The American folk singer had played a splendid gig in the just as splendid arena of the Sydney Recital Hall. Moody lighting cast a shadow on the singer, Mark Kozelek, whose stories of terrible woe had captivated the hipster crowd.

So many beards and spectacles on such young men! So many tattooed young women in dresses that were fashionable in the 1950s.

Mark Kozelek: "Where are all the black people in Sydney?"

"Turn the lights on the crowd. I wanna see the crowd," he suddenly barked. The lighting attendant illuminated the 500-strong audience.

Ohio-born Kozelek wandered up and down the stage in his dirty blue jeans and blue jacket, stomach seeping over his waistband, unfashionable athletic shoes making a clump-clump-clump sound. He looked at the crowd. He stared.