Japandroids - Corner Hotel, 30 August 2013

The second Japandroids gig was substantially better than the first. The effect of having a night off and playing on Friday were pretty evident. Vocally the band were much better, although, like the first night, the sound quality wasn't great. They were also a lot more engaged (or maybe the crowd were just more enthusiastic), at one point slightly after midnight inviting a fan (who had just turned 18, having managed to get in underage) on stage for shots, followed by crowd surfing for the entirety of To Hell with Good Intentions.

The setlist was virtually identical to night one. The only difference being Crazy/Forever being played in place of I Quit Girls. Like I said, the sound quality isn't outstanding, although it isn't horrible either. A fun show, and hopefully Australia will get a visit a little earlier on the tour for the next album.

Adrenaline Nightshift
The Boys Are Leaving Town
Fire's Highway
Art Czars
The Nights of Wine and Roses
Rockers East Vancouver
Younger Us
Wet Hair
Evil's Sway
Heart Sweats
Sovereignty
Continuous Thunder
To Hell with Good Intentions
Crazy/Forever
Young Hearts Spark Fire
The House That Heaven Built
For the Love of Ivy

https://mega.co.nz/#F!1I9iRLha!JfqinlcQSpgV46ntIzVwOg

Japandroids - Corner Hotel, 28 August 2013

I've been waiting for a loooong time to see these guys do a headline set. Their show earlier in the year at Laneway was pretty good, but these guys are better suited to a club. Unfortunately, the time taken to get to Australia meant these shows were at the very end of their Celebration Rock tour and, as they admitted at the shows, their voices are a bit fried. It can't have helped that they were playing consecutive nights in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.

Putting all that aside, the show itself was still pretty great. At times the strain on their voices really shows through, but hell, they still played almost all of both their albums, plus a couple of non-album tracks. Having had a day off, their show on the 30th was a bit better (plus it was a Friday night with a crowd who were more into it), but this was still a good show.

Adrenaline Nightshift
The Boys Are Leaving Town
Fire's Highway
Art Czars
The Night of Wine and Roses
Rockers East Vancouver
Younger Us
Wet Hair
Evil's Sway
Heart Sweats
Sovereignty
Continuous Thunder
I Quit Girls
Young Hearts Spark Fire
The House That Heaven Built
To Hell with Good Intentions
For the Love of Ivy

https://mega.co.nz/#F!1Z9kSKbC!M_s-RTCbuEB0aAdeG7iCBg

Japandroids - KEXP, 22 September 2009

Another band touring Australia in the near future. Sometimes their sound can be a bit thin, but this short radio set sounds great. The song Racer X is a cover, that originally featured on the series of singles released after Post Nothing (the series continued after Celebration Rock with a single featuring Nick Cave's Jack the Ripper - I'm really hoping they play it on this tour). The singles are pretty hard to get, but they're collected as a bonus disc to the Australian release of Celebration Rock. Anyway, here's something to whet your appetite for the tour (if you haven't already got a ticket, get one right now!).

Crazy/Forever
Heart Sweat
Interview
Racer X
Young Hearts Spark Fire

https://mega.co.nz/#F!kJlkkATT!M62Od1ODCo8lk0iacEJ1TA

Laneways Festival - 3 February 2013, Footscray Community Arts Centre

Looking at reactions from other people I don’t think I’m the only one who didn’t think Laneway was all that great this year. Part of the problem was that, for some reason I can’t figure out, the douche:human ratio was pretty bad. Part of the problem was the Triple J success the bands have had. There were lots of people that seemed intent on running from stage to stage to catch each band's hit single (about a third of the Japandroids crowd literally ran off at the end of House that Heaven Built). Not much the festival can easily do about that (although if it lasts for another year or two they might find people staying away). But they can definitely do something about the sound quality. As you can hear from this its pretty variable, but overall not great. Japandroids were pretty badly undermined by the fact it sounded like they were playing in a wind tunnel and Poliça don’t sound good either. Divine Fits on the other hand sounded pretty good (although someone should shoot the ‘Red Bull DJ’ who just turned things down slightly but kept on playing right over the top of the band until a roadie came and told him to stop).

I only managed to record four sets (I was one of many that spent an hour and a half stuck in the ATM line).

Japandroids - http://www.mediafire.com/?yne11d87o1yti

These guys are one of my favourite bands, and one of the main reasons I went to Laneways this year. Their set was good, but undermined by poor sound and the ‘hit single’ crowd I mentioned above.

Adrenaline Nightshift

Fire’s Highway

Younger Us

The Nights of Wine and Roses

Wet Hair

Evil’s Sway

The House That Heaven Built

Young Hearts Spark Fire

For the Love of Ivy

Divine Fits - http://www.mediafire.com/?3mq643ot4zh86

Divine Fits’ album is one of my favourite recent releases. This was one of the few sets of the day that had decent sound. With a limited amount of time they choose to get through almost all of their album, rather than engage with the crowd a lot, but this was still a great performance. FYI: this is the band that Japandroids are talking about at the end of their set.

Neopolitans

Baby Get Worse

Flaggin a Ride

Would That Not Be Nice

My Love is Real

Civilian Stripes

The Salton Sea

Like Ice Cream

What Gets You Alone

Shivers

Poliça - http://www.mediafire.com/?ebv3huduajmr2

I’m not sure if it was that the sound was awful, or that the crowd was treating them as background music, but I found Poliça fairly uninteresting. Their wasn’t anything wrong with them, but it didn’t grab me. I suspect with a smaller, more interested crowd the vibe would have been completely different.

The Maker

I See My Mother

Leading to Death

Dark Star

Form

Fist Teeth Money

Lay Your Cards Out

Wandering Star

Happy Be Fine

Amongster

Bat for Lashes - http://www.mediafire.com/?si57ib9fsipbb

A friend has been raving about Bat for Lashes and was jealous that Melbourne got a headlining show. That was the main reason I checked out her set. There were a few good songs, but I found her generally to be pretty boring. I suspect I might be in a minority with that opinion.

Lilies

What’s a Girl to Do?

Sleep Alone

All Your Gold

Oh Yeah

Travelling Woman

Laura

The Haunted Man

Prescilla

Marilyn

Pearl’s Dream

Daniel