Name that band

Everyday I ride the bus past the Enmore Theatre which is one of Sydney’s most frequently used music venues (for a while I lived in the laneway behind it and would often see many a rock star stumbling by my front fence). Anyhow, every time I’m coming home and there’s a gig on, I like to play a game called ‘name that band.’

‘Name that band’ is a simple prposition. You often see the audience for a concert milling around Enmore Road before you actually see the sign on the venue so the challenge is to guess the band before you see their name based on their fans. For example, a bunch of older ladies and gentleman in carefully worn rock gear a few weeks ago was obviously for the Pretenders/Blondie double bill. The hardest crowd I ever tried to pick was for wanker guitarist Steve Vai – who were these pudgy middle aged men in Fender t-shirts? The kiddie punk bands are harder to pick because kiddie punk fans only seem to come in one variety – lame.

The last few days have been interesting as on Monday there was a double bill of Primus and the Melvins. That crowd was mainly pony tailed, bearded freaks who I can only imagine love Les Claypool because I tend to find Primus albums are just one big long bass solo. The rest of the crowd was made up of shaggy haired rockers in flannel who I presume were there for the Melvins. Last night was a Social Distortion/the Bronx double bill which I picked straight away with all the rockabilly/punk clichés walking around. There were the older folks with their slicked back hair and wallet chains swapping cigarettes with the younger Bronx punkers.

The sad thing about all this is that tonight Queens of the Stone Age are playing and for the first time since 2001, I going to miss out on getting to see them. Tickets went fast and I wasn’t able to get one. I’m not really up for loitering around the front of the theatre asking for spares so I’m just letting it slide. I have seen them thirteen times but they are my favourite band so I’m feeling a bit flat today. So tonight I will sadly look at the crowd as the bus goes by and ‘name that band’ will be easy. The fans on the street will be my brothers and sisters – they are my people tonight.