sailing my ship across your sea
*sigh*
That was so lovely.
That was so lovely.
That was the gig we should have had four years ago. Although I suppose if we had such a gig on their very first visit to Australia, a disaster on the next outing would be even more heartbreaking. I dunno, I don't care. Cos tonight was such a mellow sweet night.
Oh Anton. There is nobody like you in the world and that is such a wonderful thing on soooo many levels.
I was smart tonight. Figured since I'm going solo, the less time I spend standing around waiting, the better. So if doors opened at 8pm, I was gonna rock up at 9pm. Normally I'm the loser who turns up when doors open and then hangs around, guarding my spot for hours. But then I was even smarter and checked the Factory website. Turns out they're onstage at 10.30pm. Score!
Cos really I wanted to stay home and watch DVDs as long as possible. Cos damnit it's cold and I'm too old for the milling around routine. It's one thing to do that when you're part of the scene and have plenty of people to greet and chat with and goof off with. It's entirely different when you're there just for the music and frankly will nick off home as soon as possible. *snort* So old.
Was a teensy bit alarmed when the taxi driver had to dig out his directory to find Enmore Road. I mean, wtf, where was his GPS?! But he got me there with time to spare and I had the distinct pleasure of striding past all the masses with absolutely no need or expectation of hailing friends or scenesters.
Man, I forgot how much I like the Factory, the stairs and red velvet and the sectioned off bar from main performance area, the carpet sectioned off from the wooden floor. So well designed. And man, it's been a hellishly long time since I've been to a rock gig. Cos I happily missed The Black Ryder opening --- whatever --- so got there in the middle of the soundcheck for BJM. And ow ow ow with the drum vibrating the floor and bloody well pummelling the eardrum. Normally, I love that shit but this was bordering on ow, serious industrial damage.
And then they wandered on. Bang on time, too. Ricky and Rob Campanella and Frankie and Collin and Dan Allaire and Joel and Anton. I was stuck behind two dykes for about half the show with a keyhole view between them cos the place was so packed out. When they started snogging, I nearly smacked a bitch. Then the guy beside them nicked off so I got to take his place and pretty much had a perfect view for the rest of the show and even more space to dance as the crowd spread and thinned out as the hours went by. Perfect as in unimpaired view of Anton.
Cos quite typically, I had a excellent view all the way through of everyone else on stage but why the hell would I be looking at anyone else when Anton Newcombe is in the room? Oy, he hasn't aged well. That was my first thought and one that persisted for a good fifteen minutes. That new haircut is atrocious and makes him look like some backwater redneck alco, which doesn't help the slightly bloated face. But, you know, as with Nick Cave, by the end of the night, I so didn't see that any more. All I saw was this musician who is so dear to me, who made me so very proud tonight, made me love him all over again.
Because he was an absolute darling tonight. Sure, there were a couple of flare ups in response to a couple of male yells from the crowd, classic instinctive snapping. But he always mellowed out and even managed to ignore some. I was so proud of him. And he got everyone in the band to talk and plug their own bands, showed a lot of genuine affection for them, was appreciative of us, told us he was trying to wake up, told us it was his birthday at midnight tonight and that nothing good has ever happened on his birthday, possibly got a little embarrassed when half the crowd sang happy birthday to him, and later thanked us so sweetly for it.
I didn't sing. Cos it wasn't his birthday yet.
He had this strange expression contorting his face for quite a lot of tonight. It took me about five occurrences to suddenly realise what it was. A smile! That was Anton Newcombe SMILING! *falls over, giggling*
You know how some people will look really fierce or forbidding or taciturn most of the time and then undergo this total transformation when they smile because it's a smile of such sweetness and joy?
Yeah, Anton's not like that.
He doesn't have a nice smile. He is not an attractive man. But bugger me sideways if every time he smiles I don't want to grab the man up and hug him and kiss him all over his adorable unattractive face. Because suddenly you see the shy sweet boy he must have been and I like to think still is under all the vitriol and dizzying intelligence.
He was lovely. And he was so funny. Sure, it takes a little while to adjust to the way his mind works and how extremely fast he talks sometimes. But then eventually, I could anticipate exactly what joke he was going to make next, what he was going to snarl back at the heckler. He was wonderful, very mellow and conscientious and affable tonight. I did a lot of my own unattractive smiling in his direction.
It did feel like there was a lot of love in the room. An all ages gig but I didn't spend much time looking at them. Kinda didn't care. I wasn't going to push my way to the front like last time, content instead to stand on the raised carpet section so I could at least crane for a view over people's heads.
