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Time & Tide Gig Report

Also posted on Myspace - so you can skip it if you've already read that one. Its the same stuff.

If not, Read on for Our Adventures In Dee Why! Raaaay!!
Hey folks!
I know there is no causal relationship between us being called 'stormcellar' and the fact that it seems to rain a lot when we're playing. Or rehearsing. Or thinking about music.
Ok, so maybe it's La Nina, maybe its chaotic weather patterns or maybe it's SPOOKY!! Mrose suggested we change our name to the Sunshine Happy Blues Band. However, that would seem an invitation for even more calamitous irony. Moving on.
Just got back from the Tide and Tide (I got to crack that line that 'it waits for no man'. How much fun are we? Blues and classical allegories).
Great gig. Wet. The T&T is a big rambling pub with ample parking. They have so much parking they fence off the unused football pitch sized area when it's not super busy. For some commercial reason, the bands play 'outside', (under an awning, thankfully). The roof still has a few gaps for federation style skylight things and these vented enough rain to make Paul drape a plastic bag over the sides of his amp to prevent Frying Guitarist Syndrome.
Steve was on sound for us today (thanks Steve) and he was running a new desk. So new that just before we started he opted to race home and get an Old Desk. Must be secret soundo business. We had a pretty big sound rig and we did our best to avoid destroying the place and were mostly successful at it.
It's odd to be writing the post gig report so early in the ...day? Hmm. Normally its 2am squinty eye time. I can see quite clearly at the moment. Anyway...
3 sets from 1:30'ish onwards. Now this is the stuff. In the days before RBT, the heyday of the Beer Garden, Sydney had a lot of blues bands doing the rounds - The Cigars, the Backsliders, The Hippo's (to name a few) so this felt like a return to the Real Deal. And as it was a Long Weekend, everyone was out to settle in and groove, plus the restaurant is pretty popular.
We started off with some Ye Olde Standards (as appropriate to a Sunday, Amen) and we put in a Bo Diddley rhythm song into each set, with a shout out to Ellas. Thanks Bo. We followed up with what I'll call our 'Whiskey Talkin' set and then into a bunch of new ones for the third. We ended with a Boogie and a bit of Howling Wolf and Dr Ross. As MRose pointed out, this was the first time we got GENUINE calls for an encore. All those other times, you were faking it?? I'm crushed...oh...wrong conversation. Ahem. Anyway.
As expected, it took us a set to settle in, then we picked it up for set 2, but by set 3, it was really starting to cook. Sweet Misery was on the money, with Paul now counting out the Mali Style licks (7? 9? 15? Who knows!). In fact, there were some stellar performances all round today - at the end when we took the Chicago Breakdown apart, there was some Bass attitude from Mal and some Banging and a Thrashing from Tony.
There's an idiosyncratic sound coming together in the new stuff, is going to be fun to see it grow. One of the tracks, 'Smile's not for me' is still in sketch form; we just grooved on it Sans Lyrics as...we haven't written lyrics for it yet...and its feeling very solid.
If I sound like I had a good time, it's only because I did :-) Despite the weather, we had a blast hanging out with people who were there to enjoy their Sunday with a groove.  
Thank you again to Melva for being our number 1 dating service. Hi to Bonnie and Trevor thanks for coming down (and Stewart, glad to hear you're in good shape). Cheers to everyone that bought a CD. It really does help. Thanks to Pete and Vicky for coming down and being front and centre (I'm sure it was louder than you made out but I'll take your word for it. What? You want me to speak up??). Thanks to Garth for sticking around and picking up an album.
Oh, BTW - to the two gentlemen who won the "which song did these lyrics come from' comp, I am as good as my word, the beers on me, you just disappeared before I could find you. However, it's on record here that I owe you each 1 beer - but not the top shelf stuff, you didn't pick the Album! Whew. Just saved 80 cents.
We'll be doing another Sunday gig next week at the Harold Park and if this week's was anything to go by, it ought to be a good one. Hope you can make it.
Until next time
Rgds
MJEB