In July 1990, I saw Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown. Later that year (August 31 to be precise) I saw Depeche Mode on their first (and still only?) Australian tour. That was at the Hordern Pavilion.
The best was yet to come. May 12, 1992, I saw Nick Cave again at the Hordern. I went with a girl named Caraid, who I barely knew. I think she was smitten with me. I didn’t care – I was just there to see Nick Cave 🙂
Or maybe it was Sue, and I went to DM with Cara? I can hardly remember… it’s been 20 years!
Anyway that second Cave show was an amazing concert. I was seated to the side of the stage, fairly close, but unusually at an angle where we could see into these raised viewing boxes just above and behind the stage. The support act was The Beasts Of Bourbon, and I vividly recall seeing Nick himself in one of those viewing boxes dancing with a baby in his arms as Tex Perkins belted out an amazing cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. What a show!
I used to go and see all sorts of bands all the time in Newcastle. It was something I enjoyed and was used to. Even little amateur bands were fun to watch. The big ones that I idolized were magic, but of course they never (or rarely) came to Newcastle. I did see quite a few Australian bands though. I’m pretty pleased that – even if I may have not appreciated it at the time – I saw INXS once at a free Australia Day concert. I saw a few other bands I wasn’t really a fan of, such as They Might Be Giants and Einsturzende Neubauten (a one-off gig that occurred when Nick Cave was touring Australia in prhaps ’91). That last one I remember as being a bit scary…
Then in America it all stopped. I remember once thinking that here in the states you could just go and see any band whenever you wanted (which was novel since few international bands ever toured Australia in those days) but the opposite seemed to be true. Of course bands would play NYC here and there, but over the years I can count the number of concerts I considered attending on maybe one hand.
I’d like to see Rammstein one day. But I bet I never will 🙂
You can see Rammstein April 28th, they are playing in NY.
IIRC… Saw Mode at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1994 on their Devotional Tour. Sent you the ticket stub and a rough report/setlist (possibly as a real letter and not an email). Bought one of the band-shot T-shirts and wore it into oblivion.
Stadium gigs are great, but little bands in little venues are better.
I’ve still got that ticket stub!