My first ever youtube post also happens to be a good one. Battles playing Leyendecker / Race In live at The Gaelic theatre in Surry Hills September 26th, 2007. It’s one thing to listen to their LP on headphones and another to see them live.

The band in full force.

It took all of one song for drummer John Stanier to remove his shirt and the guy was at the center of all the intensity. Beat perfect, metronome-like and hard-hitting, he was all over his kit, with the super high cymbal creating great dramatic effect. In stark contrast was Tyondai Braxton, all kitted out with a blazer throughout the entire show and seemingly hardly breaking a sweat. It was pretty interesting to see how the band performed, blending the real instruments and constantly looping, adjusting and fiddling to get the sounds you hear on the record. Tyondai would speak/sing into the mic and that would then be looped back into the track. Guitarist Ian Williams was also constantly at the keyboard, playing the more delicate parts to the music. I had a hard time seeing what bassist Dave Konopka was up to due to my position but I saw him constantly scrambling around, from one pedal to the next mixer or computer and back to his guitar. Chaotic.

Tyondai twiddling some knobs before the show started.

If my hands were a little more steady, I’d have more pictures of the band. I actually managed to film quite a few tracks, albeit sloppily and at really low quality. Its kinda hard to do the do-wop whilst recording.

If anything, the band well exceeded my expectations and left me in a state of reflection. This is definitely a band to watch out for. Thank you Sydney.