Sick powder, rocket fuel and good times

I touch down in Canberra early morning and head to the hotel to join up with the rest of the gang who had flown in from Perth late the night before.  They look bright and refreshed and are already throwing around snow lingo left right and centre.  Chris is looking forward to snow boarding on some "sick powder", Ness is already talking up her first Jager-bomb and Brett is fine tuning his radar to make it snow bunny ready.

Our first stop is the Station Hotel in Jindabyne.  We have been regular visitors to Jindy since the very early days of the band.  We played in this town with Powderfinger all the way back in '97 before Slightly Odway had come out and many times since on our own steam.  There is something about the snow that brings out the wild in people, whether they are actively participating in snow sports or not.  Perhaps it's the mixture of the extreme cold and the feeling of isolation from the rest of the world.  The ski fields are like the cousin of tropical North Queensland - there always seems to be a party going on.  These are good conditions for most bands I would think and we revel in them.  It's not too early to share a couple of pints before soundcheck at the Station before retiring to our accomodation for a short while.  I like to pretend I am a character from Star Wars in The Empire Strikes Back's opening Hoth scene and apart from the lack of high tech computer gadgets the accomodation makes this pretty easy.  Architecturally speaking these places all tend to look kind of the same which can make navigation pretty difficult, especially after dark and the imbibement of a few frothies.  The gig itself is a fun one and the crowd is happy and eager.  The setlist has morphed a bit over the months of being on the road.  It's good to grapple with an everchanging beast each night, slowly working it in to submission.
     
We wake up early the next morning for the long drive to Hotham.  It's an epic drive up a never ending mountain along a road that is constantly bending and turning and a view that shows off a steep drop off the edge of the road.  After about half an hour of this I start to feel quite queasy and start to curse my choice of stage drink in Jindabyne - a heady mix of vodka and whiskey that Ness called rocket fuel.
     
Tonight's stage is small but it's view over the snow fields is majestic.  We decide not to sound check tonight and I wile away the hours making hilarious portraits of the band using an iphone application.  My head is definately turning to mush.  I'm sure it's not normal for a 33 year old to find this much enjoyment from such a silly time waster.  Cola Wars are back in fine form after sickness affected the band in Jindabyne and they were forced to troop on sans drums.  The place is nicely full by the time we go onstage and we put on a bit of a blinder.  Everyone is in form.  The crisp mountain air must agree with us.  As a result we celebrate late in to the night, playing with the iphone application some more.
     
Thank god we get to sleep in the next day. I am awoken at 11am with the instructions that we are leaving in 15 minutes.  How did I sleep so late without stirring at all? How much longer would I have slept if no one had woken me? Memories of last night are smokey.  As we drive down the mountain I vow to take it a little easier in Falls Creek.  No sooner are we at the bottom of the mountain than we are driving up another fucking one, winding and turning and bending our way up in to the clouds while my stomach rebels the only way it knows how - with a dull churning feeling. It's snowing, which provokes more excited cheering and yells of "sick powder" and "fresh dumps".  Chris has the most to gain from this development as he is staying on another day to carve it up on his snow board thingy.  I snow boarded once.  I hit the deck so many times I ended the day looking like a bruised apple.
     
We've played this place before many years ago. I remember it well for it's drinks special that allowed punters to bring their own bucket which they could have filled with booze for the one standard price. I think these days those kind of things are outlawed and besides, the place has a new owner, a senior lady who is keen to mother us, providing us with pre dinner snacks of cheese and biscuits. Ah, this is the life!  Dinner is equally enjoyable and afterwards we are ushered in to a back stage room with a full rider. There is a tv in the corner that is showing a snowboarding video of guys doing the most insane, death defying stunts and I think it inspires us to a rollicking show. The gig starts off quietly but somehow gradually transforms in to insanity. The last song comes just in time. One more and people may have started getting hurt, kicked out or both.
     
And such is the way of the snow. High up on the mountain where the air is a little colder and a little thinner. The oxygen to the brain a little less potent. A bunch of people on holidays in an isolated wilderness keen to party the night away or simply dull the pain of a day falling down a mountain attached to boots and a large plank.
     
Big thanks to all the revellers for coming along to a show.  We'll see more of you at Coaster on Saturday!
     
KM