Going on a five-month sabbatical to the other side of the world doesn’t mean I can just abandon my post as a writer for the heavenly scripture that is Two Beats Off! – so I am taking it upon myself to write home about Things That Rock Here, in fairly regular installations.
(Now, by no means am I here because I am rich; I’m just lucky that an unnamed acquaintance gave me the airmiles for a return ticket. To be honest, if it weren’t for the fact that my girlfriend lives here, I probably would never have visited. As it stands, here I am!)
I’m living in Melbourne until mid-April, and I have to say, I’m very stoked about it. Melbourne is awesome.
The scene here is wicked. And so far, I can say only rivalled by Wollongong, some 500 miles up the coast in New South Wales and has a ridiculously cool handful of bands that remind me why I love punk rock. Saying that, Melbourne is home to some fantastic musicians and some lovely venues. (I’ll write about the venues soon, but there are still a good few I haven’t been to yet and just need an excuse to check out.) That’s not to say every band here is awesome because some of them are kind of awful, but I guess it’s the same everywhere you go. However, my girlfriend insists this lot are fine:
Yidcore
Local Resident Failure
Subject To Change
Commissioner Gordon
There’s so much more to this city – to this country – but there’s a lot of time ahead and a lot more fun to be had, so keep yourselves busy with this for now!
~sfx