This gig was supported by the Hungry Kids of Hungary and the Red Riders. I was early enough to see both and get a good spot in front of stage, or so I thought. I have heard music from both of these bands previously on my favourite radio station but I have never been that interested to follow their music beyond the radio plays. I quite enjoyed the Hungry Kids of Hungary but found the Red Riders boring to the point I was playing Peggle on my iPhone througout most of their set.

Katy was looking as good as ever sporting a black and white outfit with some serious cleavage exposure. The set was high energy as always with the band fully utilizing the space on the stage as they kicked out some great music. They played all the songs expected however songs from the new album seemed to be outnumbered by those from past albums. This was not a problem for me as I found their first album the best so far and bought all of their early EPs. Certainly the main songs from the album, and certainly my favourites from it, such as Brother, Hairdo & the title track Confetti were played.

I would have like more audience participation by Katy something I find lacking in many traditional bands.

From what I can recall the set included:

• Come On Come On
• Beautiful to Me
• Hairdo
• Into My Arms
• Better Off Alone
• Andy Warhol
• Brother
• Relapse

I am certainly missing some songs.
Update: Full setlist at http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/little-birdy/2009/forum-theatre-melbourne-australia-3d79107.html
Thanks Krusty

Overall the gig was good albeit short and mared by the bad behaviour of other audience members (see below).

Videos to be added as soon as I upload them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvKX-pEXhaE

Negative
There was one negative point about the gig and it was a seriously major one. It had nothing to do with the band and it is unlikely they could have done anything about it. I don’t usually drink alchohol when going to gigs since I like to enjoy the music untainted or filtered by drugs. I have no issue with others doing so with one caveat, they don’t negatively affect the experience for others who are there to enjoy the music not just get pissed.

For me what tainted the entire Little Birdy show was the behaviour of a group of bogan drunkards decided to push through the pack to the very front of the stage and continue to be nuisances through the entire set. The arm/hands you see in my videos of the set are from the closest woman in the group. What you don’t see is me and everyone around her trying to avoid her elbow from causing us a concussion. I had to move to the back of The Forum theater before the encore started as I just could not take any more.

Maybe I’m just a sook, but that would then include everyone around me who also were not to impressed with their behaviour.

I grabbed a great position right near the front, however I had an absolute tall pr**k push in front of all of us near the front. Lets just say that he was not a popular guy with all the punters he was blocking as he was not a short guy and he was wearing a puffy jacket. So I did not feel bad for him when he was pulled up by the bouncers when he lit up a joint.

Back to The Streets. Mike really mixed it up playing songs from all four albums. Given the amount of material available to him many of the songs were mixed into each other. He also spoke to the crowd a lot, quite often refering to the Victorian bushfires and the lives lost.

For me The Streets really delivered. Videos will be up soon.

The Streets

Pez

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI3g9RaVkdY

Secondly an album that is just fresh off the press is the new Lily Allen album “It’s Not Me, It’s You” which is the hotly anticipated follow up to her debut “Alright, Still”. I am loving all the songs on this, especially the tracks “Everyone’s At It”, “The Fear”, “22″, “I Could Say” and “Fuck You” which was originally titled “Guess Who Batman” when originally released. As with “Alright, Still”, Lily sings about some depressing subjects but with music and style that sugests otherwise.

There is also a connection with The Bird And The Bee with the new Lily Allen album. Greg Kurstin, the other half of The Bird And The Bee is the producer for most of the songs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wGMlSuX_c

I had a great position at the front of the stage, though occationally pushed out of the way by photographers. Katie and Jules played about 8 songs in the set, made up of:

• Great DJ
• Be the One
• Traffic Light
• Fruit Machine
• We Walk
• We Started Nothing
• Shut Up and Let Me Go
• That’s Not My Name (encore)

This was most of their album, I’m not sure if they have any songs outside of these. Since they have only been around for the last year when they hit big with “That’s Not My Name” and “Great DJ” it is not suprising. The Performance was short but full of energy with Katie running around the stage leaning over the crowd. The crowd was really into the performance as well with most of the songs accompanied by the sound of the crowd singing along. I took some great videos (if I don’t say so myself) of each of the singles:

That’s Not My Name

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvXFXKydf54

Shut Up and Let Me Go

www.youtube.com/watch?v=63MzUWXsY4o

Great DJ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=47CUXxyKzE0

Unfortunately I arrived a little late and was stuck behind a very large crowd so I could not take any good photos, I have some videos however. The first one she is performing “Au Port” and it gets quite funny when she tries to get the mainly English speaking audience to take part, check it out. Hilarious!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkS0VSIV_Q

See my youtube.com channel to see all the other videos

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GePKOiwwOHo

When she came out for the encore Camille was wearing a black dress with black elbow-length gloves. There was a surprise when she turned around though. Now I have heard of back-less dresses but I have never envisioned a back-less dress with crack showing.

The best thing about the show was the energy of Camille and the back-up singers and I can’t wait for her to visit us down under again.

Here are some photos of the gig by from Flickr (copyright owned by the respective photographers)