20/9/13 THE VANGUARD SYDNEY (Newtown)

[kazzababe]

Have a blast you lucky peeps give the man a hug from me

[CarlaM]

Have the best time tonight everyone.
I can't wait to read the reports.
Sooooo wish I could have gone to this one.

Have a blast!

[princess1]

Have a great night everyone, its a shame you couldn't go Carla

[debangel]

HAVE AN AWESOME NIGHT TO ALL THOSE  WHO ARE GOING TONIGHT

was thinking I was going to be the first here in Perth to see the show, forgot about all the lucky people who are going tonight and tomorrow. I will be lurking in the DLO shadows waiting for your reports

[plugger]

Hope you are all having the best time tonight. Look forward to hearing all about it!

[Roxy]

Bummer that you didn't get to go Carla I'm not even sure who was going? hope you all had a great time. x

[thebraff (Braffy)]

I'm home...........................

Dawn has the setlist and I can tell you it was so good listening to the songs in full rather than 1.30 snippets on iTunes even though it has been lovely to hear that much.

'Lonely Nights' is such a great song and is also the Kids Size Living theme song.

I really enjoyed hearing 'Without a Fight' live and I mentioned to Damien that I liked it better than the recorded version.

There was no 'Stronger Than Superman'. I am not sure why, someone else might know.

'Faith in Me' was another standout as was 'I Can Stop You Crying' and 'Last Sad Song'.

You have to wonder why you book the earliest possible dining time and then 3 hours later when you are trying to see/listen to what you have paid to come and see (especially when it is a preview of a new album) they decide it is time to come to you with the bill and then come back for payment
I just quickly said I would pay later as I was trying to listen to Damien.

He explained why/how he wrote the songs and about the co writes with others especially Joe Melson and then sang 'Only the Lonely'. He also sang Hallelujah and the Daft Punk/Taylor Swift mashup 'Get Lucky' that he performed on MIX recently.

I will let Dawn tell you about 'the gift' Let's just say it went down extremely well.

Dawn and I stayed in Newtown and I was hoping that others might have written something.

It was good to see Spud and Mash, Shims & P, Morgs, Diana Rouvas (Eric was on stage with Damien), Eils looking fabulous as always and some other members who don't come online here but do Facebook.

There was a table of ladies wearing jackets with some shows that Damien has done written on the back. We gave them our 'DLO Cards'. Another couple sitting next to our table walked down the aisle to 'Beautiful' and their first wedding dance was to 'All I Want is You'. They have given their son the 2nd name of Damien. They will be at the Brass Monkey too and we told them about the Basement on the 14th December. The 4 ladies and this couple are planning on going to the Basement also now.

The crowd were very appreciative but a bit smaller than when Damien was there last time.

It's very hard to introduce new music to people but I feel Damien did it well.

I did mention to Damien that it will have to be a ripper of an album to beat Remember June for me, but I also said that Remember June is very special to me for a number of reasons and that I am looking forward to getting this album and giving it a proper listen.

I found myself listening more to the lyrics last night and DAMN Damien is a fantastic songwriter. He should be very proud of all the songs he has written.

I hope those going to Bennett Lane tonight in Melbourne have a great time and enjoy themselves like I did.

[princess1]

Thanks for the report Braffy, I'm sure we'll all have a great time

[dmac]

Sorry I've taken so long, but was flat to the boards from the time of alighting the train until now
Braffy and I met at Central, then trained it to Newtown and booked into our accommodation. We were booked for the first sitting so arrived there about 6:45/50 and found we were at the second table in the centre as we only booked for the one course, but ended up having breads and desserts as well as the scrumtious steak dish
Hunter Adams was Damiens support and had an enthusiastic support group. She didn't begin until 8:45 pm and was a fairly good support.
Damien followed Eric out onto the stage at 10pm wearing a beige jacket,beige/brown leopard print type shirt, tight blue jeans and shiny black shoes. He began with
* Halfway Heart and talked about the many hours on the computer and 10 months of recording, but alas! his buns of steel were more like buns of dough Then he talked about * A Million Reasons and how it was decided he needed. to become less intense and showed us with his rendition. Then he and Eric began muckingaround with special effects with
* Let's Get It On. Next sang
* Time to Go and decided he was heating up so took his jacket off to much applause and some catcalling
* Then came Lonely Nights which some of us have enjoyed in the Kidsize Living Clip.
Then he and Eric began mucking around with special effects. They only had a couple of goes at it because they couldn't hear it play back properly. It was like layering (I remember them doing it once before) recording a couple of lines and playing back while they played the same lines again and the playback comes back in two leveks.
* See You Again was next followed by
* I Can Stop You Crying which prompted Damien to sing
* Only the Lonely
* He then sang Last Sad Song and I decided that song needed to be rewarded with a gift hmmmmm not a moose Damien, but a horse which ties in with "To the talented and handsome Damien leith. I hope your album is a runaway success" It was again fortunate that Damien worked out it wasn't a hand puppet to show his kids Next came
* Never Forget
* Hallelujah - a little surprise
* You and I and
* Without a Fight which sounds great live
* Get Lucky (a song I hadn't known) and finally
* Faith in Me
When asked why Stronger than superman wasn't sung, Damien explained he'd just ran out of time as the show was finished at 11:20pm.
I thought that the audience was a group of really appreciative Damien fans who enjoyed hearing the new songs and will be coming back for more
I totally enjoyed the show, especially my 3 favourite songs
Was great to see familiar faces with Spud and Mash at the table behind us, a couple of ladies from FB and Morgs, Shims and bf up the back. Diana was upstairs. We didn't get to meet Jen and Karen but the lovely Eils came around and had a chat before Damien sang and then we mostly caught up after.
As Braffy said we handed out quite a few cards and I'll see the young couple at the Brass Monkey (where they recalled seeing me) and we'll see the 4 ladies at the Basement.
Thank you Damien for chatting with us after the show, always a special treat

