Pantlessness, drum violations, alcohol shortages and other touring incidents

Okay it's been just over a week since we returned from our recent jaunt to Victoria (less of a jaunt for Kev, just a few outings) so here's a little belated wrap-up, my first post since I-don't-know-when-maybe-Braxton-era.

We are now officially three shows into our Kosciuszko tour, which is a fairly sprawling and sporadic affair but great to get underway, feels like ages since we've played a proper show.

Having spent a few days rehearsing in Perth, we got into Melbourne on Friday to play an acoustic version of "She's Like a Comet" at Hamish and Andy's annual Logies spitroast. I can confirm that there was an actual spit roasted pig, that both Hamish and Andy were hosting the show as implied by the title, and that we performed said version in due course, then grabbed some food and a bottle of red wine and left, having nothing further to contribute to the momentum of the event. Some other things of note about the afternoon: Andy popped in to say hello and make us feel wanted beforehand which I thought was jolly decent of him. He and Hamish were pantless for the duration, this is apparently traditional and certainly in principal I support the notion of pantlessness , though I did have to pull a few suspected leg hairs off a piece of peri-peri chicken. At least I hope they were leg hairs.  For reasons that remain largely unclear to me, the room across the hall smelled like spaghetti after a certain point, this related somehow to a reality cooking show.

Saturday - rehearsal. I spent the first few hours sulking because the "drum kit" supplied by the rehearsal space did not meet my exacting standards. It was explained to me (though not quite in these terms) that this poor kit gets whored out "as is" for a measly twenty bucks a session, to be brutally beaten and violated at the sick whim of any client who can pony up the cash. Needless to say, it is broken in both body and spirit.  At the time I was frustrated, now it just makes me sad to think that such violence and neglect can be perpetuated in modern times. Anyway we rehearsed for a while but it was a pretty short day .

Sun - day off - slept a bit, walked a lot, ate a bit, caught up with friends, drank a bit.

Rehearsals Monday and Tuesday - I hired a drum kit. Bumped into Raul from Magic Dirt at the rehearsal rooms for the first time in ages, lovely to catch up, we will all have eternally fond memories of time spent with these guys on tour. Getting used to some of the newer songs by this stage but I think no matter how much you rehearse there's always a first public performance during which there's a chance that a wide variety of things could happen (or not happen, which can be even worse.) It's generally not a big deal but because we've been fiddling with a few new things - like firing off the odd sample here and there for some new songs - it's just a bit further out of our usual comfort zone I guess. I had come down with a cold by this time as well which was a pretty sweet deal.

Day off on Wednesday.  Did I do anything productive? Fucking hope not... that sort of thing could easily ruin my reputation...

Thursday rolls around and all of a sudden it's time for the first (or in another sense second) show at Melbourne's Corner Hotel. With Violent Soho on the bench for the first few scheduled shows (hope everything's ok guys) the main support is filled at the last minute by River of Snakes. Hmm that guitarist looks familiar - perhaps because it's Raul from Magic Dirt. Coincidence? Honestly I have no idea, but if so it's a happy one, and we're very thankful that they could help out at such short notice (plus it meant we got to see Adam and Adalita on this trip too which was totally awesome except for the fact that it reminded me Dean wasn't there.) Someone points out that it's been (mumbles into hand) years since we've played there, but it's all comfortably familiar in no time.  Opening act Valentiine could single handedly spearhead an Australian grunge revival if the wind was blowing in the right direction, and I guess if they could be bothered as well. I'm a sucker for all-girl bands, and it's not even necessarily a sexual thing, it's just that girls are under-represented in the scene for whatever reason, so there's always something cool and novel about seeing this, and a sense that it represents an unusual perspective or something vaguely fascinating like that, I dunno I've never analyzed it. Nothing novel about an all-guy band that's for sure. Actually I've just realised, the guy/girl ratio over the three bands on this night was exactly 50/50. No wonder it felt right. Oh yeah I guess we played too didn't we - I think the show went well, not great but pretty good, everyone seemed happy, the crowd were lovely and let us play some new stuff. No major fluffs which is all I ask for as an ice breaker.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. And indeed, we were so excited to be playing our second (or in another sense first) Corner show, with Cola Wars in the opening slot this time. Another friendly face in Cam from Bodyjar, Wakker too - he gave me a hihat felt (bit more shop talk there.) This show felt stronger, but of course we had plenty of help from the crowd again. Anyway having run dangerously low the previous evening, I decide to ration out our bottle of Jameson into four as an experiment to see where it all went. Results were inconclusive in the end, it wasn't a very well designed experiment, I was forced to have a beer and some red wine, and I'm pretty sure Ness gave some of hers to Kevin - probably easier just to bring more booze if required. I have to say it is pretty amazing to me that we were able to play two sold out Melbourne shows to such appreciative crowds, a big thank you to everyone who came along for allowing us this privilege, and making us feel so welcome.

The Bended Elbow in Geelong is our final show for the weekend, has been even longer since we've been out that way (compared to Melbs), not that it's far but still... River of Snakes join us again, and thanks to The Colour Clear for a great opening set. For some reason, and maybe I was just getting sentimental by this stage, but to me the crowd at this show were so cool. I don't really know how we played (though I suspect it was messy as all hell), all a bit noisy and hard to tell what was going on, but i swear there were times when the audience were every bit as loud as us.  Even though things were a bit looser both onstage and off compared to the last two shows, I still came off feeling like people had enjoyed themselves - which is the whole point of it all, in the end, right? I hope we get back to the G-spot for another round in the not too distant future.

I've probably missed out a whole bunch of important stuff, but it's late on Tuesday night and I have to get some sleep before work - I know it won't be long before I'm writing another one of these anyway.

Some messages from our sponsors:

Sydney and Perth sold out. Bloody hell.

New regional dates have been added:

7 July - North Nowra Tavern, Nowra NSW

18 Aug - Inferno, Traralgon VIC

19 Aug - Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully VIC

20 Aug - Pier Hotel, Frankston VIC

Turning into a bit of a monster this regional run!  Bring it on.

Oh and also the super special so-limited-I-probably-won't-even-be-able-to-get-one vinyl edition of the album is slightly silver, sexy, square-shaped and will be available at all our shows.

Check it out for if you like vinyl things and stuff. Of course limited or not I will have to make sure I do in fact get one - mum would fucking kill me if I didn't procure a copy for her collection.

'Til next time everyone.

Brett