My sister Ellen on the left, Tali White in the middle

The Lucksmiths played their last ever Brisbane gig later tonight*. Hope you enjoyed it Elle.

*grammar problems caused by the international date line

CFTPA in a red jacket

The rest of the evening in dotpoints:
- when we got there shortly after the opening time of 9pm the guy taking the money at the door had no change (the tickets were $7 each). But thankfully after about 4 minutes of standing in the entrance someone turned up with some.
- the gallery had lots of wacky art on the wall, including what seemed to be a painting of a woman in sexual congress with a swordfish.
- the first act (later revealed to be the brother of the main act) played one 20 minute song; lyricless, just a wall of ambient electronic sound. Not really my style.
- By the time CFTPA started his set, the crowd had swelled to about 30 people. But what they lacked in number they made up for in large glasses and ironic t-shirts.
- Casiotone informed us that he had had a migraine that day but would solidier on. He did give a fairly sedate set so perhaps it affected him a little.
- The set was split between songs off the new album and crowd requests for old stuff. The crowd managed to create a somewhat embarrassing situation by requesting about four songs that have almost exactly the same tune and drum machine backing, just different lyrics.
- When Hot Boys was requested, it was explained (possibly jokingly) that playing that song would be a copyright violation.
- Some song characters were switched around: Holly Hobby and Bobby Malone became Hobby Bobby and Holly Malone respectively. You’d probably go mad singing the same lyrics every day for a month so fair enough.
-When Love Connection was requested, Owen said that the new deal with that song was that he would play it but only if someone else would sing it. So two young girls sitting down the front got up on stage. They were passable singers but I was just impressed that they remembered the lyrics.
- The gig ended at about 11:00, no encore. Just how I like it – short and sweet.

Me: Notices student. Thinks: “What would be weirder? Talking to him now or making a comment about it in class on Monday…”
Him: Notices me. “Hey man.”
Me: “Hey. What’s up?”
Him: “You excited to see the spree tonight?”
Me: “Yeah, I haven’t seen them before. It should be good”
Me: “So what did you think of the first band?”
Him: “They played well, but they’re not really the kind of music I like.”
Me: “Yeah. I thought their lead singer was a jerk.”
(Silence)
Him: “So, what’s this test gonna be like on Tuesday? Hard?”
Me: “A little less difficult than the last one I think. But not by much.”
Him: “It’s mainly review for me this course – I took calculus last year.”
Me: “Yeah. It’s an interesting course in that most people who take it have already taken an equivalent course. But it’s taught at a fairly high level – if you pass it then you do really know how to do college algebra.”
Him: “Yeah. You teach good… well.”
Me: “Oh. Thanks.”
(Silence)
Him: “I’m gonna go back and hang with my buds now.”
Me: “Alright. See ya.”

After the concert I run into him on the way out.

Both of us: “That was fucking awesome.”

Bob is a one man blues rock band: as he puts it “my right foot plays drums, my left foot cymbals, my hands play the guitar and the helmet does most of the talking”. He wears a full motorcycle helmet with a telephone installed as a microphone.

As usual one of the highlights was “boobscotch” where an audience member stirred a scotch on the rocks with her boob.

Plush is a decent intimate venue – maybe twice as wide as the troubadour and about as deep. It was packed last night and pretty sweaty. There was also a bit of aggro in the crowd – a lot of jumping around and some crowd surfing. Time will tell if that is a cultural difference or just Bob Log’s fans.

Other venues I’ll have to check out:

• Rialto Theatre
• Club Congress