A suitable way to conclude our gigs for 2012 with a trip to The Entrance and a gig at the Royal Hotel, Bondi.
I managed to fill up my camera the other day at the allphones arena gig (HA! I managed to sneak a reference in again, see how I did that? LIKE A BOSS!) so mid way through last nights gig I was trying to take some vids and then the phone bleeped about being full and in an effort to quickly make some space I may have deleted the vids I took the night before at the Lakes.
ARGH!
Anyway, I salvaged what I could.
And now for a Community Service Announcement.
On our way up to the lakes, Single Bill found out that the new Police License Plate Scanner is fully operational as he was pulled up by a Mad Max Fan flashing his lights and holding the butt of his Large Gun as he gave Single Bill a ticket for an unregistered car - Bill had let his rego lapse by a few days and bang, it's Christmas Revenue time. Now that the RTA or whatever the heck they are called now have decided you don't need to affix a sticker to your window, there is one less reminder that you haven't done your registration, so watch out. It's your personal responsibility to make sure your car is registered and the fine is $540. Gotta abide by the laws, the technology is snooping on you and the fines are not cool.
Despite such minor legal wrangling, Single Bill managed to get there by the 2nd set having found a late night mechanic to pink slip his car and an online rego service. So I guess the technology also works for you.
Friday was Tony Boyds first night deputised to the drummer seat and it must have gone well based on the dancing. Cheers to Jacko and Rowena, Steve, Gina, Sharn, Jay, Andy, Billy and all the folks up at the Lakes. We'll be back there soon, due to public demand :-)
Our final gig for 2012 was at the Royal Hotel Bondi at it built from a quiet start to a frantic last set with non stop dancing.
Mr Wizard Made some new friends.
Here are the President and Secretary of the Swedish Chapter of the Mr Wizard Fan Club.
We love playing the Royal for the fabulous cosmopolitan mix of people who hang out there, from backpackers and travelers to dyed-in-the-wool Bondi residents, Sydney-siders out for a night, Christmas Party goers, the usual.
Last night was huge. People came up and talked to me during the song, high fives, quite some hugging and a few tears (and that was just the band) LOL...heh. I could explain all that but frankly I like the mystery and if you want to see what it's like, come to a gig :-)
(UPDATE - just reviewd this vid and watch out, some random says a rude word at the end)
The dude with the feather through his nose won 'most committed to national party costume' :-)
John Mc and Frank popped in for the first few sets and John was kind enough to come and mess with our PA. It's not every day you have one of Australia's most bad ass sound engineers tweak your stuff :-) Thanks John, sounded great. We were trialing a Bass Bin and some speakers last night and were a little unfamiliar with the buttons. John got it sounding very sweet indeed. I should also send a shout out to the guys at DJ Warehouse who sorted us out so nicely all year for our lights and random stuff we have tried. Cheers to Gerry and the guys.
Also a big thank you to Double Bill Williams for some solid Bass work and general all round good guy-ness. We have been blessed by some fantastic musicians choosing to come hang out with us, like Noodles, Double Bill and the T-Bird. (BTW if you want to know what's with all the nick names, we have a constant doubling up of first names related to this band, with up to 4 michaels, 2 carls, 2 bills, and so on...the nick names help to sort your Bill V from your Bill W :-)
Shout outs from last night to Suzie K, Claudette, Heather, Alan, Kevin, our Swedish House Mafia and all the folks enjoying the end of year festivities.
That was our third gig for the week and an auspicious way to close out a big year for us.
Thank you, Dear Reader, for sharing your time reading our blogs. The events of the past few days are a reminder of how precious that time is and we're honored to be included in how you spend yours.
We're back on deck in early Jan at the Bald Rock on the 5th and the Kent on the 6th, but we'll be working through the holiday season doing some videos and suchlike, so stay tuned for more stuff as we get ready for 2013, that is unless the Mayan Apocalypse/Zombie Apocalypse arrives, in which case we'll review our future bookings :-)