al

rupert murdoch billy corgan lou reed

will turn out to be a vintage year if i get the trifecta

The other thing about this plan: buying a brick is a one-time thing. How are they going to get a regular cashflow from bricks?

The point is this money will be used to finish the rennovations to the place, which includes expanding the beer garden and generally trying to improve the income earned outside of live music.. if that comes off, the pub should be able to pay down it's debts without further fundraising..

I think it's interesting to compare this to the closure of the Tote. Maybe the Annandale needs to close to finally wake Sydney up?

We already lost the Hopetoun.. that mattered a lot more to a lot of Sydney folk.. major venue closures are a semi-regular feature on the calendar in Sydney..

no offence, but i don't think that's particularly generous.. fairly standard cut these days..

do they enforce any venue 'guarantees', which are common these days (ie, ''first $300 to venue (allegedly to cover sound/lighting/door bitch, then $3/payer to venue'' type rules)? If they don't, I applaud them for holding out against that trend..

there was once a time when all the door money went to the bands, but that seems to be long gone, sadly.. PA and tech's have to be paid for, but a lot of these fees sorta reek of profiteering (or really, covering risk of punters not drinking) with the cover of sound/lights/security to make it seem legit.. bands are always the last to make any $$$ out of small time gigs..

i'm not much of a fan of this.. most has been said above.. socialising losses etc..

but it does need to be pointed out that the management have been attempting to put the annandale on a sustainable footing for a long time.. they've had a lot of delays from council etc and they've probably missed the boat now on getting the venue up to that level.. all these moves have been around bringing in a day trade.. ie, re-doing the beer garden, getting the kitchen going, generally creating space that is not dedicated to live music..

they're now attempting to generate a bit of seed funding to 'finish' that project off.. the theory (obviously) goes that if they can get a regular crowd in there in the day, it will make the hotel less reliant on filling the band room 7 nights a week (which they certainly don't manage anyway..).. doing this via a bank loan in the current business environment is obviously not as easy as it maybe once was.. it's probably the right thing to do, but if a bank won't invest in it, you'd have to think there's a fairly high degree of risk that it's all going to end in tears anyway..

I've never minded the annandale, but it's always pissed me off as a sound guy and/or friend of bands the way the gear has been falling apart for at least the last 8 years with only the most minimal of repair and maintenance work done.. we've all seen the whinges about promoters not booking big shows into that room any more etc.. i'm sure a big part of that is the lack of re-investment in the live room ends up pissing off all the 'industry' people who have to run the damn shows there.. yeah it's 'cool' to be all grungy, but your competition is doing a better job at making things sound decent and keeping the musicians happy.

As such, i don't really think they have a great record of investing in the part of the pub i care about.. money seems to always go on all the other things.. it should be noted that some of the other venues mentioned on this thread (goodgod, OAF) have been open for shorter periods and already refreshed their PA gear, several times over in some cases.. some of us notice this and it makes for better shows..

similar set to the night before.. the band loved the show, probably more loose and with a bit more swagger to it than the OAF show.. sound not as slick as OAF, more weight less detail, but that's the room/PA as much as anything..

hah that's amazing.. this internet thing is new to me.

worst gig i had the mispleasure of attending.. uhm.. theres been nothing i'd rate as bad this year.. last year was much worse for disappointments.

elvis costello @ state theatre was probably the letdown of the year.. great set on paper, but to be there felt so fucking flat and stale.. the state theatre does that to anything with a pulse though..

It's been a lean year in my corner (cheap and busy conspiring against many shows)..

holy fuck @ becks bar (syd fest) kyu @ becks bar (syd fest) tucker b's @ day of dead party singing skies launch @ red rattler melodie nelson launch @ goodgod

rather excited about tonight.. sweet bass vi tones.

ugh.. i mixed that ariel pink @ manning show.. ahem, it was not fun.. sounded -amazing- at soundcheck but things got carried away by show time.. everything heavily processed and levels hitting me were just completely fucked.. either non-existent or feeding back before it was in the PA.. if you stayed it got better but it took a while..

definitely partly my fault, but ariel is extremely specific with how he wants things to sound.. just a shame things changed completely between check and show and i had to undo it all!.. fun times, or at least, character building..

not sure who is bringing him out next year but hopefully they bring whoever mixes him in the states as it's not a simple mix.

you can hold me to it, goodgod will be easier and more even sounding across the room.

goodgod has a center speaker as well as the fairly wide main PA.. we'll use the center for vocals+fx only.. the overall balance of tops/subs is better in the goodgod system and the limiter won't suck the life out of it when it needs to go louder..

would love to go to that church show.. i thought the HTRK set was freaking great.. live there is a lot more complexity than on the record.. the guitar moments were amazing too..