Friday, April 04, 2008
AUZ TOUR 2/29
Leap year.
We had early ass flights to Brisbane today. Our hosts had organized two taxi vans to pick us up but one was late or something. Whatever. They barely made it and we took it to Brisbane, home of the Go-B's, my favorite band. When we got there we had reserved two vans and our host met us at the airport. We followed him to his apartment where some of us where staying. He lived in Spring Hill Fair, which is the title of one of my favorite Go-B's albums. Totally fucking awesome. We then went to eat some falafel. It didn't make us feel awful, not even a tahini bit. Hummus did it cost? Not much. Yes, I'm shawerma it didn't cost more than a few bucks. I wouldn't allow them tabouli me into paying more than four bucks for something like that.
I'd done three or four interviews in the various weeklies in Brisbane so we read some of that crap while we ate. Chopped up and changed some terrific quotes into to mundane ones. I was confident the interviews I did were so interesting that people would read them and go see us based on my bullshit, but sadly the dudes chopped and screwed me into sounding like every other band.
After that we headed to the public swimming pool where we were playing. I was disappointed to see there were lanes and no diving boards or anything. This was a serious pool. What the hell- we jumped in anyway and started horsing around. No beers were allowed in the pool area so we were drinking out of the van. Some people showed up and the first band played. Unfortunately I was out at the van and they were so quiet that I couldn't even tell they were playing. Missed it. Crap. The next band played - The Bell Dyvers - and our host Matt was on guitar. They were really good. Sorta like the Go-B's in the late 80's. Light, jangly, pop with interesting and good vocals. Really good band.
Then we played. Hmm.... there were maybe 40 people there or so, but it seemed like a lot less because most people were sitting on a hill on the other side of the pool like 300 feet away from us. We jammed a short set and I totally wasn't feeling it. However, it sounded pretty good and the rest of the group seemed to enjoy the show. Good points: plenty of those megabat flying foxes were swooping over us during the set. I started changing the lyrics to every song to be about the bats. We were in awe. And afraid for our lives. We threw the boogie board into the pool and this little kid kept jumping onto it from the side of the pool and trying to surf. He ended up splitting the boogie board but it was cool. It still looks good. Towards the end of the set I said "fuck it" and jumped into the pool. I had envisioned the whole band jamming it hardcore in the pool with the pool full of people going crazy. Even the horn section playing horns in the pool. But for some reason PHil wouldn't even go in the pool. So I jumped in and Ice came in after and that's when the show got really fun for me. I was jamming in a pool to my own band playing without me. They sang my parts and stuff and for the last song the horn section went out on the diving blocks and jammed it out there. So a good ending to a somewhat disappointing show.
After that we drove our borrowed equipment to our next show that night and put it backstage. We then drove out to our friend Greg's house for some premium frontloading. A bunch of us were staying with him and he had the best house I've seen in a while. First of all he had this really really old jukebox loaded with his own personal collection of seven inches of a lot of old 80's New Zealand bands. The jukebox was kind of warped or just shitty and it made everything sound terrific. So he was blaring that thing and his whole living room opened up onto a back deck and he turned the couch around so that it was facing outside. Such good vibes in that place. Ordered some pizza and somebody bought two slabs of beer. Excellent.
After hanging for a few hours we made our way to the club we were playing. A very strange arrangement. Don Deekon had his own show booked there that night, complete with opening bands, but then we had our own show AFTER his, and it was just us playing. The club told us we were supposed to play right when Don Deekon stopped, so I guess it was like we were headlining his show, even though we were essentially unannounced on that bill. Kind of confusing. But we got there in time to catch Don's set and it is so much fun to see that guy live. The fucking MASTER of audience participation. People were going fucking apeshit. Luckily he knew we were playing after him and announced several times to stick around for us.
When it was time for us to jam, Doyle Corndog, our sax player, bought or was given a whole round of shots for the band. We all took them and then Don Deekon lead us in our pre-show chant. Becky threw up backstage after taking the shot. Awesome. I was fucking ready to jam and the crowd was too. Don had primed them up WELL for us. It seemed like a lot of his crowd stuck around for us and then a good amount of people had just arrived to see us including the Clappy dudes and the BSS dude. I think some people just wandered up there randomly as well. Anyway, a surprisingly good crowd. We jammed it super hard and the crowd was going nuts. Listen to how into it they were: in our song Rope Burn when it gets to the breakdown we all take a knee. As we did this tonight the entire crowd took a knee instantaneously. I never said shit to them about taking a knee. They were just totally fucking with us all the way. I think the last song was Art of Jamming and we either invited people on stage or they just invaded it themselves. Anyway, a packed ass packed stage AWK-style. It ended and it was like Sweden or something. People were hugging me telling me thank you. Their minds were blown. Ninah was selling our merch and she said a lot of people hugged her for selling them merch. A success!
