Sydney Road Street Party

When someone asks you if you want to go to a free music festival, and you have nothing better to do, and you had made a promise to yourself to do as many things as possible while in Australia, generally you go.  So I did.  Lorenzo--my Italian neighbor down the hall and basically the only other sociable person in my building--and I met up with a few friends at the Sydney Road for the street party this afternoon.  Lorenzo and I were out until 3 am last night at a karaoke and pool place, so I was already tired at the start of this whole adventure, but I'm glad I went.

There were multiple stages set up along the few blocks of closed-off Sydney Road (a few kilometers north of campus), and throughout the day there were a bunch of performances.  Technically this was a sort of preview of the Brunswick Music Festival, and a lot of the performers from today are playing again in the upcoming weeks.

Sydney Road Street Party

When we arrived, there was a really weird band on stage.  The drummer and rhythm guitarist were pretty normal by rock band standards, but the bass player looked like he was tweaking out in his own world.  And then there was the lead guitarist/singer, who had fro-like curly hair, big shades, and a gray suit with flared ankles--this guy was straight from the sixties.  As if he wasn't strange enough, he was singing a song about what it's like to get old; my favorite line, which he repeated several times: "I'm fifty!  I've got to get a colonoscopy!"  Despite the fact that they were totally weird, these guys were actually pretty decent musicians.  At one point a couple started doing some sort of salsa or swing dance in front of the stage (totally awkward at a retro rock concert, I know), and then this strung-out shirtless hippy dude was dancing a bit up there, too.  It's safe to say that free music festivals don't always attract the most normal of people.  Honestly, for me the people watching was almost as fun as the music itself.

Weird retro-rock bell-bottoms guitarist who sang about his colonoscopy

Lorenzo, our friends Monica and Alessandra, and I spent the rest of the day walking around the street, looking at all the clothes, food (you name it, they had that cuisine), and art the vendors had set up, and watching the other performances.  During happy hour we wandered into a funky dive bar/beer garden for a quick drink.  The place sort of reminded me of a frat house, both in terms of the way it smelled (cigarettes, old furniture, and body odor) and the amazingly eclectic collection of art and drawings on the walls.  It was filled with hipsters, though, so we didn't stay long, but I'm glad I found that place.  Eventually we met up with a few other Italian girls that Lorenzo knows and whom I met a couple nights ago, and we continued to wander around the festival.

Does this really need a caption?

The lineup for this festival was really diverse.  There was a belly dancing group, a bunch of hari krishnas doing a musical procession with a drum, a group of three kids doing some pretty respectable freestyle rapping, and also a few people who just brought boom-boxes and set up impromptu dance parties.  The best (and last) group was an awesome jazzy-funk band called Saskwatch (check them out at www.saskwatch.com.au.)  The singer--the only woman among them--had an incredible set of pipes, and the musicians all knew what they were doing.  The sax player had a pretty sweet solo.

There were a bunch of small busker groups like this playing happy funky stuff.

Before we headed home, six of us stopped at a restaurant for an hour to grab drinks and dessert and chat.  Monica and I were the only non-Italians, but the others did a pretty good job of staying in English.  (Actually, I really like listening to them speak italian even though I don't understand it.  It's such a nice language!)  Lorenzo, Monica, Alessandra and I are going to try to drive the Great Ocean Road this weekend, so we also did some planning for that.  Can't wait.

So here I am back at home, exhausted because we probably walked multiple miles up and down Sydney Road.  I don't have class until 4:15 tomorrow, but I'm so tired I'm still going to bed early.  In all, not a terrible way to spend a weekend.