Diversion

Almost a year ago to the day, Dusker played a show at Manly Fishos. For our guitarist Jacob, it was a particularly memorable evening (happy anniversary, Yak and Mel), but for me, it was the band finding its feet and stretching its wings, one of our first gigs in the current configuration. We were the second act in the line up, I think, and directly after us were a 2-piece from Melbourne I’d never heard of before. They were good. Very, very good. Their name was Big Scary.

Now, I’m not one to berate the Sydney music scene (much), but we’ve played with a lot of bands who were not quite as inspiring. Sometimes that is because they just play a genre that I don’t really relate to, sometimes it is because the band (like us back then) are finding their feet a little bit, but often it is just because, frankly, they suck. So I am always excited when we get put on a line up with someone who makes my ears prick up, or that I think is comparable in style to our sound. It seems to happen so rarely. Big Scary was one of those bands that I immediately thought “wow”. They’ve got amazing stage presence for only 2 people. And damn they were cool. So much cooler than us. And the sound was so together; the vibe was huge.

I wanted to be friends, but I think they knew they were cooler than us too. Don’t get me wrong, they were lovely people and we chatted a bit, but there was no exchange of details, no “hey we should play together again some time!”. It’s like dating, except for bands. We’re sitting at the table in the restaurant looking nervous about ordering the pasta (fettucini!? I’m totally going to spill this shit all over my white shirt) and wondering whether $15 was enough to spend on a bottle of wine; they’re checking their phone for messages and generally looking aloof.

Anyway. The point of my story is, that was a year ago. Last night we played The Wall in Leichhardt and absolutely killed it. It was wonderous strange. I was squinting into the red light, dimly aware of the connection between my voice and the resulting sound coming out from the speakers, cloaked in a guitar solo on my right and beautiful plinky bits on the left (Dusker-speak for piano). It broke down into a 4-part harmony acapella section. It occurred to me then that we had become that band. The “wow” band.

At least, that’s what it was like in my head. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.