It’s time for the year’s first gig. After a morning with “M”, I set out for the
seaside suburb of Altona where my mate Mickey and his wife are waiting.
Mickey and I go back a long way. We met in our first year of secondary school
and shared at least one class a day in that and the subsequent five years. Like stock characters out of a Nick Hornby
book, we bonded primarily over music and Australian Rules football,
specifically in our support for the competition’s perennial bridesmaids,
Footscray, trading these days as the Western Bulldogs. As is the case, our tertiary education took
us to separate places and his choice of career initially interstate.
Fortunately before that, our orbits realigned when we bumped into each other
(with relentless predictability on the terraces at the footy during a Bulldogs
match) and haven’t lost contact since.
Since his return to Melbourne we’ve sat next to each other at Doggies
home games.
Mickey’s preference has tended to be for straight out rock
and acoustic music with a keen ear for a melody and lyrical substance. This has resulted in a refined relatively
broad and largely mainstream taste that takes in favoured acts such as The
Beatles, including McCartney, Harrison and Lennon as solo artists, The Byrds,
New Order, The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Young and The Smashing Pumpkins. But his greatest love has been and will
always remain with Australian (and New Zealand) music. Ever since the rise of Skyhooks, he has
championed it and remains an aficionado of numerous acts but his greatest
affection is reserved for The Church, Australia’s poet laureate Paul Kelly and
all things Finn (i.e Split Enz, Crowded House and the solo careers of Tim and
Neil). I didn’t even need to ask if he
was going to the Neil Finn/Paul Kelly shows this year. My first question was “How many shows are you
attending?” We’ve definitely influenced
each other’s taste. He by turning me
towards great local acts and me by being exposing him to some of the more
abrasive acts in which he occasionally develops on interest. (I like to think I helped developed his taste
for Sonic Youth and he a fondness in me for the Enz.)
More importantly, Mickey and I attended what was one of the
first gigs either of us had attended. It
was a Skyhooks show in the City; I think my father dropped both of us at the
venue and his father picked us up afterwards.
We spoke about it for days afterwards and have attended gigs together
ever since; that are on the days when I’m able to sufficiently co-ordinate myself
to ask if he’s going before he’s bought tickets!
I’ve maintained a list of every gig I’ve ever attended since
1984. I used to be a compulsive gig goer; you tend to be that and a compulsive
music shopper if you get to be a single adult music fan. Meeting “M” has led me
to reduce this compulsion, significantly aided in no small measure by the
dramatic rise in the cost of concert tickets over the past decade. These days, I attend no more than 6 shows a
year concentrating on either free gigs (like todays), single day festivals with
exceptional line ups, favourite acts or acts which have never toured that I’d
always edto see. Judging from my future commitments I know this is going to
be an exceptional year gig wise.
A few years ago I
counted the number of shows on my list.
As I head towards Altona, I realise that today’s gig will be number 696
and that’s not counting about 50 shows before I started compiling it. The venue for today’s gig is a makeshift
stage on the Logan Reserve directly opposite the beach and pier and is promoted
by the local council. It’s a good
venue. A couple of giant Moreton bay
trees sit along the stage on one side and a “historic homestead” on the
other. (I never did get round to reading
the historical marker.) I find the
audience sprawled on the grass and Mr and Mrs Mikey just in time for the main
attraction;
Gig # 696 - Mark Seymour (Logan Reserve, Altona) City Of Hobson’s Bay Sounds Of Summer
Concert Series
Set List
Unidentified song from new album
Lorelei (cover of
the song by The Pogues)Cry In The Rain
Where Do You Go
? Beside You (identified as a Dave Dobbyn song)
When The River Runs Dry
Classrooms and Kitchens
Say Goodbye
Castlemaine
Unidentified (identified as a song about motor vehicles)
Westgate
Throw Your Arms Around Me (encore)
Mark Seymour is the former lynchpin of Melbourne’s legendary
Hunters And Collectors, a band originally named after a Can track which over
its career progressed from a percussion/bass heavy post-punk outfit to the
purveyors of smart adult rock. Like most
great Australian bands they were a potent live act. Since their breakup Seymour has pursued a
solo career which while not hitting the commercial heights of H&C probably
accords him greater satisfaction. I suspect
it is more financially rewarding too as H&C had about 8 members and I seem
to remember reading that their renowned PA system was an expensive one to
maintain.
Today, Seymour is part of a four man band. The reasonably large crowd appears to consist
largely of middle aged H&C fans no doubt expecting a greatest hits
set. Seymour, to his credit, doesn’t bow
to this and even recasts Hunna’s hits (especially When The River Runs Dry and
Say Goodbye) in unexpected directions.
The cover of The Pogues’ Lorelei was a canny inclusion but it was some
of his solo material that might have made the greatest impression. Castlemaine, a song inspired by the prison
overlooking that town in central Victoria was impressive but it was Westgate, a
song about the collapse of the bridge of that name during its construction in
1970 that really won over the crowd.
Although members of the crowd (including me) were calling out for
Betty’s Worry Or The Slab, the best known song from H&C’s earlier days,
Seymour bowed to what he called public demand and produced his best known
song. Throw Your Arms Around Me, a song
covered by many cover bands around the country and Pearl Jam overseas, had the
audience swooning, couples entwining just like they did years ago in
Melbourne’s beer barns and burley ex bikers using their beer cans as
microphones during the choruses.
Apart from the gig, my only listening was as I wrote the
blog post.
(62) The Jesus And Mary Chain – Psychocandy
The first time a bought a copy of this was on behalf of a work
colleague as I had easier access to a record shop. It is a landmark album in my life – the first
time I ever yanked a stylus off an album before it had ended. These days, I shake my head with sheer
embarrassment having realised that is basically an album of classic 60s
sounding tunes buried underneath loads of fuzzy guitars and white noise. In other words it was an album I failed to
recognise as innovative and ahead of its time and my premature reaction,
judging from the accounts I’ve read about their earliest shows, was probably
exactly what the Reid Brothers intended.
Fat chance of that happening now; with tracks such as Just Like Honey,
Some Candy Talking and You Trip Me Up, it is great fusion of melody, song craft
and the majesty of noise.
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