But the day that I cease from my labor then the devil has won, Until that day I won’t be holding my tongue.

The title today is taken from Devil In Me from the album Watch Me Disappear (for all of the very publicly voiced dissatisfaction from some of the band and a lot of fans about the production on this album I do think a number of these songs will still be very listenable in five, ten, fifteen years time – yep I guess I just put a great big bullseye on myself – let the arrows start flying!!)

One of the things that has always drawn me to the band apart from the music of course is that they do not always say and do what would be conventionally expected of them. I imagine they can be a publicists nightmare at times however this results in interviews and gigs that expose their innermost thoughts and feelings, and to me this is a good thing.

For example, I think I can understand Glenn’s exasperation at yet another person screaming loudly for One Crowded Hour when he and the band have just played one of their beautifully crafted songs from their earlier albums or ep’s with minimal response from the audience….. but anyway I digress.

This is the belated write up for the second Hobart gig at Moorilla Estate on 8 August 2009. This was one of my favourite gigs this tour and I wanted to wait until I had the time to do this gig justice (damn that sounds pretentious but you know what I mean….I didn’t want to have to rush it)

Firstly though I have to say that I stayed at the most fabulous place. It was a motel literally ten minutes walk from Moorilla Estate and from my bed I looked out onto this view of the Derwent

and I was woken in the morning by this (and it’s friends) outside my door

my alarm clock

I went for a walk on the saturday and was caught in the rain walking back to the motel and my already pretty good day (I love the rain, even when I am caught in it without an umbrella) became perfect when I got to see a divine rainbow. Tasmania is such a scenic place.

My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky......

Okay enough of my holiday snaps…onto the gig…

Once again I was at a beautiful venue to see Augie March play and like the night before, people got there early to nab the comfy cushions and couches. I think it’s the big floor cushions scattered around the place that make it such a laid back venue.

Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe came onstage just after 8pm and played their 45 minute set. (Mike Noga was in the audience). Both Gareth and Dan were having a lot of fun on stage tonight. On stage Dan and Gareth seem so connected with Dan watching Gareth intently and seeming to take a lot of cues from him.

Gareth’s vocals during The Drifting Housewife were dripping with emotion and intensity. These two have been putting on amazing shows as the support and even when they seem a little ‘tired and emotional’ they still are fantastic.

Gareth Liddiard

Dan Luscombe - as he watches Gaz

The crowd once again were a bit frustrating, lots of talking during their set but overall they were more polite than the audience the night before.

Similar to the friday show, much of the audience was sitting on the floor in front of the stage before the band came on.

They were sitting much closer to the stage for tonight’s gig rather than leaving the big space in front of the stage as had happened the night before.

Augie March came on at 9.30pm and I was disappointed to note that the crowd remained sitting.

I have mentioned this before no doubt but I am loving how Hole In Your Roof as the opener morphs into Drowning Dream. Both songs sounded fantastic.

Ed

Gareth came out and sat right in front of the stage, in between Adam and Glenn’s line of sight and he and Mike Noga proceeded to heckle and attempt to distract those two as much as possible.

Adam (be quiet Gaz)

It was fun to watch and everyone had a laugh when Glenn spat out his drink over the two of them after Brundisium. Which by the way was earth shatteringly good tonight. The ending was superb and Dave in particular really helped to add power and drive to what is such a great song.

Glenn and Adam trying to ignore Gaz (without success)

Unfortunately there was a moment of extreme distress for me during Pennywhistle and I fear I may never recover from the trauma of this experience. I was (as usual) at the front of the stage balancing my notebook in one hand (since I have a memory like a sieve) and my camera in the other and I found that if I bent to the left while balancing on one leg and slightly crouching I could actually get some photos of Dave when he wasn’t hidden by his mic. I was lining up what I am pretty sure would have been an award winning photograph of him when my camera went blurry. I gave it a bit of a shake and then looked up to see a shoe (attached to a foot) being waved in front of the lens and Glenn looking down at me and grinning. I will see you in court Mr Richards!!!!

the right shoe is the culprit!!

Glenorchy Bunyip was another song that was belted out by the band and Matt Habben. Once again the band didn’t let us down with entertaining banter.

Glenn – we haven’t played this much as it is hard.
Dave – some things have to be hard to do it…… like penises

Dogsday sounded interesting ….. Glenn told us at the end of this song that Donno was playing in the wrong key and he deliberately kept going.

Dave during Dogsday

The acoustic Train with Glenn and Kiernan was able to reduce most of the crowd to silence which was wonderful.

