Coldplay - Sydney Football Stadium

The best artists tell us something about themselves.  And, if we're really lucky, they'll tell us something about us while doing so.

Coldplay are unfairly targeted as lightweight and boring.  But, they reveal something about themselves just as much of themselves as any "credible" artist.  For example, Chris Martin famously has a break up (with Gwyneth) and voila! the result is a break up album (Ghost Stories).  Then, possibly in response to the break up, Chris Martin decides to respond to this with positivity and a "moving on" album appears (A Head Full of Dreams).   How much more do we want him to tell us? 

 But how does this translate into the live show?  Well it certainly helps if you have all the tricks that a modern rock show allows.  TV screens, Fireworks, Confetti, Electronic wrist bands that flash in tune to the music.  And that's just the first song!  Coldplay approach the first song much like another band would approach the encore.  They throw everything at it, and then (this bit is different to most bands) they keep the energy level at that point for about two hours.

One thing they've got on their side is the number of songs that appeal to a crowd of 50,000 people.  They've got the ballads covered (Scientist, Fix You), they've got the Beyonce number (sadly she didn’t appear in person – she featured on the backing track to Hymn for the Weekend), they've got rockers (Charlie Brown), they've got the obligatory acoustic set (featuring early hit In My Place), they play their first hit (Yellow) and they turn the whole arena into a dance party (Adventure of a Lifetime).  This was the point that I think it all came together.  The song Adventure of a Lifetime is where the band states their manifesto, which is both intimate and universal.  Paraphrasing here, it says “If you’ve only got one life, I want to share it with you”.  And that’s the trick.  They’ve got the songs that mean something to every single person in the audience, but also to everyone collectively.  This is some trick.   

Don't take my word for it though.  Take the word of Ms "hard to please" 15.  When told that another reviewer gave the concert 4 stars she said - disdainfully, as only a 15 year old can - "it deserves more than that".  Who am I to argue?  If it can touch the impenetrable 15 year old heart and mind then it deserves every one of its 5 stars.

James - Metro Theatre

James is a band from Manchester who quite notoriously don't play greatest hits sets. If you were being unkind you could say that's because they only have one hit - that being "Laid" (and as it only just cracked the top 40 in Australia, calling it a “hit” is a loose definition of the word).  The argument the band give is that they play what inspires them creatively which gets a better result for both band and audience. So you're as likely to get a set filled with b sides as you are with hits.

There aren’t many advantages to being a fan of UK indie music if you live in the antipodes.  The bands never tour here.  The releases are hard to find.  If you can find them they are expensive.  And when you mention your favourite band to people they think you’re a bit strange.  But the advantages are immense.  When the band you like eventually make it out here they play in tiny venues.  How tiny?  Imagine your living room.  Only more intimate.  I know back at home they play huge arenas but here they play shoe boxes.

At James' first ever Sydney show (it's taken them 35 years to tour Australia) the band played a selection of old and new songs to an overwhelming reception. Perhaps it was the pent up anticipation. Or perhaps it's just because they have a great back catalogue. But being in the audience felt like being at a rapture.

Lead singer Tim Booth asked us if we wanted to revel  ¹ or if we wanted a quiet night staring at our phones. By the end of the concert he had his answer. After the band completed the song Sometimes the audience took over and basically sang the whole song again back to the band acapella doubling the length of the song and doubling the volume in the room. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it. The looks on the faces of the band members was unforgettable.

Opening with a brace of new songs (ie not recorded in their 90s heyday) might have tested the audience a little but once they kicked into “Ring the Bells” from their breakthrough album Seven we were in safe hands and it was plain sailing for the rest of the evening.

Finishing the main set with 4 songs from the Laid album lifted the roof off the Metro. All that was left was to return for the inevitable encores and promise that it won't be 35 years before their return.

It bloody well better not be.

Greatest hits set?  No. But I can't imagine a greater set.

1. Google defines Revel as “enjoy oneself in a lively and noisy way, especially with drinking and dancing”

The Cure - Sydney

3 Hours.  4 Encores.  36 songs.  Is there anything else to say?  Amazing. 

Mainset
Plainsong
Pictures Of You
Closedown
High
A Night Like This
All I Want
Push
Inbetween Days
Primary
Like Cockatoos
The End Of The World
Lovesong
Just Like Heaven
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
Want
The Hungry Ghost
One Hundred Years
Disintegration

Encore 1
It Can Never Be The Same
Burn
A Forest

Encore 2
Shake Dog Shake
Fascination Street
Never Enough
Wrong Number

Encore 3
Lullaby
Hot Hot Hot!!!
Let's Go To Bed
Sleep When I'm Dead
Friday I'm In Love

Encore 4
The Lovecats
The Caterpillar
The Walk
Close To Me
Why Can't I Be You?
Boys Don't Cry

New Order - Sydney Opera House

Prince 1958 - 2016



Midnight Oil exhibition

Chvrches - ANU

Setlist

Never Ending Circles

We Sink

Keep You on My Side

Empty Threat

Gun

Bury It

Under the Tide

Recover

Leave a Trace

Clearest Blue

The Mother we Share

San Cisco - ANU

Suede - Night Thoughts

Why do bands break up?  The usual band trajectory is that they release a couple of great albums, then a mediocre album.  Then a terrible one.  then they break up.  This was certainly the case with Suede.  They released three classic albums in the early/mid 90s then an average album.  Then one so terrible that it was met with massive indifference and caused the breakup of the band. 

