They wouldnt let us leave!

3 sets, a special request of The Thrill is Gone from Roger (not our Roger, a different Roger. Hi Roger!)

then they made us repeat stuff!

Even the bouncers came around to hang out.

Cripes. What a weekend.

Ok, so I suppose I should slow down and provide detail. Ahem. Here I go.

We finished up at the Bridge at 2am on Saturday night, by the time I had completed my Musician Delivery service. Tired, but cheerful, those brave stormcellar lads set their alarm clocks for midday (LOL) and wended their way across hill, Dale, Harbour bridges and Spit Bridges (for all you non-sydney-ites, this is not a bridge made from Saliva. It's some nautical term for Moor Your Boat Here) to the Time and Tide, where the kids cricket club was holding their sausage sizzle.

Spiffing, eh what?

Mal (who's on a plane to San Francisco this morning to pay his respects to L. who is not well. Our best wishes go out to him), ran the PA today for a change and we managed to get a reasonable sound (Bobby we miss you! it was only last night! Why did you have to go???) from a smaller system.

The T&T has a massive beer garden area/kiddies play area which was populated by the small screaming ones (happy children) and Parents watching them tear around in circles. I watched one patient Dad tapping his feet to the music. Blue skies, cold when the sun blinked out behind the scattered clouds, bright, cheerful. Ah. Terrific.

With three sets to do and no mucking about, we woke ourselves up with a little Help me and then launched into Mississippi Meltdown.

The last week has held several rehearsals, two days of video clips, plus gigs. We were well and truly warmed up for the T&T and the boys once again delivered a tight performance. Errors were mostly mine (2nd verse of Shake'Em Down Mama....argh). MRose's power unit failed just before the opening of Swamp Monster and it was too late to stop the boys plunging ahead. I watched in slow motion panic as the song started and Mrose went into a frenzy of unplugging and replugging, only to emerge triumphant on the first Call/Response line between the guitars on Swamp Monster. By the skin of his guitar pick. Yikes.

By the third set, the crowd were dancing and then we tried to say Thanks And See You Next Time.

CROWD: No Dice. We're here, you're here, there's Beer, keep playing.

US: No problems. Do two more. Ok, thanks and See you next time

CROWD: Nope. Keep going. (mark has dissapeared to the Bar, everyone else is trying to pack up, Mal's flying out tomorrow, etc). Round up Mark, reseat. Get Mal. Ok.

We had a request to do Mississippi again. Ok, thanks and goodnight.

CROWD: Nope. (now this is starting to get scary. I point out to the guys that there's no chicken wire).

We do one more, then put our exhausted foot down. Ok, thanks and - oh my god, look behind you! Yoink! Scarper while they turn around!

Whew. Then back home to edit videoclips. Yay.

Cheers to everyone who came along yesterday, that was a great way to finish a weekend of playing. We'll be back there on the 19th of October.

Back to editing.

Rgds,

MJEB