Music Vice’s gig guide for March 2010 with concert listings with our pick of shows in Australia, Canada/USA and the UK. These are the concerts we think you should check out – some of which you might find us at too!

Australia
A lot of great bands on tour in Oz this March, here’s who we recommend you see…

Like….Alaska
Like…Alaska from Newcastle, NSW are touring to coincide with the release of their ‘Insufficient Funds’ EP which drops on 15 March.

Like...Alaska 'Insufficient Funds' tour

MAR 12th THICK AS THIEVES, Melbourne w/ Wil Wagner
MAR 13th BIRMINGHAM HOTEL, Melbourne w/ Following Sea, Time Vampires,
Brainwaves
MAR 19th LASS O’GOWRIE, Newcastle
MAR 26th FAT LOUIES, Brisbane
MAR 27th SECRET VENUE, Brisbane *AA*
APRIL 10th SANDO HOTEL, Sydney w/ Lungs, Paper Arms

Emilie Autumn
18 Mar Metro Theatre NSW
19 Mar The Esplanade Hotel – Gershwin Room VIC
20 Mar The Zoo QLD

Converge
16 Mar Amplifier Bar WA
17 Mar Fowler’s Live SA
18 Mar The Corner Hotel VIC
19 Mar Manning Bar – Sydney University NSW
20 Mar The Hi-Fi QLD

Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal
Bluesfest Sideshows
31 Mar Hamer Hall – The Arts Centre VIC
1 Apr Enmore Theatre NSW

Melbourne Comedy Festival 2010: Tom Green
31 Mar Athenaeum Theatre VIC
1 Apr Athenaeum Theatre VIC
2 Apr Athenaeum Theatre VIC
3 Apr Athenaeum Theatre VIC
4 Apr Athenaeum Theatre VIC

The Big Pink
3 Mar Amplifier Bar WA
4 Mar The Hi-Fi VIC
7 Mar Metro Theatre NSW

Nashville Pussy (USA)
‘From Hell To Australia’ Tour
5 Mar Gaelic Theatre NSW
9 Mar The Esplanade Hotel – Gershwin Room VIC

Kid Sam
18 Mar Harp Hotel NSW
20 Mar Troubadour QLD
21 Mar Bon Amici Cafe QLD
24 Mar Hoey Moey NSW
26 Mar Cambridge Hotel NSW
27 Mar Annandale Hotel NSW
28 Mar The Front Café and Gallery ACT
2 Apr Northcote Social Club VIC
3 Apr Northcote Social Club VIC
8 Apr Karova Lounge VIC
9 Apr The Hotel Metropolitan SA

Franz Ferdinand
Australian Tour 2010

Franz Ferdinand on tour in Australia

3 Mar The Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
4 Mar Luna Park – Big Top, Sydney NSW
6 Mar Future Music Festival, Sydney, NSW
7 Mar Future Music Festival, Melbourne, VIC
8 Mar Future Music Festival, Adelaide, SA

Spinnerette
4 Mar The Zoo QLD
5 Mar Factory Theatre NSW
7 Mar The Corner Hotel VIC
9 Mar Amplifier Bar WA

The Dead Weather
19 Mar The Forum Theatre VIC
20 Mar The Forum Theatre VIC
23 Mar The Tivoli QLD
25 Mar ANU Bar ACT
26 Mar Enmore Theatre NSW
29 Mar Metro City WA

Dinosaur Jr
We caught Dinosaur Jr back in January during the Toronto date of their North American tour. Expect a similar performance of monstrously good proportions as J Mascis and co play dates down under this March>

4 March  Richmond, Australia Corner Hotel
5 March  Richmond, Australia Corner Hotel
6 March  Meredith, Australia Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre (Golden Plains Festival)
7 March Peak Crossing, Australia Ivory’s Rock Conference Centre (The Lost Weekend Festival)
10 March  Byron Bay, Australia Hotel Great Northern
11 March Sydney, Australia Virgin Mobile Metro Theatre
12 March Perth, Australia The Rosemount
13 March Adelaide, Australia Fowlers Live
14 March Berriedale, Australia Moorilla Estate

No Fun At All (Sweden) with the Flatliners (Canada) Australian Tour
11 Mar Amplifier Bar WA
12 Mar Fowler’s Live SA
13 Mar The Corner Hotel VIC
15 Mar Woodport Inn NSW
16 Mar Caringbah Bizzos NSW
17 Mar Cambridge Hotel NSW
18 Mar Wollongong UniBar NSW
19 Mar Gaelic Theatre NSW
20 Mar Club 299 QLD
21 Mar Surfers Paradise Tavern Beergarden QLD

