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REVIEW: Queensland Flood Relief Gigs, Lucky Australian Tavern

Posted by on Feb 8, 2011 in IR: Australia, Our Shows | 0 comments

The first weekend of February 2011 saw 25 bands descend on the Lucky Australian Tavern at St Marys in Sydney’s greater west in order to raise funds for victims of the recent widespread floods in Queensland. Jointly promoted by Very Live Entertainment and RockChic Entertainment, the action started on Friday night, continue Saturday night and conclude on Sunday afternoon. Erk was there to MC the event, work the lights and perform other tasks as required.

There were a wide variety of acts among the 25 bands. There were various forms of metal and hardcore acts, a band with a keyboard player, a solo artist and a band playing acoustically because they were missing band members but did not want to cancel.  Erk had seen some of the bands on several occasions (for instance Foundry Road & Syko Sapian), some bands featured at Very Metal Xmas last year (Ilcontent, Jaded Empire, My Hollowed Fantasy, Blackened They Rise, Simulacra), bands that Erk had heard of but not seen before (LAB 64, Centred Self) as well as other bands. Some of the remaining bands were very new and/or young in age but still very good (Say It Forever, Days Gone By) while others had experienced members but were new to Erk (Upside Miss Jane, Sodomiser).

There was a great vibe about the weekend. It was a great advertisement for local music. There were a lot of happy punters and happy bands over the weekend. If you came for the 3 days, it was a very long and hot weekend with summer temperatures for most of the event over 38C/100F at an outdoor venue before a welcomed cool change on Sunday. The event was originally planned as a one day event but due to the overwhelming support from the bands, it was quickly extended to 3 days. As the event was arranged at relatively short notice in reaction to a current event, some bands who wanted to appear already had gigs elsewhere as were their fans.

One of the great things about the weekend was the variety of the music while still generally remaining faithful to the metal/hardcore genre. It was not a case of band after band screaming the same sort of screamo music for the entire weekend. There were some interesting moments over the weekend with Foundry Road’s metal version of Safety Dance being played at a gig for the first time (complete with a shirtless eXplain), Days Gone By joining the depleted Derro Dogs on stage to sing Tribute by Tenacious D (Erk also jumped on stage for this one as well), various well known bands being covered in very different styles to normal (Bananarama, The Proclaimers, Radiohead, Men Without Hats & Wheatus among others.)

The main aim apart from the entertainment factor was to raise money and this was very successful. Over the 3 days of the event, $4000 was raised which will be forwarded to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Appeal. Congratulations to everyone involved for a great weekend of music. Some music from artists on the weekend will be featured on episode 12 (February 2011) of Insomnia Radio: Australia as well as on episode 133 of Erk’s other music podcast Erk FM.

Friday Night’s Band List:

Saturday Night’s Band List:

Sunday’s Band List: