Kim Salmon
Friday October 02, 2009 at 10:00 PM
Audience: 18 and over
The Hi-Fi Bar and BallroomAudience: 18 and over
125 Swanston St, Melbourne
VIC, 3000, Australia.
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Event Listing (VIC)
125 Swanston St, Melbourne
VIC, 3000, Australia.
Show on a Map.
Kim Salmon
The first thing to note about tonight's show is that Melbourne’s Hi-Fi Bar has expanded its range of beers to include Cascade Pale Ale. It’s still marginally overpriced, but at least we won’t be condemned to a night of Toohey’s New. Things are already looking positive.
We grab a handful of stubbies and head down toward the stage where Kim Salmon is holding court. Clad in a black t-shirt emblazoned with his trademark fish motif (the design you still see occasionally featured on the rear of cars owned by proud Christians), Salmon is backed by former Ripe drummer Mike Stranges.
Salmon opens with ‘Cheap and Nasty’, a song written originally during his days as a snotty young punk in Perth, and resuscitated in recent times in Salmon’s solo and group sets. Thirty years on, it still packs a punch. Despite the accolades regularly bestowed upon his artistic catalogue, you still get the feeling Salmon is fighting the original punk battles with the same passion of yore.
‘Pearls Before Swine’, Salmon’s ode to his days kicking down hotel room doors as part of the Beasts of Bourbon, follows next, this time devoid of the introductory contextual remarks that he’s prone to offering. By the time Salmon strums the familiar chords to The Scientists’ ‘Frantic Romantic’, the crowd has begun to respond. Salmon dips back further into his past and imbues Dee Dee Ramone’s ‘Chinese Rocks’ with all the passion and intensity an earnest junkie reserves for the finest illicit opiate imported from foreign lands. From there it’s a short step to ‘Pissed On Another Planet’, and you can see the musicological connection straight through the veins of The Heartbreakers into the irreverent alcoholic obsession of the original Scientists.
There’s a few unfamiliar tunes thrown in – we agree they must be new tracks – and some pounding repentance courtesy of ‘Shine Some Darkness’. Salmon smiles politely at the crowd, pays tribute to Stranges and launches into ‘We Had Love’. Somewhere in the midst of the grinding chords there’s a subtle change in tempo and melody, barely comprehensible to the average gig ravaged ear. Within moments all we can hear is the three-chord juvenile delinquent punk of The Stooges’ ‘Loose’, and it’s all good. Very, very good.
by Patrick Emery
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Excuse my ignorance, but why was Kim playing at the Hi Fi Bar? Was he supporting somebody? Just seems a bit incongruous.
He was supporting Kill Devil Hills, I think. While the crowd were supporting Cascade Breweries.
I wish he'd play more often.
He plays a fair bit.
Ain't seen you at his shows either.
Where? When? I've probably seen more Kim Salmon shows than you've had hot dinners, bub. But then I'm old...
i reckon i saw kim salmon play before jp was even born.
I'll be listing to Solid Gold Hell when you're both dead.
Probably.
Anyone have a copy of Kim Salmon with STM *'Hey Believer' * they fancy putting in Gmail?
If I knew how to put stuff into Gmail I'd do it...
upload the mp3's to sendspace and then send the html it creates to the messandnoise gmail account. if its not too much trouble. should take no more than 5 mins
@steve: Don't expect anything Aqui
Part of an article From Kim in this mornings smh
.
WHEN I began working as a musician in Fremantle some 35 years ago, I earned around $600 per week. I had a regular gig and it was ongoing. Nowadays I'd think myself very lucky to make that sort of wage playing music. It's usually much less. And compared to many musicians, I'm doing very well.
Last year in Melbourne, the city's entire live music industry rallied to get the Victorian government to recognise the industry's cultural and economic contribution to the state.
This town's reputation as the best live music scene in the country was trumpeted proudly throughout the media. Much was made of a loved pub, the Tote, being forced to close as a live music venue thanks to restrictive licensing laws. It became the symbol of the struggle to maintain a vibrant music scene in a heartless environment of profiteers, bureaucrats and dollar-driven decisions.
Thanks, however, to the industry figures and musos who took part in the rally, public awareness of the importance of the industry grew and became something that government would notice. Thanks to the rally, the Tote reopened as a music venue just a few months after its high-profile closure. It was considered a victory for live music in this state.
And, one year after the Tote's historic reopening, what of the musicians who create this live music so cherished by the state? Are they able to get a guaranteed fee for playing in this victorious, symbolic pub?
Err, actually … no.
Why is it that after dedicating my life to playing music, I now earn less than ever?
Kim Salmon will be performing his Russian Roulette shows at the Sando in Newtown on Friday August 19th & 20th. 4 sets over 2 nights with 4 bands. See sets by The Scientists, Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, Precious Jules & Kim Salmon (solo performing songs from Beasts OF Bourbon, Antennae, Darling Downs and more)...
Friday 19th w/ The Nice Folk
Saturday 20th w/ Holy Soul
I timed that nicely for you, Lax
Real nice Charles. You feel better now?
Bitter much Charles?
Yes you did Godzilla ; )
kim salmon should join the seminal red hot chili peppers band, scar tissue. professionalism is what that band is about!
kim salmon should have less people in Salmon, that's a lot of wages to pay.
Fuck'n legend, Kim is.
Love him as a person and as a musician.
Have a lot of respect for the guy for still playing shows, even if it's to 15 drunks at Tago Mago of a Friday night, when most have packed it up and given up creating.
I resent being called a drunk.
there were 16 people there though!
I am tweeting this from beyond the grave.
this article reads as if it's been written by no-one better than your average indie hipster, childishly complaining about how everyone loves the bands he used to love. i particularly object to the part where he writes ''there are so many people who are prepared to treat it like a hobby, that the professional musician is undermined.''
is the professional musician the musician who does not work a day job? the vast majority of people who play music in this city have to have day jobs, therefore we are inclined to treat music as a hobby, albeit a very passionate one. it is completely arrogant to insinuate that this cheapens music, by cutting the wages one would normally get from playing music full time. there are a lot of bands out there. people just dig playing music on their own terms. i'm sure kim salmon realises that to make the money he wants to make you need to take what you can get. i don't think the blame for this ultimately sits on the hobbyist musicians, the greedy promotors or the careless venues.
I'd just like to mention again that Kim Salmon will be presenting his Russian Roulette gig tomorrow night and Saturday night at The Sando from 8pm.
Support on Friday night is The Nice Folk
Support on Saturday night is Holy Soul
4 x sets from Kim Salmon as The Scientists, Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, Precious Jules & Solo. Turn up to find out which set on which night.
Yeah. Yeah. It's tonight. Thanks for your ignorance.
send him down here, I reckon he'd do alright at The Brisbane.
Wouldn't that be up there?
Where is The Brisbane???
can anyone point me in the direction of the Antenna album? I've looked everywhere. want to buy, but will download if that's the only option...
He's playing with The Surrealists at Tago Mago in Thornbury tonight!
Kim Salmon solo ... playing southside this Friday night at Pause Bar on Carlisle Street ... should be tasty!
Also tomorrow night at the Standard, 8.30!
played to about 7 people a couple weeks back at Resurrection on Lygon.