Celent has spent most of his life in the front row of someone else's show. On 18 September, at The Toff in Town, he gets the other side of the barrier.
The Naarm artist plays You Should Be Concerned in full that night, before the record comes out. It’s billed as his live debut, which is a large thing to attempt in one go, and he seems aware of that.
“I’ve always told myself, go big or go home,” he says. “If you’re not willing to do the most, you won’t get the most out of it.
“I’ve been going to concerts since I can remember, I make sure I’m always there and front row,” he says. “I’ve been idolising performers and my favourite artists for too long, I could make a list over a 100 names long.”
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He describes the rollout as something he wouldn’t have pictured a year ago. Grateful is the word he keeps returning to.
The clearest window into the record is a song called timberland in the rain, which he says gets read too literally.
“It’s less surface level than it’s perceived,” he says. “I wrote the song to show the indifference between myself and a Timberland boot, in the sense that the boots are waterproof and I am not. The metaphor speaks to the envy I feel about Timberlands not being able to feel the rain, yet I can feel the pain and everything happening to me, wishing I was waterproof…’reflect the pain to stop the soreness, never feel a thing at all, that’s a timberland in the rain.’
Envying a boot for its lack of an interior life is a strange idea for a song, but it suggests the record has more going on than its promotional copy, which leans on identity and isolation.
Kuna and Vanté Kay will open at The Toff. Celent calls them “two of the best artists this country has to offer” and points to their live experience rather than their catalogues. He’s fond of the venue, too: “The Toff is such a welcoming and lively venue, able and willing to support the show and the crowd that I’m bringing in for such a big event for me. The Toff is helping me bring the dream to life.”
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Then there’s the other thing. Celent plays guard for the Hawthorn Kings in the Melbourne Basketball League, and if his side goes all the way, the grand final falls on 19 September — the night after the gig.
“I was definitely caught off guard when asked this question,” he says. “So if my team ends up passing through that far, I’ll have two of the biggest days and performances of my life on back to back nights.”
He’s not new to the split. “I’ve been a basketball player since I could remember, making the NBA was all I ever wanted to do.
“I actually have a song on my new album titled didn’t make the league, which will touch on that subject. Nowadays I bring the balance between making music and playing ball, it’s my two highest passions.
“I just find myself taking the music more seriously at this stage of my life.”
Celent plays The Toff in Town on 18 September with Kuna and Vanté Kay. Tickets are $20, available here.
