John Butler Trio

The first thing I should say about John Butler Trio is that they are a band who I have always liked but never loved, having had their latest studio release, "Sunrise Over Sea" for almost a year now. I did, however, become very excited about the prospect of seeing them live, believing that they would be a band that would be much better seen live. I am very happy to say that I was right. They performed at Brisbane City Botanical Gardens’ Riverstage, a great little open air venue, and the air was electric.
Two things struck me about JBT, the first being the level of talent. The group consists of lead singer John Butler who, seated all the while, gives finger blistering performance on lapsteel, eleven string acoustic guitar and banjo. The band has changed in recent years, although I will have to get back to you with more precise information as the JBT website’s biography link is not working, quite possibly because it has to be updated. Michael Barker, on drums, is also an incredibly talented musician, playing not only with astounding rhythmical precision and sensitivity, but also, when called for, phenomenal power. Shannon Birchall on bass, at times traditional double bass and at others on electric bass guitar, is no exception to the rule. The band’s many talents are showcased perfectly, not only by the songs themselves but also by lengthy solos taken by all at various stages throughout the show. I was also thoroughly impressed by the way the group harmonises, especially on later comparison with JBT’s 2000/2001 live release, “Living”.
The second thing that struck me was the incredible humility of all three artists. John Butler himself is a powerful presence and the music often political, at times bordering on aggressive. He seems, however, to have this very much chanelled in the right direction as on stage he is a gentle soul, radiating peace and love. He is also incredibly grateful, often taking time to thank the audience for coming, as well as for buying the records, thank the people that helped the band get to where they are now, thank his wife and child for the beauty they bring to his life. The concert really felt like a gathering of friends, with so very much being shared. After playing a lengthy instrumental solo on his eleven string, something that Butler wrote, as he told us, nine years ago busking in Fremantle markets in Western Australia, he went on to say how he plays the solo at every live concert they perform in order to remember where he came from. The solo itself was incredible, at times wild and passionate, with Butler pounding out the beat on the stomp box, at times delicate and deeply touching. After this, he stood and came to the microphone at the front of the stage with his acoustic guitar to sing Peaches and Cream, a song written for and about his Wife and Daughter. It was testament to the audience’s respect for the artist that when he asked for hush, all of the many hundreds of people in attendance actually did shut up and listen. As he said, “I need you all to get real quiet as I’m not plugged in, all I have is this little mikey right here”. The song was incredibly touching, and the audience coming out of their silent reverie to sing along possibly even more so. I have never seen an audience sing along so gently in such unity, with all the right words, and sound incredibly harmonious.
So to sum up, it was shit hot. For a band that one would think of as folky/rootsy (they do defy definition somewhat) , they rocked, HARD! It was also an amazing experience. Some concerts just rock hard, some you’re blown away by the musical virtuosity, some you jump around for two hours solid (Less Than Jake write up coming soon!) , and this not only had many of those elements, but was really quite a spiritual experience as well. Not unlike Jack Johnson, who we also saw at Riverstage, some six months earlier, there was so much love there that night. An audience full of love and respect for the people they were seeing and a band full of love and gratitude for what they were doing and where they found themselves in life. As I said, however many hundred people it was all singing,
“There you are.
Right in front of me,
A brand new day,
Sunrise Over Sea ,
No longer,
My cup half empty,
Cause there you are,
You and your mum in front of me.
Your Peaches & Cream to me.
You both are Peaches & Cream to me.

All I know is
All I know and
I love you...”
, very, very softly, was a deeply moving experience. Maybe it was just all the ganja smoke in the air! It felt like a safe haven from all the madness in the world, with the band setting the world to rights. They not only powered through well established classics like, “Company Sin”, “Treat Yo Mama”, “Oldman” and “Something’s Gotta Give”, but also played a new song. This song was written, JB told us, as his expression of the jumble of feelings inspired by the events of, and following 9/11. The chorus went,
“I don’t understand,
How one could kill a man,
In the name of peace,
It’s ridiculous,
But I understand,
That I will defend,
My family,
From both sides of misery.”

Bootiful!

