Songs: Ohia were playing with the Art of Fighting at the Corner - whilst I could probably get around to seeing AoF any old time, Songs: Ohia coming to Melbourne seemed like a dream come true, so I couldn't let myself miss it. Jason did a great set (including a Hank Williams cover, You Win Again), and I got the impression it was a bit of a stream-of-consciousness thing going on - there were snatches of lyrics I recognized, such as bits from The Lioness, so I tapped my friend Steve on the shoulder to say "hey, it's your song", but by that time Jason had moved on to relate other things, other moments, and Steve looked confused and said "this isn't it !"

There was a fair bit of background noise during the Songs: Ohia set - maybe this wasn't quite the best place for such an intimate, lonesome kind of gig. It was fairly obvious most of the people were here to see the Art of Fighting, 'cause they all shut up the moment they came on stage. A girl nearby closed her eyes and started rocking back and forth to the music.

A little later, I saw Jason Molina wander out of the room next to the stage, and I felt possessed by a need to go and say hi, so he knew at least one or two of us had come here to see him (I reckon most people like to feel as if their efforts have been appreciated, right ?) On the other hand, it seemed a little crass to go and hassle the guy. I dunno, I'm new at this. Eventually though, I happened to spot him not too far from my friends, and introduced myself. He was friendly, talkative, and even gave me a spare beer somebody had given him. From the sounds of it, I missed a great gig at the Empress, where he'd played on Wednesday night.

After a while, Jason wandered off and I was chatting to the guy who'd been standing next to him. "oh, I'm in a band called Sir," he said. "oh. right. you're that Matt." I'm pretty bad at spotting people I should probably recognize at the best of times, so I felt a bit silly about this. I gave him the URL for the photos, and hopefully they'll be of use, or something.

I need to take better photos. I don't quite feel full of myself enough to push through the crowd to get a closer shot (I did a little bit of this, but I'm ever-conscious of getting in people's way and such), and so it ends up that most of my pictures look more or less the same. But like, I just need to get myself to more gigs...

[ see all pictures from Songs: Ohia and Art of Fighting. ]