I had to write a review for a street magazine called "The Place Street Press". It's the only local one we have in Townsville. I've never written a gig review before. Here's what I wrote.
Monday January 12th was a horrible day of weather in Townsville. But you know what they say, "the show must go on". And thus, as the proverbial sinking ship that was Townsville went down with torrential rain and floodwaters, the bands did play on.
Youth Rock Out at the Riverway Arts Centre promised to be a big affair, with Cairns duo The Medics and The Forest joined Premier Townsville bands Vayer and The Short List, along with the last ever show for Add Mechanics. Unfortunately, somewhere between Cairns and Townsville, there was a substantial amount of water on the roads preventing cars full of musicians to travel.
After a flurry of text messages ("is the gig still on?") and phone calls ("can you PLEASE play tonight in place of these bands?"), Youth Rock Out kicked off with the acoustic stylings of the beautiful Kate Martin. Martin's sweet voice resonated throughout the building like an angel (a guardian angel who could save the show as a replacement at the very last minute!), winning over the metal faithfuls who had come to see The Forest.
Vayer were next to grace the stage, with Courting Pandora's Tim providing guest vocals. The boys churned out four songs in an intense half hour set of progressive metal. Vayer are soon trekking to Brisbane in search of a full-time vocalist and fame and fortune, so this could well have been one of the last times Townsville ears will hear the talented former Street Pirates trio before their move.
Sporting half a new line-up (Damo from Red Book Comics on drums and Josh, formally of Boycott Armada on bass), Add Mechanics played their last Townsville show before core songwriter and guitarist Todd Clarkson moved down south. Sporting a cold and an almost non-existant voice due to MC duties throughout the evening, vocalist Matt struggled with the complex AM melodies, reverting to screaming his way through "Solitary". AM were determined to put on a show none the less, and drew good reviews from their peers.
The second replacement band for the evening marked the hotly anticipated return of Gulliver. Gulliver have been busy recording an album and had taken a hiatus from gigging (and according to guitarist Jarrad Wild - practicing). In spite of this, Gulliver did not miss a beat. Their indie-jazz-funk tunes were more than enough to fill the hole left by The Medics.
Headlining the evening were pop-punk quartet The Short List. TSL are always guaranteed to put on a great stage show, even if guitar spins by bassist Slavisha Grabovickic don't make it all the way around (drawing an emphatic "OH NOOOO!" from Vayer's Drewey Yeldham). Vocalist and guitarist Daniel Chigwidden moved around the stage like Angus Young, and prompted the crowd to clap along to their clap-friendly breakdowns. If only they'd played "Make it Right"...
Despite the threat of a cyclone and the public's reluctance to retreat from their houses in such poor weather conditions, the night was deemed a success, and paves the way for future all-ages Humble Pine Productions at Riverway.
I think it's generally better than any of the other "journalism" displayed in the magazine usually. Sure it was hard to be objective when I was a) the singer of one of the bands, and; b) the event organiser. And I dropped the names of all of my friends and included a couple of in-jokes. But I read the articles in there and wonder how someone becomes a writer, and how someone becomes an editor, when they clearly suck. I know that newspaper articles are supposed to include the most important information right up front and sort of peter down to the least important stuff at the end, so if I'm asked to write more reviews perhaps I should take more not of correct "style" and all of that. But it was my first go. So sue me.
I did have a little bit of a date today. It was just a friend date. We had lunch and saw Role Models. Which was hilarious. Black kids with sass are what movies are all about. I went with my friend Jess, who I love dearly. She spills shit all of the time (chicken on the floor at lunch, Pepsi on her dress in the movies). And she never ditches me. In fact she sometimes ditches other plans to hang out with me. And I appreciate that immensely when I take some of my other friends in to consideration. She's moving to the Gold Coast in a couple of months, which just adds another reason why I should move. We'll see what Griffith say once they reply to my email about a transfer and go from there.
ily
that is so cute!