PLENTY

OF PATRIZIO

Due to box office demand, an extra show for Italian singer Patrizio Buanne’s Australian tour has been added in Perth. The new show will take place on Thursday, May 20, at Perth Burswood Theatre. Tickets on sale from Monday, February 8, via www.ticketek.com.au or by calling 132 849.

SUMMER STYLE

AT OXFORD

Whether you’re hunting for an outfit for a summer music festival, or just want to find yourself something pretty, the Oxford Street Markets in Leederville can satisfy your shopping desires every Saturday. Located at 100 Oxford Street, the markets offer up wares from some of WA’s most loved designers including Stand International, Pinch & Spoon, Buli-J, and many more. Make your way to the Markets this Saturday from 9am ’til 4pm.

CAREERS

BY CARTER

The Boyup Brook Music Festival takes place from Thursday, February 18, to Sunday, February 21, and features a heap of country artists, including Tania Kernaghan, Carter & Carter, Sunny Cowgirls, Ernie Dingo, Ronni Rae Rivers, Pixie Jenkins, Brian Letton, Rose Carleo and more.

Festival favourites Carter & Carter are once again holding workshops at the Boyup Brook Music Festival to try and help those wanting a career in the music industry with the information and skills they need to achieve their aims.

Interested artists can book through the Country Music Club on (08) 9765 1657 or head to www.countrymusicwa.com.au.

PIVOT

O Soundtrack Our Art

Australian electro-pop leaders Pivot will perform at Beck’s Music Box as part of the Perth International Arts Festival on Thursday, February 18. BOB GORDON speaks with Dave Miller.

There’s nothing like being an ‘international band – jostling around the European continent or zipping off to the States for a show or two.

However there’s also nothing like returning home for a spot of summer relaxation and silly seasoning and Pivot’s Dave Miller has been doing exactly that of late here in Perth.

“I’ve kind of been living like a bit of a gypsy for the last 18 months, to be honest,” he says. “I haven’t really had much of a home. It’s good to be in one city for longer than a month. I worked out that I hadn’t been in a city longer than six weeks or two months for about 18 months now. So it’s nice to put some roots down for a month or two.”

The first ever Australian band to be signed to the acclaimed Warp label, Pivot have been making inroads in the UK and Europe in recent years, but made their maiden US voyage last September. Things went well.

“It was cool,” Miller considers. “We played our first shows as part of the Warp 20 anniversary shows. We played a big gig with !!! and Battles, all those guys and that was fun to play in front of loads of people. We played in Boston and DC, a few gigs over a week. We got a good reaction from people who were there and even more exciting was the fact that people who didn’t know about us were quite excited as well. That’s always a good vibe, when people who’ve never heard of you come up to you and say, ‘that was amazing!’. And Americans are quite vocal in either their love or dislike of you… so it was nice to get some love (laughs).”

Pivot appeared on last year’s Warp 20 compilation, offering a cover of Grizzly Bear’s song (who are, per chance, in Perth this week) Colorado. The Warp 20 shows proved handy in the context stakes given that there’s a hard rock band from Carolina with the same name.

“I think there’s a couple of Pivots floating around,” Miller laughs. “But… no. From what I gather those other bands are quite small town and haven’t played outside their own city.

“But that’s the thing with the internet, everyone can have a webpage and everyone can have a MySpace and everyone’s got equal footing. The democracy of the internet!”

The Warp 20 experience also afforded Miller and co of the opportunity to meet David Byrne (Pivot often perform a version of his song, I Zimbra). Turns out 2009 was quite the year for that kind of thing…

“In the past six months we’ve met David Byrne and Brian Eno at shows and of the people we’d like to me musically they’d be in our top three or four,” Miller enthuses. “I don’t know… you meet your heroes and even better they’re really cool guys. It makes it even better.

“We met Gary Numan as well in March when we played with him over east. Of my musical heroes that I’ve met they’ve all been pretty nice guys. My thoughts about the music haven’t changed at all; it’s just… great music/great guys (laughs).

“It hasn’t happened the other way yet. Like I haven’t met anyone that I’ve been put off by and I don’t want that to happen.”

