In our new weekly series, Josh Murphy of killer Brisbane rock bands Flangipanis and Bottlecock shares the six shows that destroyed his mind, shook him to his core, were “pure batshit gold” … gigs where guitars were thrown, walls were broken and blood was spilled. Check out Richard from HITS’ six gigs here.
JOSH’S DISCLAIMER: “These are not necessarily the best six shows/bands I’ve ever seen. I’m lucky enough to play with awesome bands I love week in and week out so to try and pick favourite shows would be an impossible task. These are shows that made me properly stop and think about music, as a punter and/or performer.”
1. Guitar Wolf – Ramones-a-thon @ The Columbian (2006)
“Pure batshit gold. Rockstar wank is generally one of my least favourite things to see on stage, but Guitar Wolf pull off the swagger with such aplomb you can’t help but love it. Half the songs you couldn’t tell where the songs started and the pre-song feedback/posturing ended and it didn’t fucking matter. Also Guitar Wolf spat and it hit me in the face, so a top night all round. Special mention to also being the night I finally saw Mach Pelican live, if Guitar Wolf hadn’t played this segment would be about them.”
2. Gogol Bordello @ The Hifi, Brisbane (2010)
“It was Good Friday so the crowd was an odd mix of sober/park drunk. I was a little worried how it’d go, the venue had a habit of sucking the life out of bands and their sound. But Gogol went absolutely nuts, insane larger than life performers that felt like they were right in your face every second of the show, no matter where you were standing. It probably helps that they have 5 million different people on stage at any given time but it seemed like they never stopped moving and the second they’d seemed to settle suddenly things would explode in a whole different way. Pure manic genius.”
Bottlecock Interview on The Void AU: “Being A Male Musician Is Hard”
3. Custard @ Soundshell, Townsville (1998?)
“I was 12 and Girls Like That was big on JJJ, that was about all I knew going into the show. Fairly early on in their set I lost my responsible adult guide and quickly decided that if I was to be trampled by a crowd I may as well have a view while it happened so elbowed my way to the front. The band flew around the stage, hardly seeming to sit on the one instrument for more than whole song. There was one guy in the crowd who was intent on crowdsurfing and kept launching himself off the stage, even when the audience routinely parted to let him fall face first on the grass. My 12 year old mind was made up, music was the way to go.”
4. Useless Children @ The Waiting Room, Brisbane (2012)
“It felt as if the whole room itself was being twisted and mashed through the band’s effects chain and fed into some unholy feedback loop. The maelstrom of noise was confounding and beautiful, the energy on stage spectacular and it left my brain in the best sort of shock possible.”
5. The Nation Blue – Casadeldisco 10 Year Party @ The Tote (2012)
“I’d seen The Nation Blue before, I’d loved their music for years and here I was getting a chance to see them when I’d pretty much assumed they were never playing again … but there was a tiny nagging worry in the back of my head that maybe this show wouldn’t live up to expectations. Holy shit was I wrong. It kicked off with Tom playing the intro to Exile by hacking into his guitar with a knife and that was about the calmest moment of the whole show. Guitars were thrown, walls were broken, blood was spilled and The Nation Blue proved why they are one of Australia’s best bands.”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ The Tivoli, Brisbane (2013)
“Godspeed are almost a guilty pleasure these days when so many people like to use them as short hand for pretentious music nerdboy wankers, but luckily I am in fact a pretentious music nerdboy wanker so it’s all good. For a band with absolutely no stage presence/banter/inclination to even look in the general direction of the audience Godspeed still put on one of the best shows I’ve seen. As fantastic as the musicians were (that is to say, very f**king fantastic) I was lucky enough to be standing behind their projectionist as he mixed four different film projectors like some crazy spider throwing loops on and off projectors that he hardly seemed to look at as he was too busy queuing up the next piece of film. Anyway, Godspeed fucking ruled and made their massive set feel like no time at all, no mean feat given I’m normally a 20 minute set guy.”
Check out Josh’s music here:
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