Music Vice’s gig guide for January, 2010. These are the shows we think you should check out – some of which you might find us at too!

Shows To Go To is a new monthly preview which we’ve began to coincide with our new site design that we officially launch tomorrow night, 18 January, 2010. Look out for more Shows To Go To in February.

Australia

Big Day Out

Rise Against are part of Big Day Out 2010

Aren’t those Australians lucky? While all us poor souls in the Northern Hemisphere are freezing our butts off, Down Under the sun will be shining at the first major music festival of the year. Headliners at Big Day Out this year include Muse, Lily Allen, Kasabian, The Mars Volta and Rise Against. And yeah, we’ll be there too!

Dates:
Auckland, January 15
Gold Coast, January 17
Sydney, January 22
Sydney, January 23
Melbourne, January 26
Adelaide, January 29
Perth, January 31

Full info and tickets at: www.bigdayout.com

Canada/US

Anti-Flag ‘The Economy Sucks, Let’s Party’ Tour with Aiden, Cancer Bats and guests

Catch Cancer Bats on tour in the US with Anti-Flag

Anti-Flag are on tour across America from January 12 to February 6 with Aiden and Cancer Bats. If that line-up wasn’t enticing enough already for you then look out for special guests including Trash Talk who join the tour from January 19 to January 27 – we’ve heard lots of good stuff about Trash Talk, definitely worth checking out. Dates at: MySpace.com/Antiflag

REDUCED FEE tickets available at: https://tixx1.artistarena.com/anti-flag
USERNAME: anti
PASSWORD: flag

Dinosaur Jr.
Did you think that great fuzz and distortion-fuelled music was extinct? Go see Dinosaur Jr. for the best kind of evidence that it’s still alive and roaring like a T-Rex!

Milford, CT, January 15
Bowery Ballroom, NYC, NY, January 16
Music Hall of Williamsburg, NY, January 17
Brooklyn Bowl, NY, January 18
Castaways, Ithaca, NY, January 19
The Ale House, Kingston, ON, January 20
Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON, January 21
Capitol Music Hall, Ottawa, ON, January 22
More info and ticket links: www.dinosaurjr.com/tour.htm

Tegan And Sara
Canada’s most famous musical twins kick-off the new decade with a January tour in Canada!
6 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Orpheum
7 – Kelowna, British Columbia – Community Theatre
8, 9 – Calgary, Alberta – South Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
11, 12 – Edmonton, Alberta – North Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
13 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – TCU Place
14, 15 – Winnipeg, Manitoba – Burton Cummings Theatre
18 – Montreal, Quebec – Place des Arts
19 – Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall
20 – Toronto, Ontario – Kool Haus
22, 23 – Ottawa, Ontario – Bronson Centre
25 – Quebec City, Quebec – Imperial Du Quebec
26 – Fredericton, New Brunswick – Fredericton Playhouse
27 – Halifax, Nova Scotia – Halifax Metro Centre
More info at: www.teganandsara.com Ticket links: Live Nation, GEG

United Kingdom

The Prodigy
Shake off your New Year hangover by catching The Prodigy, who are ripping up the UK with a January tour.
Dates and ticket info at: MySpace.com/TheProdigy

Jamie T
For something a lot less aggressive, a bit less manic but overall equally as cool, catch Jamie T, with UK dates throughout January and extending into early February. These are the rescheduled dates originally planned for Autumn 2009 – original tickets are still valid for the new dates.

January dates:
Tue 19 Nottingham – Rock City
Wed 20 Birmingham – 02 Academy
Fri 22 Sheffield – 02 Academy
Sat 23 Manchester – Academy
Mon 25 Leeds – 02 Academy
Wed 27 Glasgow – Barrowlands
Thu 28 Newcastle – Northumberland Uni
Sat 30 Preston – 53 Degrees
Sun 31 Norwich – UEA
More info at: www.myspace.com/jamietwimbledon

Title: Invaders Must Die
Artist: The Prodigy
Label: Take Me To The Hospital, Cooking Vinyl
Released: November 2009
In one word: Bouncing

The opening words ‘We Are The Prodigy’ of the first track are as much a blatantly obvious statement of self-awareness as they are a proud declaration announcing the menacing onslaught of electronica that is about to unfold. Invaders Must Die is the fifth studio album by The Prodigy and sees them as fierce as ever, cranking out some thunderous tunes which serve as ideal ear fuel for getting yer rave on, Big Fish, Little Fish stylee.

