Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Thief steals Mick Harvey encore! .... nearly.

Beginning at the end of the evening....


Human Music Stand

Mick Harvey had finished his set and while the audience was cheering for more he was, apparently, out back checking the footy scores.  Well, you  know, fair enough. On returning to the stage he discovered a souvenir acquirer - a much more accurate title than thief, but a headline's a headline - had swiped the set list.  On this list was also the only copy of the settings for the various musical accoutrement involved, and Mick was having nothing of it. We knew he meant business because he had already banned photographers from taking photos during the performance as the sound of clicks was distracting him.  And you know, that's fair enough too. I thought it was pretty funny, though, because they were digital SLRs, which meant that they could have just turned the shutter sound off.  "If the person who took the set list does not return it to the stage there will be no more music." (Roughly a direct quote.)  To her credit - she did. The next bit I'm not that clear on, but somehow she ended up holding a page of what I presume were lyrics for the encore song, unreadable from the floor. So it all worked out for the best. A bit of inner-city serendipity.

Mick Harvey and Rosie Westbrook

The gig was for Mick's new album "Sketches From the Book of the Dead", with Rosie Westbrook on double bass and joined on a couple of songs by a drummer who had never rehearsed with them, "but probably knows the songs better than I do", whose name I couldn't quite catch. 


Madelaine Lucas - A Casual End Mile 


The support act for the evening was the lovely and mellow A Casual End Mile.  If this was a music review I'd draw a few very complimentary comparisons to help convey their music to you, but I think it's best you check them out yourselves and I'll leave the music reviews to the professionals. They have a new album out as well - "Dream With Me" released March 2011 - Madelaine Lucas - voice and guitar, Luke Bacon - Rhodes piano and Rob Irish - drums. Reading their website I see the album was recorded, produced and mastered by Chris Townend at BigJesusBurger Studios - excellent choice! Chris mixed our first album and one of the songs from our latest EP.

When you are listening to them,  imagine them in the intimate setting of the Oxford Art Factory. I hadn't been to this venue before and was really impressed. The atmosphere was great and the front-of-house sound for both acts was really good. The venue website describes itself as being influenced by Andy Warhol/New York, and contains a heap of other relevant information. Now if this was a venue review....



Windswept

Which leads me to the beginning of the evening and the performance art in the enclosed glass room between two of the venue areas. He was titled 'Windswept' and there was a description stuck to the glass of what exactly he was doing, but unfortunately I didn't get close enough to read it.  Someone said he was embroidering an Australian flag. I do know there were two strategically placed fans and he was most definitely windswept for the entire evening. As it was a relatively chilly evening out, I found it mildly distressing to watch, which I'm guessing is part of his intention. Maybe on a steamy summer's night the fans would have been replaced with sun lamps.


Sarah




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