Glenn and Kiernan during Traiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin (acoustic)

There were a number of comments from both bands during the night about having had a big night on friday and being hung over and I think this added to the relaxed feel coming from the stage. This was possibly also helped by gold such as Ed being late on stage for There Is No Such Place and apologising profusely when he did arrive for going into the ladies toilet by mistake.

Dave

Glenn’s introduction to Mothball was met with silence from the audience and when I belatedly started applauding (after having put down my camera and notebook) he thanked me.

Matt and Ken from the Arnold Horns during Train (whole band)

The mood during this gig was lighter and even though the audience feedback, especially during many of the older songs, was quite subdued it felt as if the band were having a good time on stage.

Glenn

This was an absolutely fantastic show

Moorilla Estate photos Augie March gig 7 Aug 09

Well these are only slightly overdue – oops sorry about that.

Kiernan

Glenn and Adam

Matt Habben - Arnold Horns

Ken Gardner - Arnold Horns

Ed

Adam

Glenn

Kiernan

Glenn

Dave

Augie March setlist 27 August 2009 Ballarat Karova Lounge

blah I hate getting lost ….. a word of advice, never trust a gps!!!!!

Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe’s set
1. cold and sober
2. oh my
3. the drifting housewife
4. shark fin blues
5. locusts
6. your acting’s like the end of the world
7. jezabel

Augie March
start 10pm
1. Hole In Your Roof which morphed into
2. Drowning Dream with Ken Gardner and Matt Habben (The Arnold Horns)
3. Maroondah Reservoir
4. Pennywhistle with the Arnold Horns (Ken, Matt and Adam Hutterer)
5. Farmers Son with the Arnold Horns
6. The Vineyard
7. Glenorchy Bunyip with the Arnold Horns
8. Cold Acre with the Arnold Horns
9. Little Wonder with the Arnold Horns
10. Mothball with the Arnold Horns
11. Something At The Bottom Of The Blackpool
12. Dogsday
13. There Is No Such Place with the Arnold Horns
14. One Crowded Hour with the Arnold Horns
15. Train with the Arnold Horns

finish 11.20pm
11.30pm encore
16. The Slant
17. Clockwork with the Arnold Horns

I absolutely promise I will do this write up and the second Tassie gig by Saturday.

hmmmm I believe I will be the person asleep at my desk in the morning (I really am getting too old for this ha ha)

setlist Perth Augie March show 21 Aug 2009

Yep I know, I still have to write up the second Hobart gig from a few weeks ago (has it been that long already???) Until I have more time to write that one up I will have to suffice with a quick run down of the second Perth show which is the only one I went to over there.

Dan and Gareth – they stick to the same songs for their sets but it is always a good show. I think Gareth set a new record for how far he can spit while singing during Jezabel.

The crowd was already crowded up against the front of the stage before Augie March came on which was good to see. I feel it is so much nicer than having a crowd who is standing so far back from the stage that it seems as if the act is performing to a small empty section right in front of them.

1. Hole In Your Roof
2. Drowning Dream with the Arnold Horns (Ken Gardner and Adam Hutterer)
3. Maroondah Reservoir with the Arnold Horns
4. Penny whistle with the Arnold Horns
5. Farmers Son with the Arnold Horns – Donno played the mandolin
6. The Vineyard
7. Glenorchy Bunyip
8. Cold Acre with the Arnold Horns
9. The Mothball with the Arnold Horns (loud cheer from the crowd when this started)
10. There’s Something At The Bottom Of The Blackpool with the Arnold Horns
11.Brundisium with the Arnold Horns ….now this is what I came to see. This was played with passion and energy
12.Dogsday
13. There Is No Such Place with the Arnold Horns The crowd sang along
14. One Crowded Hour with the Arnold Horns
15. Train with the Arnold Horns

Encore
16. The Slant
17. Owens Lament – Adam’s playing was particularly beautiful during this song
18. Clockwork

I so don’t know what to write about this gig. I felt as if there was something missing but am not sure what it was…..passion, desire, energy?? To me many of the songs sounded quite pedestrian and the sound issues didn’t help. I am thankful that I have seen some amazing shows by the band when they really are putting their heart and soul into the performance and I just feel that this was not one of those nights.

I will say though that an ordinary Augie March is still pretty damn special.

