Ok, so I have been a bit slack in gigging the blogs. I mean, blogging the gigs.

In my defence, I can only offer the excuse that I'm trying to get the site modded (Hey Lachlan! Yo! Dude!) + doing a few other things (like recording)... Anyway, lets re-visit our last 3 gigs in a Triple Gig Report!

So...where was I? ah yes. Not blogging gigs. Apols. Fixed as follows:

 1. Doyalson RSL with the Radiators

What a huge room. What a big crowd. OMG.

We played at Lake Munmorah a few weeks before this gig and had a great night. When the Radiators offered us a support slot with them up at the 'Doylo'  we were happy to make another visit up north.

- for all non aussies reading the blog (bonjour!) we have a tradition of removing the last parts of names and adding 'o', par example, 'Bolwing club' becomes the 'Bowlo' - our famous ad guru John Singleton becomes 'Singo' - our famous politician Graham Richardson becomes 'Richo' and so on. Thus it allows you the following conversation: Singo and Richo went up the Bowlo and had a spot of biffo.

Ok. Having to the local parlance thing out of the way..

Ahem. Yes, so I was saying, we were at the Doylo and its a huge fricking room, which was handy, given that the Radiators had a HUGe fricking crowd. 700+ people ( I heard 900 and I would have believed it).

Ok. We were petrified. Ok, maybe I was petrified. Maybe everyone else in the band is a jedi or a ninja buddhist or something. they all looked calm. Me? Not so much.

We were on an actual stage. Bobby was on sound (heavenly trumpets may ring forth) and there was a full lighting rig. I think the adrenaline got to the lads because they pounded away furiously and delivered a heck of a set. The crowd were very kind to us (thank god, they're were scads of them, they coulda turned nasty and pelted us with plastic cups!) and they started dancing early in the set.

On a personal note: To the dude who came to the front and wandered from side to side checking out the guitarists, its very disconcerting. I thought we had sound troubles! Turns out he just wanted to see what they were playing.

Great night, awesome vibe and when the rads came out the roof lifted off.

Gig 2 - Merton Estate, Thursday Night

Back on the floor again. LOL!@!  The merton is where its at. the drum gig guide listed 'mothers little gringo's' but you cant help the odd marketing snafu. The thai bistro that's opened up there is good and cheap. People start congregating at the Merton as 5oclock rolls around and we had a good late night crowd.

Quite often we're asked to play a certain song (copper head road, thrill is gone, various others) and some we know, some we dont, some we can oblige, some we have to shake our heads and go...err...um....err...no.

But, we can generally sort the matter out by playing one that is in the same feel or style - the I Cant Believe Its not Butter' effect that comes from writing new tunes with classic feels, scavenging among the beats and styles from the blues spectrum.

IMHO we didnt fire nearly as hard as the Saturday gig, but I got a couple of solid rides in songs like Come Back Baby. Shake'em Down Mama is also being delivered strongly, and even the veritable Whiskey Talking is up a notch, but Paul is missing the Piano accompaniment from the album for R U Ready For This. I like it as is, but if you've read my blogs, you know I ain't fussy (LIAR!)...LOL.

We'll be back at the Merton in a couple of weeks....soo...

 Gig 3 - Riverstone Bowlo!

Happy Birthday Jacqui! We dropped in to boogie with Her in Cattai on the way through, then headed up the the Bowlo for an opening set for the Radiators (we're doing four this month).

They're what we want to be when we grow up. Ok. Excepting we've already grown up. (sigh). I am afraid kids that this is as Rock Star as it gets for us, but I am happy with that. I can only look on in envy as little plates of sandwiches and hot looking women are despatched to their dressing chambers. Again with the big room, again with the large crowd.

Bobby keeps spinning Steely Dan tracks that I know the words to before the gig. I dobbed Paul in to Bobby for stating his preference for early SD material,  yet he writes complex arrangements himself. Adult oriented chord progressions as he calls them. Heh.

Doing stuff with a stage, proper sound, proper...you know...music type stuff, is good match practise. Our screw up recovery time is improved. The communication and reading between the players is improving (as it should, n'est-ce pas?).

We know who the crowd are there to see. they get to their feet when the Rads take the stage. We're just lucky enough to borrow their ears for a little boogie. A shout out to Barry and his daughter, as well as to Alan and Glen (1 L, 1 T) and Grant for choosing to get his own copy rather than burning one! Way to go dude, we still need to pay off the first album (LOL).

We have two gigs this week, one with the Rads and then with Big Erle at the Landowne, where we'll be playing Roscoes Boogie to none other than Roscoe Himself, in the flesh, back from Actvie Duty and all connected to his important bits, so we're looking forward to a huge night at the Lansdowne.

More soon! 

MJEB