ITS XMAS DAY
Ho ho ho!!! Well its been a bit since our last blog.. back tracking we did a show at the Tote opening for Hightension. Now since a kid I've always heard about shows at the Tote and its notoriety for being THE place for live music in Australia, so personally it was a milestone to be able to be apart of such an awesome show at the Tote.
We arrived in Melbourne to some shitty back packers hostel, ate some eggs with hollandaise sauce and drank lattes to complete our morning.. then faffed about Melbourne to kill time before sound check, arriving at the Tote some time in the late afternoon.
Walking in the door of the Tote to hear Hightension bashing out some brutal beats on stage, we knew we were set for a big night (as always really). We said our hellos and headed to the bar to leave them in peace for a bit. Cider, Beer, Cider ,Beer ,Cigarette ,Pulled Pork and fries, Cider, Beer etc....
We were first on for the night, opening the stage is somewhat a hard thing to do when its early and people are rolling into the venue but I always like the challenge of capturing the audience who do. We had a killer little set and parted a few haircuts.
The next band were all chicks, a band called AGender. I didn't catch the whole set as was still getting my shit together upstairs but from what I did see they were a tight unit and people were diggin' it. Following these girls was a band from Canberra called Hoodlum Shouts..they had the crowd going, by now everybody had had a skin full anyway but they reminded me of a midnight oil meets the hold steady kinda vibe. Good dudes too who kindly leant us a guitar amp.
Hightension hit the stage and the place was packed back to front and shit got brutal. These guys were fuckin amazing live and also a great bunch of cool cats.. I think Hightension are everybodys new favourite band in Melbourne and I can't wait to see what they go on to do in 2014. Karina's vocals are like waking up to a guy in a ski mask holding a chainsaw to your kneck..it cuts through. Bad ass mother fuckers.
After this I can't remember too much. I remember going to the bar and finding Lindsay Mcdougall from JJJ/Frenzal fame and thinking, hang on, ive seen that guy about. Had a brief chat and probably made a dick of myself.. few more beers..then about a hour later I find myself talking to mr. Dom Allesio from JJJ fame, introduced myself and the man bought me a pint of Fat yak. (What a legend, I never get bought pints of Fat Yak) It was like one big whos who of the Australia music scene orgy at the tote tonight. so good!! Bat piss were even at the bar.. but i'm told they are always at the bar.
I need to start doing these blogs more often cause I get to about here and think shit we have so much more to write..
so skipping all the bullshit about going out on the town all night and bla bla..taxi..plane..bed.
Next up we have Amplified in Hobart. Tassie music industry showcase. We were on at the Brisbane Hotel.. I think every gig we have played in Hobart is at the Bris.. in fact I cant remember ever going to Hobart and not ending up at the Brisbane hotel. They ran two stages tonight and it was really cool cause as soon as one band finished everybody would go into the other room and watch the other bands..made me dizzy after a while. Good mix up of bands.. I saw metal bands, blues, rock, ska- ish bands. Highlights for me were Guthrie (always good these dudes), The Lawless Quartet (Cause I'm a sucker for a horn section in a band..but they were fukin rad) and I wanted to catch the Embers but we were on the other stage straight after but they would of owned it I;m sure :)
We got absolutely torched after the show.. who puts so many bands in one pub on the same night and would expect anything different right? Although it would happen to us if we were on a bill with a Peruvian flute band.
At the beginning of the night I mapped out all my shit cause I knew to well it wasn't going to be pretty later on. I hid my bag in a room up stairs so I wouldn't forget it when we left the pub. We left the bris hotel at last drinks and took us an hour to get across the road..got in a cab and talked smack to the cab driver (As you do).. got out of taxi and walked up to my hotel room, opened the door, FUUUUCKKK.. I left my fucking bag back at the bloody pub again. So I punched the pillow for about five minutes and swore really loudly..once I got my shit together I went down and waved a cab..got back to the bris hotel only to find that the pub was shut, my phone was dead, the charger was in my bag and I was up shit creek again. I had a great idea though.. I went to the back of the venue and started banging on the doors of the upstairs accommodation (took me ages to climb them stairs)..I could here some dude saying 'Is that the guy out of captives' as I drunkenly pounded his hotel window.. lucky he let me in, I found the bag, I got back to the hotel after another taxi ride and passed out in bed watching rage. we had work shops to go to at 10am and I was a fuckin' mess..powerade wasn't cutting it today and sunglasses inside just aint right. Was all good tho..slept it off during the day and went out again that night to mingle with the bands and business people.. played some pool against chris from Big Tree Artists and won 40 bucks.. but I gave it back to him cause he'd had a few and I felt bad.
Anyway.. we did a tour to Adelaide last week.. it was mental.. i'l touch on that run of those in the next blog..its Xmas day here in Australia so I'm going to have a Boags Draught and eat some food. Merry Xmas ya filthy animals -
A.Damon
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