Glamfest 2024 (Melbourne) Review

[CureTheSane]

So overall, it was done way better than last year.

2 Stages, rotating band after band most around 40 mins each, which is a nice set length and also the time required to rest the stage for the nest band.

Only thing that would have improved this would maybe be a 15 min break every 3 bands or so to allow for time to talk.

Otherwise, the only way to talk over the 11 hours is to go outside and miss some of the music.

Start time 12:30pm, End time 11pm - 14 bands

So, the bands in order were

1. Cassidy Paris - people have been talking about her here, but I never dove into her music. she was probably better than being an opener. Songs were good, her voice is pretty damn good. Not one for female vocals as a rule, but I liked her. Possibly overdid it on stage a bit as she appeared twice more during the night and it got a bit repetitive.

2. Shotgun Messiah - Not really digging their music. An early LA Guns vibe, and I didn't like early LA Guns either.

3. Ablaze - hard to find negative stuff to say, as it's my daughter’s band. They played a good set. I told them they should do a cover to engage the crowd as most wouldn't have seen them before, but they didn't, and with a set of only 6 or 7 songs, I can see why. Somebody came on stage and gave Danny a note which was 2 cars about to be towed. Everyone was laughing and he was making a lot of fun of this, but the dude who gave him the note really stared him down like he was being an asshole. But as a band you really wouldn't want that shit breaking your rhythm.

4. Crosson - had never seen them before, and fuck they put on a show. It was hilarious at the start with the intro, but they were ok, and the dancing girls and the vibe kinda worked well in the end. Good on 'em for getting out there and doing something pretty unique.

5. Wicked Smile - wasn't a huge fan of the singer or music. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me. Cassidy Paris came up for a song which was expected with her dad the guitar player in that band.

6. Ragdoll - Western Australian band. Mellow vibe. Singer was channelling John Corabi a lot for me. Songs were good, singer had a great voice. Bit bland on stage with the guitarist having the stage presence.

7. The Cruel Intentions - I tried to get into them pre-event, but couldn't. Never got Vains Of Jenna, so no surprises there I guess. They were better live, and I enjoyed a couple of songs.

8. Sisters Doll - first band of the night where the audio was pretty average. My wife hates them, so I sat with her for the set. It was a good set overall, their version of God Gave RNR To You is pretty damn good, nothing different, just a good replication of the Kiss version.

9. Jetboy - Again, tried out Jetboy music pre gig, and never took to it. They were better live, and I really enjoyed a more recent song they play that I hadn't heard before. I'll give them another go.

10. Tyketto - for me, should have been later in the night and on the bigger stage. (as they rotated stages, every second band ended up on the small stage, which was a shame) Danny's voice was on point, he engaged the crowd like a king, and you believed everything he said, I guess it felt like he really connected rather than just doing he lines. Played everything I wanted to hear except Reach. If they were playing a side gig tonight I'd go.

11. Janet Gardner - Meh, meh, meh. Never a big fan of Vixen. She was very mid, her voice was pitchy and she had a weird stage presence at one point ripping a bit of tape off her foot and throwing it to someone in the crowd and say "You like that? you should, it was on my foot" Next...

12. HEAT - Kenny was easily the best frontman of the night. My wife also thought Dave was the best guitarist of the night, later when Geroge Lynch was on, I asked if she still thought he was the best, and she said "equal best" so big praise there. Songs were sung very true to originals, if you didn't know Erik had been in the band, you would never have known. So credit there. Sound was also a bit average for this set, muffled and very unclear for the first 2 songs.

13. Lynch Mob - never a fan, still not, their best song, Wicked Sensation, is only mid for me. So we sat and get ready for the headliners for this set.

