a moment has left the building

ok, so i decided to head on over to 'http://www.hometownthrowdown.com' for old times sake just to see if the website was still chugging along and whether the forum had been devoured by spam and bots yet.

there was nothing

it seems the hosting and domain name have expired and it's gone.

it got me thinking about all the shows we put on and all the people who enjoyed the shows. i think its been a year and a 1/2 since the last show, but people still ask whether another one is going to happen anytime soon.

i hopped on google to see what it had to say, and it turns out that when you type in 'hometown throwdown' it comes up the link to hometownthrowdown.com as the number one result.

when we started putting the shows on, John and I called them Hometown Throwdown's as a reference to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who we both love and were still around and touring like crazy. all the search engines used to be full of the Bosstones when you typed those words in to search engines, but since then both the Bosstones, and us have moved on, and now our humble site is there at number one.

it's a pity the shows don't happen anymore. i used to love seeing all these people turn up and have a great time listening to bands, hanging out, skating on the ramps and just having a good old time without alcohol or drugs involved in any way.

most people who we'd try and tell about the shows (people from school for example) weren't interested and didn't want to go, but the ones that did come along had a great time.

it was so much hard work though, and when less than 300 people turned up i was disappointed, but when we managed to pull 500 people it made it very worth it.

since starting to put on the shows, i've learnt many things. audio production, event management, advertising, lighting and staging setups, OH&S laws/risk management etc

hopefully i can find a way to use these skills i've acquired over the years to do something else worthwhile. not only use them to get paid and support myself, but to do something socially practical and ethical, and above all have a whole bunch of fun.

to all of you that like to ask:
-will Hometown Throwdown's ever come back? who knows.
-will i be doing something sometime in the future? yep. just you wait and see.
-will it be anytime soon? maybe not, but when it does happen it'll be brilliant.