One of the things I’ve missed most about Australia is the thriving music scene and the ease of getting tickets to high quality concerts at short notice. Last night I went with Lyn (the daughter of the house) and a few of her friends to see the Idea of North at the Basement. Imagine an a capella group good enough to win a university band competition – and they’ve been improving for the last ten years. The Basement itself is an intimate jazz bar environment and TION take full advantage of that to create a dialogue with their audience and playing amongst themselves in a natural (but probably rehearsed) way. As they imitated playing trombones, the bass guy corrected the extension of the tenor. In a gospel song, the girls jump in with banjo twanging. And hidden amongst the Stevie Wonder and Sting covers are their own classics such as ‘An Ugly Woman Told Me No’.
Reading the Drum Media on the way home, I found out that My Friend the Chocolate Cake are still around and will be playing in May, but I’m going to have to put in the effort to seeing newer bands very soon.