Chab Gassie

Every year operatives at DASI get one ‘out of touch’ day. That is where you take a day off and no matter what happens, you can’t be called back in to the office. So you could be lying on a beach with world war imminent and democracy crumbling around you, but DASI would not be allowed to call you up and say “Dude… it’s an emergency”. I think the union negotiated these days. And all we had to give up was our right to have normal lives.

You’re meant to keep these days for very important moments in your life, such as the birth of a child or the football grand final, but I’m thinking of using mine to see Orbital play on February 19.

Orbital are an old school techno/trance duo from Britain. They are the only act out of my big four favourite groups who I haven’t seen live yet. They said they were retired about five years ago and I thought I’d missed my chance, but here we are.

They are at the ‘back to roots’ stage of their career. I’ll explain the life cycles that my four favourite bands, and most of the popular bands from the 1990s, have followed to varying degrees.

1. Wow, who’s that? – Where they are playing concerts and festivals as supporting acts, or smaller venues as the main act.

2. Alternate – They are played on Triple J and select subcultures are listening to them. To subcultures they are considered acceptable, mainly because the mainstream culture thinks they’re a bit odd.

3. Having a go at mainstream – They’ve become so popular that they alter their music to be friendly to the mainstream. Dance acts did this by cutting their nine minute soundscapes down to three minutes.

4. Gone to shit – They take mainstream a step too far and alienate all groups of fans.

5. Back to roots - They realise the fans they made in the mainstream phase aren’t going to stick with them and quickly scurry back to the loyal fans they made in the earlier stages of their careers. This phase is followed by retirement.

My four favourites are Public Enemy, The Prodigy, Garbage and Orbital. I saw Public Enemy when they were in the having a go at mainstream and then again in the back to roots phase. I’ve seen Prodigy twice – once in the alternate phase and once in the having a go at mainstream. I’ve seen Garbage once when they were between having a go at mainstream and gone to shit – and they really did go to shit. Now I have a chance to see Orbital.

But being a dance act, they’ll probably come on at 3am to cater for those on pills who are peaking. I should take a sniffer dog with me and clear the place out so Orbital will come on earlier for sober professionals like myself.