Beat or Inpress or both do 2-3 a week

Yeah it's weird. Most bands get most of their money/ reputation/ exposure from live performance, right?

And mess+noise does two a year - Meredith and Golden Plains.

You'll have to wade through all the personal waffling to discern anything about the bands though.

the live experience is the best time to capture the energy of a band and to pick up on subtleties and unique thang that they do... but the media seem pretty crap at presenting them. Even those who claim to be current and hip to what's goin on in the music scene... don't want to get off their fat arses and see and write about the awesome gigs that happen every week

Trans= ''No one will do a live review of High Tea in Beat or Inpress''.

I'd do a review of High Tea, but it wouldn't be pretty.

I think that Mess and Noise should leave it open to us. There are people here from every state? Maybe you should send them some reviews and if they like them they'll post them :)

Maybe. You'd have to check I guess. But what about that GIF guy? Not traditional reviews, but its theree

Good gig reviews are difficult to find. I rarely read them any more because they all say the same thing in the same way.

I often read the festival reviews just to hear how a band compares/ live

I think that Mess and Noise should leave it open to us. There are people here from every state? Maybe you should send them some reviews and if they like them they'll post them :)

It's not a bad idea, except for that fact that musicians reviewing musicians can sometimes be sycophantic and when it's not then it starts a bitchfight.

yep coz

Going out on a limb here, but I can't help but wonder if the proliferation of low cost/good quality video cameras and the ease of getting stuff edited and uploaded has kind of resulted in people skipping over the written reviews and going straight to YouTube to make their own assessment.

These days it's dead easy for bands to capture some decent imagery and pair it with a soundboard recording, and it could be argued that it's a better way for punters to research a band's live act.

I think that Mess and Noise should leave it open to us.

That's what websites like Faster Louder are for...inexpert reviews (check out the dozens of community driven websites/blogs) get ugly. If you're that desperate to read a live review, street press would be your first stop, then websites like Faster Louder, AU Review, and others that all have regular articles, but are written by hobbyists...quality is pretty mixed.

It's been a long time since I've read a good live review though, they're notoriously difficult and there are few people who do them well consistently. Kate Hennesy (the M+N contrib who wrote the HTRK live review) is the fuckin master of them. Outside of that, a good one is hard to find.

Case in point: we film as many Gate gigs as we can

who even does them any more?

but the media seem pretty crap at presenting them

golden opportunity to start a zine/blog. waiting for ''the media'' to reflect your interests is a bit silly.

golden opportunity to start a zine/blog. waiting for ''the media'' to reflect your interests is a bit silly.

This. Just don't end up like Eleven Magazine.

Ghoti-max made another spectacular point on the hit website Mess+Noise.

His salience was matched only by his pointedness and wit.

Not to be missed if you're a fan of his earlier work.

capture some decent imagery and pair it with
asoundboard recording, and it could be argued that it's a better way for punters to research
a band's live act.

i used to love eternal soundcheck for this reason.

i also like audio bootleg blogs like turn it up, reel muzak etc for the same reason.

Ghoti-max made another spectacular point on the hit website Mess+Noise. His salience was matched only by his pointedness and wit. Not to be missed if you're a fan of his earlier work.

Even though I arrived late, the classic satiric post by seminal Mess and Noise forum member Flukazoid was a true highlight of the thread. If you get a chance to read this user's posts the next time he logs in, you'd be mad to miss it!

• ghoti-max, Drum Media.

Block said:
Trans= ''No one will do a live review of High Tea in Beat or Inpress''.

chuckle

I missed the opening part of this thread but a friend said it was well received.

I write live reviews for my own website. However, because most bands don't - understandably - give passes to every blogger out there & mainly focus on mainstream media, I only write reviews of gigs / festivals I've paid to attend. Which means the reader is basically limited to reading about bands I like :)

just passing, thought i'd drop in...

ok, so the old blow by blow of a gig doesnt work. never did really.

but having asked this question for 20 years and still not got any sort of answer...what do you want to read then?

obviously, it's got to be more than just a set list. and of course you don't want to know the reviewer missed the bus and didn't see the support band, and not about the sweaty prick with the tatts standing next to them screaming out for 'khe sahn'.

so, the performance was good/bad/indifferent? the guitarist obviously wanted to punch the singer in the crotch? what is this exciting new format for the new paradigm?

the new paradigm is using innovative technologies to provide factual and statistical analyses resulting in charts and graphs that reflect the emotional impact of the performance. I want a flow chart of the show.

I think MissAustralia is onto something. Hook up with a university as well and you'd get it all completely funded by the government.

I'd like to read a review of an all-ages gig as reported by dennis ferguson.

stuff uni's and applying for govt grants...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

if you fools were in San Francisco someone would have already responded by now with ''I can make an app for that'' and they'd go toddle off and make their $$$$

but thank you for your deligful support ghoti-max, as always xxxxxxx

I reckon a great(or shit for that matter) live show can be filled with tension and drama. It just doesn't seem that way when you read about it. But it could be made to really convey something of worth and be a top read. A challenge to writers everywhere.

another example: if punters, as you say, tweet and twatter about shows, you can aggregate all the twats and do a contextual/keyword analysis over it, and report on key themes that emerged from the twatterverse. I suspect this is only viable in larger venues, people don't tend to twat in the pubs I go to. Much better to report on the aggregate themes than 'person x tweeted xyz' zzzzzzzzzzzzz

and the output from that analysis would not be writing but one of those pretty interactive word cloud map thingies

I agree with Ben that reviewing gigs is indeed a lost art. I'm not saying that anything I, or any other reviewer, have ever written should be considered ''art'' (eeep!), but certainly there are ways to talk about music in a performance context which significantly differ from writing about recorded music.

When I first started out writing about music, I used to go and see 4 - 5 gigs a week, which left me with no money to buy records, so by default I would write about live performances in my zines. I quickly learned that the ''blow-by-blow'' account of reporting was a dead end. Rather, the live performance could be a catalyst to examine the aims of the artist, the way they project their personality on stage, or the way that their interaction with the crowd gave an insight into how they positioned themselves in the context of their own subculture.

Of course I didn't put it in such high-falutin' terms, but chose to sum it up with ''it was fucken grouse. I got shifaced. I think I've gone deaf in my right ear.''

OK, I made that last bit up... I'd usually quote some Foucault instead.

''can I position myself in your context?'' is frankieteardrops pickup line at gigs

OK, I made that last bit up... I'd usually quote some Foucault instead.

Frankie, I reckon that colloquial/profane quotation is actually spot on Foucault - I suspect his missives on the nature of sexuality were of a similar order after dropping a couple of tabs and being flogged by a leather-clad San Franciscan in the mid 1970s.

I'm picturing that, Bames, and it ain't a pretty picture.

http://www.thevine.com.au/music/live-reviews/john-maus,-sydney-festival-2012--live-review20120112.aspx

for ben

I think Marcus is the best live reviewer in the country. http://www.thevine.com.au/music/live-reviews/pj-harvey,-melbourne-2012--live-review,-photos20120118.aspx

(sorry if link doesn't work, posting from phone)

Yeah, link died somehow mate...fixed here

Yes. Marcus is very good. More examples: Foo Fighters. 'My Pal' at The Tote, of course - possibly the single best piece of Australian music writing in the last few years. And his lengthy take on The Cure's Opera House show.