Grinderman. Also, how awesome has my week been? #936mofo

Backstory for what I’ve been doing this week.

From being deafened by the Red Rivals, to discovering Lincoln LeFevre, to spectacular classical composed piano playing from Phillip Glass, to rocking out with The Break and Grinderman, I think I’ve just had a week that can’t be beaten.

I haven’t researched any of the bands before I saw them, which meant that nearly every band has surprised me in some way. I wanted to go into every performance with an open mind, and I’ve managed that all right.

Mona Foma continues and last night was The Break and Grinderman.

It was. Well. I don’t think there are enough adjectives to describe how amazing it was.

The Break – Ex-Midnight Oil, minus Peter Garrett and plus Brian Ritchie was heaps beachier than I expected, but psychedelic surf music is what they do and the crowd wasn’t disappointed. They were brilliant and I’m fairly sure Brian Ritchie just brought yellow pants back into fashion.

Nick Cave with Grinderman was the headline event and you could feel it in the room as the start time got closer. I pushed my way to the front and somehow, eventually, ended up 2 rows from the front, albeit to the side rather a lot.

His stage presence is phenomenal, my GOD that man has some energy. He fed off the crowd and the crowd, in return, fed off him.

We haven’t seem much interaction with the crowd so far and really, it’s been the only thing missing. Nick Cave stood on the barriers, using the fans hands to steady himself. He leapt, he danced, he sung. It was, so so brilliant. Absolutely unmissable.

If you’re a fan of Cave and you get a chance to see Grinderman, DO IT. You won’t regret it for a moment.

I did have a small awkward moment during the encore performances, with a group of older middle aged women, stroking my hair and telling me how beautiful I was. Okay, they were very drunk, but still. Weird.

And my award for tweets that probably shouldn’t have been read aloud on the Radio goes to this one:

It was true though. No wonder the women were all screaming during the songs.

Or maybe it had something to do with the buttons Cave was undoing the hotter he got. Either either.

Big shout out to his roadies, who were complete professionals. A can of beer was thrown and Cave flicked it away with his hand, spilling beer everywhere. The roadies and their energy had it cleaned up before most people had realised what had gone on. The darted all around the stage, retrieving thrown microphones and percussion instruments. They also did a great job of dealing with the one very drunk guy who jumped on stage and played air guitar along with the band. He was allowed a minute or two and then whipped backstage and then back out into the crowd with a small shove.

It was an absolutely spectacular night, even if my hearing hasn’t quite recovered this morning.