Liam Finn

Last night Belinda and I headed to The Toff in Town to see Liam Finn play a solo show. Liam played songs off his new album "I'll Be Lightning," which comes out in July. I already knew about half of the songs from hearing them on his myspace page. Liam was a one man band (with some backing vocal support from EJ Barnes). He looped guitar riffs and then used the pedals to change up the sound and layer everything. Liam also had a drum kit that he would play over the loops. It was pretty amazing to watch. This clip will give you an idea of what it was like- the song "Lead Balloon" filmed at Spaceland in LA.

Operator Please, Treetops, and Little Red

Last night Belinda came over to my place for dinner and then we headed to The East Brunswick Club for Queensland band Operator Please's EP launch. This young band plays very happy indie/electropop and the crowd was bopping along. They reminded me of The Grates with their enthusiasm on stage and sound.

The second band of the night was Treetops, who have been around for a while. They have that unique Melbourne sound which is hard to describe but you know it when you hear it. From what I have read they have gone through many line up changes over the years (their current drummer seems a lot younger than the rest of the band). The songs sounded good- very nice melodic pop.

Of course, the real reason I wanted to go was to see my new favorite band Little Red who opened the night. They were fantastic and the harmonies were in top form. Three of the guys take turns singing lead on the songs, and you can't help but love them. They are unsigned at the moment, but I doubt that will be the case for long. Little Red are opening for another band next week, so I may have to go see them again and bring along more people to convert into fans.

Essendon v. Hawthorn

Michelle and I headed to the MCG for our first Essendon footy match of the season. We met up with Tash, her mom, sister Jessie and her boyfriend Heath, who are all big Hawthorn supporters. Thankfully the rain we experienced on our way to the MCG stopped an hour before the game began- although we would have been fine either way since we had seats undercover. The game started out well for Essendon and we had the lead at first quarter time. However, just like last week's game against Collingwood, we lost our lead and got soundly beaten by the Hawks. Lance "Buddy" Franklin kicked 9 goals for Hawthorn, which is just inexcusable. I don't know what has happened to the Bombers in the last few weeks, but they are playing like they did last year which is not a good thing. Hopefully they can turn it around and cut down on all the mistakes otherwise it will be a long season.

Final Score
Essendon: 15.6 (96)
Hawthorn: 20.11 (131)