Japan/Australia Tour October 1998

Sydney, Australia shows - 25/10/98
Review by Gerard

> >I was off to Sydney ...
 

> >Sunday 2 pm ... I caught the train from Central to Newtown..
>to see those lovely folks Strapping Young Lad & their supports
>Damaged, Segression & Linedriver ... I caught both the 2-6pm
>All Ages and 8-midnite Over 18s show (might as well catch both
>seeings I hauled my ass up from Canberra - 4 hours drive ... well
>a lil' less, depending on driver)
 

> >Linedriver - bleh
 

> >Damaged ... these blokes boast the fastest drummer in the world..
>and in any case, gets bloodi close ... with at least 500 beats
>a minute, he does pretti well ... new bassist & vocalist (AGAIN..
>the bloke from Beanflipper has also left) ... played my favs
>the supposedly "black metal" Mirror Perils and Nailz ...
 

> >Segression ... not only top blokes ... but also great musicians..
>these guys have toured with Ozzy, Cradle Of Filth, Fear Factory,
>Prodigy (i think), and such larger names ... they even tattoo'd
>a Fear Factory bloke (they also do tatoos) ... with a new drummer
>that they've only had for a week, they did very well ... so
>the next addition to my lil' claim to fame (the first one
>was rubbing shoulders with important diplomatic folks) ... I had
>dinner with Segression! whole band ... and they are bloodi nice
>folks ... more than just metal psychos with tatoos and piercings,
>Chris (guitarist/vocalist) has a bachelor's degree in commerce and is
>an allround great bloke ... so are all the other members, tho I
>only really talked with Chris & the two guitarists ... Chris
>reckons he isn't famous, he is just the same as every other
>person on the street, no matter what sex, culture, race, colour,
>occupation ... in any case, he was recognised a coupla times..
>top blokes .. we ate at some pasta/pizza place ... not a pizza
>hut but like a nicer place with really really good food ...
 

> >Strapping Young Lad - having a few hours sleep in the last
>four days, these guys still held it together bloodi well ...
>only having the new keyboardist for the last 2.5 weeks and
>not knowing they were going to tour (originally it was just
>for interviews and promos) their repetoire was limited (according
>to Dave, keyboardist, they repeated three songs again at the
>very end for a huge Melbourne crowd) but it was still brilliant..
>Velvet Kevorkian, All Hail The New Flesh, Home Nucelonics, AAA,
>SYL, Far Beyond Metal, and Detox all got played ... I also
>met ALL of the guys ... Gene, Byron, Jed, Dave, Dev... they
>all signed one thing of myne or another ... I got everyone but
>Dave onto my over 18s ticket ... and got Jed & Dev & Dave on
>my shorts ... when talking to Dev, he even asked MY NAME (ok
>so all you non metal folks are saying how pathetic I am right
>now, but he's a god among real musicians and metal folk ...
>he's played with Steve Vai, one of the best guitarists in the
>world) ... probably because I mentioned his wife and stuff...
>and he told me some stuff that he told me not to repeat, so
>I shall not (Ash - you can ask me later)... top blokes ...
>tho Dev is suffering from his usual manic depressiveness and
>bi polar disorder ...
 

> >but that wasn't all ... the All Ages mosh was actually a lot
>rougher than the Over 18s ... which was losta fun .. tho
>has left me with at least 5 visible bruises ..'tis sore
>to move my arms ... argh ... and my ears are still ringing
>from several hours of f'n loud metal ... I'm sure my
>hearing would be 932840328409238 times better if I didn't
>go to all of these gigs ... or at least wear some ear plugs ..
>but they'd fall out in the mosh anyway ... all ages mosh was
>fun fun fun ... all those metal moshers out there know
>you have to establish your prescence to make sure everyone
>respects you and doesn't fuck with you in the mosh ... its kinda
>hard for me seeings I'm a helluva lot shorter than the 7 foot
>metal giants around... but I succeeded none the less (probably due
>to the experience gained with the 100 or so bands I've seen live in
>the last year or so) making my way up to the fence for Strapping Young Lad ...
 
 

> >also met a lot of folks... apart from the band members ... I also
>met someone who does work for In Your Face national magazine ..
>(Megan) ... two friends of Segression (Kylie & Amy)... a very cool
>pot sharing gyrl from Canberra (Daisy - and no, I had none, for all
>of you folks who would kill me if I did ... tho she did convince
>both Dave & Gene from SYL to have some ... Dev wouldn't hear of
>it because it sent him loopy a few years back ...) ... a Peter
>who recognised me from Narcissus at Gypsy ... a Duncan, friend of
>Daisy ... two Segression promo folks ... was very very cool ...
>I will meet all these folks again probably for Metal For The Brain
>VIII ... Australia's largest annual metal event ... held in
>my hometown of Canberra ...
 

> >in any case, it was a huge change from the opera... I think I'm going
>to see another opera in a few weeks time at the Sydney Opera House..
>should be good. Contrasts. > >Gerard
 

> >PS Knowing that everyone likes pictures, I've attached three... one >of the front of my over18s ticket which has got Gene's, Byron's, >and Jed's signatures ... and the back of my over18s ticket which >has got Devin's ... and my plain ol' all ages ticket (which was >overall better believe it or not, because Segression didn't play >at the over18s, and the mosh was rougher for the all ages)