Jim Sclavunos's Bad Seeds Tour Diary Resumed!

2:30 PM GMT 10/02/2009

Episode 10. Pig City squid orgy!

January 15th, Thursday, Brisbane, Riverstage, ATP

Brisbane is the northernmost city on this tour, hence the most tropical. Our hotel overlooks the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens; from the balcony I can see herons swooping up and down among the bamboo, palms and broad, tortuous mangroves that resemble a squid orgy. Along the riverfront there’s a boardwalk that runs through a mangrove thicket that leads to Riverstage, main venue for today’s ATP presentations.

This is The Saints’ hometown, where back in 1974 in relative isolation from the musical mainstream, they devised a brutal take on rock that snarled and churned with defiant fervour. Pictures of The Saints radiate that delinquent disdain later identified as one of the hallmarks of punk. And not for nothing were they surly.

By most accounts, ’70s Brisbane was a provincial and conservative backwater. Saints gigs were regularly disrupted by the police and Queensland generally was regarded as a virtual police state by every Australian musician of the era. The cops and local government were rife with corruption and had their jackboots firmly on the neck of the counterculture (more details can be found in Andrew Stafford’s book about the growth of the Brisbane music scene, Pig City).

Nowadays, Brisbane is much less hairy, with no overt police repression. It just seems to be full of city-types, all chattering and guffawing as they dart around in their pink ties and secretarial S&M pencil dresses in the sweltering heat.

Anyway, our show was great: we’re on a roll, and have been since Mt. Buller. After a prolonged stint of backstage socializing, it’s off to the casino.

Now the last time I was in Brisbane with Grinderman, we had reservations at this very same casino restaurant; but on that occasion when we arrived they took one look at us (and our beards) and said they were closed, so we ended up at the all-night Pancake Parlour instead. This time the Bad Seeds party is welcome, but the food sucks anyway. After dinner, Cave and Jason Spaceman disappear, presumably off to the baccarat.

Read Episode 11. The high-rolling Bad Seeds hit Sydney.

Catch up with all the action by reading parts 1 - 9 HERE!

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 2:30 PM GMT 10/02/2009