Back in the Room: Rogue Traders Live

Some nights just work out. You buy a ticket months in advance, life gets busy, and by the time the night arrives you've almost forgotten why you were excited. Then the lights go down and it all comes rushing back.

Rogue Traders are one of those Australian bands that soundtracked a whole era. Voodoo Child, Way To Go, Watching You, songs that have no business still sounding this good. Natalie Bassingthwaighte fronting the band, fully committed, clearly loving every minute of it. The crowd was the same.

That first photo is the one I keep coming back to. Black and white, a sea of silhouettes pressing toward a blinding wall of light. It looks like something from a film but that was just the room, that was just the moment. You can feel the noise in it.

By the time the set hit its stride there were hands in the air and people singing words they hadn't thought about in years, apparently stored somewhere just waiting to be unlocked. That shot of the stage from deep in the crowd, with one arm raised near the front, is basically the whole night in a single frame.

Great band, great songs, great crowd. Sometimes it really is that simple.