We just wanted to say thankyou to all of the punters who came to see Tim Rogers play at Bended Elbow on the 15th January 2010. Thanks also to supports The Wellingtons and Elodie Adams who also played. Later on we were all treated to a guest appearance with Tim singing alongside The Wellingtons to a cover of Elvis Costello’s “Olivers Army”. Check out the photos and also the embedded video below. Good Aussie Rawk \m/.
Well well well. Paul Dempsey came to Geelong and rocked the Bended Elbow on the 18th December. The show was completely SOLD OUT before doors opened. With the 450 punters enjoying music from support local supports Sleep Decade and Jessica Says, the night was an all round success. Thanks everyone for making it such a great ORIGINAL night!
Here are some photos of the night from April Thursday Photography
PBS Gig reviewer Ian Parsons was on hand to see how it all went down:
Paul Dempsey – the Bended Elbow
Friday 18th December, 2009
Even Paul Dempsey, Melbourne singer-songwriter launching his solo career after a successful decade or so as the front for Something for Kate, knows that Geelong can get a bit rough on a Friday night. But when he remarks on this to the packed crowd at Geelong’s Bended Elbow, it’s only by way of telling his audience how good they are. He connects with his audience within a nano-second of stepping onto the stage, asking for more lights so he can see us better, chatting to us now and then with the kind of shy awkwardness that comes from an artist who seems a little embarrassed by how good everyone thinks he is. He takes down the promotional posters on the stage walls, because he feels embarrassed by them, too.
But all the self-effacing humility in the world won’t stop this crowd from being enthralled by Paul Dempsey’s music – songs that tell stories about isolation, loss, loneliness and love, in tunes that, even at their most hooky and affable, never quite shrug off their sadness. They are songs where phrases weep and wail, where they drag you down into minor keys, and then lift you up again as the music swells with melancholic passion, and yet where they always somehow feel like they are comforting you at the same time. Here sadness is not something foreign and threatening, but an old, all-too-familiar friend.
Paul Dempsey’s songs are intimate, heartfelt, intense. It seems almost rude to be ordering drinks at the bar while he is singing. But this is a crowd, mostly a good two decades or so younger than me, that seems well accustomed to multi-tasking, so they talk and drink and sing along, and are moved and pumped, and always, always cheer their approval of everything he does.
Starting with “Fast Friends” he takes us through his debut album “Everything is True”. Most of the songs are familiar to most of the audience but Paul Dempsey sings each of them with such conviction that it’s almost as if he is the only one hearing them for the first time. For a good eighty minutes or so, the Bended Elbow, a stalwart Geelong pub that can pack in almost 500 people into a space that is just right for listening to music like this, seems to have become the town’s heart.
Geelong has never felt better on a Friday night.
Ian Parsons
http://whatmusicareyoulisteningto.blogspot.com/
Welcome to Spinning Half Studios new website. It will become a much more interactive site with videos and music updates on anything we do around town and regional too. It has the facility to blog so stay tuned in the next couple of weeks.
Things of note to keep your eye out are:
- Live ORIGINAL band showcases at The Bended Elbow Geelong fortnightly to monthly.
- Tim Rogers to play The Bended Elbow Geelong on the 15th January 2010! Check out our “Gigs @ The Bended Page” for more info.
- Paul Dempsey plays The Bended Elbow on December 18th 2009
Tickets from http://pauldempsey.oztix.com.au or venue; Phone 5229 4477 http://thebendedelbow.com.au/
- Other news, is that Spinning Half Studios have joined forces with the Australian Baseball League, and are helping out with sound for the 2009/10 Klaxton Shield. The first set of three games were Victoria Aces vs Perth Heat. Vicos won the series 2-1. Woot woot.
http://www.baseballvictoria.com.au/?ID=58451
- Novation Launchpad gear for studio work. The arrival has been delayed by a day cause the Australian Air Express guy delivered it at 9:07am. No one was up. So he kept it and is making us pick it up tomorrow. The thang is not only pretty but can actually be of some use with clip triggering, mixer volume,pans and sends and as of today, I found out that there is a hack which allows it to act as a small Monome! Aptly named the Nonome. If you have not checked it out, then watch this youtube vid: