Getting to this show, and not getting lost and being stranded in the middle of nowhere, was our first concern. I always hear of people in America travelling 5hrs to get to shows, but here, travelling for over an hour is a big effort (unless you’re going interstate). So we got the train to the other side of town and thankfully, found our way quite easily. Once the stress of having to find the venue was erased, we grabbed some food before the show at the local Subway.

While sitting in Subway, who other than the one and only Aaron Gillespie should stroll on past. There’s a moment of “OH MY GOD! IT’S AARON GILLESPIE” before we wave, and he “peaces” us back, a look of confusion on his face. The people walking with him, assumingly the event organisers, chuckle to themselves at our reaction, but we don’t care because it’s the second time in two days that we’ve had close encounters with Aaron.

It turns out that Lilydale Showgrounds is a bunch of sheds in the middle of a massive reserve, and is nothing like what we expected. This is as local and low key as it gets. We walk into the shed and A Sleepless Melody are playing. My first thought was “Wow, Aaron looks about 10yrs younger in real life. Who’s this random he’s playing with? Lucky guy”. Turns out, it’s not Aaron at all. It’s actually the guitarist of A Sleepless Melody, who could actually be Aaron’s twin. I enjoy what I hear from these guys though, and they definitely have a lot of potential. The singer seems to be careful and held back with his manner whilst performing, and I assumed it’s because of the acoustic nature, and I wonder what his stage antics would be like when he’s in front of a full band. Upon looking them up on myspace, I discover that they’re actually an acoustic duo, so I guess we’ll never know. I’d be interested to see what A Sleepless Melody could progress to if they were to assemble a full band though. As we walked in a tad late, we only caught a couple of songs from these guys though, but I look forward to seeing them sometime in the future.

Up next we have Lucas Williams with a few special guests. There’s a violinist amongst the guests and I’m itching to yell out “PLAY A YELLOWCARD COVER!” but I restrain myself out of better judgement. (Coincidently, whoever’s in charge of music between bands plays Yellowcard later in the night, which provides a chuckle). Lucas seems to be an experienced musician and plays with a sense of familiarity and ease. He then opens the stage up to the audience and I really commend the two guys who had the guts to get up there and play to a room occupied by strangers. Their song choice makes me cringe slightly, but they’re not bad and receive a deserving round of applause when they are done.

The next band to grace the stage is The Former Love Pirates from Sydney. I looked them up on myspace and they are in actual fact a full band, who played a stripped down acoustic set. They get on stage and my first thought is that they’re the type of guys who have had proper musical training (I’ll be very surprised if anyone tells me otherwise). Their sound is different from the other bands on tonight’s bill, they’re more indie rock than alternative rock, but it’s the type of environment where people are just enjoying the moment, so the crowd’s cool with it. Two of the three members present alternate between instruments, and at one point there’s even a banjo present, how’s that for diversity. I’m big on the bass lines and the songs are solid, really keen on getting their EP actually. I also dig that one of the guys isn’t wearing shoes.

After The Former Love Pirates are done, Lucas Williams returns to the stage once more for a couple of songs, including a cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”. With some encouragement, there are more volunteers from the crowd to participate and this time we get two girls helping out with singing duties on the cover. They’re good singers and even attempt a harmony or two that don’t go completely wrong. Lucas finishes with a cover of “Hallelujah” and I can hear the person next to me praying that he won’t massacre it. Thankfully, his cover is actually the opposite of that, and he ends his set with everyone mellowed out and in a good mood.

Everyone then piles outside to witness the special event of the evening, Aaron Gillespie cooking off against a local (who’s name I have forgotten!). The jist of it is that each contender picks an ingredient from a pile of ingredients until they are all gone, and each must make a burger out of the selected ingredients. Two audience members are then chosen to taste the burgers and give a score out of 10. It’s a friendly competition with jokes flying back and forth and everyone has a good time watching the cook off unfold. The local contender is unfortunate to have been stuck with the anchovies and he attempts to find a way to incorporate them into his burger in a way where their taste will be masked bets, which ends up being the middle of his patty. We all know that Aaron has a food blog, but I think everyone is actually impressed by his ability to cook. He’s careful and patient, and the presentation of his final product is noteworthy. In the end, Aaron wins the cook off, but only with an average slightly higher than his competition.

