Flower Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower Market

Sideways Bar

28 July 2023

 

It’s rare to see the full life cycle of a band but that’s what we saw on Friday night. We witnessed the first official live performance of Flower Market at the Yacht Club in 2021 and if, as I suspect that this hiatus is indefinite, we witnessed the final Flower Market performance at Sideways Bar on Friday.

 

The band announced at the gig that they were going on hiatus because the lead guitarist was moving to Melbourne. On what may be their final show, it had a bit of a celebratory feel, but mixed with a hint of melancholy. The band were tight, playing songs they said were “old as fuck” (amusing given they must be 20 years old at most) to a song that was just released on Spotify that morning. It was a touching gig. It was nice seeing a band splitting up without any hint of recrimination. The band were sad to see their friend leave, but wanted to celebrate their time together.

 

Unless you’re U2, Metallica or the Rolling Stones, all bands break up. It’s a sad fact of life. What has been great about Flower Market, aside from hearing their songs, is watching them grow as performers. All of the band members are around my children’s age so to see them develop from being good, but nervous, musicians at their first gig to a confident band that knows how to work a stage and how to play their songs has been great.

 

Each of them are accomplished musicians. There is no weak link in this band, but the sum of their talents is even greater than the individual components. The bass player never only plays root notes, the drummer doesn’t just provide just a solid back foundation for the songs, the lead guitarist is one of the best musicians I’ve heard and the lead singer brings it all together.  Not only that, they have a chemistry that can only come from being old school friends. Oh, and most importantly all their songs are fantastic. 

 

So, should they look back at their time as Flower Market as a success? How do you measure success anyway? Is it platinum records? Is it playing to festival crowds? Sure, they are both definitely measures of success. But what about success on a smaller scale. They made recordings (93 thousand plays on Spotify for one of their songs!) they sold t-shirts, they had interstate gigs. That’s success by any measure. 

 

I’m not exactly sure what they would have needed to get pushed to the next level. But they weren’t lacking talent or conviction. They weren’t lacking songs. Maybe they just needed a lucky break? We all know that’s impossible to manufacture.

 

Walking home past a covers band that was inevitably being paid more for one night’s gig than Flower Market earned for their entire “career” was a little depressing. I bemoaned the sad fact that most people only want to hear songs they know, rather than original music. Here’s hoping that the hiatus isn’t permanent. They had great songs and I’d like to hear them again.