#record crate

Lord Dodongo The Record Crate Glebe Sydney Australia 10th June 2018

Lord Dodongo – welcome to my kingdom

Gig date: 10th June 2018

Venue: Record Crate, Glebe, Sydney, Australia

Country of origin: Brookvale, Sydney, Australia

Members: Harry, James, Gab, Josh and Jessamyn

Support or headline: Headline

Good crowd/bad crowd:Crowd was absolutely mental. I swear I saw a few people that jumped way too high in the mosh pit and hit their head and hand on the roof lights.…

“Diarrhea Planet is a six-piece rock and roll band from Nashville, TN. Their sound has often been described as The Ramones holding Van Halen hostage with an arsenal of fireworks and explosives. Diarrhea Planet's four guitarists provide enough riffs to make Jack Black squeal like a schoolgirl, while lead singer Hodan delivers enough hooks to straighten the curl out of Justin Timberlake's hair. In a world of unintelligible lo-fi recording, reverb drenched vocals, and tuneless guitars, Diarrhea Planet aims to put the backbone back into rock and roll.” 

If that doesn’t sell you on this band and the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll that run through their veins, then I don’t know what will. That is the description The Haunt posted in anticipation of Diarrhea Planet’s show Thursday night. Known for their electric performances, and even without reciprocation from the crowd, the band couldn’t have been more energetic and entertaining. 

New song, “Ain’t A Sin To Win” is made for the stage, and was busted out early, sending a handful of those in the crowd into a rowdy dance circle. Their new album, Turn To Gold, though more produced than their previous releases, translated well live. Like the aforementioned song, their four guitars blend perfectly together, each playing as a cohesive unit, weaving between each other while guitarist, Jordan Smith, shredded at the edge of the stage on his knees throughout the night. After a quick hour set, that went by too fast, the show concluded with the joke of a song, but ever-so entertaining, “Ghost With A Boner”

It was most definitely a treat to experience Diarrhea Planet in such an intimate venue, such as The Haunt. Even though I expected a more raucous crowd, Diarrhea Planet carried the energy of an arena show, as expected, cementing that they are one of the strongest live acts out there. 

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @MichaelDroel and as always stay tuned for more from your music doctor!

Never one to sit still, it was expected that once The Gaslight Anthem announced an indefinite hiatus Brian Fallon would quickly turn around with new music and he did just that. Bringing in famed producer, Butch Walker, Fallon recaptures the magic from heart, to limb, to pen but with lusher arrangements than anything he’s done previously. Full of songs driven by jangling acoustic guitar and chest pounding and heartfelt lyrics, Painkillers is Fallon at his most sincere.

 Painkillers feels like a revival. After the lackluster Get Hurt, Fallon sounds rejuvenated on his debut album. Lead single, “A Wonderful Life,” is a declaration of just that, as Fallon sings, “I want a life on fire, going mad with desire/I don't wanna survive, I want a wonderful life,” in the most jovial song he’s ever written. But “A Wonderful Life” is not without its fair share of heartache. Fallon’s strength has always been depicting anguish. Get Hurt was supposed to be the “divorce album,” but ultimately felt disjointed and the emotions muddled. One can speculate Painkillers draws from that same place, but the result is more focused.

The title track reads like a confessional with the bleak lyric, “And we want love like it was a drug/All we wanted was a little relief/And every heart I held in between/They were painkillers to me.” In between the upbeat and rolling melodies, Fallon’s ultimate strength is in his most intimate of offerings. By far the best song on Painkillers is “Honey Magnolia,” a beautiful balled masking the most poignant and heartbreaking lyrics Fallon has written to date. 

Painkillers also finds Fallon revamping songs from the short lived side project of his, Molly & The Zombies. Receiving a stomping, much more full sounding treatment are “Smoke” and “Red Lights,” improving on their predecessors. “Long Drives,” my favorite of the Molly & The Zombie sessions, is almost unrecognizable in its new skin, sans the chorus, and suffers for it. The only other blip, in an otherwise excellent offering, is “Mojo Hands,” which sounds like a bad rip off of a bad Tom Petty song.

We can forgive him for the minimal mis-steps along the way, as Fallon has once again proven himself as one of the finest songwriters in the business and turned in an excellent collection of songs in Painkillers. 

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @MichaelDroel and as always stay tuned for more from your music doctor!