18 February 2008

Record crowd at The Basement – Friday 15th of February 2008

| Lou_Zarr
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Record crowd at The Basement – Friday 15th of February 2008

Blacklist

Marc Robertson

System Addict

Dogact

Hollow Point

What started out sounding like just another gig at the Basement, ended up being possibly the biggest and best gigs that the Basement has seen. Certainly a record number of payers according to my sources.

The event was organised by ‘Shaggs’ (ex-Barrel Of Monkeys drummer) in celebration of his birthday.

The night kicked off with Blacklist taking to the stage with some kick arse rock and roll. This was apparently the boys first gig and despite some minor hiccups the band powered through their set, much to the delight of the crowd. The highlight for me was the singers extraordinary vocal ability and the main guitarist’s energy and willingness to entertain. Everyone seems to rave about Tonk these days, but I say move over Tonk, Blacklist have arrived!

Next up was Marc Robertson (ex-singer of Barrel Of Monkeys). Armed with just his voice and a keyboard, Marc tried his best to entertain the crowd, but succeeded only in sending most people outside to give their ears a rest. Or maybe they were still blown away by the opening act……..Despite obviously having a talented voice, Marc was ill-suited to the night of great music that was unfolding. Please trade in the solo gig and bring back Barrel Of Monkeys!

After what seemed like an eternity for the bands to change over, System Addict finally arrived. The 4 piece metal outfit with the biggest drum kit in Australia came on stage to a smallish crowd to begin with and had to work hard to get the people back up the front after the previous act. With some catchy songs and some sketchy vocals, System Addict did their best to entertain with some great tunes and tight music. Credit must be given to their bass player who certainly knows what to do and how to do it. He was simply outstanding………the other 3 were pretty good too.

Dogact were up next. This band had some great tunes, and from what I could see, great potential, but they seemed to not quite hit the mark tonight. Despite the best efforts from the singer and bass player to rock out and work the stage, and the precision and talent of the two guitarists, the 4 up the front seemed to be let down quite badly by the drummer’s inability to keep a steady beat and pay attention to the other band members when they were yelling at him to shut up and start the next song. Alcohol before playing = bad news if you’re a drummer. Overall though, this was a really good set of well written rock songs which most of the crowd seemed to enjoy, but just performed a bit below par.

To finish off the night, Hollow Point took to the stage. The guy that I was standing next to compared them to “a poor man’s Spoil”, but these boys were much better than that. They had moments of brilliance, which was unfortunately tainted by moments of madness. They even had a vocal effects box which helped to cover up the lack of vocal ability. Musically these guys were pretty darn good, and they played an overall entertaining set to a few drunk patrons who seemed to quite enjoy themselves. I tried to talk to them after their set but was ignored in a Axl Rose kinda brush off. Loose the ego’s and you guys could go a long way.

Overall, I’d have to say that this was one of the best nights of sex, drugs & rock and roll that I’ve been out to in a long while. The Basement staff need to be commended on their efforts for the night as they were completely run off their feet, but did a great job in keeping everyone happy and well liquefied! Well done to “Shaggs”, all the bands that played and everyone that came out and had themselves a kick-arse night!!! Loved it!

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Absent Diane4:39 pm 20 Feb 08

still trying to work out how the fck I got home!

Hey guys! Thanks to all who came along and a big thanks to the bands! I had a friggn sweet birthday thanks to all of yas!! 😀 Hope everyone had as good a night as I did!
-Shaggs.

hubert j farnsworth11:37 am 20 Feb 08

hay there, im the drummer from system addict. just wanted to say thanx for the review and the critisism(i loved the part about me having australias biggest drumkit!!!) , i must admit we were not at our best on friday night, although we played really well it was our first show for more than 3 months!!! its good to see so many people had great night. thanks everyone who came out to make the night and of course a massive thanx to shaggs for the night and also to mikey and the staff for putting up with everyones drunken antics!!!

Was also there for about half an hour, dropped in to say happy birthday to shaggs and hi to the rest of the crew.

I must have been there when Marc Robertson was playing cause the front and back outside area’s were packed and the bar was tkaing advantage of a lull to stock up on grog and change – and the guy singing on stage only managed to confuse me rather than entertain.

I was told just yesterday that it was one of the biggest nights the Basement has ever had – Mikee (publican) said they even ran out of some types of grog by the end of the night, so it must have been a big one!

Invidious Odium2:47 pm 19 Feb 08

Hey let me tell you I waz there alllll night and yes it was a great night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Basement Rocked out like there was no tommorow ( and the next day it felt like it to ) hahahaha

All the bands put on a great show and yep they played gooooooooooood for us all and they also played bad, all of them and only in bits but if you had enough to drink on the night WHO CARES””””””” I DIDN’T, but hey isnt that what they are there for, our entertainment not theirs….although I am sure they do get a bit entertained by us on the floor in form of them….hmmmmmmm yep i am sure…..

All in all a great ngiht was had by all and the best thing IS i didnt even fall over hahahaha……………….

Yeah, sorry about that everyone. I tend to be more critical than complimentary at times even though I don’t mean to be. This really was a very good, enjoyable gig! I guess I was just trying to give some feedback to the bands too rather than just the standard “you guys were really good” type of thing. Anywoo………

Oh, and the Basement is located at 2 Cohen Street in Belconnen, just up the road from the cop shop.

Where is this club/venue called “The Basement”?

Thumper must have some method of reading my thoughts, he pointed out exactly what I was about to post.

“tried his best to entertain” is not the same as actually being entertaining.

But I like that not all of the music reviews on RiotACT are positive.
Bring on more!

Deadmandrinking11:01 am 19 Feb 08

I was really drunk, so it was.

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