well i’m on my way…

In case you were wondering, I still have not been bitten by bedbugs. 

Before I go into Ani and her amazingness, I need to give some credit where credit’s due.  The venue, The Fremantel Arts Centre, is a beautiful old stone building.  The grounds are very shady and well kept.  The actual show was held outside the building, with no arranged seating-all general admission!  Mama Kin was the opening act, and she was good.  Very good.  Her act consists of her singing and banging on drums a bit and her brother on the keys.  He just kept on smiling, in a creepy but friendly kind of way.  This woman had a voice on her-her songs were a little bluesy and fun.  I purchased her album they were selling at the show.  The Waifs-the headliner-were awesome.  I have been trying to figure out who to compare them to.  I can’t.  Their fans reminded me of the crowd at an OAR concert-ranging from young to old, and from dreadlocked hippies to preppy college students.  The one disappointing thing about them was that their shows both nights were the exact same.  If I was a fan I would have been thuroughly disappointed, but since I liked them, I was a little glad because I could learn the words to the songs…

There was one thing I noticed different between the concert going experience in America to the experience in Australia.  Usually, at every concert I go to in the States, there’s a certain smell wafting through the crowd at some point during the show, if not all of it.  It was nonexistant here, which I found strange, because the crowd was very similar to the crowd I would ecounter at home…

Now: Ani was amazing as usual.  Here’s her set list for the first night:  Little Plastic Castle, November 4, Present/Infant, 78% Water, Napoleon, Gravel, My IQ, new song?, Swan Dive, Fire Door, new wedding song, Alla This, As Is, Smiling Underneath, Evolve, and Both Hands.  She had just arrived in Australia 2 days proir to the show, her daughter turned 2 the day Obama was sworn in (she claimed that was the best birthday present her daughter could get), and her and her “babydaddy” got married in Hawaii on the way over here.  Yay Ani! 

The next day in Freo I walked around, falling more in love with the town.  I realized that on weekends is when Fremantle really wakes up.  There were so many people on the streets!  I decided to treat myself to lunch-the most expensive meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Australia- a whopping $26!  Little Creatures, the brewery in Fremantle, and arguably the best beer in Australia, has great beer and even better food!  I ordered the mushroom and avacado open-faced sandwich-which meant only one piece of bread and makes it easier for me to describe it to you:  the toasty bread on the bottom was smothered in mayo and olive oil.  A few pieces of romaine lettuce were delicately placed on top of that, then some slices of tomato, meaty-ass mushroom, and avacado were piled above that.  It was finished off with a drizzle of pesto on top.  Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  The sandwich came with fries, or chips, however you want to call it, which I’ve heard are the best in Perth.  They were good, but if they’re the best in Perth, I won’t even bother eating any other ones.  I was quite buzzed after one beer so I sat in the park across from the restaurant afterwards, loving life, and loving Fremantle more.  I decided to stay out the weekend here.  Why leave?   

The second night Ani looked much better than she had the first night (though I’m not saying she looked bad).  She was a lot more energetic as well.  Set list for this night was as follows:  Fuel, Half-Assed, Manhole, Present/Infant, Nov 4, Paradigm, Alla This, Swim, Way Tight, Names and Dates and Times, Smiling Underneath, Here for Now, Untouchable Face, Shameless, Both Hands, and Overlap.  The energy that night was so much stronger-most likely due to the fact that this night’s show was sold out.  I was a little disapointed to hear some of the same songs from the night before, but it’s how it is.  A performer has to give the audience what they want to hear…I haven’t really felt too emotional about the Obama thing-in the entirety of the campaign, when he was elected, or when he was sworn in.  Until this night.  Ani told us how she and her husband woke up all early on election day to vote-got there early, and there was a line out the door-of people of all ages, shapes, and colors.  It made her proud to be American (for the first time in a while).  After she found out he won, she wrote this November 4 song.  Everyone in the crowd Thursday night recieved it well and sang “Yes we can” with Ani as part of the chant in the middle of the song.  I got a little choked up.  Even the Aussies were all excited about Obama.  And that, to me, is encouraging.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.