Pivot are well into the completion period of their third album, the follow up to the acclaimed O Soundtrack My Heart release of 2008.            “We’ve recorded lots, actually,” says Miller. “We put it all together in September-October and realised that we needed a few more songs that were a bit calmer and a bit more minimal, because we put it all together and all the songs were quite full on. It’s a real live record and we needed some calmer moments… and those calmer moments are being recorded over the next few weeks (laughs).

“We’ve played a couple of songs while on tour in Europe and America last tour but we’ll be playing a lot more in the coming shows. The album should be out by mid this year.”

Is there a title yet?

“No… that’s probably the biggest missing piece of the puzzles (laughs).”

It’s no surprise, really, that the initial taste of Pivot’s new album would be full on, given the results of 18 months of constant gigging. Audience feedback, it seems, also played a part.

“We’ve played loads of gigs in the past 18 months together and you hear people say, ‘we like the album but the live set is so much better!’ I’ve tried to take that as a compliment every time (laughs), but I guess we did try to capture more of a lve feeling, of three guys in the studio playing together, rather than a studio experiment. We wanted to try and capture that impromptu-ness that we have I our shows. It just felt natural to do it that way.”

It would seem that the time to do the more laidback stuff would be when you’re relaxing a bit at home…

“Yeah, I guess,” Miller laughs. “We played all the songs and felt it could get, not so much tiring, but tiring on the ears in that there was so much to hear and so much going on all the time. And we want our albums to be able to be played over and over again, without getting tiring. So we felt it needed a bit more space.”

For Miller the prospect of a hometown show is always a pleasure, especially as this one is part of the Perth International Arts Festival. It’s a nice touch of local iconography…

“It feels good and I hope it does for everyone in February,” he concludes. “It seems that you’ve had to have played overseas to get to a point where you get a gig like that, but regardless it’s great.”

GENERALS & MAJORS

Rock Democracy

Local alternative rock trio Generals & Majors launch their second EP, Animals, at The Rosemount on Friday, February 12. Kill Teen Angst, Injured Ninja, and Head Full Of Steam will be on hand as supports. Frontman Michael Strong took off the elephant mask for a chat with DAVID CRADDOCK.

Upon reading the liner notes to Generals & Majors’ latest EP, the listener is greeted to the sight of three grown men in business suits wearing animals masks. A chicken, elephant and horse - in case you were wondering. A comment on corporate tomfoolery perhaps? Greed? Capitalist savagery? Who knows, but it’s certainly an appropriately off-kilter introduction to the trio.

The band’s music follows suit, largely due to frontman Michael Strong’s theatrical, unrestrained and truly unusual nasal howl. Jagged, driving, kooky and occasionally downright noisy instrumentation from drummer Dane Knowles and bass player Matt Berghuis underscore the band’s biting, and rather obtuse, social commentary.

“I really wanted to have an image that was noticeable and memorable,” Strong explains of the farmyard masks. “I didn’t want to ignore it. I really wanted the image to be artistic, important and fun. I wanted to have fun with it. I didn’t want to just ignore it like a lot of band tends to do. I wanted it to be an important part of what we do. Musically, I’ve got quite a dramatic voice so it all kind of leads towards that I think. And Dane’s just that kind of drummer, he likes to go mental.”

Three years ago, however, Strong says he was on the brink of quitting the group due to band tensions. Getting through a heat in The Next Big Thing band competition, however, changed his mind. “I thought it wasn’t really going anywhere,” he laughs half-jokingly. “There were lots of creative tension and lots of personal tension and it’d been going for a long time. It took us a long time before we played any gigs. It’s been a bit of a nightmare right from the beginning (laughs).”

If the Animals EP is anything to go by the band have now well-and-truly got it together. Recorded locally with Al Smith at Bergerk! Recording Studios, the recording is professional slick and certainly radio-friendly. The band’s all-inclusive, strictly democratic songwriting process also seems to have produced enough hooks for a wide range of listeners to be drawn in.

“It’s a full democracy,” Strong explains. “It was a bit of a nightmare when it was a four-piece, I think four’s a bit too many but three is much easier to handle…we’ll jam out a riff and then we’ll see if it goes somewhere else. We try to remember it and we’ll see if it forms its own thing. Lately it’s just been about the riff. Me and Matt will bring in a riff and then we’ll just work on that. It starts off as one person’s thing but it really ends up being everyone’s.”

