The Empress of India, 23 Feb 1999

Tuesday night at the Empress seems to have become an overnight institution for the Melbourne Listers.
Last night we had a showing from Meeks, Julie, Cameron, Rach (and her twin in disguise), Matt, Cameron, myself and Nicky.
The playlist was very similar to previous shows with a couple a interesting ups and downs.
The first down was during Come to Earth. When ever Deborah got to the end of the chorus “you come to earth” the whole sound basically did some pretty mental feebback. The first time it happened DC shot a look at their sound guy to fix it, the second time it happened she shot him a look that would have sent me scrambling for the first flight out to South America. Basically this problem fucked up the song which was pretty dissapointing. Come to Earth (possibly you come to earth) has really grown on me in the last month. I know a few other listers are lukewarm about it but I particularly like its hypnotic quality.
On to the next debarcle. As DC treaded away at the effects pedals (held firmly in place by the craftsmanship of Tim) it became clear pretty clearly that the effect was just not working. Worse still Deborah’s voice was not being amplified at all. They messes about with it for a minute or so then just went into the song with Deborah singing the distorted bits herself. this is the second time this had happened and while I am sure it gives DC the screaming heebiejeebies I quite like hearing Deborah sing the weird sounds herself, it sounds a bit raw which I really like.
On to the sucesses of the evening.
Radio Loves this sounded terrific with the riff from Willy back in force.
She’s Coming for it just gets better and better.
So Sweet which is just super catch, I particularly like the vocal backing willy does towards the end of the song.
Interzone I can take or leave but sounded good last night.
I am sure there are others but after a sleep I can’t remember them. I know they didn’t play either Turn of New Years Eve but am at a loss to say the others they did play. damn.
When they finished after about 45 minutes someone called for an encore since it was the last show at the Empress. The band conferred and came back with Pass the Sugar which was just great.
Mark
Part 2
OK I’m in an odd mood…well more than normal…so just bare with me ok.
Now…last nights concert was great…I arrived (for only the second time this month) at the Empress…walked casually past DC on the way in and found about 10 people off the list. As I was waiting for a drink Deb came up and whispered “you old enough” while giggling…after mumbling something about only drinking straight coke I sat down to enjoy the show.
There is no way I can remember the play list…all I know is Interzone was up first…pass the sugar? (I don’t even know the names yet) was last and the sound ironically stuffed up the most on Equisite stereo (did I spell any of that right). I really like that Novocaine song…I pretty much like all the new stuff.
Since Rach isn’t here I guess I’ll have to do the ‘hair report’ *realises she has no iea what she’s talking about* uh….*panics* they were all pretty much…the same…yes…they’re all very hairy…the drummer possibly the most. Willy’s hair is…pretty close to non existant…I like it though.
And now the fashion report…*realises she should have given up after the ‘hairy’ thing* um…all I can remember thinking is that Willy’s sandels were pretty cool but Deb’s were better. You want descriptions huh…yes…well they were very…uh…sandl-ish.
Meeks

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