This years livid line up was left wallowing in the muddy trail of 2000. With bands like the butthole surfers trying to replace green day and unwritten law in the night time slots it was not going to be pretty. Although we persevered and Myself, Laura, Adrian, Howley and Glenn made the arduos trek up to the GOld coast to spend 7 tough nights on the beach and in the pubs with a quick stopover in Brisbane for livid on the saturday. And yes i wont lie to you it was a hard task but we all knew some people had to do it so it may have well as been us you can thank us all next time you see us.
We caught the bus up to livid on the saturday and to our horror relaised that our biggest drawcard to this years festival, the Ataris, had cancelled due to sickness. This really put the dog turd icing on the cake of dissapointment and this was only 11am! things were not loking good for the rest of the day.
We set out for a quick tour of the livid site as it had changed quite dramatically from the last year. The loudmouth stage relocation was met with approval from all around us and we cruised around the market stalls for a while also buying hot dogs for out healthy breakfast. We wandered through the JJJ stage and stumbled upon the find of the day which was a band called lucky 7 from America, i think they were a cover for one of the many bands that couldnt make it. They mentioned something about being back over here in march next year and they would be definatly be worth watching again due to thier infectious punk sound which resembled a slightly harder rougher bodyjar kind of style. We watched about 5 minutes of last days of april before ran away instead of our other option which was mass suicude, if this band was any drearier they would have been crying. The next band up was 28 days, keen to see them after missing out on them the weekend before they did not dissapoint (unless you were laura) Seeing them again was excellent but the small crowd did show how fewer people there were compared to the year before. After the pleasing effort from 28 days including a couple of new songs we wandered over to the loudmouth stage for the highlights of the day.
These of course were the bands H2o and Nerf Herder. The first were an excellent hardcore punk band straight from New York city. They had a great sound with the singer really revving up the crowd until he was told off by someone back stage for encouraging circles in the mosh. This i have to admit was the first time i had heard any of their music but it didnt dissappoint and we began to think that this livid wouldnt be so band after all... To confirm that this livid was just as goo as the last along came nerf herder. We had also heard practically nothing of this band apart from (groan) the buffy intro which howley seemed to want to hear constantly yelling out for them to play it. They were the funniest band i have seen since guttermouth abusing everything from 12 year old girls to nikki webster. They played some great songs one of the best being called 'love sandwich' They also decided to play hte buffy theme 3 times because they messed up on the first 2. They were a refreshingly funny band to see and were definatly one of the highlights.
after them there were no more standout bands for the day we saw ash, rollins band, the superjesus, good charlotte, butthole surfers, alex lloyd, not in that order however. We also saw billy bragg out in the JJJ bigtop towards the end of the night as we wandered out towards the bus to take us back to our hotel. After all of us beliving that this day may become a write off (howley actually became a write off) we were all pleasantly surprised it was also pretty cool that we met the singer from one dollar short, the singer from H2o and the guitarist from Lucky 7. All up it was a cool day had by all even though it was still good to get back to the hotel and crash out after 10 hours of wandering round in 40 degree heat. THE END

Just getting back from Queensland and the ever excellent time which is livid we were greeted with this amazing show almost immediatly after touching down on our home soil of Sydney. Laura and i headed out to the hordern pavillion and due to a minor mishap with the time printed on the ticket we missed half of something for kates set. Not being a big fan of the band i was not that fussed but they did sound quite good live and actually played some interesting a varied music. A highlight of theirs would be the song electricity a strong song which sounded excellent live. After that however they left to make way for powderfinger.
We met up with Christine, Lacey, Matt and Justin just before powderfinger started and found a good spot down to the right hand side of the stage. After a short introduction which encouraged 'vigerous booty shaking' they calmy wandered out into centre stage and into a huge version of 'day you come'. The crowd was large for the night but definatly didnt seem like a sell out show which was what this was tipped as, they sounded great from start to finish and played all the favourites plus many old songs from the first two albums. Last time we saw them at the enmore theatre they only played one old song and that was 'pick you up' this time we heard that and also DAF aswell as a few older songs from the album before that. A highlight of the night would have been the song 'these days' which is great in itself but played live carries so much more emotion throughout the song.
I was sceptical about going to this show beforehand but after seeing this performance it has proved to me that they have very deservedly gotten to be one of the most respected and popular Australian bands in our time. To agrre with this statement all you have to do is see them live.

