I was telling this story to the lovely Biodagar and we thought it would be a blast to go visit the site again when she came to visit Perth. We timed our visit for late afternoon in the hope of getting the gorgeous late afternoon sun from over the ocean but true to form, it was pissing down with rain and miserable as hell.

The place is ridiculously easy to get into – the fence on the beach side is more hole than fence these days – and it’s always full of people, so the “cool and forbidden factor” is basically gone. There were a few groups of people industriously decorating the walls, someone was hefting a drum kit back outside just as we arrived, and a family, complete with kids and a dog, was roaming around upstairs.

Still, the building is hauntingly beautiful in it’s decay and I had some fun taking photos. I even found what was left of the massive Fear Factory logo painted on the ground where the band played.

The building is in such a severe state of decay that despite all the signs proclaiming it a “heritage site” i don’t think it would be good for pretty much anything these days – it’s too far gone. Rather sad, really.

Last week, Soundwave 2010 rolled around to our little corner of Australia. And what a day it was – 39 degree heat (that’s Celcius – 102F for you old scale country peeps), five stages, a crowd of 35,000 and Blue Steel oval Bassendean, which only just managed to squeeze all those people in.

This was the fourth year for the festival and as in previous years, we spent most of the day in front of stage four, the metal (\m/) stage.

Baroness
First up for us was Baroness at 12.50pm (i.e. just as the day was just starting to heat up). This is a band I’d been hanging out to see and they didn’t disappoint – in fact, they impressed so much we picked up their album the next day. Groovy, heavy, stoner metal (Wikipedia says sludge) with just a touch of prog. Got people moving (and the sweat starting to flow). A nice easy start to the day.

Isis
Next up were Isis, a band in much the same vein as Baroness, but turning the "prog" dial up just a bit further. They were interesting, but it wasn’t really the right kind of venue to see them in – too hot to concentrate!

Glassjaw
Next up on the metal stage was Clutch, a band I was quite keen to see, but over on stage 3 was a band I was even more keen to see: Glassjaw. These guys are kind of a guilty pleasure band for me. I don’t know how to classify them other than "post-somthing" and maybe a bit screamo (actually Wikipedia says that they are actually post-hardcore, experimental, alternative, progressive and screamo, and who can argue with the big W?) and while normally I would be dishing heaps on bands like that, for some reason Glassjaw have always resonated with me. I have both their albums and I know every post-something screamy bit. They had broken up a few years ago and them getting back together (in some form, anyway) was a big deal, so I dragged Dave off to stage 3.

Now, stage 3 was actually undercover. Faced with 39 degree heat, "undercover" sounds like a good thing in theory, but I’m here to tell you that in actual fact it was hotter under in the canvas tent then it was in the full sun. It was absolutely cooking.

Dave zoned out a bit for a while but as soon as Glassjaw started I couldn’t pay attention to anyone else – they were riveting. Screamo, definitely. Slammin’, quite a bit. Totally fucking cool. They played all their best songs – I know the songs well but not really the song titles – plus one new song from their as yet unreleased album. Can’t wait for that to come out!

Anvil and Placebo, not really
After coming out into direct sunlight for some release from the heat (that just sounds wrong, doesn’t it?) it was back to the metal stage.  Up next were Canadian veterans Anvil.

Now, Anvil. I have not seen the movie. I probably will at some stage – people tell me it’s great – but it’s not real high on my todo list. So anyway Anvil were rocking out, old-school, and having a great old time on stage but that kind of watery metal is not my cup of tea, so we went in search of a shady spot to chill for a few minutes. We wandered down to catch a few minutes of Placebo, mostly for curiosity’s sake and also to snap some photos for Dave’s second cousin in Poland who is devoted to them the way only a 14 year old can be, then it was back to home base, the metal stage.

Meshuggah
I have heard the hype. I have heard their albums. I don’t dislike their tricksy mathcore prog, but it’s not something I’d put on to chill out to. I saw them headline last year in Perth, and I wasn’t feeling 100% well at the time, and while I thought they were very good, I wasn’t in the mood for an all-out conversion. But today, I think I realised just how goddamn heavy they are, and after the lightweight Anvil it just seemed very fucking cool.    

Due to some messing around with equipment, Meshuggah started about twenty minutes late, which is never a good thing for a festival. At the time when their set *would* have ended, had it started on time, a stage tech appeared and tried to indicate that it was time for them to get the fuck off, but they were having none of it. They played out almost their full original set time anyway. I think I’m beginning to understand the hype.

Anthrax
Meshuggah’s late start and late finish meant that the next band up, the almighty Anthrax, were also late starting. These guys were probably the most anticipated band on the stage 4 lineup and all I can say is WOW.

