Wings on fire - Week 2
With the first week of the tour out of the way, we’re at least confident of one thing; the band is sounding great! This week however, Huw will not be joining us as he is playing two shows with his other band Plastic Palace Alice. In his stead, Hugo will have to learn a few key lead guitar parts, the rest we’ll have to do without.
Joe, Don and myself grab another hire car from Hertz, this time finding out that if we were just members of the YHA we could get a significant discount. (I’m gonna have to look that up right now!) We leave at 9am and I take the first stretch of the drive, managing to push through to Holbrook before running out of steam. It’s around 40 degrees through the Riverina and the sky is full of smoke from some fire or other. Jumping out of the cool, air-conditioned Tarago in Holbrook to get a couple of pies is like stepping into an oven.
With Hugo taking the bus to and from Canberra for these two shows, Joe has the whole back seat to himself and proceeds to lie down and sleep for almost all of this drive and the return. Don and I swap again at Picton and I drive the rest of the way to Cronulla, where traffic be damned we arrive in good time at 6pm.
We manage to get a park directly out the front of the venue and the guys from Eulogies are hanging about out front. We catch up, finding out how the previous nights show at the Oxford Arts Factory went. The Seabellies don’t arrive in time to sound check, so we get set up and acquainted with the stage and extremely sarcastic sound guy. The set goes pretty well, other than Hugo’s guitar cutting out at the beginning of On the Road(this is why you don’t bother picking up cables left lying on stage – they are usually broken) leaving him with keys and the song without the lead guitar at the end. The audience are really attentive and seem to be enjoying the set, though we are playing as they eat dinner so we’re trying to keep it down.
After our set we get stuck into the beer and I get stuck into hitting on a very nice mature lady sitting at the bar. I cop a ribbing from the rest of the band but fuck it, its damn fun!
We stagger out of the bar after the Seabellies set and make our way back to Sydney and the awesome decrepitude of the Station Street house.
Friday morning I awake dazed and confused, with a cat named Handsome(and he is) begging to be pet. Breakfast is excellent Phõ from Pasteur in the city. That stuff is the breakfast of champions, wiping away all trace of a hangover. Joe, Hugo and Don then head off to see 2012(steaming heap of turd) while I visit my relatives Wayne, Tracy and their nearly 2 year old son Harvey.
We manage to squeeze in an interview on 2ser before load in and sound check at the Bald Faced Stag. The PA is one of the best in Sydney and the stage sound is excellent but damn is it hot! When Mr Rascal play later I can see droplets of sweat constantly falling from Christians’ arms.
Dinner at the pub is bloody awful, overcooked spaghetti with tasteless Bolognese sauce, unidentifiable Lasagna and a Chicken Parma that looks like the whole thing come from one packet, frozen and reheated. I feel sick for the rest of the night, though this is in part as I am stressed about our ability to pull a crowd. We wind up with 53 payers by the end, which at least covers some costs and play an absolute cracker of a show.
After the show Emma from El Mopa has bought us a bottle of scotch so we head back to the Station Street house to get into it. We party away until 4am, playing Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young and The Boss on the piano and a guitar. Bless Hugo and his amazing ability to pick up the chords of an entire song just by hearing the first line. We smash an awesome version of ‘Because,’ having to double back and play a couple of verses again cause the harmonies sound so cool.
Unfortunately I party a little too hard and wake after 4 hours of sleep feeling decidedly shithouse.
I manage to make it into the city without vomiting out the window however, and a meal of home cooked beans and ham hock at The Wall in Surry Hills sees me right. Don takes first leg of the drive home and in the end I only do about one and a half hours, mostly feeling too shattered to be of use to anyone. We arrive back in Melbourne to the wonderful, heavy rain. Oh, so good to return to after the heat and smoke of NSW.
One more week to go….