Kasey
OK, I kinda...blab on here. I wrote this one day at work, and just kept going. I wrote it in Word, it turned out to be 9 pages long (eep) so excuse the rambling, excuse the sometimes not so lucid crap, but this is me, this is my story. And hey, yours doesn't need to be anything like this! It can be as detailed or as sketchy as you want...just make it yours! *g*
Hi, my name is Kasey and I am a sometimes-reformed, self-proclaimed former popette! *g* This is my Eskimo Joe journey to date!
My first exposure to Eskimo Joe was the video clip ‘Wake Up’. I vividly remember seeing the video clip and wondering who the hell this band was. I didn’t like the song, nor did I like the video clip. I didn’t know anything about the band or their other music at this stage. Plus, I was still in my ‘popette’ stage. Any music that was pop; I liked (Backstreet Boys, NSync, Westlife, 98 Degrees…you name it. If it was pop, I probably liked it!).
I had heard the name ‘Eskimo Joe’, as my brother liked the band. He had their album ‘Girl’ and he had even seen them at one of the festivals (I think BDO or Homebake, can't remember which one). I do know that when I was making a CD of Australian music for a friend of mine overseas, I did ask my brother for his Australian albums, and ‘Girl’ was one of the albums he let me borrow. However, I didn’t listen to the album, just recorded a song (I can't even remember what song it was now, probably Wake Up, or Liar, whichever one he recommended) and then gave him the CD back.
My second exposure to the band was the video clip ‘Liar’. I remember seeing it on Rage, or Video Hits, or Channel V (I think it was still the Red channel back then) and I liked the song, but didn’t really take too much notice of the band or the music. (Remember – popette!!)
It wasn’t until I heard the song ‘From the Sea’ that I instantly thought ‘Wow, this is amazing!’. I hadn’t even seen the band at this stage, just heard the song and loved it. Loved it. So completely. It was everything I wanted in a song. And Kav’s voice? Wow. At this time, I had never heard anyone like him (and still haven’t!).
And then I saw the video clip.
Wow.
That’s all I can remember thinking.
I don’t even know what it was. Maybe it was Kav (probably!!), maybe it was a barefoot Kav, maybe it was the song and Kav…I don’t know. But I do know that I bought the album as soon as it was released and instantly, instantly fell in love with the music. And I can still remember thinking that Kav was such a hottie. I didn’t know his name at this stage. Didn’t know anything at all about any of them, just knew that they were Eskimo Joe and they sang incredible music. I have total love for ‘Carousel’ on ASIAC, btw. It’s so incredible. Just Kav. *g*
And then ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ was released. I saw the video clip (the warehouse one, not the original one) and again, it was like wow. But this time it was double Wow and with a capital ‘W’. Kav was just…and Stu? And Joel? Boy, they weren’t the guys I remember seeing in ‘From the Sea’! They were older and better and…and…gorgeous! And Kav’s voice…and the way he is in the video clip? I bought the album the day it was released. It went straight into my car and didn’t leave for about 6 weeks. I knew all the songs within a week, and immediately loved ‘Breaking Up’, ‘Beating like a Drum’ and ‘Suicide Girl’. They were my favourites from the start. I loved Kav’s voice on the whole album, but especially on ‘London Bombs’.
I still hadn’t seen them live, however. They had never toured Toowoomba (where I live) and even though they had played in Brisbane and on the Coast (90mins and 180mins drive respectively from Toowoomba) I always found out about their tours AFTER they were over. I wasn’t online much at this stage (working 8+ hours a day on a computer and having dial-up internet at home pretty much caused me to lose interest in the Net) but after talking to my sister, who told me about MySpace, I signed up and then found Eskimo Joe on MySpace and got added as a friend. This way, I could stay on top of tours and news!
I remember vividly having a conversation with my sister, that I would love, love, LOVE to see Eskimo Joe in concert. This was around May 2006 (Nickelback were touring and I wanted to see them, but wasn’t keen on going by myself) and I remember telling my sister that the one band I really wanted to see live was Eskimo Joe, and that we had to see them, no matter what. Even if it meant travelling to Brisbane to do it!
And then in March (I think) I found out that Eskimo Joe were coming to Toowoomba by reading the local entertainment section in the local paper. A concert was scheduled for Rumours Nightclub on May 5. I remember thinking, ‘I wanna see them so bad!!’.
