Listen to Carolyn read “Underground, Outer Space”.
“Our music is like a punch in the face”
“It’s good for you”
They open the act and I sputter
Laughter trapped in my throat
People spill in
Beer spills on the floor
Don’t drink and dance
My knees knock against the stage
The barriers left
To make room for us
A red room flooded with people
Space filled with stale heat
Underground, time is standing still
Red and black and hot, hot
Peel back a sweater
In a busy cave
The men all look the same
Long dark hair and disco pants
A man appears on the stage
Inches away
Shorter than I expected but still
I’d kiss him
He calls to us
Mel-Bourne
We laugh with this medium-sized man
Doc martens, sunflower blazer
Tucking his hair behind his ear
“I can feel your spirits filling the room”
Alcohol, enthusiasm, both
I lost my head in the crowd
With a girl
Glitter in her mohawk like snow on Mount Buller
Two headless girls twisting and shouting
We’re on fire, underwater
Sharing the same words
Shouting the same breath
Outer space in a hot room
For two short hours
The comedown
An irate taxi driver
Count down the minutes
Until the next night
Hysteria, hopeless and
Giggling over two pints of beer and
Counting streetlights