Standing at the platform at Ringwood waiting for the train to take us to Sound Relief when the sky turned black as doom.  This pretty much set the tone for the weather, clearly God has a bit of a sense of humour raining over an inch of rain on a bushfire relief concert. This did not dampen the atmosphere at all, the reason we were there and the amazing lineup more than distracted from the damp, and the good old footy-style plastic poncho kept a lot of it off.

Dodgy phone camera photo

It was a long day for the kids (we left home about 10:30am, and the concert was due to finish 10:30pm) so we loaded up bags of food, books, and charged all the phones and ipods to keep them occupied.  Connor was hanging out for Midnight Oil, who were, of course, last, but he went the distance well.  It was also Connor’s first concert, so we weren’t sure about the volume, but the MCG is so big it wasn’t stressfully loud, and he had earplugs for when it got too much.

It was just too cool to be at such an amazing event as a family.  Singing along with such legendary bands, and our kids knowing the words and singing along, was such a special time – normally when I’m in seating at a gig I wish I had gone for the mosh, but I wouldn’t have missed that day with my family for anything.

Contrary to the Herald Scum report, the highlight of the night was absolutely not Kylie Minogue, who claimed that I Still Call Australia Home was the defacto second Australian anthem.  Which just goes to show she’s lived outside Australia so long she hasn’t heard I am You Are, We Are Australian…why would we need to sing I still Call Australia Home, since we live here it’s quite obviously home. The fact that it’s the Qantas theme song, and Qantas were a major sponsor was not lost on us.  But other than that one bit of cynical marketing, the rest of the event was just infused with the community spirit of support for the victims of bushfire, and the coming together of artists and fans in support.

What was the highlight? There were too many big moments to honestly limit it to one highlight, but the biggest for Mon especially :

Hunners! (Photo from JamesDPhotography, CC licensed (by-nc-nd))

Bands that we’ve grown to love late in their careers, too late to have ever seen them live, and they were there.  Hunters, Oils, surprise guests Liam Finn’s Uncle Nick and N-Dog, AKA Crowded House, Split Enz…Split Enz, man, unbelievable, they broke up 25 years ago! These bands were all still great live, showing why they are legends.  Plenty of other bands were great to see – during Augie March’s One Crowded hour, the sky turned dark again, it was so in keeping with the style and content of the song it could’ve been deliberate!

The Melbourne lineup was so superior to the Sydney one – while Sydney had some good bands too like Little Birdy, Hoodoos and You Am I, we had the legends. Sydney was a bit more like a telethon…Marcia Hines…who on earth is Taylor Swift? And while Melbourne’s climax came courtesy of the reformation of live legends Midnight Oil, Sydney rocked out to………Barry Gibb??  Did your grandma stay up that late? :D