Tabula Rasa lj

We dashed off to see FourPlay at the Sydney Festival yesterday. It was a laid back gig, with some beautiful music, but they have no problems rocking out when desired.

(There were some technical problems, which didn't really detract. But they led me to conclusion that Tim from the band is the splitting image of shellshear, particularly when bemused by technology. Also, a friend we met at the gig claimed an actress from Star Cops was also in the audience, but I can neither confirm nor deny.)

The strangest thing at last night's Nick Cave/Grinderman concert was the opening act, Mic Conway doing a sort of vaudeville magic act. It wasn't very good, but I assume that was the point.

Then we got Grinderman at full volume, which livened things up. The played most of the album, I think (leaving Go Tell The Women till the end of the night), then a good selection of Bad Seeds songs. These ranged from Love Letter, Lyre of Orpheus and 'a song about ships and stuff' to Deanna and Jack the Ripper, which shook the house.

kylaw is currently writing a detailed post about last night's Cure concert, so you can read it all there. I can certainly report that it was loud and long -- over three hours worth. Mostly it confirmed my belief that Disintegration is their best album — a lot of the stuff I was less familiar with seemed undifferentiated, at least at that volume (my left ear still protests). Judging by the levels of applause and people dancing in the gallery, I don't think I was altogether alone in that opinion.

But during the encores they discovered a whole extra level of energy, ending with Boys Don't Cry which got everyone dancing. Yes, even me.

I have only just realised that Nick Cave has a new band, which shows I have been out of touch. The self-titled Grinderman is out in April.

Ah, isn't fandom a funny thing? — as witnessed by my recent posts about new developments in fields that I haven't really got into recently (Abattoir Blues, Half-Blood Prince and Cell f'rigxample). It's not like I'm even trying to maintain some sort of social network here, since I hardly know anyone who gets into any of these things (let alone all of them).

I'm sure it's a comfort thing, and maybe the disaffection is just me.

I did really enjoy Hannibal, so Hannibal Rising is in the shelves (again, being out of touch means I didn't realise the movie is quite so close).

I'm sure if I can manage to avoid mentioning today's DA crossword contained 'Bewitched' as an answer, we'll all be better off.

I mean, I'm trying to write comedy.
Apparently I'm failing.

We went to see Nick Cave give his interview at the Mitchell Library yesterday. It was very good.

Apparently this was the first time they'd had an audience in the reading room, which is a pretty large area they'd emptied of tables, and filled with plastic chairs. There was maybe four or five hundred people I would guess, probably more. Once again we were struck by the variety of people in attendance (even those who turned up to hear about Brad Pitt were not disappointed).

He was charming and funny, and endured a wide-ranging and occasionally soul-shrivelling set of questions with grace. He talked working office hours, hating movie-making, trying to impress Mick Harvey, audiences in different countries, losing arguments about God, inspiration, and an ignorance of flowers. There were also hugs, which morphed from a strange set of incidents into something iconic.

We didn't get a hug, but did line up for the autograph session (despite realising the meaningless of such things. It was, um, ironic. Also hot, but we at least queued in shifts. And we got an autographed book, so neernie.)

Audience member: I'm also having one of your songs playing at my wedding.
Nick: What, O'Malley's Bar?