Saturday, December 03, 2005

Rock 'n' Roll Star

My apologies for taking so long to write this post. I'm just slack.

Last weekend I got to go see my second-favourite band Oasis (only eclipsed in the last year or two by Weezer) live in concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. There's a short story about how I got to be there though. I had thought about buying a ticket for a while, but un the end decided the money would be better spent going to our Holiday/Wedding/House Deposit funds. So I never bought a ticket. On the day of the concert, Kirsten and I went to check out someone else's wedding reception setup at the Inchcolm, do some Christmas shopping, and then go out for dinner at Blu Grotto (this was our one year anniversary of being engaged, and we were going to have dinner at the same place we did one year ago). We had done most of our day's things, and we were walking around Roma St Parklands at about 6:00 (using up some time until going to an early dinner) when I got a call on my Mobile. It was my previous/dotted-line current supervisor Clayton (who has his own band Mousewagon), with an offer so good I couldn't refuse. One of the original ticket holders "had" to go to a work-do (how does that happen?), and the next-inline was still recovering from a big night before. So I was offered a no-strings attached, free ticket to the Oasis concert (well it couldn't go to waste could it). So of course I said 'YES!' when Clayton offered. The plan: meet up around 8:30 outside the main entrance (the guys would be on stage around 9:00). Then came the next hurdle: what to do with my fiancee?

Thankfully, our good friends Jules and Dan came to the rescue. They were gracious enough to let me drop K off there while I went to the show (they only live about 10 minutes down the road from the Entertainment Centre too which was a bonus). I arrived at the BEC, and after a bit of fart-arseing around on my part, I managed to catch up with Clayton and Co. Little did I know that the tickets were actually for the VIP section - right in front of the stage! I wish I had a camera phone, as I would have taken some pics to show just how close we were (if you are reading this and you happen to have a pic taken from in the VIP section, please send it to me as I'd love to post it up here for all to see). Speaking of pics, here's on of the essential gear I had for the show - ticket and ear-plugs:

My Oasis VIP ticket and trusty ear-plugs!

As for the show, in terms of stage-presence the guys were a bit laid back (who knows why), but otherwise apart from Liam pitching flatly one encore song, the show was awesome. Noel was fantastic on guitar and his vocals keep getting better over time (though this seems to be happen often. Compare James Hetfield's vocals on Kill 'Em All to Garage Inc. or S&M). Zak Starkey (son of Beatle Ringo Starr) was awesome on the drums, the bass from which rattled internal organs I didn't even know I had 'til that night. There was also plenty of song dedications, including one for George Best who passed away earlier in the week. I guess the highlight was having 'The Masterplan' in the set, which many (including myself) consider to be the best Oasis song ever. When it was all over, we managed to shuffle out of there with the other 6500 or so people who saw the guys play that night, and have a bit of a sit-down and chat (VIP was standing room only). A great night that I won't forget, and one that I am glad to have had the opportunity to experience.

Posted: 7:18 PM

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