By erikred, from the forums.
Got to the show just as the opening act finished up. Crowd grew to about 200, give or take, which made it nice and intimate; the Independent is not a huge space, and we were no more than twenty feet from stage. Oliver came on stage quiet-like; I think most of the crowd thought he was a roadie at first, but they quickly recognized him and gave him some welcoming cheer. They opened with a nice intro, including Harry playing the Darth Vader theme on his horn. And then they were off and running.
Bloody brilliant, that's what they were. They played a solid mix of old and new, with loads of variations and riffs. Their version of Paul Kelly's Dumb Things was pure Empire and a whole heap of fun.
Highlights: Rhythm, Protons, Neutrons, Electrons, The Car Song, and The Chariot.
My back is sore and my legs are killing me, and I had an incredible time.
Serious note on etiquette to fans who are going to the show: the boys have their sets worked out. They already know what they're going to play. You screaming Beanie at them is not going to somehow persuade them to play it. And when they take a moment to try to thank you all for coming out, give them the stage; when you get Felix frustrated enough that he finally says "Shut up!" you know you've gone too far. Felix, if you read these things, sorry about all that. The show rocked, and we can't wait to have you all back out in San Francisco.
It's been about five weeks since Two Shoes was launched, and it's been selling like hotcakes. After hitting number one in its launch week, and going gold in about a day, Two Shoes is proving to be a stayer, now at number number seven. It has also now been officially announced as a platinum-selling release, which means that at least 70,000 copies have been sold!
The boys are in the USA, and Ryan is keeping everyone up to date through his regular updates on the official site. We haven't heard anything in the forums from any of the USA gigs, so if you were there, come tell us what it was like!
The video clip for the next single, The Car Song, has been released. It's Harry and the band versus their sordid past in a fight to the death on the basketball court. It's their classiest clip yet, and you can watch it online at ABC Broadband: click on Rage and it's a few songs in (you can skip songs if you like).
http://www.wildflowerfestival.com/
Thanks to novasierra in the forums for this amusing review:
It was a good show, even if it started out all wrong. I was in the second row and all around me were teenage girls with tshirts and posters sceaming I love Ryan!!!! I was like what tha f? I heard of TCE from my brother and his friends in Sydney and didn't think they were that well know of especially in Texas. Well the band comes out, has problems with the sound for at least 15 minutes. The girls keep screaming for Ryan. One lady (Colleen) I think, came to front row with paper and pen and told her she could write a message to Ryan and she was like oh not that Ryan. We are all waiting for Ryan Cabrera. He's playing next, we've been waiting for him for since early this morning. Needless to say, Ryan Munro is embarrassed when the news comes. Then they start to play and while they are performing their songs, the "ryan cabrera" walks to the side of the stage and talks to some people and alll the girls start screaming and chanting and it was just awful. Its bad enough playing in a new country but to have an audience that completely looks away when you are in the middle of a number and screams for some other performer who isn't even playing yet is just completely rude! But never fear. The Cats came out on top in the end. Felix and Harry kept playing professionally and had a wonderful time up on the stage. Ollie was jamming as usual on the keyboards. Ryan and the rest of the gang just playing and they did it. They got that crowd into the music and enchanted them. There was a mosh pit that some guys started out back--they loved the music so much! The performance was excellent and I heard no complaints from anyone, not even the ryan screaming girls who finally shut up at the end of the concert. Thank god. They reached out to a lot of people. At the end of the concert I met up at the booth that was selling their cd's and there was several people rushing up there buying Two Shoes like crazy. The sad thing was everyone wanted more merchandise to buy but all they had brought was the one new cd. I thought will's finance did the merchandising. They could of sold a buttload of merchandise if they just would of had more stuff out there. I got to talk to their manager afterwards and she was pretty cool. Very down to earth and funny. Then I met up with some friends to see the end of Cheap Trick, which says a lot if I missed the first half of their set for an unknown band.
Thanks to ShariZan in the forums, there is now a review of the Thebartorn Theatre (Adelaide) gig in the gigography! Check it out:
Everything was bigger and better than the last tour. From what was a horrible day to one of the best nights of my life, which was also helped by the girls that were next to me during the show.
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Dot-info keeps on keeping on! We've just gone over 300 users, and 20,000 posts so far. That's fifty posts every day since the whole thing started! The post in question isn't quite so enthralling, but it's obvious that the forums are a fun place to be. What? You haven't seen the forums? Go now!
