The Living End
Last week nearly all my sisters and I went to see The Living End at QUT. We had Atratus, L&L and were only missing A to make a full pack.
I've been into The Living End from their first album, own all of them, a sometimes guilty pleasure that feels like it needs justifying to our Goth/Geek friends. I'll come out and say that, as well as everything else, I like nu-punk/ska stuff. Hell I like the old-punk/ska stuff too. I'm a punky-goth *grin*.
The band's been going for nearly ten years and they're releasing a new album this year, hence the gig. And in all this time I have yet to see them live. This is a big deal. They play all-ages, they play festivals and hell, when they were in the UK they played the Brixton Academy: while we were in the UK. I'd begun to think that there might be a curse which prevented me from seeing them so when I spotted the poster at QUT last semester, $20 for QUT students, $25 for everyone else, and then got three days of work I thought: this time for sure. I put the call out for other people and Atratus said she'd love a ticket for her b-day and L&L said they'd love to come too.
The gig was being held in the QUT Guildbar, right above where Atratus and I (with George) had gone to see Rat Cat nearly 14 years ago. It's on the second floor at the back of the campus surrounded by the botanical gardens. The trek to get the tickets involved having all this knowledge and more. First I had to have the money, then I had to find a guild services office as it's the only place selling tickets. First stop KG campus, where I was organising my transcript as part of my transfer to UQ, and a search through the cafeteria building down to the lowest floor, dungeon like, past the sports centre, who had no idea about the concert, and to the room hiding in the back corner which of course was closed. OK says I, worried about tickets (and that curse thing) as I'd already had to leave it to two days before which is when I got paid, I'll go to Garden's Point. Happily listening to TLE on my minidisk, Geidi, and once on the GP campus I walked across the campus to the Guild services where I was told they are sold out: go upstairs to the bookstore. At the bookstore, I was told they didn't have any non-student tickets, go next door to the bar and ask there. It felt like a game of snakes and ladders and my fear of teh curse made me a little nervous as I enter the bar. Now I'm not a big pub-ish kinda person, so it felt like every eye was on me as I went to the bar and got my tickets!
On the night Atratus, L&L and I met out front of Borders and walked up to the guild bar, where I got carded and through belligerence and pouting got in despite the fact that all I have is my student ID. I'm nearly thirty, for-teh-goddess-sake. The crowd was what you'd expect: a lot of students, packs of people getting super drunk and yelling comments out at passer-by's (Atratus got asked if she could help someone slit their wrists *grins*). Atratus and I agreed there wasn't even much in the way of eye-candy (a guy in a Tripod shirt with a gf who pogo'ed, and the band). We met one other person who goes to Faith after his friend pushed him into talking to us. *kawaii desu* There were little pockets of punk-esque people through the crowd but very different to what you'd get at a gig in a pub or at the Arena or even at the Zoo. The venue itself was a little odd, mostly because it wasn't dark or loud enough. The two supports weren't really worth mentioning. A lot of energy and passion but nothing really new. But, what we came for, was fantastic.
They played a mixture of stuff off all three albums and two tracks off the new yet-to-be-released album. Have to say: the new stuff rocked and is not a disappointment. They played a lot of really good stuff and a mix of stuff from all their albums: Second Solution, Carry Me Home, Silent Victory, Pictures in the Mirror, Save The Day, Monday, West End Riot, Tabloid Magazine, Hold Up, Who's Gonna Save Us.
But for me there were a couple of highlights: All Torn Down, Roll On, and of course Prisoner of Society.
TLE come from Melbourne, which is a lot more obviously working class and unionised than Brisbane. From the first you can feel the suburban working class roots in the lyricism of the band. I think what I love about them, as well as the skankin' tunes is that they don't hide who they are and where they come from. Their roots are evident in every word and in the energy and style of music they play. They came out of the nineties bringing the energy and even the politicism of the early punk in a new way and bands like Green Day are only now catching up to their ability to make good music and take a stance.
I feel I have to explain what I mean by their politicism: a lot of their songs talk about things which people usually remain silent about in our generation, particularly in Australia. We pretend that we're a middle class, white country where everyone lives in suburbs like on Neighbours or Home and Away. Oh sure every now and again there'll be someone different but on the whole Australia is bourgeoisie. TLE talk about a life that isn't that way, that is part of our history with the strong union movements even into the eighties. Songs like Roll On, West End Riot and One Said to the Other are all expressions of a kind of life that isn't simply a middle class suburban experience. Along with The Cat Empire, TLE typify for me a part of what it means to be Australian.
