[NOTE: All photos by Aradhna Sharma]

Like the crack in a 19th-century water pipe that bursts through asphalt and launches a geyser high into an urban landscape, Michael Egan and Russ Barclay's third 'Incident on Exhibition Street' gave fans of Bruce Springsteen from around Australia a chance to release highly pressurised Boss ya-yas freely, without judgment or recrimination, in the comforts of an historic Melbourne pub.
 Approximately 100 men and women crammed the upstairs bar of Coopers Inn in the CBD Friday night to celebrate with 'Brucebuds' (maybe it's a Jersey thing but I loathe that term) met in roll calls and GAs throughout the 2013 and 2014 tours of Australia and New Zealand. Roars of laughter, rampant embracing and rekindled friendships abounded on a night that raised money for Light of Day Australia and saw Dave Wright and Rob Barber (and occasionally Tim Cavanagh) of Dave Wright and the Midnight Electric play an explosive set of originals and Springsteen covers.

Forces outside my control and unrelated to the occasion had me out of sorts (i.e. whacked out of my head) but, as DWME superfan Lovely Rita said to me, the night was testament to the power of Bruce Springsteen's artistry to burrow through our cynicism and create community from shared passion. Neither of us knew everyone in the room but everyone felt like a friend.

The ties that bi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-nd, indeed.
 Attendees were urged to bring signs they'd held up at Springsteen shows. Sukhothai proprietor Victor Wong brought this one, which Dave and Rob honoured with a brilliant acoustic version that demonstrated Mr Barber's vocal chops. 
 As he does onstage as bass player of Dave Wright and the Midnight Electric, Big Tim Cavanagh provided exuberant backing vocals and spirited clapping.
 DWME superfans Piera (left) and Rita (right) sandwich Rita's daughter Rebecca. Michael would later congratulate Piera and Rita via social media for their stellar pogo-ing during 'Atlantic City'. 
 Dave performed a pair of songs by himself: 1) The best cover I've ever heard of personal favourite 'State Trooper' and 2) a courageous version of piano-driven 'The Promise' that henceforth is prime fodder for full-band treatment at future DWME shows.
 Rob got into the spirit of the evening with a t-shirt he had specially made for the occasion. Its significance? It notes the date and locale of the first show to feature Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan and therefore the 'classic' E Street Band lineup: 19 September 1974 at the Main Point outside Philadelphia. 
 Men of the people. 
 It's tempting to think playing Springsteen covers to a roomful of Springsteen fans is like shooting Telecaster-shredding fish in a barrel but actually it's the opposite -- these people hear Springsteen's music in their dreams and hold his songs as gospel. Not-to-be-messed-with gospel. I thought Dave and Rob did justice to the spirit of the Springsteen songs they played and made Michael and Russ's third 'Incident on Exhibition Street' much more than a gathering of Bruce fans singing along to their favourite songs. Dave and Rob's interpretations of iconic Springsteen songs mixed with a few of their own gems made the night a memorable musical event. 

Bring on Incident IV.

Dave Wright & Rob Barber w/Tim Cavanaugh Setlist
1. Thunder Road (Springsteen cover)
2. Radio Nowhere (Springsteen cover)
3. Streets of This Town
4. Blacktown
5. The River (Springsteen cover)
6. The Lucky Country

Dave Wright solo acoustic
7. State Trooper (Springsteen cover)
8. The Promise (Springsteen cover)

Dave Wright & Rob Barber w/Tim Cavanaugh Setlist
9. Girls In Their Summer Clothes (Springsteen cover)
10. Hang Me High
11. Atlantic City (Springsteen cover)
12. Happiness
13. I'm On Fire (Springsteen cover)

George Orwell once wrote 'To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.' Prescient words from the man who predicted our current age of omnipresent surveillance, but who could not have foreseen that struggle extending to shared digital environments where people yearn for things that may, in fact, be just in front of their noses. 
 Case in point: This meme (left). It pops up every few months on Facebook. At first glance it's classic Old People Hate New Things. The former lead singer and lyricist for Led Zeppelin is now 67 years old and collaborating with artists from around the world on critically acclaimed projects but his Zep days linger as a benchmark against which Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, et al don't measure up. Never mind that Zep was lambasted by contemporary critics, particularly those employed by Rolling Stone in the days the magazine packed considerable cultural heft. For people raised on '70s FM radio Robert Plant was and will forever be a Rock God from a musical era steeped in freedom, exploration, brazenness, booze, drugs, wild hair and silk shirts that's as similar to today's music industry as brick-sized portable phones of the '70s to today's iPhones. An era to be romanticised, mourned, abandoned to the dustbin of nostalgia.

Except it isn't. 

There it was. All of it. In the moody front room of the Yarra Hotel a couple Saturdays ago. A gang of musicians with day jobs dreaming big. Original tunes sung with full-throated passion. Tales of characters true to this time and this place. A camaraderie between band and audience borne of shared struggle. All of it. Right there. Maybe this is what is was like when Zep was playing grubby halls throughout the English countryside, or Springsteen in shitholes up and down the East Coast. Am I comparing Dave Wright and the Midnight Electric to Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? Of course not. I'm pointing out how many self-described music junkies are overcome by the haze of nostalgia and too intoxicated to comprehend the rock and roll majesty in their own fucking grasp, up close, free of industry smoke and mirrors. Affordable. Fun. Heartfelt. The real motherfucking deal.

Do you hate soulless, talent-show dreck?

Do you yearn for music that speaks to you, your life, your country, your struggle, your dreams?

