The Best of 2011 - in recorded form, that is!

I have definitely taken my sweet time getting this one out there - god this time of the year is busy! But there's no way in hell that I wasn't going to post this, as it's something I've always loved doing and so, because this thing is well overdue, let's get it started... with the TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2011, AND THEY ARE, IN MY HUMBLE LITTLE OPINION:

10. Noel Gallgher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
It's fair to say I was pleasantly surprised by this one! But then again, it was always something I needed to give at least a few listens to, given my past musical affinity with Gallagher, or to be more precise some band he used to be in called Oasis. Anyway, as we all know Noel finally left Oasis in 2009, finding himself no longer to put up with the constant war with his dear brother Liam; this would eventually see the Oasis name retired, with the remaining members continuing as Beady Eye, and Noel putting out a stellar album under this moniker. Not too far removed from the Oasis sound, there's plenty of upbeat guitar-driven material with some great hooks, balanced out with a few more reflective slower-paced numbers. Again, a surprisingly good release!
LISTEN TO: The Death of You and Me, AKA...What a Life!, Dream On

9. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
One of the earliest releases from 2011, it's nonetheless obviously made an impression as it's managed to carry itself through the year and have its high quality music stand up alongside all the other brilliant tunes that came along after it. Colin Meloy and his troupe of alt-folk-rocking friends have decided to simplify a bit on this album, cutting back on the lengthy songs and longwinded (but enjoyable!) concepts that have been a noteable feature of the two previous Decemberists albums The Hazards of Love and The Crane Wife. It's all still a very enjoyable listen; Meloy clearly hasn't lost his lyrical eloquence, nor his amazing voice, as he tells those stories as only he can in the form of song.
LISTEN TO: This is Why We Fight, Down By the Water, Dear Avery, June Hymn

8. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
Who would've thought that losing their drummer of 25 years could actually inspire a band to release one of their best albums in quite some time?! With the departure of Mike Portnoy, drummer and one of the two major creative forces behind Dream Theater, in late 2010, many were sceptical of how the band would recover from such a blow. That, coupled with the fact that Dream Theater have arguably been on musical autopilot over the past few albums they've released, meant that many fans of the band were going to treat this album with caution. However, once the new album arrived, there was a genuine sense of surprise in the air that Dream Theater had managed to shake off such a loss and still create an album that sounded fresh and inspired. Though nobody would deny that Dream Theater have slipped comfortably into their sound over their career and that this album is certainly going to sound familiar, on this particular album the ideas seem to be flowing a lot more than than on some of their previous albums. It's a solid album for a band that perhaps some were starting to give up on! I know I wasn't expecting to give this one a top 10 spot here!
LISTEN TO: Build Me Up, Break Me Down, Bridges in the Sky, Outcry

7. A Lonely Crowd - User Hostile
Here's a band I would never have been expecting to place in this countdown, as they're still a relatively underground group from my hometown of Melbourne, and one would think that their material just wouldn't have demanded the same attention as releases from other, more established, acts. However, I've thoroughly enjoyed the handful of live performances I've seen this extremely talent four-piece do, and when this album was released, I thought it might be something I'd enjoy - but not this freakin' much! A Lonely Crowd is the brainchild of the two Ancell brothers, Luke on guitar and Scott on drums, who have been going since 2008 with a variety of musicians getting involved in the lineup at various points. They've finally settled on the immensely talented David Morkunas on bass and keys and Xen Pow on vocals and flute. This album contains recordings from across their career however, so you still get to hear former band members Leah Ceff and Shane Lieber popping up on various tracks, as well as some handy guest vocals from Ennis Tola mainman Tomas Fitzgerald on one track! The band describes themselves as "experimental progressive-acidmath", which despite sounding a little ridiculous, is a good way of describing a sound that has many twists and turns - steadily rocking one minute, gentle the next, absolutely all-out thrashing metal madness the next! Recent live sets have featured a whole lot of new tracks, and the Crowd are currently recording their second album - who knows where they're going to go after this one!
LISTEN TO: Bipolar Bear, ADJustify, Barbed Haywire, Tyranny of Dissonance

6. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Ah yes, we are now truly in the business end of things, with an album that received almost unanimous critical praise and earned the Canadian hardcore group a whole new audience. Despite being a pretty sonically abrasive act in the past (and with a ridiculously intense live show to match), on this album Fucked Up try their hand at some new, slightly more accessible ideas - and it's all presented in the form of a concept album, a love story between David and Veronica. You'd never know a band with a name like that could create something so catchy, so melodic and yet still retaining plenty of the intensity that the group have been previously known for. It really was the album that put the boys and girl on the musical map last year, and Australia was blessed to have them tour here twice!
LISTEN TO: The Other Shoe, Turn the Season, Running on Nothing

5. Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors
I was a bit late in getting this one; despite persistent recommendations/reminders from a great friend of mine whose musical opinion is ALWAYS one I value, it just didn't make its way into my collection until the very end of the year. Nevertheless, as you can see it's made quite an impression! The progressive rock/metal sound is one that always pleases my ears, and with Fair to Midland, it's nice to see them throwing some new ideas into the mix, including some folk-ish experimentation and some truly varied and impressive vocals (Rikki Tikki Tavi anyone?). Considering I hold bands such as Dream Theater, Karnivool and Dead Letter Circus very dear to my musical heart, this just seemed like a band I should have gotten into years ago! And they've JUST announced an Australian tour, count me in!
LISTEN TO: Short Haired Tornado, A Loophole in Limbo, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Golden Parachutes

4. Floating Me - Floating Me
Ah yes, a band that I've given quite a bit of attention on this blog (and my contributions to Fan Made Recordings as well), and with good reason, given that the five blokes involved with Floating Me have all made themselves a name with other musical endeavours that I've enjoyed in the past. Namely, the musical recipe that is Floating Me is made of three parts Scary Mother, one part Karnivool and one part Cog! Tasty! After a good response to first single Sugar, released in late 2010, 2011 was the year when Floating Me really began to take off in their own right, as they began the year touring with the likes of Shihad and Dead Letter Circus, then released their debut album and headed off on a few very successful headlining ventures! The album itself is quite a mixed bag of sounds; there's plenty of dark and brooding atmosphere present on the likes of Deathless and Xtoto, while upbeat numbers such as Narke and Breaking to Breathe show off this band's incredible rhythm section of Jon Stockman (Karnivool) on bass and Lucius Borich (ex-Cog) on drums! Throwing off the ties to their other work, this album and the live shows they performed throughout the year really showed that Floating Me just might be one of the most exciting acts to come out of this Aussie heavy/prog/rock scene in some time!
LISTEN TO: Narke, Bezhumous, Breaking to Breathe, Across the Gulf

3. Gotye - Making Mirrors
If you have ANY interest in music whatsoever, and live in Australia, then Gotye is a name you probably heard quite a bit in the year 2011, no matter how much you tried to avoid/deny it. It was a mammoth year for the man known to his parents as Wally de Backer, as the second single from his third album, Somebody That I Used to Know, propelled him to far greater heights of fame than he'd previously reached. Well, other than that particular song, the album served as a worthy follow-up to the critically-acclaimed (but not quite as commercially successful, let's not deny it!) Like Drawing Blood. With a five-year gap between albums, it was going to be interesting to see what Wally delivered this time, but his idiosyncratic cut-and-paste style of sample-based composition remained firmly intact on this recording! Yep, on here you can find plenty of musical ground covered, from the smooth jazzy groove of Smoke and Mirrors, to the outrageous 60s-esque pop of I Feel Better, to the outright bizarre sample-driven State of the Art - which just happens to be a song entirely about an organ! Ahh, Mr de Backer, Wally, Gotye, whatever, where will you go next?!
LISTEN TO: State of the Art, I Feel Better, Eyes Wide Open, Bronte

2. Battles - Gloss Drop
Battles' last album Mirrored was one that I enjoyed a HELL of a lot. I enjoyed it so much that when it got to the end of the year 2007 and the time came for me to do my beloved end-of-year chart, I placed that particular disc at POSITION NUMERO UNO. Not like my opinion actually counts for anything, but yeah, in that year I just thought that album particularly ruled (and it had one hell of a competitor in a certain prog-rock/metal album...). Anyway, fast-forward four years and well what do you know, Battles have released their long-awaited second album! But there's been one pretty big change happen in the band - vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Tyondai Braxton left during the recording of this follow-up, deciding for whatever reason that Battles just wasn't the band for him anymore. Fair enough. Nevertheless, Ian Williams (guitars/keys), Dave Konopka (bass/guitar) and John Stanier (drums) decided that Battles was still the band for them, and kept on keeping on to finish this longplayer. And I think we can safely say thank God they did, for this album is sheer brilliance! It's really the kind of album you would have expected them to make; it's a perfectly natural follow-up to Mirrored, with plenty of their trademark mathy noodling and electronic-ish loopy experimentalism present and accounted for. They've even managed to keep vocals present, although not quite in the band - outside help was called for, and Matias Aguayo, Gary Numan, Kazu Makino and Yamantaka Eye responded! All in all, there was a pretty high level of anticipation and expectation for this one in the music community, but Battles managed to deliver and then some!
LISTEN TO: Sundome, My Machines, Futura, Wall Street