Yves Klein Blue
‘About The Future’ Tour
5 Mar Hotel New York TAS
6 Mar Republic Bar & Cafe TAS
12 Mar Settlers Tavern WA
13 Mar Amplifier Bar WA
14 Mar Mojo’s Bar WA
17 Mar Karova Lounge VIC
18 Mar Barwon Club VIC
19 Mar The Corner Hotel VIC
20 Mar Adelaide UniBar SA
8 Apr Waves – Towradgi Beach Hotel NSW
9 Apr Mona Vale Hotel NSW
10 Apr Oxford Art Factory NSW
16 Apr Tanks Arts Centre QLD
17 Apr Old Museum QLD
18 Apr Never Land Bar QLD

Canada and US

Canadian Music Week
This year’s Canadian Music Week features headline keynote speakers Slash and Jamie Cullum, while hundreds of bands will feature at venues across Toronto during the festival.
Related link: Canadian Music Week 2009 Review and photos

Muse
1 March 2010 – Patriot Center, Fairfax, VA
5 March 2010 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
6 March 2010 – TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
8 March 2010 – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
10 March 2010 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
13 March 2010 – Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI
17 March 2010 – Fort Worth Convention Center, Dallas, US
18 March 2010 – Toyota Center, Houston, US
29 March 2010 – Rexall Place, Calgary, AB
30 March 2010 – Rexall Place, Calgary, AB
1 April 2010 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC
2 April 2010 – Key Arena, Seattle, WA
3 April 2010 – Rose Garden Arena, Portland, OR
5 April 2010 – The E Center, Salt Lake City, UT

Tinariwen
For something a bit different, go check out the sound of the Sahara with this band of Mali musicians. Henry Rollins is a big fan, as mentioned in our February interview. Tinariwen play Canadian dates in Ontario and Quebec early this March.

3 March 2010 – Sunfest, London, ON
4 March 2010 – The Phoenix, Toronto, ON
5 March 2010 – La Tulipe, Montreal, QC
6 March 2010 – Palais Montcalm, Quebec City, QC

The Bronx and Mariachi El Bronx with Japanther
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – make sure you see the Bronx at least once, they are one of the best live bands on the planet and the Mariachi alternative version of the band adds an extra draw. Catch them during their US tour which kicks off on 22 March and continues into April. March dates below:

The Bronx

22 March 2010  – Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
24 March 2010- Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
25 March – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
26 March 2010 – Toledo, OH – Frankie’s
27 March 2010- Detroit, MI – Eagle Theater
29 March 2010- Toronto, ON – Mod Club
30 March 2010- Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
31 March 2010 – Providence, RI – Jerky’s

Jamie Cullum
North American tour, as well as his appearance at Canadian Music Week in Toronto on 11 March.

United Kingdom

The Courteneers
The Courteneers are currently topping the UK charts with their second Falcon. Make sure you arrive early to check out the tour support the Goldhawks from London and Manchester lads The Whip. Expect to hear the Goldhawks play their new single “Where Is The World”, releasing 29 March 2010.

Hull University (March 4)
Lincoln Engine Shed (5)
Liverpool University (6)
Nottingham Rock City (8)
Bristol O2 Academy (9)
Norwich UEA (11)
Blackpool Empress Ballroom (12)
Bournemouth O2 Academy (15)
Oxford O2 Academy (16)
London O2 Brixton Academy (18)
Sheffield O2 Academy (19)
Birmingham O2 Academy (20)
Newcastle O2 Academy (22)
Edinburgh Picture House (23)
Glasgow O2 Academy (24)
Leeds O2 Academy (26)

The Dangerfields
Last but by no means least, our good friends The Dangerfields embark on a 10th anniversary tour across the UK and Europe, starting 3 March in Galway, Ireland. It might be their last tour ever, so if they come to your town check ‘em out for a solid display of DIY rock n’ roll.

Wed 3 – GALWAY (IRL) Sally Long’s
Thu 4 – BELFAST (GB) Speakeasy
Fri 5 – DERRY/LONDONDERRY (GB) TBA
Sat 6 – WARRENPOINT (GB) INF
Sun 7 – GLASGOW (GB) 13th Note
Mon 8 – THE HAGUE (NL) TBA
Tue 9 – HAMBURG (D) Logo
Wed 10 – BERLIN (D) TBA
Thu 11 – KIEL/ROSTOCK (D) TBA
Fri 12 – COPENHAGEN (DK) Beta
Sat 13 – AALBORG (DK) Rock Caféen
Sun 14 – POZNAŃ (PL) Reset Club
Mon 15 – KRAKÓW/WARSAW (PL) TBA
Tue 16 – PRAGUE (CZ) TBA
Wed 17 – MUNICH (D) TBA
Thu 18 – VIENNA (A) TBA
Fri 19 – INNSBRUCK (A)/SLOVENIA TBA
Sat 20 – LUXEMBOURG TBA
Sun 21 – MILAN (I) Circolo Delle Arti
Mon 22 – BOLOGNA (I) Lazzaretto Occupato
Tue 23 – BARCELONA (ES) TBA
Wed 24 – TOULOUSE (F) TBA
Thu 25 – BORDEAUX (F) TBA
Fri 26 – PARIS (F) TBA
Sat 27 – HERENTHOUT (B) Jh ‘t Verschil
Sun 28 – EINDHOVEN (NL) TBA
Mon 29 – LEIDEN (NL) TBA
Tue 30 – AMSTERDAM (NL) TBA
Wed 31 – RHYL (GB) Dudley Arms

