Hey there, hello again. A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent the evening with Airbourne at their sold-out final Melbourne show before relocating to the USA. It was sad to say goodbye and see them go but they're primed to take on the world now. The Australian market just isn't big enough and it was good to see their album debut in the UK Top 40 this week.

For much of the warm night, I sat in their dressing room backstage at the HiFi as they professionally went through their preparations. Joel was loud as hell with his vocal warm-up – singing along to a few choice tunes on his iPod, he would alternate between sips of hot water with honey and straight Jack Daniels. Just before they hit the stage, I got them together for a photo to mark their red letter night. A cameraman about to film the show joined us in the room and snapped this pic of me with the boys.

They hit the stage to the delight of the chanting crowd and it was foot-to-the-floor rock'n'roll from that moment forward. The heat coming off the frenzied 1000-strong pack was intense, so I watched most of the show from behind, where the fan from their dressing room kept me much cooler.

As they came off stage following a rousing encore, I handed them waters as they collapsed on the dressing room couches – exhausted. Others soon started to come in the room to congratulate them on a great show and to say goodbye. Once done at the venue, we moved on to Cherry bar where it was also soon time for me to say goodbye to the boys for now.

After playing a DJ set at Ding Dong on Friday night before Electric Mary's blistering show, I was back to the HiFi on Saturday as Swedish rockers Hardcore Superstar played their first-ever show in Melbourne. The first I heard this Grammy-nominated band was over seven years ago at the time I was relocating to Melbourne from Perth, so their first album marks my memories of that time for me.

I got to the venue just after 4pm and after meeting their crew, I was soon helping to load in the band's equipment. Once most of their gear was in place on stage, my friend Paul came across their massive logo backdrop in a bag. To the doubt of their crew, Paul and I managed to hang it behind the band as they sound-checked, being careful not to drop it on the drum-kit in the tight confines we worked in.

After soundcheck, I sat in their dressing room and interviewed drummer Magnus 'Adde' Andreasson for about forty minutes. We got along well and he opened up and was generous in the interview for my next book (more on that another time).

The band played really well and the crowd lapped it up. I watched the encore from their dressing room doorway and greeted them as they came off stage, ensuring they had their preference of beer or water, as we talked about highlights from the show. As I unhooked Adde's ear monitors from the back of his shirt, their tour manager came in and snapped a couple of shots of me with the sweaty band, before we headed back down into the main room where they signed autographs and had photos with the remaining fans.

Once the last fans had exited and we had folded the banner back up, it was about 2am and time to say farewell to the band before they needed to leave for the airport at 5:30am for the next Hardcore Superstar shows in Japan.

My weekend rounded out perfectly on Sunday night with a river cruise party for the staff of Cherry bar. We departed just before dusk to the sounds of AC/DC pumping out from the onboard DJ, as we cruised along the Yarra River through Melbourne. Returning a few hours later after plenty of food and drink, the owners then opened the bar to continue the private party, where I acquainted myself with Laphroaig whisky.

I'll be back at Cherry bar again this coming Saturday night, when I hit AC/DC Lane with the best rock'n'roll party tunes from every era.