I have to say it was a truly fucking awesome set list. This kinda dawned on me about halfway through, how well it covered the entire spectrum of the Brian Jonestown Massacre career. And me, I'd loaded up the stereo at the last minute just to re-familiarise myself with the sound if not the actual songs. Cos I haven't listened to BJM for many many moons and even then the last I heard was the newest album, My Bloody Underground. And cos I've been all about the electronica and Tears For Fears lately, there was a very real possibility that my headspace would be completely incompatible with the BJM sound which would just piss me off royally.
About three hours before they came onstage, I was reminded just what it is I love about this band and in particular BraveryRepetitionAndNoise ... those absolutely gorgeous melodies and the use of the layered organ. Goddamnit, they are just such beautiful sounds.
So I kinda couldn't believe how this awesome setlist covered the jangly folk as well as the psych rock as well as the harder spacier stuff as well as the gorgeous melodic trips. And even if I didn't pay much attention to the specific songs three hours before, in some marvellous fannish phenomenon, all the knowledge resurfaced. Every time they started a song, my mind was sure I didn't recognise it and prolly couldn't name it. But the rest of me so didn't fucking care, I knew the melody, I knew the words, I knew what I felt when I first heard it. Screw the mind, the soul knew.
What they played, totally not in order: yeah-yeah, golden frost, when jokers attack, who?, sailor (!), vacuum boots, servo, nevertheless, here it comes, anemone, hide and seek (eeee!!) ... and what totally choked me up ... the devil may care (mom and dad don't).
Because it was just after he talked about his birthday and he didn't mention the fact that his father killed himself. So when I realised what the song was, it was awful. I felt so bad for him. And it was only a few hours to midnight, to his birthday, to that anniversary. God, Anton. I've always loved that song, even if I haven't listened to it for years, and suddenly it just all came together to make this very horrible and real sense of what it must be like to be Anton.
Only for the space of the song, of course. Then he went back to being his own mystifying fascinating self and I went back to being an adoring fangirl. And oh, Katy was there. He totally yelled out to her when he couldn't remember how old he was going to be. And she came onto the side of the stage and yelled back that he was going to be forty-one. It was kinda wonderful and got me totally romanticising about how marriage to this nineteen year old Welsh girl may have had a marvellous effect on him.
Or maybe we just got him on a good night.
Much to my astonishment, the darkhaired girl who had been standing on the side of the stage only turned out to be Aimee Nash, former keyboardist with the Morning After Girls. Anton got her to come on and do the vocals for Anemone which she fucked up by missing her cue for the first line --- okay, it is a slightly tricky one --- and screwing up the lyrics. But she did a passable job and I kinda didn't care anyway cos I had the original going loud and strong in my head. Plus Anton sang the last bit with her which was just wonderful.
God, I love that song so much. But I think I infinitely prefer the DiG! US bonus feature performance to all others I've heard/seen. Because Anton sings that entirely and the driving energy of those guitars is just mesmerising. I mean, seriously, I go into a trance every time I watch that performance. Even with the sideburns! Guh.
Frankie did the Icelandic vocals on golden frost which just rocked unfuckingbelievably. Perhaps it was my imagination but it felt like a lot of the crowd were straining to understand just what the hell he was singing. I wasn't. *lol* And Anton was absolutely hysterical when he explained to us what the original lyrics were --- something about give me my money back --- and what Frankie was singing --- computers, computers! --- which was clearly an injoke but totally endearing cos Frankie went with it and ended up telling us about his mother. Hee.
Oh, and we got two new songs, both of which were quite fabulously energetic and rocky. And ohhhhhh man, Anton broke a string at one point --- possibly at the end of the When Jokers Attack wall of sound --- so while the guitar tech was repairing that, he got the rest of the band to start up a loop and then he wandered over to the keyboard, usurped Rob Campanella of the fabulous hair, and they all pretty much created this absolutely wonderful shoegazey psychedelic sitar-y jam that was so awesome to witness. It just happened. One of those classic BJM experiences you always hear about and long to actually witness and there it was, there it happened right in front of us. Oh man oh man. *sighs*
I might email Anton and thank him. Of course that might run the risk of fucking up tomorrow night. Be interesting to see if he's already planned how tomorrow night will go. Cos every time there was a threat of chaos or nastiness erupting, he insisted that "tonight isn't about that." Which makes me think this is his way of making up for the debacle that was the last BJM gig in Sydney and again with the wanting to hug and kiss the man all over his adorable face.
