Marianne Makes a Comeback

I decided I will start blogging again...mostly because I'm supposed to be studying for my exam that's in a week. Anyway, imma start with a fresh new look here and get this ball a rollin'.

Stay tuned non-existent followers.

The Temper Trap, a concert review

I'm quite proud of this review for a concert I wrote for one of my subjects so thought I'd share it with ya here. Also the aim of the review is to tie it to the characteristics of rock and other genres we learnt in the subject, audience, song structure and stuff like that so if you're wondering why I get all specific about certain things that's why. Even though I stayed up till 4am trying to edit/cut it down to the word limit I actually did enjoy this assignment since I really love The Temper Trap and trying to analyze their music really helped me appreciate what great musicians they are. I mean, I know I love music but trying to understand the root of it all really strengthened my relationship with it. It also helped me brush up on my writing skills and creativity since me no do proper writing anymo coz science.

Concert Review: The Temper Trap

written by Marianne Nguyen

When a band that has toured the world arrives back home to perform in the humble city of which they began, there is an apparent gratitude and enthusiasm that exudes from the musicians’ performance that makes for a momentous experience. Such was the case for the rock band The Temper Trap when they performed at Festival Hall on the 24^th of April. This Melbourne band comprises of four key members assigned to typical instruments involved in the rock genre; drums, bass guitar, guitar, and vocals (with occasional keyboard). Together they played a combination of tracks to achieve atmospheric music distinct to the band’s sound. This partly goes to the lead singer, Dougy Mandagi’s, unique virtuosic falsetto, a signature trademark attributing to the band’s success.

The atmospheric sound was established from the first note of the opening song ‘Love Lost,’ played from the echoing organ sound of the keyboard filling the room, comparable to a gospel song. Building upon this allusion, the congregation of music-lovers united in a participation of syncopated claps to provide the backbeat. The ecclesiastical lead singer preached in his ethereal voice messages of hope and love in his lyrics, a universal relevance especially among the youth. The song then erupted into a polyphonic symphony of rock instruments bringing in the guitar, bass and drums entering the chorus. This pattern was repeated until the layering of guitar and drums built-up to the bridge where the pattern was broken with increasing crescendo of vocals and faster paced rhythm provided by the instruments. Most songs followed a similar trend of a verse- chorus -bridge structure. The night reached its pinnacle from the encore, the fan favourite “Sweet Disposition.” The loudest reaction came as soon as the recognizable guitar line echoed. The audience sang along to the well known short-phrased lyrics like an anthem as Mandagi directed his microphone back and forth to the crowd, a connection between the performers and listeners established in call and response.

The guitar drove the melody for most of the songs, as heard in the song ‘Soldier On,’ whose haunting repetitive rhythm of the guitar complemented Mandagi’s equivalently eerily sung lyrics. This, coupled with Mandagi’s vast vocal range laced in powerful emotions expressed in high pitch florid vocals was reminiscent of the moaning and wailing often heard in country blues music. Other uptempo songs with a cheerful melody were juxtaposed with bleak lyrics, which gave greater depth to the songs. The drums played an important role in many songs giving powerful energy by providing a pounding backbeat, an attribute of rock music.  Guitar solos were also a common feature in the songs. Differing from the classic rock genre, the band occasionally played synthesizers from the keyboard recognizable in the pop genre. This added another layer to achieving the atmospheric sound and allowed songs to become more appeasable to the wider younger audiences who grew up listening to popular synthesized music.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Temper Trap’s concert and was impressed by their stage presence by their ability to express heartfelt emotion. I was reminded by how much I enjoy the beaming energy of live music that cannot be encapsulated in a recording.

As I was more attentive than usual at this concert, I became more appreciative of the attention to detail that musicians have in creating a song; from the lyrical musings to the thoughtful melody in order to convey a story or evoke an emotion. This appreciation was felt unanimously, as I looked around a venue filled with gleaming strangers singing, dancing and jumping with one another united by the euphoric atmosphere created by the music. It was then that I was reminded by how powerful a connection with music could be. 

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First book (kind of) review on here

So it has been a very long while since I've read a book. I'm ashamed to say how long, but coming exam time naturally leaves me wanting to revisit old hobbies and other creative outlets that have been repressed since uni. My favourite kind of books during these dark times are them apocalyptic, end-of-the-world kinda stories where there are no exams, assessments no careers to worry about. Nope just plain survival (lucky bastards). It's a great escape from the just-as-grim reality of having to study.

So I read the synopsis for Warm Bodies (no it's not an erotic novel, geez) by Isaac Marion. Human civilisation coming to its end, check. An unlikely romance, check. And most importantly, zombies. Check. It was the perfect book. Long story short zombie (named R) falls in love with a girl (forgot her name already) whose boyfriend he just ate and they go through trying to survive in first his then her world etc etc. It's gory at some bits but I've definitely read worse. Example, Cell by Stephen King. Got up to page 10 and then threw it across the room and was left traumatized and in shock for a good 5 minutes. Anyway, somehow the author managed to pull it off. I mean, upon first time reading the premise for the novel you'd think it was either a) hilarious. Sounds so bad it must be good or b) Twilight but with zombies.
It was neither. It was well written, thought provoking and touching. Only thing that annoyed me was the main chick. She was alright at times but other times she was so preachy and borderline hipster and just went on about The Beatles. We get it, you have good taste in music even in this desolate world. Good for you.

