Thursday 23 October

Handy tip for travellers: Check in for your flight as early as possible.

Having to check in at 5.30am is a struggle, but it would have paid to be a little earlier. I got a plum seat (ahem) down the back of the plane. Smack bang in the middle of the screaming kids section. Each one who started would set the others off like exploding barrels of diesel. Couple that with a dude in front of me who couldn’t keep still and pulled my shutter down so he could attempt to sleep, while I was reading in that light no less. Perhaps if he stayed still for 5 seconds he may have dropped off, I was hoping he dropped off. It made for an uncomfy flight to say the least.

When I got into a cab at Sydney Airport the driver didn’t speak to me at all, despite my best efforts. He came to life however when his mate called him on the radio. They started going off in what I presume was Malay. After the call had finished he told me that his mate was on his way back from Newcastle and someone had paid for a cab there from Sydney- to the tune of $400. The driver then told me it costs $80 to fly to Newcastle.

I eventually catch up with Rhys and Michael who have flown over yesterday. We sneak in some last minute rehearsal in the afternoon. We’re staying with Selena who helps run the Music Managers Forum – managing the managers. It seems like a soap opera down there at the moment.

The show tonight is at The Vic on the Park. It’s Asymmetric’s CD launch (and I guess our launch too). A small venue and it has about 150 people in tonight. We go quite well for the first acoustic show for a fair while and playing between two full bands. The interest from the crowd and the few industry folks there is encouraging.

Later, we go to hang out at Newtown’s Town Hall which is the late night venue of choice. To do some shameless name dropping, Tim Freedman introduces me to a guy in a red baseball cap I vaguely recognise. When introduced he goes by the name Frank Bennett but in conversation Tim calls him Dave. Tim also has a manic conversation with a crazy woman who looks like one KK Juggy of Machine Gun Fellatio fame. Newtown is weird.

Friday 24 October

This trip quickly takes on the shape of a holiday and we spend a good proportion of the day doing next to nothing around Annandale with Selena. We get to scan Jackson’s Rare Guitars which I love every time. We go there. I drool and others wonder why the hell you’d want a beat up hunk of wood from the 60’s.

When I mention to the salesman that I like one on the wall he pulls it down for me and I have a bit of a go. I get to hold a 1956 Fender Stratocaster in Mary Kaye Blonde finish valued at $65,000. Oh yesss!!!!

That night we catch Pre-Shrunk at the Annandale Hotel. The twin bass lineup is literally bowel-shaking. They put on a good show that even gets Michael shaking his booty on the dancefloor. This is unprecedented, although he does say that there will be more times.

We spend the wee hours doing more drinking and hanging out at the Town Hall and I top the night with the most awful pie in the world from the previously championed Newtown Bakery.

Saturday 25 October

The manager of Asymmetric, Darryl and his girlfriend Casey chauffeur us in his Kombi and we head down to The Rocks with a view to finally catching the fabled Manly Ferry (a running joke in the band). A major storm comes through and it’s cold and wet. We get soaked heading down to the ferry and just as we’re about to buy tickets Michael backs out saying it’s too rough. So the Manly Ferry still waits for another day.

That night we catch Iota at the Hopetoun Hotel in Surry Hills. He’s better than I’ve seen him before, I think it’s because he’s standing up rather than sitting down to play.

Sunday 26 October

It’s sad to say goodbye to Selena and her apartment that’s been home base for the last three days. The taxis stuff up and we end up having to take two sedans rather than the wagon we booked and we just make our flight to Brisbane.

We’re staying with our old mate Stu Badhair. It’s becoming like a tour of old mates.

When we get into Brissie it’s a balmy 30 odd degrees, with a top of 34. But later in the afternoon the sky goes dark and sheets of rain fall and bizarrely, it hails. On TV, we see the Indy cars and the drivers who sit calmly while golfball sized hailstones bounce off their helmets.

We each have a power nap of sorts in the afternoon and it makes a fair difference to how we play that night.

The show tonight is in Fortitude Valley in central Brisbane – The Valley.
Ric’s Bar is a small, long bar where the bands play on a high stage across the tops of the audience’s heads to the short side of the room. Our show manages to draw a lot of the people from outside to come inside and watch the show including Katie Noonan of george.

By strange coincidence, Perth’s Little Birdy are playing at exactly the same time as us across the mall at the Troubadour. So we miss each other’s shows but we catch up with Barney afterwards. In the Troubadour, Stu and his friend Maddy have one of the most intensely fought games of pool I’ve ever witnessed.

