Hey dudes, finally stumbled into an internet cafe with adequate air-conditioning...it is so insanely hot here that im dripits its piing sweat constantly, really humid, its all good though, kinda getting used to it, when the sun shines it bathes the town in a beautiful halo, lush greens and aqua blue skies...well i have so much to say
its insane...five PJ Harvey shows in three foreign cities and some life-affirming experiences, so i will break it into three seperate entries with photos and all
...yeah so i made it, i didnt face any hold-ups on the flight, no hijackings or getting thrown off for smoking pot, no i learnt my lesson the hardway on the fateful train trip....anyway yeah, flight was a trip!, since im lame and have never flown before i was a entanglement of excitment and curiosity plugging into a electrcial socket....it was a picteresque day, the sun just rising as i boarded the plane, still in a hazy glowy residue from not much shut-eye due to being a excited as a little kid before christmas at the fact of going somewhere foreign and seeing polly jean live in all her glory not just once but five fucking times!..anyway no need for sleep, the feeling off being in the air on a such a lush life-affirming day was a beautiful feeling indeed....the clouds tripped me out, the marvellous apparations they conjure up, the texutre, their weighlessness, accompanied to the sounds of Led Zeppelin 'Houses of the Holy' i was definately sky-high....took loads of snaps with my new best friend, the Canon EOS SLR, hehe, so i have some cool photos of some place in the sky....flight went by in no time, one of the flight attendants beared an uncanny resemblance to the Britney Spears sexpot air hostess in that Toxic video, very kitch, i was cracking up to myself...sat next to a girl from Melbourne on the plane so that was very handy, she told me lots of useful info............
..arrived early in Melbourne, hung out at the huge airport for a while smoking Marlboro Reds with reckless abandon since one has a whole carton!...and getting excited, waiting for my free ride to my backpackers and jumped aboard....
...arrived at my destination, very cool place indeed, totally exceeded my expectations to say the least...it was a crazy old art-deco building situated in the bohemien- like area of Brunswick street, heaps of art on the walls, massive mirriors, balconies and a neat roof-top hangout with wicked views...it used to be an old nunnery years back so it has this whole cool creep-out factor to it which i dig....my room was sweet, i had a top bunk, with a random assortment of others, its me and two geezers from England who are really cool and totally obsessed with the Libertines and the Smiths, so im been getting a lot of info on Morrisey! haha and the rest are chicks, from such places as Holland, France, Perth, Switzerland- this crazy chick with a multi-coluored mowhawk and piercings in every oriface, she cant speak english that fluently and was trying to ask me if i smoke grass, it was hilarious, didnt take long to understand what she was saying!....they are all cool people, the whole vibe at the place was one of hedonism and liberation with much drinking and music...went out on my first night with heaps of people to some blues bar where they had a Lou Reed covers band..very cool, got smashed on snake-bites a very popular beverage around here, a electic mix of beer, cider and blackcurrant, very tasty and very potent, i was legless by the time i left, only to get lost on the way back, but it was fun, i went to a few other bars and then finally found my way home by fluke and fell into a deep slumber.....
...so what did i get upto? hmm, well lots, just chilling, exploring, i was rising quite early and just wandering the city with my camera and headphones....there is lots of lovely gardens floating around, all though i did get heavily washed by hay-fever for the first day, i was losing the plot, but im all fixed now thanks to anti-hayfever type pills, hehe....yeah tMelbourne was a trip, i fully dig it, there is so much culture, Brunswick street is the coolest street i have laid eyes on, cafes spill out onto the street with reckless adandon, music fills the air, the smell of flowers from the florist, the amazing stencil art adorning almost every-wall, i have many photos, its just insane art!...some very cool record stores and vintage clothing bargains, plus the coolest bookshop ever! its called Polyester- i was torn between what to buy, there is so much, a whole section on drug history and literature, heaps of fetish arty naked girls photography, one with Aria Giovanni on the cover, hehe and heaps of music biographies and rarities....i ended up purchasing a hardover book on the rise of surrealist underground art with Mark Ryden and Camilla Rose Garcia featuring..very cool indeed!...SuicideGirls seems to be quite popular over here, i a few people along that street have recognised my t-shirt, i went into this Fetish Gothic type clothing store with studs and leather and all things kinky and the girl immediately start talking to me about SG...
