Throw Your Arms Around The Sun
St Kilda 2024 Festival And All
As St. Kilda has been my home over the last 4 years, I have come to like the place. The variety of street creatures and diverse demographics make for intriguing walks around the area. From Elsternwick to Prahran, there is a show around every corner and on every street. Empty nang canisters, mattresses, bagels, and more litter the streets.
Where we reside the tweeker and junkie population seems to have increased in visibility over the last couple of years. People stumble around the alleyways, stealing ceramic elephants off porches, wandering onto your property looking for an opportunity, etc. It is not dangerous. It reminds me of the streets of NYC at times.
But the grime and petty crime is on the rise. Leave your car unlocked and someone will be scrounging for change for food or junk.
Junk food.
Wandering around the foreshore and Acland Street during the weekend of the St. Kilda Festival is always chock-a-block with free entertainment. The outsiders have come for a visit and the insiders are out wandering or dancing to the free music. It’s a happening of some sort as people start dancing like they have taken the brown acid at 230PM.
They peaked a bit early in the day. But the dude in the hemp hat, sunglasses and blowing bubbles into the air, dancing alone, I wondered if he was hired by the festival to get people involved.
Then I recalled what neighborhood I was in.
Mark Seymour and The Undertow performed at the Main Stage on Sunday. I discovered Hunters and Collectors when I first came to Australia in 1984. What a powerhouse they were and many an evening at Selina’s and beyond I sang “You Don’t Make Me Feel Like A Woman Anymore!” at the top of my lungs while people threw their arms around each other.
Seymour’s second song was Jerusalem by Steve Earle.
“And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls
And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem”-S. Earle
Hello, St. Kilda are you listening?
The weather gods kept it reasonably mild even though the sun was unblocked.
Just looking at The Hunna’s history on Wikipedia and I found this:
They headlined a series of A Day on the Green outdoor concerts in early 2014 and supported Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band during their tour of Australia on 15 and 16 February 2014 at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
Paul Busch of ToneDeaf website caught their gig on 4 April at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney: "Seymour was in fine vocal form and the sound, although a bit too loud to start with, settled down ... The joy could also be seen in the energy of the band".
What a funny sentence to take out of that entire piece which is here:
https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/hunters-collectors/
Was a packed-out main Stage at mid-afternoon and on display was the legend that is Mark Seymour and his band. Grooving to songs I knew well, thinking of my mate Sig who wrote the liner notes for H and C’s Collected Works and who came to Australia to enjoy some sweaty Coogee Beach shows from his IRS records office in Hollywood.
Other memories of people, places, and dances to some of these iconic songs came flooding back as clear as the day it was.
I was even talking to a stranger or two……
Hope you had a good day out in the summer sun wherever you were.
