I went out to see if I could fall in love again - that was my mistake

I haven't blogged for a while. I know. I haven't even bothered looking at my blog to see if there are comments telling me to get my lazy arse into gear. So here is a new one. And it may be a long one, just because I haven't blogged for a while.

First point of business: I saw Split Enz on monday night (hence the lyrical title). Evermore were the support act, and were pretty darn good. The only song of theirs I knew was 'It's Too Late', but I'm a fan now. My dad joked about booing the support act off - so he hasn't entirely lost his rock and roll roots! But anyway, onto the headliners.

Geez. Awesome doesn't even come close to describing it.

I'm not going to try and gush about how fan-fucking-tastic they were; It'd take me all week. I feel incredibly priveleged to have seen them perform (especially considering that they disbanded 2 years before I was born). It is telling of their collective songwriting talent, especially that of the Brothers Finn, that the songs still sound so fresh and exciting today. It was everything we could've hoped for and more. They came onstage under a shiny silver blanket, revealing typically strange suits (although sadly nothing on Eddie Rayner's red one-shouldered number) and a number of surreal backdrops. It was a long gig, something like 25 or 26 songs over two hours. Neil Finn pulled out Titus and really put Eddie on the spot for the keys solo, which he performed admirably for someone who hadn't played it in years. 'We'll have it down by Perth'. Tim Finn still dances like a maniac, arms and legs everywhere. Eddie and Neil had a frisbee throwing contest, which Neil won convincingly with a throw that soared over the court area of Rod Laver Arena and into the stands on the other side. Noel Crombie showed everyone how it's done with the spoons (and I've decided that's my next instrument). Of course Six Months In A Leaky Boat got the biggest cheer, but my personal favourite was the beautiful Message To My Girl. Strangely, or perhaps not very strangely, I wasn't on my own in the Generation Y stakes. The majority of the crowd were baby boomers but not by much. There were heaps of young adults and kids with their parents (like me), and groups of young 'uns there by themselves, testament to the legacy of Split Enz and perhaps also the Finn brothers.

Second point of business: On tuesday Brendan and I went to JB HiFi to see Bob Evans (AKA Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah) do an instore. Brendan learnt to never let me loose in a record store as I immediately snapped up a copy of the Crowded House promo vids DVD (well it was $11!) as well as the second Bob Evans album, Suburban Songbook. I really like his stuff, which is surprising as you can definitely hear some country influences in his simple acoustic guitar pop, and country's usually lower on my list of preferred music. Maybe part of the reason I like him so much is because he's Kev from the Jebs, and therefore was my reason for existing from the ages of 14-18. Nice bloke too.

Brendan decided he would hide at the back. Because that doesn't make him look strange at all...

Guitar's coming along surprisingly well, both bass and acoustic. I can actually do chord changes (albeit with simple chords like G, A and D major) now, rather than stopping for 5 hours to put my fingers down in the right place. I still can't play a bar chord to save myself, but a few weeks ago I couldn't change chords to save myself, so hopefully that'll come too. I'm wearing deep grooves into my fingertips, or at least that's where the skin hasn't come off yet. Bass is happening slowly too. I just discovered today that I can actually play off a real score when I found the bass part from 'It's Only A Paper Moon' (probably from my sister's short-lived stint as keyboard bassist in the school's stage band). Piano of course is going how it always is. I've got a song that I could probably record and upload any day now but I can't find the damn mp3 player that records things.

Actually that reminds me of something I was thinking when I was watching Tim and Neil Finn jumping around onstage together and bantering on Monday night (at one point Eddie and Neil were pretending to argue and Tim was breaking them up - 'look at everyone else, can't you at least act professional for just one night?!' lol) and wondering what it would be like to be in a band with one of my siblings. Either one of them could feasibly do it. Byron's very fucking coordinated and is good at pretty much anything he lays his hands on, but Kathryn's got the rockstar persona, man! She's 14 and probably more streetwise than I am. Not bad on a piano either, nice little voice and that...now if only we could somehow steal the Finn's songwriting ability, then we could make a go of this.

We were arseing around the living room tonight, walking using the same arm and leg, then tryign to skip, then running (which is really hard) then doing 'jazz runs' and basically cracking each other up. It was quite silly but I haven't laughed like that since God knows how long.

Shit, my wrists hurt. Too much guitar! I'm going into the city tomorrow. I might go have squiz at that bloke who's trying to set a world record for the world's longest DJ set, 100 hours or something. Be interesting to see if he makes it.

-R

(how's that for a post, suckers)