It's now time for the big one, and from the moment it was released somewhere in the middle of the year, I knew that it'd take something pretty special to dethrone this one from its position at the top - unsurprisingly, nothing did. But what was it, you ask...

1. sleepmakeswaves - ...and so we destroyed everything

Holy mother of God, what an album. The Sydney post-rocking foursome have been doing their thing and doing it very well since their inception in 2006, but it's been a slow ride in terms of studio releases up until now. There's been a demo, an EP and a split with Tangled Thoughts of Leaving. But it's certainly been quality over quantity and the group have won themselves many fans and lots of positive feedback - and it all resulted in quite a lot of anticipation for this, sleepmakeswaves very first full length album. It's been a long time coming, but my goodness it has been worth it; post-rock is becoming a little overdone for some people, but then again, they probably just haven't heard albums like this. A very large part of post-rock is the extreme variance in dynamics, and sleepmakeswaves certainly know what they're doing in this department. Opener to you they are birds, to me they are voices in the forest (one of many delightful titles on this here album) begins with almost inaudible synth sounds before, without warning, a shrill burst of rapid fire musical mayhem EXPLODES out of nowhere, and then things settle down again, and then things get louder - and so on, and so forth. Elsewhere, the band's command of electronics and glitches are also given a healthy workout here - see the beautiful interlude-ish piece our time is short but your watch is slow for that - and when the album finally reaches it breathtaking conclusion in the title track, there's even vocals. Is there anything this album cannot do?!

LISTEN TO: a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, to you they are birds, to me they are voices in the forest, ...and so we destroyed everything

SO. It took quite a while, but we finally fucking got there! 2011 was a bit of a slow year for me in terms of discovering new music, but as you can certainly see, there were still a few quality releases that pleased my ears immensely. And as always, not everything can make the top 10! Here is, in no particular order, a list of honourable mentions!
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao of the Dead
Absu - Abzu
Alarum - Natural Causes
Art vs Science - The Experiment
Black Devil Yard Boss - Black Devil Rising
Frenzal Rhomb - Smoko at the Pet Food Factory
Geamala - Forking Paths
La Dispute - Wildlife
Laura - Twelve Hundred Times
Mastodon - The Hunter
Meniscus - War of Currents
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
Whew! There was quite a few of those. Maybe I need to do a top 20 next year? We shall see!

Moving along then, to the top five EPs of 2011! They were...
5. The Khyber Belt - The Khyber Belt
4. I Am Duckeye - Die
3. Heirs - Hunter
2. Solkyri - No House
1. [Me] - Naked
(Again, all Australian acts!)

Top five songs of the year:
5. Fair to Midland - Short Haired Tornado
4. Battles - Sundome
3. [Me] - Like a Fox
2. sleepmakeswaves - a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
1. Sheriff - What You Want (because I can!)

Best live release:
Engine Three Seven - Becoming Atmosphere DVD

"Never mind the facts, find a way to frame them" - Floating Me, East Brunswick Club, 28/10/2011

2011 has seen the gradual rise to prominence of one of Australia's most exciting new bands, Sydney-based Floating Me. Undoubtedly they were able to inspire many people to investigate their music pretty much as soon as they formed, because of the past musical history of the members (the former vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist of Scary Mother, the bass player of Karnivool, and the former drummer of Cog), but with the release of their debut album in April, it's clear that Floating Me are now ready to forge their own musical path. After their first headlining tour in May, and a subsequent coheadlining ventue with Thousand Needles in Red in July, the quintet did another lap around the nation to celebrate the release of new single Breaking to Breathe. On a very wet Friday night, it was Melbourne's turn to experience the live sounds of Floating Me, along with a handpicked bill of exceptional local Melbourne talent.

