AFL Grand Final Parade

Today was the Grand Final Parade through the streets of Melbourne. Since the parade ends at the Old Treasury Building, a bunch of us from work went to watch. About 50,000 people came out to cheer on the players for Geelong and Port Adelaide, who are playing for the Premiership Cup tomorrow at the MCG. It was cold and windy outside with the occasional rain shower (what happened to spring?). Most people in the crowd were there for Geelong, who last won a Premiership 44 years ago and are the first Victorian team to make the Grand Final in the last few years. One added bonus to the day was seeing Essendon's Alwyn Davey and James Hird. After the presentations on stage the players got back onto their buses we headed back to the office to warm up.

Icecream Hands

Last night Ruth, Danny and I headed over to The East Brunswick Club to see Icecream Hands play. We are all big fans of the band, and it was so great to finally see them live. To me Icecream Hands are the epitome of the Melbourne sound- melodic guitars, harmonizing vocals and fantastic pop songs. They played selections from all of their albums, including the new one "The Good China." Each member of the band writes songs and sings lead so it was nice to be able to put a face to the vocals of these songs I have loved over the years. I often had their CDs in my car's CD changer so I associate a lot of the songs with my drives to and from work when I lived in the States. The band played for an hour and a half and I was able to pick up their new limited edition EP for "Come Home" at the merchandise table after the show.

The opening acts were indie rock band The Wellingtons and Abby Dobson, who used to be in the Australian band Leonardo's Bride. Both were good, and I especially liked Abby's semi-acoustic set. She reminded me a bit of Lisa Germano with her atmospheric and slightly depressing songs.