APRIL
Thu 1 – MANCHESTER (GB) Retro Bar
Fri 2 – EDINBURGH (GB) Henry’s Cellar Bar
Sat 3 – ABERDEEN (GB) The Moorings
Sun 4 – DUNDEE (GB) Balcony Bar

Detroit rapper Eminem will join Muse and Kasabian as the headliners at this year’s T in the Park festival.

The same artists will also be headlining Oxegen at Punchestown Racecourse in Ireland, taking place the same weekend of 9-11 July.

Eminem’s appearance at Scotland’s premier music festival will be his first in the UK since 2003. Muse have also been announced and will headline the first night, Friday 9 July. They join Kasabian who had already been confirmed as headliners, with Kasabian set to close the festival on Sunday, 11 July.

T in the Park 2010 line-up

Jay-Z and Dizzee Rascal have also been added to the bill, while Paulo Nutini joins fellow Scots Biffy Clyro for some excellent local representation.

This year’s T in the Park takes place 9-11 July at Balado in Kinross-shire. Tickets go on sale this Friday, 26 February.

Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme revealed his excitement about headlining T in the Park but revealed that football may take precedence: “T In The Park we’ve done three or four times before but we’ve never headlined it before. The only problem we have is that it’s world cup final weekend. If it falls on the world cup final and England happen to be there I might have to go and watch England play instead.”

Far be it for me to putdown England’s chances at the World Cup – I’m still gutted that Scotland didn’t qualify – but if any band should be concerned about clashes with the football calendar it should be Kasabian, as they are the ones set to play on 11 July which is the night of the World Cup final.

The line-up for Oxegen is looking very similar to T in the Park although exact details of which bands will be playing on which days are yet to be announced.

Related links:
T in the Park – Official website
Oxegen – Official website

Gig/Concert: Big Day Out 2010 Melbourne
Venue: Flemington Racecourse, Epsom Rd, Flemington, Melbourne
Date: 26 January 2010
Headliners: Muse, Lily Allen
In one word: Massive

I’m not a festival kinda guy; I hate long lines, long waits and big crowds -  I suppose it’s part claustrophobia and part impatience but when it came to the Big Day Out line-up this year I really couldn’t pass.

After the extremely long wait to get in we went for a quick look-see of Los Romanticos who are an extremely talented Mariachi band that brought the sounds and atmosphere to the Mexican themed Lilyworld.

More searching and getting to grips with my massive surroundings took me to the blue stage where Mastadon were playing. Up close the weak, bass riddled sound didn’t do them justice but further back they sounded excellent. A lot of people made it into the D-ring for the early show by these modern metal innovators and they certainly didn’t leave unimpressed.

Up next door on the Orange stage were Kasabian, one of England’s best bands around who brought a considerably large crowd and didn’t disappoint. After they played all their hits including “Fire”, “Shoot the Runner”, “Empire”, “Club Foot” and “Lost Souls Forever” it left me with the feeling that they should’ve been put much higher up on the bill instead of 2 o’clock in the afternoon which actually seemed quite insulting.

The talk of Big Day Out in the lead-up was that of Girl Talk who’s a dude doing some of the most interesting and relevant things in dance music today. Decked in tennis gear and armed only with a laptop and some party-police with TP blasters he mixed hundreds of songs together in the hour he was on-stage.

“Girl Talk was most definitely a hard act to top today”

The only way I can possibly describe the atmosphere at times was that of pure euphoria and energy. I faced my own claustrophobia in the most sweaty and crowded space I’ve ever been in and enjoyed being squashed, knocked about and holding onto my other half for dear life. Girl Talk was most definitely a hard act to top today and if you ever get the chance to witness him in action don’t think twice about it.

Dizee Rascal was up on the Blue Stage afterwards riding on the success in Australia his latest album has brought him and played a set that reminded me how many great songs he’s actually had.

Rise Against were but a mere flash out of the corner of my eye but from what I caught had the largest crowd of the day and easily doubled that of fear factory who headlined later on.

