Who remembers those heady days?

I love it when someone starts a story with "remember when...?" blah, blah, blah. I NEVER thought I'd get to the age where I would be one of those people I so despised in my youth, that loved to reflect on how good things were when they were a young, angry adolescent.

Angst - I love that word. Just like I love and want to proudly re-claim the word 'GRUNGE'. Remember when you were embarrassed to be labeled a 'grunge' lover? In fact I'm actually wearing my thermals right now and rather proudly too, as I blog! Oooh, and I just want to state for the record that I am a Gen X'er. I love that too. But more on that later.

Just checked. There is a lot of 'love' in this, my first blog. Uncanny really. And I ain't talking X-Men! But more on THAT later!

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending The Fauves 1000th show at the East Brunswick Club. For someone who is sponsored by Centrelink, it was the BEST $18.00 I've spent in the last three months. The pleasure and joy I got, not only from listening too, but watching the other punters, was priceless. Everyone seemed to have this look that spread across their faces, like they just got home after a really shitty day and slipped on their comfy bath robe, sat in the best chair in the lounge room, put their favourite album on repeat, and with their drink of choice, placed just near their fingertips, they were in heaven. Pure joy and adulation. Men and women in their early to mid thirties, out on a chilly Friday night, re-living their youth. Well, that's what I was doing.

The year was 1997. The city, Brisbane. My journey with The Fauves actually began the year before in 1996 with the release of their much lauded album, 'Future Spa'. Back in the day, Triple J was THE radio station of choice. The Fauves had a 'radio friendly' track called 'Dogs Are The Best People' on high rotation, and it was made impossible to ignore them. Little did I know of the actual genius that is Andrew Cox. But it was soon made apparent. For God's sake, he plays the guitar left handed AND upside-down! And the rest of the band? Well, along with the vocal styling and unforgettable guitar riffs of the Dr, the strong beats coming from Adam Newy and the thumping bass lines from Andrew 'Jack' Dyer, what more could a gal ask for?

I was riding the high, having become of age during a time where music had an agenda and was meaningful - well, to me at least. Videos that accompanied the tunes actually told a story. No naked women, pumpin' and grindin' their booties just for the hell of it. It was also the future. The Internet was relatively new to us. Chat rooms were to be seen to be believed! People were actually seeking each other out across the oceans for a chat, not just cheap thrills. My favourite haunt was the Pearl Jam Chat Line. Ahh, times! I had 'em! Ten years on, I'm still friends and have contact with at least 6 people from that time and that chat room. Sad? I think not. Adventures? Definitely!

Brisbane led me to be working as a Nanny. I was in-charge of 3 kids. Their parents had gone to the USA for 3 weeks, and it it was up to me to look after them 24/7. We had a visitor come stay with us from Melbourne to help out in other areas of running the house/business. She had not really had much to do with the net, so, me being the big computer geek I thought I was, showed her the ropes.

Looking after 3 children all day saw my nights ends at 8:30pm. I had been asleep for an hour when the visitor from down south came a-knocking, wanting information. Knowing how much I loved my music, she wanted to know if I had a heard of a band called The Fauves? Who, I thought, half asleep? Spell it. Oh, The Fauves! Yeah, sure, I know of them. Well, she then informed me she had found her way onto some Italian Soccer chat line and was talking with a guy who said he was from the band. No way! Well, just our luck I had seen Rage the week before and the Guest Programmers where the boys from the Mornington Peninsula. No, not Australian Crawl, but the other band from all the way down there. I was clued up, half asleep, but ready to go! Let the quizzing begin!

After asking loads questions, many I thought, that only a band member would know, I was still not sure we were being told the truth. Who knows, the person on the other end could have watched Rage too. So we set the ultimate challenge. If your who you say you are, put us on the door at your next gig!

A week later and my lovely mother locked-in as the baby-sitter for the night, my visitor from the south and I, heading off for the drive to the Gold Coast. Once there, after much, 'no, you do it, no, you ask', I finally got the courage to ask the door lady if our names were on the list. (There were no door bitches in those days - ok, I'll take my rose coloured glasses off!) Yep, they sure were. Come on in! Crap!

Admittedly, in the lead up to this gig, I had to do some investigating. I turned to my trusty stack of old Rolling Stone magazines to see if I could find a picture of The Fauves and lock in the image of the bass player. This was our free ticket in - Andrew 'Jack' Dyer.