At one point in our lives, we've all "liked" (or at least noticed) one of those "(x band) should support (x band)" pages on Facebook, but it seems that the people never manage to actually make the people responsible for organising the tour aware of the page. On this particular occasion though, a friend of local Melbourne instrumental post/prog metal trio Anna Salen was successful in his attempt to get the band noticed by Floating Me, and so it was that Daiv Morgan (guitar/keys), Paul Risso (bass/keys) and Shaun Scott (drums) were given the great honour of warming the East Brunswick stage (and also played the Geelong show the night before). The band were understandably very excited to be given the opportunity, and didn't waste it, delighting the audience with their complex yet highly accessible brand of heavy instrumental music. New material and old alike was embraced by the crowd; the band's regular fans up the front of the room (a few Anna Salen t-shirts were spotted) knew all the right moments to headbang to, while others in the bandroom seemed new to the band, wearing looks of "Who are these guys? I LIKE IT!" This was definitely one of the band's biggest gigs in recent times, and if a band of the calibre of Floating Me is taking notice, then hopefully that's an indication that the metaphorical doors are opening for Anna Salen. They deserve it!

Up next was another great example of the diversity of the Melbourne heavy/prog scene, Ennis Tola. This unique five-piece have been on the rise in recent times, landing some pretty impressive gigs including a support slot with internationally-renowned Adelaide progressive rock group Unitopia. No doubt this can be attributed to the fact that there really isn’t another band around at the moment that sounds quite like these four guys and girl, and on this occasion they rose to the challenge and delighted the punters with something a little different. The band’s frontman, acoustic guitarist/vocalist Tomas Fitzgerald, wasn’t exactly engaging the crowd as much as he could have, but in all fairness, he probably had a good excuse – his guitar abilities are extremely impressive and instead of “delivering a show” so to speak, he was just concentrating on making sure he didn’t miss a note. Certainly with some of his band’s complex rhythmic ideas and time signatures, this was no mean feat, but Fitzgerald nailed every intricate riff and lead pattern. It must be mentioned that he also has a really powerful voice, with an almost soulful/blues tone to it, and his ability to sing and play those particular rhythms simultaneously deserves full points. Another area also getting a lot of the crowd’s attention was stage right, where the multi-talented Karen Heath was positioned. As various songs required, she switched effortlessly from clarinet, to saxophone, to bass clarinet, to keyboard, and at one point during the set, she even sat down to play the koto – a large Japanese 13-stringed instrument. Utilising this instrument in their set only served to underline Ennis Tola’s commitment to delivering forward-thinking, cerebral progressive rock. The set closed with Weather the Storm, definitely a stand-out piece in an already impressive set of tunes, and many members of the crowd looked quite surprised yet appreciative of what they’d just witnessed. This band is one to watch.

It was no surprise to anyone that Over-reactor were invited to join this bill, given that in the past they have supported Cog and more recently, Karnivool. The latter tour saw the Melbourne "death-hop" duo gain a whole new audience, and tonight there was a pretty sizeable crowd in the small East Brunswick bandroom to check out Ezekiel Ox and Cory Blight doing their thing. The setlist was pretty much identical to recent Over-reactor shows, but the two-piece gave it their all as they usually do - well, with Blight behind the drums there wasn't a lot he could do, but Ox more than made up for it, covering every possible corner of the stage (and a bit later in the set, even some territory off the stage), belting out his vicious lyrics with his trademark fire and passion, and even getting a little artistic between songs. As happened at the Showdown gig in August, an easel was set up on the stage, and Ox took every possible opportunity to spraypaint some interesting designs onto it. Well known for his fierce political beliefs, Ox also took time out between songs to comment on the Occupy Melbourne protests, not surprisingly criticising the police brutality that had occurred the previous week. This gig also saw the return of the trademark Over-reactor visuals, or at least, at attempt at it. The band had done some gigs in the past with deliberately old-school TVs displaying various imagery (helped out by their good friend Josh Meney), but tonight, technical difficulties meant that the two TVs (one up the very front of stage, one more in the centre) displayed nothing but static the entire set. "Once again, there's nothing on TV," remarked Ox sarcastically as he decided to try and fix the problem. "Maybe I'll check the other channels." However, his efforts proved unsuccessful, and at the conclusion of the set, he warned punters up the front to stand back before picking up the front TV and smashing it on the floor. It was a dramatic end to what had already been a very enthusiastically delivered set already, and Ox quickly requested a cleanup, and subsequently emphasised that the headlining act did not sanction his behaviour.

