Sunday, April 13, 2008
AUZ 3/2
Mercy. Must get this done.
The ominous DUNN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN at the end of my last post was because we woke up supremely early to make our flight to Sydney and got hosed worse than I've ever been hosed on a tour. Turns out our flight was the first leg of an international flight to Osaka or somewhere, even though we were only going to Sydney. For an international flight the shit ass airline had a policy of checking in an hour early. Which we were there over an hour early. But we had to check into the international terminal and we waited in line to check in at the domestic terminal and they said "too bad by the time you get to the international terminal it'll be too late fuck you". Even though the international terminal was close by unbeknownst to us. So they just fucked over 15 people. They said we could pay a heap of money and get on an afternoon flight, but that would cause us to miss our show in Sydney. No way no how. We had no choice but to march over to Virgin and buy 15 tickets on the spot for $3000 or $3500 and eat the biggest dangh ever. Blew all our money we'd been collecting at our side shows.
Forget it. We came to jam, not to complain. Got to Sydney and took a taxi to Laneway. This one was set up amongst skyscrapers. A big main stage in a park/square kind of place, a 2nd stage in an alley between two skyscrapers (this was where we played), a 3rd stage in a smaller alley between two skyscrapers, and a rock club between the two alleys. The backstage was up in a hotel several stories up, with a good view of the square/main stage area. When we got there we saw Personal up in the window and he mooned us.
We hung out for a while backstage and took in some brews. Then Ice and Izzo and SM and SM's penpal friend went to check out some of Monchister Arkestra - the ATL band that had been seeing our shows and hanging with us. In classic Ice fashion, we crept too hard and only caught the last half of their last song. Geez. By then we went back and Bird Dog and Kellie and Jamie had arrived. They skipped out on Brisbane because they had a DJ gig to do but met up with us in Sydney for one last Flyin ette jam. Hung out some more backstage for a bit and then it was getting close to our final jam.
We entered the alley behind the stage with all our shit. Okraville Raver was jamming it really hard. They were kind of going bananas. Pretty good stuff. I watched the end of their set from the back of the stage. When they were done they seemed really excited to see us back there. Those dudes were pretty dang into Stir Fryin. We set up. We had Haima doing sound for us again and we were feeling right.
Jammed it super hard, and at this point it's like "duh." Same kind of scenario as Melbourne. Was sorta empty while we set up but this time once we started there were a ton of people and it filled up quickly. By the first 1/3 or so, people were WITH US. Jammed it really hard. Had the boogie board. Sent Phil out into the crowd. Good stuff. Then Zach notified me we had only 1 song left. Our set had three songs left and the stage clock said he had 15 minutes. I tried to confer with some of the sound people but couldn't get anything out of them so I pulled out my schedule from my pocket and announced to the crowd that we were just told to play one more song but according to this schedule we have time for three more so that's what we're gonna do. Crowd eruption. Played another.
After that I noticed the back corner of the stage was fucking packed with other bands watching us. I told them to all get on stage. Everyone. So people from Okraville, Monchister Arkestra, Clppy Hands, who knows who else - those were just the people I could see that were adjacent to me, it was a fucking sea of people on stage - all got up and jammed the Art of Jamming with us. It was so crowded that Phil CROWD SURFED ON STAGE. That's how packed it was.
We had one final song and during the beginning I heard a voice talking to me over the monitor, but it was so loud up there I couldn't hear what he was saying. Then the monitor just went off. I looked around and the band was still jamming as hard as ever and I looked out into the crowd and that's when I realized just how crazy they were getting. Man they were really fired up and dancing with their fists in the air. So I just kept singing even though I couldn't hear anything I was doing. We finished the song and the band carried me off stage, exactly at the time we were supposed to stop. It turned out the monitor guy sabotaged me but the front of house was fine and Haima said he couldn't even tell I had no monitors (meaning I was still singing okay). I had a word with the festival stage dudes but who knows. A lot of miscommunication. Didn't matter. We fucking ruled it anyway.
Afterwards Bird Dog took me on a journey to see the Opera House. It was only a few minutes' walk away. Soon everyone else showed up behind us. I think this happened after we played. Maybe it was before. But anyway that thing was wild. Then we went back to see Clappy Hands because I'd told them I would jam with them on a song and didn't want to seem like a craphead. We made it back and then Bird Dog showed up with a shitload of pizzas! NOW WE'RE TALKIN'. Jammed the song with Clappy Hands but didn't have any jam weapons no I just kinda stood there. Oops.
Next we went into the rock club to catch the Brunittes. That monkey that rode the boogie board was on stage with them. After that we retreated backstage and continued to drink. Soon the afterparty started in a room near the backstage room. Some dude in a band came and introduced himself to me and was a very pleasant fella. He said that he went to catch our set that day out of curiosity. He said the entire backstage area would clear out whenever we were about to play and he had to check out this band that everyone was so obsessed with. !?!? Wow. Anyway, afterparty: they had free vodka drinks and I drank so many that I was so sick of drinking vodka that I bought a beer. Soon they kicked everyone out and we had a panic as to where we were going to dump our stuff.
We were standing outside of the festival area on the street mingling with some newfound friends and trying to decide where to go. Eventually we ended up at the super shitty bar where our party basically comprised the whole bar: about half of the Stirr Frying players and associates, a few BSS dudes, Don Deekon, "Styles", some Clappy Hand dudes, Via Tanya dudes, the festival organizer, and I believe that was it. Really fun time. Some very drunk dudes started a drum circle outside on the street using makeshift stuff. It was truly horrible in the best way - reminded me of some France type of shit. Anyway, there was lots of drunken emotional bullshit flying around about how awesome everything had been. This was our last hurrah.