And may I also add that this is entirely my personal opinion only, other people I spoke to thought the gig was great. (insert smiley face here)

setlist Castlemaine 14.8.09

I didn’t get to see this gig so thank you very much to the friend who sent me in the setlist

HIYR (AH)
Drowning Dream (AH)
Blackpool (AH)
Brundisium (AH)
Pennywhistle (AH)
Glenorchy Bunyip (Adam on pedal Steel)
Vineyard
Dogsday
Slant
Train (Adam Pedal Steel)
No Such Place (AH)
Mothball (AH)
OCH (AH)
Owens

Encore

Bottle Baby (Solo w/- Adam)
The Night Is A Blackbird
Clockwork (AH)

setlist Saturday 8th August 2009, Hobart Moorilla Estate

1. Hole In Your Roof
2. Drowning Dream (with Matt Habben and Ken Gardner from the Arnold Horns)
3. There’s something At The Bottom Of The Blackpool
4. Brundisium with The Arnold Horns
5. Pennywhistle with The Arnold Horns
6. Glenorchy Bunyip with Matt Habben
7. The Vineyard
8. Dogsday
9. The Slant
10. Train – acoustic version
11. There Is No Such Place with The Arnold Horns
12. The Mothball with The Arnold Horns
13. One Crowded Hour with The Arnold Horns

Encore

14. Owens Lament
15. Train (crowd go wild jumping up and daown dancing version yay) with The Arnold Horns

Bottle Baby and Clockwork were on the setlist but not played

will add the write up (which will be a fun one to do) and photos later

Rattle rattle, face to the battle Set your jaw for the hour of the war

for Sam

Oh no I am so behind on blogging, I apologise (yes, again) for the delay in writing up the latest gigs I went to – which were the Hobart ones.

The title of this blog is a line from the song – None Shall Pass from the Waltz ep. This write up is about the Hobart show at Moorilla estate on friday 7th August 2009.

The venue was absolutely divine ( the sound for both gigs was superb) but oh my, some of the people in the audience talked constantly and loudly not only through the entire support by Dan and Gareth but also through much of the Augie’s set. I just don’t know how someone can keep playing when they are faced with such blatant disinterest. Thankfully these people are usually in the minority.

ok now that I have done my feather ruffling on to the gig itself.

Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe did their 45 minute support slot. At this show they seemed almost understated compared with other shows, less energy and almost no banter in between songs. I wondered if it was because of the people having their own very loud conversations during their spot which could be heard from the front of the stage. Fortunately even when not seeming to be at their best they can still put on a good show.

Augie March came on stage at 9.30pm and launched straight into The Slant. I really liked that as an opener. A lot of people in the front half of the venue had been sitting on the floor while Gareth and Dan were playing but I had expected them to stand up for Augie March but they didn’t. Maybe the floor was comfier.

The set list is in the previous blog so I will just pick out some songs to comment on. Hole In Your Roof sounded glorious, the intro is just fantastic and it was helped along by excellent acoustics in the room (well from the front at any rate).

Hole transitioned into the third song of the night The Drowning Dream rather than there being an obvious finish and start of the next song which was great.

There were only two members of The Arnold Horns in Hobart, Matt Habben and Ken Gardner and as always they sounded excellent.

Kiernan’s playing on Drowning Dream was particularly beautiful and again the backing vocals were just sounding lush.

It was Penny Whistle that finally coaxed some people up the front to dance which was fun to watch. Unfortunately they drifted away after that song and it was back to a mostly seated audience. I felt quite self conscious standing up at the front of the stage however I just can’t fathom going to see them and sitting down the whole time – even at the gigs I have seen of theirs at Kings Park in WA I have always had to at some stage go and have a dance in the dancing section of the park.

Brundisuim was one of the bet songs of the night for me. Glenn’s vocals (I love you like I love my own skin), the thumping bass line, Dave’s energy on the drums ….. just inspiring to listen to live.

Just before they started Dogsday there was a very drunk woman yelling for One Crowded Hour to be played. I did like Glenn’s look of frustration and “Come on, there are other songs love”. This resulted in some to’ing and fro’ing between her and Glenn with Dave getting out from behind his drum kit to join in.

The acoustic Here Comes The Night with Glenn and Kiernan was divine as well. Of course the quality of the mix that night and the venue acoustics just made what is already a beautiful version of this song sound even better. Glenn’s voice was so clear and sounding very strong – this line always slays me when he sings it well and he did so at this gig – “So let it come, let it rain,
Let it burn though you and me again“

Glenn and Kiernan also played the acoustic Train and I am always left in a dilemma when I hear either this or the high energy crowd goes wild version as they are each so fantastic to hear and polar opposites in style, why can’t they play both at gigs (ha ha someone must have heard my thoughts …. see setlist for the saturday show next)

It was a lovely surprise to hear Asleep In Perfection and the band and the crowd had a bit of a laugh when they played One Crowded Hour and noticed that the woman who had been yelling out for it was nowhere to be found (she was last seen a song or two earlier being half carried out of the venue by a friend).

