All the way up to the Northern Fringes of Sydney, then all the way back down to the Southern Shires. Weekend Gig Report!
Howdy Stormcellar-ites!
2009's gigs started this weekend with the Avalon Beach RSL on Friday night, a quick visit to the the Padstow Baptist (ok, that was a choir practise session) and then down the Princes Highway to the Engadine Tavern.
Thank god we dont have a gig today, cos I'm beat. Right, so, onto the gigs.
Gig 1 - Avalon Beach RSL
Friday night in the peninsula (?) suburb of Avalon, where public transport stops after ten, leaving us with a Captive Audience (lol!).
The Avalon Beach RSL is next to a reserve and a scout hall in the Avalon Beach Village area and its the perfect place for an apres-work ale. We last played here with the Rads' and had a fine old time. We were back as the main act this time...scary.
We noticed the stage was slightly smaller this time...(lol...part 2)...of course, mid gig, Mal discovered the addtional staging out the back. Go figure. Mrose played like a man on the egde, which he was, quite literally, One step to his right and....
OMG we had people come to see us as a result of seeing us at the time and tide! I think that's officially a 'following'. Hi Darrell, Hi Big Bird (you know who) plus some friends dropped in to hang out (Hi Not-Rod).
Our 2nd Official Rider - We've gone from 'Wash' to 'Super Wash' (refer to Boxcar Homer episdoe of the simpsons).
In fact, Mrose has gone so rock star he started breaking stuff:
We cant afford TV's and suchlike, so he broke a glass. Not on purpose. Ok. Maybe it was a willfull, vandalous (thats not even a word) act of rebellion...or his glass of cola fell off the amp it was perched on. I prefer the Rockstar explanation. We're so hard core that the bar staff were considering refusing us service after our third jug of Cola. They didnt want us to get too hopped up on caffeine and sugar.
Cheers to Ella and Kevin for picking up a copy of whiskey talkin. Thats another couple of steps towards the new album. Thanks guys (and gal) and yes Kevin, I know you'll be burning a copy for your mate. We still appreciate the purchase.
Our good friend Not-Rod (i knew it was you, Paul swore it wasnt, until you came up and said Hi) decided to test my obscure trivia knowledge all night, asking me various trivia bet-winning questions such as who Ignatius Jone's sister was (monica?) and who was the subject of the movie 'Sirens'. I thought the answer was 'seeing Elle's Girl Bits'...but I knew it was Norman Lindsay. I think. I defer to google (google is our leader).
Mark received some excellent praise (which I wont repeat to him cos he already knows he's great)..
We had dancers again tonight, getting down to all sorts of different tunes. We were asked if we knew any Dire Straits. I quite honestly replied that no we didnt, but also considered that they probably didnt know any of our stuff either. What I said quite innocently turns out to be the Greatest Rock and Roll Come Back Ever. I was pretty happy until Paul pointed out one of his band mates from the Chosen Few had made pretty much the same comment back in the early 90's. (sigh). Nothing's new under the sun I guess.
Right now in our sets, we've got the songs from the first album, the songs from the second album (its still in production, see articles on the recording sessions) and god help us, additional new stuff. Oh, and some old stuff that didnt make it last time but has been re-worked.
We finally got an arrangement of Hi Cost Of Loving that pays homage to the Allman Brothers (happy Paul).
Glenrowan and Island Time were well received and a new one that looks like its bumping its way onto SC2, cant tax love, is developing very nicely.
The sets went well, save losing our way for half a bar in Yamanote Line and Mrose not digging one of my fave songs...I have to trade him 'Down Before' for 'Change your mind' if I want it in the set. (yo MR, pleeease please please).
As we ended the night and packed the car, I was waiting outside with an open tail gate (not a euphemism, thats my station wagon I'm talking aboput....ALSO not a euphemism) I observed the very amusing social phenomenon of three local young guys who'd been out for a bit of mind altering entertainment starting a small confrontation with some older patrons who'd been out for some Inebri...oh heck...stoned dudes making fun of drunk people. The stoned guys were informing the cab driver that one of the passengers he had just acquired had recently ....surrendered their drinks to the grass.
