bit of PJ Harvey before scoping out a good spot for the Hard Ons, who were the first first band on the bill for the day that I was really excited about.  The Hard Ons were amazing, very raw and really loud (easily the loudest band I saw on the day).  The only black mark in my book was Blackie slagging off PJ Harvey at the start of the Hard Ons set (he screamed something along the lines of "Tell that bitch PJ Harvey to shut the fuck up, let's fucken rock").  The Hard Ons played an epic version of Suck n Swallow, and they were even joined on stage for one song by Chicks on Speed (for a rendition of We Don't Play Guitars).  At the end of the Hard Ons' set Ray Ahn lit a cigarette and stubbed it all over his tongue.

The next band I remember seeing were pseduo-metallers the Murderdolls.  I knew nothing about them but when they came out they were hilarious.  Their songs were ridiculous - Graverobbing USA, Mothefucker I don't care, I just like to say Fuck etc, but they all had catchy singalong choruses!  During the I like to say Fuck song the band brought out an umbrella with a giant "FUCK" emblazoned on it.  I then tried to get into the Boiler Room to watch Kraftwerk but it was completely packed out so I went and watched the second half of You Am I's set on small stage.  They were brilliant.  I was totally blown away by them.



77. TUCKER Bs
@ Hyde Park Hotel, North Perth, Saturday February 21st, 2003

I ended up at this show pretty much by accident.  Duceman and I were at a party in North Perth.  A few of us were playing drinking games, and in the process El Douche got very pissed and subsequently got booted out of the party.  I don't think he was being too much of a drunken lout - I just think some of the people at the party were wankers (they were from Esperance).  As a result we nicked off down the road to the Hydey where the Tigers, Tucker Bs and some other bands were playing.  I only have a vague recollection of the Tucker Bs, but I think they were pretty cool.  Outside the Hydey we also met Kirra Wallace (Gigantic's manager and perthbands personality) and had quite a big chat to her.  She was great.  We then walked through Northbridge and over to the Amplifier where some crap show was on.  Hence we went down to the City McDonalds as there is a taxi rank around there.  While at Macca's two midget guys started verbally abusing Duceman and wanted to fight him for no good reason.  Duceman wanted to have a go and, "use his awesome wrestling moves to break their arms" but being the responsible person I am I diffused the situation by getting him the fuck out of there.


78. MAGIC DIRT & LOCAL PRICKS
@ Curtin Uni O-Day, Wednesday February 26th, 2003


This highly memorable gig brought in O-Day at Curtin University in 2003.  The Local Pricks played first and managed to turn a few heads with their half-naked stage show.  At the end of their set Tom Prick went into the licensed area in his jocks to thank the crowd for their support.

Magic Dirt were amazing at this show.  Totally, totally brilliant.  At the time of the gig the band had written but not recorded the Tough Love album.  They played a handful of songs that ended up on it, as well as a load of classic older material.  The Tough Love songs were really good live on this particular day - even tunes that I didn't like when I heard the recorded versions (like Brat) sounded great.  Magic Dirt were extremely energetic on stage.  At one point Adalita put her guitar on her shoulders and moved about the stage like a bird flapping its wings, and during Ice guitarist Raul affixed his guitar to the roof of the tent in which Magic Dirt were playing.  Speaking of Raul, he made a few cracks to the crowd about how happy he was to be playing at the C-U-N-T (Curtin used to be known as the Curtin University of New Technology).

The highlight of Magic Dirt's set for me was Fairy Park.  During it Adalita leapt off stage and went wild, walking through the crowd and falling on her back as she went nuts on her guitar.  For 30 or 40 seconds she had a rather lovely rock moment with a very inebriated Duceman, in which she got him to pluck at her guitar as he headbanged wildly.  Fortunately I have some video of this incident, and you can watch it below.



March


79. MAGIC DIRT, THE M16s & EL HORIZONTE
@ Amplifier Bar, Saturday March 1st, 2003

After witnessing such a brilliant show at O-Day, I went along to see Magic Dirt again, hoping to see another killer performance.  Unfortunately it wasn't to be this time around.  The band played pretty much the same set, but they seemed a bit flat compared to their rocking O-Day show.  There were also a few people in the crowd who were acting like loons during the band's set which didn't help things.