[thebraff (Braffy)]

Definitely not a hand puppet for the kids to play with although Eric wanted it to take home for his kitten to play with

[Glawz]

Sept 22, 2013 8:54:06 GMT 10 thebraff (Braffy) said:

Definitely not a hand puppet for the kids to play with although Eric wanted it to take home for his kitten to play with

Hey Dawn,

Maybe you can get a new 'pet' for Eric next show

[Smiley]

Great reports guys. So wish I could have been there!

Sounds like Damo is still wowing the audience. Can't wait til Nov to see him and hear the new album live. Brilliant!

[Smiley]

Sept 22, 2013 1:38:59 GMT 10 dmac said:

Damien followed Eric out onto the stage at 10pm wearing a beige jacket,beige/brown leopard print type shirt, tight blue jeans and shiny black shoes.

Is this the leopard print? Paisley?



Surprised to hear Hunter is a female! Why did I not know that?

[shimmery]

I haven't been feeling the best for a few days but wanted to leave a little review.  Totally LOVED LOVED LOVED all the new songs. Someone asked me on the night whether I like these new songs better than Remember June and for me it's no contest, I think Chapter Seven as a collection of songs is far & away Damien's best work and that comes from someone who really loves Remember June and some of the songs on that album are my favourites ever.

It was an interesting thing to hear Damien perform these acoustically after hearing only snippets on the iTunes previews in the full version, it gave us a little insight to be able to compare. I agree with Braffy's opinion about Without A Fight, I think I like it even more the acoustic way Damien performed it on Friday night. It was still a full sound even in acoustic. It has a lot of life in it life and really engaged the audience.

My favourite part of the show was the section when Damien did the 3 songs - See You Again, I Can Stop You Crying & Last Sad Song. Wow  WOW. Totally Blown Away. I love them as songs and love the way Damien performed them. And even though from previews we can hear Last Sad Song has a really big sound it sounds spectacular the way Damien did it acoustically live. He incorporated some great sound effects through some of the songs such as violin and drums which came from "nowhere" (a guy out the back ) and it really added to it all. I also loved the guitar Eric added into Last Sad Song in lighter acoustic style which it accompanied the song in a very complimentary way filling out the sound with melody rather than wall of sound. Reminded me of the way Neil Finn played guitar in some of his live shows with Crowded House, Fingers of Love/Weather With You style - had similar feel.

Also really loved Damien doing Daft Punk's Get Lucky. Much better version even than he did on the radio show & it's a really fun one for a cover song.

Never Forget was my favourite of the new songs coming in & it was one of the few I'd heard in full having seen Damien debut it at Ryde a couple of months back. It's much more polished now and a fully fledged complete song but I'd love to see Damien really belt out the chorus again as he did at Ryde and stalk around the stage with it - that was a rarer side to him that's really electrifying in a live show & would love to see him continue on for the occasional song when he can be free of the stand or guitar & able to wander about.

Faith in Me was a really strong way to end the show, such a positive note with which to end the night. Gave a beautiful feeling and Damien beamed at the end as he took his final bow. In a way the only regret was we would have loved to see Damien longer, would have been great to start the show earlier I think as it was very hot in the venue early on and it was flattening the vibe a bit in the room by around 10pm when the show started. It cooled off a bit halfway in and that really helped energise the room again.

Another fast becoming a favourite song is The KSL one, The Lonely Nights. It's so catchy, I often find myself humming that one about the place. Definitely think Last Sad Song is the best choice for next single, that song has it all! Also love the litany of all the famous sad songs through it which worked well as an intro to Only the Lonely in itself.

One of my favourite memories of the evening was seeing Eils move through the room before the show greeting everyone, thought that was so gracious and special

All in all think this is the most wonderful and beautifully crafted collection of songs and like everyone else, I can't wait to hear the album. Know that the live shows are going to be sensational after hearing this preview show and would love to hear what Damien would do with full band if he was considering that for the tour. His time as a producer is really showing even in the way he's doing the live arrangements, it's all very exciting!

[shimmery]

Smiley - lol I hadn't seen your "Damien selfie" post before mine when I posted.


Yes, that is Damien's "leopard body paint" - his words!! - Fab paisley shirt! (& beautifully accompanying teh chest hair  )