And then the cynical part of me speculates that if tonight was all about the mellow lovefest, tomorrow may well be the shitfight, as planned by our frighteningly intelligent wilfully abrasive juggernaut of creative energy that is Anton Newcombe. God, he's so fascinating. As a character, he is just so fascinating to me. And I love that I got to usher his forty-first birthday in with him, watching him do what he does best, me and him and his wife and a whole roomful of strangers. There are no words for how precious that synchronicity is.
Oddly enough, I took out my phone once to check the time only to find it was precisely midnight. And not long after, Joel said it prolly was Anton's birthday already. That was lovely. Watching the band as constituted thus made me hypothesise as to why Joel brings such a great dimension to BJM. Cos with Joel front and centre being a tambourine whore, perhaps less of the focus and pressure is taken off Anton in his uber-perfectionist uber-sensitive Virgo incarnation. Didn't for me, I barely looked at anyone else. But he did seem a lot more relaxed or a lot more able to handle the performance nerves this time around. Which makes me very glad for him.
Kinda wanted a tshirt to mark the night but didn't have enough money in my wallet so put it off til tomorrow night when argh, I will have to fight my way through the crowd at the Metro merch table. I always hate the Metro merch table, it's so inconveniently placed. There was a BJM logo in Aboriginal art style. I don't think I'll do that one. May get the red one with the dates on the back and I think the My Bloody Underground squiggle art. Yep.
Oh oh, and when he was getting Ricky to talk about his own work, Anton said how Ricky has this special relationship with Australia because he plays with the Killer. Which made me go "whut? Did he just make a reference to Steve Kilbey? Ricky Maymi's playing with Steve Kilbey?! Whut? Did I read that in Kilbey's blog? Whut?" And then Anton explained who Killer was and everyone cheered cos, y'know, Steve Kilbey! Naturally, every person in that crowd would know who Steve Kilbey is. Even if my entire writing group has no FREAKING IDEA! *grinds teeth* But, as Moustache says to Jackie and Shirley, that's another story.
And then Anton went on this whole meandering tangent about how Steve Kilbey raises his kids and what his daughters are like --- one movie star and one athlete --- and how he has two sets of twins --- "think about it" --- and how he saves them from sharks at Bondi Beach. Hee. Silly man.
Another example of silliness: "Fuck seize the day, I say Rule The Night! Hey, has anyone studied Latin? How do you say Rule The Night in Latin?"
Oh Anton, I adore the way your mind works. And I wish I knew.
NO TRIPLE DENIM!! I was so shocked. And then rather impressed cos I'm sure by now this must be Katy's doing. No, he had on that ratty denim jacket with the sprayed text on the back. But it was a tan shirt underneath and jeans. Ohhhhhhh ... now I kinda miss the triple denim. And the beads, the bare chest with the beads. Awwww ... but at least he kept warm. Hee.
It wasn't the best musical performance, by all means. There was a few sound glitches and yeah, I did have that realisation that a lot of BJM songs have very similar sounds and structure. But none of that mattered. Cos even though tonight was mostly about the music and the fact that they played and played well, it was sort of greater than the music. It was about the relationship between band and audience, a healing of the horror that was the last time, this was reminding us why we love this band, and what they can give us. It wasn't as transcendant as that Spiritualized gig or that Laurie Anderson performance. It didn't have to be.
But oh, even though the aesthetic was quite low key just with a bit of coloured light, there suddenly appeared a psychedelic swirly thing on the back wall. Gawwwwwwwwwwwwww, that was so nice ...
I wondered what time the Factory was supposed to close, if they had curfew. Automatically, I assumed it was midnight. Well, they played past midnight. At least to a quarter to one. Because when they finally finished and Joel refused to leave the stage cos he was still with the shaking of the tambourine while Anton noodled away on the droney feedback thingiebob, I waited til Anton went through the back curtains before I left. And the security dude on the door said they had played an hour past their allotted time which just made me beam at him. Yep, that's our BJM boys, always flipping the man the finger. As Joel said, "we're gonna play until the power cuts out! I'm not leaving!"
Ahhh, don't you love rock and roll? Hee.
And on the way back, I passed the Anno all tidily shut and silent, and it was a total shock to remember that Mess Hall performed there tonight. I hope it was a bloody awesome gig. Oh boys. *sends good vibes*
And yep, totally warrants a change of the LJ header.