It's right there, people. All you gotta do is reach out and grab it.

Here's some more photos from the Yarra show. DWME will play its final headline gig of 2015 at the bizarre Zep-themed Whole Lotta Love in East Brunswick on Saturday, 7 November. After that the boys are opening for Mick Thomas at the Spotted Mallard on 18 December. Dave is quick to pronounce Mick Thomas's Weddings, Parties, Anything as a major influencer of his songwriting style, so opening one of Thomas's Christmas shows is both an honour and opportunity for DWME to strut their stuff before a legend of Aussie rock.

You should come along.
 

Dave dons a mouth harp.

 

Rock-God-In-His-Own-Right Rob Barber.

 

Drummer Neil Salmon.

 

Dave and bassist Tim Cav.

   

Keyboardist Daryl Johnson flashes a smile beneath a Bakersfield hat.

   

Trombonist extraordinaire John Bryant takes a breather during Anthony Foon's trumpet solo.

   

It wasn't easy capturing a photo of all seven members of Dave Wright and the Midnight Electric at The Catfish in Fitzroy two weeks ago. The boys were scattered about the downstairs bar like straphangers on a crowded train, keyboardist Daryl Johnson and drummer Neil Salmon the only ones lucky to find seats. It made for an uneasy setting up: Groups of people who'd been sitting at tables found themselves gradually inundated by musical equipment and -- even worse -- musicians. Man-of-a-thousand-gadgets Rob Barber planted himself and his six-string beside the door, guaranteeing all Catfish entrants between the hours of 8:00 and 11:00 an immediate face-to-guitar-neck encounter. The band was eager to play but this pre-gig game of musical chairs was unsettling, at best. 
 Turned out to be a common phenomenon at the Catfish. I stopped in for one of their fine craft beers the following weekend and had a quick chat with one of its owners, a jovial, Melbourne-born bloke named Michael. He described the familiar routine of bands walking into his bar, seeing the stage area, staring incredulously, and wondering how in the hell it would work out. All, he said, found happiness, as the venue's low ceilings and cramped confines proved secondary to the proximity to a lively, appreciative crowd in a truly great pub.

The band's performance on this Friday night in Fitzroy attested to that. Here's proof: A song called 'Into the Big Blue'. It's from their first album The Lucky Country that Dave only recently added to the setlist. It builds with the patience of Springsteen's 'Jungleland' and explodes with a guitar solo that echoes David Gilmour's on Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb'. Dem's big words, but see for yourself:



Due to the remarkable work of local-legend Michael Egan a number of videos from the Catfish show may be viewed from the comforts of home on YouTube: Drinking Days, Railroad Song, Over the Top and another angle of Into the Big Blue.

DWME played two full sets. While it's probably a stretch to call it a dilemma, figuring out what to play and when before crowds that don't know your music is a challenge. DWME aren't a niche band that cranks out an hour's worth of genre-friendly product night in, night out. They're a band raring to release a second album with an unusually diverse collection of original songs at the ready. With that in mind it wasn't a surprise they kicked things off with the brand new, never-before-played 'When the Needle Hits the Red', a personal song that's open to all kinds of interpretation, all of them affecting. The rest of the first set was similarly risk-taking, with crowd favourites like 'Over the Top', 'The Spitting Image' and DWME's cover of The Church's 'Under the Milky Way' mixed with dusted-off gems and another new song called 'Summer Girls'.
 If you're a fan of the band you listen to an opening set like that knowing the engine room will be fully coal-fired in the second set. But if you're not familiar with the band's catalogue, like the table of people to the right of Rob in this photo (left) who traveled to Catfish to attend the show but left after the first set, your impression of the band's sound is incomplete. Not the end of the world, of course, but to judge a DWME show without hearing incendiary staples like 'Streets of this Town', 'Father', 'Sweet Caroline', 'The Lucky Country' -- I could go on -- is akin to leaving a Southern barbecue before pie is served. Just. Not. Done.
 As the night wore on foot traffic in and out the door led me to stand beside it to ensure it remained closed between punters. Better me than Rob, who was busy laying down guitar licks and background vocals. I stepped outside at one point to appreciate the vividly Melburnian tableau of a band bringing the heat to a venue as original as the music being played. Throughout the second set Dave and bass player Big Tim Cav moved among the crowd, an exercise that usually requires hopping from a stage but on this night took only a step or two. The Midnight Electric horns -- trombonist John Bryant and trumpeter Anthony Foon -- stood opposite Dave and Tim and more than one patron nearly suffered a decapitation via John's trombone. It was a night that began with trepidation but ended in celebration. In other words, a typical night at the Catfish, and another great night in the city of Melbourne with Dave Wright and the Midnight Electric.
 

Keyboardist Daryl Johnson didn't let being wedged between tables affect his playing. The odd configuration of the band throughout the bar somehow brought his keys to the fore, laying plush carpets of sound beneath DWME's multi-instrumental assault.

 

Always a crooner ....

 

Up against the wall, Midnight Electric horns ...

 

Rob escapes his corner to jam with Dave.

 

My favourite photo on the night captures Dave and Mary sharing a moment.

 

Rob frightens passersby on Gertrude Street.

 

Come to a rock show, spend time with extraordinary people ...

 

These two self-proclaimed Catfish regulars bought autographed copies of 'The Lucky Country' and insisted DWME was the best band they'd ever seen at the pub. We all obviously look forward to seeing them again.

 

At the stroke of midnight it was Rob's birthday. Can't start it much better than in the company of 'Teachers for Tom Morello' Piera and Mary.