Feb 20, 2009
Melbourne is where you will find us for the next 2 nights playing at the Corner Hotel both of which are sold out. Nice.
It’s always really nice to be in a city playing 2 nights because it means that after the first show number there isn’t really too much to do. Tonight I will wind up some chords, pack up the guitars and leave the rest of the gear in place for an easy day tomorrow.
The last couple of days have been pretty fun with an amazing soundtrack blasting through my ears of singer songwriters such as Peter Gabriel, Jose Gonzalez, Kate Bush, and Sinead O’ Connor. Yowzers!
We played 2 University’s in Newcastle, and Wollongong which are always interesting shows. The show in Newcastle smoked hard but I felt that the show in Wollongong was a little lack luster due to the University- Student Union Hall vibe. Again you can’t win them all and the good thing always is the show wasn’t super horrible at all.
The morning after our Wollongong show this girl named Souli who works for the promoter- Blue Murder took Beaver, Todd, Chris and myself to the beach so we could surf. Hahaha. Souli’s brother is actually a surf instructor and was kind enough to lend us all boards plus a quick lesson. I know all of us had sharks on our minds due to the recent shark attacks here on the east coast of Australia but it was more of a joking matter in the sense of “it’s a good day to die”….As it was. Super blue sky, sun out in full force and the beach. What more can you ask for?
I wasn’t quite sure the night before if I would be up for the morning beach run but I did set my alarm just in case so once that went off I felt okay, got a call from Chris/ Beave and off we went.
I can’t remember the last time I had a chance to swim in the Ocean as we did that day. Souli’s brother wasn’t at the beach yet so we all made our way to the water until he arrived. I definitely thought the water would be warmer as we all did but after a good 2 minutes swimming around it felt amazing and wasn’t that cold at all. The waves were pretty good so we all swam out to the surf, tried to body surf, and just play around in the waves. Getting pummeled and tossed around under water by waves is truly a neat thing however I guess you have to know your limits. These waves weren’t anything to huge and for the most part the ocean floor seemed like nothing but sand so there was no real risk of hitting rocks.
Soon after Souli’s brother arrived so we made our way to the parking lot to grab our boards that we would try and surf on for the remainder of our beach “sesh”. I have only tried surfing a couple times in the past while living in California as a teenager but it wasn’t something I ever picked up. Surfing is a pretty hard/ tiring thing that takes patience so while living in California I actually was really into body-boarding going a couple times a week for years. “Spongers unite!”
It was pretty hard actually getting out to where the real sets were breaking due to the ocean being covered in sea weed that would get bunched up and tangled in your leg leash. It was pretty insane actually trying to get out to the waves but you weren’t going anywhere because you had tons of sea weed tangled around you. Booo!
The first wave I managed to catch I actually stood up for a good 3-5 seconds which was pretty rad. I wasn’t able to catch the actual wave due to the problems expressed above however I caught the white water which was fine.
We all managed to stand up at least once or twice during our “sesh” but Beaver definitely had himself the best ride out of all us. At a certain point I looked behind me and Beaver was standing up, riding a wave that kept going taking him with it. Amazing!! Hang ten bra!!
Our “sesh” had to end shortly afterwards due to meeting the rest of the circus for lunch a at the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple (largest Buddhist temple in Southern hemisphere from what I hear) and then eventually driving to the next show which was in Canberra- last night. Canberra turns out to be the capitol of Australia which I had no clue about. For lunch I had myself a Curry Laksa, and some vegi drum sticks.
The show last night was definitely the “punkest” show of the tour which was pretty rad. The show was located at a community center in Canberra which was basically a hall with no barricade. Finally! All the shows thus far have been amazing but have had barricades which like I have mentioned before definitely holds back some of the energy. There is nothing like a show, with kids going nuts right up in front of your face and I knew for myself I would have a little more work on my hands which is also a plus.
