Anxiety and Indiscretion

Oh, the music.

SJD opened, kicked off with 'Guiding Light'. Ru and Rin and I got stuck into our first bottle of red. The tables of squawking girls behind us were treated to progressively more fierce stares, until we learned to tune it out - although everyone was relieved and amused to hear the collective shushing during the softer parts of the Phoenix Foundation's set. And while Luke claimed that the Wellington show was better, it was all swirly goodness to me, right through to the final encore of 'Sister Risk'.

Fantastic to see the boys pull off such a significant show. I thought back to Matt's phone call a month or two ago, his plans for the theatre tour and the question: could they pull it off? "Promote the fuck out of it, and you can do it," is what I thought. They totally did.

Afterwards we made our way down to Shanghai Lil's, me buzzing out on the significance... It was after another Phoenix gig that I first visited Shanghai Lil's on my second night in this city, and that's when I met the boss. It seemed like a milestone of sorts, to be doing it over again - I even saw the boss there, on his own post-gig mission.

Even though Nato reckons there weren't enough girls, just a load of guys with beards, I thought it was a great party. I monopolised Matty, officially among my most favourite people on this planet. I had the usual nostalgic/ head-shaking post-Hot-Swiss-Mistress analysis with Warner, talked utter shit with various rock stars, and was wildly indiscreet without the slightest care.

And consequently, today has been quite odd. I contemplated returning to Wellington, but I had to get my car from Eden Terrace so we left it at that. For the third time since I moved here, I waved goodbye to my favourite band. As the day went on my anxiety increased as memories of potential misdemeanours swam to the surface and the accumulated weight bore down on me, vague and persistent. Soon I realised that although I had no physical hangover symptoms, this paranoia had to be due to alcohol. Etc. Perhaps it’s also why my muscles are so achey.

It's cool though. I'm over it. And since I live here now, no more Wellington. (I'm also trialling a new banner and one or two other tweaks.)

I'm really looking forward to seeing Bic Runga and band on Monday at the Civic. And, I've booked flights to Melbourne for a week's holiday after Big Day Out. I'll need it.