Potential Falcon

Okay, this is the first day off I’ve had since we finished the tour so sorry about the tardiness of this post! We finally got paid some of the tour shows for which we were owed and we may have scored ourselves a booking agent, so I’m in a pretty good mood.

First off though, News! Hugo has announced that he and his wife Emily are moving to Trinidad in February. Hugo will be touring New Zealand with us in late January(see the tour page), but those will probably be the last shows we play with our keyboard, guitar, vocal and arranging maestro, so for all you Aussie fans and friends who didn’t make it to one of our November tour shows to see him, suck it! We had a blast hanging out together, stinking up the van and behaving badly on commercial airliners, it’s gonna be weird not having Hugo about to kick my ass about melodies, steal my food, beer and coffee and occupy the bathroom for obscene amounts of time. We’ll be continuing with the standard four piece for the time being, with a view to recruiting a keys player when the right person come along.

So we finished up the wings on fire tour a couple of weeks back, with our Melbourne launch and a couple of shows in Hobart. Friday 27^th November we played our hometown show at The Curtin Band Room in Carlton. It’s a great venue with a nice PA based around a big old Allen and Heath console and HK FOH speakers. Nice sound, cool room. We had probably the best lineup we’ve ever pulled together for a Falcon show, with Blood Ones, Oliver Mann and Single Twin opening for us! Hugo, Huw and I had dinner with a couple of friends at Sichuan House in the city, extremely tasty and hot food, probably not the best idea before a show but fuck it, sometimes you need to live a little(or a lot). We got back just in time for the start of Blood Ones set, which despite the lack of crowd was really amazing, Monica’s songs with Mel’s and Jims BV’s were positively spine tingling! Ollie was up next, still no crowd to speak of and I am starting to get worried. He sings the chorus of Diamonds and Silver down octave and my god, the control he has of his pitch, tone and volume is amazing. I know he’s a trained opera singer but jesus! Jealous! Single Twin round out the support sets and the tall and handsome Marcus Teague beguiles all present with his down-tempo lovelorn tales and beautiful melodies. We’re definitely in the mood to play now, regardless of the minimal crowd(40 payers + guests, everyone is at the Ned Collette show tonight). We play well, having a blast and enjoying the big stage and great monitoring. It’s a little sad to play our homecoming launch to so few people, but everyone is attentive and responsive and the thrill of playing together is unaffected. All feels right with the world for a brief hour.

Next morning we meet up at my place to catch a maxi-taxi to the airport and on to Hobart. It’s the beginning of schoolies, so the departure lounge is packed with inappropriately attired teenagers, making us feel like lecherous old men. The Jetstar staff member who singles us out and gets us to the front of the queue looks like some kind of Hitler Youth sex offender, the mo’ he has grown for Movember not helping his side part, lisp and Aryan über mensch bearing.

By the time we deplane in Hobart it’s pissing down and will continue to do so for the entire time we remain in this fair city. Last minute gear borrowing organised we head for lunch by the harbor, fish and chips, oysters and beer. Excellent. Next we head to the Lark to try some of their excellent house made whiskys and see a massive Great Dane with a weird pink thingy hanging off the underside of its front-quarters. Weird.

Finally we drag ourselves over to the Brisbane Hotel for our arvo slot on an all ages bill called The Hobart Medicine Show. Joe and myself have been to The Brisbane a few times with the Ramps and really love the place. Owner Gibbo and soundman Ivan are always super accommodating and great fun to hang out with and we have a great afternoon dicking around and getting way too drunk. The show goes surprisingly well and we sell a bunch of CDs, leading me to surmise that we might have provided the genesis of a country rock revolution amongst the youth of Hobart. Ha! After playing we hop-skip it over to the Alley Cat for our evening show opening for Teeth and Tongue and Ned Collette. Somehow we manage to cram on to the tiny stage and bash out a pretty decent set. Don is on fire on the drums, has been all tour really. Every time he gets the vibe that ‘anything goes’ at a particular show he really lets loose. We’ve really got to encourage him to do it all the time!

After the show we make a pilgrimage to Mykonos for pork rolls, pizza and veggie burgers. Its offensively bad food, but who’s gonna argue with Mr. Toast? Not Potential Falcon, I assure you.