St Mary’s Butts, Reading, England Superthread

[Axver]

My favorites were the actual voting because you only had to listen to two lists at a time and we had like a week to do it. So it wasn't as overwhelming and daunting.

Both ways had their advantages I think. But the ranking did probably get better results.

On reflection the themed Mini DIs were probably my favourite.

 

[Axver]

So today I got to chair a panel with one of the bands that has released one of this year's best albums, The Orbweavers, and then we had drinks afterwards and they are the nicest people, oh my god.

What a great day.

 

[bono_man2002]

...and it’s been a week and cobbler hasn’t dropped the whole “yeah well I drank with the E Street band” thing....

 

[Axver]

Ten bucks they weren't as nice as The Orbweavers though.

They definitely wouldn't have known as much about Melbourne history.

 

[Axver]

Anybody want to revive the old U2 album listening parties? Because I'm going to need to listen through a few before doing LN7's song rankings thing.

 

[kiwilad]

Never took part in them so don't know how they worked but, yes.

 

[Axver]

We all just hit play on a given album at the same time and talked about it. Always fun.

I definitely need to revisit NLOTH and HTDAAB. Also I haven't played Rattle and Hum, Achtung, or Pop in full for longer than I realised.

 

[U2inUtah]

Hey Ax I see the Oils are playing Wollongong next. Are you going?

 

[Axver]

Hey Ax I see the Oils are playing Wollongong next. Are you going?

You know it!

I was also at last week's Melbourne show where Jim tore his hamstring during King of the Mountain. I was back in GA (the Sidney Myer Music Bowl is weird and has seating in front of the GA lawn) and thought he was just really getting into the song, rocking out on his knees. Then he was helped off stage and the encore break was longer than expected. Finally Peter comes out to tell us Jim had injured himself - but that they were going to try One Country without him.

I'm really hoping Put Down That Weapon makes the Wollongong setlist. It's the one big song for me that hasn't appeared at the three previous Oils shows I've seen.

 

[kiwilad]

We all just hit play on a given album at the same time and talked about it. Always fun.

I definitely need to revisit NLOTH and HTDAAB. Also I haven't played Rattle and Hum, Achtung, or Pop in full for longer than I realised.

Sounds good to me. I've had Boy on repeat the last few weeks - I must have listened to that album hundreds of times by now. Still I'm finding new things there, and appreciating it in new ways. Going through the whole catalogue with intensively knowledgeable and interested fans would be rad.

 

[Axver]

Boy, UF, and JT are probably the only albums I've played in full over the last couple of years. (And SOI last week.) They're the three that still excite me as full albums. For others, like Achtung or Pop, I've got cosy listening to just my favourite songs from them.

 

[kiwilad]

Boy, UF, and JT are probably the only albums I've played in full over the last couple of years. (And SOI last week.) They're the three that still excite me as full albums. For others, like Achtung or Pop, I've got cosy listening to just my favourite songs from them.

Agree, although I add Achtung to that list. Ever since reading Flanagan's book I've taken to listening to that album as Flanagan's narrative of a rock star burning out in front of his wife/family. Listening to it front to back is one of my favourite U2 experiences.

Boy, UF and JT though - if U2 had died in a plane crash after Joshua Tree those three albums would be held up as evidence of true, not to be repeated greatness.

 

[Axver]

In past moments of excessive hyperbole I've suggested U2 should have quit after Lovetown.

The truth is I would like them no less had that happened, though. Almost everything they did that made me such a fan is from the eighties. I rate about half of their nineties output highly, but the eighties is what confirms U2 as a great band for me.

 

[kiwilad]

Agreed. I mean, Love is Blindness is epic. There's lots of their 90s stuff that's amazing. But in the 80s they blazed a trail no one could get near to. I'm still baffled with how the fuck a 17/18-year-old wrote the guitar pieces on Boy. Genius.
If they'd never corrected (over-corrected?) after the critical drubbing Rattle and Hum got, what would they be now I wonder?

 

[Axver]

It's funny how two of the more "eighties" songs on Achtung, One and Ultra Violet, are two of my least favourites on there.

I think some of Achtung was a natural evolution, though one that became supercharged as a reaction to criticism. Acrobat emerged at Lovetown soundchecks, for instance, and Bullet and God Part II sure point towards that kind of darkness. I also don't think I'd have enjoyed them going much further down the increasingly "American" path they were treading in the late eighties, even if I rate She's a Mystery to Me as a great song that deserved to be on an album.

Also, when we talk about directions not taken, we usually reach for TGBHF/Stateless as a suggestion of what the 2000s might've been. But what of Wild Irish Rose and where that could have led? I love that song so fucking much - but I'm not sure it represents much of a deeper vein of inspiration.

 

[kiwilad]

When Million Dollar Hotel came out I was ecstatic. My band was back! And this was only a side project! Imagine the next album!
So yeah. I wanted to punch ATYCLB in the ovaries.

