Illness Sickness Live From Mao Livehouse, Beijing.

Our China tour Manager Tom & his band, Illness Sickness, played Mao Livehouse in Beijing recently.

He sent me this video on Friday. Really cool stuff. And not the style I’d been expecting. I’d had many a beer with Tom on tour earlier this year & I got the impression he was well into hard-core punk with a leaning toward ‘angry’ music. As you’ll find in the video, the band’s style is progressive, dynamic & pretty experimental – with a powerful and melodic sound.

Steve Lane and The Autocrats – Friday 28 Oct at Northcote Social Club

I was a bit under the weather by the time I got to the show on Friday night. In fact, I nearly got kicked out of the venue before Steve’s band even hit the stage. Somehow, I managed to accidentally walk behind the bar at some point before the show. By the time I’d become aware of what I’d done, I was standing in the ‘sacred zone’, surrounded by puzzled looking bar staff. I quickly got the hell outa there, apologising profusely (just enough to be allowed to stay)…

I had a great night after that. There were moments where I felt really proud of Steve for sticking at it & fronting such a fantastic line-up. His band, The Autocrats consist of Augie March’s rhythm section & the Paul Kelly’s guitarist – so you can imagine how tight they were. On stage too, was Steve’s long-time close friend Pete Slater on guitar – another high school friend. We hung out before & after the show, catching up with a few more school buddies I hadn’t seen for years. Steve Land and The Autocrats are winding up a pretty solid Aussie tour, just a couple more dates to go. Awesome work guys.

Checkya later,
Fires out.