The Prodigy were always in a box of their own among their fellow pioneers of the big beat explosion in the ’90s – actually not so much of a box, more like a padded cell. Keith Flint is reunited with Maxim Reality on vocal duties, with both as menacing as ever and a crucial part of the sonic bedlam, while the ever-present Liam Howlett completes the line-up. The Prodigy are still very much the snarling beast of the electronica kingdom and twenty years of existence haven’t mellowed the band at all. The Prodigy create electronica with teeth, effortlessly ripping up wicked beat after beat, while maturity has led to this three-headed beast growing in its wisdom teeth, allowing it to unleash a higher level of creativity with an air of prowess that only comes with experience.

Invaders includes enough top-notch tracks to make one helluva Prodigy ‘best of’ playlist to put alongside the classics that the band made their name from – you know, “Voodoo People”, “Firestarter” and the like. From this newest record “Warrior’s Dance” and “Invaders Must Die” are superb spaz-outs ideally suited for bouncing around in that aforementioned padded cell. Meanwhile “Run With The Wolves” features guest drumming from rock n’ roll’s greatest tub-thumping journeyman Dave Grohl.

Further guest appearances and remixes can be found on the second CD included in the deluxe version of the album and there’s plenty of quality here, including four versions of “Take Me To The Hospital” ranging from a sleek Sub Focus drum n’ bass trip-out, to a mix featuring Grohl’s Crooked Vultures cohort Josh Homme. All the various remixes are further testament to The Prodigy’s knack for transcending and merging genres, and how the band have continually attracted fans from rave, dance and rock scenes. Meanwhile, the DVD predictably serves up a few videos and some live footage.

All in all this version of the album with its bumper pack of extras is the one to go for if you didn’t get around to buying a copy of the standard release earlier in the year.

© Brian Banks

Big Day Out 2009 – Perth, Australia
Festival review and photos by Music Vice writer Danny Crombie – 2 February, 2009

Gig/Concert: The Famines
Venue: Claremont Showgrounds, Perth, Western Australia
Date: 1 February, 2009
Headliners: Neil Young, The Prodigy
In one word: Surprising

Attending a festival is something that requires military precision in my book; like any trip you have to be prepared for what’s in store. The first concern for any music fan is to work out who you’re going to see and when and with festivals you have to please everyone.

My girlfriend and I arrived at the Claremont Showground around 2.45 with surprisingly very little delay or queuing and tried to find the stage where the Ting Tings were doing their thing. They are a band that I consider to be pretty much just a fad with throwaway songs, so I wasn’t too upset when we got lost at the other end of the grounds and missed them.

“TV on the Radio were an absolute delight to watch, a great new discovery for me.”

Next I stumbled upon COG whilst scoping out the scene, and I was left fairly unimpressed by their average songs which a lot of people seemed to know. I’ve never heard of them, and personally I won’t be hearing anything from them again.

Bullet for My Valentine came onto the blue stage and played a loud and energetic performance to a crowd of dedicated metal-heads. They were tight and a fun band to watch, even in blistering heat.

TV on the Radio were an absolute delight to watch, a great new discovery for me. They played a fantastic eclectic set ranging from blistering electro punk to funk, a band consisting of incredibly talented musicians I will surely see again in the future.

Sneaky Sound System gave a strong performance and should be named “recycler’s of the day”, after reworking other people’s songs for their own. I must admit I didn’t pay full attention to them as I was waiting for the band next door to play.

Pendulum’s show was probably the biggest of the daytime, I’m sure the show was an honour for them to play to such a massive hometown audience. We made the foolish mistake of entering the D-ring, only to get knocked around and elbowed by shirtless idiots with no manners. The band was good though and I’m certain they entertained most.

