Had a scratch only you could itch, underneath the Glebe Point Bridge

A few years ago, some friends and I travelled up to Sydney to catch the Sleater-Kinney concert. The ladies were out for what would essentially be their farewell tour, and there was no way we were going to miss checking them at their side show – they were also on the Big Day Out bill, but who wants a shortened set?

Anyway, that concert was as great as it should have been, packed on in to the Gaelic Club, but after that, a friend of mine suggested we head on down to Purple Sneakers, a popular indie night nearby Sydney Uni and UTS. Sneakers was a blast. Touring bands got to play dj sets (I think I saw Broken Social Scene spin there once, though I cant be too sure, and the night that Quan from Regurgitator played still rates as one of the best of my life). But, kind of exactly like my experience with the band that sang the song the night is named after, it was easy to both overload whilst simultaniously drift apart from the connection I felt with the regular Friday night dance party. For me, the crowd kept getting younger, and the music kept, more and more accomodating that. Now, far be it from me to tell people what they should or shouldn’t like, but it was beginning to become very rare to hear some ‘actual’ indie at the now Presets, MSTRKRFT and Teenager dominated Sneakers. So essentially we stopped going.

I arrived relatively early for their third birthday – seeing a disappointed ‘older type’ get told he wasn’t on the door list, only to then be saved by the founder of Sneakers, PhDJ, come, shake his hand, and usher him inside, much to the chagrin of the door girl who had failed to find his name on her list. She found mine ok, and overhearing that there was both Wons Freely playing upstairs a bit later, as well as Guitar Hero in the VIP, I headed straight up there.

VIP sections to me are always amusing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an important person in one in my entire time of being invited to them, and certainly the ones making the most noise aren’t them. Two girls on the couches looked me up and down and decided I was no threat to their men (or something), and promptly ignored me. I sucked on a cigarette, eavesdropping on their phone conversations. Blondie was a bit drunk already, and I pegged her as about 20 years old, but definitely the one that was revelling in being upstairs.

“Oh, we will be down there in a bit, you should see if you can get up here but”

she demanded over the phone to whoever it was she had rung to brag about being in the VIP. Her little friend wanted to go downstairs, Blondie screwing her face at the thought of breaking the magic that an exclusive section should give. Her friend persisted for good reason though – there was no bar in the VIP, and to even deal with the banality of this section, we needed more drinks.

Indeed. I left before they could get their act together, going downstairs and grabbing a beer. And seeing the devastating impact Kevin Rudd’s new taxes on alcopops wreaked through busy bars like this one – the poor bar staff, run off their feet making mixed drinks, now that cruisers are up to $9.50 a pop. Mr Rudd should be made aware that at no point did the new taxes curb under-age binge drinking in my experience last Friday – it just made lines longer.

Don’t get me wrong – there were a lot of under-age people there. Id put it as high as 30% possibly. I met several. I was first alerted to this by a boy trying to hit on me, in a manner I had forgotten existed when I left school, so I replied with the old “Ah what school do you go to?” line from back then, and then he answered. “Year 12 huh?”

“Uh, yeah. Where do you go?”

I don’t, any more.

I took time out from interrogating little ones to dance for a while. Gosh I love that “Ruby” track by The Kaiser Chiefs, and I’m really happy it seemed to crop up once ever second set, as well as hear someone belt it out on Guitar Hero on on of my escapes back to the VIP couches. Chris Taylor from The Chaser was standing behind the decks with a massive smile on his face, I think letting most of the work be done by one of his friends, but “9 to 5″ by Dolly Parton is dance floor gold no matter where you are or who you ripped the idea from. so 10 more awesome points to you Chris. Jane Gazzo played a killer set too (actually, i don’t know if it was her – i couldn’t see, and didn’t look, but thats who it was listed as and I’m running with it). Wons Phreely is a pretty singer songwriter, who made me fall in love with one of his songs, that turns out not to be on the CD I acquired a day later. His CD is still kind of good though. All night, I was singing along, having a dance, and hearing heaps of my favourite songs played loudly. And with the constant reminder that even if the music was going astray, someone soon enough would drop some Kaiser Chiefs, it was all ok.

Despite my cynicism going in, the guests played awesome Sneakers sets, and by the time the regulars were stepping up, I was ready to step out. I slipped home, boozed but happy. I’ll go back in a year.