Some of the trippy stencil art
....yes the girls were lovely, very friendly, very hip and beautiful, some of the clothes they wear bend my imagination, hehe, so walking down the street is such a pleasent experience,
...the food is a dream, Lygon street (the Italian precinct) is just joyous, the smells of Italian food invading my lungs, im always in such a state as to which one to try, there is just so many!! and all the Italain dudes try to persaude you in their trippy accents....so far i have counted 30 pizza bars!, needless to say i have been eating a lot of pizza and they sell it by the slice, so ive had many varities...there was this one at St Kilda beach with huge old skool New York style slices...was fucking fantastic...the breakfasts are good too, sexy eggs benedict...mmmmmm....
....the trams are rad too, so convenient! its so easy to get around...i have taken over 120 photos already, some of them at nite when the city is all lite up and brimming with life, they have come out really well...some heroin addicts ask me for change the other day in the park, was quite a crack up, they looked so out of it, but overall the city is a lovely clean place and i feel totally sweet walking the streets at night by myself...
Show one. 29/11/2004- the forum, Melbourne
...so yes PJ Harvey!.., well i went to the theatre
really early and waited outside with some other die-hard fans, making friends straight away....the venue was amazing, very decadent, roman statues and mythical beasts adorning the walls...and it was very much like a cabaret style, just gorgeous...the doors opened and i promptly went in and sat my ass down right at the front barrier and waited for a couple of hours ensuring i had the best position and drinking beers...the anticipation reaching a fevered climax when the opening band finished, they were called Machine Translation, were quite cool, kinda drifty stoner style rock, real chill....the crowd swelled as the roadies set up the gear for miss polly jean, i was baffled when two beasty drumkits emerged and i counted twelve guitars that were waiting for her............the lights when down and the crowd went mental chanting PJ PJ PJ!! feet stomping, deafening whistles, girls sounded like they were having orgasms allready, a sea of black hair and big leather boots, hehe, alright!...i wasnt complaning....and then she emerged in a flowing red dress, very short and huge red vintage boots and her fire-apple red guitar....the crowd and myself included lost the plot when the first heavy lines of 'To Bring you my Love' pulsated throghout the hall, the sound was incredible, i went kinda numb, i was front row, there was PJ, playing the coolest opener and the guitar getting louder and louder and then she started to sing and when she dropped the first deafening strum its was all on, she looked wonderful, so sexy covering every spectrum of desire, and looked dangerously charged with energy yet willfully subdued at the same-time.........the rest of the set was incredible, i was in another world, her energy seemed to build till she was just going nuts and rocking the fuck out....the drummer was incredible, well one of the two, they used two drummers for her songs Victory and Meet Ze Monsta...he was out of control, playing so loud all over the show, i was in awe!!.....every song was just incredible, her new material was electric, esp WHO THE FUCK, it really got the floor shaking!!....she closed with Meet Ze Monsta, which was a ripper of a version, she had a whistle and all, prancing around the stage looking so seductive.....
...of course she played an encore....the screaming and chanting echoed throughout the hall, and smashed into rivers of delight when she reappeared and ripped into EVOL..one of my favourite songs..... after that song she couldnt stop laughing and ran off for a while, hiding behind the amps, while the others jammed out, she talked and said she was in a funny mood and someone had told a joke and she couldnt look at the drummer...it was hilarious, her laugh was so child-like and her smile, anyway she gained compsure and ripped into some of her darker material including an astounding version of Taut, ..her voice was frightening on that, her intensity leaving my breathless.....she played six songs in the encore which was very impressive, i thought she would end with 'Horses in my dreams'- a more chilled number
from Stories, but then she played an all-out version of Me-Jane, with some of the rawest nauseating guitar work i have ever seen.........i was truly satisfying, in a state of wonder at trying to take it all in!!!......
....sat outside the theatre for a while after reflecting and met these four girls who were hardout fans and we got on like a house on fire, they were into pretty much all the bands i were into...anyway they persuded my to come wait at the backstage area and i gladly agreed, so we sat outside with a few other fans for hours, smoking cigarettes and debating the merits are certain alternative albums of the ninties...they are pixies and nirvana obessesed too.....anyway sure enough PJ emerged from the theatre and the few fans surrounded her and got some atuographs, she is so small up close, it was a really surreal experience, i kinda developed a speech impediment plus i didnt bring my sleeves with me...i never thought i would see her in the first night..... anyway i thanked her for an incredible night and the existence of such pure musical art....she smiled before getting in her ride..........of course we then joined the hunt to find the bar were they were going, some other girl knew all this, and we ended up on AC/DC lane in some obsure little rockbar called Cherry visible only by a little faint flickering light!...a very cool bar, rad loud rock music and yummy beers, PJ wasnt there, the other band was, but it was cool to just drink beer and sit around, all the music was on vinyl, the dude was playing the likes of DEVO, the white stripes, roxy music and the velvet underground, very cool bar indeed
SET LIST
To Bring You My Love
Big Exit
Who The FUCK?
