LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
Half of an audience at a local jazz concert formed a strong bond last night and not just for being an increasingly rare member of the Australian public who frequent live music venues in 2023.
During a contemporary jazz concert at Betoota jazz/comedy bar, Who Jazzed In My Trumpet, half of the audience shared a knowing look, silently acknowledging that they had all been dragged there against their will.
Known as America’s only native art form until small-batch violence without consequence went mainstream, jazz is an eclectic and expressive genre of music most loved by people who can get by just fine without fulfilling the human need to socialise.
Usually able to enjoy a jazz concert with just the other loners for company, jazz fans are often compelled to ‘bring along’ a friend or spouse when a virtuoso or proper musician from America comes to town.
Although they had their ticket, drinks, dinner and transport completely paid for, the ‘plus ones’ that made up half of the audience of the Dr Duncan McGil Quartet concert still had to pay the price of sitting through an evening of contemporary jazz, during which time they were frequently pressured to provide applause.
“At one point there was a guy playing a ping pong ball I fucking swear,” stated the wife of one jazz fan who would be having her payback all Sunday during Lake Betoota Lounge all day bottomless brunch.
“I looked at the other tables and was relieved to see I wasn’t the only one who would rather be chained to a table beneath a leaky tap.”
“It was nice, or rather it would have been if there wasn’t a grown man on stage playing a saxophone with a Perrier bottle crammed into it.”