N.B. Since starting to write this I had to go out and buy JBT’s new live release, “Live at St. Gallen”, and have had it on whilst finishing up. It is very true to the concert we saw, and a truly awesome CD. Go buy it. And if you see that JBT are playing in your town, even if you’ve never heard any of their stuff, go see them. You won’t regret it.

Piece of a Smurf and Good Bills to all Men

It is probably token to the fact that I have been working hard all year and have had much to occupy my tiny little mind and now find myself with a respite that I have been giving an inordinately large amount of time to conjuring up alternative Christmas greetings. The one of which I am most proud is, "Peace with your Elf". I think that Peace with yourself is a wonderful thing to wish people you care about at any time of the year, but even more so at Christmas. Changing, "Self", to, "Elf", immediately gives it a Christmassy feel.
Anyway, the point of this post is that it just occured to me that most of you will have better things to do on Christmas eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day than to be reading my shit blog, and in fact that most of you will be reading this after Christmas as it is (if anyone actually reads it at all). So I should really get my best Christmas wishes out there. I do, in all sincerity, wish you('s) all Peace with your Elves. This Christmas I will be praying for a piece of a Smurf and good bills to all Men. I love you all very much and hope that the season, wherever you may be and whomever you may be doing, brings much joy and laughter. I hope that Santa brings you all those things you asked for in your letters. I love you all very much xxxxx

Explanation

I must, I feel, justify myself somewhat for the use of the term, "you's" at the end of the post, "Peace with your Elf". Partly because it would have made some, if not all of you cringe, but also because I will most likely be using it more in the future.
Since learning and speaking a lot of German, it has bothered me not inconsiderably that there is no term for addressing more than one person in English, as with ihnen/ihre, euch/eure, etc. I was, therefore, delighted to discover upon coming to Australia that the English language has evolved here to incorporate such a term, that being the aforementioned you's. (I believe the correct Aussie spelling would be youse). Granted, it is somewhat coarse but I can't help but feel good about the fact that I can once more address more than one person and feel like I am expressing myself clearly. Love you's xxxxx

Foo Fighters

Well, here it is Kids, the long awaited write up of the Foo Fighters’ concert. What’s that you say? Oh, you haven’t been waiting. Well I have. I was so psyched after the concert that I wanted to write it up immediately, before realizing that I had to get up in a few hours and go to work for the first day in what was to be a very full on week. Then I was going to write it up the next day but blah-de-blah, same old story. Now, almost a month later, I’ll try to do it justice.
I suppose I should really start by pointing out that this was my first real rock concert. With the exception of the first concert I ever went to, which was Oasis at Knebworth park, all the concerts I’ve been to have been smaller affairs. I suppose you could say that Oasis at Knebworth park was a real rock concert, what with there being 125,00 odd people there, but I don’t really count it. We saw three amazing warm up bands. When I say saw, I mean saw Ocean Colour Scene, who were up first, then heard the Manic Street Preachers, who were second, from inside the beer tent in which we queued for the whole of their set. After the Manics, the Prodigy played, and man did they rock!!! Ultimately it set those charming Gallagher boys up for a fall because after the Prodigy’s energy, passion and determination to make the crowd go apeshit, they could only disappoint.
Anyway, so the Kaiser Chiefs opened for the Fooies (actually, some other band opened and they sounded pretty good, but we weren’t in there yet), and rocked it so hard that I almost thought it was going to be the same scenario as Oasis. Not that I didn’t think that the Fooies would rock it but the Chiefs just rocked it so hard and gave so much. I say almost because the Fooies came onstage and hit it from the get go, opening with “In Your Honour”, powering straight into “All my Life”. They then stopped and Dave Grohl said a few words, saying he wanted to take the opportunity to say hello and thanks for coming because they don’t like to stop. “The reason for this is that we have a limited amount of time and a lot of fucking hits to play!”, quipped Grohl. “We also, alongside the hits, have a lot of crusty old shit. Do you want to hear some of the crusty old shit?” Of course the crowd went berserk and the band responded by launching into “My Hero”, going from there straight into “Best of you”. Now I won’t bore you with the precise ins and outs of the concert but I will say this: I was hugely relieved. Seeing as it was the “In Your Honour” tour, I was a little apprehensive about the fact that the material they played may consist largely of the new stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the new stuff, and don’t mean to stifle any band’s progress by just wanting to hear the crusty old shit. I love hearing bands play their new material. I did, however, at my first Fooies gig, desperately hope to see them do all the classics; “My Hero”, “Breakout”, “Generator”, “Stacked Actors”, “Everlong”, “Aurora”, “All My life”, the list goes on. They didn’t disappoint, playing all of these and more, even treating us to “Big Me”, a song which, according to Grohl, they haven’t played for eight years. “What about Monkey Wrench?”, I hear you say. Oh yes. Oh YES!! They finished with this, the mother of all Fooies tunes, and I don’t think a single person there remained unrocked.
It was a great night. They provided all the things you’d hope for at a gig like that. They brought the intensity in a way that absolutely astounded me. They came on and hit it from the very start, as I said, and just seemed to keep ratcheting it up and up. The band only stopped briefly a couple of times, when Grohl would talk. I could have listened to more of him talking, being as he is a true entertainer, funny, wise and, God damn it, so very down to earth and humble. They were, however, mostly there for the business of rocking, and did so. The band left the stage only once, and even then Grohl stayed and soloed for a good five minutes on “Everlong”, before the band joined in and they rocked it once more. I thought, when they came back on for their encore, that they couldn’t possibly have any more to give. They did though, and powered through Generator before lead singer and drummer switched roles in order for Taylor Hawkins to sing “Cold day in the sun”, which he penned for disc two of “In Your Honour”. This also served the purpose of treating us all to a spell of Dave Grohl, behind the drums. Legendary, that’s all I can say. They then switched back and gave even more for Monkey Wrench. Honestly, I thought my head was going to explode, it was so damn good.
So that’s it. I didn’t do it justice, but it was great fun thinking back. I want to be there again. I could have summed it up in two words really. It rocked!