So listening to Roll On, a song explicitly about a Union action, in the Garden's Point QUT Guild Bar with a bunch of students who will go on to do mostly public service and corporate jobs was kind of amusing. It kind of highlighted to me the change in union participation since the late eighties and the idea that this song, and the student unionism, is probably the most involved in unionism that most of the people in the bar would ever get. Thank you John Howard!
Brisbane during the Joh era had most of it's historical architecture decimated. The notorious Dean Brothers would come in the night before a building was to be Heritage listed and rip it down. Cloudlands, a venue which had been running at least since the fifties when couples used to go and meet to dance through to the eighties where our family tells us of going to see punk bands play, was a victim of this part of our history. As Atratus pointed out on the way home, the amount of newer buildings in Brisbane in comparison to Sydney or Melbourne, is a result of Joh and the Dean Brothers.
All Torn Down's lyrics are like a homage to Brisbane:
The third highlight song, Prisoner of Society is their biggest single. They had a lot of fun playing it and we enjoyed yelling along. They did that audience participation thing getting us to yell out:
We got an encore with Second Solution but Atratus and I were very disappointed by the younger generation letting the Brisbane side down - only one encore!
It was a fantastic night out, and even though I had to move house the next day, I'm so glad I finally got to see them play live.
nb kawaii desu is Japanese for cute, it is and is pronounced ka-wa-ee des
I've been into The Living End from their first album, own all of them, a sometimes guilty pleasure that feels like it needs justifying to our Goth/Geek friends. I'll come out and say that, as well as everything else, I like nu-punk/ska stuff. Hell I like the old-punk/ska stuff too. I'm a punky-goth *grin*.
The band's been going for nearly ten years and they're releasing a new album this year, hence the gig. And in all this time I have yet to see them live. This is a big deal. They play all-ages, they play festivals and hell, when they were in the UK they played the Brixton Academy: while we were in the UK. I'd begun to think that there might be a curse which prevented me from seeing them so when I spotted the poster at QUT last semester, $20 for QUT students, $25 for everyone else, and then got three days of work I thought: this time for sure. I put the call out for other people and Atratus said she'd love a ticket for her b-day and L&L said they'd love to come too.
The gig was being held in the QUT Guildbar, right above where Atratus and I (with George) had gone to see Rat Cat nearly 14 years ago. It's on the second floor at the back of the campus surrounded by the botanical gardens. The trek to get the tickets involved having all this knowledge and more. First I had to have the money, then I had to find a guild services office as it's the only place selling tickets. First stop KG campus, where I was organising my transcript as part of my transfer to UQ, and a search through the cafeteria building down to the lowest floor, dungeon like, past the sports centre, who had no idea about the concert, and to the room hiding in the back corner which of course was closed. OK says I, worried about tickets (and that curse thing) as I'd already had to leave it to two days before which is when I got paid, I'll go to Garden's Point. Happily listening to TLE on my minidisk, Geidi, and once on the GP campus I walked across the campus to the Guild services where I was told they are sold out: go upstairs to the bookstore. At the bookstore, I was told they didn't have any non-student tickets, go next door to the bar and ask there. It felt like a game of snakes and ladders and my fear of teh curse made me a little nervous as I enter the bar. Now I'm not a big pub-ish kinda person, so it felt like every eye was on me as I went to the bar and got my tickets!
On the night Atratus, L&L and I met out front of Borders and walked up to the guild bar, where I got carded and through belligerence and pouting got in despite the fact that all I have is my student ID. I'm nearly thirty, for-teh-goddess-sake. The crowd was what you'd expect: a lot of students, packs of people getting super drunk and yelling comments out at passer-by's (Atratus got asked if she could help someone slit their wrists *grins*). Atratus and I agreed there wasn't even much in the way of eye-candy (a guy in a Tripod shirt with a gf who pogo'ed, and the band). We met one other person who goes to Faith after his friend pushed him into talking to us. *kawaii desu* There were little pockets of punk-esque people through the crowd but very different to what you'd get at a gig in a pub or at the Arena or even at the Zoo. The venue itself was a little odd, mostly because it wasn't dark or loud enough. The two supports weren't really worth mentioning. A lot of energy and passion but nothing really new. But, what we came for, was fantastic.
