The Faint and Nightstick

The Venue and the Crowd

I've never been to the Zoo before, even though I've been living,
mostly, in Brisbane for the last fifteen years (I don't count before I
was 14 or 15 because I wasn't really 'living' in Brisbane). It's a bit
unusual for an urban Brisbanite like myself to have never been to the
Zoo because bands play regularly and there is a whole pile of odds and
ends stuff that happens there. I remember hearing about friends that
took Swing classes for a while.

I think a lot of it has to do with the crowd, the audience that it
pitches to. In the early nineties it was (at least according to an
alternative outsider's perspective) the place where Ferals go and
that's kind of stuck in my head. Reject hippies and the like. It's a
little bit of a humouring attitude – we have the Normanby, then the
Alliance and now the Jubilee and where ever Faith is. They're a sister
culture – not something that appeals (too in your face political, the
music sux, no tech and they don't wear enough black), but another
marginalised youth culture that needs an identity and a territory. So
let them have the Zoo, we have the world.

Not knowing what to expect, Ian and I rock up at 8 to meet M and
Pirate!Andrew, and we walk past about 20 or so people waiting outside
for the doors to open. Now this is *Brisbane* where six degrees peters
down to about two – you know: I know the Fiend, and so does everyone
else. So it was really weird not recognising anyone. Sure, it's a
Sunday night. But wow, not even any faces recognised from on Campus.

Did this mean that maybe the Faint weren't actually *our* kind of
music? The irony is intentional. I don't think there is an *our* kind
of music, and I'm not sure I'm even an *our*. But The Faint are this
kinda synthpop/rock band that I loved from the first time I heard
Agenda Suicide – I just expected that the scene would have heard of
them. It fits right into the kind of music we play – somewhere between
Orgy, Alien Sex Fiend and Snog. They're harder than a lot of EBM but a
little too New Wave to be Industrial. They Rock.

The crowd however was in no way Dark-wave, Dark-alternative or Dark
anything, It was really college-rock. And I didn't even know we had
that kind of a scene in Brisbane. It makes sense, really, but I have
no idea how to identify or relate to these people.

I can relate to most of the Dark-edged cultures – there are ways that
we express ourselves, ways of expressing our social allegiances. I can
talk to somebody into Industrial or Metal or Punk or Goth, because
I've got stuff in common, even if it's tenuous. We're going to agree
about the world on some level because, on some level, we look at the
world the same. Black becomes part of the code that we use to express
that allegiance.

Even at uni, there are people I talk to who are alternative but aren't
dark-edged and we have conversations skirting around the idea that we
both don't 'fit-in', that we don't want what we're told to want, but
it's often not enough to actually build a closer relationship. Hell,
some of the dark-edge people aren't easy to connect with – I'm not
into Metal, I won't be into Metal, I don't really like it. But there
is slightly more to connect with, at least a common bond of exclusion.
We can't always pass for normal.

The Zoo seems to cater to a crowd that is completely different to my
experience as alternative. They are alternative, too and probably have
more connection with the term as an indicator of their lifestyle
choices. We've got Goth, Geek, and a whole rack of other words, I
can't even begin to suggest words to describe these 'other'
alternatives. They listen to triple Z, which we don't because of a
history of exclusion from their programming with only interspersed
intervals with a 'Goth' show. They wear pastels and beige and white
and khaki and some of them look really cool doing it. There are
particular hairstyles that repeat through the audience – very new
wave. Just like us, but different.

So there was a bit of trepidation at the idea that we might have got
it wrong. Maybe The Faint aren't what I think they are.

Coming up to the gig we said to some of our friends that we were going
– I was excited, first band in nearly a year (and the last one was a
let down: Ladytron/3 = two dj's mixing stuff badly) and it's The
Faint. I love them. I listen to them at home, I bought the album after
hearing the single twice. We've, cough, cough, downloaded the new
album as a temporary measure until we can afford the new album. And
you can dance to it. The thing is that nobody had heard of them – they
even got Triple J airplay, which means, by our guess Faith isn't
playing them.