Peace with your Elf

Ahhh, at last. After a whole year in which I have done yoga a mere handful of times, and never with enough peace and quiet to really do it right, I've had a good one. It wasn't particularly quiet, there were still three other people moving around the house and going about the business of their day, but I was. I was in the right place, and it felt like some miraculous event, the stars aligning just right for one minute of one day in a hundred. In actual fact, in the grander scheme of things, it wasn't that big a deal. There were no dazzling revelations, no bright lights, no spiritual fireworks. It was, however, damned good. It was one of those moments where you really find that place and you just feel like you heave this great, blissful sigh and go, "ah, why didn't I do this sooner? Why don't I do it more often?!" So I feel pretty spectacular right now. I've got that warm yogic afterglow and I thought that I'd try and share just a little of it. I feel calm, collected, centred and utterly at peace with the world.
One thought that did pop into my head whilst practicing was one regarding my previous post. I thought of another way of looking at that. It's perhaps not exactly the same idea, although similar. I thought, "focus on love". When I say love, I don't mean a typical notion of romantic love, or some tree hugging, e-d up, "I love everyone, man" hippy shit. I mean love in a sense where it could also be described as peace or faith. A love where you truly, genuinely feel at peace with yourself and the world and want to share that sense of calm and harmony. You want to experience the good in life, and you want others to do so too. So you focus on that. You choose it. You trust that life, the world and people around you aren't out to get you, and relinquish control, let things flow. Let's face it, in life, we see what we want to see, and that, on a deeper and far more subtle level, leads to our experiences in life being in accordance with that vision. So if we teach ourselves what to focus on in life, what to believe in, it will begin to filter down through the layers of our consciousness, until it begins to make a profound change in our lives. Again, though, we have to choose it. We have to commit to it. We have to make a promise to ourselves that we will continue to strive for it, because we care enough about ourselves and others to make that change.
So what do you reckon? Good? Do you agree, or do you just think that I'm the tree hugger? Just give it some thought, because although I'm prepared to admit that it's quite possibly just the yogic afterglow talking, it seems pretty good and pretty true to me right now. I'm going to go and have some brekkie now. You Guys have fun and I'll post again really soon. Love you's xxx

