Live music eh. I can't believe it's now over a year since I saw an international band. Mono played at the Metro in Sydney on 7 March 2020. I remember my mum called me for a chat earlier in the day and she was a little worried I was jumping on a train to Sydney (it's about 90 minutes from Wollongong) and that I'd spend a few hours standing in a crowd. But we agreed the case numbers seemed low enough in NSW for me to probably be OK. Obviously I was. I then had plans to go to a bunch of shows later in March and April, and the next week I watched as one band after another announced postponement or cancellation on social media.
Last November, I was able to attend my first shows in Wollongong - strange but intimate experiences of seated audiences of about 40 people in a pub that I know more for being packed every Friday and Saturday. Egoism came down from Sydney for the first show, then in a really odd experience later that month I was sitting at a table in the front row for Horror My Friend blasting out their punk tunes.
Then last week and again tonight I attended proper standing gigs for the first time since that Mono show. I saw Moaning Lisa in Canberra, which was such a good gig - they're wonderful performers, great stage presence, and I recommend their shows to the other Aussies here even if you're only lukewarm on their recorded stuff. That crowd generally kept a bit of space between everyone, though there were no formal distancing requirements. Without anyone needing to say anything, everyone was really respectful of each other. I think the only time there was anything vaguely approaching a crush was when Moaning Lisa asked a group of really big guys hogging the rail to move back so that women could come to the front for "Carrie".
Flyying Colours' show tonight in Wollongong, though, was jam-packed. I wasn't totally thrilled about that. It was a free set in a pub's beer garden; they put on 4 bands each Sunday, and Flyying Colours are mates from back in Melbourne. I gave the other bands a miss because Essendon were busy winning the footy, but I wandered down for FC. When I got there, I found a huge queue waiting to get in, with a covid capacity limit meaning that new arrivals only got in when other people left. I literally entered just as FC began—and they opened with my favourite song of theirs too! But the controls at the door were a total joke because the beer garden was packed. A gap on the front row somehow appeared in front of me but then I spent the rest of the set with other people pressed against me. And when I left, the dance floor was as tightly packed as I've ever seen it. Look, I know NSW has no covid in the community right now, but I still didn't feel enthused. I confess I'm going to miss some of the personal space I had last year.
I dunno why I just wrote so much, thanks if you read it. It's just nice to ramble at length about music.