The M16s and El Horizonte also played.  El H seemed to be genuinely excited about supporting Magic Dirt.  I had a fun time during the M16s, as along with Duceman I counted how many guitar solos Ken Watt unleashed.


80. LOCAL PRICKS, THE M16s, DEAD BY MONDAY & THE COFFINS
Night of the Local Pricks CD Launch @ Amplifier Bar, Friday March 28th, 2003


This CD Launch for the "Night of the Local Pricks" was pretty cool.  A bunch of punk/Detroit rock bands played first.  The Coffins were kinda boring because they had three guitarists but they were all playing the same chords.  The M16s were cool, Ken Watt pulled out some awesome rock moves and the band played a great cover of Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry).  Dan Durack was there too and Duceman and I had chat to him for a while about the Whips old gig at my high school.

The Local Pricks pulled out all the stops on the night.  For their last song the band had a very voluptuous dancer join them on stage, as you can see in the photos below.  There was also a lot of violent moshing and circle-pit action happening.

I filmed some video of this launch on a crappy home video camera. The sound is pretty dodgy, but it looks pretty cool. You can watch it if you like.

Night of the Local Pricks CD Launch (2003) - video - stream it here


April


81. THE FERGUSONS, RED JEZEBEL & BOB EVANS
@ Newport Hotel, Fremantle, Wednesday April 2nd, 2003

This midweek gig was pretty damn cool. From memory I went with Donna and Duceman, although he spent most of the night in my car drinking because he didn't like any of the bands on the bill.  Speaking of the bill... Bob Evans (aka Kevin from Jebediah) was on first.  The crowd was pretty rude during his set, talking over the top of him as he played.  Red Jez were great.  Their excellent set blended a few old songs and future Revelations tracks.  The Fergusons were the highlight of the night though. They played brilliantly, there was a lot of people watching them and there was a camera crew filming them.  This gig was the first time I saw the band play Let's Cook It (I think they'd only just written it). It sounded brilliant this at this show, and it went down a treat with the crowd.  The Fergies finished off their set with Sinner is Red.  On this particular night there was this ultra cool thing happening with the guitars during that song.  In the break part after the chorus there is this ringing-type bit played by one of the guitars, kinda underneath the lead... it's hard to describe, but if you put the Sinner is Red CD  on you can kind of hear it around 51-52 seconds.  However it's only soft on the recorded version.  At this gig the ringy part was far more prominent and it was really, really cool - so much so that it still stands out in my mind now as I write this almost three years later.  I was a bit disappointed when I heard the recorded version and the ringy bit was hardly audible, because it was eerily cool at this show.

In the week after this gig the Fergies flew over the Melbourne to record the Sinner is Red single with Lindsay Gravina.


82. SUBTRUCK & EL HORIZONTE
@ Rosemount Hotel, North Perth, on a Friday in April 2003

El Horizonte played first and I remember nothing about them at all.  However, I certainly do remember Subtruck.  I had hated Subtruck the first time I saw them, in 2001.  In the intervening year or so my musical tastes had changed a bit and I'd heard a few of Subtruck's recorded works (thanks to Joey K's Left of Centre compilations).  When I witnessed Subtruck's set at this gig I was completely blown away, especially by Payable, Get Thee A Helmet and a tune called Moment, which I remember from the "It's like an avalanche, or an ocean" line.  All of Subtruck's songs had this super catchy groove that was kinda repetitive but damn cool.  You could move your body to the groove effortlessly, as Duceman, Archfiend and I all did on the night.  We also shouted out the lyrics to Get Thee A Helmet in unison.  It was really cool.  I had a very enjoyable time.


83. GIANTS OF SCIENCE & LOCAL PRICKS & PURRVERT
@ Newport Hotel, Fremantle, Wednesday April 23rd, 2003

Aha, the Giants of Science/Jed Whitey Weapons of Rock Destruction tour.  These were a great five days.  Myself, Josie and Duceman decided to go along to all of the shows.  I filmed bits of all the gigs eventually turned it into a DVD.

Gig One: The Newport.  Only the Giants of Science played this show.  I'd heard the Giants album History of Warfare prior to this gig and thought it was brilliant, so I was pretty excited about seeing the band live.  The Giants flew into Perth on the morning of the gig so they were pretty tired, but they still put on an excellent show.  I don't remember much about the Local Pricks or Purrvert at this gig - except that Purrvert were shit.  The other thing I remember is that I met Josie for the first time at this gig, and on the night she reminded me of Drew Barrymore in the Wedding Singer.  I have no idea why.

