You Can Never Step on the Same Riverstage Twice ... Especially After 10 O'Clock at Night ;-)

I saw 'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' play Brisbane's Riverstage last night and couldn't help but think of that old Heraclitus quote about the river, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

Maybe because Riverstage is right on the Brisbane River bank along with the two cinemas which I saw the two movies about Nick's life that I wrote about in this post linked below -
Nick's Cave, Accidental Initiations, Walking the Skeleton Tree of Eight and the Shock of Recognition?
Or maybe it was because I had walked along the riverbank the day before my father passed away? 
Stop the Clocks? Signs?

The Crow?

The whole atmosphere around the Riverstage venue was somewhat eerie on the night, I thought.

For instance, as Nick's support band The Necks were playing, crows started landing on the roof of the Riverstage and being a crow lover myself I found this odd, as I've been to Riverstage twice before to see Lenny Kravitz/The Cranberries/Wolfmother (in the one line up) and then Imagine Dragons play another concert there and never noticed one single crow around. 
Queensland Torresian crows form new nesting habits in major evolutionary change, scientists say

What I find eerie about the crows was that Nick was re-writing 'The Crow' movie re-boot and then his son died, and the movie production fell apart and never got made.

Crow Re-make? Will It Be Cursed Too?

There were also flying foxes flying over the stage, which looked like bats when they flew over. 

Flying foxes flying over Riverstage , before Nick took to the stage

Nick started the show off with the haunting 'Anthrocene' and played a good selection on his set list, 

even though the Brisbane audience apparently got shortchanged on three songs because of a council curfew on the venue -
Nick Cave Brisbane review: Curfew gives singer the blues

""There's some f---ing absurd curfew in this place," Nick Cave tells the Brisbane Riverstage crowd a few minutes short of 10pm.

"... They fine you. They fine you per minute. Thousands per minute.
"Write to your city council.""

The Brisbane River snaking its way
 behind the stage reflecting lights

Nick even sung a song about Miley Cyrus floating in a swimming pool, probably on the off chance his new Kiwi fan with the Miley t-shirt who he met in an airport lounge may have been in the audience;-)

Kiwi comedian goes viral with Nick Cave tweet

The funny thing is I only found out about this Riverstage concert after reading about Nick's Hobart concert on the ABC website -
Nick Cave launches return to stage in Hobart after son's death
I then Googled to see if he was playing Brisbane and found out that he was playing the Riverstage of all places.
Then I did the stupidest thing I have ever done when buying tickets to a concert.

I landed on a site called Viagogo and thought Nick must be selling his tickets through this site and was informed that there was only 59 tickets left at $157 each (that was including all the fees), so I grabbed one on my credit card and then printed out the ticket only to find out it was a TicketMaster ticket in the name of D Duess.

WTF(!), I thought, so I looked up this Viagogo on Wikipedia and found out that they had scammed people before in Europe, so I rang up the bank and cancelled my credit card hoping to stop the transaction as well.
Couldn't stop the transaction, so I went to a TicketMaster sales outlet (Brisbane Lions clubhouse at Springwood ... Go the (once) mighty Lions!!!) and they told me the ticket was legit in their system, but that didn't mean that I was going to get in with it, as it wasn't in my name and I had no proof that it was mine.
I was told that there should still be tickets available on the night, so if it didn't scan I could always fork out another $110 to buy a legit ticket.
I didn't know if I was willing to fork out another $110 on top of the already $157 I had paid, so I was sweating it out waiting in line to get in ... literally, because it was bloody hot in Brisbane, as well.
Luckily I got in with the ticket after a week of dreaded thoughts and I learned never to go through a dodgy site like Viagogo again.

In the end I, and it seems everyone there, had a good night swimming in a river of sound that we will never swim in again twice.
Like those credit card ads tell you ... priceless, even though I had to cut my old one up that week.
And I doubt if I would ever have bothered going to this concert if I hadn't of picked up and read Nick's book, 'The Sick Bag Song' -
The Sick Bag Song

I also thought it was ironic that I walked past the same poster I wrote about in this old post -

Dis(grace)d?

as I walked back to where my car was parked the night I saw Nick Cave play Riverstage and he had sung Higgs Boson Blues in the set.

This is the song with Miley Cyrus  (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) in it I just realized.

A Milely f#cking Cyrus T-shirt?!

Up above, girls walk past, the roses all in bloom Have you ever heard about the Higgs Boson blues I'm goin' down to Geneva baby, gonna teach it to you

Hannah Montana does the African Savannah
As the simulated rainy season begins
She curses the queue at the Zulus
And moves on to Amazonia
And cries with the dolphins
Mama ate the pygmy
The pygmy ate the monkey
The monkey has a gift that he is sending back to you
Look here comes the missionary
With his smallpox and flu
He's saving them savages
With his Higgs Boson Blues

Ironically, the Year of the Monkey ends on January 27th and the Year of the cock ... I mean Rooster starts at midnight January 27th, 2017.

Miley Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) 

floats in a swimming pool in Toluca Lake

And you're the best girl I've ever had

Can't remember anything at all

Hope floats?

Probably not while this cock is in the white house;-)