Sean and I went to a Freeza battle of the bands at the Wonthaggi town hall last night. I probably shouldn’t have gone but I wanted to support Innuendo. I did feel very old, but it was actually a much better Friday night than I’ve had recently. The sound was pretty crappy but very loud.
The bands were:
1. Innuendo
They’re a proper rock band that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the seventies.
2. Bastion
Loud blokey screamo. Sloppy fun.
3. Dethroned AD
Enthusiastic disciplined screamo. Well presented and involving.
4. King Nine Will Not Return
Highly musical screamo. Very good guitarist. White MacBook that may have been playing synth lines.
5. Rafting Kids
Eighties pop music. Equipment problems. Good gear. Either really good or just a bit too up themselves. The mix was bad and the audience either just like screamo or they were exhausted.
6. Max DC played a drum solo while the annoying twerp MC fought to be the centre of attention.
I keep using the word screamo but of course I’m not part of that scene and I have no idea what it even means. I came home and checked the wikkipedia entry last night. We would have called them all death metal or thrash when I was younger, but the clothes were different.
Kids were well behaved, nobody appeared drunk or high, no aggression, well run night. Bus sitting out the front of the venue to return kids to various points of South Gippsland.
The last few times I’ve been out on a Friday we’ve gone to see acoustic acts at the Middle pub. It’s predictable covers, well performed to a drunken bar. For some reason I find this terribly depressing. Seeing five more-or-less local bands playing I think original music on a stage in a nice hall was a far better experience.
Who won? I was listening but I couldn’t hear the announcement. From talking to Ricky Hurst I think it was King Nine Will Not Return. I probably would have given it to Dethroned AD for their stage act. Rafting Kids and Innuendo are the bands I could enjoy having on a CD.
PS I may have mixed up the bands, five minutes research on Facebook was all I had to identify them this morning.
July 24, 2010
Freeza Battle of the Bands
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My sense is that I would like screamo, although I’ve never heard of it until now.
Anyone who brings a computer – especially a mac – onstage should be disqualified. If you can’t do it with linux or a strat copy then you just aren’t trying hard enough.
I’m voting for blokey screamo, but, then again, you well know how tasteless I can be.
Comment by tonyofa — August 16, 2010 @ 3:23 pm
How about a mac running linux?
I don’t know what the band were doing with it. Nobody had in-ears so whatever the laptop was playing back wouldn’t have been in sync. Maybe the guy was webcasting live via the video in the laptop.
I don’t know much about screamo either. I figured it’s got to be emo with screaming in it. Which should mean effete boys with eyeliner playing thrashy metal. But I’ve been around the block so many times that it’s all just a blur to me. People have been doing those low death metal vocals for about a quarter of a century now. When you think that the ‘real’ rock and roll only lasted for about ten years that’s quite an achievement.
Comment by James A McDonough — August 16, 2010 @ 3:37 pm