 

[Axver]

Funnily enough, ATYCLB was the second U2 album I owned after the Best of 1980-1990 (though I had heard other stuff at various family members' houses). Came very close to Pop being my first purchase sometime in 1998 but I didn't recognise any of the song titles and was unwilling to put down cash on an album I knew nothing about - I don't recall hearing any of the singles on radio in Australia or New Zealand.

Anyway, ATYCLB. I liked it enough but I remember mainly loving Walk On. Took me a long time to grow fond of Kite, interestingly. It was also the album that taught me all about frontloading.

But it wasn't enough to make me a serious fan, not by any means. That was the Best of 1990-2000 and my stepdad giving me his UABRS and RAH videos.

 

[U2inUtah]

You know it!

I was also at last week's Melbourne show where Jim tore his hamstring during King of the Mountain. I was back in GA (the Sidney Myer Music Bowl is weird and has seating in front of the GA lawn) and thought he was just really getting into the song, rocking out on his knees. Then he was helped off stage and the encore break was longer than expected. Finally Peter comes out to tell us Jim had injured himself - but that they were going to try One Country without him.

I'm really hoping Put Down That Weapon makes the Wollongong setlist. It's the one big song for me that hasn't appeared at the three previous Oils shows I've seen.

Oh wow I hadn't heard that about Jim. Funny enough they played Put Down That Weapon at the only show I've been to. Hope you have a great time

 

[Axver]

Yeah Put Down That Weapon has been done at about half of this year's shows, I've just been unlucky with the two I've seen so far (my third show was back at Sound Relief in 2009).

I'd also enjoy Read About It and Sometimes being played tonight because the only time I've heard either was at Sound Relief, and in particular I didn't know Sometimes tremendously well then. I'd only just ventured beyond 20,000 Watt RSL. But I'm not too miffed that we missed out on Sometimes last week - it was on the planned encore - because I still remember it really clearly from 2009 anyway. It was a standout from that set. I don't remember Read About It nearly as well.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I wanted to punch ATYCLB in the ovaries.

ovaries? no way, if anything atyclb is like a whiny dude

 

[Axver]

ATYCLB is that "nice guy" who always lets you down.

Anyway, if anybody wants to do an album listening party tomorrow night Aussie time, I'm keen. Achtung perhaps?

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

while i wait for my blanket to dry so i can go to bed (three loads of laundry in one night, yaaay), i'll take a moment to vent about the concert i went to last night since there's talk of axver's upcoming oils show, and since i've never seen them i have nothing to contribute.

i went to a show that was...edm, maybe more specifically downtempo although it was still pretty danceable. cool aussie dude i saw two years ago. anyway, the music was awesome but the vibe sucked ass. loads of people only there to get drunk (i've been to shows where i get people slamming into me, but never an edm show) and act like assholes. why. you're downtown, there's loads of bars, just go to one of those instead.

i was trying to soak up the stuff i was enjoying to get good vibes going and ended up getting to go up right at the front (not a huge feat, it was a small bar) and of course these drunk girls had to be in the front yet again (these same ones kept pushing their way up front all night and taking up way too much room to dance, not caring that they're bumping into people) so i got pushed back against a barrier and was feeling kinda claustrophobic.

i went to the other side of the stage, long story short same shit, different people. some asshole just straight up dropped his drink, spilled it on me and his girlfriend. didn't apologise to me or his girlfriend. just went and got himself a new drink. i mean luckily it only got on my leggings (i think...i should probably smell my non-washable stuff at some point, i had an elaborate outfit on) but i started to lose it which i hate. i really hate crying in public but i couldn't help myself, i was next to a bench so i went and sat down and just tried to calm myself down. luckily my boyfriend came over to check up on me and cheered me up, but ugh i was upset. too upset to realise that while i was trying to stop sobbing and venting about that dude, he'd sat right next to me...why. it was so loud in there i know he couldn't hear me and i really didn't care if he did, i was so upset i would've told him to his face he was being a fucking prick.

i never really got my good vibes back which sucked, but i can at least appreciate the music. i just feel like the whole night had a dark cloud over it. honestly i had more fun seeing lcd soundsystem on halloween, and it was fucking cold with intermittent pouring rain the whole night. and i was outside with no shelter, other than my hoodie.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

ATYCLB is that "nice guy" who always lets you down.

Anyway, if anybody wants to do an album listening party tomorrow night Aussie time, I'm keen. Achtung perhaps?

haha, so apt.

ooh that would be awesome, though what time were you thinking? i'm already overdue to go to bed (i normally try to go to bed an hour ago at the latest, but i've been doing all the old lady stuff like laundry, cooking my lunches for the week, working on music, so my night got away from me), so it'll probably be too late for me

 

[kiwilad]

ovaries? no way, if anything atyclb is like a whiny dude

Yes, this is much more truer. The sort of dude who wears their hat backwards while inside.