I’ve seen each of the other members of the so-called "Big 4" thrash bands of the ’80s and ’90s – in fact, I’ve seen Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth twice each, and Testament, which is sometimes included in Anthrax’s place, once. We thought we would see Anthrax last year at Wacken but then they pulled out at the last minute when they fired another frontman (this time it was Dan Nelson’s turn). Now that I’ve seen Anthrax I can say I’ve seen all four (although, not on the same show – although nobody in the world has YET) and die happy.

John Bush is back in the jinxed frontman spot, possibly permanently although that hasn’t been confirmed. We didn’t get to see Bush when his other band, Armored Saint, opened for Death Angel in Perth last year, because he was sick. The band played anyway, with the bassist and guitarist taking turns with the singing and doing a really kick arse job of it too.

The first surprising thing was that he came out wearing a white Loony Tunes tshirt. Over a long sleeved undershirt of some description. While it was now past 6pm, it was by no means cool and um – white? That’s not very metal is it? That aside though, he does a fantastic job as frontman and the rest of the band were damn, damn, damn, damn good. So much energy. Scott Ian is a madman. Frank Bello is dorky cool. Charlie Benante is a machine. Nuff said.

Jane’s Addiction, Trivium and dinner
Because of the stacked up late starts on stage 4, we missed all of Jane’s Addiction. As teens of the ‘90s, we had been hoping to see them but we did catch them at the Big Day Out a few years ago so it wasn’t worth missing any of Anthrax over.  

Next up were Trivium. Not being such a fan myself, I took the opportunity to grab a bite to eat although we did see the last few songs (Dave does like them. But he has other redeeming features that make up for it, honestly). They were… Trivium. They lied about how the audience was the best one of the entire tour and indeed the loudest fuckin’ audience they’d ever heard in their entire fuckin’ lives, etc etc etc, and played lots of cheesy songs with big melodic choruses. They also threw in a cover of Sepultura’s Slave New World and it wasn’t terrible. That’s the best I can say about them.

Faith No More
Dinner ingested, it was time to fight our way down for a spot on the main stage for Faith No More. Last year Soundwave made a teenage dream come true by bringing Alice In Chains down under, and it was nothing short of an emotional experience (yes, I cried, I wasn’t the only one, no, I’m not embarrassed). This year they continued the trend with Faith No More, and band no one expected to get back together again.

Yet here they were, larger than life on stage wearing lounge suits. Mike Patton was hilarious. Those were songs that needed to be heard live. I’m sorry, but you really just had to be there.

Here’s a highlights video someone compiled from the Perth show. Watch for a couple of minutes in when Patton demands to security “squirt my ass” – so funny.

They also threw in a Bee Gees cover – I Started A Joke – and goddamn it was bloody funny.

A big shout out to all my peeps who helped make it a smashing day – Anne, who was suffering from a variation of the plague but who managed to fight her way through the day anyway; Al and his houseguest Amie, all the way from Melbourne; Mick and Mihaila, proving that only people who weren’t born in Australia walk around in 39 degree sun wearing a bikini top and no hat; Simone, who I spotted from 30 metres away by the stars tattooed on her back (I wasn’t actually looking for her either); and my gorgeous cousin Stef who was so busy being fantastic that I didn’t even meet up with her.

On the organisational front, the food situation was not the best. I had a pretty good plate of Hare Krishna food but pretty much everywhere else had huge lines for overpriced chips and not a lot else. At least two of the more interesting looking food joints were already out of stock and closed by dinner time. I drank one and a half $4 cans of coke zero – they were icy, icy cold and as such a welcome change from the litres of warm water I was ingesting otherwise but yikes, 4 bucks?

Also, the mobile phone reception was shockingly bad. This is a problem at events like this and I don’t know how it can be fixed, but text messages are pretty much the only way anyone can find anyone else and the overloaded phone towers meant that I was getting “where u? Im lhs front stage 4” messages finally coming through 36 hours later – not particularly helpful!

On the whole though, I’m very proud of Soundwave, the little festival that fuckin’ could. When we went to the first one four years ago at Robinson Pavilion there were not even 10,000 people there. Now it rivals the Big Day Out (kills it in terms of cool factor) – and without the benefit of mainstream popular bands or any of the kinds of bands that the indie snob Triple J set adore.

Heavy music, man! Right on.

There’s a few great Perth bands, now broken up, that I really miss – who remembers the T-Cells? Headshot?  – but the real tragic story is Full Scale.

Dave and I saw them live a few times back when they were Full Scale Deflection, based in Perth. I even have the FSD CD and the “Go Slow” tshirt. They had a bit of a lineup change – including the addition of Matty Crute, who was working as a web developer in the same company as Dave and I – and moved to Melbourne. They got a record deal, went to the US, and that’s when things fell apart for them. For a band with such talent it was a real shame.

I read today that a documentary about the rise and fall of Full Scale has been released on DVD, with a launch party at The HiFi in Melbourne, attended by all four former band members. Reading the FasterLouder review certainly got the memories going and I was pleased to see that the DVD was available online (and via PayPal, which is not real money anyway). I ordered me one, and will report back once it arrives.

