2022 Concert Diaries
Reflecting on the gigs I've been to this year.
Having made the transition from high school to university this year, I’ve recently been overwhelmed with the amount of free time on my hands. And nothing delivers a fresh hit of dopamine quite like live music. So, fuelled by poor mental health and even poorer spending habits, I increased my concert attendance rate drastically in 2022.
Since a lot of these gigs gave way to some new experiences, I wanted to document all of them here. Welcome to Mia’s concert diaries!
Courtney Barnett - 25/3/22, Enmore Theatre
This was my first time ever going to a gig by myself. I didn’t have anyone who shared my passion for Courtney Barnett, so I just decided to go it alone. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel that self conscious. I still found the concert extremely fun and I felt like I could go as ham as I pleased without caring what anyone thought of me. At the same time, I felt incredibly bored waiting for anyone to take the stage since there was no one to talk to. I also had no one to dissect the gig with afterwards and talk about which songs or moments we’d loved, so I’d say there’s pros and cons to going solo.
When Courtney came out on stage, my heart leapt into my throat and I definitely had a moment of ‘oh my God, she’s real!’ Even though I hadn’t made barricade, I was very close to the front and I almost had a heart attack every time she came round to my side of the stage. I absolutely adore Courtney, but I also just deeply admire her as a fellow left-handed guitarist who is often averse to using a pick.
I went all out when she played ‘Elevator Operator’, ‘Pedestrian At Best’ and ‘History Eraser’, to the point where I am slightly embarrassed to show people my footage of any of those songs. Not only is the footage shaky as hell, but during ‘History Eraser’ you can hear me screeching - and I mean screeching - the lines “You said, ‘I guarantee we’ll have more fun’ / drink ‘till the moon becomes the sun / and in the taxi home / I’ll sing you a Triffids song.” In my defence, it has always been my favourite part.
Would I probably have done some things differently if I were going to the gig now? Sure, I’d probably try to make barricade and snag the setlist after. But this was my first show post-lockdown, and I think I was just enthralled to hear live music again.
The Wombats - 12/6/22, Hordern Pavilion
This unintentionally ended up being a birthday present to myself, since the first Wombats date in Sydney had sold out and the second show had been announced for the night of my nineteenth birthday. Definitely a worthwhile gift.
I went to see The ‘Bats with a couple of friends from high school, both of whom I feel are bigger Wombats fans than I am. Not that I minded at all, but they had definitely listened to the new album, Fix Yourself, Not The World, way more than I had.
Personally, my Wombats album of choice has always been their previous release, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. I had played it to death in 2019 and loved every song on it. Of course, I knew the most successful Wombats tunes, all synonymous with the indie scene of the late 2000s and early 2010s - ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’, ‘Kill The Director’, ‘Moving To New York’. But I had a soft spot for Beautiful People, so I was really pleased when they played a few songs from the album, including ‘Cheetah Tongue’, ‘Lemon To A Knife Fight’, and ‘Turn’, the latter of which featured in the encore. My favourite was an acoustic rendition of ‘Lethal Combination’, which just featured Murph on guitar and the audience accompanying him.
The stage banter was entertaining - very funny and very English. I particularly liked when, at the end of their set, Murph announced, “this is the bit before the encore, so now we’re going to go offstage and pretend like we’re not coming back on for a little bit.”
The band were so good at holding the audience’s attention and hyping them up to the point where somebody near me chucked their beer into the crowd and I sustained minor damage. I was slightly miffed at that, but is it really an experience at the Hordern if you’re not surrounded by drunk fans and engulfed by the scent of every questionable substance under the sun?
I think that of all the gigs I’ve been to this year, The Wombats put on the best show visually. Pink streamers fell from the ceiling during ‘Pink Lemonade’, and the stage erupted in sparklers during ‘Greek Tragedy’. It made the experience feel magical, and as someone who still finds themselves between a casual fan and a serious fan of The ‘Bats, I would definitely go see them again.
Steve Hackett - 22/6/22, Enmore Theatre
Given my propensity for mostly listening to Dad Music, I’m surprised that Steve Hackett was the only artist I saw this year where the average age of audience members was significantly higher than my own. I’ve seen him once before, although I can’t remember how old I was - maybe 15? Either way, as Genesis are one of the most important bands in my life, I really enjoyed seeing him the first time round, so I was sure the second time would be just as good.
This was also in no small part due to the fact that this time, Steve would be playing the entirety of Seconds Out, the Genesis release that I would take to a desert island with me over anything else. For me, it’s a perfect blend of classic Gabriel-era Genesis and my favourite era, the four piece led by Phil Collins. Usually, I don’t really care too much for live albums, but I find the Seconds Out renditions of ‘Supper’s Ready’ and ‘Carpet Crawlers’ to be utterly captivating. Additionally, Steve and his band would be playing my favourite Genesis studio album, Selling England By The Pound, from start to finish. It’s like they asked me for my dream setlist.
