Lunes 26 Ene 2009, 20:34

I thought I’d take a stab at writing a concert review so here it is.

Serj Tankian and the F.C.C supported by Fantômas at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia - 24/01/2009

About 10 minutes after the crowd had walked into the venue, Fantômas came on. Short as I am the angle that the floor of the Enmore Theatre is on allowed to see quite comfortably. The band was dressed in cricket whites, batting pads and had white zinc on their noses (though Buzz Osborne for whatever reason was wearing a black shirt and the zinc on his nose was minimal). They started with The Godfather, the first track on The Director's Cut album, and the crowd was blown away in a matter of seconds (cliché?). Throughout the performance Mike Patton's screams caused me to shake my head in amazement, Dale Crover's drumming made me forget that Dave Lombardo wasn't able to play at these Aussie/NZ shows, Buzz Osborne's guitar playing made me ashamed to call myself a guitar player and Trevor Dunn's bass work was just amazing. 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' began with a Koran verse and Dale Crover smashing his drum kit at full force.

There was an interlude about three songs from the end to the song "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". Mike Patton picked up a cricket bat ("Who wants an ass whooping?") and invited people to throw bottles and cans at him as he swung the bat. I think some people will take the opportunity to throw things at someone whoever the person is so some people appeared to be aiming for Mike Patton's head and body. After a few bottles had bounced off his shoulders and legs he went back he went back to his set of microphones and other equipment.

The performance was wrapped up with 'Charade' where some members of the audience including myself chanted "Fantomas! Fantomas! Fantomas!" as part of the song and we had "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" chanted back at us. Mike Patton introduced his bandmates, thanked us and Fantômas left the stage. Mine and my brother's first words to each other after the performance were "How awesome was that?"

'Bird's Eye' from 'Body of Lies' was appropriately enough played at the break and the F.C.C came on with slight delay at approximately 10 o'clock. They began playing 'The Unthinking Majority' and Serj Tankian came on at "POW!" as I'd expected (I think he knocked over a microphone stand on his way). At the beginning of the song the F.C.C seemed to be drowning out his vocals but they slowly became more audible. I got amusement out of watching Serj Tankian's facial expressions as he performed. He has brilliant vocals that were backed by a good band. A few times Serj Tankian took off his top hat and waved it behind his head while he kicked his legs can-can style. 'Money' from Elect the Dead was performed with ABBA's 'Money, Money, Money' intertwined into it which I think was done well.

For an encore Serj Tankian performed Elect the Dead and then the F.C.C came back on for a cover of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'.

Altogether, a good night. I look forward to the F.C.C album I hear is set to be released, I hope to see Serj Tankian again in concert (System of a Down maybe?) and will hopefully see Fantomas/Mike Patton perform again and look forward to their future projects.

Incidentally, as I write this it is Mike Patton's birthday, so…happy birthday!

27/01/2009