Happiness

Oh Dear, it's happened once again, hasn't it. A month has gone and run away with me and I haven't posted a single solitary word, although a single solitary word really wouldn't make for the most satisfying post! The sub-heading of my blog (updated bi-monthly) just keeps coming to fruition. It's been a very busy month for me, as I'm sure it has for all of us, with lots going on both externally and internally. I've seen four concerts, all of which I still intend to write up in full at some point. We saw the Foo Fighters right after I last posted, then in the last week alone we saw John Butler Trio, Less than Jake and Blackalicious. We've also had a busy few weeks at work, what with performing two different programs, one a full length Nutcracker and the other a mixed bill of contemporary work, as well as getting things together for the tour of Germany. We finished last Friday and start back next Wednesday, when we will have about a week of rehearsals before flying to Germany for a big two weeks of travelling and performing. After that, of course, comes the main event, two weeks in London Baby, yeah!!!
Hmmm, I now find myself with the dilemma of catching up on all the things I wanted to post about but didn't over the last few weeks. There was also my very good friend Tama's leaving celebrations, as he is heading over to Europe early in January to audition for companies there. It was a farewell that was not as emotional as it might have been as he will be coming to stay with us in London when we are there, so it didn't feel like such a big deal. It was a beautiful weekend though, and I will write more about it, just not right now. I just wanted to post a little post to say hey, if anyone's still reading this! I also just wanted to get the ball rolling again and try and get myself back into posting. We'll be spending the week at Lisa's parents house in Dubbo, hopefully just taking it easy. I intend to do yoga every day, having so regretfully neglected my practice for the greater part of this year, and post a lot.
One thing that I did want to write about right now is a thought that I've been having lately, and that is that everything we want to have and be in our lives, we have to work for. I've been thinking about this particularly with regards to being happy. I think that I've always thought that being happy was just something that you are. You're a happy person or you're not. Things are going well in your life and you're happy, or they're not and you're not. Furthermore I figured that you remedied this by working to make things work out so that life was always going pretty well and you could be happy. Now some of you are probably thinking well DUH!! I know it seems obvious to say, and I probably could have told you before that happiness is not dependent on any external circumstance, I've read a whole lot of books that say that too. To really have the realisation, though, well that's another thing altogether. So this is thought of the day; Happiness is not something that happens to you, or something that you are, it's something that you commit to cultivating in your life, and in your heart. The reason for this is that there is a demon in all of us, even the most happy-go-lucky, free spirited people, that is just waiting for a reason to surface. Even if you are one of those 'naturally happy' people something really tragic could happen and bring all that you believed in crashing right down around you and you could become one of those people who have something sad happen in their lives and they become the survivor, the martyr. Are you following me? If, however, you are committed to being happy, to seeing the good side in things, to working at it every single day, nothing can happen to you that will derail you. Sure you'll be sad too, that's part of life. In fact, as I've said a thousand times before, as you experience greater happiness, so will you experience greater sadness, but that'll be OK, because your ultimate goal is happiness, or perhaps a better word would be peace. You are at peace. You get sad, you get happy, but all the while you're at peace with the world, and you don't cling to one thing or the other. You don't have to be happy, but you don't cling to sadness and the bad things that have happened to you in life either.
I haven't written this entirely from my own inspiration. The thoughts have been forming over the last few weeks, and kind of crystallised over the last couple of days, but as they did, things kept popping into my head, like the part of Max Ehrmann's Desiderata that says, "Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings, Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself." God I love that. You could live your whole life well just by sticking to the principles contained in its' few verses. Another thing that I thought of was a post that the ever wonderful Spencer Steel's wrote a couple of weeks ago. You can see it

here

.
So now you've heard people say what I was trying to say a whole lot better, I'll let you go. I should probably have just skipped my babbling and gotten straight to the good stuff! I hope you see what I mean though, as it has been a real revelation to me, as a part of a whole load of things that I've been thinking about with a view to improving my life and growing to be a better person. I will write more, but for now, know that I'm thinking of you and love you all very much. Take good care of yourselves now xxxxx