Powderfinger wave goodbye

THE witnesses to significant events often don't know they are seeing something historic. That becomes clearer with time.

FAREWELL: Powderfinger bid farewell at the end of their last performance together at the Riverstage in Brisbane on Saturday. Picture by Dave Hunt

THE witnesses to significant events often don't know they are seeing something historic. That becomes clearer with time.

Powderfinger

Brisbane Riverstage

Saturday

But at the final Powderfinger show, all 10,000 of the band's most-devoted fans, and the band themselves, knew this was history. Our history.

This was a band from Brisbane, the most popular in Australia, saying farewell at the absolute peak of their powers as a live band, after playing to more than 300,000 people across the country over two months.

The significance of the occasion added a nervous tension to the band that wasn't there at the four earlier concerts at this venue. But it didn't affect their performance or, rather, it seemed to drive their playing and the crowd reaction to greater highs.

Powderfinger do crescendos as well as anyone, but the huge wall of sound they delivered in songs like Passenger - dedicated by singer Bernard Fanning to their most dedicated fans - had to be heard to be believed. I've seen rock 'n' roll delivered as white hot as it is possible to make: The Who, The Clash, Midnight Oil, The Saints. At times, this matched the intensity.

Curiously, there was no sadness: there was too much joy and love in the air.

Ultimately, we remember these occasions through snapshots. Here are some: the anthemic sweep of Thrilloilogy and the laser-light setting, the bluesy guitar crunch from Darren Middleton and Ian Haug on Since You've Been Gone, Jon Coghill's incredible drum roll as the band kicks into overdrive in On My Mind, John Collins' bass so loud that it almost seemed to suck the air from your chest, Fanning's soulful vocal delivery, the crowd punching the air in Already Gone, the volume of the audience choir on My Happiness and These Days.

People keep asking me: who will be the next Powderfinger? No one knows. It might not happen for another generation or another century. But all 50,000 who saw these shows in Brisbane will say the same thing: it was a privilege to be around when it happened the first time.

THE LAST CONCERT

Powderfinger, Brisbane

Riverstage, November 13, 2010

Love Your Way

Lost and Running

Burn Your Name

Sunsets

DAF

Since You've Been Gone

My Kinda Scene

Thrilloilogy

Already Gone

Sail the Wildest Stretch

Like a Dog

Stumblin'

Nobody Sees

Private Man

My Happiness

Passenger

Encore 1...

Capoicity

Pick You Up

On My Mind

Encore 2...

These Days