In terms of musical influences, Strong says the band have been particularly drawn to alternative ’90s indie music, whilst the whole ‘animal’ thing may have something to do with Strong’s infatuation with Talking Heads.

“We’re all heavily influences by heavier ’90s music. Definitely alternative with that kind of ’90s feel. A little bit of noise, but we like to keep it structured. We don’t like to mess around too much.”

THE BIGYIN

BIG DAY OUT

Claremont Showgrounds
Sunday, February 1, 2010

One of the surprise packets of last year was Lisa Mitchell. She has got better and better with each release and her album Wonder was one out of the box. Pulling together a band that are as sprightly and youthful as Mitchell herself, they played tunes mainly from the full length. The usual suspects including Stevie, Clean White Love and So Jealous were given time in the sun. Coin Laundry was as catchy as it is quirky and Neapolitan Dreams morphed into a handclapping frenzy. Mitchell is still a somewhat awkward performer but moments like hers are what festivals are all about.

There’s no better way to gauge an act’s grass roots appeal than by observing the turn out for an early set. By 12.30, Karnivool had the D packed and perspiring. Classics like the immovable object moving Roquefort lit the crowd instantly, while newer tracks like Goliath and All I Know proved Vool fans have absorbed the new record with gusto.

Even though it was still the middle of a harsh summer day, when the beast that is Mastodon rolled through the Blue Stage, early punters and hardcore fans could have been in the middle of strange and dark landscape. Mastodon constructed an impressive live assembly of their Crack The Skye album; the only drawback being the 45-minute set that just seemed to go by far too quickly.

Unintentional creators of Perth’s funniest Internet meme, The Novocaines were firing on all cylinders on the Essential Stage - housed in Perth’s most horrendous venue, Robinson Pavilion.

Performance on this stage was the true test of pulling power. There wasn’t even a bar, so if a band had a crowd, they were generally all there to see that band.  And The Novocaines did very well indeed.  They’re a bit of a mish-mash of styles, and one thing that generally gets over-looked is their love of mid-’90s alternative rock as evidenced by drummer Liam Young’s Jebediah shirt. But it’s the brothers Jay and Corey Marriot who consistently stand out, and it’s their unbridled enthusiasm which carries the band. If ever a group got by on sheer emotion and conviction, it’s this one.

Sporting hooks that could land Moby Dick, local lads Arts Martial set about justifying their ‘band to watch’ tag, turning a healthy crowd onto their brand of smart pop rock. Tracks like Supernational and Sugar are built for these fun-time crowds and if things go to plan Arts Martial could well become a constant fixture on the national festival circuit.

Although some of the planet’s most talented performers were throwing down around every corner, Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos stood head and shoulders above his peers. Recorded, the band’s glass breaking vocal cacophony is immediately impressive, but when you see them perform whimsical ethers like Sleepyhead firsthand it’s nothing short of jaw-dropping.

Resplendent mostly in black, including leather jackets thank you very much, there was only one place for The Horrors: the only stage with any shade, the Essential.  These London types have garnered quite the cult following in the last couple of years, and not just because of their tight jeans policy.  While some fans were disappointed by the lack of older material, The Horrors threw themselves about the stage with abandon.

Sounding at times very Joy Division, and at times very much influenced by The Cure, the whole set was riveted together by fuzz truncheon bass and snappy rhythm, swirlin’ synths and space cadet guitar.  The only draw back, hardly the band’s fault, was the truly awful acoustics in the tin shed.

The Hot Produce stage went through highs and lows all day, a little bit at odds with what was going on around it. So it was that Abbe May & The Rockin’ Pneumonia played to a crowd that was far smaller than deserved. However, those there were pretty well transfixed by May and co, all dark clothes, sunglasses and pale skin in the high afternoon sun. Though the music speaks of midnight and beyond, the band were up for the battle and carried it off with signature ragged aplomb.

Every year the Green Stage throws up an outfit that has tongues wagging for years. The set for 2010 that was head and shoulders above others was by Portland band The Decemberists. Colin Meloy and his merry fellows bought their strange hybrid of rock, folk, theatre, sea shanties and traditional Irish music to the stage. The latest album was largely ignored as the quintet delved back into their catalogue kicking off with July, July! and a light-hearted This Sporting Life before morphing into The Smiths’ This Charming Man. Drummer John Moen spends time in bands with Stephen Malkmus and Bob Pollard, and his knack for controlling an indie rock tune shone through on The Rake’s Song, O Valencia! and 16 Military Wives. It’s hard to imagine how The Decemberists could have been any more perfect.

