Here are a few of the highlights from last week’s Soundwave Festival in Brisbane. Forecast was for rain all day with days either side varying in degrees of downpour, so it was a pleasant surprise when there was not a single drop all day for some of rock’s greats and bands of the now to do their thing to.

Stay tuned for the complete gallery (:

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After more than 6 years delivering Brisbane some of the best party nights on record, Breaks and Enter finally has its popsicle stand blown… wait what? in their finale gig to end all finales. Most of the resident lineup cracked their knuckles and graced the decks one last time and old drinking crews were reformed for some “never again” moments of Patron shots and face biting(!).

Breaks and Enter Finale photos here

09.30.2012

Its official, the festival season has been kicked off with a bang and crackle! This year Parklife coincided with the Brisbane Festival’s Riverfire so there was an extra treat of fireworks to add to the festivities.

Parklife Brisbane 2012 highlight photos here

04.11.2012

The Freestylers boys were in town to smash out a DJ set for the Easter long weekend, and smash they did!

Check out all the action here Freestylers @ Oh Hello photos

More Future Music Festival 2012 Brisbane photos here

Fatboy Slim

We’ve lost count of how many years Future has been under water, or mud as it were so when the previous day’s forecast said it was going to be partly cloudy we were skeptical but were really hoping for a good day. The day started with a bout of moderately heavy rain which laid a soggy foundation but thankfully held out for the better part of the day with only a few patches of light drizzle. Unfortunately it was too good to be true and as the headliners were beginning to take to the stage the weather man in the sky remembered what day it was and bucketed it down, but that didn’t stop us from getting some shots even with the thought of a dead flash courtesy of Soundwave Festival last week still fresh in my mind :-\

The sets however were nicely varied and LMFAO wasn’t heard -too- many times (though once is usually more than enough!) and dubstep seemed to be kept to its respective DJ’s. Highlights were definitely Aphex Twin with a lesson in how to play a broken beat set and Chase and Status with a mid afternoon stormer. PvD’s trance stage also provided a few sparks of interest to a genre I haven’t paid much attention to in a long time.

Check out the first batch of photos, more to come!

Brisbane Future Music Festival 2012 photos

Skrillex

Die Antwoord

01.26.2012

Girl Talk

With about 2/3 capacity it was one of the smallest turn outs in recent history for the festival institution that is the Big Day Out, though all this meant was shorter lines and it easier to get around 😉 Headliners Soundgarden, Kayne West (albeit 45min late) and Nero still delivered what the fans wanted.

Gold Coast Big Day Out photos gallery 1


Gold Coast Big Day Out photos gallery 2

Parkway Drive

Soundgarden

Kanye West

01.02.2012

Blahfest once again rose to the occasion and delivered a quality festival minus all the usual qualms associated with large gatherings of “music lovers”.

Over abundance of bad dubstep (is there even any that’s good?? ;p ) aside, stand out sets were easily marked by A.Skillz and LTJ Bukem.

Check out the full gallery – Blah blah blah Festival 2011 photos

Haight

Haight is one of those suburbs that has a young creative vibe and a slew of quirky shops to match. Sure, you cant swing a stick without knocking the fake glasses or beanie off the -back- of some hipster kid’s head but in general it has the eats of West End and the boutique shopping of the Valley/New Farm in Brisbane. If you’re heading out early (re: before midday) pop into one of the many cafes on Haight St. Most seemed pretty busy so you may be in for a short wait if you’re after a table.

The People’s Café was right near the bus stop so it was an easy choice 😉 Food was quite good, reasonably fast turn around even if the service was a bit average, free WiFi more than likely makes up for it for most people. Judging from recent Yelp reviews this place has since closed, possibly rebirthed under a different guise?

Bellies full it was time to burn some Greenbacks, starting at the Masonic Ave end of Haight st…

Stussy – one of the larger stores we’ve come across but nothing out of the ordinary for the range. They did have a clearance rack with some old school Stussy designs though. Seeing their Stussy “Peace Dollar” vinyl figures on display in all forms of disrepair and missing pieces gave me the warm and fuzzies knowing I had a mint one waiting for me from my LA haul 😉

Super 7

Super 7 – local designers obsessed with Star Wars and Anime, they have a good range of their own shirt designs and a small range of toys and books. Shirts are overpriced but there are some fun original designs like the “Weapons of mass destruction” that has a bunch of space ships and vehicles from movies like Star Wars, Tron, Battlestar Galactica etc. Toys and collectibles also fetch a premium, a few odd pieces may have deserved the extra tax but Kidrobot items not so much since the KR store is just across the road.

