Eternal Soundcheck: The 1st Year
Ever since we started BATS, we have been opened up to the DIY underground of Brisbane, that I as a ignorant fuckwit teen never knew existed. You could complain all you like how this town’s music/art/culture scene is dryer than a nun with a yeast infection - or you could shut up and actually get involved in some of the cool shit going on.
Take Matt Kennedy for an instance, not only is he currently a member of Brisbane band, Kitchen’s Floor, he started a blog called Eternal Soundcheck - where he started filming and posting live sets of bands in and around Brisbane and Australia over the post year.
When I heard that he was putting on a showing of his video documentations, I jumped at the chance of co-presenting the event and now here we are:
ETERNAL SOUNDCHECK: THE FIRST YEAR will be a celebration of the blog’s 1st birthday and will feature a special ‘best of’ screening featuring the most memorable performances and footage by a host of incredible groups including Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Royal Headache, Sky Needle, Blank Realm, Everett True, Scraps, Slug Guts and many more. As well as live peformances by Knee Chin and Gerald Keaney & the Gerald Keaneys. Thursday September 16 @ Tribal Theatre, BYO, 8pm.
How was Eternal Soundcheck conceived?
I had been going to heaps of shows for years, and I saw some amazing bands in amazing places, but 99% of it was never filmed and over time it kept bothering me that all these great bands and shows I was seeing were being lost in the moment. With a lot of the shows I go too, there are usually less than 30 people there, so I hope by doing this that I’m introducing a lot of these smaller bands to more people and hopefully it inspires them to come to shows and stuff.
What are your thoughts about Brisbane’s DIY music scene?
It’s something I’ve been very passionate about since I was 17, it’s always been exciting to watch bands develop and I actually think things are a lot better now than they were 5 years ago. More people are becoming involved, and bands like Scraps, Blank Realm, Slug Guts and Sky Needle are world class acts that are totally ruling it at the moment.
What have been your favourite performances that you’ve filmed?
Filming Eddy Current Suppression Ring from the side of the stage at The Zoo was really exciting, it was sold out and there was a really exciting atmosphere about the whole night. I’ve filmed Blank Realm the most over the last year, I never get tired of seeing them play and I always enjoy filming them. Bitch Prefect in Adelaide was also really exciting. There’s a video of Scraps I filmed from a house show in West End last year that’s so packed with raw emotional pain that I find it really powerful and Drunk Elk playing in a kitchen in Hobart also kind of affected me in a different but similar way.
What’s been your worst experience?
Nothing that horrible but my camera has let me down a few times and I’ve lost entire shows because of a disc error. At some shows I’ve gotten really drunk and it’s kind of obvious in the footage, there’s a few where I can’t really remember filming or watching the bands because I was so messed up, like the Maggotville warehouse show in Sydney but weirdly enough the footage still came out okay.
What can our readers expect at the event?
A years worth of extremely raw live footage from heaps of awesome Australian bands, it won’t be a retrospective “remember when?” event, it’s something I hope people can watch and feel good knowing that music like this is as strong as ever and it’s happening right now. Two of my favourite Brisbane bands Knee Chin and Gerald Keaney & the Gerald Keaneys are playing as well so it’ll be an awesome Thursday night.
Tickets are available now at The Outpost or online here.
August 16. 0 Notes.
