Happy Birthday to Me!

Hinder with Small Mercies
Luna Park Big Top
4th October

In June I booked my tickets to see Hinder on my birthday. The fourth's my birthday you see, and I wanted to see a band that I liked on the day I officially became middle aged. So I thought a US rock band with a passion for foul language and a rather nice song about an affair was the way to go.

I arrived at Luna Park just after 7.30 with my mates, Small Mercies had just started playing. After I’d had my mints throw away by security (no food allowed, since when did mints make a meal?) and a bright orange band confirming that I was over 18 secured around my wrist I was allowed to go and watch and listen to the music.

Small Mercies, a band from Brisbane are travelling around Australia and making quite a name for themselves. With a deep guitar sound and a lead singer that can sing rather than relying on shouting, they had the audience captivated. They sang about being ‘Innocent’ and looked anything but. There was the guitarist in a black t-shirt and bleached hair tips, the drummer with longish hair dressed in jeans with a black t-shirt and the singer was of course, wearing khaki. The crowd loved them and I thought for one minute that they may even come back for a second go, but that just isn't done by the support. Shame really.

After a short break and quick change of instruments, the lights faded, everyone cheered, then the lights came back up again. Everyone booed! The house technicians having worked out how to use the lights, turned them down again and Hinder appeared on stage.

Something I have been noticing about gigs is the diversity in the audience. There are old girls, old boys with biker beards, young fellas wearing jeans showing a bit of butt crack and girls with blonde streaks dressed in more bling than Mr T. With a band like Hinder I would have expected black shirts and jeans, maybe the odd girlie on account of their flame burning Lips of an Angel hit. But this crowd was a diverse as it could get.

Lead singer Austin Winkler was wearing jeans and a waist coat with a beige scarf, his hair was hanging over his face and as he screamed ‘Hello Sydney’ he did a little jump and upsided the mic stand. Very Rock’n’roll. Through out the set he looked like he didn’t know what to do with his arms. He would put them up in the air, down by his sides and do the little teapot. He looked just like sixties Mick Jagger.

The guitarists Joe ‘Blower’ Garvey and Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden moved around the stage freely dancing with the crowd and Austin. The drummer, Cody Hanson, was of course, hidden at the back. They worked their way through their album starting with ‘How Long’, ‘Better than Me’ and ‘Homecoming Queen’ before playing a slower, acoustic new song. It sounded ok, but the sound in the Big Top, may be suited to dance parties a little better than rock gigs, I hardly heard a single spoken word unless it was shouted/and or a swear word.

You could clearly see the Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones influences in their performance, but that at no point diminished the overall effect. They had the audience in the palms of their hands for the duration. They threw the odd momento into the waving arms and played the whole of the Extreme Behaviour’ album. They saved ‘Get Stoned’ and ‘Lips of an Angel’ for the encore and closed on an up note. The audience called for a second encore, only to be disappointed. No doubt the band had already started celebrating Mark’s birthday backstage. Beers all-round!