It was like walking in a furnace. The air was sucked of all moisture, cans of mid-strength beer would not provide a buzz because the alcohol was sweated out and people blistered with sunburn were left lying under foil blankets at the first aid tents.

The Derwent Entertainment Centre must have wanted to replicate that environment but overcooked it by about 100 degrees.

People were literally sweating in the nosebleed sections.

Heat wasn't the only issue. Those waiting in line for the bar for an hour missed the opening song. But that didn’t really matter because the power went out after that first track leaving Flea to deliver a Frank Zappa monologue and perform handstands to entertain the crowd. That the opening song was Can’t Stop added to the irony when the power to the stage microphones dropped out and the whole gig ground to a halt.

The band left the stage for about 20 minutes but thankfully it got sorted because the atmosphere was getting tense with some very frustrated people.

Outside the venue it was chaos with no clear taxi or uber rank or buses, cars were just entering in any random area and then trying to three-point turn among the crowd to get out again. Many people gave up on waiting and just walked to Glenorchy.

The setup was a huge fail for the DEC and Tasmania in general. It is clear from this concert and reports on other ones that the DEC should take some advice from the headliners and give it away now.

Despite how utterly embarrassing the venue was, the Chilli Peppers delivered a great show. Hits like Californication, Give It Away, By The Way, and the universally sung Under The Bridge were brilliant.

It makes you realise the tremendous hold music has over you - transporting you to the time in life that you first fell in love with those songs. For most people it is the coming of age years between mid-teens and adulthood, where their world is rapidly expanding alongside their independence.

Overseas bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Dinosaur Jr, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Hole, Soundgarden and Mudhoney, all found themselves on high-rotation on dubbed cassette tapes in my first car.

Australian bands like You Am I, Jebediah, Grinspoon, Something For Kate and Powderfinger joined too.

They still do but there is an element of nostalgia that makes it hard to go back to some great albums.

Nirvana's Nevermind and Jeff Buckley's Grace sit on that list because of the tragic end of both frontmen. And I still find it too sad to listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon because of the days gone that it represents.

Of course, watching your favourite bands live is the best experience.

The first big concert I saw was Metallica in 1998 having just turned 18. I had booked tickets separately from my two friends so ended up sitting by myself.

Fair to say I was pretty nervous surrounded by a rough and ready crowd of black t-shirts and tattoos, but what you realise is the communal power of shared passion.

AC/DC at Hobart's Domain in 2001, where noise complaints came from as far as Sandy Bay, was another example.

Everyone is mates because they are there for the same reason. Only bands and sporting teams can unite such disparate crowds into one shared experience.

Against Me! at Hobart's live music Mecca The Republic exemplified this. Not one for the mosh pit normally, there was no choice as it sucked in the whole bar like a vortex.

In that whirling dervish is a real sense of community and care; when someone goes down, a dozen hands pull them back up.

It is such a great feeling to be part of that amorphous mass.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be a mistake" and it is such a true statement.

Music matches the milestones of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. It encompasses the highs of wedding day entrances and first dances to the lows of funeral processions and everything in between.

Universally speaking, we all win in the long run when our lives are full of music.