Friday

Another great day in Melbourne. I absolutely love this city - it’s definitely on my list of places to visit again someday. There is so much to see and do, and in four days we’ve barely scratched the surface.

We started the day off right, with our first meat pies of the trip from Kenny’s Bakery down the street. Stephen has been looking forward to this moment for a long time. You’ll notice our friend Steve was with us again. He’s not only a great friend, but also an excellent wrangler of children.




After the Meat Pie Extravaganza, we headed back to our room for some down time before leaving for the show at 3pm. I thought that Stephen would be a giant bundle of nerves that wouldn’t be able to sit still, but instead he was a giant bundle of nerves that took a nice nap. Seeing him sleeping so comfortably made ME need to sleep, so we both had a much-needed rest. I wasn’t too stoked when he told me that it was time to get up, but he bribed me with some iced tea, and that did the job.

The shows are flawlessly-organized festivals, so all we had to do was go downstairs and hop into the van that was waiting to whisk us off to the venue. When we got downstairs, an awesome surprise was waiting for us - our friend, Jana. She lives in the states and works for an airline, so can fly around the world for free whenever she wants. She was actually insane enough to hop on a flight to Australia for the WEEKEND, so that she can go to two Descendents shows. That’s my favorite kind of crazy, and Jana is just lovely.

We got to the venue with many, many hours to spare, which was when Babysitter Steve (that sounds totally creepy, but he’s anything but) stepped in and was a massive help. Sophie was content to hang out and just take it all in, but Felix was excited to a degree that couldn’t be curbed, and he was pretty much all over the place.




Steve chilling out Fee Pac.






Bill with Evan Dando. I sort of wanted to put him (Evan, not Bill) in the bath and scrub his hair.




My husband with my boyfriend, Derek.



It was pretty great to get to see a lot of old friends, many of which I haven’t seen in years. I like to think that we’re all aging extremely gracefully.

And then it was time for the blessed event - Alkaline freaking Trio. Stephen, Sophie, and I have been counting down for this since the second that we first heard about the shows, and they didn’t disappoint. Matt and Dan are just sort of natural frontmen, and Derek is one of my/our top three favorite drummers of all time. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also extremely easy on the eyes, and one of the nicest guys ever born. It started raining during their set, which I’m sure was a giant nightmare for them equipment-wise, but added to the ambiance.




Bill Stevenson, greatest drummer of all time, taking a photo of Derek Grant, the other greatest drummer of all time.




Steve, Milo, and Felix watch Alkaline Trio.







Then more downtime in which we had to keep the beasts as out of the way as possible, and then it was time to ride the shuttle back to the stage to get ready for the Descendents. As I’ve said many times before, there’s no way that I could ever get tired of seeing them play. I’ve seen them hundreds of times, and it never, ever gets old.

Here's Stephen, moments before riding the shuttle over to the stage. He's convinced himself by this point that no one actually WANTS to see his band play, that the crowd will all leave and go home, that it's foolish for them to be headlining, that he's a terrible guitarist, and that he is for sure going to puke or even die. It's best to give him some space when he's like this (or take photos of him so that you can later mock him on the internet).



But even better than getting to see them play were the old friends that arrived just before. Jeff used to work with the band years ago, and is one of our dearest friends, and he brought his lovely wife Lou with them. I honestly don’t know when I’ve been so happy to see two people. I love them.

Jeff on the left, our friend Gary (who used to live in Ft. Collins, Colorado while we were there) in the middle, Stephen.



And then it was time for Stephen to get to work. The shift from doting father to rockstar is a blast to watch.

Backstage warm up.








Sophie with our friend, Jana, who is also a life-saver when it comes to wrangling kids.




The show was great - amazing as always - and Sophie was so proud and excited that I thought she would burst. Felix was like, “yeah, Daddy’s awesome, but can I go to sleep now?”. There’s nothing quite like holding the dead weight of a sleeping six year old while standing for an hour.

Hitting the stage.




A still life in Bug's world.






The All-o-gistics.




Somehow they went over schedule, and weren’t going to be allowed an encore. The crowd wasn’t having it, but the stage manager guy was holding firm as there’s a noise curfew with a $20,000 fine for going over. Fat Mike (NOFX) decided to take matters into his own hands, and got on the mic to announce that he would pay $5,000 towards the fine if they’d just play one more song. Other band guys started pooling money, and they got up to $12,000 covered before the stage manager was like, “just play a freaking song”.
It was a pretty ridiculous and chaotic, but fun way to end the show.

Tired daddy and Felix.



Stephen, relieved that it's all over and that he DIDN'T puke or die, and Jeff.




Aww.




The kids were officially done.




Jana and Steve were not.



Back to the hotel around 11pm. The other bands are also at our hotel, and everyone was headed out for a night of drinks. We tucked the kids into bed, then ate leftover Chinese food as a midnight snack, and were in bed at quarter to one, which is the latest we’ve managed to stay up since we’ve been here.

It’s now Saturday morning, and we’re getting ready to pack back up and head our separate ways. Stephen’s off to Sydney to play another show, and the kids and I are going to Perth. The kids are SO READY to be reunited with their grandparents, and I’m ready to see Auntie Judy, Uncle Ken, and the rest of the Perth crew.

In exciting news, Sophie slept until Stephen woke her up at 8am today. In unfortunate news, Felix was up at 6am. Little beast.