________ ________ ________
2018-01-05 / \/ \/ / \
/ __/ /_ _/
Just kidding. / _/ / /
\_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
It's been a while, yeh? Fuck, where do I / \/ \/ / \
even start. / _/ /_ _/
/- / _/ /
Somewhere around the start of December I \________/\________/\___/____/
had a full-on depressive episode. The weight
of work stress, life stress, financial stress, my impeding birthday, looming
age and the end of another year; it was just too much and I buckled. I managed
to slouch through it and I'm not too bad now but it was the worst episode I'd
had in years and it was scary.
Just before that whole thing I'd picked up tickets to an album launch of a
group I'd been kind of interested in for a little while, on the other side of
that episode I really wasn't feeling like going out but dragged my carcass out
anyway and am pretty glad I did.
Was pretty uncomfortable at first because, my issues aside, we hadn't been
to The Tote before and the music scene in Melbourne's inner north, while not
unwelcoming, it feels very cliquey. Everyone seems to know everyone and that
really twists into my anxiety, leaving me feeling like I'm in enemy territory.
We muddled through and found the band room and a place out of the way. It was
actually a really nice venue, there were windows in the band room so it didn't
feel as much like a dungeon as some of the other venues around there do
hahahaha. Calmed me down somewhat.
There were four bands in all. One was called Protection who I hadn't heard
of but I'm pretty sure they used to be called Diecut, or share members with
Diecut, IDK.
SUNDR, a Melbourne post-hardcore band, they were great and I should have
picked up their album when I was there.
Lo! were like a sludgy kind of death metal I guess, I dunno how to describe
this shit ok, I just listen to it hahaha. I'd checked out their new album when
I saw them on the lineup and it wasn't really my thing but they're amazing
live, really energetic and visceral. Dani loved them.
The group I'd come to see was YLVA, they released their debut album that
year but I'd seen them live a couple of years prior, opening for someone else.
I'd heard the album already and it's really good so was excited to see them
play it through live and they didn't disappoint. They were loud and heavy as
fuck and it did a lot to clear out some of the brain-badness. I picked up
their album at the gig too because for whatever reason no one is distributing
it here, the only way to get it is to order it from the US or UK and with
shipping it ends up cheaper for the two of us to go to the show and buy it
there than it was for me to buy it online.
So what else is new...
Christmas/my birthday came and went, new year's eve came and went. We
didn't get up to much for either, every year the city feels more crowded on
Christmas and this year it really ramped up, it was almost as busy as any
other day. It felt weird. We've resolved to do a full-on family Christmas next
year instead which should be fun.
I feel like there's something I wanted to write about that I'm forgetting.
