End of Fashion @ Docklands, 31/12/05

To be honest, Docklands was not the where I expected to be on New Year’s Eve. Up until 5.37pm on December 31st 2005, I had banked on being at the Esplanade Hotel counting in my New Year’s with several alcoholic beverages and Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union. Unfortunately, my bank balance and fate stepped in without once thinking to consult me. Thus, I, like many other skint punters, desperately trawled the paper New Year’s Eve in a possibly futile attempt to procure information regarding an event that had some modicum of rock credibility and, most importantly, was free. To my surprise and enchanted delight through my thorough investigations I found that End of Fashion was playing a free gig at Docklands as part of the city of Melbourne’s New Year’s celebrations. A glimmer of hope shone on my horizon. Perhaps New Year’s was not going to be a complete disappointment, as it is year after year, after all. There was even going to be fireworks. And let’s face it, no one can argue with fireworks. So, after the arduous 1 ½ hour alcohol-free trek through the city barging though families with screaming infants desperate to go home, Jesus-freaks and pissed yobbos in Cold Chisel’s ‘Last Stand’ t-shirts (admittedly I was jealous that they could find a pub to drink in and I couldn’t) we arrived parched and desperate for alcoholic sustenance at Docklands. Imagine my horror to find that Docklands was an alcohol-free zone with a high security personnel population. Fucking brilliant. Despite these inhuman conditions, which a lesser (and slightly more economically flush) punter would baulk at, I decided to persevere and thusly found myself a pew to await the show.

The assembling crowd was a varied mix of pre-teens, tweens, uber-cool apathetic teens and one pissed forty year old. A slightly different, and dare I say harder to please, crowd that when I saw them at Ding Dong Lounge last year (I mean at least at Ding Dong there was beer). To say that End of Fashion had their work cut out for them was something of an understatement. Come 11pm, End of Fashion takes the stage with exuberance, however, this is quickly beaten out of them by the marginal apathy of the crowd. Okay, so perhaps that is a little harsh, the band certainly got appreciative clapping and the pre-requisite crowd rumble after each song petering down do a ‘you could hear a pin drop’ silence. Unfortunately, the crowd and dare I say the band were stultified by the sterile conditions at Docklands. Aside from the alcohol ban, the stage and all surrounding areas were lit up like a Christmas tree. And I do not mean subtle twinkling lights, I mean loud, garish, prone to causing a migraine given over exposure. Last time I checked rock was never its most rollicking lit to 10 000 watts.

To End of Fashion’s undying credit, they made the best of the conditions and played a tight set. Showcasing their debut album and illustrating just what catchy song-smiths they are. Despite the crowds ignorance of most of the tracks (they obviously don’t listen to Triple J) they are received enthusiastically. The band made the sage decision to wait until after the New Year’s fireworks to crank out the mainstream radio crossover anthem O Yeah, much to the delight of the crowd who now had something to sing along to. Despite my reservations about attending a gig at Docklands on New Year’s eve, the consensus was I could have done a lot worse that having a free seat in front of one of this countries most promising bands. Hell, next time I’ll even pay to see them.