Flower Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower Market

Sideways Bar

28 July 2023

 

It’s rare to see the full life cycle of a band but that’s what we saw on Friday night. We witnessed the first official live performance of Flower Market at the Yacht Club in 2021 and if, as I suspect that this hiatus is indefinite, we witnessed the final Flower Market performance at Sideways Bar on Friday.

 

The band announced at the gig that they were going on hiatus because the lead guitarist was moving to Melbourne. On what may be their final show, it had a bit of a celebratory feel, but mixed with a hint of melancholy. The band were tight, playing songs they said were “old as fuck” (amusing given they must be 20 years old at most) to a song that was just released on Spotify that morning. It was a touching gig. It was nice seeing a band splitting up without any hint of recrimination. The band were sad to see their friend leave, but wanted to celebrate their time together.

 

Unless you’re U2, Metallica or the Rolling Stones, all bands break up. It’s a sad fact of life. What has been great about Flower Market, aside from hearing their songs, is watching them grow as performers. All of the band members are around my children’s age so to see them develop from being good, but nervous, musicians at their first gig to a confident band that knows how to work a stage and how to play their songs has been great.

 

Each of them are accomplished musicians. There is no weak link in this band, but the sum of their talents is even greater than the individual components. The bass player never only plays root notes, the drummer doesn’t just provide just a solid back foundation for the songs, the lead guitarist is one of the best musicians I’ve heard and the lead singer brings it all together.  Not only that, they have a chemistry that can only come from being old school friends. Oh, and most importantly all their songs are fantastic. 

 

So, should they look back at their time as Flower Market as a success? How do you measure success anyway? Is it platinum records? Is it playing to festival crowds? Sure, they are both definitely measures of success. But what about success on a smaller scale. They made recordings (93 thousand plays on Spotify for one of their songs!) they sold t-shirts, they had interstate gigs. That’s success by any measure. 

 

I’m not exactly sure what they would have needed to get pushed to the next level. But they weren’t lacking talent or conviction. They weren’t lacking songs. Maybe they just needed a lucky break? We all know that’s impossible to manufacture.

 

Walking home past a covers band that was inevitably being paid more for one night’s gig than Flower Market earned for their entire “career” was a little depressing. I bemoaned the sad fact that most people only want to hear songs they know, rather than original music. Here’s hoping that the hiatus isn’t permanent. They had great songs and I’d like to hear them again.

ABBA Voyage

 

ABBA Voyage – London

17 July 2023

 

Does this count? Was this really a concert? 

 

ABBA performing as digital versions of themselves (self-styled ABBA-tars) was always going to be a unique experience. While it was not perfect, it was almost like going back in a time machine and seeing ABBA in their heyday. They could easily have put on the CD of ABBA Gold and everyone would have been happy, but they didn’t do that. It flowed like a concert, it had audience interaction like a concert. It felt like a concert.

 

The best part of any concert is if you have an emotional connection with the performer. But can you really have an emotional connection with a performer if that performer is an avatar? It turns out that you can.

 

When the ABBA-tars were human sized they worked well. When they were blown up and projected on the large screen (as happens with every modern concert) it was a bit like watching a YouTube video. There were a couple of animated parts (I mean the whole thing was animated… but this was like a cut scene from a CGI film) that felt like filler and using footage of Waterloo from Eurovision in 1974, while a cute nod to their past, dragged me out of the performance. However, two of my concert companions particularly liked that part of the show, so clearly this view is not universal.

 

There was a live band on stage playing the music, while ABBA provided the vocals via tape. For one song the band took over and did a song by themselves while ABBA “walked off stage” and that’s when the concept actually came into sharp focus. With the ABBA vocals removed, it was exactly like seeing a good covers band. As talented as the band was, it was nothing special.

 

But with ABBA performing it was mesmerising – revealing the melancholy heart to these songs. Few bands perform such sunny melodies with such (bleak) heartbreaking lyrics. You have to go a long way to find finer songwriters and the vocal harmonies are unsurpassed.

 

For the more popular songs (SOS, Dancing Queen, etc…) I definitely had a physical and emotional response to the songs. That was completely unexpected. That’s more than can be said for some “real bands”.

 

So yes, it definitely counts.  This was a real concert.

 

Highly recommended.

Depeche Mode - Berlin Olympic Stadium

Depeche Mode

Olympic Stadium – Berlin

7 July 2023

 

“God, I wish that guy wasn’t so tall”.

 

It’s a different feeling when “that guy” blocking the view of the stage is your son and you’ve dragged him halfway around the world to see your favourite band. 

 

The last time I took my family to one of my favourite bands (U2 in Sydney) their response was polite at best, so I was a little nervous. “it was like seeing a bunch of old men on stage” “they were running out of breath”. Those were some of the comments. It felt a bit like U2 didn’t quite reach top gear. Not that they were phoning it in so much as they were keeping something in reserve if they needed it. It kind of felt a bit like they were cruising.

 

It turns out I had nothing to fear.

 

Seeing Depeche Mode in their spiritual home is definitely a bucket list item. They’ve got quite a history in the city (recorded 3 albums here) and I think the Berliners have taken them to heart.

 

To be fair, it took the band a little while to get out of first gear. They had a bit of a slow start by playing a couple of tracks from their (admittedly very good) new album but the crowd mostly tolerated those songs, rather than give them a euphoric reception. 

 

However, the crowd really lifted when they started playing their hits. It certainly felt like both the band and the audience went up a gear or two. Dave Gahan must surely be one of the greatest front men ever and you can see how the death of Andy Fletcher last year has brought him and Martin Gore closer together.

 

For a band that have has a career of 40 years they played something for everyone - 80s pop (Everything Counts and Just Can’t Get Enough) their black goth phase (Stripped), 90s classics (I Feel You, It’s No good) their big hits (Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence, Never Let Me Down) and more recent songs (Precious, Wrong).

 

One of the highlights might have been Violator album track “Waiting for the Night”. Martin and Dave’s voices combined beautifully and the harmony was carried by the crowd for minutes after the song was over. We would still be there singing if they hadn’t put on the afterburners (Sorry, I’ve taken this “gear analogy” a bit too far) and came home with a wet sail (now I’m mixing metaphors). Anyway, the closing trio of songs (Just Can’t Get Enough, Never Let Me Down Again and Personal Jesus) were more than enough to leave everyone happy.

 

They left nothing in the tank and certainly weren’t cruising.   

 

But never mind all that. What did that tall guy think about the concert?

 

Before the concert I was pretty confident I could predict my family’s reactions.   

I anticipated my “grow your own concert buddy” daughter would be very excited. She was. One down. 

The “tall guy” is the only proper musician in the family and is hard to please. He’s got very high standards. I was fearing what he would say.  But I saw him sing along to the songs and it looked like he had a great time.  That’s two!

My wife? I feared that she would probably not be happy having to stand for hours and complain about having a sore back and not being able to see. This also proved to be true. So, three from three for my predictions, but probably I’d need to work on the last one. 

 

Let’s chalk this down as a success.

 

But maybe next time we’ll get seats…