YouTube – The Downfall of Dream Theater in Perth

Which is pretty funny. Some poor Dream Theater fan got a bit upset (understandably) at all the stuffing around with the show, but managed to channel that frustration into some clever video editing.

What’s even funnier though, is that the band opened their show with the clip:

YouTube – The Downfall of Dream Theater in Perth – In Concert!

Everyone that I’ve spoken to that’s seen it, starts laughing or snorting uncontrollably at the point where the venue is compared to “a fucking tin shed that sounds like the inside of Lars’ snare”. That’s a drummer joke and a Metallica joke all rolled up in one. Gold.

Heh, kinda. the Perth International Arts Festival web site – aka, my pet project – has been nominated in the events category of the 11th Annual Webby Awards (the “Oscars of the Internet”, dontcha know).

It’s pretty exciting stuff. Everyone involved is stoked to be nominated – that includes Isabel at Block Branding who did the gorgeous design, and Georgia, formerly of the Festival, now at PICA, who managed (babysat) the site and obsessed over it day in day out for months. The actual winners are announced at the beginning of May. While the official winners are up to the judges and completely out of our hands – I wouldn’t even know who to try to bribe, heh – there’s also a People’s Voice Award for each category. So, faithful readers, you could help to make a local site achieve international fame and glory. Sign up now and vote – it’s pretty easy. The site is under “Websites” (duh), then “Living”, then “Events”. Go, go and do it now. I’ll wait.

Back already? Told you it was easy – thanks a lot for your help. Now tell everyone you know to do the same. We can make the difference!

Tonight was the official opening of the 2007 Perth International Arts Festival. Hey, what a fantastic web site! I wonder who we know who was involved with that…

The Supreme Court Gardens in the city centre hosted the opening event: firstly the specially commissioned overture, composed by Iain Grandage and performed by the Festival Journey Chior and Tetrafide percussion ensemble, with visuals onscreen from BLINK, a photography exhibition from regional WA.

Then a screening of the brilliant stop-animation film version of Peter and the Wolf by BreakThru Films with the live score performed by the Australian Youth Orchestra. Although it’s for kids as well as adults, I found the film quite scary, and the intensely atmospheric music only added to the unsettling feeling.

Here’s a trailer from the world premiere of the film in London.

The animation is just beautiful.

Being a family event, the evening was quite short – the film is 30 minutes long, and we were home by 10.30pm – but it was a good start to what’s going to be a really great festival program.

I got the big lens out and did some scurrying around the sides of the choir stand, and managed to get a few passable photos of Mr Grandage, Prue Ashurst, the other director of the choir, and the Tetrafide percussionists – just more material for slow days in the infamous photo project!

Iain Grandage conducting the choir:

Tetrafide Percussion Ensemble:

Just to make it even better, Al was excited to inform me yesterday that skate-punk legends Suicidal Tendencies had been added to the lineup. Now, when I say excited… he’s not normally an excitable kind of guy. Or big on going to gigs. So it’s a big deal.

I did see ST in Perth about six million years ago (actually a little googling – in which I find some posts by this guy called heist who reminds me very much of someone – tells me it was 1994) and they were great. Although I do remember at the time it was a “last time ever farewell tour” and from what I gather Cyco Miko just refuses to quit.

One slight downer is that I just looked up Simone’s initial announcement on Enjoy Perth and seen that I’ve just missed out on early bird tickets which were substantially cheaper. Bugger!

And… there’s still a third announcement. Woo-hoo!

In his post, he says that I “raved in a nonchalant but coolly excited way” which is a nice way of saying I sounded like a complete idiot by making the statement “it’s, like, the best goddamn pasta in like, the entire universe, man”. What can I say. I like it there.

When I give people directions, I say “you know where The Dollhouse is?” and if not, then “you know where the Drum Shop is?” and so far, nearly everyone I know is familiar with at least one of those two locations. That’s just a small insight into most of my friends.

So here’s a hot tip: check out Italy Home Made, Charles Street, North Perth. Tell ‘em Dave and Kay sent ya. It’s a kinda conventional recommendation but their bolognese sauce is just to die for.

Due to unfortunate scheduling, tonight was also the Web Women dinner, the first dinner meeting that we've had. So basically i'm exhausted, I've been talking non-stop for the last four hours and my head is chock full of new people and interesting conversations.

Despite being assured that I wouldn't be kicked out of the club if I didn't blog about the meeting, I couldn't help myself. Just for Jon, the story of how the goatlady came to be will follow. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm knackered.

Sydney: 27
Melbourne: 25
Canberra: 8
Perth: 20
Adelaide: 6
Hobart: 1

There’s not many of us but by jove, we’re mad bloggers, us Perth-ites. Of course, you may point out that with over 350 blogs listed and so few specifying a city, odds are that most of the 250-odd that don’t tag with a location are from the Eastern States. To this I would say that it shows Perth folk have location-based pride. Go West Aussies!