The ever-reliable hit machine touring circuit rolls on with the announcement that US country rock sensation John Mellencamp will be performing at the AIS Arena in February. In addition we have a few remaining Beach Boys revisiting timeless sun and surf at the National Convention Centre next month, and an Australian 1980s feel-good extravaganza featuring the likes of Pseudo Echo is coming soon to rock the house.
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These non-contemporary favourites keep alight a particular kind of cultural spark in the ACT. But when it comes to retromania it would appear that only some, certainly not all, Canberra music fans are well served. I say this because on Wednesday long-running UK post-punk band The Fall performed at The Metro Theatre in Sydney.
A local show would have gotten the juices flowing for alternative music fans that have keenly followed the many rockabilly and Captain Beefheart inspired selections The Fall began crafting in the same year the Sex Pistols released their landmark album Never Mind the Bollocks.
Let's not forget that The Fall's mercurial vocalist Mark E Smith has always been happy to rail against the shallowness of mass consumerism in an unforgiving verbal flow. How wonderful it would have been to see this band in action at the ANU Bar, where punk rock fans of all ages have congregated over the years.
Similarly, post-hardcore sonic perfectionists Shellac, led by indomitable guitarist/producer Steve Albini, will be performing in Sydney in December. Albini has been irritating the mainstream with his purist work ethic since the mid 1980s, and garnered significant public attention when chosen by Nirvana to produce that band's frighteningly intense 1993 album, In Utero.
Shellac drew a significant crowd of post-punk devotees to the ANU when they performed there with Fugazi in 1993 – one of the most incendiary line-ups to ever grace the nation's capital. In fact, Shellac's appeal with retromania devotees must surely start with the band's name, which pays homage to the eternal delights of music reproduction via gramophone records (shellac was an early material used to make them).
Albini has made no secret of his disdain for digital technology, and each album is recorded to enhance the analogue listening experience – a gift for committed audiophiles. But Canberrans will have to get on the Hume to experience the joy of this band in concert.
This is why the nostalgia touring circuit is favouring only a certain kind of local music fan. Although the entertainment factor when it comes to such notables as John Mellencamp and The Beach Boys is high, what becomes of all those punk rock fans out there just itching to throw on a Clash or Scratch Acid t-shirt and savour the delights of alternative glitterati like The Fall and Shellac in live performance?