Uh Huh Her
The Letter
Good Fortune
Victory
The Garden
Plants & Rags
Down By The Water
Pocket Knife
Dress
Janet & Johnny
The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore
Meet Ze Monsta
ENCORE
Evol
Taut
Harder
It's You
Horses in my Dreams
Me- Jane
Show Two: 30/11/2004, FesTival Hall, melbourne
....got there insanely early with the girls i had met the night before.....although i got held up since the cuntish security guard deemed my camera too flash and i mite profit from the sale of live pj photos, yeah whatever, and he refrained from telling me this until the doors opended resulting in me having a forfeit my much desired place to race to coat check...grrrrr, still the girls saved me a sopt about three from the front........the gig was great, not as beautiful and intimate as the Forum, but still PJ ripped, the crowd was a bit pushy,resulting in hilarity when this mega-bitch tried to push her way through and everyone stormed her and then threw her over the bar and security dragged her off, haha i was laughing so hard, she so deserved it....to my pleasent surprise next to me stood to very hot girls, who were obviously lesbians as they made out for almost the duration of the entire show, so i wasnt one to complain about my spot at all!!!.......Peej ripped again, dressed in her yellow dress and shiny pink heels so looked just to die for gorgeous, very cool show, not the coolest of venues though....
SET LIST
Fountain
Whores
Who the FUCK?
Dress
Perfect Day Elise
Victory
Uh Huh Her
The Letter
You Come through
Cat on the Wall
Catherine
Taut
Harder
50ft Queenie
The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth
Meet ZeMonsta
The Darker Days of Me and Him
ENCORE
Down by the Water
The Garden
My Beautiful Leah
Me-Jane
Is this Desire?
rock out, more on the two Sydney shows soon...
its insane...five PJ Harvey shows in three foreign cities and some life-affirming experiences, so i will break it into three seperate entries with photos and all
...yeah so i made it, i didnt face any hold-ups on the flight, no hijackings or getting thrown off for smoking pot, no i learnt my lesson the hardway on the fateful train trip....anyway yeah, flight was a trip!, since im lame and have never flown before i was a entanglement of excitment and curiosity plugging into a electrcial socket....it was a picteresque day, the sun just rising as i boarded the plane, still in a hazy glowy residue from not much shut-eye due to being a excited as a little kid before christmas at the fact of going somewhere foreign and seeing polly jean live in all her glory not just once but five fucking times!..anyway no need for sleep, the feeling off being in the air on a such a lush life-affirming day was a beautiful feeling indeed....the clouds tripped me out, the marvellous apparations they conjure up, the texutre, their weighlessness, accompanied to the sounds of Led Zeppelin 'Houses of the Holy' i was definately sky-high....took loads of snaps with my new best friend, the Canon EOS SLR, hehe, so i have some cool photos of some place in the sky....flight went by in no time, one of the flight attendants beared an uncanny resemblance to the Britney Spears sexpot air hostess in that Toxic video, very kitch, i was cracking up to myself...sat next to a girl from Melbourne on the plane so that was very handy, she told me lots of useful info............
..arrived early in Melbourne, hung out at the huge airport for a while smoking Marlboro Reds with reckless abandon since one has a whole carton!...and getting excited, waiting for my free ride to my backpackers and jumped aboard....