According to this press release, The Cat Empire will be playing the Glastonbury Festival this year. They'll be on the Lost Vagueness "Ballroom" stage, which describes itself as "The ultimate dancehall for live music and more, it’s the most maverick place there is." It looks like the Spiegeltent crossed with a rock and roll venue!
Spotted by BeN in the forums, Triple J are releasing a Like a Version compilation CD, made of tracks recorded live on the Mel in the Morning show. Each band recorded a live cover of a song of their choice. Here's the tracklisting:
Grinspoon – Drugs Don’t Work
The Pictures – Milkshake
Jebediah – Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Salmonella Dub – Get Up Stand Up
Speedstar – There is A Light That Never Goes Out
Little Birdy – These Boots Were Made For Walking
The Cat Empire – Hotel California
End Of Fashion – Quicksand
Bertie Blackman – Tyrone
Goodshirt – Gouge Away
Love Outside Andromeda – Andy Warhol
Darren Hanlon – Don’t Stop
Damien Rice – When Doves Cry
John Butler Trio – Message In A Bottle
Gorgeous – Little Suicides
Lazy Susan – Are You Old Enough
Betchadupa – Sweet Dreams
Starky – Show A Sign Of Life
Serena Ryder – Illegal Smile
Missy Higgins – Moses
Big Heavy Stuff – Hyperballad
Donovan Frankenreiter – Stay Young
Clare Bowditch – Hallelujah
The Cat Empire did a French version of Hotel California, called L'Hotel Californie, with lyrics translated and sung in French by Harry. It's on the On The Attack DVD, and the bonus CD that came with it, but if you like any of the other artists this might be a good disc to pick up!
Jambase is a big live music website in the US, and it has an article up talking about the upcoming American tour of The Cat Empire:
"We have heaps of people in the USA who have seen the band either in Australia or overseas" says frontman Harry Angus, "They've been e-mailing us non-stop to come to the States so we think it's about time we came over to get the party started!"
Lucky people!
The Cat Empire's USA tour is just around the corner, so I've put up all the dates I could find in the gigography. Take a look yourself - it's a pretty busy tour, lots of gigs right across the country. Some big venues, some small. They're playing in the same festival as Cheap Trick, and in the same venue as Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, and will be sure to be getting people up and jumping everywhere they go.
The Cat Empire are slated to tour the United States very soon, and news articles about them have started to pop up. There's one on Pollstar, who have succumbed to the usual Cat Empire effect:
After receiving a two-song demo at our office, it took less than a half hour for The Cat Empire to gain fans around our cubicles.
This will be the first real US tour for the band, and they're sure to win a whole new bunch of fans. Interestingly, the article also mentions that they are in the process of finding a label to distribute their albums in the States, which is a very big deal indeed.
Sumitted by _pip_:
Hello
Sol Y Sombra
Lullaby
Party Started
Protons Neutrons Electrons
In my Pocket
Miserere
The Chariot
How to Explain
Roxanne
Sly
Two Shoes
Contributed by ShariZan from the forums.
I was having a really crappy day, but all that would end soon enough. I arrived at Thebarton Theatre at approximately 6:40 – 6:45pm and a line had already begun for an 8:00pm show. There was a woman asking if anyone wanted to sell their ticket to a friend of her and one of a group of three teenage boys was trying to get a ticket as well, of which he was successful.
Doors opened at about 7:45 and the Custom Kings came on some time after 8:00pm. Their first few songs were pretty slow and so I wasn’t really it, but when they got into the faster stuff it was all good. Jamshid came out as a special guest scratching on one of the songs. 10 -15 minutes after they'd finished The Cat Empire came on.
The first song they played was the one that says “We got soul, soul, soul tonight”, which people in the forum have said is called Intro. I can’t remember the order that they played in but they did every song on Tow Shoes.
• Either Anthony or Carlos (because I don’t what his name is, he dance at the end of the Hello clip) came on stage to break dance with Jamshid and do his own solo thing. Then also came back to dance in Sly.
The show ran later than it did for the On the Attack concert, finishing at about 11:50pm. There were a lot more teenaged girls in the audience this year. But there were also a few older people who came to the show. Everything was bigger and better than the last tour. From what was a horrible day to one of the best nights of my life, which was also helped by the girls that were next to me during the show. Three of which fell in love with Kieran (we were front row horns side). I Didn't get any of your names but you rocked.
Still getting through a backlog of gig info, there are some details for October's Performance at Channel [V] HQ in Sydney that you might like to check out!