The only problem was that I saw Steve Hackett during one of the roughest mental periods of my life this year. I was going through a very difficult time and that day in particular had also not been going very well. Sadly, I think that my enjoyment of the concert had been affected by these factors and I wasn’t able to enjoy the show as much as I wanted to.
To clarify, I think Steve and his bandmates played exceptionally well and put on a great performance. I’m still floored at anyone who can replicate all 23 minutes of ‘Supper’s Ready’ live with such detail and precision. I just wasn’t mentally in a headspace where I could appreciate it. Ironically, I was hoping that their performance of ‘Carpet Crawlers’ would fix me, as the song has so often done in the past. But I think the dark cloud won over my better ability to enjoy myself, which deeply saddens me.
Funnily enough, that evening I also spotted former Church guitarist Marty Willson-Piper in attendance. He later confirmed he had been at the show in a blog post of his own, and I was mentally kicking myself for not going up and talking to him. But I knew I would have been too shy to say anything in the first place.
Glass Animals - 16/7/22 & 17/7/22, Hordern Pavilion
Seeing Glass Animals two nights in a row was the first time I had done so with any artist, and despite being a big GA fan, it was completely unintentional. My friend and I had gotten presale tickets at the end of last year as a post HSC treat. A few months later, a second date was announced, and a different friend expressed interest in going with me. I wasn’t about to say no.
The first night was already amazing. We were fairly close to the front, but wedged in on the right side of the stage. Everything had been decked out to match the vaporwave aesthetics of their latest album, Dreamland - it was all neon lights and retro tech. I particularly loved how as the lights went down, the screen lit up like an arcade game.
Once again I’d had that heart-leaping-into-throat-oh-my-god-they’re-real-moment when Dave Bayley came out onstage donning a bright red sports jersey. It was so much fun letting go and screaming along to every single song, but little did I know the second night would knock the first night out of the park.
The following evening, I was back with my other friend and somehow, inexplicably, we had made barricade. Some of his friends had been at the front of the queue when we got there and very kindly let us join them. I had never been at the very front and it was absolutely thrilling. Despite being packed in like a sardine, I felt like I could almost reach out and touch the stage.
Glass Animals had tweaked their set slightly for the second night. This ended up working entirely in our favour, as they played ‘Poplar St’, my favourite song by them - you can hear me freaking out at the start of my concert footage - and ‘Helium’, which my friend had wanted them to play. I also went ham during ‘Take A Slice’ again, and this time I went even harder because I already had a recording of them playing it the night before.
If you don’t know, it is custom at some point in the show for Dave Bayley to hand someone in the audience a pineapple. It’s both ridiculous and a reference to their lyric ‘pineapples are in my head’. That evening, he ended up handing it to the girl standing right next to me. I was, as you can imagine, extremely jealous despite the potential inconvenience of holding a pineapple for the rest of the show. As lovely and friendly as she was, I wanted my Y/N moment. But I didn’t realise it would happen so soon, either.
That second night, I was on the left side of the stage. As such, our side of the crowd was frequently visited by the bassist, Ed. Being almost drunk on the thrill of being at the very front, I had sung out and smiled at him over the course of the show. At one point, the band launched into ‘Pork Soda’, which meant they had to instruct the crowd on how to do the handclaps at the start of the song. Ed was in charge of leading our side. Apparently I have no sense of rhythm, because I couldn’t nail the clapping pattern for the life of me. But it didn’t matter. Ed saw me and, laughing, tried to help me get it right.
Quite frankly, this would have been enough for me. I had made the bassist of Glass Animals laugh! I would be riding that high, that Y/N moment, for a long time to come. But throughout the song, he kept smiling at me, and when it finished, he threw me his pick. So that, dear reader, is how I got Edmund Irwin-Singer’s bass pick.
The rest of the show passed in a daze. They came out to do their encore, at which point they pulled up a member of the audience onstage to rap along to ‘Tokyo Drifting’. Sure, he was no Denzel Curry, but it felt nice to have the rap included, since the previous night there had been a noticeable absence when they had played the song without it. I also managed to snag the (slightly torn) setlist after the show, partially because I think the security guard had heard me talk nonstop about it when the lights had gone up.
A concert experience like that second Glass Animals gig is something I thought only happened to other people. I feel incredibly lucky to have tasted it for myself. It’s also really lovely meeting new people at barricade and talking to other fans who are just as excited about this band as you are. When Ed threw his pick to me, the people around me were just as thrilled as I was and some even asked to take a picture of me with it. I think that as much as concerts can be exhausting or overwhelming, they are also a celebration of love, and this one was filled with more joy than any other.
Wallows - 10/11/22, Hordern Pavilion
In a way, this gig has a prequel to it. The day before the show, I had gone to Wallows’ in-store signing at Red Eye Records. For thirty seconds, I chatted to them while they signed my vinyl copy of their latest LP, Tell Me That It’s Over. Well, I say ‘chatted’ - it was more like I struggled to form coherent sentences in front of the three of them while they smiled at me and told me it was lovely to see me. I asked Braeden Lemasters how he was enjoying Australia, and he said ‘it’s been great so far, how have you been enjoying it?’, which made me laugh. Having met very few Americans before, it was so surreal hearing them talk.
