The absence of TISM may have had something to do with it. I still regard their last show in Brisbane in 2004 as being the best live performance of a band I have ever seen. The Arena no longer exists. It's now an RnB club. I think because it was a fire hazard. The Queen Street Mall has been done up, yet I still consider the Valley Mall to be a complete shithole. This brings me to my next topic.
I currently play bass in a Jazz trio called Blood Orange Juice. We have a semi-regular gig at a bar in the Valley Mall called Not Quite 299. Just downhill from Club 299. It used to be a burlesque bar but now it's a fledgeling place for small bands. Yes now small bands can whore themselves for fuck all on a tiny stage below a trapeze. How fucking rock-tabulous is that? Just a hint, if you're gonna use the bathroom there, you can rely on the soap dispenser working, but not the taps. Your best bet is to try the leaking pipe outside the bathroom. You'll be happy you made the right choice of money-sucking-soul-crushing-hobby.
A year and a half ago I went to Japan and South Korea for a month. Some of the highlights:
- Seeing Mt. Fuji and getting there via five trains
- Getting invited to see a "sexy show" at the red light district in Tokyo
- Arriving in Seoul the day after Korea's number 1 treasure Namdaemun burnt down
- Having a random Korean family asking me to be in their photo outside said torched gate
- Seeing it snow in Kyoto
- Being looked at by a North Korean guard at the border
- Failing at snowboarding
- Crying everytime I ate kimchi
That'll do for now. If you actually read the whole thing please make a comment telling me why you read the whole thing. Do people still subscribe to this blog?
4 comments:
I don't subscribe to this blog. Why, do you think I should?
Hey, what type of bands (genre-wise) pay at Not Quite 299? Got a band together and we're looking for places to whore for fuck all. Hah.
bob dylan plays there, but he had to change his name to phil smith. he's rather good.
Craig, hi, Craig listen, I found your attempt at capturing the banality of rockstardom quaint, but everybody knows being a rockstar is incredibly satisfying and fulfilling, so you are not fooling anybody but yourself. Your existential reference to a lonely, empty self seems so out of place and even absurd - oh yeh, ha, just got it - that was really existential man. Surely adoration from strangers for reasons grounded in nothing substantial must be so great, so much fun. I find so many bands out there original: especially TISM as they never draw any of their ideas from other sources or thinkers.
So, where is Bar299 anyway? Do they have beer on tap?
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