The Frowning Clouds- Melbourne Music Festival

After work today I headed down to City Square on Swanston Street to see The Frowning Clouds play a free show as part of the Melbourne Music festival.  The festival is running from 29 September - 10 October and provides the opportunity to see acts from different musical genres at various venues around the city (and mostly for free).  It is a true showcase of what the Melbourne music scene has to offer.

It has been a while since I've seen the The Frowning Clouds play live, and their set was filled with songs from their debut album Listen Closelier, which I finally managed to pick up a copy of after the show.  Highlights of the set were "Purple Heart," "Snake Charmer," and "I Saw You."  It was fun to see a band playing outside in the middle of the city with people and trams going by in the background.

The Boroughs

Yesterday Tash and I attended The Boroughs, which organisers said would be "a celebration of the culture, street art and music of New York." Originally scheduled to be at a warehouse on La Trobe Street, the venue was changed to Shed 4 in Docklands. Wilfred Jackal was finishing up their set when we arrived. Both Tash and I were a bit confused as we walked in. First problem was that they were only using part of the Shed, which didn't really make much sense. Their attempt at making it "New York" was to have some opened shipping containers around the floor, graffiti artists painting a wall (they were amateurs compared to a lot of the graffiti you see around Melbourne), some really bad attempts at performance art, and a small skate ramp for the skaters. It was a total fail.

Music-wise the bands really had nothing to do with New York either, but there was a good mix of different styles. The sound in the Shed was horrendous though, which was really apparent for the bands we have seen live before. I wouldn't mind hearing The Hello Morning in an intimate venue as their alt-country sound was so muddy in the venue. The Frowning Clouds played with a lot of energy and had a group of people dancing at the front of the stage. Bachelor of Arts was probably the closest to a New York sounding band, and Hot Little Hands played a good set of indie rock.

Miami Horror had everyone dancing and their single "Sometimes" got a big reaction from the crowd. Up next was Yves Klein Blue, who were fantastic as always. It was great to hear "Getting Wise," "Polka," and "Digital Love." The final act of the evening was Bertie Blackman, who was dressed in a monk's robe for most of the night. In her hour-long set she played the one song I know of hers, "Byrds of Prey," as well as covers of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" and a Fleetwood Mac song. The funniest part of her set though was watching the Frowning Clouds boys with supersoakers running around side of stage and spraying the audience.

Hungry Kids of Hungary: Let You Down Easy Tour

Last night Tash and I headed over to The East Brunswick Club for the last show of Hungry Kids of Hungary's Let You Down Easy tour. The first band on for the evening was Alpine (formerly named Swiss), who had two female lead singers and played a kind of electro/guitar mix of music. The girls had decorative glitter on their faces and would both sing the lyrics at the same time. They are probably a fairly new band, but have potential.

Next up was one of my favorite local bands The Frowning Clouds. It was so good to see these Geelong lads again in their 60s mod clothes (the guitarist even had a burgundy cape on for the first song). Zak and Nick split vocal duties throughout the set. My favorites were "Lovin' You," "Time Wastin' Woman," "Tiger Heart" and "That Kinda Girl." By the end of their set there were a group of people dancing at the front of the stage.

Hungry Kids of Hungary then took to the darkened, smoky stage which had balloons tied around the drum riser. The set was a mix of old songs and new ones they are working on for their upcoming album. Highlights for me were "Set It Right," "Two Stones," "Scattered Diamonds," "Old Money," and the new single "Let You Down." The harmonies were on fire all evening and they did a good job dealing with portions of the crowd that both Tash and I felt were completely obnoxious at times. The surprise song of the night was a cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" which had a bunch of people up on the stage dancing with the band. They came back out for a quick one song encore of "Good Times" and then the show was over.

Here's the brand new video for "Let You Down"

Oh Mercy and The Frowning Clouds

Tonight Tash and I headed up to the Northcote Social Club for the second week of Oh Mercy's residency. After we finished our dinner we headed inside the band room for the second opening act of the evening, The Frowning Clouds. This young band from Geelong is one that I have been wanting to see live for a while now. They played their own songs, which are inspired by early 60's garage rock, and a couple covers as well. They had the whole look down- shaggy hair, skinny pants, ankle boots. Thankfully they also have the musical talent to not just be an early Rolling Stones rip-off. Definitely a band to watch.

It was great to see Oh Mercy again as it had been a while since I last saw them play. They have a new drummer who just joined the band recently. Most of the songs were new ones, a few I recognized from previous gigs, and they played my favorites "Salvation Jane" and "Seemed Like A Good Idea." Eliza was having trouble with her bass lead and Alex was having issues tuning his guitar but overall it was an entertaining set. Alex is such a great storyteller that I could listen to him sing all night. I am eagerly awaiting the appearance of their debut album (whenever it may be released). I also must commend the band for actually finishing at a decent hour, i.e. while the trams are still running.