An Act

Last night the Horden Pavilion hosted Gigantour, a world tour featuring four heavy metal bands. The headline act was American speed/thrash/metal band, MegaDeath. Needless to say some of my Sydney readers would have been there and I’m expecting a rush of reports from inside the House of Metal. Meanwhile, here’s a report from the outside.

I arrived late in the afternoon with some fans who groaned at the sight of a long queue. Apparently they had to first line up to collect tickets thence queue again, for some other reason. Opposite were the Fox Studio bars packed with pre-concert revellers tuning up for the big gig. The precinct was already a buzz of excitement from animated fans, two hours before commencement. Booze was also available inside the concert.

The crowd were predominately white male, aged from twenty to forty years and hailing from the western suburbs, or further afield. Their uniform was black with a smattering of check flannels shirts worn by unreconstructed bogans. The most notable feature was the abundance of T-shirt slogans which basically said, ‘Heavy Fucking Metal’. If nothing else, unambiguous.

Whilst waiting at the rank I witnessed an early fight when some late drinkers decided to queue jump. So it was no surprise when arriving later with more fans to find a heavy police presence accompanied by a riot squad. They were dealing with the occasional wayward fan being dragged from inside the concert by security.

Later I received a report from a patient at Saint Vincents emergency department who told of a female concert-goer, brought in after being punched and kicked unconsciousness. Nice. On a further visit to Fox I watched as police subdued an out of control male fan who screamed, ‘Fuck off you fuckin’ pigs ! I want Megadeath ! Megadeath forever !’. Which was kind of ironic given he was on the ground under six cops. Megadeath indeed.

Yet it was my last fare, middle-aged fans from the bush who put it all into perspective. They revealed that Megadeath’s front man and founder is a born-again Christian, and 'the whole in-your-face, rebellion thing is purely an act'. That’s entertainment I guess.

Comments

[clarky]

Love your blog. Justwondering what is an "unreconstructed bogan". I'm fully aware of what a bogan is...just not sure about the first part.

[adrian]

Thanks clarky. 'Unreconstructed bogan' is just a loose term I use to identify those old bogans who steadfastly refuse to lose their flanno shirts, for any occasion. Not that's there's anything wrong with flannos, I wear mine to the local supermarket. But for a big concert in the City, that's pushing it. Or as my son laughingly remarked, 'It's good to see them keeping it real !'. Might have more on this endangered species tomorrow...