After the anger and passion of that set, it was time for Floating Me to take things down a notch, but the crowd were no less enthusiastic for their performance! Getting things off to a slow start with Xtoto, the band quickly followed it up with the industrial-flavoured, upbeat Narke, showcasing the amazing talents of Lucius Borich on the kit. However, it became apparent at this point in their set that there were some serious problems with the sound mix; Borich's samples and triggers didn't seem to be working correctly, while the guitars of Antony Brown and keyboards of Tobias Messiter were almost drowned out entirely by the fierce rumble of Jon Stockman's bass. Eventually it seemed enough was enough, with the band taking an extended break after Spirals to try and get everything in order.

When the set resumed with Piano, it seemed that everything was in order, and not a moment too soon, because many in the crowd were growing extremely restless with the disruption to the flow of the evening. The band, to their credit, did their best to soldier on though; after all, sound problems are rarely the fault of the actual artist (what band wants their performance to sound substandard?), and they were still performing with passion and conviction, especially vocalist Andrew Gillespie. Some remarked, after the band's shows earlier in the year with Dead Letter Circus, that the band still had quite a way to go in terms of developing their stagecraft (especially considering that some of their material is a bit more downtempo and reflective), but with a few solid touring runs under their belt, this is now a lot less of a problem and the band look a lot more comfortable onstage, and with each other.

The improvement to the sound was extremely noticeable on the band's next song, which was a cover of the Jefferson Airplane classic White Rabbit. Prior to the band's previous coheadlining tour with Thousand Needles in Red, they had asked fans via their Facebook to select a song for the band to cover, with this being the song they had eventually picked out of the many selections offered. Though some of the younger fans in the room were clearly unfamiliar with the song, it was clear that the band wanted to treat this song with the respect it deserves, and they gave it their all, before returning to their own material to round out the set. Bezhumous was as stunning as it had been on previous tours, given that the outro to the song was magnificently extended by a lengthy drum solo from the one and only Lucius Borich, as the rest of the band jammed around his improvisations. When it was all over, the applause from the sold-out crowd was far longer than the usual between-song appreciation, and deservedly so! The energy didn't stop there, as the band launched into the very first song that everyone heard from them, the 2010 single Sugar, which is understandably a massive crowd favourite. It was almost time to go, but there was one more tune to come, and the set drew to a conclusion with the epic Across the Gulf.

It's been a bit of a gradual process (the fact that Cog aren't together anymore is understandably still upsetting to many), but Floating Me are slowly earning themselves more and more fans, and with the show they put on tonight, it's easy to see why!
SETLIST:
Xtoto
Narke
Deathless
Spirals
Piano
White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover)
Breaking to Breathe
Bezhumous (with drum solo)
Sugar
Across the Gulf

"And all I ever find, is a way things could be" - Dead Letter Circus, Corner Hotel, 02/04/2011

Earlier this year, due to my increasingly dire financial situation, I told myself I would try not to attend too many gigs of bands I had already seen multiple times, in other words, those regular local bands. Now I think about it, these bands are the ones that need support the most and the reason they gig so often is to try and gain themselves much-needed fans, but hell, there are certain bands that I have seen multiple times in the last twelve months with very little obvious change to their set, sometimes nothing changes, and I think to myself, "Why am I still spending money on this?" HOWEVER! There's a certain band from Queensland that I have seen numerous times, and every time they come to town, I find myself going back, due to their consistent ability to entertain their increasingly-large crowds. And so it was that Dead Letter Circus rolled into Melbourne town once again, after a very successful 2010 and a well-received lap around the country at the beginning of 2011 with the Big Day Out festival. Opting for some slightly smaller venues than their last tour, possibly due to the "I've seen them before!" factor, the "sold out" signs nonetheless went up again! Along for the ride were exciting new supergroup Floating Me, and in Melbourne, theatrical progressive rockers [Me]. Now, I couldn't really say no to this!

The night got off to a grandiose start around 9pm, with local up-and-coming four-piece [Me]. Despite the unfamiliarity of the material, the crowd that had arrived quickly warmed to their bombastic brand of rock. Very heavy on the keyboards, and led by the impressive pipes of Luke Ferris, the band lived up to the expectation that many had gained from hearing past reviews saying that the band were taking their musical cues from acts like Muse and Queen. Personally, I found the Muse comparison a little lazy, and I thought Ferris's vocals (and the backing vocals of his bandmates) were a lot more Freddie Mercury than Matt Bellamy. Despite the obvious comparisons to their musical influences, [Me] put on a great show and injected plenty of their own style and originality into the tunes that filled their short set. Those that turned up at this early stage of the night seemed suitably impressed, and at the end of the night, I and the group of friends I was with were all leaving the venue with copies of all of their CDs they had on sale!