Apparently Tame Impala’s crowd at the Perth Big Day Out was the smallest they’d encountered on the entire run. If that’s the case there must have been mammoth shenanigans on the east coast, because the situation at the Essential Stage indicated a band that is continuing its rise. Though not showmen, they are possibly shamen, as the crowd was heaving and seemingly intoxicated by the heavy psychedelia. Tame Impala are festival veterans by now and it shows. The year ahead looks as promising as the last two already have been.

Seasoned Big Day Outers will recall how there is always a gated path to get to the Green Stage situated at the top of the grounds. The Temper Trap pulled so many punters through ‘said path’ that people were literally jumping the fence just to get out of the cue… and some of us may have even ripped the arse out of our pants just to do so. It was totally worth it though when the band ripped out Sweet Disposition, sending the entire crowd into soaring melody. The other thing about ol’ Green Stage is that, unless you’re 6’2” it’s particularly hard to see the band. So this means there are always chaps climbing trees and shoes falling on heads and that’s almost as good as watching the band.

As the assembled and adoring crowd blistered in the sun, Hilltop Hoods hit the stage (a) as conquerors and (b) as white boys daring sunburn. They did however, create their own kind of Australia Day as the folks in the mosh hung n’ sung on every word of hip hop tunes that are becoming national anthems in their own right. Suffa and Pressure should treat themselves to some gold mics, but it’s clear that the Hilltop Hoods own in any festival environment.

Rise Against brought their A-game on Sunday, ripping out heaps of material from Appeal To Reason like Collapse and Re-Education. As far as a live show goes, Rise Against are balls-out energy from start to finish. They’re the kind of band that can win over new punters from a live show alone and no doubt they won a few on the weekend. It was also starting to get a little cooler by this set so the timing was perfect for the pits to get hectic.

Eskimo Joe may have hit the mainstream for some, but their relevance for the youth masses struck home the moment they walked onstage to the Eastern atmosh-pherics of Foreign Land. Clearly excited to be on the big stage again at their hometown Big Day Out, the band immediately took command of the stage and the audience before them. Through the Led Zep wallop of Foreign Land, to the dramatics of Inshalla and the explosive pop of Sarah; the frontline trio of Kav Temperley, Stu McLeod and Joel Quartermain displayed their mastery of main events.

Quartermain bounds around keeping eye contact with all on stage (he also did a neat drum-off with Nick Jonsson on Losing My Mind), like an on-field coach. Temperley beseeches the crowd like a goodtime preacher and McLeod pulls off perfect scissor kicks and even the rarely seen Steve Vai 360 degree guitar strap sling. Lee Jones must also be commended for awesome keys, slide and guitar work. Newer songs were mixed with old (the 2001 single, Wake Up, was unleashed and still stands up as moving piece), but one can’t miss that From The Sea and the closer, Black Fingernails Red Wine, are the jewels in the sing-along crown. Just ace.

Sparkling in the afternoon sun, South London’s raddest little pop star Lily Allen entertained a massive crowd.  Mostly performing tracks from her latest offering It’s Not Me, It’s You, Allen had plenty of attention and a number of beach balls cranking during her set, however for a performer who has been simmering on the edge of a massive breakthrough for at least the last year one would have expected a bigger pop - if anything, especially to the truly refreshing radio hits The Fear and Not Fair.  She is very much campy kitsch pop, and in another universe would have had the entire crowd singing, but as it was, Lily Allen close to sunset with a beverage in one hand was a killer way to end the afternoon’s relentlessness.

People who were expecting a po-faced, shaggy-looking hippy were in for a hell of a shock when Devendra Banhart appeared. The immaculately-dressed man with a manicured beard led his band through a joyous set that pulled its influences from reggae, Spanish guitar and San Francisco folk. The females went weak at the knees as Banhart shimmied his way through Baby and unleashed his affected vibrato on Lover. There were tales of the street corner in every city where paradise is offered but little is given as an introduction to 16th & Valencia Roxy Music. The band all offered backing vocals for Seahorse while a guest member played Theremin at the back of the stage. I Feel Like A Child was performed and the waif like singer jumped off stage and rubbed hands with the crowd. Some artists just have ‘it’!