Pointing out that one of the passengers is a potential Hurler did not go down with the other passengers, who didnt want to get chucked out of the cab. the young guys found it all very amusing and there was a bit of harmless argy bargy and chest puffing on behalf of the cab's passengers, who didnt enjoy being the target of Stoner Amusement.
I suggested that the Lads not hassle the straights, as this freaks them out. They seemed to think this was a fair comment and sought other amusement.
Now I recently acquired a GPS unit (thankyou Elsa Honey) and we set it to an irish Accent, affixed it to the window and then promptly ignored Seans instructions (Turn left. Left turn. LEFT TURN...No, you've missed it you eejit). Thus, to the increasing frustrated sounds of the GPS unit, we headed home for a few hours sleep. We needed to be up in the morning for church! (see article on main page).
Gig 2. Engadine Tavern, Engadine.
For once, Mal had the shortest Journey. We'd been all the way up North, Last night was equidistant in the opposite direction. Sean the GPS ran out of batteries (or went to the pub?) so we defaulted to the UBD and figured out that the Princes Highway is a bit schizophrenic, becoming Acacia road at an inconvenient point. 2 trips down that way, same screw up both times. SEAN!!! help us!!!
Ahem.
The engadine tavern has the band set up in the DJ area, which is fitted out with multiple blinking flashing and colour changing LED's - now I'm a big LED fan but it did feel last night as if we had been trapped inside a kaleidoscope.
Smokey (mal) setting up our Old Skool Gear
We started just as the main dinner service was ending. Paul thinks I shouldnt mention that we were at a church in the morning, because they'll think we're religious. he might be right, but thats the kind of crazy, wacky insane guys we are. Doing Neil graham's Glory Train probably didn't help clarify matters. There are many reasons they should never give me a microphone. Thats just one of them. During the sound check, I cant bring myself to say 'check one two' over and over, so I quote gilbert and sullivan or monty python.
Right. So we kicked off with a bit of Sonny boy Williamson, when, to my horror, I found my A harp had gone sour. Ah, but being a student of the Lilyfield Dojo, I should be trained in the art of Back Up Harps. Yup. Also gone south and left out of my case from the last weekend.
ARGH!! My Sensei says I am stuck in cross harp and he's right, but I stay in cross harp because I like the bent notes a lot more than the bright shiny stuff...and my skills aren't up to out-of-position playing...Lesson learned. Really. It's amazing how quickly you find new patterns when you dont have an alternative.
Unwilling to step out of position for Come back Baby meant doing it in B tonight, which kind of sucked for my vocals. It turns out if I am in enough terror, I actually CAN hit those notes. But I only discovered that mid song. (sigh). I did it, but not gracefully.
Speaking of Graceful...Just a quick note to the wacky dancers from the bar - guys, you know that kind of jig you did, with the boot scooting, bum thrusting, sunglasses-risky-business dancing and so forth? Well...I was running the camera last night to continue to gather versions of the new stuff and guess what? When I get a cable for this camera, all that stuff is going online. Its priceless. It will cost you $50 a piece to have me blur your faces. LOL. I think the bar staff would have been cracking up watching the security footage of their patrons expressing themselves in Modern Dance.
Due to the position of the DJ riser and PA, Mrose was hidden in the corner, so all night, it looked like Paul was playing additional solos without actuall touching his guitar. All you could see was Mrose's Cap dancing around to the sound of his guitar. Spooky.
A big Hi to Gary! Host of the empire blues jam back in the day when I first crawled out of the swamp, and friend to Mal. Who knew the engadine was his local. Happy Birthday to your good lady.
Paul was surprised to see Island Time bring people to the dance floor and once again we tried the new arrangement of Hi Cost of Loving and it went down just fine. Big Bird was a bit slow for my tastes, as I was still able to breathe during it.
So as midnight rolled around, we finished with Roscoes Boogie and packed our stuff, ignored the GPS and went exhaustedly home.
We're playing at both this weekends venues again in the next few weeks, so if you missed it, come on down. It's never dull!
We'll be in the 'gong on Thursday and then I think Wallacia on Sunday - BTW the new Gig Calendar is up and running, so check it on this site as it auto updates now, as opposed to the myspace one which I have to remember to do manually. I think you can set it to email you for gig alerts...how hi tech!
Until next time
MJEB