14. Slaughter - every band was perfectly on time all night (impressive) until Slaughter. They were supposed to come on at 9:50 and end at 11pm. This was the only time where they didn't alternated stages, and they clear Lynch Mob from the main stage and set up Slaughter. Came on at 9:50 and ended a song or 2 before 11pm. So they only played an hour which was weird for a headliner. It made them seem like just another band on the bill. Anyway, the opened with Mad About You and Mark was kinda screaming through it. Mic volumes were weird. I noticed in set up that the side mics seemed low, and Dana;s was pretty much off, and Marks was seemed turned down at times, or maybe the creams were not all they should be. But anyway, screaming through a song like Mad About You was just weird. He continues with the screams (to a lesser degree) through the set, sometimes they were appropriate, others just out of place. They played all 3 big ballads - Fly To The Angels, Days Gone By and Real Love which was surprising. In fact they played most of the songs I really wanted to heard. Had they played a longer set I would have loved to hear Times They Change, but probably was never going to happen. Overall sound was average at times taking too long to recognise which song they were playing. Dana did their weird thing where he pointed to 5 or 6 people at the end of every song and said a 'personal' thank you to them. Mark seemed to consider flicking picks into the crows as a big part of what he did. A good one to tick off (they have never been to Australia before, but I left feeling that if I saw them again, I might prefer a more acoustic set for some reason.

Overall, a good day/night. I likely would have not bothered with the earliest bands, but this was on a Friday, so I went into the city to get my Chinese visa first thing, then went to the full gig.
Crowd would have been bigger earlier if it had been a weekend day I guess.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

1 hour ago, CureTheSane said:

Tyketto - for me, should have been later in the night and on the bigger stage. (as they rotated stages, every second band ended up on the small stage, which was a shame) Danny's voice was on point, he engaged the crowd like a king, and you believed everything he said, I guess it felt like he really connected rather than just doing he lines. Played everything I wanted to hear except Reach. If they were playing a side gig tonight I'd go.

Was it you who had never listened to Tyketto before? I'm so glad you dug their set, and I also hate you because I've never seen them. 

Thanks for the review, it's always cool to hear other's experiences. And I might have to check out some of the earlier artists. 

[CureTheSane]

40 minutes ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Was it you who had never listened to Tyketto before? I'm so glad you dug their set, and I also hate you because I've never seen them. 

Thanks for the review, it's always cool to hear other's experiences. And I might have to check out some of the earlier artists. 

Yeah, I'd heard Forever Young only pretty much.

But I've been listing to their average set list over the last few weeks and dug it all.

So I knew the songs well and am glad I did. In fact a couple of them seemed to be relatively unknown to most of the audience, maybe they were newer songs?

Sad that I have missed out on regularly hearing Wings and Reach for the last 30 years or so, but on the other hand I get to explore their whole catalog now and am looking forward to that 😀

I went in expecting Tyketto to be my highlight but HEAT and Slaughter were also my reasons for going.

Tyketto well exceeded my expectations (which were already high)

HEAT  pretty much lived up to expectations 

Slaughter, I'd have to say sounded good, played the songs I wanted to hear but had a short set and didn't really engage the audience as I'd hoped or expected, so overall maybe didn't quite get to expectations, but I still enjoyed them.

[Tabe]

3 hours ago, CureTheSane said:

2. Shotgun Messiah - Not really digging their music. An early LA Guns vibe, and I didn't like early LA Guns either.

Holy crap, these guys are still around?  I got a CD single of "Shout it Out" back in 1989 - for free from my record store job - and dug it.  Hated the rest of their stuff though, LOL.

[Darkstone]

Thanks for the run down. 

One thing I'm always interested to know about events like this is the Trollop ratio in the crowd.

What was the hot chick rating for the night?

[Geoff]

2 hours ago, Tabe said:

Holy crap, these guys are still around?  I got a CD single of "Shout it Out" back in 1989 - for free from my record store job - and dug it.  Hated the rest of their stuff though, LOL.

lol, bit on confusion there. It's Shotgun Mistress - a local Aussie band. I heard the album this week and was really impressed at how well it was actually produced, but yeah, pretty average songs. Not bad, just a bit average. Solid enough, though, that I'll go in early to see them tomorrow. 

1 hour ago, Darkstone said:

Thanks for the run down. 

One thing I'm always interested to know about events like this is the Trollop ratio in the crowd.

What was the hot chick rating for the night?

lol. How come you didn't go, cob? 

