Caffeine addictions and lucky t-shirts

I cannot guarantee that the following account of the last few days is at all accurate and some time has passed so now I'm not even sure if any of this really happened at all.

Friday 3rd of June.

Today is a show day. Woo hoo! Us Westies (Brett, Chris, JB and myself) have an early flight. I'm not that keen on such a long day of travel on a show day but I do my best not to let this affect my mood. I am a professional! The airport check in ritual is helped out by the fact that we sent all our gear straight to Brisbane after our shows in Sydney last weekend. Easy, I carry only a backpack. I have just spent 4 alcohol free days at home so I am appreciative of the smooth run that leads us to the bar for a sneaky beverage just before 7am. We're nearly in Brisbane and the coffee headache kicks in. I have been drinking lots of coffee lately and the lack of coffee today has resulted in this stupid pain in my head. Having overcome caffeine addiction several years ago, it has been a long time since I have experienced this particular type of headache. But there is no mistaking it, I know it well. We land in Brissie. I am excited to see Kev and Bob and the headache subsides for a brief time. Hotel check in. Bob and JB head to the venue. The lack of coffee has produced a most nasty effect and I wonder if I am ready to once again embrace life as a caffeine addict, or should I just ride this day out and nip it in the bud before I become a slave to this wonderfully delicious substance again. 

Chris, Brett and I head to the Valley. I assume Kev is being a nerd on his nerd machine, like a nerd. (I later find out he didn't bring his pute with him and can only conclude that he doesn't want to be seen out in public with us.) We find a fun place in the Valley. The waitress informs us that the coffee is average. I assure her that if she puts a shot of Baileys in the coffee it will be the best coffee in the Valley. I am right. We eat and drink and confirm with each other that we are now feeling great. Woo hoo! As JB would say... 'How about a rock show?' Not just yet, but soon. First we head back to the hotel via a sports store having a shoe sale. Brett wants new shoes but his average size foot means there are no good shoes left in his size. Chris makes us laugh by clomping up and down the aisles in a pair of size 15 shoes.

My fingernails have grown an insane amount since last week. I cut them on my balcony. I can hear 'snip snip' from the adjoining balcony. Chris has fingernail issues also. We laugh and have nail clipping races. I am not sure what the brothers Mitchell are doing at this point in time but can only assume they must be tending to their fingernails as well. Now our fingers are ready to rock and we pile into the car ready to head to the Hi Fi Bar. I pilot this mission and Brett takes the navigator's seat. My extremely vague sense of direction somehow manages to get us to West End before Brett's high tech phone can tell us where we are. I feel bad for Brett because he loves his phone and it is not there for him when he needs it. I love that he loves his phone.

It has been over a decade since I've been to West End. I would comment on how much it has or hasn't changed but my memories are so fuzzy that I actually have no idea. The Hi Fi has definitely changed. The last time I went there it was in Melbourne. After soundcheck I am feeling good about the show tonight. Brett has some concerns about the skins on his hire kit. I think he may still be affected by the earlier incident with the phone. In his own unique style, he manages to fix the drum problem while still leaving lingering doubts hanging over the whole situation. He then distracts me with an explanation of why his phone was temporarily unable to function as a gps. Surprisingly, I think I understood. Even more surprisingly, I think I am now confident he has fixed whatever problem he had with the drum skins.

Today I am wearing my lucky t-shirt. That is how I know that tonight's show is going to be a good one. In years gone by, the quality of a show has been dependent on the underwear or socks I have been wearing. I tried to overcome this by purchasing a bunch of knicks and socks all the same colour so I can't tell which ones are the lucky ones. Now all the luck seems to have migrated to this t-shirt. Not so lucky are my shoelaces. In the week off I have forgotten that I need to buy new shoelaces for these boots. They must have teeny tiny razorblades in the eyelets because the shoelace in my left boot is shredded to bits and what's left of it (after I left bits of it on the stage in Newcastle last week) is barely enough to hold the boot on my foot. Lucky t-shirt is going to have to put in a blinding performance tonight.

Local band numbers radio play first tonight. I head out the front to check them out. Sound is great out here and I am getting excited. It has been a long afternoon and evening of waiting around at the venue. Sometimes this makes it difficult to time the peak of your excitement to match the time you walk on stage. Routines, rituals and measures of alcohol and energy drinks are all determined and practised in measures designed to maximise this peak at the appropriate time. Violent Soho are on fire tonight and we all watch from the side of stage. I want to watch from out the front but there a lots of people out there and it looks a bit squishy. Now I am amped and very ready for rock and roll. Thanks violent soho, you are just what I needed. 

