Bellingen near Coff’s Harbour
After a long day’s drive up the coast Darren and I drove into the quiet main street of Bellingen. I’ve been through countless “old towns” in Australia with their main streets lined with old sandstone architecture banks and courthouse buildings. I’ve always enjoyed seeing the elaborate rod iron fences along the balconies.
Bellingen is considered the gateway to the famous Waterfall Way.
We were both tired and were pretty keen to hit the hay, but something told me we should stop and have a drink at the local pub. So we parked the car and walked in to the brightly lit, and rather contemporary, setting of the pub set amongst the old buildings lining the silent main street of Bellingen.
After sitting down with a nice cold schooner, I immediately caught sight of an older woman walking toward us. She noisily dragged a metal bar stool across the wood floor and with difficulty climbed up to the seat at our table.
“I’ve had my eye on you all night.” was the first thing out of her slurring mouth. With her eye’s locked on me breathing heavily down our glasses of beer she continued the conversation by telling me how much she liked by smile. Not really sure how to respond to these rather creepy compliments, I tried changing the subject by asking about the waterfalls in the area. She responded with, “Do you have a girl back at home?”. Trying to remain polite I persisted with,”There must be some beautiful spots around here to hike, eh?” The conversation only degraded from there as I was repeatedly hit on by a very intoxicated lady.
I looked across to Darren for an out. I’m thinking, “Please! Think of anything to end this.” But after he had choked up his share of laughs, I noticed he had started up a conversation with a group of guys sitting at the table behind us. I over heard that there heading for an open mic taking place at the Bellingen Bowling Club just down the road.
I quickly leaned over the table and recommended that we head over there to check it out (and get as far away as possible from our new friend).
Realizing my beverage had been commandeered by our new friend, I’d lost my interest in finishing the last sip so we pushed back from the table and began the brief walk through town with the guitar and didgeridoo, toward the “bowl-o”.
Upon walking through the finely manicured artificial turf lawns of the bowling fields, Darren and I were greeted with groups of dreaded haired smiling faces who invited us to join them at their table. They proceeded to tell us about their weekly gathering and the specifics of the open mic. Darren and I were keen just to listen, but we found a slot on the sign-up list and were told we’d be the closing act.
I have been to a few open mics in my time and they can be quite entertaining in many ways. Venues like this are very hit and miss. Some are close nit musicians who are not interested in outsiders taking up their playing time, while other venues don’t have a lick of talent in them. Most people can’t stand the sounds of screeching cats dragging their claws across chalkboards, but I try to find the positive side in these moments to see that these people really love music and are merely sharing their perspective on the songs they enjoy. (Okay there are a few acts I’ve grit my teeth through.)
Surprisingly, this open mic was a true gem. There were some very talented musicians who, I learned, were just beginning to develop this music scene in town. This small community of musicians just love to jam and collaborate through music. It was incredible to see the acts come on stage and just JAM!
When it came to our turn to take the stage Darren and I played songs we hopped would please the crowd yet also give them a taste of what we had been developing over the past few months. We received a very warm applause after the first song, but after we started the second song a started hearing other instruments joining in. First a saxophone, then a guitar and a full drum kit. The local jam band had jumped up on stage with us and was filling in our songs with an incredible sound giving us the power and energy of a full band behind our usual two man busking gig. We left the stage with the entire room on their feet clapping at our composition.
But it didn’t end there, after a couple songs including “Let the Good Times Roll” we were invited outside to the back porch for an acoustic jam. There we sat down with a local beatbox/hiphop duo who filled in our songs with great rhymes and rhythms. Then our sound became even fuller with the picking talents of a man playing the mandolin and his partner on the guitar.
The sound was swirling around the crowds of people on the porch and sent us on some incredible musical journeys. I couldn’t believe we had fallen into this musical community. The rest of the night we were filled in on the up coming bands and events in the area and were invited to many shows and parties. It felt so great to meet such welcoming people who come together on a regular basis to share MUSIC.
In reflection, I feel we were meant to stop at that bar and endure the harassment from a local drunk, in order to meet the guys who pointed us in the direction of an incredible music scene, out in the mountains of NSW.
Thank you everyone from that night for sharing your talents and passion of music with Darren and me. That will definitely be a night I won’t soon forget.
I can’t believe two months of summer has come and gone. The incredible experiences at camp are unforgettable. But for now a quick update.
