Just before we left Canberra, Gweneth and I saw Canadian/Australian Xavier Rudd perform at the ANU bar.* It struck me during the slow songs – which was most of the night – that during the late-80s/early-90s, people would’ve been holding their cigarette lighters in the air, and swaying from side-to-side. Now, they hold up their mobile phones to get a picture with the built-in camera – which gives much the same aesthetic effect.
* XR didn’t do much for me, but it ain’t hard to see why a surfer-blonde pretty boy who can play the didgeridoo and drums simultaneously had the undivided attention of the female half of the audience.