Last week we saw Tripod's Christmas show at the Metro. Tripod are a three piece comedy band, or a very funny three man rock band, or something like that. They are most famous for being on The Sideshow, which is on some Australian channel or other, and doing funny songs in an hour on Triple J.
Their support act was weird. Really weird. I liked him.
Tripod themselves performed a series of songs, some of which I'd heard before and some of which I hadn't. All were very funny indeed, regardless. This one is even funny without the music. But for me, the best bits were the bits between the songs. And during the songs in one case. A chap got up to use the lavatory, prompting a "Where the fuck do you think you're going?" from Gatesy (the middle one is called Gatesy, the one with the guitar is called Scod, and the shorter bald one is called Yon). He leapt off the stage and pulled him back to his seat. Makes for a good show.
At the end of their shows they tend to do a cover. Since it was Christmas, they brought on a lady vocalist and did "Fairytale of New York". Lovely!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
The Music of John Williams, Sydney Opera House, Friday 30th Nov
John Williams writes a pretty nifty tune. Elissa managed to land two tickets for this, and I was pretty keen to go, but had been hogging the free tickets, so suggested she take her father. Then on the day, I had a change of heart, too late. I was all set to take the bus home as Elissa wandered off to meet her dad, but then I got a phone call. "Where are you?" "Waiting for the bus" "Can you get to the opera house in the next ten minutes?".
So wandering into the foyer of the Concert Hall, the three of us were beset on each side by R2 units. Not dwelling on this for too long, we went into the hall, and the Sydney Symphony opened with the fanfare from th 1984 Olympics. From then on, interspersed with bad jokes I would have been proud of, we had music from Superman, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, ET, Close Encounters, Harry Potter, and briefly, Jaws and Psycho (the latter isn't a John Williams picture, but that shrill violin thing got a few seconds' airing anyway). The first half closed with some music from Indiana Jones.
Two things really struck me about this concert. Firstly, not having seen an orchestra play that often, I was surprised at just how loud it got, and just how deep the bass sounds were. I guess a hundred people can make a lot of noise, when they've spent their entire lives learning how. Secondly was just how vividly the images that go with the music came to mind. You could see ET and Elliot flying round the top of the concert hall, and the T-Rex leaping out behind the orchestra. Indy might has well have been swinging on the doughnuts (they have big perspex things hanging from the roof to help reflect the sound) with a couple of owls hanging round for good measure.
During the interval, I passed Darth Vader in the area around my door, as I made my way to meet Elissa and her dad. "There's a bunch of stormtroopers hanging round this side of the theatre". "I know - Darth Vader's just round the corner" I replied. So we set out to get as many photos as possible before we went back in. Sadly Darth was only stopping for photos with you if you were two pretty blonde girls. I am not two pretty blonde girls, so I settled for Boba Fett. As we aimed guns at each other I said "Now thousands of internet Star Wars geeks will be asking which of us shot first". He laughed politely... (By the way I'm not a huge Star Wars geek, I swear, I just spend too much time on the net not to pick up a few of these things).
Back in the concert hall, the lights go down until the hall is pitch black. Suddenly, with the accompanying noise, a light sabre is produced from the conductor's stand. As the lights go up, he puts it down and picks up his baton, to a quiet sigh of disappointment from a polite audience. As the Star Wars opening music dies down, Darth Vader enters the concert hall, proclaims he is the lead violinist's father, and insists that he will only spare the conductor's life if he continues to play music from Star Wars. Meanwhile, 5 stormtroopers post themselves at the foot of the stage. Music from all 6 films fills the rest of the show, the Imperial March getting the best reception. All in all, an excellent way to spend a few hours. I'm just glad I didn't end up with a seat at the front - those Stormtroopers looked pretty nasty!
Photos follow...
So wandering into the foyer of the Concert Hall, the three of us were beset on each side by R2 units. Not dwelling on this for too long, we went into the hall, and the Sydney Symphony opened with the fanfare from th 1984 Olympics. From then on, interspersed with bad jokes I would have been proud of, we had music from Superman, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, ET, Close Encounters, Harry Potter, and briefly, Jaws and Psycho (the latter isn't a John Williams picture, but that shrill violin thing got a few seconds' airing anyway). The first half closed with some music from Indiana Jones.
Two things really struck me about this concert. Firstly, not having seen an orchestra play that often, I was surprised at just how loud it got, and just how deep the bass sounds were. I guess a hundred people can make a lot of noise, when they've spent their entire lives learning how. Secondly was just how vividly the images that go with the music came to mind. You could see ET and Elliot flying round the top of the concert hall, and the T-Rex leaping out behind the orchestra. Indy might has well have been swinging on the doughnuts (they have big perspex things hanging from the roof to help reflect the sound) with a couple of owls hanging round for good measure.
During the interval, I passed Darth Vader in the area around my door, as I made my way to meet Elissa and her dad. "There's a bunch of stormtroopers hanging round this side of the theatre". "I know - Darth Vader's just round the corner" I replied. So we set out to get as many photos as possible before we went back in. Sadly Darth was only stopping for photos with you if you were two pretty blonde girls. I am not two pretty blonde girls, so I settled for Boba Fett. As we aimed guns at each other I said "Now thousands of internet Star Wars geeks will be asking which of us shot first". He laughed politely... (By the way I'm not a huge Star Wars geek, I swear, I just spend too much time on the net not to pick up a few of these things).
Back in the concert hall, the lights go down until the hall is pitch black. Suddenly, with the accompanying noise, a light sabre is produced from the conductor's stand. As the lights go up, he puts it down and picks up his baton, to a quiet sigh of disappointment from a polite audience. As the Star Wars opening music dies down, Darth Vader enters the concert hall, proclaims he is the lead violinist's father, and insists that he will only spare the conductor's life if he continues to play music from Star Wars. Meanwhile, 5 stormtroopers post themselves at the foot of the stage. Music from all 6 films fills the rest of the show, the Imperial March getting the best reception. All in all, an excellent way to spend a few hours. I'm just glad I didn't end up with a seat at the front - those Stormtroopers looked pretty nasty!
Photos follow...
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