Nothing to crazy happened and the show was a little “tamer” then I thought it would be but I am also comparing it to a lot of other shows with no barricades. With Propagandhi some of the shows are truly completely off the wall insane where others are still crazy but not off the wall.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Land Down Under
FEB 8TH, 2009
So I am currently sitting on an Airbus 321 where I left Montreal, QC about 1.5 hours ago on my way to Vancouver, BC where we should arrive in about 3.5 hours. It’s a nice day outside with blue skies on both sides of the plane and thus far a pretty smooth flight which I always enjoy. I am sitting towards to rear of the plane just by coincidence which is funny because about 4 weeks ago I was listening to a podcast from Howstuffworks.com entitled “How to Survive a Plane Crash”.
One of the things mentioned in this episode was that you are more likely to survive a plane crash if you are sitting in the back of the plane. A couple of other facts in this episode were
- more likely to be involved in an auto accident then a plane accident.
- chances of being in a plane crash are 1 in 1 million which at that rate you would have to fly every single day for about 1500 years to be guaranteed something as such.
- also when sitting in a plane count the number of rows between you and the emergency exit in case there comes a time which this vehicle is filled with smoke.
Okay I’ll end this here. I am truly not sitting here thinking of a plane crash although there are times on flights when I think of such things. A natural thought for someone as myself who gets nervous every once and awhile on these flights.
I am flying to Vancouver to meet up with my brothers in Propagandhi at which time we will jump on another plane to fly over the mighty Pacific Ocean (yes the whole thing!), land in Auckland, New Zealand, and then board yet another flight with a final destination of Wellington, New Zealand.
Crazyeeeee!
We are heading to New Zealand to play 2 shows and then over to Australia for 9 more shows including about 3-4 days off. I have never been to either NZ or AU ever so as you could imagine this is going to be quite the trip and I know only a couple of the other dudes have been to AU once which was about 10 years ago.
Cities that will be getting their heads rocked like no other will be Wellington/ Auckland-New Zealand, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, New Castle, Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth- Australia.
On this adventure we will have:
Jord, Chris, Beave, Todd, Barney, Myself plus in each country we will be with 2 locals acting as Promoter/Tour Manager and Merchandise.
Missing on this run will be the one and only Sammy who usually is head Field Marshall of these operations however he now has himself a contract/ job at a nice little rock venue in Winnipeg, MB named the Royal Albert- which I have been voting for recently in the CBC Best Rock Venue in Canada…Good luck Albert! They have a good little BBQ Tofu Burger and have started making Vegan Cinnamon Donuts so if there is ever a place that should win the Albert is the place.
The last couple weeks back home have been pretty chilled for myself. Literally chilled if we want to talk about the weather as well which is why this trip is going to rule. The average temp that I have seen for the next 2 weeks is about 20c which is nice compared to the -15 to -20c we have gone through back in Montreal. The sunscreen, flip flops, and swim trunks have been packed and are ready for their use in the next couple of days.
Feb 12th, 2009
So we have now been in Aotearoa for 3 days now and I must say New Zealand has a super amazingly chilled vibe.
We arrived in Wellington after a (for myself) 5 hour flight to Vancouver, a 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Auckland, and then finally a 1 hour flight from Auckland, NZ to Wellington, NZ.
Feb 13th, 2009
Brisbane, Australia is the location for our touring circus today where we are playing a venue named Arena this evening. Thus far our time here has been amazing, and I know will continue being amazing however I think most of us are still trying to catch up on some rest which hasn’t come so easy as of late.
Once we arrived in Wellington, NZ we all decided that the best course of action wasn’t sleep and was to stay awake the whole day so our bodies would still be some sort of a day time/ night time schedule. The promoter in NZ had arranged for a shuttle van to pick us up and take us to the hotel which was located in the center of Wellington. This hotel was definitely a 5 star hotel which was pretty funny for all of us. I myself have stayed in some pretty nice hotels throughout my touring travels however the Prop boys I know haven’t stayed in many places as such. The reason being is truly there is no need for it. Why stay in a extremely stale posh hotel which charges you for everything including internet when you could stay in a cheaper place, still have 2 beds to sleep on, free continental breakfast, and internet?