After the gig Josie wrote on Perthbands:

The Giants of Science were fucking awesome tonight! If you haven't already made plans to go and see them, then do so. They rock!

Duceman was also full of praise:

Seriously, Giants Of Science were fucking incredible last night. Oh, buy a shirt as well, they're cheap and they're good.


84. GIANTS OF SCIENCE, JED WHITEY, HEAVY WEIGHT CHAMP & PURRVERT
Full Throttle @ Lookout, Scarborough, Thursday April 24th, 2003


This gig was awesome.  Duceman was meant to be reviewing the show for Grok, which is Curtin Uni's Student Press.  However, he missed the first band on the bill (El Horizonte) because we arrived late.  Then he missed the second band on the bill, Purrvert, because along with Josie he was getting pissed in the Lookout carpark.  Oddly enough, Purrvert managed to get a stellar assessment in the review that was eventually published in Grok.  Duceman wrote:

Purrvert went down a treat with the now growing crowd. Laura G prowls the stage like something that, uh, prowls, and the band is exceptionally tight. Old favourites Buy Your Education and My Way or the Highway went down a treat with the fans.

This was all complete bollocks - Duceman made it all up!  We did see a bit of the next band on the bill - Heavy Weight Champ.  During this set Dan the totally awesome (and very friendly) bass player from El Horizonte came up to us and hung out for a while.  He was pretty drunk (as was Liam) and he started telling Duceman how good a reviewer he was.  It was pretty hilarious at the time.  After HWC we went back out to carpark where Duceman got more pissed and hilariously abused the fuck out of some people who were telling he, Josie and I how cool Four Time Jimmy (a highly derivate Perth pop-punk band, now know as 'Stars Don't Fall') were.

Jed Whitey then took to the stage and we all rushed inside.  JW played a killer show - one of the best I've ever seen from them.  They were super tight and there were phallic rock moves galore.  By this time of the night Duceman was extremely inebriated and hence he went and headbanged at the front of stage, as you can see in the awesome photo above.  This photo was taken by Ray Clarke from Out of the Loop Records.  Ray also took the pic of the Giants of Science.

Speaking of the Giants, the Lookout show was their worst on the tour.  I think this was partly because they were really drunk (bassplayer Matt Tanner later told us that he was passed out backstage shortly before the Giants were meant to go on) and because they were a bit shocked by how good Jed Whitey's set was, and the fact that they had to follow it up.


85. GIANTS OF SCIENCE, JED WHITEY, M16s & THE COFFINS
@ Amplifier Bar, Friday April 25th, 2003


This gig was also damn cool. The Giants were highly impressed by the M16s and Ken Watt's stellar guitar playing.  Jed Whitey played an outstanding set to a pretty fully room.  JW's show included a lot of hilarious banter with the crowd.  In particular they announced that the tour was not the "Weapons of Rock Destruction Tour", but the "Drunk on Cock" tour.  They also said the word "pisscutter" a lot on stage.  Giants of Science also played a killer set.  After the gig Ben Tuite from the Giants ran up to me in the beergarden and started asking if I'd got any good shots of the band on my video.  Josie and I had a talk to Ben for a while.  He was awesome.  He told us about how his Mum likes the Rolling Stones more than the Beatles, and how he designed the Giants debut EP launch T-Shirt that has "Be there or get fucked" written on the back of it.  A few days later he said that the Giants show at the Amplifier was one of their best ever (to that point).

After the gig the Archfiend wrote on perthbands:

I was especially happy to see the Whiteys... I love how you get lots of cool rocknroll & a new set of insults to - those Whiteys should be taught in school. I dont know what a piss-cutter is, but my mate told me (from reading something somewhere) that Shirley Manson gets her kicks pissing in guys belly buttons.

Luke Mk.I from Jed Whitey wrote:

An incredibly versatile word of ancient Lesmurdic origin, "pisscutter" is at once a noun, verb and adjective capable of expressing extreme positivity, negativity or indifference depending on context and intonation. It is not recommended that novices employ this word in their everyday lexicon until they have chalked up at least 1500 hours of conversation with Daniel Salter.


