Lambchop and More

Kurt Wagner, Lambchop.

Friday: the Black Seeds.
I'd write about the Black Seeds gig, but it wasn't very different from any other Black Seeds gig - huge crowd, high quality musicians and much sweat and dancing. At some point I realised it was exactly four weeks since I'd last seen them play at Galatos. For the record I'm surprised and impressed (not to mention relieved) that I don't send drunken texts more often.

Saturday: the Dukes/the Dellburgoes and the Fanatics/Paselode
We swung by Bodega first and caught the tail end of the Dukes' set and the first few songs of the Dellburgoes. I recall they had good shoes. In light of Wednesday's Resonate seminar, this seemed important.

Next stop Indigo. The Fanatics were playing when we arrived. The crowd wasn't huge but it was decent. The music? It was the Fanatics. The lineup included Brendan Moran on drums - yeah!! and a girl (Rachel?) on tambourine. Paselode played next. I can't really remember their set... nor much of what went after. I do know I lost Matias and eventually located him asleep in his truck, waiting for me to let him into the house. Oops.

Sunday: Lambchop/David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights/Ghostplane
Sunday was a strange day. Much All of it was spent in a semi-conscious daze, although I'm pleased to report there were no actual hangover symptoms (apart from a short episode at the airport) due to my quick-and-forward-thinking self-medication.

I walked down to Indigo around 9pm, somewhat concerned all the way down Cuba St at the sirens and billowing smoke. Luckily it wasn't Indigo burning, it was a building on Vivian St apparently inhabited by 'vagrants'. When I rolled into Indigo, Ghostplane had already started their set. Ghostplane played well, and unlike the Black Seeds gig, the lighting person was actually doing their job. Even in my half-brained state, or maybe because of it, I knew it was going to be a wonderful evening of entertainment. David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights were up next. Since I'd last seen them, I've been listening to a lot of DK's music, so most of the set was pleasantly familiar. He really strikes me as the most unlikely rock star, coming across as your average kiwi bloke, but he's got this amazing skill for playing beautiful guitar music with touching and resonant lyrics. Lovely.

Much like Kurt Wagner, who took the stage next along with six band members. Three guitars, bass, drums, a pianist and a saxophonist/sampler-thingy-operator. I've not heard a lot of Lambchop music in the past - in fact only one song of the entire set was familiar to me (Up With People) - but it hardly matters when faced with such lovely sounds whether it's the first or the hundredth listen. The crowd was older, relaxed, polite. Delightful to breathe the air free of smoke.

Best wishes for Melbourne, Stacey. Two weeks!