I woke up one morning and was scrolling my Facebook feed whilst enjoying my morning coffee when I cam across an image that made me stop in my tracks. It showed a hand drawn advertisement for The Living End playing at the Punters Club in Fitzroy, and it promised free entry. The date was May 7, today’s date. I was instantly excited, but then deflated, as I realised the post was in a “music of the 90s” group I am in. Obviously it was an old poster, and someone posted it because the date was the same as today.

But as I read further, I realised that in fact, it was a poster for a gig that was happening, tonight, at the Punters Club, and it was free! OMG! I needed to go to this gig! But first I needed to get buy in from Eleisha. As soon as she woke up, I asked her. She said “sure, go”, so that was it, I was going!

Knowing that the place would be absolutely jam packed with…..well….punters, I made an effort to arrive early. So around 4pm I arrived at the venue, and my timing couldn’t have been better. Because who else but the band themselves were there doing sound check. There’s nothing quite like seeing an extremely popular ban like this in a room with no more than a dozen people watching them go through their paces. It was very cool.

I enjoyed having a few (several even) drinks whilst the band completed sound check, and once they were done I headed outside for a bit to take in a vape and some late afternoon vibes of Fitzroy.

The newly re-opened Punters Club

I could very easily live in Fitzroy. I love the vibe of the place, I love how many live music venues there are. I would save a huge amount of money not paying for Ubers every other weekend making the trek from Mooroolbark and back again.

Fitzroy skyline

I headed back in and grabbed any beverage, and spent a relaxing half an hour or so perusing the Beat Magazine. My good mate Johnny used to deliver Beat back in the day, when we are all younger fellas. He’d load up his Combi and try and rope us all into helping lug these heavy (back then newspaper style) bundles out the door as he made the various stops along the route. Anyway, I digress….

An icy cold bourbon and a Beat

Time was beginning to march on, and by this stage I’d had very many drinks. Wisely I thought it would be prudent to grab a feed, so I had a squiz at the menu to see what was on offer. South Melbourne Dim SIms with Lao Gan Ma chilli oil, FUCK YEAH! I ordered two and another drink.

Life doesn’t get much better than this

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