check out the photos of the gig

STELLAR ONE ELEVEN:

were good. can't remember the set list. i spent the whole set watching the bass player, just because the lead singer was directly above me and i didn't fancy having a stiff neck for the rest of the night. so later i find out that the bass player is pat hayes (brother to bernie hayes, singer-songwriter extrordinare, and stevie plunder - original whitlam). but do you think i can remember what he looked like?? no!! they finished with a cover of a song that they said we may have heard in 1984 - we laughed.

BLUE RODEO:

before blue rodeo came on a group of pissed people under tim's piano started aussie-oi-ing. ????? needless to say they were quite disruptive, interupting the songs to find out everyone's names so they could jim-oi and james-oi.

i'd heard a bit about blue rodeo - mostly that they were kind of country, but pretty good. tim said they were canada's midnight oil. well, i don't like midnight oil, either :) the first few songs were listenable, float i liked. one of them - possibly rage or 5 days - is _really_ country. the second half of the set jim's guitaring was very country, and he was pretty much line dancing to himself in the small space on the stage. they were ok at the start, but then got a bit.. i don't know, it just seemed a little wrong after stella one eleven. And greg - our part of the crowd thought his gum chewing, his beer-gut hanging out the bottom of his t-shirt and his apparent lack of enthusiasm were not the sort of thing you pay good money to see. james - interesting. while his keyboard parts may not be anything special (actually they're shit, and add absolutely nothing to the songs, but that's just what i think), you can't say he doesn't enjoy himself!! ok, so they weren't that bad - at the beginning, anyway.

i got the set list, too :)

THE WHITLAMS:

the whitlams. the whitlams are my current obsession. i think it's the whole piano band thing, i dunno. so you can imagine my dissapointment at discovering that although the front of the stage might be a good spot for closeups, it's not too easy to hear the keyboards when you're standing directly in front of the guitarist's amp. basically i could only hear ben and terepai all night.

potentially embarrassing moment early on when terepai was out soundchecking his drums and the chic behind me wanted me to go through everyone's names. no, she didn't understand 'terepai', so i had to say it several times rather loudly, and even spell it. i hope he didn't hear me!!

started with aphro, then apologised for the band being so loose as they hadn't played for a few days.

before where is she tim told of their upcoming tv series - switching wives, whereby terepai and tim whisk the husband away while ben and warwick send the wife of to LA for $10,000 worth of plastic surgery.

end of your world was introduced with a short speach about stevie. tim started singing, and the pissed f$%kwits started singing, loudly. tim stopped, and said 'we'll try this again'. again they joined in, so he resigned himself to the fact that some people just have no respect whatsoever for those they claim to be such huge fans of.

the curse was obviously preceded by another stevie/andy moment. there were a few people talking and cheering through it. it was sooooo sad. not as good as i was expecting, having read the lyrics already, but still very moving. and no, i didn't cry. just nearly in the 'i am the last one' part. the rest of the band left the stage for that, and came on for the two charlie's, which was good. i thought i get high was also pretty sad - he leaves out stevie's verse and stevie's lines from the last verse.

the first encore they did as scheduled, beginning with floor, introd with 'here's a slow one to start us off - let's see if you can shut up for a few minutes.' the second encore they started with laugh, then dropped charlie #1 and made me hard, and finished with a crowd request (chunky).

at one stage tim looked at us and said 'you're all at the front of the stage, you think you've got the best spot. yeah, well you can't get out for a drink. the people up the back, they've got the best spot.' and proceeded to tell us how stupid we are. he then said that it's probably not a good idea to pick a fight with the thirty people closest to you, but offered to take us on anyway

OVERALL: whitlams weren't that good due to sound problems - not their problems, just where i'd elected to stand. blue rodeo were shit, the few pissed people ruined it for everyone. stellar one eleven were good, though, and eh, i enjoyed it.

for more, see the photos page

set lists:

stellar one eleven

blue rodeo

the whitlams

come around		no aphrodisiac
don't say		time
3 nights		louis?
Mr big car		melbourne
hard night		gough?
roddy		i make hamburgers
		i get high?
* thanx to ans		where is she?
for the set list :)		end of your world
		met my match
		the curse
		charlie # 2
		charlie # 3
		blow up the pokies
		???
		following my own tracks
		scheduled encore:
		her floor is my ceiling
		???
		charlie # 1
		made me hard
		laugh in their faces
		what they played as encore:
		floor
		laugh
		chunky chunky air guitar
		* set list thanx to memory and photo