I don't remember a whole lot from that night. The details of the gig itself are sketchy. What songs they played, I could not tell you. But I do remember looking for a bald-headed man with a great smile, the bass player. We were fooled a couple of times until...shit - there he was!!! We were falling over ourselves, embarrassed and not sure whether to identify ourselves. We weren't groupies, that's for sure. I was and still am, just a massive lover of music. My friend, she was totally new to the whole thing. She had never even been to a gig before this one!

We had nothing to lose. He had put us on the list - he was not an impostor. This was it. I went up to him and said, 'hey, are you (insert soccer handle here)?' ' Yep!' (insert embarrassed grin). 'Well, we are Son and Sylv.' OH MY GOD!

That is how my appreciation for this band took on another level. Jack and I kept in touch over the next year or so. I remember going to an All Ages gig in Fortitude Valley, this time, solo. I was so stoked to think I would be home from the gig at 6:30pm! Loser! And the kids!? Nobody enjoys a tune like under-agers! There is no pretension, no worries. They are just there to have a good time.

I got to catch up with Jack before the gig kicked off and did something I don't do all that often. I asked for a request. The only other person I have asked a request from is Eddie Vedder and let me tell you, that is TOTALLY another story for another time!

What song did I ask for? A semi-hidden track from 'Future Spa' called 'Everybody's Getting A Three Piece Together.' It is a real gem, and totally biographical of the times and the bands that were a product of them. Nirvana, Silverchair, Ash, Goo Goo Dolls, Tonic, Better Than Ezra, Nada Surf, etc. Jack told me that Andrew first came up with the song one day, just mucking around and putting crazy lyrics to the tune of the TV commercial, 'We're Having Chicken Tonight'.

Did Jack come through? Yep, he sure did. It was the triumphant return to the stage, otherwise known as 'the encore', that saw The Fauves play my request. Jack, in all his glory, shoes off, clean-skin head glistening on stage, looked my way and threw me a grin. For that moment, I forgot that I was 24 and jumped around like I was 16. Times!

I had gone to America for a year in 1998, and again for 6 months in 2000. When I returned from this last jaunt in 2000, I was nursing a broken heart. My first gig back in Australia, this time in Adelaide, was The Fauves. All I wanted was to do was relive that time where I had no worries, my heart was still intact and Jack would flash that awesome smile and send a friendly hello my way. But to my surprise, no Jack! Crap! We had lost touch over the years and his departure was a shock to me. As it turned out, Jack left the band, to pursue his career as a builder. Timothy Cleaver took over bass duties.

It's now 2007. I've returned to Melbourne and again, my heart has been broken in the most horrific way. Times have been tough, to put it mildly. The only relief from the thoughts that constantly swarm my brain is to go to a gig. For 63 minutes, I can forget all that crap up there and just get involved in the tunes.

Stumbling upon The Fauves gig at The East Brunswick Club was a oasis in a dessert full of No Hope. The support was Dave Graney. That, along with all the punters there, roughly the same age as me, got me thinking. I'm 35, not married, not in a relationship, and currently unemployed. I'm a rippa catch! Remember the days full of hope and wild dreams, attending various O-Balls where the line up consisted of TISM, Painters and Dockers, Rat Cat, The Clouds, Tumbleweed, The Falling Joys, DefFx, The Hoodoo Guru's, The Cruel Sea, Regurgitator, Scream Feeder, Spiderbait, The Fauves, and many, many other bands of this caliber, all Australian and all out to have fun and perform? It wasn't about image, it was about music and lyrics and times!

It got me thinking to my current plight. Wouldn't it be grand to put together a concert, kinda like a benefit show, where those who's futures didn't quite pan out the way they thought they might back in the nineties, could get together, and for 3 hours or more, revel in a time where the future was something to look forward too, not dread, and you could hang with people, just like you, that had had their hearts broken, along with their dreams, but didn't have to be ashamed of that? A time where footy was still the peoples game and petrol cost .70cents a litre. Where John Howard was the better option to Paul Keating. Skateboarding Is Not A Crime was a sticker, and not a fashion statement. MySpace was were you stood at a gig and if anyone got too close, you clocked them, not wrote them a witty diatribe.

Well, I kinda got to relive that time, when I was a witness to The Fauves 1000th Show. I forgot just how many albums and songs they had. There was no 'Dogs Are The Best People', or 'Self Abuser', but the show was still amazing!

And the highlight? The last encore of course! The boys invited a special person on stage that without whom, they wouldn't have been the band that they became to be. On he strode, Andrew 'Jack' Dyer, in all his glory, shoes off, clean-skin head glistening, on stage. The song? I couldn't believe my luck! 'Everybody's Getting A Three Piece Together'. It seemed that for at least three minutes, that things may actually get better, and that I had a future to took forward too.