Last night I went to my last gig in Melbourne-Town, The Libertines at the Corner Hotel in Richmond. Notoriously bad for my ears, the Corner is a little band venue with a hell of a sound system. The support act (I can't remember as they were last min replacements for The Cops) were pretty good but painfully loud. (Great Supergrass cover though.) The crowd was eager "we want the Libs!"
We managed to get a pretty good spot in front of a mass of 6 ft+ guys, but next to the mosh pit. That kind of ruined the gig as you're half concentrating on the band and half concentrating on not copping a foot to the face. From this position, I got some great shots of Carl and the band.
The gig was awesome and Carl Barat, co-songwriter and co-frontman carried the gig off fantastically, despite the much talked about absence of creative partner Pete Doherty.
Dummer Gary Powell had incredible energy, and in between songs toweling down his topless body. (Un)lucky person who copped that towel when it was thrown out to the crowd at the end.
Unfortunately they did lack the vocals of Pete. The major elements of a lot of their songs, the to-and-fro duets, were missing. I haven't seen them with Pete, but I can imagine how fantastic they would be with his presence. Yeah, the Libertines fans are all supportive and all that but man, drugs are bad and they cost *me* a potentially mind-blowingly awesome gig.
From the article in independent.co.uk "Memo to Pete Doherty: a mind - not to mention a good band and a great friendship - is a terrible thing to waste."
General Rating: *****
Repeat Visit: *****