In review: A weekend of Sydney ska and reggae
July 2nd 2007 06:38
It has been a pretty hectic last four days with Melbourne band The Beefeaters in town. I'll have some pics tomorrow hopefully, but for today, a few reflections...
The boys arrived on my doorstep at around 6:30 pm on Thursday. It was going to be tight fitting 8 people in the house for four nights, but they are young and happy to sleep anywhere. I wish I had the same attitude. Night one was not a gig night, so we headed off to the Duke on Enmore Rd for a feed and a few beers. An attempt by one member to get into the Townhall using an ID showing he was still 17 led to some laughs and a splitting of the group as some of us decided the Carlisle was an easier option. The drinking continued well into the night with our flatmate Sara entertaining the youth with tales of the good ol' days.
On Friday, after we surfaced, the record shops were hit. A few Newtown shops will be happy to have gotten rid of a decent amount of their ska and mod. (Plug: Kiwi punk Affy has opened up a shop called Stikki Records. It's down the bottom end of King St and is well worth supporting). Before gig time we went and had dinner at the Lansdowne, which is cheap, but also nasty and probably not worth the effort, though some will disagree.
We got to the Lansdowne nice and early and while it looked as though it would be dead early, there was a good crowd when we went on around 845. It was our fill-in drummer James' first gig, and he did a great job despite only 2 practices under his belt. The Beefeaters went on next and the nature of the Sando meant they started playing to a small crowd, but it soon swelled and by mid set they had the floor shaking from all dancers. It has been a while since such a young enthusiastic ska group were seen in Sydney. Excellent! Calls for one more were accepted and they came off a very happy mob. Although they are only playing covers, they really were on the mark and with a couple of new members they have improved immensely since we saw them in Melbourne in February. The last band of the night were The Elephant Gods and although good and new they probably don't fit into a ska lineup. Nonetheless, it was a great gig.
Drinking once again continued into the night back at the house.
Tomorrow - Saturday, Sunday and photos!
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