Travel Tips

The main reason for our trip to Warrnambool was my husband's tribute band gig here at The Criterion Hotel.
The band does covers of Oz legends "The Angels" primarily, with a few newer covers of other artists.

At 11 pm the evening's entertainment kicked off with an audience of about 50 people of all ages (which became closer to 200 as the night wore on).
Even though a fair few of the songs would have been unknown to all the younger members of the audience, they soon got into the music anyway.
Sometimes dancers at gigs can be a bit hesitant - waiting to see who gets into it first, but there was no such hesitation here. Indeed, the dance floor was never empty all night, with several showing a lot of stamina, barely pausing for a break.

A few songs in, and all was going well (apart from a broken guitar string on only the 2nd song, during which my husband had to hurriedly take over the limelight and do a bit of a solo routine with the singer till the problem was fixed.)
It looked a pretty normal crowd, just enjoying themselves, peaceably.... and then a very tall, unusual apparition appeared on the dance floor.... it looked like a woman...in part....almost a woman’s figure, but definitely a young man’s face, with an almost ‘Bozo the clown’ multicoloured wig a bit like a mop head perched on top.
It definitely had authentic looking hmmm ' female equipment' ...and was wearing black shoes, black stockings and the shortest, tightest black halter neck dress I’d ever seen! And it was definitely a man....
I wondered a little nervously how the country audience might take this...and a couple of minutes later was immediately relieved when 'Mrs Black' was joined by a miniature Rambo in army fatigues, an Austin Powers, a Mexican costumed girl (a real girl this time) and a 'schoolgirl' wearing a tiny short checkered dress with somewhat hairy legs (just as well for the white footy shorts underneath!) Obviously, they'd just come from some kind of costume party.
They came for our gig, and they stayed the whole night long, being entertained by the band and BEING entertainment for many in the audience. Often, I could barely take my eyes off them, such an unusual and fun picture did they make.
I'm supposed to be band photographer and digital filmer..but well, they were in the way of the band and it was as much fun to film the foreground as what was happening in the background.

'Mr Black Dress' was so tall!

They danced....

and danced....

Austin Powers really looked quite authentic...right down to the shaggy hair (his own, unlike that of 'schoolgirl' beside him). Good lurching 'Austin' dancing style too!
Schoolgirl's 'equipment' wasn't as authentic looking as 'Black dress' - in fact they were balloons, as I saw him removed them a couple of times...and then had to dodge a couple of women who wanted to pop them for him!
All costumed ones were completely unselfconscious about the way they were dressed...either a lot of alcohol, or they'd got role playing down to a fine art at the previous party!

By contrast, little Rambo on the right, was lucky if he was 5 feet tall. When he and the others all danced together in a 'scrum', they looked an even odder lot.

Rambo kept his mask on practically all night, and only took it off once or twice (for air, maybe!) It must have got rather hot in there!

And later...another apparition...The Grim Reaper!
He was a bit creepy....
Again, the skeleton face stayed on all night, same with the long black and red robe.
And later again, a 6’ tall Oompah Loompah arrived! (like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory only huge instead of dwarfs)

And the coolest moment!

The band launched into Kryptonite, a popular cover that was about to get even more popular!
Tearing out of the crowd zoomed a fully costumed Superman I hadn't noticed before, leaping (or should I say flying?) right up on stage.
He was really pumped (and must have thought the song just for him!)
The lead singer always enjoys a bit of crowd participation, and does some simple costume changes through his own performances, but this was way better!
He let Superman sing right along with him, even handing over the microphone when it turned out the guy knew all the words and could actually sing too!
The crowd went wild!
It was just the best crowd participation and best feeling.
I can't ever imagine there will ever be another gig quite like this or this good!!!!!

The costumed ones kept on dancing, right till the end of the gig at about 2 am, and really seemed to be able to hold all their liquor! AND stay upright. I think that was some feat!
Another great thing was, no matter how much people drank, nobody really got on each other's nerves or wanted to fight or scuffle, even as a couple started lurching a fair bit around the place and crashing into people.
By 3 am, we were all well and truly ready to crash, and fortunately didn't have to go far, as we were staying right upstairs in the hotel.