Posts Tagged ‘ i heart hiroshima ’

I Heart Hiroshima @ Alhambra Lounge

January 28th, 2013

 | no comments

I Heart Hiroshima. Shooting details: 1/200s, f/2.0, ISO1600.

Date: January 22, 2013
Venue: Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane
Acts: I Heart Hiroshima

Drummer Susie Patten warns those in the front that she may barf over her kit by the end of the night. She’s not drunk though. It’s nerves, she explains. It shows early on. Cameron Hawes strikes some bum notes on Listen; Patten’s vocals disappear into the ether at one point; Neutron Popsong never quite ignites properly. To me, pre-hiatus I Heart Hiroshima instrumentation never really was ragged, although, live, the trio often worked their butts off to deliver an edge-of-chaos impression.

This feels like the enthusiastic but messy flipside.

Not that the surprisingly (because it’s a “school night”) solid Alhambra crowd gives a damn. They’re overjoyed to have IHH on stage, and cheerfully indulge the three-piece time to find its feet.

It doesn’t take long to right the ship. Maybe it’s the slowdown of pace for River, but Hawes really nails that sequence of notes. They follow up with a great rendition of Old Tree (Somers: we’ve only played this live twice), then a couple of songs later Patten is prefacing Lungs (from memory) with a graphic tale about a long-ago Hip Hop night at The Zoo and an accident involving a vomiting drunk bloke and an industrial fan that led to Jaegerbombs being banned from the venue.

The nerves have evaporated.

The front rows are dancing along joyously and when Patten deliberately omits her chorus lines during Punks, the crowd instinctively fills the gap. The band is stoked. Ocean and Stop That follow, Patten wrestling with a kit that, by this point, is falling apart every 30 seconds. Yet, when the vocal mic falls out of its stand, she simply winds the lead round her neck and sings on with the mic nestled into her shoulder. Somers breaks not one, but two strings. They forge on. It’s hardly studio-perfect. But it is messily perfect. And that’s plenty fine.

I Heart Hiroshima @ The Powerhouse

January 26th, 2012

, , ,  | no comments

Date: November 30, 2008
Venue: The Powerhouse, Brisbane
Acts:  I Heart Hiroshima, Lloyd & Michael, Woelv, Narwhals

I’d been shooting gigs for a bare 18 months when I went to this free Sunday afternoon show at the Powerhouse. And though I didn’t take a lot of shots of headliner I Heart Hiroshima, it proved a rare occasion when everything aligned photographically.

There’s light aplenty, allowing me to shoot at an unprecedented (for gigging, anyway) ISO400. Someone has hauled in a smoke machine, so those self-same lights create a visually stunning background of writhing blue, red and purple. And, because it’s I Heart Hiroshima, drummer Susie Patten is there pulling all sorts of faces and poses, and generally being a shooter’s dream subject.

Of the 68 shots of IHH, 27 prove to be keepers. I’ve never had such a good hit rate at a gig — before or since. The performance itself is ace, but rather than taking my word for it, watch this recording of Shakey Town on Youtube.

Read more

I Heart Hiroshima @ Ric’s Bar

April 21st, 2011

,  | no comments

Date: April 24, 2009
Venue: Ric’s Bar, Brisbane
Acts: I Heart Hiroshima, Dick Nasty

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve seen I Heart Hiroshima. They’re probably sitting alongside fellow Brisbanites Violent Soho as my most seen band of the last few years.

Part of the reason is the expressiveness of Susie Patten’s drumming — beautiful to watch and a delight to photograph. But it wouldn’t count for squat if they didn’t craft bloody good songs as well. Jagged, ragged pop-punk with just enough harmonic sweetness to make it J-friendly. No, that’s not a dig. More of a recognition of how well they straddle the line.

Tonight (with a little help from the ever-angry-sounding guys from Dick Nasty) they’re finishing their three-week Ric’s residency — a final preparation before they invade Europe to do some support slots for The Rakes … and then a few headlining shows of their own. If you live over that way, check them out. Read more

Frankly! @ Brisbane Powerhouse

September 14th, 2009

, , ,  | 2 Comments

Date: September 12, 2009
Venue: Brisbane Powerhouse
Acts: Peaches, I Heart Hiroshima, Tenniscoats

Maybe it’s the pricey tickets. Maybe it’s the slightly outre nature of the acts on offer. Either way, the black, marine-ply main floor and upper-level balconies of the Turbine Room have a lot of empty spaces as Room 40’s Frankly! mini-festival kicks off. For the adventurous few, the mish-mash line-up offers gems: the cutely twee guitar pop and cheesey flash animations of Hong Kong-based The Pancakes disarms the crowd; the oh-so-earnest Jamie Stewart pulls fans of Xiu Xiu in close to coo over every electronic blib, strangled guitar chord and moaned note.

Tenniscoats‘ husband-and-wife duo recently wowed all with their transcendental folk-minimalism on the top floor of this very venue. I doubted they could better that gig. I was wrong. With the aid of fellow-countrywoman Nikaido Kazumi, Saya and Ueno Takashi turn their sights from their usual melange of poignant Gymnopedie-styled ambience to a more whimsical world of bright echoing guitar notes and playful layers of soprano glossolalia. In some ways, it’s a paradoxical performance — one moment all serious faces and concentration, the next full of child-like joy and impish bunny hops. Should avante acts involve getting down among the crowd like you’re a Wiggles performer and getting everyone to wave their arms back and forth We Are The World-style? When it’s this beautiful and this much fun, who cares?

Read more

I Heart Hiroshima @ The Zoo

August 10th, 2009

, , ,  | no comments

Date: August 7, 2009
Venue: The Zoo, Brisbane
Artists: I Heart Hiroshima, DZ, Stemford Hiss, Seja Vogel

A difficult night not so much due to the quality of performance from the artists as general exhaustion taking its toll — and the inferior quality of some of these photos probably bears this out.

Seja Vogel is really upbeat and fantastic in Sekiden. So, why a stilted, awkward performance that comes across like she’s tooling in her bedroom?  Maybe she’s aiming for raw and unpolished, but unfortunately, the dirge-like drone of keyboards loops and drum machine comes across more of the order of unrehearsed. Stemford Hiss follow with Church-like atmospherics but sans the presence of someone a Steve Kilbey figure. DZ then blow the cobwebs away with jack-booted efficiency. I’d previously heard their impressive tune The Mess Up via the wonderful Brisbane Sounds compilation, but it simply didn’t prepare me for their sonic brutality.  Wave after wave of thick, chunky chords force-fed to the audience at ultra-high high volume. A revelation.

This leaves I Heart Hiroshima a bit of a mountain to climb, but they seem tight and not-at-all jaded after flogging their wares around Europe the last couple of months. The new stuff has bedded down well — I’m really liking Shakeytown now — and it sits well alongside the older material. Their rendition of The Chills’ Pink Frost is tops. They ought to drop Red Hands from the repertoire though — I think it’s a bit slow, one-paced and not particularly inventive. But, by this time, I’m simply exhausted and even though crowd and band are still going at it hammer and tongs, I head home early.