That was so lovely.
That was so lovely.
That was the gig we should have had four years ago. Although I suppose if we had such a gig on their very first visit to Australia, a disaster on the next outing would be even more heartbreaking. I dunno, I don't care. Cos tonight was such a mellow sweet night.
Oh Anton. There is nobody like you in the world and that is such a wonderful thing on soooo many levels.
I was smart tonight. Figured since I'm going solo, the less time I spend standing around waiting, the better. So if doors opened at 8pm, I was gonna rock up at 9pm. Normally I'm the loser who turns up when doors open and then hangs around, guarding my spot for hours. But then I was even smarter and checked the Factory website. Turns out they're onstage at 10.30pm. Score!
Cos really I wanted to stay home and watch DVDs as long as possible. Cos damnit it's cold and I'm too old for the milling around routine. It's one thing to do that when you're part of the scene and have plenty of people to greet and chat with and goof off with. It's entirely different when you're there just for the music and frankly will nick off home as soon as possible. *snort* So old.
Was a teensy bit alarmed when the taxi driver had to dig out his directory to find Enmore Road. I mean, wtf, where was his GPS?! But he got me there with time to spare and I had the distinct pleasure of striding past all the masses with absolutely no need or expectation of hailing friends or scenesters.
Man, I forgot how much I like the Factory, the stairs and red velvet and the sectioned off bar from main performance area, the carpet sectioned off from the wooden floor. So well designed. And man, it's been a hellishly long time since I've been to a rock gig. Cos I happily missed The Black Ryder opening --- whatever --- so got there in the middle of the soundcheck for BJM. And ow ow ow with the drum vibrating the floor and bloody well pummelling the eardrum. Normally, I love that shit but this was bordering on ow, serious industrial damage.
And then they wandered on. Bang on time, too. Ricky and Rob Campanella and Frankie and Collin and Dan Allaire and Joel and Anton. I was stuck behind two dykes for about half the show with a keyhole view between them cos the place was so packed out. When they started snogging, I nearly smacked a bitch. Then the guy beside them nicked off so I got to take his place and pretty much had a perfect view for the rest of the show and even more space to dance as the crowd spread and thinned out as the hours went by. Perfect as in unimpaired view of Anton.
Cos quite typically, I had a excellent view all the way through of everyone else on stage but why the hell would I be looking at anyone else when Anton Newcombe is in the room? Oy, he hasn't aged well. That was my first thought and one that persisted for a good fifteen minutes. That new haircut is atrocious and makes him look like some backwater redneck alco, which doesn't help the slightly bloated face. But, you know, as with Nick Cave, by the end of the night, I so didn't see that any more. All I saw was this musician who is so dear to me, who made me so very proud tonight, made me love him all over again.
Because he was an absolute darling tonight. Sure, there were a couple of flare ups in response to a couple of male yells from the crowd, classic instinctive snapping. But he always mellowed out and even managed to ignore some. I was so proud of him. And he got everyone in the band to talk and plug their own bands, showed a lot of genuine affection for them, was appreciative of us, told us he was trying to wake up, told us it was his birthday at midnight tonight and that nothing good has ever happened on his birthday, possibly got a little embarrassed when half the crowd sang happy birthday to him, and later thanked us so sweetly for it.
I didn't sing. Cos it wasn't his birthday yet.
He had this strange expression contorting his face for quite a lot of tonight. It took me about five occurrences to suddenly realise what it was. A smile! That was Anton Newcombe SMILING! *falls over, giggling*
You know how some people will look really fierce or forbidding or taciturn most of the time and then undergo this total transformation when they smile because it's a smile of such sweetness and joy?
Yeah, Anton's not like that.
He doesn't have a nice smile. He is not an attractive man. But bugger me sideways if every time he smiles I don't want to grab the man up and hug him and kiss him all over his adorable unattractive face. Because suddenly you see the shy sweet boy he must have been and I like to think still is under all the vitriol and dizzying intelligence.
He was lovely. And he was so funny. Sure, it takes a little while to adjust to the way his mind works and how extremely fast he talks sometimes. But then eventually, I could anticipate exactly what joke he was going to make next, what he was going to snarl back at the heckler. He was wonderful, very mellow and conscientious and affable tonight. I did a lot of my own unattractive smiling in his direction.
It did feel like there was a lot of love in the room. An all ages gig but I didn't spend much time looking at them. Kinda didn't care. I wasn't going to push my way to the front like last time, content instead to stand on the raised carpet section so I could at least crane for a view over people's heads.
