Recently we stepped outside our home territory and ventured on a mini tour of sorts. Here is but a short summary of some of the events that unfolded. It will probably make sense only to ourselves, but that pretty much covers everyone who reads this blog, so shouldn't matter.
DAY 1 - SYDNEY / Hopetoun Hotel
- We packed the car, complete with our mobile CD selling stand (Sandler)
- Arrived at Harrison's house in Randwick and frantically put our brand new demo cds into cases, ready for consumption
- Played some music. Good fun.
- Could barely watch the other bands due to the crowd (a good thing)
- Broke the 100 person mark despite sizeable competition
- Headed off to the Dappled farewell party in Kings Cross
- Mocked The Seabellies for driving back to Newcastle
- Managed to spend the night's entire earnings on overpriced beer and generousity
- Danced and sung like idiots to old Jebediah tracks
- Taxied back to Harrison's place
- Craig had to sleep in the car because we'd all gone to sleep and locked him out
- Craig then locked his keys in the car
- NRMA came to the rescue thanks to Peter's membership with 3 days left on it
- Had a few hours sleep
DAY 2 - WOLLONGONG / Oxford Tavern
- Feeling a bit worse for wear, we set sail and headed for Wollongong
- Dropped our demo off at fbi
- Battled our way through traffic caused by some kid getting himself killed
- Discovered the joys of Peelander Z which would then become the soundtrack of the journey (listen hard to the lyrics for maximum enjoyment)
- Spent the last 20 minutes of the drive yelling to Frenzal Rhomb
- Arrived in Wollongong and found it bizarrely deserted
- Checked into our hotel rooms, kindly donated by Col Smithers
- Ate dinner at The Oxford where Mark received a 10 year old piece of tandoori chicken, clearly retrieved from the deepest depths of their freezer
- Our plan to battle the Seabellies to the death in bowling never eventuated
- Played in front of a decent crowd, including many drunken locals
- Funnest show we've ever played
- Dirty old man came to the front and started dancing. We loved it.
- Got to watch both Bird Automatic and The Seabellies. Highly entertaining
- Mocked the Seabellies for driving home to Newcastle
- Went to a house party somewhere with Bird Automatic
- Ate toobs, buuurgeeeeeer rings, sprite and other value-added assortments
- Talked some rubbish
- Put on Peelander Z and screamed the lyrics at passed out inhabitants
- Got a taxi home
- Harrison demonstrated excellent skill at crab walking
- Had a few hours sleep
DAY 3 - SYDNEY / Silent Riot
- By now our bodies were really beginning to suffer but we ploughed on
- Peter had left his phone in the taxi however we managed to track it down
- Headed to the lighthouse like good Wollongong tourists to kill some time
- After a good Peelander Z session and a laugh at some foreigners posing in suspicious formations, we hit the road and headed back to Sydney
- Craig had a microsleep and almost killed us
- Met Helena who was running the event and had the coolest accent ever
- Ate an overpriced dinner which didn't impress Peter who was on finance duty
- Didn't get to play until the ridiculous time of 11:45 - by far our latest
- Got to play after some great bands like Cloud Control which was also fun
- John Steele Singers almost parked us in but Craig managed to manoeuvre us out
- Finally got to go home to our own beds
- Got a few hours sleep
DAY 4 - NEWCASTLE / Cambridge Hotel
- A week may or may not have passed but that is irrelevant
- The car was packed up again and we headed to our second exotic location
- Amy joined the team and Mark got relegated to the middle seat
- Stopped over at McDonald's where Peter paid $8 just so he could get a heart foundation tick. Even the Italian dressing didn't make it worthwhile
- Drive took forever because Craig obeys the law
- Finally arrived at Newcastle and checked into our hotel, again courtesy of Col Smithers
- Investigated our podlike bathrooms which looked ready for takeoff
- Had a laugh at the above sign as not only were Mercy Arms not playing, but the local Seabellies didn't even make it on
- Acquired some shopping trolleys to cart our gear around
- Had a ride in the belliemobile and were disappointed to discover that it isn't magical at all
- Charmed the incoming audience whilst we ran the door
- Got harassed by some crazy local woman who was dirty dancing to the first band
- Were then ambushed by her friend who grabbed the mic and launched into a drunken rendition of Wild Thing. Mark didn't help the situation by sheepishly playing the riff in the background
- Played another enjoyable set that included a massive 11 songs
- Got our first ever request from some girl who screamed at us to play 'Ark' and then proceeding to act out the lyrics. She is officially our favourite fan
- Watched the Seabellies whilst singing along, jeering and pumping fists during the 'trumpet moment'
- Especially loved the Capoeira drumming thing they've got going
- Met a random guy who drove our gear back to the car
- Set off to El Dorado, the infamous house of the Seabellies
- Waited half an hour for a taxi whilst kicking a ball back and forth across the road
- Gave up and decided to run, case of beer in hand
- Through an ingenious system of offloading it to the next person on the burst and later acquiring another shopping trolley, we arrived in record time
- Talked some rubbish with Kyle and Eddie
- Played a short lived game of cricket
- Fast Eddie busted out an extremely entertaining rug dance
- Trent didn't seem too impressed when we put their own cd on to liven things up
- Called the taxi service at 4.30 but only managed to annoy the operator by repeatedly forgetting where we were and why we were ringing
- Decided to run home or in Peter's case, ride the trolley
- After a minute or so, the novelty wore off and we walked the rest of the way
- Had a few hours sleep
- Woke to discover Peter's phone lost again
- Later found it in the shopping trolley, in a side street, along with $15
- Found the best shop ever for lunch - A bakery where all food was a dollar
- Harrison got three pies for the sake of it
- Headed home, back to our boring old lives
As you can see, it was a pretty uneventful few days. Thanks to all the bands we played with and people who came. We had great fun. See ya round!
