Last night I went to the Triple J Unearthed Celebration
Completely missed Asta because it was raining and I wanted dinner, but apparently she did some groovy choreographed dance moved so yay?
I did get there in time for YesYou though (after Tom and Alex did their spiel about how great Aussie music is - I agree that supporting local talent is something we should do, and there's some great artists out there at the moment, but I don't agree with Triple J effectively restricting the outlet of unsigned Australian bands by making it a 'go through Triple J or you won't get anywhere' environment). Enough of my blubbing, YesYou was fun, innocent, indie pop who entertained me for 40 minutes, even though I have barely any familiarity with their music.
Here's a shot where Marcus Azon (Jinja Safari) joined them onstage for final song Frivolous Life.
Following some oh-so-indie djing from Dom Alessio, and another YAY UNEARTHED episode from Tom & Alex, The Rubens took to the stage.
Let's just say I adore The Rubens. I like how they have a bit of twang to their sound, and I definitely think they deserved the title of Unearthed Band of the Year. I'm seriously into classic rock bands at the moment, and with a generous dose of the blues, they fit the bill comfortably. Overall, they're pretty chill on stage, apart from guitarist Zaac Margin who kept turning his back to the audience. At first I thought it was because of the cameras pointed his way, and he was one of those types that hates the proliferation of recording devices at gigs, but as it continued throughout the show, I ended up concluding it was due to nerves or a kind of audience phobia. It was his birthday, so I'm willing to cut him some slack there.
I'm glad pretty much the whole album was played (at least as far as I can recall), and seeing Lay It Down live is one of my favourite things to do. The only disappointment is that it's nowhere near as gut-wrenching when they jazz it up to a dance-y/sway-y track for the live audience, but watching Sam Margin play that hook will never be anything but a pleasure.
Now I'm left with a smudged outline of the Triple J Unearthed insignia, but that's the kind of impression I don't mind being left with.
