On the 29th April, 2000 @ Amplifier Bar, Perth
This was the all ages launch for gyroscope's debut disc, Scalectrix, and by the time I arrived (at just before 2pm) a healthy crowd had already gathered eager to get inside and see some fine bands. BALLPOINT were up first and they got straight down to business with Sit This One Out. Accountable and Reach The Sky followed, the latter with very smooth vocals (Ryan) and backing vocals (Cam).

This onslaught was stopped somewhat by the slower Subside but picked up once again by the next track, PreDetermined, which is usually their closer in sets. A newish song was up next and then into ep tracks Magnetik and Stranglehold (back to back) with the latter having a change of lyrics in "Your uncertain goals, your too blind to see", instead of the usual "Your uncertain goals you'll never reach". A very new song was played second last before they finished off with Life Disease. Another top performance from BALLPOINT and tight as usual. It's a shame the all ages crowd were as responsive as snails on a dry day, shit even BALLPOINT'S regular pit crew were just standing there.

Ska punkers LOWDOWN were next and they enticed a few people to start dancing around even though the majority were still sitting down or just watching from a distance. They started up with Go Home then into Standards and Red Light. The slower, more funky Strobe was next, with Dan on the saxaphone in pretty good form, faster songs including Revolution and This Time followed.

The band seemed to be enjoying themselves which was a pretty good sign considering drummer Tom was showing the scars of a car crash only days earlier. Psycho Bitch saw Dan stand up next to the drumkit before they got into their closing few songs, the well known Two, Carnival and They Said. A pretty good set and well done to Tom for playing considering his accident, he never wants to disappoint the LOWDOWN fans.

Launch boys gyroscope. started proceedings with the title track off the album they were launching Scalectrix with the bloody lights at Amplifier working overtime and including some very dark moments. As usual the gyro boys were very energetic and this seemed to rub off on some of the crowd members after the boys asked them to move around a bit. In the end the most energetic crowd member was most probably Tom from Lowdown, which isn't saying much for the kiddies considering he was injured. The kiddies were in poor form today I thought.

Anyway Skill Degree (another ep track) was next before an oldie, Big Huge Charlie, off their demo track of last year was a suprise inclusion. A nice drum intro by Rob started off Arise then S4 (a favourite of mine) with it's mellow bit in the middle before taking off again and not long after that another album track in Half Your Problem were played with passion from the boys. Final Say, Insanity (the ep opener) and the usual closer So Wrong ended the cd launch on a fine note. The gyroscope. boys all had big smiles on their faces which shows me they had a great deal of fun and they were very happy with their performance. This seemed to mirror the crowd who gave them a big cheer with their emotional pop punk going down a treat. A very good cd launch to accompany a very good release, the only shame of the launch was that the kiddies just stood there without really getting involved.

pics: gslnch2, gslist1