And then my sister and I were driving somewhere together, not long after, and during a conversation about what concerts she wanted to see, I mentioned that Eskimo Joe were coming to Toowoomba and that Little Birdy were coming as well. And she was like ‘Really?’. We talked about ticket prices, and whether the show would be all ages or over 18 and that was when I found out that Little Birdy had been to Toowoomba before. Several times, apparently. They do a lot of acoustic shows at the Tats (a popular pub in the city) but because my sister is like me (not keen on attending concerts by herself), she had never gone to see them. Anyway…after discussing the concert, nothing had been decided, it was just more like ‘Well, we wanna see them but…’
A couple weeks passed and the local TV station started playing ads, promoting the upcoming concert. The ads didn’t mention whether the show was over 18 but I kept seeing these ads and really wanting to go. So I mentioned it again to my sister around the middle of April, probably close to the 20th, or something and she was like ‘yeah, I had a look. It’s all ages plus it’s sold out’. Damn!!
**side note: I am well aware that not all under 18s are screaming, crying little groupie wannabes. Its just that I know what *some* of them are like and I wasn’t willing to attend a concert where there may have been hundreds of screaming, crying little girls trying to get up onstage or screaming all night. That is not my idea of a good gig!**
So I was really disappointed. Really disappointed. I was so bummed that my favourite band were coming to Toowoomba (which they never, ever do!!) and I was going to miss the concert. And especially at Rumours! I’d been to Rumours, knew that it was this intimate little venue, that could accommodate no more than probably 700ish people, so I knew that we would have had a good chance of being close to the stage, and actually *seeing* the band instead of just *hearing* them! And the fact that it was on a Saturday night, which meant I knew I was going to be in town (I travel a lot for work)…well, I was resigned to having to wait until another tour to see them!
And then my sister announced she had lied. And that the show wasn’t all ages. And that she had already BOUGHT THE TICKETS!!! Woo and Hoo!!! They were an early birthday present (my birthday is the 17th May, concert the 5th)
I was stunned. Literally speechless. I just stared at her and gaped like a goldfish.
‘Eskimo Joe tickets?’
‘Yep.’
‘Oh good.’
Oh good? God, how lame! ‘Oh good’ could not even begin to describe what I was feeling. But I think I was in shock, because it was a couple hours later, when my sister dropped into work with the tickets that I actually realised…
I WAS GOING TO SEE ESKIMO JOE LIVE!!!
She showed me the tickets and I just grinned, like a stupid idiot. I was going to be seeing Eskimo Joe in concert. In Toowoomba. At Rumours. In a nice little intimate venue. Not like out at the uni (they use the gym and its big and large and yuk) or at the Empire theatre (all seating, no standing, no fun!). I was going to see Kav. In the flesh. I think I was walking on air for a couple days after that. I was so excited; the guys I work with were like ‘Why are you so happy?’ (They get suspicious if I’m happy *g* cuz they think I’m planning something!) and I was like ‘Cuz I’m going to see Eskimo Joe in concert’.
‘Who?’
Excuse them, they’re male.
*g* Seriously, I understand why they would ask ‘Who’. Most of the blokes I work with are over 40, married with families and wouldn’t know current music if it bit them on the arse! And until recently, I was the only female in the office, so I was vastly outnumbered. Still am. 2 females working with 8 men (in the office) but 200+ more in the field? Vastly, vastly outnumbered.
Anyway…I didn’t know how I was going to last until the concert. I was just so hyped to be seeing them; I was in such a good mood!
And then it was the day before the concert. My sister and I were out, having dinner (we do that occasionally) and the first question I asked her, once we were seated at the table, was ‘What time tomorrow night?’.
If I had of known then, what I know now, I would have made arrangements to go out to dinner before the concert, specifically at Montezumas, or at one of the little café’s in the city… (the guys were spotted ‘ambling’ in the city and then eating dinner at Montezumas)…not to stalk them, mind you, but just to see them. But hey, I didn’t know that they would be in Toowoomba earlier, I thought they’d hang around Brisbane and then travel up just in time for rehearsal and then concert. But no, they travelled to Toowoomba and did some ‘ambling’. Wonder what they thought of the city? I don’t think much of it. The main city centre is pretty dead, especially on a Saturday afternoon. And the city centre is boring as hell. Nothing exciting, that’s for sure. Anyway…
So we arranged a time for her to pick me up and had dinner, blah blah blah.
Next day dawns.
