A few crowded hours ...

On Thursday night, some hotel group had bought out the whole of Bondi for a private function, and as this was our first buy-out, Dave felt he had to stay to see how it all went.
At nine o'clock, he saw some people outside wondering what was happening, so he went out to tell them about the private party ... and then he recognised them.
It is SO good to have a husband with a razor-sharp rock and roll mind! They were Crowded House, in town for a concert, and they had walked several blocks from their hotel to check out the Bondi, as they'd heard so much about it. Can you believe this?
Anyway, Dave pulled himself together, grinning from ear to ear, and with okays all round from private party people, he and Michelle, our marketing wiz, installed them in a gleaming boab in the restaurant area at the back of the venue, which was not being used.
Needless to say, Bondi had another party going on that night! The result was that Dave got home at 3 am, completely legless (so was Nick Seymour, the bass player, who was still hungover when the band started playing), and we had 10 tickets to last night's show, plus ...

... invitations to party on afterwards!

The concert was incredible. What a band. So polished and accomplished. All but the bass player and the drummer played several instruments and sang, which must be why they can achieve such a rich, layered sound. How many wonderful songs have they put out?
And the audience, like all American audiences I have been in, was just fantastic. They knew all the words, they hollered and whistled and cheered and sang along, and thoroughly partied. It was SO much fun!

Neil Finn's son, Liam, was the support act and played along with the band in the main part of the concert. Very happy to report he seems to have the full complement of the Finn musical and cuteness genes (... but he should lose the beard!)

Afterwards, we joined a very sedate and privileged little group who waited for the band to emerge. Not my sort of thing, in all honesty - but we really wanted to thank them for the tickets; the show had been a sell-out, so it was no small thing to get freebies.

And yeah - I did the daggy thing and got Neil to autograph my sticker so I can send it home to my brother, who is a huge, huge fan.
So ... wonder who else will come a-knocking at our door? Ain't it grand?