We had hours until the bill and I forgot I was damp. I think I kept whispering ‘Kinky Fooking Friedman’ and, well, you get in a mindset where everything else is outside this bubble, and I shook hands with a kind of royalty and I was actually invited to be a part of his audience that night. It was definitely a treat for a writer who had only $100 to his name.
The bar was small and had the right atmosphere of smoke and static. Queensland was just about to bring in anti-smoking laws in venues that would rip a lung out of you anyway, but no one seemed to mind that Mr Friedman had a nice big lit Cubano on stage. I mean, well, gee … it’s part of the grace of being Kinky. If the Rolling Stones came on stage and Keith handed out AA self-help cards you’d feel cheated, wouldn’t you?
His usual opening gags didn’t seem to pall. ‘They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore’ got the crowd happy and toasty. Kinky is of the era when Tom Waits began his lounge acts and there is something croaky in his voice, but still something unique and also vital. Something in the room that night smelt of community and you kind of got the feeling you were travelling with him for a stint. Sometimes it takes a little bit more than a croaky voice and a persona under a cowboy hat to deliver an artist; it takes a sense of welcoming community at a show.
The Kinkster rocked that night, and I’ve since heard he has returned to our shores to perform, so there is no exhaustion in his spirit.
One song blended into another, poetry, philosophy, dead-set workmanship from a man who came into town with guns holstered but mind sharpened. By the second set our drinks were dry and a trip to the bar was needed. Two young Brisbanites who had wandered in and been amazed by what they’d heard kept slapping the oak of the bar, elated. I was about to advise them that Kinky’s books could be purchased at our local Avid Reader but they were already checking him out through their iTune apps. They looked at least twenty years younger than me, and it just goes to show that there is something for everyone in a Kinky Friedman experience.
