Upcoming Gigs (past gigs)Great news! DEEP HEAT BANDITS -DhB- (sf's experimental live act) have re-formed. Stay tuned for small intimate gigs on the East Coast of Australia in 2009. For the latest rumours on live gigs, check: sparrowfahrenheitlives
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Gig Blog (upcoming gigs)March 15, 2008 - Geography IssuesForced to leave Australia and the DhB (DEEP HEAT BANDITS) to return to his native Canada. sparrowfahrenheit would like to thank DhB for the best drummer and bassist anyone could hope for. Creative, intelligent, open minded, dedicated, hard working. This freight train rhythm section and backup came through in plus 40 and full humidity to deliver a tight set and ride perfect waves. "T" and "Ron" will likely continue playing pub gigs / covers in Australia as part of "Pleasant Man's Bag". Mar 13, 2008 9:00 PM - The LoftWhere: 54a Thomas Dr., Cheveron Island, Gold Coast Surrounding Area (-close to Surfer’s Paradise), Queensland Australia What Happened: Big thanks to the loft. Very fun people, with an appreciation for quality sound... We hadn't taken the time to scope this small jazz venue before we played. More so, we should have prepped our brave, but overwhelmed sound man. :-) Big lessons here... Most of our gear didn't fit onto the small stage (packed with a grand piano). Our singer was crowded into a corner and could not turn to see the band. This affected our usual sonic cohesion -we could not visually cue off one another. Prepared for any stadium, or large room, -and inspite of our well controlled stage volume- we flooded the venue with too much -too much of everything (reverb, stereo pans, compressions etc). :-) Vocals were not clear until nearly half way through the set. If we were to play a similar venue in the future, we would strip everything down to an acoustic set - as we would in our own living room. One can become fixated on the use of equipment when so much time and effort has been put into engineering, production and complex sound. Pushing reality over the cusp of madness, the DhB had extra, extra gear this gig (for a crescendo of destruction at the end). Unfourtunately, none of this mayhem could be released without the risk of spraying glass all over the small and intimate venue. Another song was added to our set tonight, "Three Chickens to Paradise". "Ron" managed to find a chord that perfectly matches the disturbing "scream" of a dog toy / rubber chicken. With the "scream", and a constantly switching half time rhythm, this piece can be unforgettable. We nailed it in rehearsal, but count on visual contact with each other for navigating the unusual rhythmic changes. This was made challenging with the singer pressed up against a grand piano, unable to move. We are a new enough band to be finding our flexibility in various venues. Our Loft soundman was understandably overwhelmed with a crazy "full auditorium" setup -with the limited space. Overall, it was bad enough to be invited back, and sign a few autographs. We play this style of setup well as a "casual living room jam". Next time we will fully rock. We don't need all this gear! Mar 7, 2008 7:00 PM - Sheoak ShackWhere: 64 Fingal Road, Fingal Head, Gold Coast (surrounding area - Fingal), New South Wales 2487, Australia What Happened: DhB would like to thank the Sheoak shack for having us. We couldn't have asked for nicer hosts and audience. This was a open air gig with especially nice, natural, spacious sound. Aside from a small crowd of pretty girls rushing and overwhelming our stage setup at the end, everything went perfectly to plan. The curry comes with our recommendation. Although we are adding a new original song per gig - we started to run short on material after the second encore. This might have been good, we were starting to approach burn-out. Hard work! We did miss the barrier of a raised stage and our soundman "Jason" from the Shark Bar. Lack of a barrier can provide more distracting as fans crowd in around the stage. Doing your own sound certainly adds work. Our bassist was nearly trampled by anxious females after the show. Oh, life is so hard... :-) DhB would especially like to thank Luke for coming out to help with sound and gear. Luke had to get up early the next day, but still made the trip to help. Couldn't have done it without you Luke... We appreciate very much! Thanks Luke! Saturday, February 