Gig Guide

I went to the Basement in Sydney on Monday night to see some friends of mine perform. What a great venue this is – down stairs with exposed fire extinguisher pipes, dim lights and a earthy feel. The all wooden bar is up on a slightly raised area which is a great place to stand to watch the band over the sea of seated heads below and in front of the stage. I left work and went straight to Deb and Pete’s place, they were driving, and we headed off almost as soon as I got there. It is usually about 2.5 hours to the centre of the City from home and we didn’t hit too much traffic and got there in a little over that time. To our surprise we found a car park opposite the Basement and it only cost $4.50 for the night!! WooT

Inside we paid our cover fee and then arranged some nice seat to the side of the stage – both as we didn’t want to be right in front and so that we could be close enough to take photos and yell out at Bennie and Annelise. The Basement does food as well and we ordered some nachos and wedges along with our beers and a Strongbow for Deb! Oh and sometime around our arrival we said hi to Bennie and Annie and met the rest of the band for the night. Jacob, on bass, plays with Bennie James and the Hesitant Few and they also had a flute player along for the ride as well (I missed his name but Annie is trying to get as many players to back her music up as possible and this was his first time playing in the band – he did well!).

The first act for the night was a three piece girl, country style group – Raze n Waters. Guitars, and some percussion and great powerful vocals and nice cleavage… *what else do they need? I bought their EP for Anji (She couldn’t come working with Children does not lend itself to Very late nights!). Second act was a solo girl on guitar and vocals – she also had a guest trombone player, highlight of set was when the Trombone player joined her otherwise most of the songs sounded the same… too many of these acts around. Third up was a jazz style band, drums, bass, guitar and a guest didgeridoo player. This was elevator music and would be fantastic as a background to dinner or at an event. Not so good to keep the crowd interested!

Last up was Bennie and Annie, brother and sister. Bennie plays Guitar and Annie Piano (she is self taught and is fantastic). They played a mixture of each others original music (5 each and one they co-wrote) the music was so alive and changed between each track and moved with the audience. Both Bennie and Annie had such great repour with the crowd – the whole room wanted to listen to the music and got really into the songs. I may be a little one sided but they kick the arse of the middle two acts and – in everything from musicality and talent to crowd pleasing fun.

I took a heap of photo’s of Bennie and Annie and band using Deb camera so if I find them on Facebook or whatever I will add a link as I think I did good shots! Very chuffed with that!

So after the show we hung around for a few mins then left taking Bennie back to the Gong (it was on our way home). I was on high for the ride home and Bennie and I sat in the back and made jokes and really enjoyed ourselves a lot! No we really did – probably peed Pete and Deb off with our silly jokes and what not but who cares!!

So we got back to Pete n Debs around 2.45 I jumped in my car and was home in bed by 3.15 – up at 8 to go to work! What a life…

But much funness was had I'll insert Links when I finds them for you! Cheers