I was musing about something pretty cool today and thought id share a little tale with the forum, which i know includes some friends of mine in real life that will dig this especially...

It was about 1995 that i first got a Chemical Brothers record. I would have been about 16. By the time i was 18, the legal age to hit clubs in Australia, i had quite a few more CB records and was sequencing and sampling, delighted that i was emulating some CB's sampling of acts like Kraftwerk. By 1999, i was playing gigs as a live breaks act with some rudimentary gear and got the news... Chemical Brothers were coming to Australia. Seeing them at Big Day Out was a pinnacle moment for, well, many things. It was a huge gig. I ditched my music friends as they went to see Chilli Peppers and stood in a seething mass of people and had my brain blown. I remember feeling like the set had gone on forever, but grew tense during private psychadelic reel not knowing if each breakdown would be the last. The crazy lfo filter freakout outro set like cement in my brain, destined to piss off my bandmates forever more as i'd oscillate the hell out of any outro for as long as possible given half the chance on stage.

A few years later, we saw them at Festival Hall. A site now demolished in my home town of Brisbane, Australia. A much missed site, iconic for concerts including Beatles and a young Nirvana. All of these experiences fueled on my own desires to not just write music, but to keep playing it live. Despite all the crashed S2000's, the faulty NV sliders on MPC's, the dodgy cables, broken drum machines... it was all worth it. Of all the acts out there, CB's seemed to sum up the sounds i most wanted to play to crowds. PEW PEW synth lfo modulating and subby bass.

The story is nearly over :) In 2004 they came back to play Big Day Out again. I was handling some management duties for a live act called Statler & Waldorf, and did their monitor mix on stage (basically just stood there off to the side, grinning my ears off and every now and then pushing a fader slightly up, lol). We opened the Boiler Room, which the Chemical Brothers closed. An amazing experience, and getting to wander around the CB's live rig was priceless. Even though Waldorf is now my production partner in Segue, i was sure that that was the closest id come to Boiler Room performance.

Until recently. We got news that we are booked! 1:15pm at the Boiler Room!!! The biggest touring festival in Australia, and arguably the best stage in the country to play live electronica.

So i think back to being the 18 or 19 year old watching Chemical Brothers blow a new reality into my mind from that very stage, and in two weeks we will be attempting the same. Live progressive tech and acid + VJ, with something special up our sleeve for those who are familiar with the act. For anyone there, look out for our remix of EBW9 which we're aiming to play live, as much for homage of that set in 2000 as the sheer excitement of it all. This could only get better if we got booked for FMF in Brisbane but the chance to play the stage of one of the most amazing music experiences of my life... well thats pretty damn special! I'll be looking out in the middle of that crowd remembering me looking up at the stage going... O M F G... :P

Let me know if anyone from this forum will be coming to the Gold Coast BDO!

sweet, thanks for that :)

(not anywhere near australia however)

Congrats for being booked at such a huge festival. Sounds like some kind of homage?! Looking forward to a review of this live gig you gonna do!

Awesome story! Unfortunately it's a bit of a trek to Oz from London, but if someone were to record it I'd love to have a listen...

Dude, what a legendary story.

WELL DONE!

That's really awesome, segwist! :D

I read what you wrote, but I find it hard to be happy for you because of a hurdle named Envy.

::HIGH FIIIIIVE:: (Borat voice)

You rock, hombre.

OH! Awesome!

You're EBW9 remix is ace! It would be really cool to hear you live. Do you have any recordings of past shows you've done?

It's a hell of a trek from California to Australia, or I'd so come see ya. And what an epic story. I'm envious, happy and touched all at the same time!

We record most of our sets to a trusty DA20 DAT (and film) but rarely let them get played on radio or online. Its hard to let go really. I dig what fellow Australian act Infusion say about the context of a live show being on the night, in the venue and for that crowd, but i should just admit the odd overzealous synth stab or sweep makes me cringe a little. We've been asked to record the BDO set for radio though, so we dont have a choice. We have two new tracks out on an Australian label at the beginning of February so lots of promo type stuff then. Anyone who cares can find us elsewhere though, i dont want to be a boring self promo type on here (i know a heap of acts and artists are on here in any case, including the awesome Hyperion!). Thought it might be cool to share whats rocking my boat right now though.

I've been watching a lot of great music doco's on ABC 2, a free to air digital tv channel here in Aus that has a lot of cool content, and its a reminder how special some of those early music experiences we have are, regardless of what we do years on. There are plenty on Kraftwerk, EMS synth manufacturer (really!!), classic albums, early house music and so on but im really looking forward to some doco's on my era. The Big Beat, the era of rave culture becoming club culture, the rise of progressive house, the fall of the "aritst album" and the last wave of "stadium electronic" acts like Underworld and Chemical Brothers (for the time being!!!). How awesome would that be? Well, despite it making us who partied through that period feel a little old that is :P

That's so cool, segwist! Loved the story. :)

Hey segwist, just had the Melbourne bid day out yesterday and picked up the information guide booklet and caught your little paragraph in the artists section. Hope you gold cost gig was awesome!!!