Mercy. Must get this done.
The ominous DUNN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN at the end of my last post was because we woke up supremely early to make our flight to Sydney and got hosed worse than I've ever been hosed on a tour. Turns out our flight was the first leg of an international flight to Osaka or somewhere, even though we were only going to Sydney. For an international flight the shit ass airline had a policy of checking in an hour early. Which we were there over an hour early. But we had to check into the international terminal and we waited in line to check in at the domestic terminal and they said "too bad by the time you get to the international terminal it'll be too late fuck you". Even though the international terminal was close by unbeknownst to us. So they just fucked over 15 people. They said we could pay a heap of money and get on an afternoon flight, but that would cause us to miss our show in Sydney. No way no how. We had no choice but to march over to Virgin and buy 15 tickets on the spot for $3000 or $3500 and eat the biggest dangh ever. Blew all our money we'd been collecting at our side shows.
Forget it. We came to jam, not to complain. Got to Sydney and took a taxi to Laneway. This one was set up amongst skyscrapers. A big main stage in a park/square kind of place, a 2nd stage in an alley between two skyscrapers (this was where we played), a 3rd stage in a smaller alley between two skyscrapers, and a rock club between the two alleys. The backstage was up in a hotel several stories up, with a good view of the square/main stage area. When we got there we saw Personal up in the window and he mooned us.
We hung out for a while backstage and took in some brews. Then Ice and Izzo and SM and SM's penpal friend went to check out some of Monchister Arkestra - the ATL band that had been seeing our shows and hanging with us. In classic Ice fashion, we crept too hard and only caught the last half of their last song. Geez. By then we went back and Bird Dog and Kellie and Jamie had arrived. They skipped out on Brisbane because they had a DJ gig to do but met up with us in Sydney for one last Flyin ette jam. Hung out some more backstage for a bit and then it was getting close to our final jam.
We entered the alley behind the stage with all our shit. Okraville Raver was jamming it really hard. They were kind of going bananas. Pretty good stuff. I watched the end of their set from the back of the stage. When they were done they seemed really excited to see us back there. Those dudes were pretty dang into Stir Fryin. We set up. We had Haima doing sound for us again and we were feeling right.
Jammed it super hard, and at this point it's like "duh." Same kind of scenario as Melbourne. Was sorta empty while we set up but this time once we started there were a ton of people and it filled up quickly. By the first 1/3 or so, people were WITH US. Jammed it really hard. Had the boogie board. Sent Phil out into the crowd. Good stuff. Then Zach notified me we had only 1 song left. Our set had three songs left and the stage clock said he had 15 minutes. I tried to confer with some of the sound people but couldn't get anything out of them so I pulled out my schedule from my pocket and announced to the crowd that we were just told to play one more song but according to this schedule we have time for three more so that's what we're gonna do. Crowd eruption. Played another.
After that I noticed the back corner of the stage was fucking packed with other bands watching us. I told them to all get on stage. Everyone. So people from Okraville, Monchister Arkestra, Clppy Hands, who knows who else - those were just the people I could see that were adjacent to me, it was a fucking sea of people on stage - all got up and jammed the Art of Jamming with us. It was so crowded that Phil CROWD SURFED ON STAGE. That's how packed it was.
We had one final song and during the beginning I heard a voice talking to me over the monitor, but it was so loud up there I couldn't hear what he was saying. Then the monitor just went off. I looked around and the band was still jamming as hard as ever and I looked out into the crowd and that's when I realized just how crazy they were getting. Man they were really fired up and dancing with their fists in the air. So I just kept singing even though I couldn't hear anything I was doing. We finished the song and the band carried me off stage, exactly at the time we were supposed to stop. It turned out the monitor guy sabotaged me but the front of house was fine and Haima said he couldn't even tell I had no monitors (meaning I was still singing okay). I had a word with the festival stage dudes but who knows. A lot of miscommunication. Didn't matter. We fucking ruled it anyway.
Afterwards Bird Dog took me on a journey to see the Opera House. It was only a few minutes' walk away. Soon everyone else showed up behind us. I think this happened after we played. Maybe it was before. But anyway that thing was wild. Then we went back to see Clappy Hands because I'd told them I would jam with them on a song and didn't want to seem like a craphead. We made it back and then Bird Dog showed up with a shitload of pizzas! NOW WE'RE TALKIN'. Jammed the song with Clappy Hands but didn't have any jam weapons no I just kinda stood there. Oops.
Next we went into the rock club to catch the Brunittes. That monkey that rode the boogie board was on stage with them. After that we retreated backstage and continued to drink. Soon the afterparty started in a room near the backstage room. Some dude in a band came and introduced himself to me and was a very pleasant fella. He said that he went to catch our set that day out of curiosity. He said the entire backstage area would clear out whenever we were about to play and he had to check out this band that everyone was so obsessed with. !?!? Wow. Anyway, afterparty: they had free vodka drinks and I drank so many that I was so sick of drinking vodka that I bought a beer. Soon they kicked everyone out and we had a panic as to where we were going to dump our stuff.
We were standing outside of the festival area on the street mingling with some newfound friends and trying to decide where to go. Eventually we ended up at the super shitty bar where our party basically comprised the whole bar: about half of the Stirr Frying players and associates, a few BSS dudes, Don Deekon, "Styles", some Clappy Hand dudes, Via Tanya dudes, the festival organizer, and I believe that was it. Really fun time. Some very drunk dudes started a drum circle outside on the street using makeshift stuff. It was truly horrible in the best way - reminded me of some France type of shit. Anyway, there was lots of drunken emotional bullshit flying around about how awesome everything had been. This was our last hurrah.