86. GIANTS OF SCIENCE & JED WHITEY
@ Settlers Tavern, Margaret River, Saturday April 26th, 2003

This was probably the coolest gig on the tour. Myself, Josie, Duceman and my brother Matt booked ourselves into a hotel in Margaret River for the night. We got extremely drunk and went to the gig.  We met the Giants of Science properly, except for Steve the drummer.  Luke Mk.2  from Jed Whitey was also extremely drunk and unusually talkative.

Jed Whitey played first. There was only a handful of people in the room during their set and the band lacked the energy they had at the Lookout and Amplifier gigs.  To get more punters into the room tour promoter Nick Compton asked the Giants to play a few covers in their set (the venue, Settler's Tavern, has a band room as well as another bar next to this room where you can kinda heard the music).  As a result myself, Josie and I got to help write the band's setlist for the evening.  I request Super C (because they hadn't played it at the three previous gigs), the "ba ba ba" song (Chalk it Up) and Regular John by QOTSA.  They played 'em all, although apparently my writing on the list wasn't very legible as I was so pissed.  Also thrown into the set were covers of AC/DC, Kyuss, Turbonegro, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Stooges.

The pub shut pretty quickly after the gig and the bands were forced outside.  The police rocked up a short time afterwards and booked the Giants manager Steve Bell for street drinking!


87. GIANTS OF SCIENCE & JED WHITEY
@ HQ Leederville (All Ages), Sunday April 27th, 2003

This afternoon all ages show was a bit of a fizzer. The bands had to rush back to Perth from Margaret River to get to show, only to discover that there were less than 10 payers!  Jed Whitey were very tired after having a massive night in Margaret River, hence they played a "low core set."  They looked happy to get off stage as quickly as they could.  In contrast the Giants of Science showed how much of a professional unit they are by putting on an awesome show in very trying circumstances.  They mixed up their set a bit, inserting a couple of new songs as well as a Budd cover.


88. GIANTS OF SCIENCE (Acoustic) & GLEN MUSTO
@ Rosemount Hotel, Sunday April 27th, 2003

After the HQ gig the Giants of Science headed over to the Rosemount where they played an acoustic gig.  It featured a few covers, a few songs that later morphed into Gin Club songs (such as Bats) and some awesome versions of Giants' compositions.  I met Steve the drummer from the Giants and Belly at this gig.

After the tour I wrote on perthbands:

Giants Of Science were great. After seeing six shows in five days I'm not sick of them, but actually want more!

Duceman wrote:

That weekend rocked my socks off, anyone who didn't catch GOS missed out big time. Nice dudes in a rockin band...who woulda thunk it?

The Giants wrote:

We just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to our shows over the last week and made our visit to W.A. such a kick-ass time. Special thanks to Monster Management and the legends in Jed Whitey who made sure that we were constantly drunk (on both beer and cock, as is their want). The reception we received for an indie Brisbane rock band was sensational and we can't wait to come back later in the year as is currently being planned.....

Take it easy and we'll catch you all later,

Giants Of Science

Now if only they would come back for another tour!


May


89. FRENZAL RHOMB & USELESS I.D.
@ Globe Theatre, Perth, Saturday May 3rd, 2003

Trippo, Matt and I went to this gig. The Globe was arguably the most packed I've ever seen it.  We arrived when Useless I.D. were playing and we couldn't actually get down onto the floor of the venue -  we had to stand towards the back on the slightly raised part.  It was the same story for Frenzal Rhomb.  Luckily we could see quite well from our raised position.  Frenzal were awesome.  Lindsay was jumping around stage like a lunatic for the whole set.  The band played a nice mix of old and new songs.  I can't remember much more... except that I liked the set a lot.


90. THE DRUGS & DYSLEXIC FISH
@ UWA Tavern, Nedlands, Friday May 23rd, 2003

This show was a freebie at UWA.  I don't really like The Drugs. They try to be funny but fail most of the time (although I think I know what I don't like about you is an awesome song).  Fortunately their set was quite entertaining this particular day.  The band had a lot of video projection stuff with them that was utilised during the set.  It looked really good and complimented the songs well.  For example, during Sport was better in the 70s they had projections of old Aussie cricketers and the song's lyrics, etc. 