...arrived at my destination, very cool place indeed, totally exceeded my expectations to say the least...it was a crazy old art-deco building situated in the bohemien- like area of Brunswick street, heaps of art on the walls, massive mirriors, balconies and a neat roof-top hangout with wicked views...it used to be an old nunnery years back so it has this whole cool creep-out factor to it which i dig....my room was sweet, i had a top bunk, with a random assortment of others, its me and two geezers from England who are really cool and totally obsessed with the Libertines and the Smiths, so im been getting a lot of info on Morrisey! haha and the rest are chicks, from such places as Holland, France, Perth, Switzerland- this crazy chick with a multi-coluored mowhawk and piercings in every oriface, she cant speak english that fluently and was trying to ask me if i smoke grass, it was hilarious, didnt take long to understand what she was saying!....they are all cool people, the whole vibe at the place was one of hedonism and liberation with much drinking and music...went out on my first night with heaps of people to some blues bar where they had a Lou Reed covers band..very cool, got smashed on snake-bites a very popular beverage around here, a electic mix of beer, cider and blackcurrant, very tasty and very potent, i was legless by the time i left, only to get lost on the way back, but it was fun, i went to a few other bars and then finally found my way home by fluke and fell into a deep slumber.....
...so what did i get upto? hmm, well lots, just chilling, exploring, i was rising quite early and just wandering the city with my camera and headphones....there is lots of lovely gardens floating around, all though i did get heavily washed by hay-fever for the first day, i was losing the plot, but im all fixed now thanks to anti-hayfever type pills, hehe....yeah tMelbourne was a trip, i fully dig it, there is so much culture, Brunswick street is the coolest street i have laid eyes on, cafes spill out onto the street with reckless adandon, music fills the air, the smell of flowers from the florist, the amazing stencil art adorning almost every-wall, i have many photos, its just insane art!...some very cool record stores and vintage clothing bargains, plus the coolest bookshop ever! its called Polyester- i was torn between what to buy, there is so much, a whole section on drug history and literature, heaps of fetish arty naked girls photography, one with Aria Giovanni on the cover, hehe and heaps of music biographies and rarities....i ended up purchasing a hardover book on the rise of surrealist underground art with Mark Ryden and Camilla Rose Garcia featuring..very cool indeed!...SuicideGirls seems to be quite popular over here, i a few people along that street have recognised my t-shirt, i went into this Fetish Gothic type clothing store with studs and leather and all things kinky and the girl immediately start talking to me about SG...
Some of the trippy stencil art
....yes the girls were lovely, very friendly, very hip and beautiful, some of the clothes they wear bend my imagination, hehe, so walking down the street is such a pleasent experience,
...the food is a dream, Lygon street (the Italian precinct) is just joyous, the smells of Italian food invading my lungs, im always in such a state as to which one to try, there is just so many!! and all the Italain dudes try to persaude you in their trippy accents....so far i have counted 30 pizza bars!, needless to say i have been eating a lot of pizza and they sell it by the slice, so ive had many varities...there was this one at St Kilda beach with huge old skool New York style slices...was fucking fantastic...the breakfasts are good too, sexy eggs benedict...mmmmmm....
....the trams are rad too, so convenient! its so easy to get around...i have taken over 120 photos already, some of them at nite when the city is all lite up and brimming with life, they have come out really well...some heroin addicts ask me for change the other day in the park, was quite a crack up, they looked so out of it, but overall the city is a lovely clean place and i feel totally sweet walking the streets at night by myself...
Show one. 29/11/2004- the forum, Melbourne
...so yes PJ Harvey!.., well i went to the theatre
really early and waited outside with some other die-hard fans, making friends straight away....the venue was amazing, very decadent, roman statues and mythical beasts adorning the walls...and it was very much like a cabaret style, just gorgeous...the doors opened and i promptly went in and sat my ass down right at the front barrier and waited for a couple of hours ensuring i had the best position and drinking beers...the anticipation reaching a fevered climax when the opening band finished, they were called Machine Translation, were quite cool, kinda drifty stoner style rock, real chill....the crowd swelled as the roadies set up the gear for miss polly jean, i was baffled when two beasty drumkits emerged and i counted twelve guitars that were waiting for her............the lights when down and the crowd went mental chanting PJ PJ PJ!! feet stomping, deafening whistles, girls sounded like they were having orgasms allready, a sea of black hair and big leather boots, hehe, alright!...i wasnt complaning....and then she emerged in a flowing red dress, very short and huge red vintage boots and her fire-apple red guitar....the crowd and myself included lost the plot when the first heavy lines of 'To Bring you my Love' pulsated throghout the hall, the sound was incredible, i went kinda numb, i was front row, there was PJ, playing the coolest opener and the guitar getting louder and louder and then she started to sing and when she dropped the first deafening strum its was all on, she looked wonderful, so sexy covering every spectrum of desire, and looked dangerously charged with energy yet willfully subdued at the same-time.........the rest of the set was incredible, i was in another world, her energy seemed to build till she was just going nuts and rocking the fuck out....the drummer was incredible, well one of the two, they used two drummers for her songs Victory and Meet Ze Monsta...he was out of control, playing so loud all over the show, i was in awe!!.....every song was just incredible, her new material was electric, esp WHO THE FUCK, it really got the floor shaking!!....she closed with Meet Ze Monsta, which was a ripper of a version, she had a whistle and all, prancing around the stage looking so seductive.....
