if a tree falls in a forest and there's no one there to blog...

Happy Long Weekend folks. 

We spent our weekend travelling from the beaches to the foot of the mountains, well, the other side of the mountains be more precise.

Cheers to Brother George for joining us on Bass.

We started on Saturday night  with our first show in Bondi and I was stoked to see so many familiar faces. Cheers to Miss Su, Claudette, Nick, Bill V , Henry & the Dutch Contingent and hello Natasha, Lindi and newcomers to the 'cellar. 

Dr Tom has a new light system, here's Mr Wizard doing Jedi Battle with an LED light strip.

Once again the Boys In Blue were present, as the word must have spread from Tamworth about the music.

The new songs (Low Low, QATO, 'Give me something I need' and Downward Bound) received the Miss Sue tick of approval (sweet). Each show is giving them a chance to be whittled into a more pleasing shape. Thankyou to all our test subjects. Be warned, there's more to come.

We'll be back there soon.

This weekend was Australia Day, which seems to cause some degree of local Facebook Postings Of Political Nature, which I will now assiduously avoid.

instead, I'll take another moment to marvel at the casual beauty of the country in which we live, highlighted under the stark skies as we made our way across the Blue Mountains to Oberon.

You can quickly see why the clouded sky is our Mojo.

Rosie kindly pulled to the side of the road to let me try and get some shots of the amazing view back up the floor of the valley from the hills around Oberon.

I don't think my little phone cam does it justice :-)

the Blue Mountain were once an impenetrable barrier for Colonial Settlers, and it took many attempts and quite a bit of British Explorers eating one another to penetrate into the NSW tablelands.

As we came out from Lithgow, the heavens cleared and it felt as if we were entering the Shire.

The area around the foot of the mountains near the Jenolan Caves seems to have been named by a Shakespeare aficionado; Titania; oberon etc. Or maybe they were keen on Fairies. 

Oberon is a close knit little community, not that far from the big smoke, but in an eddy of almost timelessness-ness..ness..thing.

We checked into our accom for the night and in a classic moment of multiculturalism, there, at the foot of the mountains, we pre ordered Chicken Tikka, Samosas and Naan for an after show supper :-) Good Aussie Tucker.

They had decorated the wall of the parking lot with some folk art. 

Outside the club, there is a broken street sign that  I've taken a few photos of, over the years. I continue to find it fascinating.

A street with no name.

Inside the Oberon RSL, they were doing a charity raffle with some significant prizes - holidays, signed rugby jerseys.

At each sale, the auctioneer could actually name each buyer. Now that's community :-)

As the auction closed, it was time to start the show and we offered the members the choice between the Electric Stuff and the 'Nice' Stuff.

The group consensus was to start with the gentle stuff, so it was mando frenzy for the first hour, winding up the set with some electric blues to cleanse the palette.

As we started the second set, it quickly became apparent that there would be no thunderous roars of applause. In fact, the locals seemed to designate one person to clap on their behalf.

At one point, three people clapped simultaneously and I asked two of them to stop, explaining that we didn't want to use up the claps for the next two songs.

That's not to say that they were unappreciative. I had it explained to me that this was just the locals way.

They don't clap.

They don't dance.....

We're the wrong band to say that to.

HA!! Victory!

It was reported to me this morning at the motel, that the word was around the whole town.

The town had danced.

HA! I say.

Ha!

Yep, we were just willing to put the energy in.

I even got an Aussie Aussie Aussie / Oi Oi Oi (yes, I went there)

Cathartic for Band & Town. Thank you Rebecca, Joel, Sean and all the Oberonites who did what they say can't be done.

What they do easily is band together, support one another and act as a community. If they don't like to clap easy, that's their business. It's ours to make it seem like the thing to do ;-) Thanks for having us guys.

Cheers to Steve and Jimena for awesome desk mixing last night. It was powerful stuff.

Today saw us taking a leisurely drive back to Sydney on the public holiday, enjoying the view, wandering through the mountains and visiting the fam on the way through.

A well spent weekend is it own reward

Great Southern Land...

We have a week fallow next weekend (thank heavens) and then we're back on deck. Looks like there are more shows to come and we're still in recording mode, so stay tuned for more stuff soon!