I will probably never walk The ‘Valley safely again for saying this, but the bottom line is that this place isn’t good enough.

The last time I visited this venue, for The Organ, there were some issues with the heat, sound, safety, toilets and garbage amongst other things. The place resembled some dodgy Sydney squat I had woken up in during a darker period of my life. It wasn’t just me. It made mention on the odd Brisbane FasterLouder thread. But this was the newly renovated 610, so it would be cool. Don’t worry, I told those accompanying me.

They certainly hadn’t done any painting, but that was cool. There was not as much rubbish on the floor either, so that was good also, but that was about it. The renovations equated to the knocking out of some walls and moving of the ‘stage’ to the other end of the hall. Oh, and the air con worked, but it was still hot but very cool outside. The one toilet is still appalling, as we discovered. Nothing had really changed.

To those concerned: this isn’t good enough, especially when punters are being hit twenty dollars for the privilege. This is nothing more than a rehearsal space people, so maybe it should stay that way and not promoted as a venue, unless it is free.

I might not be arty or cool enough either, but is it too much to ask for decent sound and toilet facilities? I mean the males all urinated outside (I know this because I saw and smelt it). Think of the ladies, please. Are they expected to do the same because there are thirty people waiting in line to use the one cubicle? Bohemian, I think not. Is there not some kind of law to prevent this type of thing? And don’t go on about “we need this venue…” This doesn’t count as a venue, it is a space.

First up tonight for me was Japanese ‘punk’ band, Limited Express(Has Gone)
from the strains of the first tone raw styled vocal, I knew I was in for trouble. Instrumentally, they weren’t too bad. Their style was some kind of jazz/punk fusion for mine.

The bemused looks on the faces of those I attended with answered my questions. On stage, they had the attitude and energy, instrumentally they were fine, but the kabuki punk vocals were lost in translation for me, big time. A cat stretched on a rack, being strangled while scratching its nails down a blackboard was my first and only thought. They should let the guitarist sing. He wasn’t too bad. Again, I may have been out of the loop as a lot of the kids were applauding, but I think they were just encouraging them and they shouldn’t have.

At around 10.45pm, with a steady growth in the crowd, Love Of Diagrams took to the stage. After finally getting all monitors on line, they get into tunes from their two releases, The Target Is You and the We Got Communication ep as well as some new unreleased material.

Opening with the slow building In The Red, it was obvious that they are continuing to gain in confidence. When the tempo picks up mid song, Antonia Sellbach’s bass is being beaten with a savage downstroke that I haven’t seen from her before. Monika Firkerle drives frantically hard from the back, providing all songs with more speed than offered on recordings.

Then the sound demons kicked in. Now, you don’t get a lot between song banter from the band, and that’s fine, but tonight all we heard was “i’ve lost my monitor” and “it just dropped out, what happened?” Being the professionals they are, they continued on and never once pulled up.Unfortunately, this continued throughout their set.

Continuing with some new, inspiring material that has Luke Horton getting some great sounds from his guitar, they also delivered fine versions of No Way Out, What Are You Waiting For and Building Better Codes before closing with a newie in which Luke’s vocal sounded remarkably like The B-52’s Fred Schneider.

Love Of Diagrams angular, off kilter style of guitar pop may not ever take over the mainstream (though it should!) but I hope that they continue with their direction, as they have favourably evolved every time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them. Pity we couldn’t have been at the Troubadour or the Zoo for this one, though. Overall, a great performance, considering what they were up against.

It must have been almost 11.30 when The Rogers Sisters step up. I had been anticipating this for weeks and have to admit, was disappointed at the change of venue. I was curious when I noticed bass player and honary Rogers Sister, Miyuki digitally recording the walls of 610. I was tempted to ask him if this was the dodgiest venue he had played, but somehow I doubted it, and never asked him. Anyway, they have a digital memory of us, so he should be happy!

When they opened with my current dance favourite, Freight Elevator, off the Three Fingers ep, I was happy. You are powerless to do anything but shake it to this track.

One more song into the set and the sounds demons bit again, same as for Love Of Diagrams. “where’s my monitor?” was the common call for the rest of the set. At least we could still hear them, I guess.

Anyhow, onward. With their new wave, no wave, punk, post-punk, garage rock or The B-52’s meets Talking Heads sound, dancing is really the only option. Launching into a scathing rendition of Check Levels, you are reminded that the two real Rogers Sisters, Jennifer and Laura actually come from Detroit. They then give us (I’m A) Ballenna, which due to its haunting qualities, sounds as though it would sit nicely along side any track on The Cure’s Pornography album.

Dance mania continues with I Dig A Hole, off the Purely Evil album. Fantasies Are Nice is followed by some small talk before closing with Song For Freddy, you know,

“He wants to ride his bicycle,
He wants to ride it all day long…”

A one track encore of Changes, (no, not that one), finishes everything up neatly at midnight. All too short for my liking, but better than naught, that’s for sure. Strangely, we didn’t get a hearing of Now They Know (Xoxo).  Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

Their live sound is definitely a lot grittier than on record, with Jennifer’s guitar melding with Miyuki’s bass to provide a dirty edge to everything. Nice, nice.

Although Miyuki Furtado’s energy kept things going smoothly, Jennifer seemed a little less than impressed with all the glitches, and rightly so. Making our way back to the car, my accomplice pointed out that it is rather grim when you can sense the reluctance on stage, in the crowd. Unfortunately, this was the case for Love Of Diagrams and The Rogers Sisters.

Tonight’s two headlining bands did extremely well considering what they were up against tonight. The venue was the big let down here and it’s a shame for all concerned that a better venue couldn’t be found.

Hopefully, it wont be too long before we see either of them again.