Goodbye From Glowing: The Band That Couldn't Slow Down
The indie rockers are playing their final show this Friday night.
Glowing (Supplied)
The beloved Crown and Anchor has seen the birth of countless Adelaide bands. It is where local musicians cut their teeth onstage. It is where young gig-goers learn how to become gig-goers - learn how to order a schooner, learn how to dress suitably “ketamine chic,” learn how to discern which discordant guitar solos speak to them and which ones don’t.
More rarely - and more bittersweetly - the Crown and Anchor has also been known to be the site of stirring musical farewells. What better place to go out than at the place that raised you?
Indie rockers Glowing played their first ever gig at the Crown and Anchor, all the way back in 2019. Guitarist and backing vocalist Jack Paech reflects on that defining moment for the band, and how “exciting” it was: “It was a full room at the Cranker, and it’s still one of the best shows I’ve ever played. I remember seeing people struggling to fit into the Cranker band room before we even went on stage.”
Now, Glowing is set to play their final ever show on Friday, January 17th. Their big send-off will take place, of course, at the Crown and Anchor.
“It feels pretty poetic to be playing our last show at the Cranker,” Paech says. “To have our time together bookended by a place that we share so much history with kind of highlights how beautiful and symbiotic the community in Adelaide can be.”
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On the night, the band will be joined by emo-dolewave outfit Kurralta Park and genre-diverse alt-indie four-piece Sunsick Daisy.
“We’re feeling good about the last show,” Paech confirms. “I think we’re all going into it with the same mindset of just having as much fun as we possibly can. The set is sounding as good as it ever has, but the fact that it’s our last show takes so much pressure off, so I’m excited to play these songs one last time with the sort of reckless abandon that I’ve never allowed myself in the past.”
He continues, “At the moment I’m not feeling anything but excitement about Friday, but I’m expecting to be a bit of an emotional wreck on the night. It’s a really weird feeling to be consciously present in a moment that marks the end of an important chapter in your life, so I think it’s going to feel really heavy, but in a good way.”
He refers to the band’s decision to part ways as “bittersweet” but there is no animosity involved. “We’re moving on from the band to pursue other things. But also, when we decided to call it in March last year, it felt really natural to all of us. We wanted to end the band at a point where we could look back and say we had achieved what we wanted to achieve together, and I think it’s a testament to how close we are as friends that we intuitively felt the same way at the same time.
“I’m really grateful to be able to say goodbye to Glowing with so many friends around us. I owe so much of the last six years to this band and it’s amazing that we get to give it the sendoff it deserves.” Though they still desperately enjoy playing music together, he doesn’t think the band harbours “any regrets about calling it when we did.”
The friendships that have formed amongst the bandmates is a testament to the way that local music can forge and strengthen deep connections.
“I’m already feeling pretty nostalgic about it all,” Paech says. “I think a lot about the fact that most of my social life to this day wouldn’t be the way it is without Glowing. All of my bandmates have become so important to me that I actually can’t imagine my life without any of them in it.”
Tickets are still available to be purchased online. Be there in the flesh to witness this poignant, full-circle moment for Glowing.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
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