Tonight is a good show. There is a minor incident where a few overexcited fellows at the front decide they would like to push each other around and spoil the good time being had by others in the vicinity. Chris and I both feel compelled to try and settle these fellows down by pointing and directing stern words at them. All is good. Thank you Brisbane, we will definitely come here again.

Tonight we are in the hometown of our record label so after the show we head across the road for some drinks with the truly beaut Dew Process and Universal folk. A good time is had by all. I drink a Coopers vintage stout. Heavy. It has been a long day and we make the decision to leave earlier than we would normally want to. I think we have all learned from experience that sometimes you just have to call it a night. Brett is disappointed. With the phone and the drum thing well behind him, he is just getting started. We stop for food. Kev dances for us while we wait. The night is not even over and I am thinking about breakfast already.

Saturday 4th of June. 

Today is a show day. Woo hoo! I am feeling pretty good. Lucky we pulled up stumps when we did last night. Today we will drive to Toowoomba. On the way we will stop for breakfast at the Grates house. As we drive there the roads are looking very familiar. This is a blast from my past, a trip down memory lane on this most delightful day. I have spent a lot of time in this suburb. It is a rare treat to be enjoying such homely comforts whilst on the road. Today is a beautiful day, and as I sit on the front porch in the sun, drinking coffee, munching on a delicious breakfast and surrounded by awesome people, I think I may want to freeze this moment and stay here for a while. No such luck, but thank you Grates, we will definitely come here again.

Toowoomba here we come. Oops, I think we left the sun in Brissie. Can we please go back and get it? It is very cold here. We load into a groovy bar called the Irish Club. Apparently the stage has been extended but Chris and I still find ourselves with fairly large stacks of speakers in front of our sections of the stage. Soundcheck. Waiting. We discuss the new Qantas baggage allowances, which have come into effect since we last flew with our gear. We devise our plan to minimise excess baggage costs. Eating. Waiting. Being cold and waiting. As well as the communal band room behind the stage, we have been given the keys to another room. At some stage during the night the 4 of us end up there. There is a single bed, a mattress, 2 chairs, a table and a sink. We sit/lay there for a while laughing about how glamorous the rock and roll life is. I listen to the crazy piano accordian music coming from the room next door. I wonder if it is Irish music. There is a fair crowd gathered downstairs in the beer garden and they are getting loud. They must be shouting to keep themselves warm. 

Show starts, Numbers Radio play. Stage access is from the bandroom out the back. I can't work out how to get through to the other side of the venue and out to where the crowd is except for via the stage, so tonight I don't watch the band but I can hear them. This room is weird. We head to the common band room. This room is cold. We go back and forth between rooms a couple of times before show time. I want to see Violent Soho tonight but I only hear them. Our show starts with a brief moment of technical trouble, then we are good. It is warmer in here. 2 songs in and I realise that I have left my singlet on under my 2nd luckiest t-shirt. I can not play an entire show wearing a singlet. Lucky the band room is directly behind my amp. Song finishes, I throw my guitar down and have my shirt and singlet off as I fall into the band room, common band room, common band room full of people. My t-shirt is back on and in a flash I'm back on stage. I wonder if anyone noticed I was gone. The corner of stage where I am is like a  big bass trap. This is heaven, a big, fat, vibratey heaven. For the first time in over a decade I have just purchased a brand new amp (thanks Fender for the ripper deal). Over the past few shows JB has been very impressed with my tight bottom end. From here I can't hear the tightness but I can feel the cushiony warmth and it feels good. The show is good. Thank you Toowoomba (and the lovely folk at the Irish Club), I think we will come here again. Now we drive back to Brisbane.

Sunday 5th of June.

Today is a travel day.

Bob and I head out early. We buy 5 massive chinese laundry bags. We shuffle gear from this bag to that and fill the laundry bags with mostly merch and some other gear. This is our excess baggage minimisation plan. We do well. The lovely folk at Qantas are very helpful. (this is not always the case when you're trying to get a truckload of gear onto a flight). So today is our lucky day. I must remember which t-shirt I am wearing so I can wear it every time we fly from now on. Off to Qantas club. Bob's flight leaves first, then Kev's. See you guys next week. Us Westies eat and drink and read and laugh til our flight leaves. As I am boarding the flight, the hostess tells me she has been trying to get tickets for the Perth show but it is sold out. I would normally offer to put names on our guest list but the list is already overflowing and I am getting used to curbing my urge to offer door spots to every lovely person that I meet. So instead I offer my apologies and feel really bad about the whole thing. We land in Perth. I spy the laundry bags come out on the carousel and they are still intact (thank you new lucky t-shirt). Like a well oiled machine, we retrieve our 20 items from the carousel, load onto trolleys, ferry them out to vehicles and before I know it I am at home. Thanks everyone, we will definitely do this again.