A Brisbane band has gotten bloody creative in the pandemic era, using their noggins to come up with the only way to play gigs in front of a live audience at the moment – playing at the footy. Truly some brain genius stuff here from QLD four-piece Concrete Surfers, who realised that they could just do a whole state regional tour by playing after local rugby games. So that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
The If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em tour was birthed when one of the lads in the band bemoaned in their group chat that they “may as well play at the footy”, after yet another run of gigs got canned. Their manager Chris Langenburg had a true lightbulb moment and got to work, calling every QLD Rugby League team in the state and putting together a grant application to help fund the tour.
Now, it’s happening – the Concrete Surfers are doing a you-beaut, true blue tour up and down the Queensland coast, playing to actual punters in actual footy stadiums over the next month at least.
“Instead of getting frustrated about the current situation, we have created a tour that works within the current QLD rules and will be playing to some of the biggest audiences allowed in the country right now,” Chris said.
“At the Rugby League.”
Kicking off on September 4th at the Brisbane Tigers V South Logan Magpies game at the Totally Workwear Stadium in Coorparoo, the boys will play after the final siren – to an actual audience of punters – at a string of games to round out the QRL home and away season.
Following that, they’ll be playing at the Wynnum Manly Seagulls game against the Norths Devils, then up to Townsville for the Blackhawks game, then back down to Brisbane for the Magpies and Redcliffe Dolphins games on September 12.
There’s more gigs to be announced, but that all depends on how the QRL finals shake out.
Gotta hand it to them, this is a hell of a plan.
