Beasts of Bourbon @ Mangrove

Normally quiet (unless there's a concert) Saturday arvo turns into a full-on rock show when the Beasts of Bourbon practise for their performance at the Mangrove on June the 30th. I'm working at Palms Bar over the lunch and can only imagine how loud it's gonna be at night. But people can't be bothered, Tex Perkins is in town and long live rock'n'roll.

Beasts of Bourbon are an Australian rock 'n' roll band formed in 1983 (born before I was born! :)). They helped to define Australian swamp rock and are something of a supergroup, featuring line-ups of some of the most popular musicians (such as Rolling Stones) of that sub-genre over many years.

The night kicks off around 10 pm when the old rock kings take over the stage. I'm there, and so are about 350 other guests. It's really not my type of music, but staff gets in for free and I'm living at the Mangrove anyway, so where else would I be if not there rocking with the rest of the crowd. Me and Heidi, a new Canadian girl, had a brekky shift, so we're off tonight and have just had a bottle of chilly white wine to get onto the right wave length. The rock wave. And it's hard, and it's loud, and it's mad, and it's all around.

I'm working again the morning after. It's Sunday and everybody sleeps in. There's a tour group of 44 people in their second youth (read: somewhere between 50- and 100-year old) staying at the resort over the weekend. I'm trying to estimate the number of complaints I'm gonna have to deal with once they come in for brekky. 44? Wrong! It's zero. How come!?! And what do I see!?! Some of the old ladies have spotted Tex having brekky at a table nearby and stop for a quick chat. I can't hear what exactly is being said, but I can assume from their faces it's far from a complaint. Yeah. Give them rock'n'roll and they are happy, play some dance beats and they won't stop telling you how horrible and sleepless their night was, even though the sound pitch for rock'n'roll is probably twice as high. At least most of the bar staff suffer from a migraine. Diagnosis: overdose of rock'n'roll.