New name & The Meadows
I have been reading some other law blogs and wanted to comment on them - problem is, you can only do this as "anonymous" or by signing in. Seeing as my posting name was just "Me", I figured this wasn't going to be very helpful when commenting on other people's blogs, so I've changed it to OLS, it could have just been OL (without the ...) and left out any reference to the swear word at the end, but I'm in government - it just doesn't sound right unless the acronym has three letters.
Caught up with the law student last night to see The Meadows at the Troubadour. I was pretty keen to see them again after seeing their support at the speedstar* gig at the Tivoli, and even more keen when I heard that Kieran Waters and the Young Casuals were supporting. I don't remember if I posted about them before - they're the guys that were giving away copies of their CD to anyone who joins the mailing list for the band. Not a bad little marketing ploy that. Anyway, I've been listening to the CD and they're really good, so was keen to see them again as well.
They were as good as I'd remembered... both of them were actually. KW&YC have a slightly different line-up from the last time I saw them as their regular guitarist has apparently returned from Europe. They're kind of folk-rock I guess - think Paul Kelly crossed with Powderfinger and you'd have some idea. I settled back into my comfy couch and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a smallish crowd and obviously a lot of the bands friends were in the audience as there was a lot of banter with the crowd, much of it in-jokes (but not so obscure that the rest of us couldn't get them, which is nice).
Kieran himself has a nice voice and generally plays rhythym guitar as well - he also stretches his wings and plays keys every so often. He has a slightly startled look when singing, but it's not too distracting. The lead guitar held my attention mostly - loved his work - he seemed to make complicated finger-work easy. The bass player dances like Paul McCartney back when he had a moptop, but actually plays bass like it's a bass and not a 4-string guitar, so he holds -my- affections for that alone! He also throws some funky little riffs in there occassionally, so he got blasted with my attention span a few times. I mostly couldn't see the drummer from where I was sitting as he was usually hidden by Kieran, so couldn't really comment on him other than that he manages to drum and sing harmony at the same time, which I understand from some muso friends is actually quite difficult (they're all boys though - and you know what guys are like with multi-tasking).
The Meadows are apparently on the same label as speedstar*, and you can see why. Their styles are so similar you could almost use exactly the same band description (emotional guitar-driven pop - though the marketing people would probably use more words than that). Except that The Meadows might just be a little bit better. The lead singer's voice is almost perfect - he just seems to effortlessly hit the note right every time, and without that slight nasal tone that the lead singer of speedstar* can sometimes get. He's no Katie Noonan, his voice sounds more real and grounded than hers, but he sings with a passion thats affecting. He also seems to have developed that home-grown charm act with an ingenious grin that the girls like (the ones behind me were vocally impressed). I think he'll go far - especially if he's the primary songwriter of the band, which I suspect he is.
Unfortunately, the rest of the band are not as good. The guitarist plays well, but has this phony "rock god" stage persona which just makes me laugh and I can't take him seriously. The drummer has a cute accent (maybe Canadian?) but makes drumming look like so much effort that I wince when I watch him. The bass player does his job effectively and efficiently, but the bass lines are pretty boring, so nothing really exciting to watch there. Mind you, that's a pretty harsh summation of a band that played well, got my feet tapping and is 100% on a lot of those gigging around Brisbane now. It's just that the lead guy stood out. Which is maybe a good thing? *shrugs*
Anyway, I'd better finish this and head off for lunch - got a date with this guy I've been emailing a lot, who seems great on email. Will post either this arvo or tomorrow with the verdict.
Caught up with the law student last night to see The Meadows at the Troubadour. I was pretty keen to see them again after seeing their support at the speedstar* gig at the Tivoli, and even more keen when I heard that Kieran Waters and the Young Casuals were supporting. I don't remember if I posted about them before - they're the guys that were giving away copies of their CD to anyone who joins the mailing list for the band. Not a bad little marketing ploy that. Anyway, I've been listening to the CD and they're really good, so was keen to see them again as well.
They were as good as I'd remembered... both of them were actually. KW&YC have a slightly different line-up from the last time I saw them as their regular guitarist has apparently returned from Europe. They're kind of folk-rock I guess - think Paul Kelly crossed with Powderfinger and you'd have some idea. I settled back into my comfy couch and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a smallish crowd and obviously a lot of the bands friends were in the audience as there was a lot of banter with the crowd, much of it in-jokes (but not so obscure that the rest of us couldn't get them, which is nice).
Kieran himself has a nice voice and generally plays rhythym guitar as well - he also stretches his wings and plays keys every so often. He has a slightly startled look when singing, but it's not too distracting. The lead guitar held my attention mostly - loved his work - he seemed to make complicated finger-work easy. The bass player dances like Paul McCartney back when he had a moptop, but actually plays bass like it's a bass and not a 4-string guitar, so he holds -my- affections for that alone! He also throws some funky little riffs in there occassionally, so he got blasted with my attention span a few times. I mostly couldn't see the drummer from where I was sitting as he was usually hidden by Kieran, so couldn't really comment on him other than that he manages to drum and sing harmony at the same time, which I understand from some muso friends is actually quite difficult (they're all boys though - and you know what guys are like with multi-tasking).
The Meadows are apparently on the same label as speedstar*, and you can see why. Their styles are so similar you could almost use exactly the same band description (emotional guitar-driven pop - though the marketing people would probably use more words than that). Except that The Meadows might just be a little bit better. The lead singer's voice is almost perfect - he just seems to effortlessly hit the note right every time, and without that slight nasal tone that the lead singer of speedstar* can sometimes get. He's no Katie Noonan, his voice sounds more real and grounded than hers, but he sings with a passion thats affecting. He also seems to have developed that home-grown charm act with an ingenious grin that the girls like (the ones behind me were vocally impressed). I think he'll go far - especially if he's the primary songwriter of the band, which I suspect he is.
Unfortunately, the rest of the band are not as good. The guitarist plays well, but has this phony "rock god" stage persona which just makes me laugh and I can't take him seriously. The drummer has a cute accent (maybe Canadian?) but makes drumming look like so much effort that I wince when I watch him. The bass player does his job effectively and efficiently, but the bass lines are pretty boring, so nothing really exciting to watch there. Mind you, that's a pretty harsh summation of a band that played well, got my feet tapping and is 100% on a lot of those gigging around Brisbane now. It's just that the lead guy stood out. Which is maybe a good thing? *shrugs*
Anyway, I'd better finish this and head off for lunch - got a date with this guy I've been emailing a lot, who seems great on email. Will post either this arvo or tomorrow with the verdict.
Listening to: george - got a bunch of their stuff going on random...
posted by OLS |
Thursday, July 01, 2004 | 12:06 pm
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