Powderfinger concert

Powderfinger are touring Australia on their "Sunset" tour, they're last before they hang up their hats as a collective band after 20 years or so. I've enjoyed their music for years, can't exactly say why, but that doesn't matter. Now it's sad there'll be no more new songs from them, which makes this tour all the more special.

Although tickets went on sale for this concert months ago, it was only on Thursday that good fortune shone on me via Andrea, whose friends Lawrence and Gill had 2 extra tickets to Friday's concert. It seemed too good to be true, since Friday was also my birthday and this would be fantastic way to celebrate it. So as quickly as Andrea asked if I'd like to go I said yes, and we changed our plans to attend Rod Laver Arena for a live concert...my first one in many years.

On Friday we met at Southbank for a nice dinner then headed along the Yarra river, over the Swan St bridge alongside lots of people heading either to the concert or the AFL finals match being played at the MCG, only a few hundres metres away. We met Lawrence and Gill outside, got our tickets and headed in.

I'm more used to going to the tennis centre for it's primary purpose, tennis, so this was unusual in not having to keep quiet, wait for a break in play to move around, and seeing part of the court covered in stage and about 25% of seats being blocked out (behind the stage). There was also a haze of "smoke" in the air, or whatever it is they pump out to create that atmosphere.

Finding our seats took us up and up, to the second to row - nosebleed seats - directly behind where the umpire would usually sit. It was a bummer to be so far from the stage, however my fears about whether the sound would travel to us were well and truly put to rest by the support act, "Jet", who are very loud!!!

So after the preamble of "Jet" finished, it was time for main act to come out. They were fantastic!! The impact of the live peformance was amazing, the liberty of the band to extend songs beyond their usual studio length, and the dynamic range of the songs was amazing. To hear favourite songs performed live was a treat - I knew all but one song, and they've been playing through my head ever since.

It was a great part of my birthday, the best one I've had in years with two cakes and some lovely birthday wishes...not the least of which was from Andrea.  :-)

Here's some photos and video snippets from the concert.