Up next was a highly anticipated performance for many in the crowd, despite Floating Me being relative "newcomers" to the scene, having formed just last year. However, although the name may be a new one, the individual musicians in the band are certainly familiar to those who have been following their Australian rock over the past 20 or so years - Andrew Gillespie (vocals), Antony Brown (guitar) and Tobias Messiter (keys) are all former members of 90s group Scary Mother, while the rhythm section of the new band is guaranteed to wow the younger crowd, considering it consists of Jon Stockman from Karnivool and Lucius Borich, formerly of Cog! The expectations were high, and Floating Me did very well to justify the amount of hype that is building around the new act. Gillespie perhaps could've interacted with the crowd a bit more, saying very little other than the obligatory "thank you" between songs, but there was certainly no faulting his vocal performance; his Jeff Martin-meets-Chris Cornell baritone is one of the strongest assets this band has. He was also helped out by the ever-versatile Lucius Borich, who surprisingly is still using his overhead swivel microphone that was such a trademark feature of Cog's live performances. Like [Me], the band had to work to win over a crowd who were unfamiliar with most of the material played (their album, although on sale on the night, hasn't been "officially" released yet), but they did have the advantage of well-known personnel, and they did get a very rousing response for Sugar, which was released as a single last year. The band finished off with a stellar Bezhumous, featuring an intense extended drum solo from Borich, and another song which I'm told was actually an old Scary Mother track. Can't wait to see more from these gents in the future, which is looking quite bright for them!

I had hopes that Dead Letter Circus would do something a little different for this tour, particularly an attempt to mix the setlist up a bit with some oldies that we hadn't heard in a while, or even a debut of Walk (which is the only song they haven't played yet from their all-round awesome album This is the Warning, despite now having toured it three times (four if you count the BDO)). However, with the familiar opening of The Mile, it was clear from the outset that the band were going to deliver a performance that would seem just a little bit "samey" to those who had caught the band four times since their album launch in May last year! The flipside of this is Dead Letter Circus are a pretty impressive live unit, and don't disappoint on a stage even if they are bashing out their old tried-and-true routine. I wouldn't have come back to see them again if they didn't blow me away on previous tours, and even though this particular gig wasn't one of their best, there was still plenty of spark to keep the crowd satisfied. On the second song of the night, Reaction, some extra cameras appeared in the photo pit and onstage, with vocalist Kim Benzie explaining that a film clip was being shot for an upcoming release, the news of which certainly excited the already responsive crowd! As the band worked their way through a collection of favourites from This is the Warning and their self-titled EP, the entire venue looked to be having a great night as usual, with enthusiastic pogoing and very loud singalongs becoming commonplace - Benzie didn't even need to ask! The encore of the set was a rousing rendition of the album's first single Here We Divide, before those extra toms appeared onstage and we all knew what was coming. As the introductory speech to album closer and title track This is the Warning played out over the PA, Benzie welcomed to the stage Sean Bailey of Sydonia, and of course, Lucius Borich from Floating Me. I was hoping that, well, because it's Lucius freakin' Borich, they were going to give him something extra to play in the way of drums, but disappointingly he was merely playing the floor toms, in exactly the same manner as Bailey, and toward the end of the song Benzie and live guitarist/keyboardist Tom Skerlj joined in. Sure, five people playing drums at the same time sounds pretty awesome, and looks damn cool as well, but when they're all doing exactly the same beat, and it's being done in exactly the same way that it was done on previous tours, one can't help feeling that it's losing some of its impact. As I said, Lucius should have been given something a little bit more interesting to do, as what he was doing was no more impressive than the performance of anyone else that's joined in this song over the past year. Nevertheless, as the band left the stage and the curtain onstage was pulled closed, the punters slowly leaving the venue were all wearing that post-gig "I'm exhausted but I've had a fucking awesome night!" expression on their faces. Because when Dead Letter Circus play a gig, there's really no other way to be.
SETLIST:
The Mile
Reaction
This Long Hour
Disconnect and Apply
The Drum
One Step
Cage
Alien
The Space on the Wall
Next in Line
----Encore----
Here We Divide
This is the Warning (with Lucius Borich of Floating Me and Sean Bailey of Sydonia)
(setlist actually taken from Sydney show. Looks good to me though.)