#anne ramsey
Goblin at the metro
i hate birthdays.
not all birthdays, i just hate mybirthday.
“let’s throw a party, not because you did anything in particular, but just to say congratulations on not dying for another year…”
some would see that as grouchy behaviour, but it’s more to do with being told what to do and how to behave. youwill have fun on your birthday! for this reason i don’t like christmas or new years either
it was a shit week so the only thing i asked for was my birthday to be forgotten for a while until we could do something fun. it really fucking pissed me off that everyone ignored what i wanted and tried to have a half-assed mini-birthday (which was more depressing than having the miserable get-together that i initially wanted to avoid). but thankfully, one friend ignored it and got us tickets to see Goblin play in Sydney for the first time ever
being a slight horror film nut, my favourites are Dario Argento’s badly acted, impossibly plotted, ultra violent films of the 70s and 80s, the wildly colourful poorly lip synced trippy nightmare of Suspiria being my favourite - mostly because of the creepy-as-fuck theme. the crowd at the Goblin gig made about as much sense as one of Argento’s films and as weirdly textured as one of Goblin’s own tracks - goth kids, horror fans, very old rockers, metalheads, music geeks, homos - it was like going to a gig in the mid 90s
Goblin were shaky to start but amazing towards the end. it was a little bit of nostalgia and a little bit like wathcing your dear old dad up on stage if your dad was cool. sure they’re getting old and sure their fist pumps to the crowd weren’t as thrusty as they were in their younger years but these mother fuckers can still rock!
with a new bass and drummer, the drummer was pretty fucking amazing, and lifted the band from the cheap drum machine sound of their early recorded tracks. big metal finishes, some cheesy 70s synths, devil horns raised high in the air - i felt like i was at a real metal gig for the first time in my life
lead guitarist Massimo Morante was particularly funny, though he looked like the old lady from Throw Mamma From The Train raided Carlos Santana’s wardrobe, he screwed up a few times but was still a joy to watch. they were loving it up on stage. i’m sure the band took more photos of the sydney crowd than the crowd took of them. not since Santigold have i seen an act more excited to be performing than the already ecstatic crowd watching them.
Suspiria, Tenebrae and Phenomena sounded phenomenal, as well as a few of their non-horror stuff
if everyone did what I fucking wanted for my birthday and postponed it until after this gig then i could’ve easily told them what i wanted - a theremin, a vocoder, a big ass drum kit…
