Oh dear – what was planned as a busy busy Friday night and Saturday morning only 50% eventuated. This blog is a little bit of a rant. Sorry in advance!
Nerves had set in all day about the Collingwood game, so Kevin Devine was going to be a good excuse to get my mind off it.
I had contacted the Bowery Ballroom a couple of weeks ago to find out when he started and they said that is only normally something that is known on the day. Then last week, after seeing Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine (you can read Bill’s review here) and he came on at 8.45ish – I figured that was normal gig time for here. Bill and I were home by 10.30 that night – so I thought that would be perfect as I knew I wanted to be home by 10.30ish so I could get ready to catch the game and take in the pre-match entertainment. Thankfully, Berry checked earlier and emailed us saying he wasn’t coming on until sometime after… TEN! ARGH! This is very much a pet peeve for me – the worst was when I saw Diesel (oh how I miss him!) at the Esplanade. After getting there at 7.30, he came on after 11. Everyone was less than impressed that night and I ended up having to drive Harlan home an hour out of my way because public transport had finished by the time the show finished!
Basically, I think it is THOR (the height of rudeness) to not respect the time of the people seeing your show. This isn’t Kevin Devine’s fault of course… it is the doors at 7 on the tickets policy that is wrong and that so many venues use to get people there early to buy drinks. If I had known when I purchased the ticket that it was going to be at that time, I would not have bought it knowing that I was always going to have to catch the game. To me, it is just a common courtesy. As a non-drinker I have no interest in (and have better things to do!) than standing on the floor for three and a half hours with a glass of coke in hand, not being able to converse properly with others anyway because the pre-gig-cd-on-rotation-from-the-sound-deck music is so loud or ridiculous.
Then… the support acts. Out of all of the gigs I have been to, there have only been two… yes TWO where the support acts were actually decent and memorable. This was the Badloves at the Continental when Leonardo’s Bride was the support and Diesel last year when Lowrider were the support. So basically, I’ll listen to a support act if I have to but more often than not it is a hurry-up-and-get-off-the-stage feeling.
NOW.. so straight away it was a no-brainer. I was going to skip the gig. The Australian was now also off the agenda as Bill has been fighting a flu-y/cold/cough thing all week and so I settled in watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees before we would settle in and listen to the broadcast of Collingwood Vs Essendon.
As a surprise, mum gave me a call from my seat and I also got to chat to Sandra! So awesome!
With Bill being sick, he fell asleep right at the point where we kicked the 2 goals in the first two minutes as I listened to the game unfold. The rest of it we don’t have to talk about other than the fact we lost the game in the last 30 seconds. I was so mental I woke Bill up with my talking to the broadcast and with another surprise phone call from mum as her and dad were on the train on the way home, that made the loss just a little bit more bearable. Especially when dad shouted out to everyone on the train “Hey, I’m talking to my daughter.. IN NEW YORKKKKKK!!” and the train filled with “HELLLLOOOO NEW YORK!!” shouts. Classic Connex Moment.
With all this going on, before I knew it, it was 4am. I had the alarm set for 5am to get down to Battery Park for the ANZAC commemoration. I remember hearing 1010WINS talk about it being 4.15am or so. Then I drifted off into a deep sleep. So deep, I must have turned my alarm off IN MY SLEEP. The next thing I know, it was 8am and I woke up with a fright.
I feel bad. Very bad. Mum said to me on the train “Nellie are you really going to get up and go?” and I had replied “Mum – if Pop Cleary could go through what he did all those years ago, I can get up at 5am.”
He’d probably understand because he would’ve hated knowing Essendon won the way they did too – but gosh I still feel awful.
So in the end – a very very forgettable evening. Now I have got that out of my system, I’m going to make this weekend feel like a weekend with lots of reading, fun housework and more family history stuff. BLISS!