This was one of the many shows where I’d either head to the Gold Coast or Byron to see a second show of a touring band. I went down with my girlfriend at the time, and we rolled into Byron Bay around 3 in the afternoon. We’d booked a room there a few days before, and hadn’t even thought of pre-booking tickets to the show.

So anyway- we arrived and got to the reception desk. As it happened, the hotel had stuffed up our booking and didn’t have it in their books. Luckily for me, the guy at reception was the same guy I’d spoken to to book the room a few days before, so he remembered me. What was even better, was the only room they had left was the penthouse suite. Before you get too excited, remember that the Great Northern is pretty much a country pub, so the penthouse suite isn’t that much chop, but it beat the shit out of the dorm we’d booked.

So we got our room key and headed upstairs, only to run into JC (PF bass player) in the hall. We were chatting away and he asked if we were down for the show, which of course my answer was yes. Little did we know, it’s actually sold out days beforehand. Extremely lucky we ran into JC, as he put us on the door. Phew. Could have been a much wasted mission!

We went and grabbed some dinner somewhere and managed to catch both Bluebottle Kiss and Big Heavy Stuff. I remember Big Heavy Stuff doing an encore, which I thought was odd considering they were the support. No matter- it was appreciated nonetheless.

Powderfinger played a great set. Unfortunately I remember nothing of the actual show, except that it was good. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve been to a PF show that wasn’t.

Anyhoo- the next day we awoke to a flat battery in the car and had to wait for about 4 hours for the NRMA to come and jumpstart us. Turned out the battery was rooted, and we didn’t have enough cash to buy a new one. The NRMA guy said we’d make it back to Brisbane so long as we didn’t stop, so that’s what we did….. constantly freaking out that we’d run out of fuel.

Ah- well there you go- yet another show story that had bugger-all to do with the actual show!