I should mention that when Clare Moore and I played at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla last Thursday they gave us some flat bread and dips, pan-fried cauliflower with coriander and other herbs and some pasta with some sort of sea food in a shell. Still nothing with eyes or legs! (in reference to last blog and our Flexitarian turn)
Also, we did fall into a few meat dishes where we stayed but that was just having to be polite...
As we were loading the amp and guitars outside the venue a brushtail possum (NSW variation with a skinny black tail) walked up the main street of Cronulla, off to itsbreakfast at a bin somewhere I guess.
We drove back to the inner west from Cronulla after midnight playing the best of Hermans Hermits in the van, Hardly any traffic and the cd was still playing when we arrived at our destination.
We looked up "Melbourne storm" on twitter, people were mocking it.
Where we were staying, there were two West Highland Terriers which we had to walk. Tex and Archie. The latter was a visitor to the house.
Tex- Archie and Clare Moore
I've had my Maton EGB808 since 1997 and bought my Crate 125 acoustic amplifier around the same time. probably the most expensive gear I've ever bought - and - stangely - the best. The acoustic goes through a further Aphex exciter pedal to shape the bottom end as well as the highs and gets a tremendously dynamic sound. The low end knob is actually called "Big Bottom". So much better than going direct into the PA. The sound gets to move through the air a lot more. To get some variation I play an electric through the same amp but put it through a Sansamp Classic pedal (which I'd also bought in 1997). I also use an MXR Micro amp pedal for clean bost on both guitars and a Boss Super distorton for a bit of a grittier sound and a Tech21 XXL pedal for super boost. A little Danelectro BLT slap delay as well.
I sit the amp on the ground and rock it back as I don't like it to be blaring straight at me. A little off to the side of me and down at my knees.
The electric guitar I was using was my Ibanez Talman TM71 metallic/gold flecked semi acoustic. I had two Gretcsh filtertron pickups put on it a few years ago and it has a lot of variation in the tone and a lot of bite. During the show I have to take care of a few pedals in between acoustic and electric songs but its all working really well. The Tech21 XXL pedal is like a lot of their stuff, full of tonal nuance that takes a few years to get used to. The distortion on this dries up completely if you wind your volume pot off on your guitar. It has a gain level which I never have on at all, and a volume level and a tone knob, It has another setting called "warp" which I had to trawl a few online sites to work out what it was for. Someone said it was QUEEN one way and THE STOOGES the other. So, of course, I wound it totally away from QUEEN for a few years but have allowed it to slip back as I need a bit of clarity in the squall.
The Petersham Bowling Club is a place that people have found and love to go to in Sydney's inner west so I hope it continues. It was a full room and the PA had no mics on the drums or amps. In that situation the band has to keep a tight formation and listen to each other. Really, they should hang some mics on the kit and make the situation a bit better as it would help everybody out. We could handle it but we play in lots of different situations. There were moments where the PA was making inappropriate noise and other times the foldback just stopped and I was half wrecking my pipes. Hopefully they can fine tune it. We played two sets of music from across the last two decades, lots of songs from the last two albums, FEARFUL WIGGINGS and LETS GET TIGHT.
For dinner I had a vegetarian pizza. No meat but my plans to lay off the bread were being thwarted.
On the way home we listened to The Best Of The Hollies on CD in the van and yes, it was still playing when we arrived.
We looked up Twitter and the rest. Rain was falling but.....
Hardys Bay Club was a 90 minute drive through Sydneys North, across the bridge toward the Central Coast. We stayed at an Air BnB and dropped our stuff off before the gig.
We arrived at the gig and Clare and I walked inside, then realized it was actually somebodys house - right next door to the venue. Would have been amazing if we'd gone to the fridge and gotten a snack out or used the can.... A sign outside seemed to be advertising me doing a "blues jam". Clare shuddered and texted Matt walker for some charts.
A beautiful room with more than a few hundred people in it. People who seemed to have all been sea/tree changers from Sydney. Economic refugees. We played one long set here, 75-80 minutes, and they made us come back on stage twice.
I ate a salad with boconcini and tomatoes and drank a lot of mineral water.
We drove back to our accom in Ettalong listening to a beats/techno comp I had bought in an op shop called "Dope On Plastic 5". Clare and Stu were mocking it.
"Melbourne Storm" was still being mocked but also really actually happening in Northern Victoria and the highway back to Melbourne had been closed at Euroa.
The next day was a Sunday and we cleaned the house and had lunch at a cafe in Ettalong. I had some raw nuts and fruit and Clare and Stu had some eggs. The next show was 10 minutres away by boat or 90 minutes by car. We drove back to Sydney and out through another inlet to Church Point where we were to play at 3pm. This turned out to be a delightful restaurant type of show with us setup in a roofed area looking into the dining area with the sea and a host of sails out to our right side.
We spoiled the crowd for other bands, as usual. They'll expect this level of flash from everybody now. We played two sets. Three alpha brothers shouted and screamed through the whole day in joyful abandon. I learned some new tricks. A seven foot man told me embarassedly that he loved me. The weather was amazingly beatific.
As we packed up a man poked his head through a window of the stage (which had rails like a porch ina tv sitcom set) and, leaning on the rails, said "thats a real tasty crash cymbal you've got there, Clare. is it a Sabian?"
I ate a fig salad which had a lot of rocket and big dobs of soft blue cheese.
We drove back to Sydney in the early evening. Stu had hidden Dope on Plastic 5 so we had to listen to Clares double cd of British tv theme music. This was great, stuff like Pentangles Light Flights and tracks from Roy Budds GET CARTER soundtrack and John Barrys theme to THE PERSUADERS.
The next day we drove back to Melbourne, Before we left we visited a shop in the inner west where Clare was looking for a dress. Rain was pelting down. I got some coffees, some apricots and bananas.
We arrived home at about 9pm, having eaten no bread or meat. And the house had not been flooded by the much threatened deluge.
We are in Perth and Fremantle this week
and then its just our annual Boxing day gig at the Hotel Metro in Adelaide...
Feb 7th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Smiths Alternative in Canberra, ACT
Feb 8th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Jane's, North Wollongong, NSW.
Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grocer, Orange, NSW
Feb 8th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Jane's, North Wollongong, NSW.
Feb 9th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Agrestic Grocer, Orange, NSW
Feb 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Cafe Metropole in Katoomba, NSW
Feb 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Dangar island Bowling Club, NSW,
Feb 16th - Dave Graney an the mistLY at the Grand Hotel, 124 Main st - Mornington, Victoria
Friday Feb 23rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Bison Bar in Nambour, Qld
Saturday Feb 24th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove , Qld
Sunday Feb 25th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove, Qld.(4pm)
Saturday Feb 24th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove , Qld
Sunday Feb 25th Dave Graney and Clare Moore at THE JUNK BAR in Ashgrove, Qld.(4pm)
March 11th Dave Graney and the mistLY at SOUNDS IN THE SECRET GARDEN - the Events Foundry,74 Brougham st, Geelong.
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