Now you have already seen the setlist so i will decribe the experiences of my first NO concert.
It was a perfect day for an outdoor concert in Melbourne, about 25 degrees with a light breeze. I had got to the BDO early to see some other bands i was interested in, Eskimo Joe, Machine Gun Fellatio (Best name, Best stageshow) and Something For Kate. After these i wandered around checking out this and that in anticipation for 7:45pm . . . New Order. I could see that the crowd in the moshing area was very pumped (they cordoned this area off and limited numbers for safety sake), especially when System Of A Down performed their big hit Chop Suey. I was getting nervous so i decided to check out Arthur Baker in the hothouse, very cool and after grooving it for a while decided it was time to head back to the main stage to prepare for Order. I got to the line for the front stage area at the start of the Garbage set but no one was getting into the area at all, we stayed squashed and pushing against the security guards until the end of the set 1 hour). I was now very worried as Silverchair were on next and being so popular people might not leave the frontstage area. Luckily this was only a slight fear as i was let in reight at the start of the Silverchair set. I went straight to the front of the stage that New Order would be playing at, getting a position that would put me right in front, in between Barney and Hooky. There was some tall dude in a red Get Ready T-Shirt near me and i got the courage up and asked if this was Francios, and lo and behold it was! (for all those people that bagged him out saying he would not stand out, he was the only person i saw in a Get Ready shirt that day). We had a chat and had a luagh about meeting at the front of stage, normally a most unlikely area. The crowd started to fill up in front of the stage, with a good mix of older and younger people. Silverchair were rocking it out, and were suprisingly good, but my imatience was starting to were thin, and so was my bladder, too much water! Eventually the exitment built as the stage was completely set up. some of the roadies were having some fun and looked to be enjoying themselves, taking the piss out of Silverchairs set a bit. We were all watching the clock and just before 7:45pm the boys walked out on to stage. From this moment on my account goes kind of hazy as i entered some euphoric beszerk frenzy. The infamous ejected guy start screaming from the start, and Barney looked a bit pissed off, he made a joke about normally playing at night and introduced Crystal. The crowd went mad, singing and dancing. Hooky was wearing a pavement t-shirt and was pulling some classic rock god poses with the bass at the side of the stage. Francious must have got almost a half a roll of film of photos, i hope he gets them developed and posts them to the site. I was singing and dancing like mad, and the crowd at the front were pumped with more sedate people sitting in behind. Lukily by YSL the interupter was ejected and i continued o rock on, and Rock the Shack which went down very well. I was happy, well they could have come out on stage, threw shit at us and played state of the nation backwards and i still would have been happy. People were getting worried as it was getting close to the end of their set and we had not heard, BLT, Temptation, LWTUA and Blue Monday but the boys finished off the set, even going overtime to do this and the crowd was in a frenzy for the last 4 songs, i was riding on fumes at the moment having spent most of my energy but rocked it right out to the end of the set, happy to at last seen the band that i had waited 12 years to see. Francois and myself dropped out the back behind the sound tower to see if we could catch up with any of the others there but the crowd was quite thick due to the prodigy set that was next. Had a chat with Francios for a while, and he mentioned that he was keen to go to the Melbourne Metro show, he didn't have tickets but there is normally someone selling them out the front. We waited for a while and then parted company as i thought if i had not seen any of the other guys yet then i may as well catch Basement Jaxx, which was a surprise winner for the day, good flow and energy through their set and topping the night off with Wheres your Head At! just made the day. I left after this, drained but anticipating Wednesday night where i hope to see the expanded set!!!! :D