Again non of us truly really cared because ultimately a bed is a bed and when you are trying to catch up on sleep you’ll sleep anywhere.
After we were checked in we all headed out to a vegan/ vegi Malaysian food restaurant which was pretty decent. I ordered myself a tofu gado gado.
Once lunch was consumed we took aCable car to the top of some mountain and headed to the Botanical Gardens of Wellington. The fauna here, plus the ecological system here makes for some amazing plants, and trees.
It was cloudy, and raining when we arrived and still is 3 days later as I write. Its actually a nice feel being in a tropical country where its super warm and there is a rain. Since our arrival the temp hasn’t dropped down below 20C and in fact yesterday in Auckland it was record breaking 32C which they haven’t seen since 1872. Crazy!
Botanical gardens are always such amazing places no matter which country they are located in however these particular gardens definitely had a very rainforest, jungle vibe to which I have never seen before. Huge greens leaves with beads of water just resting on top of them. I was walking around and would randomly take my hand, brush it against the leaves, and the water which was pretty neat. We stayed at the gardens for a good couple hours which was a work out in itself due to the terrain here being extremely mountainous so our legs plus our tired bodies made for some heavy breathing.
The road we followed ended up taking us back into the downtown area and at that time all of us were super hungry again which was weird seeing how we all had huge meals 2 hours prior. We found an Indian food place back on Cuba street which was the name of the street the venue was on, plus the Malaysian place we ate at earlier. The Indian place didn’t open for a couple hours so most of us indulged in local Wellington beer before eating.
Later that night I actually ended up going to the beach and getting in the water in the dark of night. The water wasn’t super cold however with the cloud cover, my loopy sleep deprived mind, and the nighttime it was a chilly experience. But…..I did get into the mighty Pacific in New Zealand and that is not something I will get to do that often.
The next day we had our first show on this tour which was at a venue named the San Fran Bathhouse. Propagandhi had never played NZ before so non of us were sure what to expect. First shows can always be interesting especially while traveling long distances.
The venue was packed with stoked kids and all in all I thought the show went well but again it was the first show of a tour.
After Wellington we had a 7AM lobby call the next morning so we could catch our 1 hour flight to Auckland where we played yesterday. After we arrived in Auckland we were picked up by a girl named Lucy who drove us into where first before we went to our hotel we actually drove up a volcano located in the middle of Auckland overlooking the entire city span. Amazing. I guess just in that city alone there are at least 7 different non active volcano’s.
The hotel we stayed at yesterday was definitely more posh then the night before which we were warned about. The promoter in NZ told us “this hotel is where Presidents stay”. Crazy!! Again these places were not our choice and were booked by locals.
Once we were checked in we went to a place named Revel in the downtown area of Auckland and had a nice café style meal. My dish was named “Beans, and Avo” which was 2 different kinds of beans, with a sauce, on top of 2 slices of seeded bread, with avocado.
The show last night was in a bigger venue (named Studio) then the night before however there wasn’t as many people at the show. There was a handful of kids at the show who were there the night before in Wellington which was cool to see. In fact we ran into a couple of the kids actually in the airport waiting to catch their flights to Auckland.
After the show last night we loaded out as quick as we could because we had a lobby call at 6:50AM for a 3.5 hour flight from NZ to Brisbane, AUS where we find ourselves currently.
Feb 15, 2009
“Baby once I thought I knew. Everything I needed to know about you.”-Lonesome Day- Bruce Springsteen.
I must say that thee almighty Bruce Springsteen is truly like no other. Every time I listen to this genius of a man I seriously get goose bumps. Amazing.
So we are in Sydney, AUS this evening at a venue named the Metro which is sold out at 1200. Cool eh!?
We flew here this morning from the Gold Coast, AUS where we played last night. Last nights show thus far was the mellowest show yet. The kids were definitely into it but there was definitely something lacking on their part which ultimately sometimes affects the bands show itself. I thought the show was good but definitely saw that the kids were just there and that was pretty much it.
The Gold Coast seemed like a pretty cool place being located right on the coast. Yesterday it was yet another day with rain but the waves seemed to be pretty good which caused for surfers everywhere.