23, 2008Miami Shark Bar: - from Opening Act to Headlining in One ShowSparrowfahrenheit and the Deep Heat Bandits would like to say, "Thank You" to Jason and Matt at the Miami Shark Bar (Gold Coast, Australia) for hosting our first full sized performance. We would also like to give thumbs up to Skybombers and Dogtags for providing ROCK. Finally, we need to thank Joe - our camera man - who did an awesome job. Laying a foundation of freight train intensity, "T" on drums (of Pleasant Man's Bag) played a nearly perfect set. "T" thinks he missed two beats all night. Nobody noticed. Combined with cousin "ROn" on Bass/ Guitar, these two left a foundation for the lead vocalist to put himself out with confidence. Bass and drums were tight. Drummer in Tijuanna quality sequence and an angry fake moustache ("T" looked like he had a permanent frown - quite funny). "Ron" kept the melody together as the guitarist and singer occasionally got tangled in antics. Six two, clad in pink floral grandmother blouse/skirt, military boots, and George Bush style cowboy hat, sparrowfahrenheit danced, kicked amps and provided chaotic, unpredictable spectacle. New material at this gig was great. Since "Ego Tripping" sparrowfahrenheit has become more sophisticated in writing and arrangement. i.e.- For "Spam" all seven chords in a major key were used. This allowed DhB to plough sounds of country, rock and reggae, in one song, while maintaining continuity and key. How's that for five dollars!? How good was the show? Word seems to get around... We've gone from opening, to a headline act in one gig... Wow? :-) DhB is now set to headline the Sheoak Shack and "Loft". — Michael November 28, 2007Sparrowfahrenheit's debut performance and album launch was held at Inverse Gallery, Burleigh Heads, Queensland Australia. The "Drop in the Ocean" show managed to raise money (over $5000 - $7000 ?) for Sea Shepherd's "Operation Migaloo". Sea Shepherd has since made front page news around the world with this anti-whaling campaign. This small organization of intelligent, well traveled, compassionate people get results on a shoestring. Sharing artistic space with visual / oceanic artists: Dave Rastovich, Hannah Fraser, Shelly Bankier, Ruth Hofer, Karlee Mackie was a pleasure and honour. For a new artist, it was pleasantly intimidating. Dave Rastovich has been a long time sparrowfahrenheit favourite for his choice of "line" and board. Sea Shepherd's mission managed to bring a lot of fantastic talent together in one place. Sparrowfahrenheit performed as part of a four piece band called the, "Deep Heat Bandits" including "T" on drums, "Ron" singing backup, "John" playing Bass (thanks John!), and sparrowfahrenheit on guitar and vocals. In short, it was a disaster of free beer proportions, a comedy of Murphy's law, but an overall success for fundraisers. The small venue was packed so tight there was no stage space left, people lined up outside the door. After our equipment was assailed by an aggressive mob of militant knob twisting, cable-unplugging vegetarians we managed one stripped down acoustic number. It took us a while to come to grips with the sheer quantity of people, white noise, activists, celebrities, free beer and orgy of fine art. This was the first time, "Ego Tripping" had been played for the public and it was very encouraging, if not somewhat overwhelming. A personal highlight of the evening was being able to talk to Johnny Vasic (International Director of Sea Shepherd). I have no questions left that this is an organization run by shrewd and intelligent people. (Indeed there are a lot of PhD's involved in this organization.) Previously I had some concern that Sea Shepherd might be a little naively ideological, or extreme. I would pleasantly rate Johnny as a very down to earth realist, moderate, compassionate, humanitarian. Johnny has left a successful career to seek positive change to the world. Very inspiring. Although the live performance was minimal at this gig, it was a great success for our fundraising, and the first time sparrowfahrenheit's debut album had been released in public. We enjoyed ourselves and the amazing / inspiring company. We'll have a more bulletproof sound setup next time. Stay tuned for the next gig. We are going to try and do some opposite shows in the meat eating, late night, punk end of town. -Should be a piece of cake after this. |