I’m afraid to say that My Morning Jacket are a band I’ve never felt the need to listen to. They are one of those groups whose names you hear thrown around all the time, yet some kind of stubbornness within forces you to ignore them. The great thing about festivals is that you can go and check out bands and it’s no massive loss if you don’t like them. As for My Morning Jacket…I loved ‘em! A real good band with weird rockin’ songs and when the pedal steel came out I became a fan – I’m a sucker for that pedal steel!

Serj Tankian was a weird choice for a main stage, although extremely big with his other band, not big enough for a main stage. We went quite near the front so I couldn’t really see his audience but whoever was in front certainly enjoyed him.

He played a great set of his own tunes which sadly don’t quite cut it against SOAD but still a very good set nonetheless. Certainly notable was his Abba cover, I’m sure you’ll get that on youtube.

“The crowd loved The Living End but I found them to sound like a poor man’s Stiff Little Fingers, who are an extremely poor man’s Clash.”

The Living End are another “know the name, but don’t know their music” band who are big in Australia and not really anywhere else. You could never see them getting a hit song anywhere else but here. The crowd loved them but I found them to sound like a poor man’s Stiff Little Fingers, who are an extremely poor man’s Clash – I can safely say I won’t be bothered about seeing them again.

After a hard day in the sun we decided to take a seat and get some food, though not seeing I did hear some of Cut Copy, whose singer sounds A LOT like Joey Ramone – I’ll have to check them out.

Arctic Monkeys are a band to see only to say you’ve seen them. I only like Fluorescent Adolescent which was a delight to hear – a very well crafted and soulful song. Something about Alex’s voice usually grates on me but tonight I enjoyed them. They’re a band suited for festivals and I found it strangely beautiful watching the sun go down as they played.

Hot Chip were playing the boiler room, a very packed area which I’m sure most of the crowd were there already to see the Keith Flint & Co. We watched one song, luckily the only one I knew, before heading back to see the godfather of punk himself.

“Dropkick Murphys are a band I used to love when I was younger…I certainly enjoyed them but felt embarrassed to have left Neil Young to watch them for 20 minutes.“

Mr Neil Young was a weird headline act, he seems virtually irrelevant to most of the audience but I don’t want to knock him though as he was brilliant. His vocal and guitar skills are better than ever and he drew a considerable crowd. We caught 30 minutes of him before having the leave due to schedule commitments.

Dropkick Murphys are a band I used to love when I was younger, although slightly embarrassed by their faux Irish accents and sometimes dodgy tunes I loved how they incorporated instruments like the bagpipes and banjo into such intense punk rock.

They played a couple of songs I vaguely knew and a heap of others, I certainly enjoyed them but felt embarrassed to have left Neil Young to watch them for 20 minutes.

Seeing The Prodigy was a bit of a no-hoper for us, my girlfriend having been brought up listening to them was extremely excited about seeing them and slightly peeved at our detour through Leprechaun Land. There was definitely no chance seeing them as the Boiler Room was packed and people were even having raves watching the TV screens far, far away from the actual band.

Walking away from the area we saw what seemed like a headliner battle between Neil Young and The Prodigy. Prodigy pulled a crowd that almost doubled Young’s audience, and the noise of the Prodigy crowd and the shear volume overpowered parts of his set. I felt that although Young was an interesting choice as headliner, he really should have been on a smaller stage for The Prodigy to play to the larger crowd.

After that we went to see the last band on our list, Fantomas – featuring the legends Buzz from The Melvins, Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Mike Patton of Faith no More and Tomahawk. I’d never heard them before and was pleasantly surprised upon entering the Converse Stage; they are most certainly my band of the day. Fantomas are experimental avant-garde metal, a genre I have dabbled in and appreciate greatly. They were on top form and were all clearly having a good laugh while playing – something that should be at the centre of all music. They were fun, interesting and enjoyable to watch, I will most certainly be seeing them again.

We left Big Day Out with sunburn, sore feet, clothes soaked in sweat, hearing impairments and massive grins on our faces. The concept of festivals is something I really never enjoyed in the past but after going to one I can see why these idiots love ‘em. Roll on next year!

© Danny Crombie

Links:
Big Day Out official website – www.bigdayout.com