Last local band to play for the night is City Escape. These guys already have an impressive list of bands that they have supported, including Thrice and Craig Owens, and now Aaron Gillespie can also be added to that list. They open with “Give My Remains To Broadway” from their debut EP, and its different hearing these songs acoustically. There’s a song from the demo thrown into the mix, as well as a couple of other songs from the EP and some covers. For a set that’s only six songs long, three covers seem like a bit much, but they are a rock/hardcore band playing an acoustic set, I see how that could prove difficult. They adapt well though, and carefully chose songs that don’t rely heavily on the screamed vocals, since screams are provided by the drummer. Like every other time I have seen City Escape, the pitch of their harmonies are perfect, and the guitarist holds his own firmly when against the singer. Their cover of “Coffee” by Copeland causes me to squeal with excitement embarrassingly loud and they pull it off well. Perhaps the only thing I was a little disappointed by was that they covered it exactly as it’s performed by Copeland, I would’ve liked to see the singer put his own flair on the vocals. A song from their demo, a Thrice cover and another song from their EP brings us to the end of their set, and they part with an Acceptance cover, which received a few excited “WOO!”s from older members in the audience. The only thing that could have made this moment more awesome was if they had covered “So Contagious”, but my prayers were quickly answered when said song was the first song to be played between City Escape and Aaron Gillespie. City Escape, once again, put on a commendable performance and continue to be one of my favourite local bands to see perform live.

And the moment we have all been waiting for all night has finally arrived. Everyone at the shed has crowded around the stage and is watching the show. Aaron Gillespie opens with “No, I Don’t”, which I must say is a strange choice, but it suites the mood of the night. This is quickly followed by “Southern Weather” which oozes with passion and emotion. Things slow down as the first slow song of the night “Monster” is premiered. This is such a beautiful song and I feel privileged to have experienced it not only live, but acoustically and in this intimate environment. A quick Google search of the next song informs me that it is a cover of U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”, and I’m about 90% sure Google is actually right. The next couple of songs are fast ones (“Say This Sooner”, “Hands” and “Lonely Wheel”) which get some great crowd participation. “Hands” is definitely a stand out track on Monster Monster for me and whether it was intentional or not when the song was penned, it’s definitely a perfect song for the crowd to get involved in. As per usual, any show that Aaron Gillespie plays, there is always a message about his faith, and the next song was a religious song that he learnt from church. This was perfectly followed by the chillingly honest “Dirty and Left Out”. “Hand Grenade” follows and then inevitably, we reach the last song of the night. There is no doubt that Aaron will close his set with “Amazing, Because It Is” and you can feel the shift of mood in the room. This is one of my favourite songs and I’ve always suspected that it would be amazing to one day be able to see it performed live, but the moment where you actually experience it, it’s on a completely different level compared to what you expected. Aaron even works Darrell Evans’s “Your Love Is Extravagant” into the outro, which is found on the No Gift To Bring Christmas EP.

Throughout his entire set, Aaron interacts frequently and is quite friendly with the crowd. He laughs at one guy who suggests that he plays “Drive There Now” acoustically, apologises to a girl who requested a song for her birthday, saying he doesn’t cover songs that someone else at the show has already covered and instead dedicates a different song to her, tells his “If you went to see your favourite band and all they played was this one chord, how long would you stay?” story and says we’re all lying when we shout out answers like forever and 26 hours, and even pokes fun at the guy he beat in the cook off in one song. It’s nice for the 50 people or so who have attended to see Aaron in a more relaxed and personal environment and it’s a good time for everyone. Aaron’s performance, even though acoustic, ooze with passion, enthusiasm and energy. He really does give his all no matter what nature he is performing in. This acoustic show blows my mind away, and I feel so grateful and privileged to have been there that night.

These smaller and more intimate shows are always something great to be involved in, and it feels like for that hour or so, all that matters is the room you are in, the people you are sharing this moment with and music that you are surrounded by. Everything else in your life that plagues you is left at the door, and for a while, you can just forget about it all and be engulfed by the music. This is how music is meant to be, an escape from realism, and tonight felt like that for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a show that’s had this effect on me, and it’ll be a long time until I experience something like this again.

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