I've seen Holy Fuck in early January and they killed it. I mean, they killed everyone in the audience and brought them back to life. The gig was that good. But yesterday's gig was even better. If you guys watched Yakitate! Japan!, that bread that is so good, you die for a couple of minutes after having a bite and go to heaven, yeah that was last night's gig.
Maybe I am over exaggerating it a bit, but then again if you weren't there how can you know?
Thanks to the amazing bandwagonapp my friends and I got the chance to meet the band in person where we mostly talked about laneway singapore 2011, the band's influence and other bands (special mention: they love making jokes about Metallica, I'm not quite sure if they're a fan or they're doing it ironically it's hard to tell)
I've heard of Avalon before, I mean Devendra Banhart, Nick Valensi and Digitalism have performed there before. My friends heard about it just before they opened and articles about it seems like Avalon is the 'new hip cool club' in town. I could be, especially judging from the architecture of the building. Weird triangle shaped made by glass, sure.
Which goes to my disappointment. Avalon well known place, and I assume the management there would be pretty good, but the way they managed the event was... well....
Apparently the place overbooked the place for one night. There were two very different events going on in one night which was, a bit chaotic. One was for Pioneer started roughly around 6 until 9, and Holy Fuck + Klaxons (DJ Set) was supposed to start from 9 until 4. The thing is, the people from the first event weren't even out of the place after 9 and the second event were supposed to start at 9. We had to wait for the guests of the Pioneer party to go out which took them 45 minutes? Roughly. So that was late, meaning the band came on late also. Originally they were supposed to perform from 9.15 until 11, but thanks to the delay they started at 10.30 and finishes at 11.30. I didn't order drinks either because apparently, the drinks were quite expensive (according to reviews I saw online), so it wasn't that hard to just shift away from the bar. The place, was nice and cozy. Cold, somewhat-intimate, have to admit it does have a better feel than St. James. The stage weren't quite as tall and the soundsystem was definitely better.
Having to wait for quite some time half of the people their were anxious to see Holy Fuck, while half of the people there I assume to either be regulars at Avalon or just went there to have a good time not knowing there was a band playing. At the start, there weren't many people in the crowd which I found was a shock. I would say roughly about 40 or 50? Then again I could be wrong. But the crowd number grew through out the set and the people starts to move more freely than before. Maybe it's the late night, or maybe it's the alcohol. Most likely the alcohol consumption.
Everyone stared in awe as Holy Fuck performed, personally it was hard for me to move around freely since I have a 12" vinyl in my right hand and a poster in my other hand. Still it was all good. They played unforgettable songs, some that they have played in Laneway earlier in the year too. From Frenchy's to Lovely Allen and to the famous Red Lights and Latin America. But the song that caught my attention from the set was SHT MTN, my favorite song of the album and quite honestly it was 220% better when they played it live.
The stacatto moves of the personnel were also engaging, they seem to be enjoying themselves no doubt. And from my memory it seems they were all moving more freely than they did in Laneway.
I remember in the middle of the set I heard someone said "What a cool beard" as they talked about Graham Walsh up on stage, it sure was my friend. He changed various instruments in between songs from melodica to some other stuff that seems to look like a toy.
Matt "Punchy" McQuaid stood behind right next to Matt Schulz as they keep each other's beats perfectly while Brian Borcherdt plays around with his..... Quite honestly I have no idea what it was called. For people who went there or have seen them live, what was those, stripey wiggly thing that somewhat looked like rolls of films?
Notable people in the crowd: 2 girls standing right in front of Brian and was the first ones to be in front of the stage, you could tell they're big fans. Guy with White Lies shirt standing in front of Graham, jumped like a maniac total A+. Caucasian guy in white that was seemingly drunk who threw a beer bottle and went to the front of the crowd bumping everyone, then did some killer dance moves.
And in the end as I reunite with the other gig goers outside of the venue, everyone was smiling and said "THEY WERE SO GOOD, MINDBLOWN" or something along those lines.
It was better than their Laneway performance, or maybe we were all just tired after standing in the rain for hours, but if Holy Fuck comes to town again, I would without a doubt watch them again for a couple more times until I actually get bored.
overall: 8/10
