♬ ...from a whisper to a SCREAM!: Yves Klein Blue (4 July 2009)

"Andy Warhol is having dinner with Van Gogh tonight.."

So last weekend Mel and I went to see Yves Klein Blue at the Oxford Arts factory. She is a big fan, and I liked a song or two of theirs I've heard on Triple J so I said "hell yeah!" I really love live music, regardless of the genre, and I miss catching gigs now I live in Sydney. Its ironic really. I saw more live acts when I lived in rural Australia than I do living in the largest city in Australia. It has nothing to do with the bands, and everything to do with the company I keep. When I lived in Townsville my best friend Sami and I would head out to the Exchange on weekends - or go and hang at the Tav (Riverview Tavern), Molly's, the Seaview, Bombay Rock etc and take in the live music... sit with our bourbons and coke and just take it in. or dance our arses off near the stage And unlike my other friends, Sami crosses the genre lines... for the first few hours we might have listened to Steve the singer/songwriter type (mm Steve LOL), and then leave Portraits and head upstairs at the Exchange and check out a metal band... god, it was such bliss! But moving to Sydney means I don’t have Sami to go to gigs with... and my friends live scattered over Sydney, and aren’t really as fanatical about live music as I am... and I hate going to gigs by myself.. for a while there I hung out at the Strawberry Hills hotel with Richelle because Aaron ran the jam sesh, but when that got cancelled I lost my weekly (or bi-weekly, whatev) live music experience... So I was ecstatic when Mel asked if I wanted to go the see Yves Klein Blue. We share a lot of similarities in the indie music we listen to. I've always wondered what radio she listens to, because she is always at the front of the stampede, yet doesn’t listen to Triple J. I found her secret! apparently it is because she watches Rage LOL which is, of course, affiliated with Triple J (The ABC is so incestuous! I love it LOL) Anyway, I hadn’t heard much of Yves Klein Blue, I only started paying attention to them once I knew I was going to see them... they were one of the bands I liked the sound of when I heard them on the radio, but hadn’t payed particular interest to them. So the night was an experience, to say the least! I do love hanging out with Mel... we have such similar interests... both loving music, and being part of the nerd element of pop culture. In fact, I have to say, Mel is one only three female friends who can keep up with me on the nerd factor... I love having female friends I can have involved discussions about Dr Who, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and then things like the IT Crowd, the Mighty Boosh, Spaced, and Black Books. *high five* oops, I got off topic again…

Okay, Yves Klein Blue concert… The background music at the Oxford Arts Factory was really good. It didn’t fit in any particular genre, it was just good music… a bunch of classics, cult hits of the 90s, couple of modern tracks etc.. fun! And it kept us occupied until the live music started. We napped a seat for the first two support acts. It was up the back so we could look down on the crowd. The drinks were quite expensive… I am contemplating finding my hip flask… Anyway, both of us were wowed by Deep Sea Arcade… We weren’t expecting ANYTHING from the support acts…. I didn’t even know who was playing… but they started playing and I realised not only did I know a lot of their songs, but that I already loved a lot of their songs! (If you join their mailing list they will email you a copy of “Circles”). I’ll be keeping my eyes out for them in the future… Philadelphia Grand Jury were fun… not quite as great as Deep Sea Arcade, but still worth the price of the ticket LOL The bearded one (sorry, that’s just how I thought of him LOL) got really into it! On the last song he either jumped into the crowd or fell of the stage (I’m not sure which) and then spent the rest of the song wandering around the floor playing his heart out… it was quite random and a lot of fun! I didn’t realise I knew all the words to Casino – but I was singing them at the top of my lungs with everyone else!

Yves Klein Blue were awesome!! Their music was great, they really got into it… they kept switching around who was playing the keyboards which was interesting. Okay, I just have to say I think Michael the lead singer is hot… I’m not sure if you see that in the pictures, but he has such charisma… very nice!! Haha has anyone else noticed the hillbilly feel to the indie seen in Brisbane? It was most apparent in Michael… A lot of my friends growing up moved to BrizVegas, so I was already aware of it, which is why it really hit home.. Their music was energetic, fun, totally singable and you just had to dance. Unfortunately we had some drunk ditzes dancing behind us with jugs full of beer… seriously, who dances when they are carrying a whole jug of beer? I was so ready to make a scene… they were standing right behind us and the blonde splashed me bag.. idiot! The set was totally awesome, and when they left there was an encore call chanted by the crowd…. Finally Michael came back out with his guitar and started to play Born to Run…. Acoustic and beautiful! *sigh* then the rest of the band came out and they played Polka one last time….

It was an absolutely brilliant night, and I wish we could have been able to experience it all over again….