And again Clockwork was sounding fantastic and was a great way to end the gig. Owens Lament was the only song from the set list that wasn’t played.

As mentioned earlier I really liked hearing The Slant as the first song and I wouldn’t mind hearing One Crowded Hour played early in the set so that those who really want to hear it can get their thrills early and then chill out a bit for the rest of the show. Glenn is continuing to take missed words and chords in his stride this tour and the banter on stage adds to the enjoyment of these gigs. It really is nice to see the band enjoying themselves.

I have some photos which I will upload when I have some time.

setlist Hobart 7 August 2009

Not on my computer so I will do a full write up of this gig and tonight’s one when I get back home.

Band came on stage at 9.30pm

1. The Slant
2. Hole In Your Roof
3. Drowning Dream with two Arnold Horns (Ken Gardner and Matt Habben were the two who joined the band last night)
4. Penny Whistle with AH
5. Farmers Son with AH
6. The Vineyard
7. There’s Something At The Bottom Of The Blackpool
8.Brundisium with AH
9. Dogsday
10. Here Comes The Night (acoustic -Glenn and Kiernan)
11. Train (acoustic version – Glenn and Kiernan on harmonica)
12. There Is No Such Place with AH
13. Asleep In Perfection
14.The Keepa with AH
15. One Crowded Hour

Encore
16. The Night Is A Blackbird
17. Clockwork

finished 11pm

Well didn’t anybody teach you? (review of the Canberra gig 18.7.09)

The title of this blog about the Canberra show is from another song I never thought I would get to hear live – Century Son from the ep Thanks For The Memes and I chose that line for a number of reasons. I am thankful to have been to a number of Augie March gigs over the years and yet even knowing as I do from experience that this band can sometimes force an audience to go along on a mesmerising and charged musical journey with them I was totally unprepared for that to happen in Canberra. This show stands out as one of the best Augie gigs I have been to, probably second only to the WASO performance in Perth a few years ago. (The other thing I hadn’t been prepared for was that when Canberra is cold, it is REALLY cold).

After eventually finding the ANU bar buried somewhere inside the huge campus we found that there had been two different advertised opening times so there was going to be an extra half hour wait….. brrrrrrrrrrr. There was a large line by the time the doors opened and I was glad to get inside.

The venue was long and narrow with pool tables and some chairs as you enter, then the bar and a carpeted area and finally the dance floor and stage.

The tone for the night was set I think when Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe were about to launch into their first song of the set called Cold and Sober and Gareth said “I am one of these!”. Something tells me there is a lot of fun back stage while these two are on two with the band.

They have been getting a great reaction and reviews about their support slots for Augie March and they deserve the praise as Gareth and Dan captivated the crowd with their performance.

Gareth Liddiard

Gareth growls out the lyrics and dares you not to listen, his stage presence electric. Dan seems …. self-contained yet the emotion that comes out of his playing is fascinating to watch and hear. Even though there is minimal movement on stage from these two while they are performing it is very hard to take your eyes off them.

Dan Luscombe

Gareth and Dan played for their customary 45 minutes and once again left the audience wanting more. During the break while the stage was being rearranged it was quite funny to see Glenn’s microphone being wiped down by a cloth with Glen 20 (antiseptic spray). The roadie said this was because of swine flu.

Glenn at the beginning of the gig - he started out serious

it’s nice to see the return of the hand written set list though I wonder if this means Glenn has been sacked as the set list typer because of complaints that the font he used was too small to read.

Glenn - but it didn't last for long. Good humour and laughter was the order of the night

Ed looks like he is going to be pretty much in line with Dave with the Arnold Horns in front of him so he is once more at the back of the stage.

Augie March started at 10pm and as I have listed the songs previously I will just talk a little about some of the stand outs for me.

Kiernan

Hole In Your Roof is sounding excellent live, I am loving the intro and the part where Dave joins in – just stunning. Dave and Ed seemed to have fun during this song, at one stage they both had big grins on their faces.

The sound took a while to get sorted out but by the end of the night it was miles better than at the start. Initially Kiernan’s keyboards were lost in the mix which was a disappointment.

The band seemed very relaxed tonight. Lots of comments about how cold they were and Ed was talking from the beginning of the show, joining in with Glenn and Dave’s repartee. Even Adam was adding bits into the conversation so it was quite chatty onstage. There was a lot of camaraderie tonight onstage and the band had an energy that had been missing from their earlier shows that I had seen for this tour.

Glenn (glad to see I wasn't the only one with my thermals on!!)