If you're looking for a bit of horror, a bit of romance and above all something to distract you from studying for exams, this is the book for you. There's also a movie coming out next year starring Nicholas Hoult (from Skins) as our hero 'R'. Exciting stuff.

Oh bloody 'ell

I accidentally deleted all my photos on my blog. I know no one is over here nowadays but still :'(
RIP the picture Amanda made for me that was a love heart outta my name and the photo of the rubber and pencil. R.I.P.

It was fun. (Alright, alright I will try to avoid the puns)

I think every few years or so a band comes along and turns my world upside down with kick ass lyrics and sound. So last night at the Hi-Fi Bar I saw the band fun. which are most well known from We Are Young thanks to Glee. And it makes me so happy how much success they've had since. Fun. is similar to my love Jack's Mannequin with the whole former band on hiatus/practically broken up thing and the whole indie pop thing going on. They even supported Jack's a few years ago! If you haven't heard of them I'd suggest having a listen to their albums. They have so much variation that no song sounds the same and are so special for different reasons but are interconnected at the same time.

Lead singer Nate jumped in dancing and jumping in his suspenders like a kid. Oh man he is just nothing short of awesome. And being a Mark Wahlberg/Matt Damon/Kevin Bacon fan that I am the fact that Nate's a look-a-like I kinda do find him attractive hehe. The songs they played was a good balance of the first and second album. They sound amazing live, energetic and connected with the crowd really well. They sound exactly as they do in the album :) The other band members also are amazing vocalists. The audience were brilliant and knew the songs and were really enthusiastic which is always a plus. I've decided that the Hi-Fi bar is my favourite concert venue because it is so small that it feels like a bunch of friends getting together to celebrate good music (I've probably written that in a past blog somewhere but really, it is an awesome venue and everyone gets to see the stage from where they're standing all concert venues should be like that). 

Highlights: 

Some of my favourite songs: Stars, Walking the Dog, The Gambler, Some Nights, Carry On, All the Pretty Girls (it's just the cutest song!), Take Your Time. I could go on. They were all so good!

-Nate struggling to take his shoes off

-The little jamming bits between the bassist and guitar

It was pretty much the perfect night of entertainment. And now I feel sad because all the dates within the next 3-4 months on my calendar are assessment due dates :( 

...but at least I can have some 'fun' in between. OKAY I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF. I KNOW IT WASN'T EVEN GOOD.

Marianne goes to see The Temper Trap

So it has been a while since my last concert (Andrew McMahon which was last February...). Too long actually that it felt like I was experiencing everything for the first time again when I saw The Temper Trap last night. But there were some things I had learnt from the last time I was at the Forum that I knew for next time. For one: Arrive reasonably early. Do not at any cost be late. Two: wear comfy ass shoes. Three: There is a ledge by the barrier. Do not trip on the ledge and fall on the lesbians (refer to the Tegan and Sara post if you don't know what I'm talking about).

(Edit: Whoops I realised I hadn't mentioned about the lesbians. Well everyone at the concert had the same haircut as Tegan and Sara if you get me...anyway we were rushing to the front row that I didn't see the ledge by the barrier that my foot got left behind by the ledge as I fell face first onto a bunch of lesbians at the front and grabbed their whole bodies to break my fall. They just turned around looking pissed off and went 'There's always one'.)

With these pieces of advice that I left on a little post-it somewhere in my mind last time I was all set to go for a perfect night with The Temper Trap. It went by so perfectly that we were second in line with the perfect view right at the front middle:

Photo courtesy of my band buddy Jade

Alright so I'll try to make this short.
Things I noticed:
-Dougy's shirt had little love hearts.
-The warm up band Seekae?'s drummer/vocalist looks and dresses like Andrew McMahon (he was pretty good looking hehe). Besides that, I didn't like their performance not my cup o' tea.

Highlights:
-Everytime Dougy picked up an instrument; tambourine, guitar, drums
-Everytime Dougy danced. So unique and trancing
-The bassist who got so into it
-Love Lost, Down River, Science of Fear, The Drum Song, Soldier On. Okay, pretty much every song.
- The moment I heard the intro to Sweet Disposition. Just hearing it that moment that's been part of my life that is so familiar being played live in front of me...really unexplainable experience.

Lowlights:
The guys behind us were really annoying. They rested their hands on my shoulder, used my back as drums and just got up against me like every inch of their body against mine which normally I don't mind at concerts but it just wasn't the right kinda mood to do it.

Anyway, to sum it up The Temper Trap are an awesome band live. Dougy's voice is absolutely one of a kind. So freaking insanely unbelievably etc etc good. And he performed so comfortably with or without an instrument. Just wow. There were some awkward parts where I didn't know some songs from the new album that all I could do was bop around hoping they weren't looking at me not knowing the words. Also I would've liked a little more interaction from the band like a bit of talking between songs or maybe a funny story or something. But it felt like a special show because they are Melbourne boys and apparently The Forum is one of their favourite places to perform (according to Jade) :P The lighting, instruments and incredible vocals make for a surreal performance that is so amazing that you totally forget you have exams in a couple of weeks and are meant to be studying but it doesn't matter because it is so totally worth it.