The Support Act

A lot of what I enjoyed about the gig was the atmosphere. The venue is
kind of bohemian and Pirate!Andrew says that when The Saints played
they said that it hasn't changed much in twenty years. Well the
audience was very like what I remember a lot of the Zed crowd, 20
years ago (yes, my Parent's were students listening and involved with
4ZZZ – it was the only radio they'd listen to). The same kinda clothes
and haircuts as in 200 cigarettes.

And the support band, Nightstick, just made the atmosphere. They had
these very Australian post-punk sound to them, like they'd been
playing music since then (and they did look old enough *go team we
don't die at 30*). Very rock, fast and energetic. Rumour is they're a
Bris-band. I think it would have helped to know more of their lyrics
because we kept expecting to be able to sing along - this bits like
Madness, this bit like Wire, this bit like Jimmy and the Boys etc etc
– but just not recognising enough.


The Main Event

We got seats up on the raised bit near the bar. This was all kinds of
good. There was a bench in front of us to lean on and we could see
pretty much all of the stage. Both Ian and Andrew were being very
sweet and making sure the M and I got the most out of the event. They
knew who *really* wanted to be there. Ah, humouring love!

When the band first came out onto the stage, my fears were realised. I
have only seen one promotional shot, and gone on their website –
they're not very public with their image. But I wasn't expecting quite
the casualness/rock/not-blackness of their wardrobe. They looked like
the crowd. Hesitation on my part – maybe the second album was vastly
different from the first. I've only listened to it a couple of times:
I thought I really liked it…

The first number was off the new album, it didn't pack the punch of
the earlier stuff. But what really rocked was the projection that they
had on a screen behind them. All through their set, different videos
were played that synced with their performance.

I have a thing about Geeks. I like them. I understand them and relate
to the way that they see the world. And The Faint are geeks. You can
see it in the way that they use the technology – projected videos that
sync to the songs. You can see it in the way that they play the music
– instruments are played in layers over a preprogrammed track. The
drummer and the lead guitarist jump in for bursts of high energy music
mixed over a drum machine and synth track. The bass player is playing
a 7/9 string bass and the singer's voice is electronically modified.
They take the technology and use it to make music.

And they all dance along to the music with the energy of people who
haven't quite realised that they're not in the loungeroom and that
there's an audience in front of them. They love their music, they know
their music and they love to perform. The music is polished – not as
produced as the album, but well practised. There's never a break or
pause when somebody didn't join in at the right time and it's layered
like a track mixed in a studio – big breaks where the lead guitarist
is doing nothing but rocking and dancing along, where the drummer
sings along despite his lack of microphone – all connected together to
make music.

I know the first album intimately, in the way that you spend hours
listening to it while studying and they played a lot of my favourite
tracks, not that I could name all the track titles. Propoganda, Agenda
Suicide, the song about melting… all stuff that should be played at
Goth Clubs and Dark Wave clubs Australia, nay the world, wide. It
fits, and it disappointed me that there weren't anymore Goths there
(maybe 5% of the audience could be constructed in that direction). And
what was also cool was their one cover: Psychokiller by The Talking
Heads. Maybe not the best cover of all time, but a good mix of their
style (which has that new-wave brotherhood with Talking Heads) and the
original.

The set was short – pirate!Andrew said about 35 – 45 mins with an
extra 10 for the encore. But when the synth player came back out on
stage he brought out his camera and mumbled in some Nebraskan accent
about how this was his holiday and he wanted a snapshot (for the web –
I think, the accent was that bad), and they'd play a few more songs.
Ooh, Geeks! Doing a tour to pay for a holiday – how cool is that.
Explains a little bit why a Sunday, why The Zoo and why Brisbane –
they weren't caring too much about the money.

We were out of there before 11:30 and on our way home, a good thing in
someways and disappointing in others. I didn't get up and dance, I
didn't feel comfortable enough – not sure if I could dance the way
that I do in that audience. They have codes and conventions that I
missed out on picking up. I don't get moshpit etiquette in any but a
visceral way, I'm a little agoraphobic, and this wasn't really a
moshpit anyway.

After-gig appraisal

In the end we all had good things to say, even pirate!Andrew who has
been sick as a dog all weekend. Ian said that A-pop's visuals were
better, but I'm not sold – I think A-pop had a bigger stage. The music
rocked and it was fun watching them, their videos and the strange and
alien crowd.