It’s Saturday, May 5. The day of the concert. I spent the day doing what I normally do. Reading. Nothing special, didn’t start getting ready until around 6ish. I’m pretty casual with what I wear, so I don’t spend hours agonising over clothes. I just wore jeans, a nice top and my high-heeled boots (bad mistake – standing all night = blisters!!). I think I spent more time on my hair than my clothes! (I hate my hair, too long, too blah, too boring to even mention!!) And then I heard my sister pull up outside my place. Just before closing the front door, I remember (and this is very vivid) standing at the door and looking at my digital camera and thinking ‘Maybe I should slip it into my pocket’. Because it’s a tiny little thing, no bigger than my palm and takes incredible photos.
But I didn’t.
I DIDN’T.
Believe me, I was banging my head on a very hard surface after that night, because where we ended up at the concert, I would have been able to take some INCREDIBLE photos. *sigh* I didn’t even remember to take my mobile phone (which has a camera). My sister did, she got some ok pictures, but with my digital camera…*sigh* NEXT TIME!!!
Anyway…we drove into the city (I live about 10-15 minutes drive from the city centre) and drove past Rumours. The car park was full and there was a line almost to the street. This was at about 7:15pm. So, my sister found a park, we walked up to Rumours and stood in line. Luckily we only had to wait 15 or so minutes before they started letting people in. We walked into the club and my sister head straight to the merch stand (she bought a shirt/singlet – can't remember now) but I didn’t buy anything (forgot to take my credit card as well!). Then we wandered around a bit, before settling on a (temporary) place at the front of the club, off to the side of the stage. We chatted for a bit, and then the support act (Brisbane based band) came onstage.
Can we just say, SUCK?
They so totally sucked. Like, majorly. At first, I couldn’t tell if they were all guys, all girls or half and half (must be the emo thing). The drummer was the best of the 4 of them. There were 2 guys and 2 girls. They tried to make some jokes, they played very, very bad songs and I was cracking sarcastic jokes the whole time they were onstage. Ugh. Hated them, hated their music. I can't even remember the name of the band. Seriously. I don’t know who chose them, or why they were chosen, but they sucked.
So, the support act finished (thank god) and my sister and I moved closer to the stage. We stopped probably 3 or so metres from the stage and stood around for awhile; watching as the support act left the club with not one person stopping them or talking to them (that I saw) and then Little Birdy came onstage. We moved closer, to stand right in front of the speakers and probably only less then a metre from the stage.
There were 3 girls in front of us (more about them later) and some more people to our right and behind us, so we had a pretty good view of the stage and everything. Katy Steele was incredible on stage. I had only heard a couple of Little Birdy songs (Beautiful to Me was one of them) but Katy is amazing! She has so much energy and she’s just…wow. The set was pretty good, probably about 45mins long (if I recall rightly) and they did an amazing version of ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’. I was pretty impressed with the set.
But I kinda lost track of the set right towards the end. I happened to look into the backstage area and saw Kav, leaning up against a rail, drinking from a cup (not sure what he was drinking, but I know it was Kav), watching the Little Birdy set, so I pointed him out to my sister. I don’t know how long he was there before I noticed him, but he left probably 2 songs from the end of Little Birdys set.
It was probably around 10:15pm by the time Eskimo Joe came onstage. The drummer and keyboardist (can't remember their names, sorry!) came on first, then Joel and Stu and then Kav. We didn’t see much of Joel, because he was on the far side of the stage, but we saw a lot of Stu (who was right in front of us) and Kav (who was centre stage). The stage went dark, then ‘Beating like a Drum’ started and the spotlight shone on Kav and he started singing. *sigh*
**Bear with me – this next lot comes from memory and unfortunately, my memory about the concert is not great.**
Kav was dressed all in black and had a tie on. I want to say purple, but it could have been red. I know he was wearing a tie, but removed it during the night (a roadie had to remove it cuz it got stuck to the cords on Kav). Well, at least I think he was wearing a tie, because I also remember him wearing a red scarf as well. Hmm…anyone know?
He did the whole beating drum thing and then looked over in our direction. I don’t know what he was looking at, I’m not even going to presume he was looking at us just because he looked in ‘our general direction’, though at first I thought maybe he’d seen me point him out earlier, I don’t know.
These are what I remember most about the night:
(a) The band had 2 Muppet characters sitting on one of the amps. I can't remember the names of these characters, but they’re the 2 old dudes who sit in the balcony in the Muppet Show and criticise everyone. My sister tried to take a photo, but she couldn’t. I remember thinking ‘how cool to see that, something I grew up watching’.
(b) Kav looked incredible. And sounded incredible.
