Tourism #2

# ADELAIDE

Something I've forgotten to mention thus far is that I've been experimenting with being soft on tour and it's been going great. After a decade of couch surfing and floor-coring across the music landscape I just got tired and decided I want to sleep in a bed. So I rented some beds. For around $100 a night I slept well (thanks global economic crisis + last minute accommodation booking online) and two of my best bourgeois adventures happened on this leg of the tour.

In Adelaide I stayed in a special room they keep at The Mercure for assholes and travelling musicians. This room looks EXACTLY like a run down motel I stayed in once in regional NSW. Who knew this netherworld of 4 star accommodation existed? Exciting.

In the afternoon, Tristan Louth-Robins, Jason Sweeney and myself spoke to students at ANU about the comparable joys of making and performing arcane music. It was a surprisingly good time. That night we played in the same performance space and Tom Hall entered the city and after a small dispute about the size of our names on the promotional materials...

...we played a show together. To be honest, this was the worst show I gave on the tour thus far. The ANU's sub was a gigantic military grade device (I think this model was actually used to pipe Billy Ray Cyrus songs at the WACO compound) and my set turned said device into a rumbling washing machine that featured way too prominently in the mix. I chalked it up to a special section of my brain called 'The Fuck It Quadrant' and celebrated everyone else's music with some beers afterward. Maximum props to Jason Sweeney for putting me on.

# CANBERRA

I used to think 'Let Canberra have as much decriminalised marijuana and fireworks and photos of yawning vaginas as they need for they live in Canberra!' but now I've changed my mind. Maybe I missed the city centre last time (probably) but it's incredibly beautiful at night and the people are very lovely and very relaxed and friendly. As I stood on the balcony of my six story apartment and surveyed our national capital, I thought 'Hell yes, this was a good idea' and it was.

Moments later I thought 'Where are the fireworks at?' and 'Surely someone will bring them to the show tonight, surely.' But no one did. I like to think that everyone thought to but forgot because they were too high.

The show was the best of the tour so far. Unbelievably good sound from an unbelievably cool sound engineer at The Street Theatre. I was actually louder during my set than at sound check, there's one for the books. I also met and saw Pimmon, Jeff Burch and Alister Spence play + rad locals (Luke and Austin) and promoter Shoeb even took me to Canberra's late night McDonalds afterwards. I would also like to point out that it was a frosty near-zero degree night in Canberra and Shoeb was wearing thongs and flat out didn't give a fuck. Tough.

I retired to my room and drank the beer that I was randomly smart enough to buy and stow earlier. Then I laid back, just me, alone in my room and happily watched Rage until I fell asleep.

(Yes, I was an only child).

# DOCUMENTATION