Author: Troy Culpan

silverchair – ‘Frogstomp’ 20th Anniversary edition

silverchair – ‘Frogstomp’ 20th Anniversary edition

Do you have a silverchair story? I do… don’t worry it’ll all be relevant to this review… so in 1994 I was going to school in St Kilda, one of the guys tells us to come to The Espy on Friday as ‘there are these kids that are unbelievable, they’re going to be huge…’ we look at him like ‘ok…’ […]

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David Ellefson – The Factory Theatre, Sydney – March 26, 2015

David Ellefson – The Factory Theatre, Sydney – March 26, 2015

They always say that there’s a first time for everything, so here I am at The Factory Theatre in Sydney to see not only a spoken word tour, but my first experience in seeing one. So a pretty good way to start is with David Ellefson, Megadeth’s co-founder and bass player, but more on him shortly… Carbon Black open proceedings […]

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Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

“…it’s connecting with other people through the medium of music, we love playing in our studio, we love recording the songs but they never have the same passion as when you’re trying to play them in front of someone. I think almost the goal of our band is to be like a magician who’s equally as surprised when the rabbit […]

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Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper

“…when I created Alice it was at a time when I looked at all the bands and they were all heroes, all rock heroes and I said where’s the rock villains and rock needed a villain and I will gladly be Captain Hook, I will gladly be the Dracula of rock…” The word legend gets used a little too much […]

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Jim Bogios of Counting Crows

Jim Bogios of Counting Crows

“It’s great to have something that’s stood the test of time like that and where people just relate songs to certain periods of their life or certain things that happened to them and you can see that on people faces because they get really emotional about a lot of the songs on that record.” From release: Counting Crows have sold […]

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David Ellefson of Megadeth

David Ellefson of Megadeth

“Part of rock and roll is doing things out of the box and trying new things that push the envelope and kind of open your thinking up to different things, so I’m very appreciative that Australia has welcomed the idea and opened it up for me to do it.” From release: From the Megadeth’s inception in 1983 until the band’s […]

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Rage of Venom

Rage of Venom

“…we had to do something a little special so we did take a little bit more time than we probably should’ve but we just wanted the album to be perfect and knew we had to hit a home run with this album because the last album was so strong and very popular with the legion, this album had to be […]

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Nick Martin of Sleeping With Sirens

Nick Martin of Sleeping With Sirens

“I think when we originally did the record that got scrapped, there were some preconceived ideas and kind of direction they wanted to go in but then when we did ‘Madness’ I felt all we threw all that out the fuckin’ door. Let’s not have a path and got into it and see what comes out…” From release: Sleeping With […]

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Sully Erna of Godsmack (Video Interview)

Sully Erna of Godsmack (Video Interview)

“Music is not supposed to be a competition, there’s too many bands out there that are angry and they want to be the best and they want to win everyone’s fans over and they give you the stink eye, and it’s like ‘get over yourselves’ you know what I mean? Just enjoy it, it’s music, everyone has their own fans, […]

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Soundwave – Day 2 – Olympic Park, Sydney – March 1, 2015

Soundwave – Day 2 – Olympic Park, Sydney – March 1, 2015

It’s weird, it’s come around so quick that I feel like I was only just at Soundwave yesterday… oh wait… that’s right, welcome to Day 2 of the Soundwave extravaganza… now after yesterday I’m sore and weary but that doesn’t stop me getting in nice and early and already losing about 15kgs from sweat in the most ridiculous heat possible, […]

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Soundwave – Day 1 – Olympic Park, Sydney – February 28, 2015

Soundwave – Day 1 – Olympic Park, Sydney – February 28, 2015

Well here we are again, trusty old Soundwave… This will be our sixth time covering the festival and we get to do it twice… Yeah in 2015 Soundwave is one louder taking on a two day monster. Today obviously is day 1… As I sit here on the train I reminisce, how many times have I done this Journey thinking […]

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Incubus / Antemasque / Le Butcherettes – The Enmore Theatre, Sydney – February 27, 2015

Incubus / Antemasque / Le Butcherettes – The Enmore Theatre, Sydney – February 27, 2015

As I caught the Incutrain on my way to Incubus tonight I was thinking how I’d never seen them before and that somewhat confused me, as I’ve always been a fan of what they’ve done but have no idea why I haven’t. So tonight, that changes… Le Butcherettes are on nice and early and although there’s only no word of […]

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Lamb of God / Killer Be Killed – The Metro Theatre, Sydney – February 26, 2015

Lamb of God / Killer Be Killed – The Metro Theatre, Sydney – February 26, 2015

Gotta love a week where we cover Roxette and the next night we’re all about the METALLLLLL at Lamb of God and Killer Be Killed for their Sidewave… As the show isn’t even close to starting, many people behind me are clearly peaking to early, they are pumped. It’s actually quite cute as they are shouting out lyrics and getting […]

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Cormac Neeson of The Answer

Cormac Neeson of The Answer

“We just wanted to trust in our own song writing abilities and really enjoy the whole process, so we didn’t really have any fixed agenda as to what kind of record we wanted to make but then a couple of months into the process we started to get a really good feel that this record was going to be the […]

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Roxette – ‘On The Steps’, Sydney Opera House – February 25, 2015

