From CGee:

Souths Concert

This was an interesting concert atmosphere. Having been to a couple of RSL concert venues, this started out as being similar - a mixed audience, mostly local, perhaps skewing older with little familiarity with the music, mostly there because of interest and curiosity.

Peter Holmes a Court come on stage and talked about his and Russell's involvement with the Club training program of the younger players in development for the future. He emphasized how tough it was for them to remain focused and committed but how important and rewarding that it was that they did. The venue donated the space and the band donated their time so all the revenue from the concert went to the training program.

After the Rabbitoh mascot and a local personality made an appearance, the guys came out. They did change the set list a bit for this concert starting with 'Weight' instead of 'One Good Year'. I have to say it must be tough to come up with right order of songs to feature the more ballad based material yet still try to mix in the more rocking numbers to get some type of momentum to the show. The crowd is the 'X' factor so I don't know that they can come up with a perfect mix. Some nights it will work fine and some it won't.

What made this concert a little different was that a lot of the people in the building were fans of the Rabbitohs. I noticed as Russell introduced the songs with his stories that the audience was really quiet and attentive. Russell noticed also and thanked them and said it was different than in the past couple of pub shows. My guess as to why this was so might be that as supporters of the Club they respected what Russell was trying to do as a long time fan and therefore wanted to hear what he had to say about his music.

When Russell talked briefly about his involvement with the Rabbitohs, he stressed how paramount the tradition of the Club was to him and to the importance of the Club to the community they belonged to. I think people appreciated that what he wanted was a better chance for a winning team and he was genuine in his sentiment.

So this concert different because it became more about storytelling and I think the audience responded. The only drawback to the stories was that they were more 'G' rated than normal as it was an 'all age' audience. He found it tough to come up with a "Mickey" story that met those guidelines.

Russell has been upping the ante on poor Stewie when it came to trying to distract him during his solos. It started as tickling, moved on to Wet Willies and then to just plain slobbering up his ear. The latest at Southport was the successful attempt to balancing wine glass on his head and last night doing the old gentle push behind someones knees to see if they would buckle. So far Stewie has withstood the now expected onslaught with aplomb and not missed a note!

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I'm having a great time and I'll be home to the cold on Saturday. In the next few days I'll try to write something up comparing old/new Tofog for those of us who have been around since 2000 to comment on what I think is the same and different.