Anyway, thanks for the rundown, CTS. I'm off to see the Sydney version tomorrow afternoon/night. DIdn't realise Ablaze was actually the band your daughter was in. I also heard that along with Shotgun Mistress this week. Both very well produced. Wasn't madly into either but I could definitely imagine a solid fanbase for both on this forum. 

Going solo, as I always do, I actually love the idea of the bands all being back to back without time to talk. Sounds perfect to me.  

Having seen Crosson twice, unfortunately, they're the perfect opportunity for a chat, or in my case, probably a feed. No surprise Tyketto were a standout. I get their place on the bill in terms of record sales, I guess, but in terms of quality of band they should definitely be up top. Them HEAT & Slaughter are my drawcards, so glad to hear all were good, though Slaughter stuff sounds a bit weird. But hoping for a solid evening tomorrow too. 

 

[CureTheSane]

Yeah sorry, Shotgun Mistress, not Messiah, lol

Forgot to mention that Slaughter had a drum solo.
Holy fuck, I can't remember seeing a drum solo in the last 10 years or so.
It was ok, I guess, but took 5 mins from the already shortened 1 hour set.
Think they did a cover as well, Immigrant Song, and possibly some of Won't Get Fooled Again, again weird, as this coupled with the drum solo left 50 mins of original songs.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

4 hours ago, CureTheSane said:

Forgot to mention that Slaughter had a drum solo.
Holy fuck, I can't remember seeing a drum solo in the last 10 years or so.

Who's drumming for them, now? Is Blas Elias back in the band, or was it Zoltan Chaney? Zoltan is wild, and a lot of fun to watch. 

[Darkstone]

9 hours ago, Geoff said:

How come you didn't go, cob? 

Too old, too tired.

[Geoff]

3 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Who's drumming for them, now? Is Blas Elias back in the band, or was it Zoltan Chaney? Zoltan is wild, and a lot of fun to watch. 

I don't believe it's Blas Elias at the moment, which is a bit of a bummer for me as I'd have loved to see him in action, and it makes a drum solo really surprising. If it was Blas I could understand it, but if it's just another dude a drum solo seems really odd. 

[Doggy]

Didn't go either.

Not for age factor. Got a new girlfriend during week, spent where still am in bed.

Only time either of us got out was go to the toilet.

Also, when help out a CDs store, you get customers coming up to wanting if their CD arrive.

[Darkstone]

6 hours ago, Doggy said:

Didn't go either.

Not for age factor. Got a new girlfriend during week, spent where still am in bed.

Only time either of us got out was go to the toilet.

Also, when help out a CDs store, you get customers coming up to wanting if their CD arrive.

Doggy... you Dog!

Edited February 18 by Darkstone

[KarpetRydOFunk]

1 hour ago, Darkstone said:

Doggy... you Dog!

That's Doggy style, for ya!

[Doggy]

15 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

That's Doggy style, for ya!

Well, when cute ass she got why not.

[Geoff]

Quick rundown of the Sydney version, for anyone interested. 

1. Shotgun Mistress - bit annoying, but I missed these guys completely due to getting there on time, then standing in non-moving queue for over 10mins. I was pretty hungry and didn't know how the food situation was going to play out, so I ducked across the road to get some Hungry Jacks. Of course, the moment I get my order I look across the road and they'd opened the doors. Anyway, in the end I missed the set completely and it was an annoying start, lol. Don't know what the issue was with the doors not opening, keeping in mind they were meant to open at midday, with first band going on at 12:30pm. I ducked across the road about 12:40pm-12:45pm and doors still weren't open yet. Don't know if the band played to an empty room, or just played a smaller set. In hindsight, wish I'd checked that second stage but when I went inside I just went straight to where the closest live music was as I knew no better.  

2. Ablaze - solid set. As noted above, I heard this band this week and they seem pretty solid. Stand out song from the set was a new single, I believe. I forget the name, but I thought that song sounded good. They all looked like they were having fun and it was a good set. 

