Outside the clinic
Three chords, one distortion pedal, zero regrets.
Ben plays rhythm guitar in a Brisbane rock band. It's loud, it's occasional, and it's got nothing to do with therapy — which is largely the point.
The band
The Flat Fours started as a group of mates who wanted an excuse to rehearse. They've been rehearsing ever since — with the occasional pub gig to justify the equipment.
Ben picked up a guitar at fourteen, put it down at twenty-two when life got in the way, and picked it back up a decade later when a colleague mentioned he was looking for a rhythm guitarist. The Flat Fours play classic rock covers with a handful of original songs that are, by general agreement, better than they have any right to be.
The band is four people: Ben on rhythm guitar, a mate from his community mental health days on lead, a structural engineer on bass, and a primary school teacher on drums. They rehearse in the structural engineer's garage every few weeks and play live maybe five or six times a year — mostly local venues, the occasional private function, once a wedding that still gets brought up.
\"It's the only hour of the week where I'm not the one asking the questions,\" Ben says. \"The music does the talking. I just try not to play too loud.\"
The Flat Fours are not taking on any new members. The drummer's wife already has opinions about the rehearsal schedule.
What they play
The reliable part of the set.
Classic rock, a few Australian staples, and the originals they're quietly most proud of. Crowd response is, charitably, mixed on the originals.
Covers — the warhorses
Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, AC/DC, The Angels, and enough Led Zeppelin to keep the lead guitarist happy. The kind of songs that mean everyone in the room over forty knows every word.
Covers — the curveballs
A handful of songs that have no business being in a pub rock set but somehow work. The Radiohead cover divides opinion. The Tom Waits cover mostly confuses people. They keep both in.
Originals
Four songs written collectively over eight years. One is genuinely good. One is good if you've had a drink. One is a work in progress that has been a work in progress since 2019. One they only play if specifically asked.
Backstage requirements
The rider. Such as it is.
Every serious band has a rider — a list of demands that must be met before they'll agree to perform. The Flat Fours have a rider. It has evolved considerably since 2016, and not in the direction you might expect from a rock band.
The full rock star list
When the band formed, there was a brief period — roughly eighteen months — where they operated with a certain amount of creative ambition about what the rider might one day look like. It included, at various points: a case of craft beer, a cheese board "from a proper deli, not the supermarket," a specific brand of water (still, not sparkling), and the instruction that the room be "cleared of unnecessary people" before they went on. There were four unnecessary people in the room. The room had eight chairs. The maths was not discussed.
Somewhere to sit
The lead guitarist has a knee. The bassist has a back. The drummer, who is forty-nine and plays sitting down anyway, does not count. Ben requires a chair that is "not the really wobbly one." This has been in the rider since 2019.
Tea. Specifically tea.
At some point between 2018 and 2020, the craft beer request quietly became a request for tea. Not herbal tea — ordinary tea, with milk, in a real mug. The structural engineer drinks instant coffee. The primary school teacher has oat milk. The lead guitarist's position on beverages is, at this stage, a matter of ongoing band discussion.
A working power board
Three amps, a pedalboard, two microphones, and someone's phone charger. The structural engineer's garage has one power point on the relevant wall. The rider specifies a power board with at least six outlets and "please no extension cord that's also used for the lawnmower." This happened once. It affected the sound in ways that were difficult to explain.
Finishing by 9:30pm
This is not technically in the rider, because it is not a demand so much as an understanding. The lead guitarist has a forty-minute drive. The bassist's youngest has swimming in the morning. Ben has clients at eight. The drummer is the only one who could theoretically go later, but the drummer's wife has made her views on this known, and the rider respects them.
Nobody mentioning the originals critically
This is definitely in the rider. The originals are a sensitive topic. Specifically, the one that's been a work in progress since 2019 is not to be referred to as "the unfinished one" or "that song" or "the one where Ben does the bridge wrong." It is a work in progress. It will be finished. The timeline is not yet confirmed.
The cheese board, for the record, was excellent the one time they got it. The deli question was settled conclusively. Nobody remembers which deli. This is also a sensitive topic.
Playing in a band is one of the few things in life where being wrong about the timing is everyone's problem at once. There's something clarifying about that.
Here for the therapy, not the band.
The band is not bookable. The psychology practice very much is.