Back from a weekend in the country! (last weekend's Blog!)
Stopping off by a submarine for lunch. Surreal just doesn't cut it, eh?
It's a rough, tough blues life this one. A shout out to Maria at Raquelsspanishkitchen.com.au for sending us off with a picnic lunch. I know I'm losing my blues cred here but what the heck.
After driving through scenic valleys and snow country, it's easy to come to the realisation that this is not a bad way to spend a weekend. Just ask all the bike riders who were on the scenic trail.
We were hoping to be on our way down to Melb this trip to launch Sc2 (Nuevo Retro) and we're soo close...but as they say in the classics, No Cigar. Thus we headed down to Mt Beauty in Vic for a night at the Country Club instead!
If you happen to be down Mt Beauty way and need someone to get something somewhere, we reccomend Frank.
Frank does 14,000Km on his route every year at the sprightly age of....(ahem) 60.. Cheers for hanging out on Friday Frank!
And of course, as the night wears on, here's a town with a direct mobile phone number for the only taxi around.
This was our third time down and around the snowfields area and its stunningly pretty. But you definitely noticed how dry things are in between NSW and Vic. And it was HOT down there this time. Ye Gods.
We had a long night at the country club (until past midnight) and we send our thanks to Shirly for looking after us.
Theo decorated his drumkit in my honour (I think he was making a point) LOL!
The next day it was on to Albury for Saturday night at the Astor until DISASTER STRUCK!!! (ominous music). Paul's Acoustic Guitar had a wiring failure (break in the wire to the battery for the pickup). We dashed into Albury, music store 1 shut! NO!. Music store 2, cant help! Noooooo!!! What do we do?
Thankyou Jaycar electronics as we present 'Rewiring the battery lead without a soldering iron' With Paul and MJEB!
Step 1. Identify broken lead. Cry.
Step 2. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF MAN!!! (slap)
Step 3. Buy some Shrinkable Tubing.
Step 4: Open up the Guiatr and get the fiddly wire bit
Step 5: break a string.
Step 6: Curse loudly
Step 7: Chew off the plastic coating ont he wire with your teeth (or use scissors)
Step 8: Borrow a hair dryer from the motel (they think you need it to maintain your muso hairdo anyway and kind of expect it)
Step 9: Put one of the wires throught he shrink tube
Step 10: Twist the wires together
step 11: heat with hair dryer and the secure back into guitar with gaffer tape.
Step 12: Argue with Michael Rosenthal about which strings you should restring with
Step 13: Restring and test.
VOILA! We're back!
Stormcellar MacGyver Guitar Repairs!
Thus we were ready for the Sunday gig, but still, we had to survive Saturday at the Astor , where a party had booked an event for the night. We send a big shout out to Jowly Bear, Soo (?) Nati and the Birthday Boy. Little did we realise that we had some competition until the party goers decided to join the band.
This was a long, late night with plenty of dancing, various forms of booty shaking (both the Boot-ee and Boot-ay varieties). There was some damn fine singing and playing, and we got to watch...except for Bill and Theo who remained as hostages (LOL) on stage to support their new Masters. Its never been as much fun to be upstaged!
Now during the daylight hours, we were not just sitting around. Oh no. We had to rehearse the brand new stuff for the acoustic set. No, this isnt new stuff on the coming album.we've been playing that live for ages.....this is...um...err...stuff for the one after that. Sunday morning saw us at the Electra Cafe (These guys have got to get a plug. Best coffee etc and considering how seedy we were...respect to the Electra and big reccomendations to anyone else travelling through albury and looking for Good Stuff) and then back into rehearsal before the 2pm gig.
How are we gonna play???
We started with the new acoustic set, including Running Jody, Tall Timbers and a couple of existing numbers like Glenrowan and Shake'em Down mama, then proceeded to get on the boogie for the rest of the afternoon.
Cheers to Pete for joining me on Harp, the Lovely Sharon and Ms O. and Terry for stopping by.
Oh almost forgot - just a quick note for Cover Lovers.
A: we would like to oblige you where possible
B: sometimes we just dont know the songs
C: We play the whole spectrum of blues and roots influenced music, but we may not know (or be prepared to play) Abba, Metallica or Loveshack by the B52's.
We went an hour over time and would have gone longer but the boys wanted to hit the road before dark.
Sunday music is off at the Astor until it cools down again, and we're looking forward to returning there in the new year.
We're off to Lake Alber this weekend, we've spent 2 days this week mixing Nuevo Retro (8 mixed, 4 to go). There's a lot happening over the next little while, so lets hope my pc gets back online, I have artwork to finish!
Rgds
MJEB