Love & Theft

On Grand Final day last year we met Bren Luke for the first time over brisket & some dodgy imported (undoubtedly from a pirate’s bathtub) beet rum that tasted like you were imbibing the ashes of an incinerated sugar refinery. Needless to say it was a great day, though we were of course hoping the Saints would get up for the first time in over four decades.

Bren is an amazing illustrator with a great eye and meticulous attention to detail. His drawings reveal both sweet and scary elements of life offbeat, which leave you both nostalgic for simpler times, as well as slightly unsettled by the clinical aspect of isolation. Check him out here

Much has been written on the de-humanisation of the population in this, the ‘internethical’ age. How untroubled a mothballed, sedentary lifestyle is… a well defined complacency comes wrapped up in the box of 15 channels of free-to-air TV and Facebook chat.

Further to that, some of the people we’re in frequent contact with we’ve never met. They are, mournfully, no more than a blip in the inbox or Twitter feed. How meaningful can strictly digital relationships be in the modern age, and, specifically, how do we navigate the need to devour content vs the seemingly lost art of the ‘experience’?

Ah yes, but it’s often contended that experiences are only a click away nowadays – the question remains though; is anything that happens online or on the couch as relevant as wiping some sodden punter’s greasy sweat from your arm after they propel themselves past, can in hand en route to the dancefloor? Or being that guy, upon hearing the band you’ve just paid a very reasonable ten bucks for begin the opening refrain to your favorite song? Or dragging yourself, sensorially wired and prostrate up to the top of AC/DC lane at the end of a night after seeing a bunch of rad bands that illuminated you, and made you feel more aware than you have in some time?

Let’s find out.

This Friday night (12/02) sees The Bowers launch their critically lauded debut full-length album ‘Her Night’ at the Melbourne institution Cherry Bar. If you only have one dynamic, joyous experience this week, let it be this’un.

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The Bowers Website
Spun Rivals Website
Cherry Bar Myspace page