29 January was my birthday. Only my parents had forgotten and buggered off to the coast leaving me to housesit their animals. And my friends were, it seemed, otherwise engaged. In fact the only people who remembered were my girlfriend, my real estate agent, and the dude in Dickson Video Ezy who rented me Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
In any event, on the Saturday night we walked from Dickson into Civic to watch Hashemoto rise from the ashes in the Phoenix.
Randall Blair was doing his thing when we arrived and seats were in short supply. But, as is usual in the Phoenix, patient hovering secured seats close to the stage. We caught a couple of Blair songs and then the legal profession in Canberra’s most accomplished musicians were up.
Due to a complex series of circumstances, involving family commitments and nursing courses in Queensland, the once mighty four piece (who played one of the RA team’s wedding) are now duo with acoustic and electric guitar.
You can cut the numbers down but you can’t take away their extra-ordinary songwriting.
Pottsy and Damo had the precursors to our hearts and minds from the opening bars. With just the two of them playing they took on a Simon and Garfunkel dimension.
Sadly our table had a noisy drunk who was not content to talk across the band but rather over them. Then he inflated a condon which his companions burst. Then he tried to stick the burst condom in my pint. Meeting an alert opponent he stuck it in the pocket of the passed out stoner on a nearby bench as a happy surpise for the next morning.
The exceptional drunk’s noisy antics detracted from enjoying the show. But having been an exceptional drunk many times myself who am I to complain?
In any event it was great to hear some of Canberra’s best songwriters back on a stage. Something to look forward to as we crank up the podcasts for 2006.
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