The crowd was surprisingly large and the UWA kids were pretty receptive to the band (there was lots of interaction between band and crowd).  During one song the Drugs bought a cardboard cut out Alex Lloyd onto stage, gave the crowd tennis balls, and got them to ditch 'em at Alex.  I ended up with one of the tennis balls at some point.  During the song the band had a line that went something like, "Fuck Alex Lloyd, Fuck Silverchair, Fuck Spiderbait"  I was wearing a Spiderbait t-shirt so I thought fuck this and ditched the tennis ball quite hard at the band instead of Alex Lloyd.

I think if you saw the Drugs more than a couple of times they'd get boring fast, as the presumably repetitive jokes and stage show would wear thin.  However, as a one off this show was pretty cool.


91. WHITECHAPEL & SOME RANDOM BANDS
@ Rosemount Hotel, Sunday May 2003

I went along to this quiet Sunday night show at the Rosemount to check out Whitechapel. I can't remember much about their set except that Mike Wafer was a bit angsty on stage (yelling at his band mates).  Also Ant did an exceptionally funny solo cover of that Girl I'm Gonna Make You Sweat song.  Y'know, "Girl I'm gonna make you sweat, sweat to you can sweat no more, and if you cry out, I'm gonna push it some more, looking in your big brown eye, Alalalalom etc".  It was comedy gold I tell 'ya.


June


92. THREE ORANGE WHIPS, CAPITAL CITY, THE FUZZ & LOCAL PRICKS
Three Orange Whips Farewell Show, Amplifier Bar, Perth, Saturday June 1st, 2003

 

This show was pretty damn cool.  Before the gig I got an email from a girl from Brisbane called Nicole who was coming over to Perth and wanted to see some rockshows.  The Giants of Science had tipped her off about contacting me and Duceman.  We told her to come to the 3 Orange Whips farewell 'cause we thought it would be lots of fun.  And it was!

People were pretty excited before this gig.  On perthbands Andrea wrote:

Fucking great drunken rock band! I'll be there! I've seen this band too many times to not be there for their last ever show. Its gonna be rowdy!!! Cant wait!!

And Duceman wrote:

I will be there, I will be wasted, I will be assailing Dan Durack with recollections of their gig at my high school.

I arrived at the gig with Duceman and Matt, and Donna turned up later on as well.  Local Pricks played first.  I don't remember much about their set.  We then met up with Nicole who recognised Duceman because he was wearing a Giants of Science shirt.  The Fuzz played next and they were shit hot.  They impressed Duceman too, who wrote on perthbands:

The Fuzz! Really fucking good, and a frontwoman who makes me all tingly inside.

I think we then went and drank in the lucky ally near the Amps with Archfiend before heading in to see Capital City, who also played a killer set full of songs that ended up on the Capital City vs the Bangkok Lady Boys EP. At the end their set Capital City played a cover of You're Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators with Dan Durack on vocals. Then it was the 3 Orange Whips. While it wasn't their best ever show ever, it was pretty entertaining and I was pretty tipsy by this time of the night so I was loving it, especially the killer encore of Tina Rock Arena, French Movie and Fuck the Salad. At the end of the set Dan Durack picked guitarist James up and put him on his shoulders. Duceman, Ben Mayhem, Tom from Local Pricks and a few other drunkards also took all their shirts off during the encore and danced around like yobbos.  It was hilarious.

All the jumping up and down was too much for a wasted Duceman who went out to the Amplifier's entrance and did a massive, massive orange powerspew.  It was fantastic.  He wanted to go back into Amps after the spew but normally happy go lucky bouncer Rob stopped him.



After the gig Duceman wrote on perthbands:

It's the fucken whips - everyone was thoroughly off head... That's the most trashed i've ever been at a whips gig. Hell, that was the most trashed i've been at any gig, ever! SHIRTS OFF!!!!!! Great night, except the part where my stomach decided to leap out of my mouth.

I wrote:

The Whips were great, especially the encore.  However, the highlight of the night was definitely the Duceman's massive orange powerspew. How can anyone vomit that much???

Ben Mayhem wrote:

Liam's spew was terriffic. Seriously. It was like one of those cheesy 80's movie spews from Problem Child, where they obviously put a hose behind the actor's face.

