Thursday, 14 March 2013
Brisbane
With the only definite items on the itinerary between breakfast and Bruce being a check in at the Rothbury and Madam's visit to Teachers Union Health there wasn't a great deal of urgency in the morning, and I wandered out of the spare room around seven, looking to check the email.
Given the fact that it was announced a while after the rest of the tour dates, and well after I'd finalized the travel arrangements I was never a likely starter for The Plenary, but I'd had a certain amount of enjoyment riffing on the theme that I could have flown on to Melbourne yesterday afternoon, caught last night's show, zoomed back to Brisbane for Bruce, down to Melbourne again on Friday, back north on Saturday and off to Sydney for Bruce on Sunday.
From the moment I glanced at the inbox this morning that could have was replaced by should have, and should have has been the continuing theme through the day.
"But Hughesy," someone commented over breakfast, "all that travelling would have killed you.
"Doesn't matter," was my reply. "I'd have died happy."
The reason? Last night's show at The Plenary ran to three hours rather than the two hours ten that had been the rule to date and had followed the regular set list down to Cinnamon Girl, after which things went substantially off the rails and, one suspects, the crowd on the rail went totally off.
The reason? Rather than heading into Fuckin' Up and Mr Soul before the conclusion of the main set and the encore, Neil delivered Cortez the Killer, Dangerbird and Barstool Blues before heading into Prisoners of Rock & Roll and Opera Star, turning off to Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) and wrapping up with a Sedan Delivery before Like a Hurricane.
It was, by all accounts, a great show (well, with that set list that's a given) and has been rated by people whose judgement I'd regard as trustworthy as the greatest concert ever played inMelbourne. One hopes there'll be a decent recording appearing somewhere along the line.
In any case, once I'd finished bemoaning my fate and knocked over a couple of slices of toast and Vegemite (need that Vitamin D) there was a leisurely morning once Wo Wo Boy and the Little Tacker had been despatched to school, followed by a substantial yum cha in Sunnybank and a midday train from there to Central, where we set about investigating the finer details of using your Go Card (touch out as you leave the station and touch back on within an hour and it's still part of the same journey).
The short walk to The Rothbury was followed by the regulation check in before a chance remark about free WiFi produced a suggestion that an upgrade might be possible. As it turned out it was, though it'll be interesting to see whether there's any additional cost involved.
Having checked out the one bedroom apartment we headed off to Fortitude Valley, wandered over to TUH and I spent the next couple of hours getting the email under control and trapping out the travelogue, which is, as I tap away at 2:38 on Thursday afternoon, pretty much up to date.
Having had a couple of previous trips out to the Entertainment Centre I knew the routine, and was headed off around four-fifteen for the 4:21 service to Shorncliffe, arriving at Boondall around half an hour later and making a beeline for the merch stall as soon as I'd gained admission. I had a fair idea what things would be like closer to show time, and figured the T-shirt purchase needed to be got out of the way a.s.a.p. From there it was off to grab a serve of fish, chips and salad followed by a wander around the venue on the of chance I might run across someone familiar.