Super 7

True Sole

True (Sole) – set up like a clearance store, they had some of the cheapest new release sneakers we saw in California with a good $10-20 less than regular retail prices. They also had older models on clearance, just cross your fingers they have your size. There’s also a small selection of clothing and accessories.

California Surplus

California Surplus – Listed as the sister store to the one in LA, this one was mostly focused on the surplus side of things rather than the work wear. They still had a small selection and thanks to a misjudgment on clothing for the day, a pair of overpriced Dickies pants were a life saver.

Shoe Biz II

Shoebiz II – This second store leans more towards the sneaker niche market. A few rarities along with clearance items on footwear and clothing. This was the only place at the time that I saw the Nike Air Vengeance‘s in “maize”, didn’t have to tell me twice 😉

Shoebiz 1 – Caters more towards women’s shoes and boots, plenty of stock but you will have to battle a thousand other women as it didn’t seem like there was a time it wasn’t packed.

Adidas Originals – up the Willy Wonker glass elevator from Shoebiz 1 is a small selection of Originals gear leaning towards the more outlandish designs and colours. The clearance bin is always a welcoming sign and this one had an out of production Adicolor jacket for $40USD *yoink* along with some sneakers and a few other bits and pieces. If you’re looking for range you’re better off heading to the Adidas store in the Westfield in the city.

Kidrobot – pretty much the same as the LA store apart from a couple older Michael Lau figures. More fuzzies when I notice they were selling for $150-200, 10 times what I paid for mine 😉

Loyal Army

Loyal Army – and then there was one. This is their only retail store left now, not in short due to a decline in their designs from cute and kitschy to trying too hard to be “now”. In saying that there was plenty of multi-buys and clearance items to be had.

FTC skate – renowned for knowledgeable and friendly staff, this is a good sized store with decent range of all things skate related.

Amoeba Music

Amoeba Music – Not having time to make it to the one in LA I was really looking forward to popping in here, and it didn’t disappoint. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling of music. Its what iTunes would look like if it was a real store, just with less thieves and a more user friendly environment 😉 It took well over an hour just to paw through the electronic music and hiphop (with a quick detour through punk) for a yield of about 35 cds, so make sure you put aside the right amount of time proportioned to your musical appetite.
Since these cds were going to be shipped back with the bulk of our haul, I stripped the cases to save some weight. The guys were only too happy to take the empty cases back (:

Downtown

The two major stops for the downtown area were the Westfield and Nike Flagship store. The Westfield was unfortunately a fruitless experience even with Champs, Footlocker, Vans and Lids on the directory save a store exclusive track jacket from the multi-level Adidas store. A couple doors down at Shiekh’s had a much better result with a large range of clearance items and new range footwear and clothing, easily one of their bigger stores too. Jordan Rare Airs were a steal at $60USD.

The Nike Flagship store, while in all intent and purposes was very similar to just about every other one in other cities fell short because of this. If you’ve been to one you’ve been to them all as the stock was almost identical to that in LA.

Next up we head to the two (little)lands of the orient, Japantown and Chinatown.

Milpitas 2011 – Great Mall
Yosemite 2011 part #1 – LA to Oakhurst via Bakersfield
Yosemite 2011 part #2 – Yosemite National Park
San Francisco 2011 part #1 – Arrival
San Francisco 2011 part #2 – Shopping – Haight, Downtown SF
San Francisco 2011 part #3 – Chinatown
San Francisco 2011 part #4 – Japantown
San Francisco 2011 part #5 – Alcatraz
San Francisco 2011 part #6 – Fisherman’s wharf, Golden Gate Bridge

Complete Yosemite 2011 photo gallery here
Complete San Francisco 2011 photo gallery here

The Gossip - Parklife 2011

The start of the festival season is official here! Numbers were pleasantly down on previous years which led to a much more controlled, accessible and incident free event.

Parklife 2011 Brisbane photos here

Example - Parklife 2011

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