Well we learnt a lot on this portion of the tour... we learnt that 6 gigs in 5 days is pushing it; that fate does not approve of mark taking photos of women's breasts; that simon can shower and still be dirty; we learnt that the only certainty at a toga party is that other people's clothes will be stolen; and personally I learnt that food poisoning is no laughing matter and I should have not eaten those sandwiches in Bathurst. I mentioned all these things because they had to be mentioned but decency and professionalism stopped me from writing anything more about them.
This leg was a little different from the rest of the tour in that we drove it all. We(read: mostly I) hired a 12 seater and drove from Melbourne to Canberra, Bathurst, Sydney, Newcastle, Woolongong and back to Melbourne. The only joy from such automotive endurance derived from the stopover there and back at my favorite service station food complex: Gundagai... I think that when I finally lose it all and go AWOL, I'll be found wearing nothing but a pair of overalls and thongs, mopping the floors of the heaven that is Gundagai BP/KFC/Subway... to the amusement and aggravation of my fellow bandmembers, I find the place to have some type of unnameable appeal... I wouldn't be surprised to find, in some Lovecraft-ian twist, that Gundagai is where the wall between realities is at its thinnest and the old ones are sleeping just underneath. You'll see, you'll all see.
Anyway brief summary of this leg is as follows:
Canberra - Played at ANU Bar. The night went off. Was lots of fun. etc etc we stayed at our manager's sister's place and their cats were awesome. Burmese they were. Like little bricks wrapped in velvet.
Bathurst - Played at the CSU Uni Bar where they were having some type of toga themed party. The night was replete with excessively drunk and excessively young folk sticking their hands up each other's bedsheets. This alone may have made me violently ill that night... or those sandwiches. We spent almost the entirety of the next day on our hotel balcony overlooking Bathurst's main drag. We saw a lot of cleavage, pidgeons and a duck in the park that would approach strangers for food. Despite me exploding from both ends the night before, it was a good day.
Sydney - Well we played at the Oxford Arts Factory. Twice. The first show in the evening was to the average assortment of punters and was nice and arty and hot and fun. The second gig the following afternoon was to a mess of underagers and was probably even better. I remember seeing Marto switch into Wiggles mode as he enthralled a bevy of 15yr old girls with his antics. Very funny and slightly pathetic! Would have loved to have stayed and lapped up the idolation and adulation but we had to heap everything into the van and speed off to...
Newcastle - Trepidation occured as we loaded in, because this was the venue that the last time we came to (for the Grooving the Moo Maitland afterparty), Marto was ejected from by the bouncers for giving some much deserved attitude to the barmen. Funnily enough the same security were on and one of them in particular seemed quite fascinated with our dear dj... anyway we played the gig fine... or so we though... up until the last three songs when BANG! the whole place goes dark... somehow the sound system had blown the power to most of the venue... it was a very interesting moment as we slinked off stage and hoped it could be fixed promptly. We were able to go back on and smash out two more songs and were quite happy that the punters were pacified by our return. Went back to the unit we'd hired and got told off repeatedly by the people staying in the front unit, thanks to marto's complete inability to talk softer than 60db... especially when drunk.
Woolongong - Played at Waves... a massive venue attached to a pub/pokies emporium opposite a caravan park where we were staying. Did I say the venue was massive? By this point we all were well drained... Mark could hardly talk onstage..."Hey [pause - struggling for name of town] p-people! We've play with BAND Art Vs Science for the MONTH!" That was actually how he started the set. Very funny. Anyway, we struggled through and even got a punter evicted for sneaking into the bandroom and stealing booze. Went back to caravan park and chilled with AVS throughout the night reminiscing on what was a lovely month.
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