We are playing a show Saturday March 2nd AFTERNOON SHOW
Northcote Social Club, https://tickets.northcotesocialclub.com/outlet/event/0649b86e-f550-45bd-8066-1e8bbd9e81ca
Doors are at 1pm and we will be playing two sets, previewing some material from (strangely)(emotional). We will be playing with the mistLY, Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar.
We rarely play in Melbourne, perhaps twice a year. Our last gig with the mistLY in the city we live in would have been in 2022.
Last year was all retrospective with our 18 date national tour by Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. Now we have a new album to come out and another already in the works.
We will be previewing tracks from (strangely)(emotional) as well as playing some songs from our last album of new material, IN A MISTLY which came out in November 2022. One of our best collections of songs and performances in our career.
Yes all of a sudden we are back into doing some long drives and playing. Clare Moore and I got into the van and played in Canberra, Bulli (near Wollongong) and Sydney, accompanied by Sydney based guitar player Greg Thorsby on bass who we had a zoom session with the week before we filled the van and drove off.
Clare's brother Dennis, who is an actor once told me that embarking on a new creative project, performance or release is called a "leap into the void" and that it gets harder and harder as you get older. Thats just by the by. I find the writing and recording easy. The tech is eating away at all kinds of ways that people earn a living and create intellectual or artistic property that has - until recentlly - been able to hold some sort of value so I cant really moan about that. Everybody is being shook/disrupted by the tech.
We stayed in the beautiful town of Gundagfai on the way to Canberra and I bought two pairs of RM WILLIAMS boots in an op shop for $40. I am told these retail for up to $650 nowadays. I have a pair I bought in 1994 already so they do last.
We rehearsed with Greg at the hotel. It was a Thursday night show. We had a lot of tech for Clare to plug in as she was playing keys as well as drums and also using our Cymatic rhythm machine.
We assumed we could rehearse more at soundcheck but the show before us went over by an hour. A tedious 20 year old George Formby impersonator running a cabaret variety show which was really more of an open mic night. We pretty much set up and played and there were a few tech problems but we made show. The hotel overlooked Lake Burley Griffin and had great views of Parliament House at night.
The next day we drove to Bulli, listening to warnings of torrential rain and cyclonic winds. Its a climb over a high hill and down steep winding roads to the sea. We drove up and I scraped our van against a stone planters box outside the venue. The rain came in sheets off of the sea and whipped all across the outdoor stage. The show was called off twice as the rain came and went but the people stayed so we set up on the floor and did two sets with no mics on the drums and me singing through a foldback wedge. No soundcheck rehearsal again.
We drove back over the hill towards Sydney around midnight in complete white out fog at about 30ks an hour around mad bending corners with hazard lights on in the car. We got to Sydney and unloaded the gear and slept.
The next afternoon , we loaded into THE GREAT which is a club in Marrickville. A suburb of Sydneys inner west over which the international jet planes fly so low that the idea of making a noise complaint about music is ridiculous - because the ambient noise of the area is LOUD. (Still, the venue has been fighting just such a complaint from one neighbour for a couple of years).
My third cousin AVA came to say hello.(Or am I her Great Uncle? I was at the GREAT I guess...) Avas' mother Kristyn did the amazing cover shot for EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY at their house in Dismal Swamp, SA.
Road warlord Henry Brister was working at the Great so it all went smoothly in setup. We felt as if we'd been on tour for a month already. We did a fantastic show. A power trio. Greg played brilliantly and I got such a tremendously pleasing sound from my guitars and amp. The show was full of freshness and improvised moments. Thank you so much Greg! What a mensch!
We had played with Greg Thorsby a few times before in the past but he had played guitar with us for those shows. We had first met him when he played in the Atlas Strings who did some gigs opening for Dave Graney and The Coral Snakes in the mid 90s. He is playing guitar on the left in this clip. RIP to singer and songwriter Ben Mullins.
During that tour we were in Sydney and our guitarist Rod Haywards father died suddenly and he had to go deal with that. It must have been1995. We were in the midst of a run of album release dates and media calls and we were never the types to cancel anything so Greg did this tv show of Andrew Dentons with us. (Sorry Rod)
CREATIVE
CREEP First single from the epic 2024 album (strangely)(emotional) which is to
be released on classic jewel case Compact Disc in April. Touring near you,
soon.
Saturday March 2nd AFTERNOON SHOW
Northcote Social Club, https://tickets.northcotesocialclub.com/outlet/event/0649b86e-f550-45bd-8066-1e8bbd9e81ca
Shows coming up in WA in May as well as NSW and Qld.
photo - Clare Moore
