The Getaway Plan - Farewell tour
When I first heard that The Getaway Plan was breaking up I thought it was a joke, but after logging onto their MySpace and reading the statement I realised it was the end. The group were disbanding and moving on but before they were to separate they decided to play "one last National tour".
A strong crowd of around 600 people attended the concert at Melbourne bar The Hi-Fi. The crowd started to line up three hours before the show was scheduled to start. The support acts included Amity Affliction, Elora Dannan and Stealing O'Neal. All support acts had a loyal fan base, but it was the Amity Affliction that proved the favourite.
By now the crowd was fired up from the supporting acts and it was The Amity Affliction that introduced The Getaway Plan, who entered from the left-hand side of the stage.
Lead singer Matthew Wright welcomed fans dressed in his traditional white dirt-stained shirt and tight jeans. The opening song, "Streetlight", proved successful in getting the crowd moving and singing along.
As the band continued to play, a set list of older, well-known songs were delivered to the audience. The fans loved the fact that older songs were being played and banged their heads along to the lyrics.
Throughout the show The Getaway Plan thanked fans and the support bands for encouraging and supporting them during their final tour. Fans in the mosh pit thrashed around while others threw their fists in the air all in support of the band.
Security guards were constantly throwing water bottles to the exhausted people in the crowd. At one stage fans in the mosh pit began to chant for "Quarantined". The band at first seemed reluctant to play it, but as the chanting continued they complied and played a section of the song.
There was a moment of confusion when the band stoped playing during the show and swapped bass players for another man from one of the support bands, but to everyone's relief bass player Dave Anderson came back onstage for the next song.
The end of the show was closing in and the fans could feel it. As Matthew announced, "This is our last song," the crowd went wild, screaming and shouting for them to continue. They luckily played an encore of "Where the City meets the Sea" as the crowd sang along to the familiar lyrics, at times even overpowering the singer's voice so all you could hear was the unison of fans singing.
The night ended with many declarations of love for the band and screaming fans dreading the end. A strange atmosphere of love and sadness cloaked the crowd as we all tried to savour our last time of seeing the band play together.
The Getaway Plan were in fine form and played well known and loved songs for their devoted fans, who waited around at the end to hopefully meet their heroes. Unfortunately they didn't come down and see the crowd, although there was plenty of memorabilia for fans to purchase.
3 and a half stars out of 5