3. The Black Cardinals - it was situations like this where the food situation irked me again. I was semi-interested to see Shotgun Mistress, but could easily have skipped Crosson, or, in hindsight, these guys, to duck out for food. Could have done half their set and half of Crosson's if I wanted to. Oh well. Completely competent band - musically and vocally really strong. Even the songs were good plain hard rock songs. But I didn't know them and I couldn't really get into them. Lead singer seemed irritated about something too and the overall vibe just wasn't great. But a very solid band. 

4. Crosson - it is incredible to me that I have now seen this band three times, and I didn't want it to happen once, lol. I'm guessing the guy probably has a good sense of humour off-stage, but to the observer, it looks like he's taking this all so serious, and it's ridiculous. Anyway, good luck to them. Their songs have some catchy hooks, but they're very poor and the theatrics are so cringy. Either way, I always enjoy the dancing girls. If I'm not mistaken, they're the same two from day one? One of them definitely is, at least. 

5. Department Of Gloom - not bad at all. Again, a bit tricky as I didn't know the songs, but they were pretty good and I did actually recognise the couple I posted in the thread I created on the forum earlier. I spent the whole set wondering if and hoping they'd throw 'Sister's Crazy' in at the end. They didn't, but close enough. They played 'Danger' from the Candy Harlots days, which was the highlight for me. Good set. They actually went overtime with a cover of 'White Wedding,' thankfully, so I could bail early for the next band. 

6. The Cruel Intentions - this is where it began for me. Usually, prior to an event, I always make a big playlist of all the bands I'm seeing to get re-aquainted with them before I see them. Unfortunately (well, it's not unfortunate because I loved it) I had a really big, busy January and am still kind of getting back into the swing of things now, and I just never got around to creating any playlists or anything. I'd listened to a lot of the headliners recently anyway so wasn't too fussed, but the error of my ways shone through here. I loved their set and could kind of recall the songs as the choruses hit, but I would have loved to see this set with the songs fresh on my mind. I actually just really appreciated the no-bullshit straight set of big hard rock songs with cool backing vocals too. Don't know if there was backing track assistance for those "gang" vocals, and I don't care. They were really good. Even the Swedish song was awesome. 

7. Sisters Doll - I was so convinced I'd seen these guys before, but it took me about half the set to realise it was Hansel I was thinking of. Not seen these guys, and I was impressed. Not super mad about their music to be honest, but they were a good live band and I don't dislike them. Charismatic frontman, good guitarist and the drummer was my second favourite drummer of the entire day. Massive Tommy Lee vibes, which I'm sure is not an accident. But dude could play, and band was good. I thought the 'God gave rock n'roll to you' cover was a drain, but I liked the rest of the set. Seemed like they got through very few songs, but it was good. Oh, and no bassist. One drummer, two guitarists. Is that how they line up on albums too, or does one of them play bass on albums? Either way, didn't seem to make any difference. I remember seeing Secrets (US post-hardcore band) before covid and they had three guitarists and no bass guitarist (he'd apparently left the band before the tour, I think?) and I remember feeling like it would have been a nice addition to round out the sound with a bass guitarist. Never thought that during Sisters Doll, oddly. 

8. Jetboy - wasn't too interested at all to see these guys, but yeah, have to admit, they were so, so much better live than on any of their CDs. They were tight, energetic and the sound quality was spot on. Unfortunately, they came on quite late and mucked up the rotation a bit and as Tyketto were on next on the other stage, I didn't want to muck around and miss the start of their set, so I left when Tyketto were meant to come on. Missed Jetboy's last three songs, and Tyketto didn't end up starting until Jetboy were done anyway. Bit of a bummer, as I saw 'Heavy Chevy' was one of their last few songs, which was a pretty cool song. I am not sure how many of these guys are still original members (is it just the vocalist?), but they were a good live band. Another good frontman too, who just came across as a dude. 

9. Tyketto - for some reason I thought it was at least a couple of original members, but only Mr Vaughn, it was. Not to worry, he was awesome and the band was really good too. Like CTS said, he was on point with everything and the setlist included all their classics. I admit I have an over-inflated view of this band because they have two of the best songs in the entire genre, imo, but once you get outside those few ('Standing alone' is an epic ballad too), it gets pretty thin pretty quick. But all the songs they played, apart from 'Lay you body down' and that odd acoustic thing were great. 'Forever young' was the highlight of the day for me. Did not disappoint. Only criticism I'd have is dragging out 'Lay your body down' for probably more than 10mins. Hate that song at the best of times, lol.  Thankfully, in Sydney, they played the bigger stage and owned it. 