Therefore news that they had reformed in 2013 was met with trepidation from the fan base.  Would they be doing it just for the money?  Would they just play the old hits?  Would they be any good?  Bloodsports from that year was truly a return to form.  It was like they had found a well of inspiration straight from 1993 where they could draw on the best bits from their heyday but still bring something new to the party.  The album fitting quite comfortably next to their best work. 

What to do for a follow up?  This time Suede have decided to stretch their legs.  Where previously the title Night Thoughts would have been about stumbling out of nightclubs at 3am or taking dr*gs, or other pleasures in this instance the title refers to the concerns that we all have in the middle of the night – worries about relationships, your place in the world, etc.  It is the sound of a band who has grown up and is posing difficult questions.  The band reportedly recorded the music first before letting lead singer Brett Anderson write lyrics.  This has a twofold effect.  The album holds together musically from start to finish.  Musical themes present themselves all through the album, at the beginning and then the band return to them later in the album.  Lyrically, it allows a story to unfold.  Not in a “concept album” kind of way, but in a way that the songs feel like a collected work, rather than just a series of songs. 

The question for any returning band is “Does this fall into nostalgia?”  The test is if they played live would you want to hear the old hits or the new album?  In this case not only would you want to hear the new songs, but you’d want to hear them played as intended – as one complete work.   

4.5 stars

David Bowie 1947 - 2016

Legend, Genius… these words get thrown around too much.  So much so, that they’ve lost their currency.  It seems that if every artist with two decent albums is called a genius then the words start to lose their meaning.  

But David Bowie was the reason that these words are used to describe musicians.  Better scribes than I am will describe his impact on modern culture and why he was so important.  I haven’t touched on his acting career, or any of his other endeavours.  I’ve just chosen 5 Bowie Songs to listen to.  But to make the challenge a little harder on myself, I’ve limited it to one song per decade and tried to cover the breadth of his career. 

1960s  - Space Oddity. 

This is where it all started.  Sure it technically wasn’t his debut single, but this is the beginning.  Introducing Major Tom…

If you’ve not seen it, the version by Commander Chris Hadfield on the Space Station is truly something special. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrHHsP8BACg

1970s – Heroes

The 70s.  Possibly Bowie’s creative high point and he was on a hot streak that can be matched by only a few artists and bettered by none.  The songs I haven’t chosen are Changes, Starman, Jean Genie, Life on Mars, Rebel Rebel (I’m still only up to 1974 here), Fame, Station to Station, Suffragette City… it goes on and on and on….  I have of course picked Heroes.  I can almost not bear to listen to this song today though. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBuwC4VJi50

1980s - Let’s Dance

And the hot streak continues… Ashes to Ashes, Fashion, Under Pressure, China Girl, Blue Jean, Modern Love.  But I’ve chosen Let’s Dance.  Possibly Bowie’s biggest “hit single”.  But I’ve mainly chosen it because the video was filmed in Australia. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA

1990s – Hallo Spaceboy

I’m reminded of the Bowie quote “I don’t know where I’m going next but it won’t be boring”.  That certainly applied in the 90s.  He touched on “drum and bass” (remember that genre?) and industrial and rediscovered his Jazz roots (more of which later).  I’ve always liked some of the songs he did in the 90s (The Heart’s Filthy Lesson featured in the film Seven) and I’m Afraid of Americans.  But I’ll go with Hallo Spaceboy (which ties things nicely back to the beginning, as it references Major Tom).  It featured a pretty cool Pet Shop Boys remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqkj_EtcyO8

2000s – Lazarus

After his surprise release of The Next Day in 2013, David Bow released his final single Lazarus from the album Blackstar only last week.  It has been reported that this is a parting gift for his fans and he is still exploring new territory here (while referring to his previous work).  He recorded the album with a group of New York Jazz musicians which kind of feels like him returning to his first love.   I should point out that the album was getting 4 and 5 stars even before his death, so there is no chance of that revisionism that happens on the death of an artist where all their work is seen as works of Genius.  I’m pretty sure that he was, quite plainly, a genius. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8