Roxette – ‘On The Steps’, Sydney Opera House – February 25, 2015

Roxette, you know the songs, you know the sound and you know ‘The Look’ (pun intended) but for 30 years the Swedish powerhouse have been making music and tonight here to showcase the hits of their career they couldn’t have picked a better place to do it than on the steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House. Boom Crash Opera […]

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Mick Box of Uriah Heep

Mick Box of Uriah Heep

“I think the essence of it all is that we’ve still got the same passion and edge we’ve had for our music and we’re driven by that, and to be in the band at this juncture just to enjoy it, writing new songs, recording new songs, playing new songs and doing live shows, it’s as simple as that really, we’ve […]

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Slash / Steel Panther – The Hordern Pavilion, Sydney – February 24, 2015

Slash / Steel Panther – The Hordern Pavilion, Sydney – February 24, 2015

What a pairing! This Sidewave is one for the rockers, when you take a band from day one of Soundwave and a band from day two of Soundwave and put them together, what have you got? Slash Panther! Well, that’s what I’m calling it… This one is going to be off the charts, so without further ado, it’s almost 7pm […]

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Scott Gorham of Black Star Riders

Scott Gorham of Black Star Riders

“…I think and I know that everyone else in the band thinks it was the right thing to do is to change the name from Thin Lizzy and we’re gonna go Black Star Riders and come what may… we’ll see what happens and hopefully we’re good enough to cut the mustard here.” From release: It was in 2012 that Black […]

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Kid Rock – First Kiss

Kid Rock – First Kiss

Kid Rock has come a long way from his days of a flat topped rapper and thank god for that… his last few albums to me have been perfect, so when we get a chance to check out ‘First Kiss’ before anyone else, there is a little bit of excitement. I’m also going to review this on first listen too, […]

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Matthias Jabs of The Scorpions

Matthias Jabs of The Scorpions

“The Scorpions have been doing this without a break, meanwhile other bands take a break for a few years or a member does a solo album while the others do nothing or whatever. We’ve been continuously touring or making albums and so we thought let’s get out of the routine, we didn’t want to split up, we were ready to […]

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Danko Jones

Danko Jones

“Over the years I’ve gained a little more confidence, so the songs have more melody and more singing in them, the lyrics are pretty much the same as usual, that’s one thing that kind of hasn’t changed *laughs*.” From Bio: Eighteen years. Twelve albums. Two Gold Records. Thirty-plus transatlantic treks. Fifteen Top 40 singles. Arena tours across 11 countries with […]

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Buckcherry – FUCK EP

Buckcherry – FUCK EP

Let me start by saying this, I love the word fuck. I use it far too much, well at least I thought I used it a lot until I put on this new EP from Buckcherry called you guessed it, ‘FUCK’ and I know I’m going to like this, oh yeah… ‘Somebody Fucked With Me’ fuckin’ opens the fuckin’ EP […]

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Ryan Peake of Nickelback

Ryan Peake of Nickelback

“…I’m not a big fan of the fame part of it, I like doing what I do, I like showing people that we love doing what we do, but I don’t have any confusion of my self-importance in this thing. It’s a great relationship between band and fans and we appreciate that completely.” As a Nickelback friendly zone (now endorsed […]

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Schuylar Croom of He Is Legend

Schuylar Croom of He Is Legend

“…as far as He Is Legend as a core it’s pretty much the same. It feels the same, we’re pretty much in the same situations, we have a lot of new life and new excitement for what we’re doing, but we’re just brothers you know, we love each other and we hate each other *laughs* I wouldn’t have it any […]

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The Gaslight Anthem – The Enmore Theatre, Sydney – January 31, 2015

The Gaslight Anthem – The Enmore Theatre, Sydney – January 31, 2015

Now, If there’s a band that I’ve really attached to over the last few years it’s The Gaslight Anthem, particularly when an album like ‘Handwritten’ was my album of the year in 2012, so seeing them live only for the second time tonight is something I’ve been looking forward to, so let’s see how the last few years has been […]

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Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive

Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive

“…I think even just growing up as people, just on a personal level as well, the way we portray ourselves and our level of performance has come a long way as well and I’m ready to bring that back to Australia, I really want our fans to see that growth and change and really have the opportunity to reach out […]

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Anthony Raneri of Bayside

Anthony Raneri of Bayside

“…we sort of think that we figured out what Bayside was supposed to sound like a long time ago, and we love the way it sounds, and everybody has that band that they love that stopped sounding like their favourite band, and we never want to do that, we always want to sound like Bayside.” From Bio: BAYSIDE fans don’t […]

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Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica

Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica

“…we’ve been doing festivals all over the world but not in Australia. You know the first trip we did last time there in 2012 for the club shows we were blown away by the fans and the way the people reacted at the shows and really excited and curious to see what happens on the big festival.” From Bio: Since […]

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Papa Roach – F.E.A.R.

Papa Roach – F.E.A.R.

Now, I’ve been a fan of Papa Roach for some time now, well actually all the time, since I heard ‘Last Resort’ I knew there was something about this band that was pretty cool, so 1, 2, skip a few and with a number of albums under their belt they are back in 2015 with their new album ‘F.E.A.R’ The […]

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Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach

Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach

“We’re gonna play some old school classics and but then we’re going to play all this stuff we’ve been writing all the years but haven’t been coming down to Australia to tour on, so a lot of the fans will be hearing a lot of these songs for the first time live, so that’s going to be special.” Since the […]

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