Wellington

I'm not going to kid around, I came to Wellington for one reason, and one reason only... to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, arguably my favorite band ever. Most of you have never heard of Nick Cave, and most of you who have heard of Nick Cave don't particularly care for Nick Cave. As soon as I heard of this show, I had to go. I bought my ticket within an hour of it going on sale. A Christchurch show would have made my life a bit easier so I could remain on the South island, but I was not so fortunate. So it turns out that this was going to be a bit of a pricey trip. I had to buy a round-trip ferry ticket (the scenery is absolutely beautiful!), a few nights hostel accomodation in Wellington, I had to pay to park my Zelda in Picton, and to top it off the ticket wasn't very cheap. Given the change I would do it all again. Humoring myself with the notion that anybody other than me cares, here's the setlist: Abattoir Blues, Messiah Ward, Hiding All Away, Red Right Hand, City of Refuge, Get Ready for Love, Easy Money, Supernaturally, The Weeping Song, Breathless, Babe You Turn Me On, The Mercy Seat, O Children, There She Goes My Beautiful World Encore 1 Come Into My Sleep, Deanna, God Is In The House, Do you love me?, Encore 2 The Ship Song, Stagger Lee

Wellington is a really cool city. There's lots of nightlife and culture and whatnot. Te Papa was awesome, it's basically the Smithsonian of New Zealand. You could spend a few days there... and it's free. There are more cafes in this town than you can shake a stick at. I was passing one that looked too trendy to pass up called the Film Archive. Just by looking at it from the outside I thought You know, if I got an espresso here, people passing on the street would think that I was really trendy. So I went inside and got a cup of coffee. I came to realize that it was called the Film Archive for a reason. The basement it a huge library of preserved, catalogued film. News footage, commercials, feature films, music videos, some of it dating back to the 19th century. All free to look at. Not knowing what to look for I watched the news feeds from the day the Rainbow Warrior was sunk in 1985 and when everything went down with Jim Jones' People's Temple in Guyana in 1978. Total time warp.

Also worthy of a mention... I spoke with several people before I left Asheville about the subject of running into somebody that I knew in New Zealand. You know... the "small world" effect. I never doubted that I would run into somebody, it was just a matter of how long it would take. Well it took just under two months. At the Nick Cave show I ran into a booking agent from Chicago that I had worked with at the Orange Peel. I wonder who else I'll run into.

Has anybody noticed that at the end of these entries there is a place to click to leave a comment? Well you are more than welcome to use it if you feel so inclined. Say whatever you feel like... comment, remind me about money that I owe you, share a bad joke... it doesn't matter.