My friend and I had shown up to the Hordern maybe fifteen minutes after doors had opened, but we were both shocked to find that the queue spilled out of the venue, down the street and around the block. I was astonished at how many people there were in spite of the venue being open.
Despite having been to my fair share of gigs at the Hordern Pavilion and being squeezed in among hundreds of other sweaty bodies, the audience at Wallows seemed even more crowded than anything I’d felt all year. I’ve never felt claustrophobic at a concert before, but it felt a little bit like that. I suppose my discomfort wasn’t imagined, since there were a few times during the show where the band had to stop playing to make sure nobody was fainting or getting crushed in the crowd.
With that being said, Wallows put on a fun show. Something I’ve found is that unlike the majority of artists who either stick to the same setlist or change a couple of songs at most per night, Wallows switch up their setlist quite a lot every evening. As a result, we were treated to ‘I’m Full’ and ‘Do Not Wait’ during the encore. To everyone’s delight, Dylan Minnette changed the lyrics in ‘I’m Full’ from “there’s always Reese’s there” to “there’s always Tim Tams there”. It’s a moment I’m glad I caught on camera. There was also a fan proposal right before ‘Scrawny’, which was exciting because it feels like those things always happen at some other gig, not your own.
Wallows sounded great live and I went absolutely crazy for so many songs, but when the show concluded a part of me was extremely relieved to get out of there because of how crowded it felt. It’s also probably the most hormonal concert I’ve ever been to. I was thoroughly entertained by how many screams I got to hear along the lines of ‘Dylan is so hot’ or ‘I want to marry him’. Having met the band in person, I sympathise with the collective error 404 that everyone’s brains experienced during the gig.
I’d call myself more of a casual Wallows fan now rather than a big fan. In January 2020, Nothing Happens and the Spring EP were the soundtrack to my time overseas. I’ve slowly been following the band less, but that didn’t stop me and my friend from both buying a Wallows hoodie and me from spending way too much on some Wallows-themed bracelets at the merch stall. In my defence, I think the hoodie’s particular shade of green looks nice on me.
Milk! Records 10th Birthday Xmas Party - 16/12/22, Oxford Art Factory
My final gig of the year was a low-key affair held at the intimate Oxford Art Factory. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of independent label Milk! Records, five different artists from its roster would be taking the stage over the course of the evening. As you might expect, I was pretty much there just for Courtney Barnett, but I was curious to check out the other acts. The only artist I recognised was Hachiku, but I wasn’t familiar with her music.
Just like when I’d gone to see Courtney earlier this year, this concert was another solo situation. I felt a bit self conscious initially, but after a while I loosened up, made small talk with other concertgoers, and enjoyed the acts I’d never heard of. Lily Morris, Jess Ribeiro, and Kee’ahn were fantastic. All of them felt quintessentially ‘indie’, yet still retained their own flavour and style. Jess Ribeiro reminded me of Billy Bragg in the way she just sang by herself without anything but an electric guitar as accompaniment.
I also alleviated my self-consciousness by constantly peppering my friend with updates from the show. Each act was on for roughly 30 minutes followed by a 20 minute break, during which I would tell him what I’d been doing and thinking about for the last half hour. It also helped to distract from how sore my legs had been getting. That’s another thing about going to concerts by yourself: there’s no one to lean on or take your mind off the fact you’ve been standing for hours.
Having sacrificed my initial spot leaning against a pillar when I went to go buy some merch, I somehow ended up standing really close to the stage. The microphone stands had been decked out with tinsel and some of the acts came out wearing Christmas hats. By the time Hachiku was on stage, I knew I couldn’t move from where I was standing if I wanted to keep my place for Courtney. The room had filled up completely during the final interval while our backs were turned.
When Courtney came out, she was practically just a metre away from me. It was exciting to get to watch her tune or fiddle with her pedalboard, and when she launched into her set I really enjoyed getting to see her play up close.
In comparison to her concert earlier this year, the setlist wasn’t that different. If anything, it was essentially a condensed version of what she played in March. I’d hoped that she would play something different, some other cuts possibly - but I also didn’t mind. I was thrilled to hear her play ‘Small Poppies’ again because it sounds incredible live. For her one song encore she chose ‘Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party’, the track that got me into her music. I was particularly excited since I hadn’t yet had the chance to hear her perform it.
The intimacy of the Milk! gig was refreshing after some of the concerts I’d been to this year, especially the borderline claustrophobic Wallows gig last month. I enjoyed how casual and comfortable it was, as if we were just some friends who’d been invited to a get together. At one point during Courtney’s set, the man standing on my left turned to me and said, “wow, you know all the words!”. It’s at times like these that I’m reminded of how live music brings us all together in spite of everything.