Feb 15, 2009
Sitting on the balcony on the 20th floor of some high rise hotel in downtown Sydney where we are staying at for the next 2 days on a sort of vacation due to no shows. I woke up still feeling a little groggy which is getting old. The jet lag plus for the last 3-4 days I have been nursing a cold, cough which sucks but it hasn’t truly stopped me from givin’er.
Last nights show was incredible. 1200 kids going nuts and singing as loud as they could sometimes louder then the PA system during certain parts of certain songs. Amazing.
Flying yesterday was pretty crazy. We woke up and left the Gold Coast around 8 AM to stop at an amazing whole foods/ vegan café named the Magic Apple where we had also ate dinner the night before. I had myself a scrambled tofu on sour dough which was okay however I have had much much better. The dinner the night before was definitely quality but the breakfast was lacking just that.
We arrived at the airport 1 hour exactly before our flight but we still had to fuel up the rental vans, and load in 37 pieces of gear, luggage into the airport. Crazy! Never have any of us flown with so much gear/ backline but the promoter here in AUS said this is the way its got to be down. We literally were down to the minute with the lady saying “You’ve got 1 minute to get all this on the belt” so after some running and everyone doing their part we were loaded up, checked through security and on our flight.
When we landed we drove straight to the venue and that’s where I found myself all day. I must say I miss shows with no barricade and miss the work that comes along with it. Every show so far has had a barricade so basically during Prop’s set I just sit on the side of the stage keeping a watchful eye on all the dudes making sure that everything is set with their gear, and nothing goes wrong. At shows with no barricades there is nothing but chaos with kids jumping on stage/ diving off stage, pedals getting stepped on, mic stands falling, chords getting ripped out of pedals the list goes on and on. By the end of nights like these I am usually drenched from head to toe in my and others sweat which is a sign of a true work out. All these shows I haven’t broken a sweat yet so I am patiently waiting for that one show with no barricade.
Last week here in Sydney at the main city beach there was a shark attack with a surfer loosing his hand plus another shark attack the same week on a Navy diver.
Feb 17, 2009
So we are on our 2nd day off and thus far our little holiday from what is already pretty much a holiday has ruled.
Woke up thi morning with what I still think is slight symptoms of jet lag. I went to bed at 2 AM and woke up at 9 AM….7 hours exactly on a day off. I feel like I should just do to the vacation factor I should have slept at least 10 however at the moment I do feel fine.
Once up Todd, Jord and I hung around for awhile checking the internerd, and I caught up on some much needed yoga and then eventually we went out for the day with Barney, and Robbie as well.
We discovered this Thai restaurant yesterday named Peace Harmony which is an amazing vegan Thai joint that has hands down really good food, juices, appetizers at pretty cheap prices which is nice at the moment due to most of our funds running low from higher prices here. After eating Thai we headed towards the Sydney Harbor where we walked around the Opera house, checked out the Sydney Harbor bridge but didn’t walk across it, and then headed to the Botanical Gardens of Sydney.
Gardens are such amazing places whether they are in your backyard, man made exhibits or just in their natural settings. Tree’s and their roots just working their way through the earth and planting themselves firmly into the soil.
We were walking through the greenery when we came across a big group of Cockatoo birds. Beaver had mentioned something yesterday about seeing them so it was something we were all hoping to see today. Beaver slowly made is way super close to one of the birds and ended up feeding it leaves, and grass. Wild. These birds were extremely tame and eventually got a lot tamer. We were sitting there around a group of about 12 of them when all of a sudden 1 just jumps right onto Beavers arm and another onto his head. Wild! Talk about super cool. Barney then was next with the same sort of thing. A cockatoo just out of nowhere comes swooping in and lands right on his shoulder.