Photos of the gig from perthpix.zoob.net
Project Photography -  look under Three Orange Whips


93. IKEY MO, THE REGENTS & MORE
Curtin Uni end of Semester Bash, Friday June 6th, 2003

This was the end of first semester bash at Curtin Uni in 2003.  The full line up was: Ikey Mo, Dream Catcha, The Regents, Junkship, Monsoon and The Floors.  Before the gig Duceman wrote:

Looking at this lineup, I now regret not attending the Activities Committee that decided on these bands. It seems that Guild people are afraid of rock.

I only saw Ikey Mo and The Regents.  Both bands were pretty good.  Two songs stood out in Ikey Mo's set - Chemical Girl and On Top of the World.  You can look at Ikey Mo's setlist by clicking on the thumbnail above.  Scrawled on the back was "Ikey Mo: Better living through disrespecting monkeys."

What else to say?  Duceman and I managed to wear the same shirt to a gig (not for the first, or last, time).


94. THE FERGUSONS & GRAND CENTRAL
@ Swan Basement, Fremantle, Friday June 13th, 2003

This gig was kinda cool.  I went with Donna.  End of Fashion were on the bill but we got there too late to catch them.  Grand Central were the first band we saw.  Their first song was good - I'm not sure what it was called but it was pretty catchy.  The rest of the set sent me to sleep.  Also, the drummer had a microphone, and he wouldn't shut up for the whole set.

During Grand Central's set a lot of people had been sitting down at the front of stage, and they were still there when The Fergusons came out.  However, Al Fergie made everyone stand up.  The Fergusons were grand.  They played really, really well.  The highlight of the night for me was Fourth Grade Nothing.  The Fergusons announced at this gig that there would be free beer at their upcoming Sinner is Red CD Launch.  Maybe it would have been good if I didn't hear this.

In a review of this gig for perthbands.com Kirra Wallace wrote:

The Fergusons cruised through all the crowd favourites whilst charming the audience with their laid back attitude and rocked out stage antics. Cruising through a couple of their new songs, there seems to be a small departure from their previous work with a more punkish edge to the new tracks that made the songs appear to be less slick, but the band seemed to enjoy playing them and the crowd enjoyed hearing them. With the upcoming release of their single “The Sinner is Red” it will be interesting to see if they continue down the same path as the successful “Everything’s Gone Bad”, or if they will pursue the more edgy style that occasionally makes an appearance in their sound. The Fergusons always look like they are having a great time on stage which in turn shines through in their music. A great set by The Fergusons, but I expected that.


95. SUBTRUCK, LOCAL PRICKS, BESIDE THE POINT, HEAD FILLED ATTRACTION & PYROMESH + MORE
Massive Head Wound 2 @ Globe, Perth, Saturday June 21st, 2003

This was basically a gig featuring numerous hard rock / metal bands, plus the Local Pricks. Before the show I went to the Brass Monkey where Josie was working at the time and had some drinks.  Whilst there I met Burb (who runs the Perth heavy sounds label Sic Squared).  He was great and was telling Liam stories about Disneyland or some zany place in the US of A.

As for the bands... I can't remember much as I was pretty drunk.  I mostly remember Subtruck and the Local Pricks being awesome.  The size of the crowd was disappointing - there was only 200 people in a room that must hold about 800-1000.  After the gig I remember getting a lift from Burb and he did a killer U-turn over the median strip in the middle of Wellington St.

Josafiend made a rather cool board dedicated to this gig (as well as a big flag that was on display above the DJ booth on the night).  You can look at her board by clicking on the thumbnail above.  There's also playing times and Subtruck's setlist.

After the gig Duceman wrote on Perthbands:

Fucking good night. I was thoroughly impressed by all the bands, but was a little disappointed at the turnout. The people that were there were cranking though, and I met ZeroSignal!

And big props to Arch for the banner/skull. Fo schizzle my nizzle!

And big props to Dave for (almost) going drink for drink with me! Finally I'm convinced i've seen you pissed!

And big props to Burb for the lift home - nice work fella

And big props to Brettly for putting the whole thing on!

And big props to anyone else i've forgotten to mention!!


