polaroids of androids

The Mess Hall + Violent Soho + Talons @ Annandale Hotel - 29/08/2008

I am not sure when The Mess Hall installed The Wanker Magnet into the large robotic hard-rocking machine that powers their fantastic, unique brand of rock BUT it certainly is working well.

Their show on Friday night (which appeared to be a sellout) contained more dickheads and/or "people who don't know how to act in public" EVER assembled in a single place at any one time. In fact, the sheer number of socially retarded humans in attendance was enough to create some sort of super duper worm hole (Sliders?) to a dimension where it's fine for peeps to push forward and block someone's view just so they can make out with their girlfriend and/or cheap(ish) hooker.

Ok, I am whining right? I guess it is kinda stupid of me to think I can venture 'outdoors', attend a show at a bar and NOT be continually barraged by people who are all trying to 'enjoy' the night more than everyone else in some sort of strange drunk battle royale.

I know what you are thinking - "you are old" and "you have forgotten how to have fun" and "what's going on with your hair?" and "surely, there were only a handful of people who ruined your experience". Well, if there were only a couple of fuckwits 'music lovers' at the show then they were continually following me around for a large portion of the night and at any moment where I relaxed and/or starting to enjoy the show they quickly stepped in and crushed my happiness with a slobbering bump or a well-aimed spillage of beer.

The complete insanity of the whole thing peaked when a friend of mine who was politely enjoying the show (we were towards the back of the main room) was harassed by a girl (drunk beyond belief) who thought it would be a great idea to start pulling on the hood of his jumper. Sure, that was bad (and strange) enough BUT then she stepped it up a level and became incredibly hostile/explosive/offended when my friend politely asked requested that she stop doing this. She then moved to PHASE TWO of her 'plan' and proceeded to 'drunk grind' his back and make faces at him while her boyfriend tried relentlessly to get her to act like a normal person. It created an awkward and tense feeling - distracting all those around us from the band's performance.

This girl was hardly in the minority though and The Mess Hall's performance seemed to be railroaded by the fact the crowd were far more interested in 'get their drink on' than seeing them perform with the duo receiving only luke warm responses to the majority of the songs performed.

The support bands didn't get too much of a reaction or love from the large crowd either. Talons - who had their set mysteriously cut short by FOUR songs - unleashed a whole load of new songs and both them and Brisbane's Violent Soho (who have synchronised head-banging down to a fine art) played incredibly entertaining sets yet were only met with polite acknowledgement.

Out of everyone on the night I think I felt most sorry for The Mess Hall though. The show would have landed them a fairly large pay cheque (tickets were around $20 and as mentioned it was fairly packed out) but it's highly likely that many folks had a similar negative experience as myself and will forever associate the group with the type of people they now seem to attract. As enjoyable as they are as a live act, my experience last Friday night was so bad that I doubt I will ever make an effort to go and see them again.