Scenes from the coast: A fistful of chips

It’s a coastal country hotel with a reputation for outstanding live music.

Green hills rolling down to the sea and a low-key welcoming outdoor performance space that’s drawn the likes of Ed Kuepper, Kevin Welch, Mia Dyson, Don Walker, Steve Kilbey et al.

This evening it’s The Counterfeit, a ten-piece Melbourne musical conglomerate dedicated to playing the music of Ennio Morricone and the spaghetti western. In full ponchos and hats ensembles. Six-string bass, multiple guitars, organs aplenty. Wild harmonica, horns and strings. All the bells and whistles (compliments of a full-throated Cathode Ray).

Plenty of loud, raucous fun. Pulsing, rhythmic riffs and jangles. Overtures that keep building and building and then crashing over the audience. Lots of clapping and cheering as the show rolls on.

As the show gets louder and louder, one woman keeps diving her hand into a large bag of potato crisps and pulls out one thin chip at a time. Then places each chip between the fingers of her other hand.

Then munches each chip in time to the exuberant music, blissfully happy.