I’m not really a Lily Allen fan, her single “It’s Not Fair” last year appealed to my country inclinations but her brand of ned-pop (well, she’s English, so make that chav-pop) has never impressed me. The crowd that gathered to the Orange Stage certainly didn’t share the same sentiments and roared as she took to the stage wearing an Aussie flag as a dress. She played all her hits and satisfied all but me I’d reckon. The highlights of her show were calling out the bouncers for being dickheads and a dance outro to “LDN” (or was it “Smile”? They all sound the same to me).

Now was the time I was really excited, my main reason for attending the mighty Big Day Out was to see the guy who pretty much invented rap and has been sampled by various greats including Jay Z, Beyonce Knowles, Ice Cube, Wu Tang Clan and a shitload more… Blowfly was but a mere 10 minute wait.

Playing before him however was a guy I’d seen on TV called Bangs who’s a Melbourne based rapper from Sudan that raps broken English in an upbeat, friendly tone.

His song “Take U 2 Da Movies” was an internet sensation that received over 1.7 million views on Youtube. The small mob that gathered at Lilyworld was there for one reason obviously and he saved that gem till last in which he promptly threw popcorn all over the crowd.

Blowfly up next was intensely good. His parodies of well known songs with dirty lyrics were great fun and the dirty old man promptly called every woman a lesbian bitch and guys gay ho-men. Amongst the parodies were “Now I Wanna Fuck Your Dog” (Now I wanna be your dog) and “Should I Fuck That Big Fat Ho” (Should I stay or should I go) he also fired out three Michael Jackson piss-takes as well as his originals “Rap Dirty” and “Porno Freak” which I believe was the first rap song to be banned in America.

“Who should give a fuck about Lady Gaga when Peaches has done it all before?”

Peaches on the Converse stage was a revelation; who should give a fuck about Lady Gaga when this woman has done it all before here AND with better songs? Opening up with a hair suit she burst into “Talk to Me” as well as more from her newest record. A few songs in she does an Iggy and walks on the crowd (sadly, sans the peanut butter). Many outfit changes later and sadly it’s time to leave her and head back to the Blue stage.

Muse are about to start up and tens of thousands of people are there to witness these modern legends in action. With three massive screens, three smaller screens and a load of lighting that doesn’t quite hit the spot in daylight it takes 20 minutes to get the desired effect. Sadly the sound just doesn’t cut it for me and listening to the drunken bogans in front of you isn’t nearly as much fun as actually hearing the band.

Saying that though I certainly did enjoy Muse. A lot of people from the UK will remember them as they were just coming out and none would expect how insanely big they now are but they definitely have the music chops to back it all up. There were murmurs of disappointment post-set for the lack of favourite “Stockholm Syndrome”, but really this was just a minor disappointment because there was plenty of other Muse hits in the set and everything went down well.

Most in the crowd have turned away from Muse now and averted their eyes towards the roof of one of the drinking areas where a punter is running along and avoiding bottles to the face to my amusement. He spends around 20 minutes up there until security eventually gets up but fails to catch him only falling on their arses to a massive cheer below.

My girlfriend being a big metal fan leads me off back to the Green stage where Fear Factory are playing to a relatively small crowd compared to Rise Against earlier. They were very good though and really kicked some butt as they thundered there way through around a dozen or so songs. Although most of the band looked very out of shape and past their hey-day the new material still packed a considerable punch and the musicianship was phenomenal.

In an incredible amount of pain from working all night to standing around all day I sat on the ground and soaked it all in; what an incredible day I thought, what a great line-up and oh what fun I had. If this year was 10x better than last what’s next year going to be like?

Big Day Out? No kidding!

© Danny Crombie

Muse have just announced six gigs in the USA for 2010. The gigs listed today via their Myspace page are as follows:

27 February 2010 – Gwinnett Center, Atlanta, GA
1 March 2010 – Patriot Center, Fairfax, VA
5 March 2010 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
6 March 2010 – TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
8 March 2010 – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
10 March 2010 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
13 March 2010 – Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI
17 March 2010 – Fort Worth Convention Center, Dallas, US
18 March 2010 – Toyota Center, Houston, US

29 March 2010 – Rexall Place, Calgary, AB
30 March 2010 – Rexall Place, Calgary, AB
1 April 2010 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC
2 April 2010 – Key Arena, Seattle, WA
3 April 2010 – Rose Garden Arena, Portland, OR
5 April 2010 – The E Center, Salt Lake City, UT

Silversun Pickups will be supporting Muse on many of these dates.

Tickets go on general sale on December 12, 2009 with a pre-sale starting at Muse.mu from December 9 at 10.00 am EST.

I have a hunch, or maybe its just a hope, that a few more dates might be announced to fill in the gap between some of those dates – the gap between March 6 and 13 seems particularly ominous – perhaps we’ll see some more East Coast dates slotted in that period. I have my fingers crossed that a Toronto date will be added in there somewhere – would be great to see Muse here and shoot them for Music Vice. ** Edit, lo and behold, extra dates were announced and Toronto is go!