I was trying to creep closer and closer to any bird near me to try so I could try to get one of them on my arms. When you lowered your hand most birds would nibble- bite (hard) your hand, and fingers. Their birds were I guess as hard as any bird bite so you had to be careful. Having a full finger in the way of their beaks would be an extremely painful experience. No cockatoo was having my arm so I kept trying when eventually a bird out of nowhere just lands directly on my hat. Within the first 5 seconds of this bird making a temporary home on top of my head the sucker decides to drop a load of its excrement directly onto my shoulder. Haha. Classic! At this time another bird decides to swoop over, land on my arm making for now 2 birds trying to balance on my body. Earlier when Beave, Todd, and Barney each had birds on them these suckers would bite anything they could so the birds that were on me started trying to bite my ear lobes which wouldn’t have felt to good.
After a little while longer chilling with these fellow creatures we made our way over to another little section of the garden where all the trees around were being used as sleeping spots by huge gigantic bats. Definitely the biggest bats any of us had ever seen and they were everywhere. It is safe to say there were hundreds possibly even 1000 of them. Most were hanging in the tree’s sleeping, cleaning themselves, while many more were actually flying around the sky. Rad. Batman! We were all fine with birds randomly swooping down landing on our shoulders but there is no way any of us wanted bats on us. Thankfully non did.
Last night while watching TV here some of us saw a pretty crazy, really deep down disturbing commercial come on. It was as such.
A black screen saying “Have you seen something suspicious or do you suspect suspicious activity?” , and a couple more fearful quotes as such. The next thing to come up was
“If you suspect activity as such please call, and inform the National Security Agency” and left a 1 800 number. I’ve never seen something as such. This was full on the real deal and something that was straight up trying to instill fear into people, and keep on with this whole “Terrorism” situation you here so much about.
Back home yes we have Canadian Forces commercials everywhere including on coaches corner and in the US you have military commercials with the same vibe. Very quick, bright colored, almost video game like simulations of war to attract peoples fragile minds. But I have never seen a commercial as such saying “If so please contact the CIA” or the “NSA” or even “CSIS”.
You can walk through a garden, have wild exotic birds just land on you out of nowhere and then come home to turn on thee tube to be inundated with fear which ultimately boils down to profit. Friggin eh what a crazy mess we have gotten ourselves into.
So I am currently sitting on an Airbus 321 where I left Montreal, QC about 1.5 hours ago on my way to Vancouver, BC where we should arrive in about 3.5 hours. It’s a nice day outside with blue skies on both sides of the plane and thus far a pretty smooth flight which I always enjoy. I am sitting towards to rear of the plane just by coincidence which is funny because about 4 weeks ago I was listening to a podcast from Howstuffworks.com entitled “How to Survive a Plane Crash”.
One of the things mentioned in this episode was that you are more likely to survive a plane crash if you are sitting in the back of the plane. A couple of other facts in this episode were
- more likely to be involved in an auto accident then a plane accident.
- chances of being in a plane crash are 1 in 1 million which at that rate you would have to fly every single day for about 1500 years to be guaranteed something as such.
- also when sitting in a plane count the number of rows between you and the emergency exit in case there comes a time which this vehicle is filled with smoke.
Okay I’ll end this here. I am truly not sitting here thinking of a plane crash although there are times on flights when I think of such things. A natural thought for someone as myself who gets nervous every once and awhile on these flights.
I am flying to Vancouver to meet up with my brothers in Propagandhi at which time we will jump on another plane to fly over the mighty Pacific Ocean (yes the whole thing!), land in Auckland, New Zealand, and then board yet another flight with a final destination of Wellington, New Zealand.
Crazyeeeee!
We are heading to New Zealand to play 2 shows and then over to Australia for 9 more shows including about 3-4 days off. I have never been to either NZ or AU ever so as you could imagine this is going to be quite the trip and I know only a couple of the other dudes have been to AU once which was about 10 years ago.
Cities that will be getting their heads rocked like no other will be Wellington/ Auckland-New Zealand, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, New Castle, Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth- Australia.
On this adventure we will have:
Jord, Chris, Beave, Todd, Barney, Myself plus in each country we will be with 2 locals acting as Promoter/Tour Manager and Merchandise.
