One of Anne Marie's photo's from Friday night gig. Cheers Anne Marie!
Two hot weather gigs this week and good nights both. Cheers to Pete and his lovely partner, Melva, Val, Fred, DDJ, Gary and all our friends who came along Friday night at the Merton Estate in Rozelle. For Sammi, our new crew member, this was the first time she had actually seen the band! Big ups to Sammi for talking Anne Marie into taking some pics!
Saturday night saw us returning to the Central Coast, in fact, to the Coast Hotel in Budgewoi.
With Sydney stil unconscionably hot, escaping up the coast was a great idea and a big night ensued. Cheers to Bruce, Pete, Andrea and the girls and everyone who stuck around for a long, hot night. The air con was a little wonky, so if it was hot on the floor, it was hotter on stage. Ye gods.
We had an interesting dancer for our cover of 'glory train' (didn't know you could dance to that one...) and OMG we sold out of Spacejunk...ok...we sold out of the box I had brought with me (still plenty more where that came from folks, get them whilst their hot.) and I had a chance to talk Harp stuff with two capable players. Bill Crossland (Bass) has started increasing our production levels (LOL) with...Lights! Yes, we now have a Fog Machine, a Roadie (Hi Carl) and LIGHTS!!! I know, its hard for me to believe as well. It seems like only yesterday that we didnt have lights. ok. Maybe Thursday.
Sammi made an interesting comment about the band after seeing us play for the first time. She said it was 'energising'. Thats a heck of a compliment, thanks Sammi.
The responses I treasure are the times we have lifted peoples spirits and they have come up to tell me that they went from :-( to :-) just by hanging out with us.
Music, and in particluar the kinds of Roots and Blues spectrum we play is fundamentally Folk Music. Its a remedy that goes back to the cave man. Its used to soothe away the nuisances of life, sometimes in the recounting of sadness, sometimes in the folk tale advenutres of the characters in a song or in the exuberance of (metaphorically) telling the world to *&^% Off.
If you come to one of our gigs after a crappy week full of the minor irritations of an entropic universe, and, at the end of the night, can stagger off home in search of a taxi, a little lighter of heart and with a bit more spring in your step, we have done our job.
Speaking of which, we're at the Lansdowne next week and continuing the mix and fix on Nuevo Retro.
Until next time
MJEB