 10. Janet Gardner - lol, this was a bit messy. They had a bunch of technical issues at the start, and I'm not sure if that shortened their set? Probably not, but that went on for a bit. Otherwise, I enjoyed it. I actually think Janet sounds better live than on CD at the moment. I also respect that they know they have good enough recent songs to play alongside the Vixen classics. '1985' sounded good - loved that guitar, live. I saw her just before covid and would probably say overall I enjoyed this set more than that one, relatively speaking. Last set was a lot longer, but this was cool. 

11. HEAT - time schedule was way out at this point, but these guys came on soon after Janet was finished, rather than blowing it out too much further. Very energetic was Kenny and yeah, I'd agree he was the best frontman of the day/night. Though Danny Vaughn was pretty much on par too. Likeable, friendly dude. In an ideal world I'd have a slightly different track list, but they were very enjoyable anyway. I confess I don't even know 'Demon eyes' off the top of my head, and I thought 'Rock your body,' 'Beg Beg Beg' and 'Back to the rhythm' probably weren't the best from their catalogue to showcase the band. More to the point, I forgot that their biggest hit, I assume, is the monster plodder, 'A shot at redemption.' Gotta say, that was a pretty shit way to end the set, sadly. But I guess if that's their hit, it's their hit. Anyway, the rest of the set was great. 'Cry,' 'Living on the run' and 'One by one' all slayed. Very good live band, of course, but I hope next time they let me pick the set list, lol. And drop that rubbishy 'Redemption' song. 

12. Lynch Mob - I saw these guys a few years ago, with Oni Logan, and was sadly disappointed due to a really dreary setlist. I'm happy to say that I preferred this outing, tenfold, even with a singer I don't know. But he was good. A young fella with a good voice, and the songs all sounded true enough to the originals. The Dokken classics were absolute killer too. 'Tooth and nail,' 'The Hunter' (randomly) and 'Into the fire,' for those taking notes. All massive. Good pick from the Lynch Mob tunes too. Not sure what was going on up there, though, with George's guitar dropping out completely three times through the set - first time, mid-solo in 'Tooth an nail.' But he took it all in stride and the band played on and I preferred this set infinitely to when I saw them previously. George sounded killer too. 

13. Slaughter - just re-read what CTS said and I'd echo most of that, right down to the weird "thank you"s from Dana. They were good, but at that point the sound was so incredibly loud that I also struggled to identify a couple of songs for a little while... and the cover threw me too. Still got no idea what song it was, lol. A setlist from a recent show indicated that they played 'Immigrant Song' previously, but I don't think it was that this time. I am not sure what it was but with such a small setlist it's a bummer that they include a cover when everyone's clearly out there to see them perform Slaughter songs. The screams were really weird, almost like he's flexing, saying "I can do this if I want and I don't even need to." I'd have thought at his age he'd want to be avoiding unnecessary screams as much as he could, but fair enough. He must have a pretty unique voice box. Anyway, my main complaint about the Slaughter set, in all honesty, would just be the time things took. They could have easily squeezed in two, three or probably four extra songs without a lot of the fluff. Really long outros, really long intros, extended crowd participation moments... I know it's all part of the show, but I just found myself wishing - several times - that they'd just get on with it and play some Slaughter classics. As for the drum solo, it was pretty bloody good... I can kind of see why they included it. Dude is a monster on the kit. 

And that was it. A massive day out, but thoroughly enjoyed. This was my first live music since Reckless Love pretty much the day before all the lockdowns started, about four years ago. That's a long, long time between live music. And without getting into details, my travel experience kind of reminded me why I despise travelling into Sydney so much. But 100%, I would go to Glamfest again with a desirable line-up. 

