Luved Sydney majorly as it was totally tops and cool as in sweet and nuts as in funny, and hot, especially Saturday when we took the ferry to Manly and came back a bit pink after a long walk on the corso and a school of fish and chips.
Bel was the host with the most and the toast.
We hit gigs both nights and De Campi and I noticed how decent the crowds were. In Melbourne the pretentiousness can at times be positively gag-worthy. Not in Sydney, good people, a polite and rather swell bunch. De Campo thought they were dorky.
'Pretty destroyed' are the first words uttered on Richard Buckner’s newest album Meadow and it kind of summed up his feelings also. When the three of us arrived at The Basement on Friday night, this absolute rustic wonder of a place, we spotted RB in the smoking section, mood ebullient, burning cigarettes down to his fingers, telling anecdotes with a stoned vigour.
Sadly his chatter was spent when he took the stage treating the audience like we weren’t even there and that’s not very nice, retreating into himself like a freaking terrapin. The way he played his songs, as one elongated growling organism, deluded the set, for Richard he be no Fiery Furnace. Olivia later said Bucky was lameo but tears we’re gushing from her ducts when he played certain songs, so what the heck. I probably enjoyed Buck’s set more than my companions (“If Lurch were a minstrel,” zinged the Mistress) but I doubt I’ll put on another one of his records for a little while and that’s no good plus I must say the slow-roasted mushrooms in the meal were the best part and I don’t even consider myself a friend of the fungi.
Met support act Edith Frost, the gel who made Bel reach for her imaginary revolver, in the smoking section afterwards. Edith lives outside Frisco in Hitchcock territory, but she didn’t know that.
The site of a steely-eyed Stan Grant (CNN anchor) front and centre was a bit unnerving at first. The mistress and D made a big deal about how loud he uttered the word trout, which is pretty funny when you think about it. “He really is very handsome,” the mistress said the next morning over coffee and the two of us nearly choked on our seeded toast.
Before Wilco and after Manly, we had a Thai meal next to the open window next to the sidewalk opposite the Enmore Theatre and a nice bottle of Sav with it and life never seemed so good. Wilco were really patchy, I think they may have misplaced their edge, or singer Jeff left it at the rehab clinic, the venue was superb however and they played ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’, so I left feeling pretty damn happy.
6 comments:
It was the fact that sg was clearly relating a fishing tale to his mates and our only hearing the punchline that tickled my fancy and the hand gestures he was using to describe the size of the fish. It was very Jack Thompson in the advertisements for Clayton's.
I was taken by how you and Stan had synchronised your gumsmacking later in the evening. It was a real Burt reynolds/Sally Field moment
But there was no roast?
That's all I'm interested in really.
Yr sounding vastly undernourished. Are your parents feeding you properly?
Well our table did a very good impression of a dean martin celebrity roast in its appraisal of guests and performers. However if you are talking about fare, we had char-grilled steak which was very tasty.
They're feeding me reasonably properly.
No roast though.
No char-grilled steak.
I did have cutlets tonight.
They were quite good.
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