Memory Lane - I

This morning, just as I was heading out the door to go workout, I got a text from one of my great mates, Krabes.


"Hey there.  Just heard Lamb on JJJ (Gorecki - I found the one) remembering Livid etc... Just wanted to say hi and that that was one of my all time fav memories.  Love ya Karls xoxo"


Krabes... What a sweetheart!  I love that bitch!


Anyways... got me to thinking, what are my all time fav memories?  I thought once a week I might post a good memory - god (or whatever) knows I've a shitload of brain drawers full of kickarse times.


And what better place to start than with the memory Krabes rates as all time (and for the record, so do I):


It was 2003? Livid (an old music festival they used to have in Brisbane (affectionately know as Brisvegas - definitely not Briselaide)... It was also Krabes hens night!  Me and all my bushpig best mates, flew up to Brissie to celebrate with excess everything - in true bushie style).


Due to work commitments, I was flying in later than everyone else and had planned to catch the train  (like my girls did that morning) to the Valley - where we were staying.  I arrived around 8.30pm only to discover that I'd just missed the last train... What the?  Fuck yeah.. I thought that myself!  I rang my girlfriends, who were a little shitfaced to ask where they were and how to get there.  I then jumped in a cab and high tailed it to the backpackers we were staying at... It was well past beer o'clock by then and I had some serious catching up to do!


We suck down pint after pint... chatting away and, I'm sure, making cockheads of ourselves - my bitches aren't the quietest mob you'll ever meet - more so in our mid 20s.  We also noticed someone who struck a remarkable resemblance to the hottest woman on the planet - Meg White - chowing down in the Japanese restaurant across the road.  We talked about going in to meet her, but I'm a big believer in leaving celebs be.  They are just people after all.  I'd hate if random strangers where coming up to me asking me for an autograph while I was enjoying dinner, walking my dog, having beers with my mates, going to do the shopping... pretty much anytime that was my time.  Treat people as you'd like to be treated, right?


Next day, headed off to the showgrounds... Tickets:  check... Money: check... Illegal substances: check... Crazy bitches to get f'd up and have a rad time with: check.


Good line up at livid that year... White Stripes, Jurassic 5, Yeah Yeah Yeahs was enough to have me in the queue for tix.  I could tell endless tales of the good shit we got up to, but that's going a little off target - as has much of this entry really.. I guess I'm just trying to set the scene.


A couple of note worthy moments included:


J5 with those things from your childhood that you'd swing around and they'd make a crazy noise.  They were like a plastic tube with ripples all the way down (like the bendy bit of a straw), usually in fluro colours, and you'd swing them in a big circle again and again... They made kind of a low, deep, vibrating, whoosing sound.  RAD!  I found one in a $2 shop shortly after and had endless hours of fun with it... until I had to use to poor petrol in the rental truck during one of our fun interstate moves.


White Stripes:  Got in and posi'd it up early, only to freak out 5 minutes into the set!  I'm a bit of a clausto - so much so my hugs are an in and out affair - the crowd was too much for me.  I started screaming like a crazy bitch 'Let me out... Fuck I can't breathe' and literally walked on top of people, or madly pushed them out of the way to force my way out of there!  I was spewing!  Was it the clausto or the fact I was well and truly peaking by this stage?  Not too sure!


But back to the story at hand...


Resin Dogs were playing in the dark and dingy cattle shed... It was a bizarre place to see a band - very dark with just a few streams of light coming through from the opening at one end.  It felt like we were inside that hallway that Alice in Wonderland walks though.. the one that get smaller and smaller the further you go.  It was a massive area though... seems to stretch forever into the darkness at one end... and forever into a small opening of light at the other.  Resin Dogs are always a festival highlight...  Everytime I've seen them, I've stumbled out drenched in sweat with a massive grin spread across my face.  Take my legs days to recover!


Krabes and I spot Lamb is coming up and we decide to hang around and check it out.   I'm so glad we did... They were amazing!  I remember looking at the stunningly beautiful, Lou Rhodes, completely awestruck!  She was angelic... An aura of light surrounded her (I'm thinking stage lights cause aura readings ain't my strong point) making her appear kind of other wordly.  I turned to Krabes to relay my thoughts, and she said 'I was thinking the exact same thing... she looks totally heavenly'.  I'm sure it was the perfect balance of their trip hop magical sounds, her beauty, their lighting and Krabes and my state of mind but it is a moment that has obviously stayed with us since.


For those who are unfamiliar with the sounds of Lamb... shame on you!!!


Here is a little sample of their biggest hit, Gorecki, for your auditory pleasure!