Elizabeth November 3rd, 2008
It’s been a really big 24 hours, but lots of fun. Here in Melbourne we have the day off for The Melbourne Cup tomorrow, and many employers seem to give people the Monday off as well. Tim and I were both lucky enough to have a four day weekend, and it has been complete and utter bliss. As a result, I’ve been in Saturday mode all day!
Last night we headed to The Corner to see one of Tim’s all-time favourite bands, Streetlight Manifesto. I’ve been listening to them for a couple of years as well, ever since he included a bunch of their tracks on some mix cds he made me. Last night’s show was incredible, mainly due to the energy and the speed and the accuracy of the notes from the horn section. Awesome stuff.
They told the audience that their music is hard to find here, because their record label hates them and they hate them right back. So they suggested that everybody get on bittorrent and give their album to all their friends.
In the spirit of that, I thought I’d share a couple of tracks. It’s fun and fast ska, with the odd mellow moment. The lead singer has an awesome voice, the trumpet player is dead on each note, and the lyrics are clever. Locals who like The Cat Empire will probably like Streetlight Manifesto too.
(My connection keeps resetting this as I write, so check back here for these tracks. Update: I’ll be trying this again tomorrow as my piece of shit modem is a massive piece of shit today.)
Streetlight Manifesto – Point / Counterpoint
Streetlight Manifesto – A Moment of Silence
The icing on the cake was the Dan Potthast, whose songs were introduced to me around the same time as Streetlight’s. He’s pretty much the most fun you can have with a man and an acoustic guitar. He rocked the stage as though he was a band of five people, won the admiration of his hecklers, and blew us all away with his awesomeness. His backstories were 3 times as long as his songs, and that was cool too. I am now an enormous fan.
Dan Potthast – KKK Hiway (mp3 to come soon, see above re piece-of-shit modem.)
We stumbled home around midnight, and woke up with a grin when we realised that today was Monday and we didn’t have to go to work! After a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, we bummed around the house a little and headed into the city. My brother is in town for a few days and so we spent the afternoon shopping and walking around.
We stopped at one of our favourite places to eat, Shanghai Dumpling House, and ordered a ridiculous amount of food for three people. We didn’t get through it all, but the bill still only came to $15. If the price isn’t enough to get you excited, maybe you should just come for the Asian covers of golden oldie tracks. If you’re lucky the cd will skip several times throughout your meal and it will sound like a remix.
God, I love that place.
After a little more shopping we headed to Laurent, an incredible patisserie that my brother discovered before I did! We were stuffed from lunch, but managed to fit in room for coffee and a dessert.
Afterwards we went on a mission to find a new bar that my brother had heard of – Silk Road on Collins St. It is the most tastefully opulent bars you could ever hope to see, and the wine list is spectacular. One of the staff gave us a tour of the place (including the cognac room, the sake bar and the wine room) and pointed out the oil reproductions of famous Italian artworks on the ceiling. The chandeliers gracefully changed colour in synchronisation with the other lighting in the venue, the couches were divine and we found ourselves unable to stop at just the one cocktail. In fact, I counted three each before we decided to depart!
We’re bringing our parents back to this place on Christmas Eve, on the occasion of us all being in town together at the same time. Can’t wait, and I intend to sample some of their food next time as well.
Today’s link: 10 Ways to Eat More Bacon. Would anyone think less of me if I confessed that I would totally try bacon & egg icecream? (Better keep that to myself just in case.)