I have to say it was a truly fucking awesome set list. This kinda dawned on me about halfway through, how well it covered the entire spectrum of the Brian Jonestown Massacre career. And me, I'd loaded up the stereo at the last minute just to re-familiarise myself with the sound if not the actual songs. Cos I haven't listened to BJM for many many moons and even then the last I heard was the newest album, My Bloody Underground. And cos I've been all about the electronica and Tears For Fears lately, there was a very real possibility that my headspace would be completely incompatible with the BJM sound which would just piss me off royally.
About three hours before they came onstage, I was reminded just what it is I love about this band and in particular BraveryRepetitionAndNoise ... those absolutely gorgeous melodies and the use of the layered organ. Goddamnit, they are just such beautiful sounds.
So I kinda couldn't believe how this awesome setlist covered the jangly folk as well as the psych rock as well as the harder spacier stuff as well as the gorgeous melodic trips. And even if I didn't pay much attention to the specific songs three hours before, in some marvellous fannish phenomenon, all the knowledge resurfaced. Every time they started a song, my mind was sure I didn't recognise it and prolly couldn't name it. But the rest of me so didn't fucking care, I knew the melody, I knew the words, I knew what I felt when I first heard it. Screw the mind, the soul knew.
What they played, totally not in order: yeah-yeah, golden frost, when jokers attack, who?, sailor (!), vacuum boots, servo, nevertheless, here it comes, anemone, hide and seek (eeee!!) ... and what totally choked me up ... the devil may care (mom and dad don't).
Because it was just after he talked about his birthday and he didn't mention the fact that his father killed himself. So when I realised what the song was, it was awful. I felt so bad for him. And it was only a few hours to midnight, to his birthday, to that anniversary. God, Anton. I've always loved that song, even if I haven't listened to it for years, and suddenly it just all came together to make this very horrible and real sense of what it must be like to be Anton.
Only for the space of the song, of course. Then he went back to being his own mystifying fascinating self and I went back to being an adoring fangirl. And oh, Katy was there. He totally yelled out to her when he couldn't remember how old he was going to be. And she came onto the side of the stage and yelled back that he was going to be forty-one. It was kinda wonderful and got me totally romanticising about how marriage to this nineteen year old Welsh girl may have had a marvellous effect on him.
Or maybe we just got him on a good night.
Much to my astonishment, the darkhaired girl who had been standing on the side of the stage only turned out to be Aimee Nash, former keyboardist with the Morning After Girls. Anton got her to come on and do the vocals for Anemone which she fucked up by missing her cue for the first line --- okay, it is a slightly tricky one --- and screwing up the lyrics. But she did a passable job and I kinda didn't care anyway cos I had the original going loud and strong in my head. Plus Anton sang the last bit with her which was just wonderful.
God, I love that song so much. But I think I infinitely prefer the DiG! US bonus feature performance to all others I've heard/seen. Because Anton sings that entirely and the driving energy of those guitars is just mesmerising. I mean, seriously, I go into a trance every time I watch that performance. Even with the sideburns! Guh.
Frankie did the Icelandic vocals on golden frost which just rocked unfuckingbelievably. Perhaps it was my imagination but it felt like a lot of the crowd were straining to understand just what the hell he was singing. I wasn't. *lol* And Anton was absolutely hysterical when he explained to us what the original lyrics were --- something about give me my money back --- and what Frankie was singing --- computers, computers! --- which was clearly an injoke but totally endearing cos Frankie went with it and ended up telling us about his mother. Hee.
Oh, and we got two new songs, both of which were quite fabulously energetic and rocky. And ohhhhhh man, Anton broke a string at one point --- possibly at the end of the When Jokers Attack wall of sound --- so while the guitar tech was repairing that, he got the rest of the band to start up a loop and then he wandered over to the keyboard, usurped Rob Campanella of the fabulous hair, and they all pretty much created this absolutely wonderful shoegazey psychedelic sitar-y jam that was so awesome to witness. It just happened. One of those classic BJM experiences you always hear about and long to actually witness and there it was, there it happened right in front of us. Oh man oh man. *sighs*
I might email Anton and thank him. Of course that might run the risk of fucking up tomorrow night. Be interesting to see if he's already planned how tomorrow night will go. Cos every time there was a threat of chaos or nastiness erupting, he insisted that "tonight isn't about that." Which makes me think this is his way of making up for the debacle that was the last BJM gig in Sydney and again with the wanting to hug and kiss the man all over his adorable face.