...of course she played an encore....the screaming and chanting echoed throughout the hall, and smashed into rivers of delight when she reappeared and ripped into EVOL..one of my favourite songs..... after that song she couldnt stop laughing and ran off for a while, hiding behind the amps, while the others jammed out, she talked and said she was in a funny mood and someone had told a joke and she couldnt look at the drummer...it was hilarious, her laugh was so child-like and her smile, anyway she gained compsure and ripped into some of her darker material including an astounding version of Taut, ..her voice was frightening on that, her intensity leaving my breathless.....she played six songs in the encore which was very impressive, i thought she would end with 'Horses in my dreams'- a more chilled number
from Stories, but then she played an all-out version of Me-Jane, with some of the rawest nauseating guitar work i have ever seen.........i was truly satisfying, in a state of wonder at trying to take it all in!!!......
....sat outside the theatre for a while after reflecting and met these four girls who were hardout fans and we got on like a house on fire, they were into pretty much all the bands i were into...anyway they persuded my to come wait at the backstage area and i gladly agreed, so we sat outside with a few other fans for hours, smoking cigarettes and debating the merits are certain alternative albums of the ninties...they are pixies and nirvana obessesed too.....anyway sure enough PJ emerged from the theatre and the few fans surrounded her and got some atuographs, she is so small up close, it was a really surreal experience, i kinda developed a speech impediment plus i didnt bring my sleeves with me...i never thought i would see her in the first night..... anyway i thanked her for an incredible night and the existence of such pure musical art....she smiled before getting in her ride..........of course we then joined the hunt to find the bar were they were going, some other girl knew all this, and we ended up on AC/DC lane in some obsure little rockbar called Cherry visible only by a little faint flickering light!...a very cool bar, rad loud rock music and yummy beers, PJ wasnt there, the other band was, but it was cool to just drink beer and sit around, all the music was on vinyl, the dude was playing the likes of DEVO, the white stripes, roxy music and the velvet underground, very cool bar indeed
SET LIST
To Bring You My Love
Big Exit
Who The FUCK?
Uh Huh Her
The Letter
Good Fortune
Victory
The Garden
Plants & Rags
Down By The Water
Pocket Knife
Dress
Janet & Johnny
The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore
Meet Ze Monsta
ENCORE
Evol
Taut
Harder
It's You
Horses in my Dreams
Me- Jane
Show Two: 30/11/2004, FesTival Hall, melbourne
....got there insanely early with the girls i had met the night before.....although i got held up since the cuntish security guard deemed my camera too flash and i mite profit from the sale of live pj photos, yeah whatever, and he refrained from telling me this until the doors opended resulting in me having a forfeit my much desired place to race to coat check...grrrrr, still the girls saved me a sopt about three from the front........the gig was great, not as beautiful and intimate as the Forum, but still PJ ripped, the crowd was a bit pushy,resulting in hilarity when this mega-bitch tried to push her way through and everyone stormed her and then threw her over the bar and security dragged her off, haha i was laughing so hard, she so deserved it....to my pleasent surprise next to me stood to very hot girls, who were obviously lesbians as they made out for almost the duration of the entire show, so i wasnt one to complain about my spot at all!!!.......Peej ripped again, dressed in her yellow dress and shiny pink heels so looked just to die for gorgeous, very cool show, not the coolest of venues though....
SET LIST
Fountain
Whores
Who the FUCK?
Dress
Perfect Day Elise
Victory
Uh Huh Her
The Letter
You Come through
Cat on the Wall
Catherine
Taut
Harder
50ft Queenie
The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth
Meet ZeMonsta
The Darker Days of Me and Him
ENCORE
Down by the Water
The Garden
My Beautiful Leah
Me-Jane
Is this Desire?
rock out, more on the two Sydney shows soon...
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
I love PJ Harvey... you are soo lucky. It sounds like you are having one wonderful trip. I hope all is okay and you make it back home all safe and sound. Kiss the girls and make them cry for me!