Missing on this run will be the one and only Sammy who usually is head Field Marshall of these operations however he now has himself a contract/ job at a nice little rock venue in Winnipeg, MB named the Royal Albert- which I have been voting for recently in the CBC Best Rock Venue in Canada…Good luck Albert! They have a good little BBQ Tofu Burger and have started making Vegan Cinnamon Donuts so if there is ever a place that should win the Albert is the place.
The last couple weeks back home have been pretty chilled for myself. Literally chilled if we want to talk about the weather as well which is why this trip is going to rule. The average temp that I have seen for the next 2 weeks is about 20c which is nice compared to the -15 to -20c we have gone through back in Montreal. The sunscreen, flip flops, and swim trunks have been packed and are ready for their use in the next couple of days.
Feb 12th, 2009
So we have now been in Aotearoa for 3 days now and I must say New Zealand has a super amazingly chilled vibe.
We arrived in Wellington after a (for myself) 5 hour flight to Vancouver, a 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Auckland, and then finally a 1 hour flight from Auckland, NZ to Wellington, NZ.
Feb 13th, 2009
Brisbane, Australia is the location for our touring circus today where we are playing a venue named Arena this evening. Thus far our time here has been amazing, and I know will continue being amazing however I think most of us are still trying to catch up on some rest which hasn’t come so easy as of late.
Once we arrived in Wellington, NZ we all decided that the best course of action wasn’t sleep and was to stay awake the whole day so our bodies would still be some sort of a day time/ night time schedule. The promoter in NZ had arranged for a shuttle van to pick us up and take us to the hotel which was located in the center of Wellington. This hotel was definitely a 5 star hotel which was pretty funny for all of us. I myself have stayed in some pretty nice hotels throughout my touring travels however the Prop boys I know haven’t stayed in many places as such. The reason being is truly there is no need for it. Why stay in a extremely stale posh hotel which charges you for everything including internet when you could stay in a cheaper place, still have 2 beds to sleep on, free continental breakfast, and internet?
Again non of us truly really cared because ultimately a bed is a bed and when you are trying to catch up on sleep you’ll sleep anywhere.
After we were checked in we all headed out to a vegan/ vegi Malaysian food restaurant which was pretty decent. I ordered myself a tofu gado gado.
Once lunch was consumed we took aCable car to the top of some mountain and headed to the Botanical Gardens of Wellington. The fauna here, plus the ecological system here makes for some amazing plants, and trees.
It was cloudy, and raining when we arrived and still is 3 days later as I write. Its actually a nice feel being in a tropical country where its super warm and there is a rain. Since our arrival the temp hasn’t dropped down below 20C and in fact yesterday in Auckland it was record breaking 32C which they haven’t seen since 1872. Crazy!
Botanical gardens are always such amazing places no matter which country they are located in however these particular gardens definitely had a very rainforest, jungle vibe to which I have never seen before. Huge greens leaves with beads of water just resting on top of them. I was walking around and would randomly take my hand, brush it against the leaves, and the water which was pretty neat. We stayed at the gardens for a good couple hours which was a work out in itself due to the terrain here being extremely mountainous so our legs plus our tired bodies made for some heavy breathing.
The road we followed ended up taking us back into the downtown area and at that time all of us were super hungry again which was weird seeing how we all had huge meals 2 hours prior. We found an Indian food place back on Cuba street which was the name of the street the venue was on, plus the Malaysian place we ate at earlier. The Indian place didn’t open for a couple hours so most of us indulged in local Wellington beer before eating.
Later that night I actually ended up going to the beach and getting in the water in the dark of night. The water wasn’t super cold however with the cloud cover, my loopy sleep deprived mind, and the nighttime it was a chilly experience. But…..I did get into the mighty Pacific in New Zealand and that is not something I will get to do that often.
The next day we had our first show on this tour which was at a venue named the San Fran Bathhouse. Propagandhi had never played NZ before so non of us were sure what to expect. First shows can always be interesting especially while traveling long distances.
The venue was packed with stoked kids and all in all I thought the show went well but again it was the first show of a tour.