The Mars Volta on the big stage was always going to be an experiment of sorts. The band opened with a fierce rendition of Inertiac Esp making it very clear that the Lilly Allen fans weren’t in Kansas no more. Their strength and technical prowess is a sight to behold, but this late on the main stage their improv fusion bombardment was a big ask for the largely uninitiated crowd. Powerfully self indulgent, Mars Volta amazed those who cared and confused those that didn’t.

A lot gets said about Jet due to their early rollercoaster success, a lot of it not so good. However seeing them over on the Green Stage (previous BDOs have seen them on the main stages) in front of a rabid crowd brought it all back to what they really are – a damn fine, good old-fashioned rock’n’roll band. With no pretence whatsoever, they simply slayed their crowd with a litany of hits and near-misses such as She’s A Genius, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and Cold Hard Bitch and the seemingly evergreen, Are You Gonna Be My Girl? Nic Cester showed off a voice that has encase one of the finest rock screams in Australian music (a talent he would later bring to the fore onstage with Muse).

Making their first appearance in Perth since the passing of all-time nice guy and long standing bass player Dean Turner, Magic Dirt left nothing in the tank. The four piece were in a brutal mood and they abused their tunes for three quarters of an hour. Songs like White Boy were punishing and even the pop songs of Dirty Jeans and Plastic Loveless Letter were bludgeoned. A raising of the glass to their lost friend and a cover from his favourite band, Mudhoney and some impressive instrument demolition ended the set. The Geelong band eat festivals like this for breakfast and although it was hard to hold back a heavy heart at times ‘the dirt’ were just the tonic.

It’s been a few years since Powderfinger graced the Big Day Out stage. It’s an event they’ve grown with over the years and are now at its precipice. The band normally project more energy live than their album seem to evoke and again, this was the case as they performed their second-headliner slot. With a setlist waited half in favour of songs from their recent Golden Rule album (they opened with All Of The Dreamers and A Fight About Money, Jewel and Burn Your Name were all showcased) and given to their big hits, they truly look like a bunch of mates who are good at what they do and have a good time doing it.

It’s an easy affability, although vocalist Bernard Fanning was having fun with tried-and-true stadium banter, (‘Oh yeah! Oh yeah! You’ve been a dynamite audience, you deserve to give yourselves a round of applause!’). It went from poignant  (Lost And Running, These Days) to powerful (the closing Baby I’ve Got You On My Mind). Sometimes they appear to be on Mission: Brown, but Powderfinger clearly hold a place among audiences as one of the country’s musical treasures.

Headlining the local Hot Produce stage mid-evening, Perth’s dads of power-pop The Chevelles were stuck in a kind-of-shitty situation of having their set blown out constantly by the concurrent Powderfinger set on the main stage.  Fully aware of this, the band made the best of it with good humour and, above all, good tunes.  Despite only attracting a handful of die-hard local music aficionados, and, bafflingly, following straight on from a house DJ, The Chevelles were able to prove the awesome effectiveness of the location of the local stage in Perth.  Literally people would wander through and start leaping and dancing around, hang for a couple of songs, and then continue on their way to watch Ladyhawke.  Those who stuck around copped a totally rad light show from former Amplifier Bar guru Jarred Hawke, incidentally.

Such was the anticipation for Ladyhawke that the sizeable crowd at the essential stage were applauding roadies as they were going through their line check. It meant that the New Zealand-born singer wouldn’t have to deliver too much to appease the crowd, but that is what the late night festival spots are often about. From the get go Brown’s voice was a little muddy and low in the mix, but that didn’t deter the throng from singing along. Her ARIA Award-winning album was well represented with Dusk Till Dawn seeing early billing.

Beneath the lasers and U2 scale media array, Muse arrived to an unprecedented welcome from the rapturous masses. After a decade at the pointy end of the international alt-rock pile, the trio spewed forth hit after monster hit carrying the crowd to the brink only to beat them back with several riff homage interludes including a grinding foray into the opening lines of Deftone’s Head Up.

