Melbourne

First things first...

No Anchor send out a massive thank you to these awesome people who made the weekend just gone a great time for us both:

• Nadia (for making it all happen)
• Caro (for being awesome and letting us loaf around and taking us out on the town)
• Robbie (for trying to be everywhere at once)
• Agonhymn (for the use of the drum kit, we hope health returns to you guys soon)
• Candlesnuffer
• A Minor Place Cafe in Brunswick
• Ouch My Face (for the gear, the van ride and for just being super)
• The Melbourne Dan Lewis
• Computer Dying (for the kit and the sweet improv and for offering us drugs)
• Hotel Wreckers City Traders (rad)
• The Old Bar (the best bar)
• Rene & Co. from Aktion Unit (More harp!)
• The Diamond Sea (for the sweet hospitality and for the gear)
• Steph from Catfood Press
• Inapropriate Toughguy Behavior (for the monolith of awesome gear and for an awesome set)
• Rat Vs Possum (for being the sweet pop band on the bill)
• Bonnie from Breathing Shrine (ruling)
• Assassination Collective (chaos)
• And everyone and anyone who came and saw us play!

Here's some photos we took:

Vonky Touring's Nadia *TM* and Alex at A Minor Place:


Ian: Nadia pretty much went above and beyond booking our shows and giving us a hand. 1am the day she was due to fly out at 10am and start work on the An Horse US tour and she was still helping us out with stuff. All she got in return was the meal you can see her eating above. So she's pretty #1 now on my list of Most Punk Rock People I've Ever Met.

Black Widow & Candlesnuffer:


Ian: This was some splintery noise. I did the door at the Birmo. You think that after years of rocking over Australia that I'd be a bit over being the door bizatch but I still secretly love it. Maybe I'm a control freak.

Pig & Machine:


Ian: First night in a new town is always pretty wild/shit in terms of organisation, (my) vibes and gear. But this really took things to a new place in terms of untamed first night headliner bands. I'm still entirely unsure of what they're supposed to be dressed as. Nice folks. Actually there were a bunch of bands on that night that weren't really our thing but they were nice people and didn't outwardly hate our Brisbane drone/doom downer apocolypse noise.

The Melbourne Dan Lewis and Celeste from Ouch My Face:


Ian: Pretty sure The Melbourne Dan Lewis hated us by the end of our trip. We saw him at shows every night and regaled him with stories of the Brisbane Dan Lewis and other assorted northern type humour which seemed to bore / annoy / frighten him. That beard is real by the way. So is Celeste - accept no substitutes.

Us In The Stifling Heat of Pony (Photo by Nadia):





Ian: We kinda look like heavy metal jack-offs in these photos. Alex threw up in the toilets after this show. Nuff said.

Hotel Wrecking City Traders:


Ian: HWCT was pretty fucking awesome. They reminded me of that moment at the tail end of Kyuss records where you think 'Hang on, they're just making this shit up on the fly now'. Their crowd was pretty awesome too: a cock forest of stoner dudes hanging back trying to keep on top of the noise (as in 'Hol-lee-shit-want-Snickers-but-can't-move-til-music-stops'). Fun night and once again, great people.

Celeste Atop The Ouch My Face Van:


Ian: Celeste got quite agitated at the state of the Australian music industry after the show and dealt with it by sitting on top of the van and refusing to budge. Her band mates Steve and Ben just lugged and loaded like this happened all the time. Killer band; their music has something very unusal in it: boogie that doesn't suck.

Van Ride Home:


Ian: Not sure why Alex put this photo on here. Caro's hot new pixie hair can be clearly seen to the left. This photo was a lot more uncomfortable than it looks. I think The Melbourne Dan Lewis is so uncomfortable that he has placed himself into a zen meditative state.

Aktion Unit @ Old Bar:


Ian: This is Aktion Unit; on this night they were made up of The Melbourne Dan Lewis, my old friend Rene from Handhell / The Bites, Mark from the awesome Popolice (and The New Estate) and a harp player whom I'm pretty sure was named Jen. But I seriously met at least five people called Jen/Jem/Gen in Melbourne so maybe I have that totally wrong. Either way, they ruled and the harp sounded fucking amazing.

The Diamond Sea:


Ian: Holy shit. I saw the Diamond Sea in Brisbane once and they were good...but jesus, at The Old Bar this night they owned x 5. And strangely, I kinda got the feeling on the night - with all due respect - that I was watching them leave a bit of juice in the tank. They must be fucking stellar when they're hitting it out of the park. Melbourne's lucky to have them.

On Sunday We Went to Oren Ambachi's Sound Art Exhibition which was really cool. We could have spent all day there:




Ian: I listened to Whitehouse at an art gallery.

Ian Manning the Catfood door and ready to fight anyone:


Ian: I told you I'm pretty into doing the door. At one point I totally wandered off to do something and when I came back there was a empty beer bottle on the table with a $5 note under it. I said to someone 'What's this?' and they said 'That's Tom from The Nation Blue's door charge'. If I was in the Nation Blue, I'd have just snuck in.

Inappropriate Toughguy Behavior:


Ian: These two dudes are great. I think us two dudes owe them about 5 favours now. Don't even get me started on the gear and how good it was and how kind they were to lend it to us or I'll never shut up (did I mention that's a Sunn amp behind Patto there?). Prior to starting Jem stripped down to his underwear like it ain't nothing anyone hadn't seen before. And then shit BLAZED. Go listen to them.

The Car Crash that happened during/because of Toughguy Behaviour's set:


Ian: At one point I was outside and this friend of mine says 'Is that your drummer standing on that car?' Not sure why people were into standing on cars during this trip, but that was the vibe.

Rat Vs Possum (+ some guy called Keith):


Ian: When I was in Iron On we were totally not cowards. In the early days, if punk bands or noise rock bands asked us to play somewhere, we did it. I felt that Rat Vs Possum carried themselves the same way at this show. It was poptastic at points, melodic and nice at others and then just to cap it off, at the end a guy in really tight jeans and an Andy Warhol shirt got up and did some vocals. I don't really know who that guy was - someone told me he was Keith - anyway, if he ever wants to jam on a No Anchor middle eight, he's more than welcome to.

Bonnie Mercer:



Ian: Bonnie pretty much plays noise guitar the way other people play chords and notes. One of my favourite performances from the all the shows, hands down. Bonnie, if you're reading this, come to Brisbane - we'll hook yo up.

Assassination Collective:



Ian: Something about the Assassination Collective made me think 'Punk Rock Gin Club', maybe it was the instrument swapping and the beards. Anyway, sweet people and a good band. They have one short drummer and one taller drummer - at change over time, the drum stool was exchanged for a bar stool, something I thought was worth the $5 entry alone.

The 'Angelic' Steph from Catfood Press:


Ian: Steph kept a bit of time in Screamfeeder not long ago. You'd like her.

A Great Way to end the weekend, My Disco at the Tote:





Ian: It's been a little while since I checked in on My Disco, so this show felt really fresh and exciting for me. I could write an academic treatise on how they've taken Australian noise-rock to it's most soulless and abstract endpoint and proven that, somehow, there's life there on the horizon line but I won't (and shouldn't). They rocked it and remain one of Australia's most innovative rock bands.

Good times.