And then the cynical part of me speculates that if tonight was all about the mellow lovefest, tomorrow may well be the shitfight, as planned by our frighteningly intelligent wilfully abrasive juggernaut of creative energy that is Anton Newcombe. God, he's so fascinating. As a character, he is just so fascinating to me. And I love that I got to usher his forty-first birthday in with him, watching him do what he does best, me and him and his wife and a whole roomful of strangers. There are no words for how precious that synchronicity is.
Oddly enough, I took out my phone once to check the time only to find it was precisely midnight. And not long after, Joel said it prolly was Anton's birthday already. That was lovely. Watching the band as constituted thus made me hypothesise as to why Joel brings such a great dimension to BJM. Cos with Joel front and centre being a tambourine whore, perhaps less of the focus and pressure is taken off Anton in his uber-perfectionist uber-sensitive Virgo incarnation. Didn't for me, I barely looked at anyone else. But he did seem a lot more relaxed or a lot more able to handle the performance nerves this time around. Which makes me very glad for him.
Kinda wanted a tshirt to mark the night but didn't have enough money in my wallet so put it off til tomorrow night when argh, I will have to fight my way through the crowd at the Metro merch table. I always hate the Metro merch table, it's so inconveniently placed. There was a BJM logo in Aboriginal art style. I don't think I'll do that one. May get the red one with the dates on the back and I think the My Bloody Underground squiggle art. Yep.
Oh oh, and when he was getting Ricky to talk about his own work, Anton said how Ricky has this special relationship with Australia because he plays with the Killer. Which made me go "whut? Did he just make a reference to Steve Kilbey? Ricky Maymi's playing with Steve Kilbey?! Whut? Did I read that in Kilbey's blog? Whut?" And then Anton explained who Killer was and everyone cheered cos, y'know, Steve Kilbey! Naturally, every person in that crowd would know who Steve Kilbey is. Even if my entire writing group has no FREAKING IDEA! *grinds teeth* But, as Moustache says to Jackie and Shirley, that's another story.
And then Anton went on this whole meandering tangent about how Steve Kilbey raises his kids and what his daughters are like --- one movie star and one athlete --- and how he has two sets of twins --- "think about it" --- and how he saves them from sharks at Bondi Beach. Hee. Silly man.
Another example of silliness: "Fuck seize the day, I say Rule The Night! Hey, has anyone studied Latin? How do you say Rule The Night in Latin?"
Oh Anton, I adore the way your mind works. And I wish I knew.
NO TRIPLE DENIM!! I was so shocked. And then rather impressed cos I'm sure by now this must be Katy's doing. No, he had on that ratty denim jacket with the sprayed text on the back. But it was a tan shirt underneath and jeans. Ohhhhhhh ... now I kinda miss the triple denim. And the beads, the bare chest with the beads. Awwww ... but at least he kept warm. Hee.
It wasn't the best musical performance, by all means. There was a few sound glitches and yeah, I did have that realisation that a lot of BJM songs have very similar sounds and structure. But none of that mattered. Cos even though tonight was mostly about the music and the fact that they played and played well, it was sort of greater than the music. It was about the relationship between band and audience, a healing of the horror that was the last time, this was reminding us why we love this band, and what they can give us. It wasn't as transcendant as that Spiritualized gig or that Laurie Anderson performance. It didn't have to be.
But oh, even though the aesthetic was quite low key just with a bit of coloured light, there suddenly appeared a psychedelic swirly thing on the back wall. Gawwwwwwwwwwwwww, that was so nice ...
I wondered what time the Factory was supposed to close, if they had curfew. Automatically, I assumed it was midnight. Well, they played past midnight. At least to a quarter to one. Because when they finally finished and Joel refused to leave the stage cos he was still with the shaking of the tambourine while Anton noodled away on the droney feedback thingiebob, I waited til Anton went through the back curtains before I left. And the security dude on the door said they had played an hour past their allotted time which just made me beam at him. Yep, that's our BJM boys, always flipping the man the finger. As Joel said, "we're gonna play until the power cuts out! I'm not leaving!"
Ahhh, don't you love rock and roll? Hee.
And on the way back, I passed the Anno all tidily shut and silent, and it was a total shock to remember that Mess Hall performed there tonight. I hope it was a bloody awesome gig. Oh boys. *sends good vibes*
And yep, totally warrants a change of the LJ header.