Leap year.
We had early ass flights to Brisbane today. Our hosts had organized two taxi vans to pick us up but one was late or something. Whatever. They barely made it and we took it to Brisbane, home of the Go-B's, my favorite band. When we got there we had reserved two vans and our host met us at the airport. We followed him to his apartment where some of us where staying. He lived in Spring Hill Fair, which is the title of one of my favorite Go-B's albums. Totally fucking awesome. We then went to eat some falafel. It didn't make us feel awful, not even a tahini bit. Hummus did it cost? Not much. Yes, I'm shawerma it didn't cost more than a few bucks. I wouldn't allow them tabouli me into paying more than four bucks for something like that.
I'd done three or four interviews in the various weeklies in Brisbane so we read some of that crap while we ate. Chopped up and changed some terrific quotes into to mundane ones. I was confident the interviews I did were so interesting that people would read them and go see us based on my bullshit, but sadly the dudes chopped and screwed me into sounding like every other band.
After that we headed to the public swimming pool where we were playing. I was disappointed to see there were lanes and no diving boards or anything. This was a serious pool. What the hell- we jumped in anyway and started horsing around. No beers were allowed in the pool area so we were drinking out of the van. Some people showed up and the first band played. Unfortunately I was out at the van and they were so quiet that I couldn't even tell they were playing. Missed it. Crap. The next band played - The Bell Dyvers - and our host Matt was on guitar. They were really good. Sorta like the Go-B's in the late 80's. Light, jangly, pop with interesting and good vocals. Really good band.
Then we played. Hmm.... there were maybe 40 people there or so, but it seemed like a lot less because most people were sitting on a hill on the other side of the pool like 300 feet away from us. We jammed a short set and I totally wasn't feeling it. However, it sounded pretty good and the rest of the group seemed to enjoy the show. Good points: plenty of those megabat flying foxes were swooping over us during the set. I started changing the lyrics to every song to be about the bats. We were in awe. And afraid for our lives. We threw the boogie board into the pool and this little kid kept jumping onto it from the side of the pool and trying to surf. He ended up splitting the boogie board but it was cool. It still looks good. Towards the end of the set I said "fuck it" and jumped into the pool. I had envisioned the whole band jamming it hardcore in the pool with the pool full of people going crazy. Even the horn section playing horns in the pool. But for some reason PHil wouldn't even go in the pool. So I jumped in and Ice came in after and that's when the show got really fun for me. I was jamming in a pool to my own band playing without me. They sang my parts and stuff and for the last song the horn section went out on the diving blocks and jammed it out there. So a good ending to a somewhat disappointing show.
After that we drove our borrowed equipment to our next show that night and put it backstage. We then drove out to our friend Greg's house for some premium frontloading. A bunch of us were staying with him and he had the best house I've seen in a while. First of all he had this really really old jukebox loaded with his own personal collection of seven inches of a lot of old 80's New Zealand bands. The jukebox was kind of warped or just shitty and it made everything sound terrific. So he was blaring that thing and his whole living room opened up onto a back deck and he turned the couch around so that it was facing outside. Such good vibes in that place. Ordered some pizza and somebody bought two slabs of beer. Excellent.
After hanging for a few hours we made our way to the club we were playing. A very strange arrangement. Don Deekon had his own show booked there that night, complete with opening bands, but then we had our own show AFTER his, and it was just us playing. The club told us we were supposed to play right when Don Deekon stopped, so I guess it was like we were headlining his show, even though we were essentially unannounced on that bill. Kind of confusing. But we got there in time to catch Don's set and it is so much fun to see that guy live. The fucking MASTER of audience participation. People were going fucking apeshit. Luckily he knew we were playing after him and announced several times to stick around for us.
When it was time for us to jam, Doyle Corndog, our sax player, bought or was given a whole round of shots for the band. We all took them and then Don Deekon lead us in our pre-show chant. Becky threw up backstage after taking the shot. Awesome. I was fucking ready to jam and the crowd was too. Don had primed them up WELL for us. It seemed like a lot of his crowd stuck around for us and then a good amount of people had just arrived to see us including the Clappy dudes and the BSS dude. I think some people just wandered up there randomly as well. Anyway, a surprisingly good crowd. We jammed it super hard and the crowd was going nuts. Listen to how into it they were: in our song Rope Burn when it gets to the breakdown we all take a knee. As we did this tonight the entire crowd took a knee instantaneously. I never said shit to them about taking a knee. They were just totally fucking with us all the way. I think the last song was Art of Jamming and we either invited people on stage or they just invaded it themselves. Anyway, a packed ass packed stage AWK-style. It ended and it was like Sweden or something. People were hugging me telling me thank you. Their minds were blown. Ninah was selling our merch and she said a lot of people hugged her for selling them merch. A success!