Monday 27 October

This may be my favourite day of touring ever.

We’re determined to go lawn bowling. When we’re almost into bowling club territory we get a call telling us to go to do an interview with 4ZZZ, the local community station. So we turn the car around and go back to grab instruments.

The interview is awful. To be honest, the underprepared youngsters ask us some of the poorest questions ever. Thankfully we had our instruments and played ‘Sun’. Michael was then asked if he’d auditioned for Australian Idol. We were justifiably surly towards them. Poor kids.

On to bowling!

Looking for a bowling club on a Monday is tough. The first place, Merthyr, a gorgeous club on the river, had its greens closed and its kitchen had also just shut for the arvo. The next place, New Farm, had just sprayed its greens. So we consult the phone book and call Bardon Bowls Club. The guy on the line assures us that they’re open and the beer is cold, so that’s good enough for us.

I lead the way into the club and before I can take more than a few steps an old bearded guy behind the bar tells me won’t need that hat in here. So cap in hand I ask him if we can send down a few ends. We sign in, pay our $5, collect our bowls and grab a round of $2 pots in styrofoam stubbyholders. It doesn’t get much better than this.

First game: (after 10 ends) Stu and Rhys 12 def. Dan and Michael 2

Second game: Rhys defeated Stu in the battle of the winners and Dan defeated Michael in the battle of the losers.

Good weather, good friends, cheap beer (a spin of a chocolate wheel determines how much you pay for beer - $1.60 - $1.85) and a relaxed sporting endeavour. Marvellous.

That night Stu cooked us kangaroo steaks on the barbie. The BBQ on Stu’s deck out the back of his place is becoming tradition. A mother possum and her baby come to check out the feast.

To top off the night we go ten pin bowling. Yes!!

First game is a tie between Stu and myself. Not very good form from anyone in this game. And true to form “Second Game” Miller pulled one out to take the second, coming from behind to usurp me from the eighth frame onwards. D’oh.

Tuesday 28 October

The difference between Brisbane and Melbourne could hardly be more pronounced. When we flew into Melbourne it was 9 degrees. From shorts to longjohns. We’re staying with Michael’s friend Leigh and his girlfriend Megan. More staying on floors and sofabeds, but that’s how we like it.

That night, Rhys heads off to see Even play and catch up with our old pal Sofie, Michael and I play Leigh and Megan at Trivial Pursuit. Rock!! Megan takes the win, although I got to the middle first I couldn’t bring it home with a final question. My sour luck continues.

Wednesday 29 October

We start the day at a leisurely pace. I need music for the drive to Bendigo. I blow $113 at JB Hi Fi (a couple of Death Cab for Cutie albums, Roy Orbison, old REM, Crooked Fingers, Super Furry Animals). We also have burns of Leigh’s Jacques Lassitier (sp?) albums. They’re jazz versions of Bach compositions and they’re awesome.

The Hopetoun Hotel Bendigo has a rep as quite a rough pub – and let me just confirm that for you. The show is great fun. The crowd is awesome and stays til midnight on a Wednesday night. We also sell loads of stuff. We sell out of basically everything. Michael’s voice gives out though in the show. He’s picked up a nasty cough between Sydney and Brisbane (a route notorious for disease). People still think he’s amazing. Rhys and I top off the night talking to Geoff the bikie publican and hearing stories about cops and brawls at the pub, despite Geoff being a self-confessed ‘fat softie’, which is believable even with his long, menacing fingernails.

Thursday 30 October

Wake up and leave the pub past the barflies and pre-lunch drinkers. We have breakfast elsewhere and head back to Melbourne.

In town, we head down Bourke St and manage to lose Rhys in the huge Myer store.

We have just enough time to shower and make it to the Duke of Windsor.

We play first tonight and have a decent crowd and strangely get an encore playing first!! It’s quite the compliment. Some very nice people come up and say g’day. We even sell out of the very last of our T-shirts.

Friday 31 October

Get up late head to Prahran. We shop for a gift for Megan and Leigh. We settle on a calendar of jazz giants.

We have a delightful dinner in St Kilda with Leigh, Megan and Ratty and Emma, friends from Perth. After dinner we hit a fancy ice cream shop that just rocks.

It’s ironic to lose your sunnies in a cty where you don’t need them during the day. But I lost mine there - at night – good one! By the way, this daylight savings thingo is messing me up. It’s light when it should be dark…I’m just a small boy from Perth.

We head back to the Gypsy Bar in Fitzroy and stay ‘til 4

Saturday 1 November

Getting on a plane. Nothing to see here. Go home.