Good Charlotte Gig

Last Thursday night a mate and I rocked it at an intimate Good Charlotte gig at Luna Park, Sydney. It was a bizarre little setup with no opening bands and no tour; just a one off performance which was the band’s first in three years. When I heard that Good Charlotte had chosen Sydney to warm-up (if you will) before their official Cardiology album tour in January 2011, I jumped at the chance at snapping up a couple tickets.

Nigel (my mate) had actually been performing at his own gig on Hamilton Island – lucky bugger – and was due to land in Sydney hours before the show. It had been touch-and-go as his plane was delayed, so much so he texted to go on without him; but I would have none of that and was there for him when he landed. Then heading off in a general “towards the bridge” direction we made it to Luna Park with plenty of time to spare.

The concert was sponsored by Debit MasterCard which meant (though we didn’t approve) that the only way to get tickets was signing up for a Debit MasterCard or already owning one. Fortunately I already had one as we may have pulled the moral high ground and avoided the concert altogether. Funnily enough whilst lined up I saw a camera crew and told Nigel I was willing to bet on him being interviewed (he has a rocker hair-do). He laughed it off but I was right; the actual first words from the interviewer as she stopped at us was, “You look like you’re IN Good Charlotte!”

We laughed and enjoyed a pretty fun interview but didn’t shy from letting them know that the band had sold out a bit by plastering Mastercard over everything and further requiring a Mastercard to pick up tickets.

Once in we were actually treated to a bizarre (I know, I’ve used the term twice) burlesque show and the Space Cowboy, a bloke who swallows swords and performs a bunch of pretty gruesome acts. Dangling stuff from his eyes with hooks, juggling knives and my personal favourite: blowing up a clown balloon (the type you make animals with) and swallowing it. Not done yet he proceeded to pop the balloon with another sword swallow and fish the broken thing from his stomach with huge tweezers. Yes, interesting stuff and a shout out to all the girls in front of us who feinted; allowing us to slowly make our way to about five rows from the front.

The main show? Excellent. Joel and Benji had some pretty funny banter and yet some terribly horrible attempts at humour but all it did was add to the intimacy of the show; they let us know they were all pretty rusty and if they sounded like they were struggling it is because they were. Benji was holding a glass of wine through much of his talking and it left you feeling he was performing in front of 50.

They pulled out all their hits, I think they fairly played two or three tracks from every album which was excellent. It left me promising myself to dig out the old mp3’s and re-listen to some of their old stuff. Upon leaving, some two hours after they sung their first, those interviewers saw us and rushed over to ask us what we thought? “Loved it” we said. “Still not getting a Mastercard” my mate said.

Great little review here that pretty much nails it: http://www.themusicnetwork.com/reviews/live/2010/11/19/live-review-good-charlotte/

Also, Jakob Dezwart took some great photos here: http://www.jakobdezwart.com/