polaroids of androids

Snowman + Baseball @ Annandale Hotel - 17/07/2008 and 18/07/2008

Originally this was going to be a side-by-side (drunk vs sober) comparison of the two Sydney dates on Da Snowballz 2008 National Tour. But I ruined the whole experiment on the first night when I had a couple of beers and then carried over the lack of professionalism on the second night when I didn't get half as obliterated as I thought/planned. So, instead this will be played out in the form of Gladiator-style battle el royale between the two nights. Kinda like David vs Goliath. Or David vs David. Or maybe even Goliath vs Goliath. I don't want to give anything away just yet.

Supports:

Charge Group vs Naked On The Vague. I only caught the last couple of songs from both of the opening acts and both were somewhere in that greyish/brown area between impressive and great. I think I enjoyed Naked On The Vague a little more just because they dish up so many layers of head-throbbing rhythms. It was just great watching people try and nod their heads to it and even almost attempt to dance.

Stickiness (of the floor):

The floor at the Annandale Hotel has never been cleaned. It was equally sticky on the two nights, with zero 'hose downs' happening between the Thursday night and the Friday.

Actually, the floor was cleaned once. Summer of '88. I had just got back from the marines and was dating a sweet, innocent, religious girl named Kristy. She could be gotten into bed faster than Ben Johnson could run the 100m dash at the Olympics that year when he was doped up to his eyeballs more than Pooky. Speaking of the Olympics - anyone else currently completely gripped by a nasty case of Olympic Fever? Yeah, me too. Mine is on the inside of my left leg and is crazy itchy.

The Sound:

I think it was the same people in charge of the sound on both nights. Not too much difference either way. I think on the first night the levels weren't quite right for Snowman and the band seemed to be continually requesting for 'more of everything'. The Friday saw very little talk between bands and 'sound masterz' which usually means the sound peeps had got it right. The general chitter-chatter of the patrons wasn't completely drowned out during Snowman's set on both nights, but this was more due to the quiet moments of the tracks and not necessarily any shortcomings from the audio controlling department.

As expected, Snowman's performance didn't engulf me as much as listening to their CD lying down in the dark with noise canceling headphones at 3am after consuming six or seven gin and tonics. But it still communicated the whole feeling of 'spookiness' quite well, especially considering the pub surroundings.

Baseball (or is Thick Passage the greatest ever performer, ever?):

Capt Passage is like a wet dream. A sticky wet dream of intense awesomeness where every moment is superseded by the next. He pillaged the crowd on both nights with his fantastic mix of 'crazy eyes' and gentle violin rock murder.

I think he hit the perfect balance between cutting loose and nailing the performance a bit more on the first night. On the Friday the rest of the band seemed to be slightly annoyed at how much he was diverting from the game plan and steering them all into the prickly mangroves of mentalness. This slight tension between band mates was a little distracting and, because of this, and Passage's slightly wilder frontman show (ie. he played while lying on the ground a lot more) I think the Thursday was their better performance.

Crowd:

Both nights the crowd was surprisingly 98% cockhead free. There were more people there (obvs) for the Friday night show - being a 'party night' and all - but both nights saw a larger than average crowd pretty much fill out the venue.

My position was slightly better on the Thursday night and the previously mentioned chitter-chatter at the back section (where I was on the Friday) kinda made me lose my focus a little.

Snowman:

Snowman's performance on both nights was pretty fucking faultless.

There was very little interaction between the crowd and the band, and even the band themselves. They were all very serious and focused. It was like some of strange ritualistic show. Perfectly fitting for the presentation of material from their brilliant new album, which, on both nights, they played in it's entirety.

I think on the Friday night it all went a little smoother and the encore (some sort of crazy 10 minute epic beautiful noisy shitstorm) really seemed to blow the audience away. As part of this encore song frontman Joseph McKee (aka J-Kee aka Mac JK) managed to convince 95% of the crowd to get down on the ground and then rise up with him like a phoenix ascending in the heavens of rock and roll awesomeness where Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon play pool and tell jokes where the punchline is quite often - 'Yoko'. I think he tried it at the Thursday show also, but people weren't really drunk enough in the mood.

On the Friday it was quite a site and a fitting conclusion to a brilliantly intense and confusing show.

The winner?

Me. I saw Snowman and Baseball play twice. In two days. Eat a dick.