They played a mixture of stuff off all three albums and two tracks off the new yet-to-be-released album. Have to say: the new stuff rocked and is not a disappointment. They played a lot of really good stuff and a mix of stuff from all their albums: Second Solution, Carry Me Home, Silent Victory, Pictures in the Mirror, Save The Day, Monday, West End Riot, Tabloid Magazine, Hold Up, Who's Gonna Save Us.
But for me there were a couple of highlights: All Torn Down, Roll On, and of course Prisoner of Society.
TLE come from Melbourne, which is a lot more obviously working class and unionised than Brisbane. From the first you can feel the suburban working class roots in the lyricism of the band. I think what I love about them, as well as the skankin' tunes is that they don't hide who they are and where they come from. Their roots are evident in every word and in the energy and style of music they play. They came out of the nineties bringing the energy and even the politicism of the early punk in a new way and bands like Green Day are only now catching up to their ability to make good music and take a stance.
I feel I have to explain what I mean by their politicism: a lot of their songs talk about things which people usually remain silent about in our generation, particularly in Australia. We pretend that we're a middle class, white country where everyone lives in suburbs like on Neighbours or Home and Away. Oh sure every now and again there'll be someone different but on the whole Australia is bourgeoisie. TLE talk about a life that isn't that way, that is part of our history with the strong union movements even into the eighties. Songs like Roll On, West End Riot and One Said to the Other are all expressions of a kind of life that isn't simply a middle class suburban experience. Along with The Cat Empire, TLE typify for me a part of what it means to be Australian.
So listening to Roll On, a song explicitly about a Union action, in the Garden's Point QUT Guild Bar with a bunch of students who will go on to do mostly public service and corporate jobs was kind of amusing. It kind of highlighted to me the change in union participation since the late eighties and the idea that this song, and the student unionism, is probably the most involved in unionism that most of the people in the bar would ever get. Thank you John Howard!
Brisbane during the Joh era had most of it's historical architecture decimated. The notorious Dean Brothers would come in the night before a building was to be Heritage listed and rip it down. Cloudlands, a venue which had been running at least since the fifties when couples used to go and meet to dance through to the eighties where our family tells us of going to see punk bands play, was a victim of this part of our history. As Atratus pointed out on the way home, the amount of newer buildings in Brisbane in comparison to Sydney or Melbourne, is a result of Joh and the Dean Brothers.
All Torn Down's lyrics are like a homage to Brisbane:
I see the city and it isn't what it used to beIt's a short poppy song that's great to sing along to. When they played it, in our city, it was fantastic. Atratus said it's the song she most wanted to hear and I love it to pieces too. The best thing is that they expanded it from about two minutes to about six or eight with an amazing musical interlude thing. They managed to keep the tune and bring in a lot of the energy and styling of the early eighties ska and punk music. Just perfect.
A million houses goin up and down in front of me
No time to let the concrete set before it's broken up again
Don't care if it's historic, don't really care at all.
The third highlight song, Prisoner of Society is their biggest single. They had a lot of fun playing it and we enjoyed yelling along. They did that audience participation thing getting us to yell out:
Well we don't need no one to tell us what to do.It's an anthem of our generation (whatever that is) and loud, and pogoing until one of my skirts fell off, and lots of fun. Despite 'the generation gap' our parents would have been so proud of us pogoing and skanking to one of their favourite songs *grin*.
Oh yes we're on our own and there's nothing you can do.
So we don't need no one like you!
TO TELL US WHAT TO DO!
We got an encore with Second Solution but Atratus and I were very disappointed by the younger generation letting the Brisbane side down - only one encore!
It was a fantastic night out, and even though I had to move house the next day, I'm so glad I finally got to see them play live.
nb kawaii desu is Japanese for cute, it is and is pronounced ka-wa-ee des
posted by Chani Asha at 8:40 pm
1 Comments:
Great Blog, :)
The West End in Brisbane is a wonderful place to explore the differences in the city.
Australian indie/punk music blends well especially bands like the living end highlighting the axes of difference e.g.
race/ethnicity
economic diversity
religion and political views
Very thoughtful and honest in your observations and reflections.
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