Adam’s guitar was a highlight for me during Maroondah Reservoir and this then lead into what was one of the best songs of the night – Just Passing Through. Myself and my dancing partner in crime Ben were able to go wild during this song – it sounded magnificent and the energy was infectious.

Glenn very kindly read my note to him aloud just before they played Brundisium but alas it wasn’t enough to get them to play The Offer. (I possibly tried to guilt trip him by letting him know it was -2 degrees when I arrived in Canberra that morning, instead of thinking about the song Ed and Dave side-tracked him into thinking about types of offers etc …….oh well, I still have a couple of shows in which to hear it). Thank you for taking it in good humour Glenn – of course I wasn’t really trying to emotionally black mail you to play The Offer as that would be wrong, very wrong.

Adam

Quite a few of the audience seemed to recognise the older songs fairly early into the songs which was nice to see and there definitely was a lot of applause at the end for these songs which was wonderful after some (to me) disappointing non-reactions at the early shows for this tour.

Brundisium as always was a wild cacophony of sound and shambolic-ness and the ending was amazing. Having the Arnold Horns play on this song is fantastic. (By this time I was finally starting to be able to feel my fingers and toes- have I mentioned how cold Canberra was????).

Kiernan’s playing was beautiful during The Mothball and Glenn’s voice shone in the spotlight, especially during the high parts of this song. His voice is holding up really well for this tour and I know I have said it before but he really does sound better than he has in a couple of years. Some of these songs would definitely be stretching him vocally yet he is holding the notes and hitting the high notes without too much cracking (ha ha listen to me, sounding like I know what I am talking about). I wonder if he is doing anything differently to look after his voice and strengthen it?

Ed

And then it happened………… some more banter on stage, a chance for the audience to shout out more requests, of course we screamed/begged for Century Son amongst others and Glenn as always was saying nope, no way, never etc and Ed started playing the bass line. Hmmmm and then there was a bit of wavering from Glenn as he fiddled with his guitar, oh no, I couldn’t, I can’t remember how my guitar was tuned for this, we couldn’t possibly…..and Ed continued and Adam and Dave joined in softly…and finally Glenn said, well I won’t be able to play guitar, I’ll just have to sing….and the crowd went into paroxysms of delight as the band launched into a mad version of Century Son. Kiernan sat this song out as it was before his time.

At the end of the song I caught Ed’s eye and put my hands together in supplication to thank him for starting the bass line and helping the crowd convince Glen to finally play this song on stage and he had a huge grin on his face and gave me two thumbs up. I guess it must be just as exciting for the band to play some of these songs that haven’t been heard for years.

Adam and Kiernan having a private joke during a song

What was even more brilliant about this song was that a lot of the audience sang along to it. After this Adam and Ed in the mood for some of these sensational but never played songs teased us with a few seconds of Rockets On The Esplanade.

There was a mis-start with One Crowded Hour and while Glenn retuned his guitar the rest of the band and the Arnold Horns played some tuning up music which had the crowd cheering along.

The intro of The Slant was particularly beautiful as were the vocals during There Is No Such Place. Even better, the audience was quiet during these songs.

Adam (during The Slant)

Ed was doing something with his guitar while the rest of the band were waiting to start and after a few comments made by others be looked up and said ‘just fucking start the fucking song’ – thankfully he had a grin on his face as he said it and the band opened yet another brilliant version of Owen’s Lament.

Ed

The final song was Clockwork which is sounding sensational. This has really been missed by me as it sounds so brilliant live. The band finished just before 11.30pm and I was surprised to see the bar already shut for the night. Wow people make fast exits in Canberra.

Glenn

As mentioned at the start of this blog this was one of the best shows I have seen by Augie March notably because of how relaxed the band were on stage, the very funny banter not just between Glenn and Dave but also from Adam and Ed and most importantly, because we were treated to an awesome version of Century Son. Even though it wasn’t planned nor rehearsed it sounded loud, angry, energetic and it was played with passion. And for me as a fan, that passion is the ultimate gift to receive at a gig.

The Canberra people were very cool and a big thank you to Ben who as mentioned before was dancing next to me for much of the night.

The Canberra gig was brought to you by the words energy, passion and enjoyment!!!!

Photos from Sydney 17.7.09 by Stickwriter

You can see the rest of Stickwriter’s photos here – they are fantastic Niki

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nniki/tags/augiemarch/

Gareth Liddiard

Dan Luscombe

The Arnold Horns l - r Matt Habben, Ken Gardner aka Dave Grohl, Adam Hutterer

Glenn Richards

Dave Williams (stunning photo Niki)

Adam Donovan

Edmondo Ammendola