After Wellington we had a 7AM lobby call the next morning so we could catch our 1 hour flight to Auckland where we played yesterday. After we arrived in Auckland we were picked up by a girl named Lucy who drove us into where first before we went to our hotel we actually drove up a volcano located in the middle of Auckland overlooking the entire city span. Amazing. I guess just in that city alone there are at least 7 different non active volcano’s.
The hotel we stayed at yesterday was definitely more posh then the night before which we were warned about. The promoter in NZ told us “this hotel is where Presidents stay”. Crazy!! Again these places were not our choice and were booked by locals.
Once we were checked in we went to a place named Revel in the downtown area of Auckland and had a nice café style meal. My dish was named “Beans, and Avo” which was 2 different kinds of beans, with a sauce, on top of 2 slices of seeded bread, with avocado.
The show last night was in a bigger venue (named Studio) then the night before however there wasn’t as many people at the show. There was a handful of kids at the show who were there the night before in Wellington which was cool to see. In fact we ran into a couple of the kids actually in the airport waiting to catch their flights to Auckland.
After the show last night we loaded out as quick as we could because we had a lobby call at 6:50AM for a 3.5 hour flight from NZ to Brisbane, AUS where we find ourselves currently.
Feb 15, 2009
“Baby once I thought I knew. Everything I needed to know about you.”-Lonesome Day- Bruce Springsteen.
I must say that thee almighty Bruce Springsteen is truly like no other. Every time I listen to this genius of a man I seriously get goose bumps. Amazing.
So we are in Sydney, AUS this evening at a venue named the Metro which is sold out at 1200. Cool eh!?
We flew here this morning from the Gold Coast, AUS where we played last night. Last nights show thus far was the mellowest show yet. The kids were definitely into it but there was definitely something lacking on their part which ultimately sometimes affects the bands show itself. I thought the show was good but definitely saw that the kids were just there and that was pretty much it.
The Gold Coast seemed like a pretty cool place being located right on the coast. Yesterday it was yet another day with rain but the waves seemed to be pretty good which caused for surfers everywhere.
Feb 15, 2009
Sitting on the balcony on the 20th floor of some high rise hotel in downtown Sydney where we are staying at for the next 2 days on a sort of vacation due to no shows. I woke up still feeling a little groggy which is getting old. The jet lag plus for the last 3-4 days I have been nursing a cold, cough which sucks but it hasn’t truly stopped me from givin’er.
Last nights show was incredible. 1200 kids going nuts and singing as loud as they could sometimes louder then the PA system during certain parts of certain songs. Amazing.
Flying yesterday was pretty crazy. We woke up and left the Gold Coast around 8 AM to stop at an amazing whole foods/ vegan café named the Magic Apple where we had also ate dinner the night before. I had myself a scrambled tofu on sour dough which was okay however I have had much much better. The dinner the night before was definitely quality but the breakfast was lacking just that.
We arrived at the airport 1 hour exactly before our flight but we still had to fuel up the rental vans, and load in 37 pieces of gear, luggage into the airport. Crazy! Never have any of us flown with so much gear/ backline but the promoter here in AUS said this is the way its got to be down. We literally were down to the minute with the lady saying “You’ve got 1 minute to get all this on the belt” so after some running and everyone doing their part we were loaded up, checked through security and on our flight.
When we landed we drove straight to the venue and that’s where I found myself all day. I must say I miss shows with no barricade and miss the work that comes along with it. Every show so far has had a barricade so basically during Prop’s set I just sit on the side of the stage keeping a watchful eye on all the dudes making sure that everything is set with their gear, and nothing goes wrong. At shows with no barricades there is nothing but chaos with kids jumping on stage/ diving off stage, pedals getting stepped on, mic stands falling, chords getting ripped out of pedals the list goes on and on. By the end of nights like these I am usually drenched from head to toe in my and others sweat which is a sign of a true work out. All these shows I haven’t broken a sweat yet so I am patiently waiting for that one show with no barricade.
Last week here in Sydney at the main city beach there was a shark attack with a surfer loosing his hand plus another shark attack the same week on a Navy diver.
