The Zoo - POLYVINYL, CHARLEY HORSE, KATE BRADLEY, THE GOLDEN CIRCLES

A mate and I arrived at around 23:00 into the establishment, I was keen to listen to somebody I haven't heard before, listen to a Brissie band and just "chillax" at the Zoo. Other reasons include Wolfmother were sold out, Spiderbait might have been sold out, we possibly arrived too late to catch Spiderbait, Transporter's gig wasn't publicised enough, preferred to go to the Zoo over the Troubadour to see Sodastream. Twas a unique night in Brisneyworld where there were multiple headline acts with all of Brisbane's premier live music venues hosting a show in unison. This may explain the lack of a well-deserved gathering at the front of the stage for an unforgettable set played by Polyvinyl - www.polyvinylmusic.com

Arriving at 23:00, we comfortably parked our 'laughable farces' at a table that was right at the front of show to the relaxed, and at times, countryish sounds of Charley Horse, the name Canadians give to the Aussie "dead arm". A very comfortable and serene looking outfit...


Then what had transpired was amazing, Polyvinyl opened with Rush, with lead singer Bill Harrison earning immediate respect and admiration. I thought to myself "now that's just showing off opening up with such an unreal song - what's next.." A powerful song that built up to a complete rock-out, the exact reason I was out that night, and the reason why I am out most nights.. What followed was me getting up and impulse buying one of those round things pictured at the top of this article (it is really a red cover with a black tree). I seldom buy CDs, and have never gotten up halfway through a gig and bought an album. This is a quality Brissie band and I give my full support to them, just like I do for the Butterfingers.



Throughout the gig, it was rockin hard with long stretches of instrumental "showcasing" with a very cheeky Stairway To Heaven riff thrown into the middle of one of their songs, which I am sure some people missed, I cracked up laughing.. The album ranges from the raw rocking similar to Queens of the Stone Age and Giants of Science, the pure instrumental sections along the lines of Tool and their soothing relaxed musings which really defines their own unique sound. My favourite song of the night would have to be the explosive Frankenstein which was introduced by the guys as "A waste of one and a half minutes" - it was one and a half minutes well wasted..

After the gig concluded, one of the hardest/fastest guitarists I have seen for a while, Alex from the band was saying gday to the crowd and we had a bit of a chat. A very good night out with not-so-uncommon crazy ending..

On the way back from the Valley, some Fire Brigade "tape" was acquired along with the following piece of road paraphernalia:







Deck the halls with boughs of Fire Brigade tape..










Fa la la, la la la...







And yes, that is 6am sunlight showing in the photographs..
It is well past bedtime and I have will have a little extra to add to the events of the 29th/30th of Oct 2005.
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Detail your drunken exploits with a world of devices and software that runs on Ubuntu Linux without being ripped off $200.. www.ubuntu.com - (geez Microsoft are being aggressive with their current advertising)

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Updates:

At the time of writing the original document, I had taken photos of my feet to publish along with this posting, however being up at 1.30am before a 5.45am wakeup for work was pushing it.

The feet story:
Two weeks prior to the Polyvinyl gig I was "feeling very Olympic" and decided to run, jump and latch on to a modern artpiece outside the newly built Queens Plaza. Then as a feat of strength, I pulled myself up onto the light fixture (or whatever it was) and jumped off it. I landed with flat feet and my cement-based arch inserts drove into the bottom of my soles on impact, followed by an impact-induced forwards somersault. I am sure I came pretty close to breaking my feet. The inserts were taken to hospital to be treated for shock, but were released later that evening.

The night of the gig at The Zoo my feet were feeling 90% until I sprinted across the street in front of the Monastery. The left pulled up OK, the right, well..






















The Sign Story:

As we can now see, the sign has been returned to more natural surroundings, however, as pictured, one of the defective lights has been pilfered and at present, the sign has been completely stripped bare..