I also notice Melbourne got it a bit better with Wicked Smile, Ragdoll and Cassidy Paris for Sydney's Dept. Of Gloom and Black Cardinals. I should mention that Cassidy Paris did actually join Janet Gardner on stage for 'Edge of a broken heart' too, which was kind of cool. Would definitely have preferred to watch her for a full set over Crosson or Black Cardinals.

 

[Glen]

HEAT are a shadow of their former selves now Erik has gone.

Just sayin

[CureTheSane]

7 hours ago, Glen said:

HEAT are a shadow of their former selves now Erik has gone.

Just sayin

Based on what?

I've never seen them with Erik, and didn't get to see skid row with him either as it was cancelled.

I know he has a great voice, but live, I was pretty impressed with the whole Kenny package.

[melodicrock]

Seen HEAT 5-6 times with Erik and twice with Kenny. I prefer Erik and the erik albums, but there's no let up in energy...they are still the best band out there.

[CureTheSane]

I also prefer Erik's songs as a general rule.

Can't imagine they are a shadow of themselves now though.

[auslander]

There are some Erik fanboys on here that worship him like crazy. Heat were around before Erik and after Erik. To say they are a shadow of themselves with Kenny is plainly ridiculous.

[tobi is an animal]

6 hours ago, auslander said:

There are some Erik fanboys on here that worship him like crazy. Heat were around before Erik and after Erik. To say they are a shadow of themselves with Kenny is plainly ridiculous.

that's a weird comment to make unless you can't accept a differing opinion on the matter.  I don't see why it is ridiculous to much prefer Erik to Kenny, myself.  It's all personal preference in the end.

[auslander]

28 minutes ago, tobi is an animal said:

that's a weird comment to make unless you can't accept a differing opinion on the matter.  I don't see why it is ridiculous to much prefer Erik to Kenny, myself.  It's all personal preference in the end.

"a shadow of themselves" is not preferring one over another singer, it is stating that the band is nothing like itself even though the band was around before your favourite singer was even in the band. That is why it is a ridiculous comment. Shouldn't be hard even for you to understand, Tobi.

[tobi is an animal]

16 minutes ago, auslander said:

"a shadow of themselves" is not preferring one over another singer, it is stating that the band is nothing like itself even though the band was around before your favourite singer was even in the band. That is why it is a ridiculous comment. Shouldn't be hard even for you to understand, Tobi.

well if one feels Erik raised the quality significantly, then the band is indeed a shadow of their former selves once he leaves.  whether or not one thinks Erik raised the quality significantly is again up to the individual. mmmbop. 

 A SHADOW OF YOUR FORMER SELF definition: someone or something that is not as strong, powerful, or useful as it once was: 

[Glen]

3 hours ago, auslander said:

"a shadow of themselves" is not preferring one over another singer, it is stating that the band is nothing like itself even though the band was around before your favourite singer was even in the band. That is why it is a ridiculous comment. Shouldn't be hard even for you to understand, Tobi.

Well mate here's the deal

Firstly I saw them on their first ever tour with Kenny. Yep was great.

Then I saw them about 10 times with Erik. Each and every time they were utterly fantastic. Erik is a beast live and one of the best singers I've seen period.

Then he leaves and they get Kenny back 10 years on and way past his best imo and quite frankly pretty poor compared to what Erik bought. 

For me, no matter how well they play its just not the same without Erik. 

If youve never seen the band with Erik you probably wont understand.

So yeah I stand by my comment. 

I'll probably never see them live again tbh

[KarpetRydOFunk]

8 hours ago, Glen said:

Well mate here's the deal

Firstly I saw them on their first ever tour with Kenny. Yep was great.

Then I saw them about 10 times with Erik. Each and every time they were utterly fantastic. Erik is a beast live and one of the best singers I've seen period.

Then he leaves and they get Kenny back 10 years on and way past his best imo and quite frankly pretty poor compared to what Erik bought. 

For me, no matter how well they play its just not the same without Erik. 

If youve never seen the band with Erik you probably wont understand.

So yeah I stand by my comment. 

I'll probably never see them live again tbh

Ugh... I hate you so much. You know I hate you, right? ;}

I've never seen either iteration.