July 1, 2009

By the beard of Zeus! Just conquered a slab of gigs in the US of A and can happily report that I love the Melbourne music scene more than ever. Saw Bronx play a sensational set in their home town of LA - in front of the historic Queen Mary- to a crowd of about 70 people. You know it’s a lacklustre crowd when you stand firmly at the barrier and don’t so much as receive an elbow to the temple.

Also had the relative misfortune of experiencing a Strung Out show in Las Vegas. The venue boasted similar capacity to the Arthouse yet was the furthest thing to our beloved venue that you could imagine. The rear of the venue boasted leather coaches, comfy armchairs, elevated views and scantily clad gyrating women bouncing back and forth (technically those rocks on their chest weren’t blessed with malleable skin required for a ‘bouncing motion’, they were entrancing nonetheless) but this area was only for those who were willing to shell out $200 US for a bottle of champagne. Go figure.

On the upside, Strung Out killed and reported that their new album (set for release later this year) will be a tasty cocktail of the sound of their previous few releases.

Aggrolites also brought the house down in New York, and I saw Spinnerette play a delightful set to a sold out room of punters who had no idea what they were in for given that the band is yet to release their debut album. That’s Brody love for you.

Warped Tour also proved that synthy-alt-pop ala 3Oh3 is all the rage now and thus broke my spirit entirely, especially when I found that they were placed on the festival’s main stage instead of the ever-brilliant Alexisonfire. 3OH!3 make my brain cry and my ears bleed. Someone make it stop.