Severed Heads, Boxcar, Single Gun Theory and the Volition Records package tour.

I’ve seen Severed Heads three times. First time was Perth in late ‘91 on the Volition Records “An Intro To Techno” package tour. At this point “techno” still specifically referred to original Detroit techno; the pounding four-on-the-floor stuff the KLF were topping the charts with was various hyphenations of “-house”. Volition almost certainly meant something a bit more like “industrial”, but for some reason people then seemed reluctant to say that word with a straight face.

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Scattered Order are alive and well.

Scattered Order are an Australian noise band who are probably “industrial”, but you never see them in any lists of industrial bands, and that’s just wrong. They have never been popular in any sense. They remain good and important, however, and have persisted. Modulo a decade’s break here and there.

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New Order and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Opera House, June 4, 2016

The concert hall of the Sydney Opera House is, of course, one of the world’s great venues. Filled to capacity of over two-and-half thousand the audience were displaying an enthusiasm that would continue throughout the night. Although older on average, there was a fair sprinkling of younger faces indicating that the reputation of one of the world’s great electronic and synth-pop bands was still continuing.

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I threw up on Lux Interior.

It was mid-1986, at the Red Parrot in Perth (name and logo blatantly nicked from the New York club of the same name) in Perth. I was nineteen and had been going out to see bands and drinking in earnest for six months. The Cramps had played (the Canterbury Court Friday 22 August 1986 show, I think) and went there for after-show drinks.

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Last song at the Tote.

The last song of the last night, “My Pal” by the Drones with Joel Silbersher, on video. And, of course, the 7:30 Report. Now,

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Meredith

The best festival this country has to offer. Meredith Music Festival lived up to the hype yet again with its fine selection of music, beautiful weather, ice cold beer, good food and fun times had by all.

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Tankt – Heresy, Melbourne, Sat 26 Oct 2002

Now, it’s no secret that I’m neither an expert on nor a great fan of electronic music. In fact, I have been known to bitch long and hard about the dominance of electro music in the goth scene and the lack of opportunity for those of us that aren’t especially fond of it to have a night out without a playlist disproportionately dominated by doof.

Basically, as Homer Simpson would put it, I don’t understand it because I don’t like it. So, anything I have to say about Tankt should be taken with that in mind.

Because, quite frankly, Tankt fucking rocked!

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Review: No Idea, Mutiny, Homewreckers – Empress, Fri 13th Sept 2002

Garlic pills and codrals kept my cold from turning into the flu it was trying all week to become, so I could go catch the fun at the Empress on Friday.

Friday 13th made it a mini-Halloween for the night, with an appropriately themed night. The Empress didn’t need much of a makeover, with the usual red velvet and candleabra giving it a gothic feel to begin with. Various bits of cobweb, and a huge spider web (complete with spider) stretched across the back of the stage was enough to set the mood. Early on very few seemed to have dressed up for the occasion, but as the place filled up more zombies, devils and ghouls began to appear in the crowd.

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