This was the fourth or fifth time that i have sen guttermouth and so far this was the biggest venue that they had done when it was thier own show. Support bands were crank who seemed to hold it together quite well and keep the crowd entertained and also one dollar short who we have been seeing alot of latley. The first two bands came and went with some crowd support and dignity but guttermouth was the shit everyone was waiting for and they did not disappoint. Perhaps soley based on the differing size venues to when i last saw them headline (the globe) this show lacked something, that was until you got to the mosh and the front barrier. The show totally kicked ass from then on in with mark spitting out lyrics like venom to a seething crowd.
MAny favourites were run through and also a few new tunes from the latest installment, covered with ants, Classics included 123 slam and asshole. New songs which were triend out were cram it up your ass, can i borrow some abition? and of course the crowd pleasing, shes got the look.
They threw in some crowd suggestions which was end on nine i think and also blew the shit out of everyone with lucky (the luckeist donkey) and we almost thought we were going to get to hear mr barbeque until it turned into something else. Sing along favourites were there with lipstick being played and also one of my personal favourites being the excellent song , high balls. After covering a bit from almost every album it was time for them , and us, to leave. There was no encore which didnt really surprise me as they often dont come back out. Some dissapointments were the lack of the crowd on stage and the exclusion of hit machine. Other than that it was a cool night spent with an excellent band.

Ok now before i start this review it may become long and boring (dont they all) due to the fact we say them effectivley twice in the one day. At about 4.30pm we caught them at channelv head quaters where they played two songs for the mediocre crowd then sat down and had a chat with the 'vj's and then played another song. ONe gripe about the v thing is the under 18 masses who go just to try and be on television. I mean i know the new album has a 'tape up your face motif' but do we think the band really need to see 16yr old wankers who have tied themselves at the wrist with black tape. I think that that look should be held for events such as the mardi gras. Anyway the three songs they played were Lonesome, up all night (current single) and evolution which is the last song on the new album and is also very cool.
ANyway after the short little set we caught at v we headed off to the annandale hotel to check them out for the better part fo the evening. We got there and te stage was the smallest i had seen since the likes of guttermouth at the globe those many years ago. There is enough room in this place for maybe 200 persons which was to make for an exciting show. The first band came out and as they were playing we began to recognise that the guitarist was none other than phil from grinspoon. Howley wandered up for a closer look and came back proclaiming that it definatly was him. We stayed up the back for a while longer while howley was down the front. HE motioned for us to go down there so i wandered down and it just so happened that he was hanging with the guys (scott and pat from ul and joe from grinspoon). This being the one chance i think we would ever have to get photos with our (or one of my ) favourite bands we had to take the opportunity so we did. I am now the proud owner of a pic with me, scott from unwritten law and joe from grinspoon hanging out at the show. This pretty much made my night so we kicked back watched the rest of phils band set and then started chatting to joe and one of the guitarists from ul. HOwley quizzed them both on how many drugs do the respective members of blink 182 take for the majority of the conversation. WHen someone else was allowed to speak i found out which made the night twice as good again (before ul were even on stage) because they would be playing darkside. More conversation and thanks yous later they left to go backstage and get ready for the show. Phils band were for the most part almost like a stripped back more bassy sounding 311 so if thats your bag baby then go for it!. The next band was day of contempt from south Australia. These guys had the coolest sounding rythem section with huge pounding beats courtesy of the double kick on the drums and the fat sounding crunch of the lead guitar. They have a very death metal soudning singer which is not necisarily a bad thing but jsut something that i am not to interested in.
finally it wa time for unwritten law so we got up to the front row ready for one of the best concets this year. They kicked things off with teenage suicide which set the crowd rolling. They went though up all night which i think was the second song, lonesome, underground, coffin text, CPK, geronimo (another new one), darkside and harmonic which went off. They had a couple of other songs in there which i did not recognise one of them i am pretty sure was a cover. ALl up they sounded great from the front, glenn was a bit further back and said that the sound wasnt quite so good although at the front it was an excellent sound. It seemed to finish all to soon and they left without an encore, this was probably due to the fact that they were over on time by about 45 minutes and the venue wanted to close. Other than that and the DICK HEAD roadie who was tidying up the stage the night was an absolute blast. WOuld do it all again in a second but the rest of the shows are sold out. It was the coolest night cos i got to hear one of their best songs ever (darkside) and also meet the band and grinspoon(some of) this was a night that will never be forgotten.
And hi to the girl who was also taking photos of the band .. if you ever read this get in touch !! so we can catch up at homebake :)

This concert was on the weekend after this last one (one week and a bit i think) and was played out at the metro. Dont reember most of it so just have a look above. They played a similar set to above with a cover of the clash's guns of brixton thrown in. which they actually had on both nights. No photos were taken at this concert due to the sheer laziness of myh self.

The end of 2001