M A N D Y N O LA N ’S
SOAPBOX
W W W . E C H O . N E T. A U /
S O A P - B OX
KILLING THEM SOFTLY
This weekend just past Australia awoke to the story of the horrific shooting in Margaret River. Seven people shot in a murder/suicide where a husband shot his wife, a father shot his daughter and a grandfather shot his four grandchildren.
live music usic sc
These types of crime are impossible to fathom. How does a person arrive at a point in their life where that becomes their strategy? What would drive a man to kill his family? There is nothing I can think of that would act as an adequate motivation for such an horrendous act.
GLASGOW COMES TO MULLUM
If you have reached such dire straits, why not just kill yourself? Isn’t that enough? Why kill the children? While I don’t condone suicide as a solution, at least I can understand and empathise with that. Killing yourself would have dignity and would allow your extended family to grieve.
Frontman Paul McKenna of The Paul McKenna Band sees the world as verses and choruses, and for more than a decade he has travelled the globe as a musician collecting the stories of everyday and exceptional lives. From there come the songs written and sung by a common man with a haunting voice. His vibrato is immediately recognisable and when he begins to weave a tale, an audience is stilled. Be it social injustice, inequality or an homage to the wonder and joy of simple things, he sings for everyone. His bandmates Ewan Baird, Conor Markey, Robbie Greig and Conal McDonagh weave unique melodies with traditional instrumentation. Sunday 27 May at Mullum Ex-Services – tix www.paulmckennaband. com $30/25/20 Doors 7pm show 8pm.
How does a family manage the trauma of mass murder? Knowing that the perpetrator of evil was someone you trusted. Was one of you. No-one has used the word domestic violence, but this is the worst outcome imaginable. This is a mass shooting. At home, by your dad. While they compare it to Port Arthur, it’s nothing like that. This wasn’t a sociopath on a rampage picking off victims like ducks on a shooting range. Bryant didn’t shoot his family. He shot strangers. He had never held one of those people in his arms and told them he loved them. This is worst-case-scenario domestic violence. Why don’t the media say that? Is it because we perceive domestic violence as not being properly serious enough to equate to this horror? When a man kills his wife, his daughter and his grandchildren it reaffirms the most dangerous place for women and children is in their home. The people we must fear are often the people we love. The perpetrator is not a stranger who sneaks through the window in the night. It is not random. It is not a lunatic on a shooting spree. This is someone they called Dad. Or Granddad. Someone they loved. Someone they trusted. Someone who stands beside them smiling in the family photos. Do they know? Do they know this man who holds the child, who gives his daughter away at a wedding, who laughs with his grandkids, do they know this is the person who will kill them? It makes it even more chilling. And even harder to understand what darkness took him to that place. All weekend I kept thinking about what happened. How it could have happened. What takes a person to that unthinkable place? How can a person arrive at the idea that this carnage is the solution to their problems? Did the family know they were in danger? Were they sleeping? Had he planned it? Had he known weeks before? Had he bought the ammunition days ahead? Were the guns sitting loaded waiting for the moment when he enacted the execution? In time the police investigation will uncover the answers, but right now I keep wondering how it could have happened. How a man could shoot his grandchild. These stories chill me a little more than most. My mother has told me a story of my father, an out-of-control violent alcoholic coming home after a three-day drinking binge being pursued by police. He’d beaten up a cop and decided he wanted to go to the hospital and kill him. I was only small, so my memory is only what my mother has told me.
ANCIENT GREEK FROM A MODERN MAN Harry James Angus, the explosive trumpet-playing singer from The Cat Empire, is known for his deeply original live performances in which the highest standards of musical craftsmanship are thrown into chaos, uncertainty, and ultimately transcendence. Featuring some of Australia’s finest jazz soloists, complete with horns, vocal chorus and Angus’s soaring trumpet, Struggle with Glory is a new project that explores the archetypal stories of Ancient Greek mythology – the savage and beautiful world of the Olympian gods, of Achilles and Odysseus, of sea nymphs and of the Minotaur, re-imagined through the swoop and holler of traditional gospel music. The call-and-response, emotionally charged tropes of American gospel bring these ancient stories to life. Like a church for pagans, Struggle With Glory is by turns celebratory and mournful, completed by tradjazz improvisations that will have even the strictest of pundits idol-worshipping in the aisles. Mullum Civic Hall on Friday 1 June. Show 8pm | Tix at redsquaremusic.com.
My father had a gun in the house, which my mother had hidden that day. She hated that thing; my father’s mental state made her acutely aware that the gun posed great risk to her and my safety. Her intuition told her to hide it. So she did. So later when he came home screaming ‘there’s only one way out of this. I have to shoot my way out,’ he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t find his gun. And one fact remains true: without a gun you can’t shoot anyone. The words mental illness have been used, as they often are in these circumstances. But this was methodical. The gunman aka father/grandfather/husband would have travelled room to room with the intention of shooting every member of his family. One after the other. Those who woke up would have been hunted down. The horror for that poor family on that dark night is unimaginable. What a terrible, terrible way to die. This is a mass shooting. It is also domestic violence. And it is terrorism. Maybe instead of watching for suspicious behaviour at airports… we need to spend more time looking a little closer to home.
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
ROCK’N’ROLL ROYAL FAMILY Port Royal, Brisbane’s rock’n’roll royal family are debunking any preconceptions about rock’n’roll in this modern era with their new antithetical single Rock & Roll Is Dead. It is safe to say that Port Royal are quickly becoming one of most demanded emerging rock acts from Brisbane. Now with their new single Rock & Roll Is Dead these royals give a nod to everything that was loved about the likes of Jet, the Hives and the Vines in the early 2000s rock revival while never straying far away from the iconic blues formula of the 70s golden age of rock. They are joined by King Coaster, Mind and Garage Sale at the Byron Brewery on Friday. Free.
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WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK WEDNESDAY
FRIDAY
WITH HARRY NICHOLS
PORT ROYAL WITH
KING COASTER
+ MIND + GARAGE SALE
JUST SAY NOMIKA Riding high on the success of a mountain-fresh rebrand and banging new single, Nomika is proud to announce the launch of their debut EP, Motion. The Brisbane band draws inspiration from the likes of Hiatus Kaiyote, Vulfpeck, Snarky Puppy and Anderson Paak. Drink deep from the funky well with Nomika and their partner in crime, Jabberwocky Down, at Byron Bay Brewery this Saturday from 7pm. Free entry.
OPEN MIC NIGHT
SATURDAY
NOMIKA
& JABERWOCKY DOWN
1 SKINNERS SHOOT RD, BYRON BAY FOR MORE DETAILS VISIT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/BYRONBAYBREWERY
The Byron Shire Echo May 16, 2018 33