96. RED JEZEBEL, LITTLE BIRDY & END OF FASHION (with Hobbsy on drums and 'Ness on bass)
@ Rosemount Hotel, North Perth, Friday June 27th, 2003

and

97. EL HORIZONTE & THE FUZZ
@ Hyde Park Hotel, North Perth, Friday June 27th, 2003

On this particular Friday there was a gig happening at the Rosemount that featured (in this playing order): Equador, End of Fashion, Little Birdy, Red Jezebel and Spencer Tracy.  There were a lot of A&R people at the gig scoping out the bands.  The gig was also highly advertised on NOVA and as a result a massive amount of people turned up.  A lot of them were walking straight past the doorperson without paying as if the place was a nightclub.  I went to the gig specifically to see End of Fashion, as I loved Justin & Rod when they were in the Sleepy Jackson, and EOF were getting a lot of hype around Perth at the time.  I was bitterly disappointed by by their set.  On the night I thought that Too Careful and Anything Goes were nice, catchy songs, but the rest of End of Fashion's set bored me shitless.  Duceman went too and thought they were even worse than me.  His quote for the evening was, "I had more fun sitting outside watching the grass grow."  Incidentally, Duceman managed to accidentally lock himself into the gents cubicle at the Rosie this particular night and had to get Buster from Red Jez to break him out!

Following End of Fashion's set Little Birdy were on.  I wasn't really interested in seeing them, and the Rosie was so full and uncomfortable by this point of the evening that I decided to make an escape down the road to the Hydey where El Horizonte, The Fuzz and Local Pricks were playing.  When I arrived El Horizionte were on.  They were having a bit of an off night.  There weren't many punters there and the band was going through the motions a bit.   After EH finished I decided to ditch the Local Pricks to go back to the Rosie and watch Red Jezebel, who were pretty good.  I then went back down to the Hydey to see The Fuzz who played a totally shit hot set.

At the time I wrote on perthbands:

I saw four very different bands on Friday - End of fashion, el hell, red jez and the fuzz - who were definitely my fav. Their "new" (ie non ep) songs were good. The first time I saw the fuzz they were pretty dodgy, but they have gotten better every time I've seen them since.

Heath, the manager of Jebediah, wrote some interesting comments on perthbands about the Rosemount show:

Fuck man, there were a lot of people in the gig last night who I am sure had never been to a gig that wasn't a cover band before. I was glad to escape to the hydie where I didn't have to deal with so many pissed idiots. Yeah, work that one out!

I don't give a shit whether someone is indie / punk / metal / a 94.5 listener or not and I have a 10 year career of trying to get people from any demographic to rock / dance / whatever shows. I do however (on a personal level of course!) enjoy being in a crowd where people can
a) show respect to the bands they are supporting by paying to see them
b) be able to walk through a crowded room without elbowing every person along the way in the rib and spilling their drink on them
c) not fill every surface of the toilet in vomit.


98. THE SLEEPY JACKSON & CARTMAN
Lovers Album Launch@ Amplifier Bar, Saturday June 28, 2003

The Amplifier was very squashy when I arrived at this show.  Matt came too.  Cartman played a fantastic set that featured a heap of songs off Go! plus two newies.  I think this was the band's last ever show, as they quietly dissolved later in the year.  The Sleepy Jackson I found to be very disappointing.  They had a new bass player and guitarist, and I hated both of them.  At the time I wrote on perthbands:

Pretty much all of the Sleepy Jackson gigs I have been to, up until the launch last night, have been pretty memorable.  However last night TSJ were so boring they made me want to fall asleep. The first four songs were ok and then the only thing keeping me interested / awake for the rest of the set was that I thought they would play glasshouses at the end - which they didn't do. Even miniskirt /this day sounded average. While competent enough at playing their instruments, I thought the new guitarist / bassist didn't put on much of a "show" compared to rod / justin - the whole luke / justin guitar spectacle was sorely missing.

Cartman, on the other hand, were awesome, especially their new songs.

Mike Wafer wrote some interesting comments.

Luke trying to come across as an eccentric genius by wearing wacky clothes that look like they have just come from a year 5's 'dress up' box is trite and so transparent. One boxing glove? fuck off! The thing I have always observed about the TRUE eccentric is that they are totally unaware that they are eccentric, and I see Luke as just putting on this very phoney show, that makes him look like a prat.  Having said that, I think he is a great songwriter, and their successes always make me happy, because they are people I have known for a long time, and it's always good to see people succeed...I just think he can do it without the wanky clothes and phoney sentiments...I stopped going to watch that band when the first and last ten minutes of their set were a one-man guitar solo show, and Luke kept doing that annoying 'shhhh' thing after every bar...you know the thing I'm talking about? (think Beatles' 'Come Together').