The majesty of Muse was only matched by the sheer scale of the band’s superlative production, and knowing they only brought a fraction of their full stage show, you can bet the band’s national tour later this year will be well worth a looksee.

_BOB GORDON, LAURA GLITSOS, ALFRED GORMAN, CHRIS HAVERCROFT, GRANT MCCULLOCH & BEN WATSON

THE HURT

LOCKER

This Modern War

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty

Somewhere near the beginning of this picture my shoulders crept up to my ears and my feet curled into a tip-toe lock. Limbs jammed, I sat in nervous defense as the tension pulsed on the screen in Kathryn Bigelow’s totally absorbing, The Hurt Locker.

Through a shaky hand-held camera we’re thrust into a war ravaged Baghdad, in the midst of the Iraq War, 2004. The scene is crawling with potential enemies, who, clothed in normal civilian attire, are particularly difficult to detect- any Iraqi pulling out a mobile phone must be treated with suspicion.  Fortunately, we’re in the company of an American Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squad, an elite group of army dudes who know a thing or two about combat and disarming home-made bombs.

After losing their staff sergeant, Sergeant J.T Sanborn (Anthony Mackie- Half Nelson), and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty- Jarhead), must learn to contend with the somewhat reckless new leader of their Bravo Company, Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner- The Assassination of Jesse James). With 38 days remaining in their Baghdad stint, their mission to disarm bombs and make the city a safer place is coming at a greater personal risk. James’ adrenaline addiction equates to flouting military protocol, making each day more perilous for his team.

It seems as though Kathryn Bigelow’s focus on the ‘wild man’ has once again worked in her favour. The director’s previous credits like the surfing thriller Point Break have had the same streak of male bravado that see characters chasing rushes in volatile situations. The difference here is that the action is so real- real in the sense that you feel like you’re there, and that the whole thing in anchored in fact- it’s penned by journalist Mark Boal, whose had first-hand experience. This is just as well, because apart from James’ partner who he calls infrequently, there isn’t a skirt to be seen in this film. With so much macho stuff, taking some liberties with the script and factoring in a significant female character would have been a break from the all male cast that dominates even this modern war genre.

Aside from that, it’s generally well-scripted. It doesn’t get bogged with war jargon, and the dialogue- jokes included- manages to reveal as much about the men as it does about the war at hand. James’ box of things that he explains “nearly killed me” like parts of bombs and his wedding ring, as well as his befriending of an Iraqi boy, blends softer hues through an otherwise brash agenda. He tests Sanborn (Mackie) and Eldridge (Geraghty) on and off the front- Eldridge’s coming to grips with the psychological effects of his job, and Sanborn’s contemplation of what his post-war life should be like, if he survives. All relative unknowns, Renner, Mackie and Geraghty give credible performances as soldiers in an uncertain war

The Hurt Locker plugs into the reality of the Iraq War and makes for an adrenaline charged experience.

_EMMA D’ORAZIO

HAYSEED DIXIE

Killer Grass

Cooking Vinyl

Shock

Although you don’t truly get a feel for how talented John ‘Barley Scotch’ Wheeler is until you listen to his original band, The Kerosene Brothers, his hillbilly tributes/reinterpretations with Hayseed Dixie have been consistently brilliant since the get-go – this time around seeing the likes of Queen, Black Sabbath and even The Prodigy going under his musical scalpel.

The formula is tried and trusted: take a great song and inject it with equal parts killer bluegrass and humour; but the pure gold (as always) are the band’s own tunes… of which there is an abundance on Killer Grass.

Wheeler – an incredibly sharp and politically-aware chap – never strays too far from his beloved themes of ‘drinkin’, cheatin’, killin’ and hell’, but even when he’s having a laugh his lyrics are so spot on it’s crazy… ‘drinkin’ beer ain’t fun like it used to be / I just can’t get drunk anymore’ Wheeler begins on Tolerance, following the set-up with the beautiful twist of ‘tolerance / people say we need tolerance / I wish I could give ’em some of mine’.

Fun as they may be, Hayseed Dixie are also exceptional musicians, so an appreciation of the band can form on any number of levels… but at the end of the day, ‘drinkin’, cheatin’, killin’ and hell’ are all pretty fuckin’ awesome places to start.

A band that never fails to impress.

_MIKE WAFER