Feb 17, 2009
So we are on our 2nd day off and thus far our little holiday from what is already pretty much a holiday has ruled.
Woke up thi morning with what I still think is slight symptoms of jet lag. I went to bed at 2 AM and woke up at 9 AM….7 hours exactly on a day off. I feel like I should just do to the vacation factor I should have slept at least 10 however at the moment I do feel fine.
Once up Todd, Jord and I hung around for awhile checking the internerd, and I caught up on some much needed yoga and then eventually we went out for the day with Barney, and Robbie as well.
We discovered this Thai restaurant yesterday named Peace Harmony which is an amazing vegan Thai joint that has hands down really good food, juices, appetizers at pretty cheap prices which is nice at the moment due to most of our funds running low from higher prices here. After eating Thai we headed towards the Sydney Harbor where we walked around the Opera house, checked out the Sydney Harbor bridge but didn’t walk across it, and then headed to the Botanical Gardens of Sydney.
Gardens are such amazing places whether they are in your backyard, man made exhibits or just in their natural settings. Tree’s and their roots just working their way through the earth and planting themselves firmly into the soil.
We were walking through the greenery when we came across a big group of Cockatoo birds. Beaver had mentioned something yesterday about seeing them so it was something we were all hoping to see today. Beaver slowly made is way super close to one of the birds and ended up feeding it leaves, and grass. Wild. These birds were extremely tame and eventually got a lot tamer. We were sitting there around a group of about 12 of them when all of a sudden 1 just jumps right onto Beavers arm and another onto his head. Wild! Talk about super cool. Barney then was next with the same sort of thing. A cockatoo just out of nowhere comes swooping in and lands right on his shoulder.
I was trying to creep closer and closer to any bird near me to try so I could try to get one of them on my arms. When you lowered your hand most birds would nibble- bite (hard) your hand, and fingers. Their birds were I guess as hard as any bird bite so you had to be careful. Having a full finger in the way of their beaks would be an extremely painful experience. No cockatoo was having my arm so I kept trying when eventually a bird out of nowhere just lands directly on my hat. Within the first 5 seconds of this bird making a temporary home on top of my head the sucker decides to drop a load of its excrement directly onto my shoulder. Haha. Classic! At this time another bird decides to swoop over, land on my arm making for now 2 birds trying to balance on my body. Earlier when Beave, Todd, and Barney each had birds on them these suckers would bite anything they could so the birds that were on me started trying to bite my ear lobes which wouldn’t have felt to good.
After a little while longer chilling with these fellow creatures we made our way over to another little section of the garden where all the trees around were being used as sleeping spots by huge gigantic bats. Definitely the biggest bats any of us had ever seen and they were everywhere. It is safe to say there were hundreds possibly even 1000 of them. Most were hanging in the tree’s sleeping, cleaning themselves, while many more were actually flying around the sky. Rad. Batman! We were all fine with birds randomly swooping down landing on our shoulders but there is no way any of us wanted bats on us. Thankfully non did.
Last night while watching TV here some of us saw a pretty crazy, really deep down disturbing commercial come on. It was as such.
A black screen saying “Have you seen something suspicious or do you suspect suspicious activity?” , and a couple more fearful quotes as such. The next thing to come up was
“If you suspect activity as such please call, and inform the National Security Agency” and left a 1 800 number. I’ve never seen something as such. This was full on the real deal and something that was straight up trying to instill fear into people, and keep on with this whole “Terrorism” situation you here so much about.
Back home yes we have Canadian Forces commercials everywhere including on coaches corner and in the US you have military commercials with the same vibe. Very quick, bright colored, almost video game like simulations of war to attract peoples fragile minds. But I have never seen a commercial as such saying “If so please contact the CIA” or the “NSA” or even “CSIS”.
You can walk through a garden, have wild exotic birds just land on you out of nowhere and then come home to turn on thee tube to be inundated with fear which ultimately boils down to profit. Friggin eh what a crazy mess we have gotten ourselves into.
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