Stink about the vibe-sucker EDM gig. Some days all the stars align in the complete wrong direction. I went to a gig once, much younger, and was so excited. Some twat decided to dance as if he was doing martial arts with his elbows, clocked me in the face in the first song and that was that.
You kinda assume all music-attendees arrive in the spirit of peace and creativity. Then some fanny drops a beer on your leggings.

Also, I'm in for Achtung tomorrow. Did War today. Very inconsistent album to my ears but my god Like a Song is a beast.

 

[Axver]

I will never understand people who go to gigs and just talk loudly and behave like idiots. It fucks up the concert for everyone else and you've wasted your money when you could've just gone to any old pub. I get wanting to drink a bit but to the point that you're mindlessly wasted again seems dumb when you've forked out for the gig ticket.

And yeah I'm not sure how time zones can really work out with you Khan, since I can't really do a listening party while I'm at work.

 

[Axver]

Ah fuck I just lost a decent post about the Midnight Oil show. It was fucking great. We got a pretty cool set, though I did not get my wish of Put Down That Weapon. Some of the rarities were really cool. We got WEDDING CAKE ISLAND! I never expected to hear that live. It was like U2 playing fucking Bass Trap or something. Since Peter had nothing to do during the song he mimed surfing for most of it. And we got a song I literally did not know at all: Surfing With a Spoon, which Peter dedicated to the "true believers" (obviously not me, ha). It really shows the band's early prog heritage, with the long keyboard and guitar solos. The people behind me were very amused by Peter's antics as Jim and Martin soloed. Another rarity that we got, Minutes to Midnight, didn't quite resonate with me as much though.

I will never ever get sick of songs like When the Generals Talk, The Dead Heart, or Forgotten Years (which was tonight's rousing conclusion). Peter bagged out the Gold Coast before Dreamworld, much to my delight. I often kind of mentally dismiss King of the Mountain as just another Oils hit but both this show and last week reminded me of how fucking amazing it is. Tears up any stage. Speaking of tearing it up, the crowd fucking lost it for US Forces, that was a massive singalong. I was in a weird spot: although I was only six rows from the front, the people standing ended with me. Almost everybody to my right in the front six rows stayed sitting. They finally got up for US Forces.

I was fucking delighted to get Warakurna again, absolutely one of my top Oils songs, some days a candidate for my #1. And I got Read About It, and it was HUGE. One of the highlights of the night. I was also thrilled to finally hear Sell My Soul live, and I've had good luck with a few rarities: all three shows I've seen this year have had Golden Age (glad to hear it at the last two, because a fight broke out near me in Copenhagen and I missed most of it then), and both last week and this week had Stand in Line. Today's take was really passionate, both from band and crowd, after Peter dedicated it to the Illawarra and talked about how governments in the eighties forgot about the Illawarra and Hunter Valley.

Anyway. The whole thing was just so good. Midnight Oil are an unbelievable live band. I'm a little tempted to scrounge up a ticket for the Sydney gig but probably won't, which guarantees Put Down That Weapon will be in the set. It's a GA gig and I'd need to leave work in Wollongong too early if I want a good spot. I'm really happy with the three gigs I've seen and I hope this year's tour persuades them to keep playing. I can't get over how sharp they are, or how flexible.

As a final note, I'VE NOW HEARD A MEMBER OF THE SWINGERS PLAY PART OF COUNTING THE BEAT. When Peter introduced Bones Hillman, guess who started riffing on bass. Peter had been introducing Bones as "from Aotearoa" so he mistook the song and sang a line from Split Enz's Six Months in a Leaky Boat before realising it was Counting the Beat. Holy fuck you have no idea how cool that was.

(Fun fact: earlier this year I saw a gothic emo band do a full cover of Counting the Beat. And it was AMAZING.)

 

[Axver]

Also, the one Midnight Oil song I've become totally enamoured with this year is My Country. It was one of the absolute best things I heard at the Copenhagen show (still the band's longest set of tour!) and I had it stuck in my head for days afterwards. I'd never really rated it before, but what a performance. I'd been kind of hoping to hear it again at either of the last two shows but no luck.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

(Fun fact: earlier this year I saw a gothic emo band do a full cover of Counting the Beat. And it was AMAZING.)

this sounds amazing.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i have a bunch of random things to post, so be prepared for a deluge unless i forget what i'm gonna say.

first, i got a 20% raise at work. also, my contract (due to end right after the first of the year) is very likely to be extended three more months because they're so hard up for my language pair, haha. at least this would give me more time to look for permanent employment at apple.

note: the raise isn't as impressive as it sounds as all contractors in my department with this company got the raise, but still. i'll take it. couple that with the time and a half i'll get working on christmas and new year's day omg that's so much money those two days. i'll get a lot this thursday too, but not as much because the raise doesn't go into effect until next month.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

also, i'm getting a cat tomorrow. i went to a local no-kill shelter (all the way downtown, ugh it killed me driving the after work, at least the traffic wasn't as bad since most were driving away from downtown, but still, there was an accident and the driving directions sucked).

i pick her up tomorrow, which hopefully gives me time to think of a name for her. not sure if i think she's an evie...