(c) At the beginning of ‘Sarah’, when Kav does the whole ‘shhh’ thing, he stood first on one side of the stage, did his little hip swivel thing and then stood on our side of the stage and did it again. With the whole hand thing he does. (If you’ve seen anything of Eskimo Joe, you’ll know what hand thing I’m talking about!)
(d) The 3 girls in front of us were pissing off Stu! *g* They weren’t doing anything. Not clapping, not singing, not moving. They just stood there and looked at the band. My sister said that every now and then, Stu would look down at them and shake his head and kinda get this pissed off look on his face. *g*
(e) ‘My idea of a fucking great gig is one where the Bundy is flowing and there’s no air-conditioning!’ – Kav
(f) Then the club turns the air-conditioning on and causes Kav to respond ‘They heard us!’
(g) When introducing Joel, Kav said (I hope this is right) ‘I’ve heard his name being screamed out all night!’
(h) Kav dedicated ‘This is Pressure’ to Little Birdy
(i) I didn’t see it (or, if I did, I don’t remember it), but Kav also did the whole arms above his head thing (like I’ve seen in some pictures). My sister was the one who told me this.
(j) Between the end of the main show and the first encore, the crowd were stamping their feet, cheering, clapping, trying to get the band back out on stage. And when Kav walked back out onstage, he did the whole ‘stamping feet’ think as he did so.
(k) Between the first and second encore (I have never been to a concert where the band does 2 encores!), Stu comes out and gets one side of the crowd to scream, then the other side, then all of the crowd and then waves the rest of the band back out onstage.
(l) The acoustic encore was incredible. Just incredible.
We weren’t in a great spot, because we had the spotlight near Joel shining right in our eyes, so we had to constantly move to see the band. But the sound was amazing; we got to see the guys up close (sweat pouring off Stu and Kav’s faces) and I FINALLY got to see Eskimo Joe live.
I only had one moment during the concert when I kinda went ‘Nah, I don’t think so Kav’. He was onstage, and he said something like ‘what did you think of the support act? They’re from your area, so make sure you support them’ (if not those words, something similar) and he when he said ‘your area’ he held his arms out and pointed to the crowd. But I don’t agree with him when he says ‘you should support them’. I was like, ‘yeah, well they have to be good before I’ll support them!’. But of course, he was just doing his bit for Australian music. But seriously…the support band totally sucked!
After months and months of reading and hearing how good the guys are in concert, how they really connect with the audience, how they sound…well, I was not disappointed. I was more than satisfied. WAY more than satisfied!
Will I be seeing them again? You bet. My former almost sister in law (well, kinda of complicated story, but she was engaged to my brother, they had a baby, they broke up, but we still see her and she’s still like a member of the family) is also an Eskimo Joe fan (couldn’t attend the May 5 concert cuz she was with my parents visiting my dads mother) has put her hand up to come to the next concert. So I can't wait for the next tour. I don’t care if we have to go to Brisbane for it. I want to see the guys again. Hell, if I could, I’d go to all Brisbane concerts and any coast ones as well! It just depends on my sister (as she drives when we go to Brisbane) and if she’s interested. Duh, how could she not be? *g*
As I’ve said before, Kav is my favourite. Distinctive voice (have yet to hear anyone like him!), brilliant lyricist, unique and special.
So this is my story as a fan. I freely admit that I was not a fan of Eskimo Joe from the start. It wasn’t until ‘From the Sea’ that I became a fan. I have a whole new appreciation for the album ‘Girl’. I will admit that it is Kav’s distinctive voice and song writing style that caught me at first, but the whole band and the music keeps me wanting more. I freely admit to being a Kav-holic. I embrace my Inner Groupie far more than I probably should. I may act a little silly at times, but I know my limits and I always take a step back if I see myself getting too ‘aaaaaaahhhhhhh!’ towards the band. I know how far to push it before people start looking at me like I’m not quite all there. Even when I was 12, 13, 14, being a New Kids on the Block fan (I told you – popette!), being at a NKOTB concert, seeing the guys before the concert, as one of them was hanging out the window, I was never screaming or crying (like some were!). I’m older now, so I’ve been there, done that, know the limits and am realistic about life. But it’s still nice to look at Kav and appreciate what I see and hear! *g*
But I also admit that I am not a groupie in the truest sense of the word. I do not want to sleep with, stalk or harass any member of the band. I love the music, I love the guys, and I want to support great Australian music. I want to see Eskimo Joe succeed overseas. I want more people to see the goodness that is Eskimo Joe, to really listen to Kav’s lyrics, to hear his voice and go ‘Wow, this band really has something’.
