Memo Music Hall show debrief

THis show last Saturday by Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes (I always write it that way, just because I find it odd to just refer to it as a CORAL SNAKES show - I mean I wrote all the songs and sang them and  ..) at memo Music Hall in St Kilda was the most dramatic yet. A full room came along to see the gig. Thanks to all who came! I really appreciate it. The shows we have done since 2015 at that first Memo Show have been EPIC and quite exciting and the music stands as a unique, stand alone event from that 90s period in general.

Adelaide twice, Newcastle and Sydney twice and also Brisbane. There has been little noise in print or text or radio about the gigs but people come out of the cities to see us. Something happened and it meant something to all those people. It meant a lot to us too. The music was high grade and the lyrical side of it holds up too. We never earthed ourselves in youth culture or even alternative culture. Well, more so the latter but it was an alternative culture all of our own divining. Reaching back to 40's noir movies and poetry and football and all kinds of sly pop grooves. Never into distortion or anguish. Screw that grunge! We had compadres and peers locally and internationally and tried our best to matter in terms that were current.

Anyway, I wrote earlier of my burst appendix and the operation which happened about 14 days before this gig. We were going to cancel. I felt pretty weak and my voice had quite disappeared, due to the tubes going down my throat brushing against my vocal cords quite roughly. Then I actually felt better each day and thought we'd do the gig. Its hard to reconstitute a band and the show would have had to have been postponed and rescheduled. So we decided to NOT cancel or postpone it a week out from doors opening.

On the day I left hospital I was hooked up to a small vacuum pump which is connected to a tube which comes out of the wound in my side. This is on all the time and creates a vacuum which helps the wound heal and also sucks out any fluid which might be present. There was a bit of fluid as it turned out I had gotten a post op infection. Probably due to the appendix bursting and a lot of actual shit and bacteria swimming about my body and the open wound.

So I had to wear this little thing, about the size of a thick hardback book, around and also sleep with it on.   Our health system is amazing and I had a nurse visiting every day to attend the dressing and take blood pressure and general temperature and blood samples etc.
I wore the pump to some interviews at 3RRR and at 3AW in Melbourne. We also had a rehearsal and my voice came back.

On the day of the gig I kept pretty quiet and low key at soundcheck and leading up to showtime. I'm not the type to do a lot of performing off stage , anyway.

Julitha Ryan opened proceedings with a great band. Stu Thomas on bass, Mick Harvey on guitar and Idge on drums and Brett Poliness on percussion.

A few friends came backstage but I might have freaked them out with my stillness and long overcoat. I'd lost a  bit of weight, too.

For the gig I wore my dark blue Safari suit which I must have last pulled out of the cupboard some time in 1994. I needed the belt to feel its support around my waist. Holding stuff.

Before the show I unplugged my vacuum pump and sat on a stool as we started. Then I stood up and white line fever or Dr Footlights took over. I did a pretty tightly wound show as compared to our recent Basement Sydney gig which was intense and up close stuff.  After the first song I found my tempo and it all went really well. I like to do a show that hangs together for an hour and fifteen minutes. The talk and the moves and the music all builds to a point and releases over and over. Its a highly compressed set that we do. A decade of work in one gig.

People who haven't ever seen us think they know what we do or what a show is. They know fucking squat is what I'm sayin'! Their expectations are LOW.

After the gig I plugged back into my vac pack and went and stood at the merch table.

Our audience is vintage for the most part though there were some people in their twenties around. Fucking cool kids!

It's been great playing with Rod and Robin again. We might do more if we get the right kind of situation. We're not into going around playing in clubs and having to do all the heavy lifting as far as PR goes. We need that to be taken care of, part of the deal. Then we can just turn up and play.

Thanks again to everybody who came along.

And thanks to Clare Moore for organizing all the gigs, the logistics and the planning and timing amd rehearsing and getting information out to all concerned. It wouldn't happen without her tour managing and deciding and execution. 

Oh, and I've still got the vac pump connected. Hard Core!

Dave Graney and the mistLY w/Died Pretty and Radio Birdman July 1st Croxton Band Room. 

Dave Graney - solo - By request show- Sunday July 23rd at SOME VELVET MORNING. 123 Queens Parade in Clifton Hill. A LEAPS AND BOUNDS festival event. 

Dave Graney and Clare Moore Saturday August 5th and Sunday August 6th at the JUNK BAR in BRISBANE.

Dave Graney and the mistLY
The Wheatsheaf Hotel - Adelaide November 11th and 12th 

Our JUNE digital release is TWO BASS DRUMS AND A MELLOTRONE.