[scroll down to the end of this section for pics, vids and links! Also, I'll be adding new OZ posts at the bottom of this one, so scroll down to seee the new shite!] [Just added! SEE THE PICS!]
I'm just about ready to embark on a 2-week Australian tour with the popular hip-hop artist Lyrics Born! The line up is an MC, a Vocalist and 4 band members. I convinced my Berkeley roommates (hi guys!) to drive me to the airport by taking them out to sushi before the long flight to Sydney . From Sydney we transferred to Melbourne to perform at the first of 5 large festivals across Australia.
The event is called Parklife. I had no idea how big this thing really was! Upon arriving at the venue, I realised that this was mostly a DJ/electronica type event, and our band were only 1 of 3 live acts in the 20+ artist lineup. There are 4 main stages: earth, wind, air and fire. The grounds were littered with empty drinks of various types, and of young 20-somethings that have no clue what good music is. In attendance were about 15,000 of them! The act that was on before us (a DJ & 2 MC's) drew a massive crowd, but all they did was play other peoples beats while the MC's jumped around singing their own hooks. Maybe I'm just getting old, or don't fully understand this electronic culture. Then again, folks usually prefer cola at first, before acquiring a taste for finer spirits. Nonetheless, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves dancing to Rage Against the Machine's 'Bull's on parade' while 3 performers that had nothing to do with Rage yelled into the mics for a riviting finale.We set up behind them during their set to make the changeover easy. The stage staff was surprisingly knowledgeable and helpful when it came to setting up our live gear.
I am however, enduring the worst bass rig known to man... AGAIN! All these festivals are so old school that they are stuck in the mind set that a certain popular bass amp design from the 70's is the only choice these days. I won't say who the company is, but it starts with an 'AMP', and ends with a 'PEG'. Not being overly picky about my tone, it surprises me that this rig can't provide efficient, full-range output for bass guitar. It doesn't sound any better than a cheap guitar amp crumbling under the bass frequencies, only louder. I need my rig!!!
Our set went great, but the maximum capacity of the tent was only 5000- a mere 3rd of the festival. We performed in front of a huge LED screen and complete concert lighting. I got a lot going on performance-wise on this one... 
Bass, effects pedals, laptop with a 16 pad trigger, vocals and of course dancin around. the show was tight and well received, but I'm sure we'll refine it for tomorrow.
After out set, Darius (drums) and I went for a walk around the other stages before returning to see the show headliner, M.I.A. She's Sri-Lankan but English. Her and her girl sang n danced over their DJ's beats. At least it was original material.There were 2 official after parties, neither of which we attended, opting to go on a band food quest in downtown Melbourne instead. Goodnight Melly city!
-of note: Earlier in the day, us 4 band members took a cab to the Docklands area to see the traveling exhibit, the Amazing Human Body. This is the one where human bodies and parts are Plasticized so we can see every part in detail. Every crossection and organ is represented- and I mean EVERY! I highly recommend 
seeing it when it comes to your town! Peep their website below.Links, Pics and Vids:
Parklife Festival
The Amazing Human Body
NEW: Video clips from Melbourne!
Adelade:
I'll get back to posting about this place. Much smaller festival (5000?). Better show than the last but we're still refining. Oh- and the 80's is COMPLETELY back in full swing. Pink headbands and sweatshirts. Uggh.
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Sydney:
Here's a quick post- I'll just keep adding to it as the days go on...
5 days off! Ahhh!
Well we are at our favorite hotel, The Establishment, again. Too bad they gave me a smaller room this time though!
Well us boys went on a day trip together - a ride around Sydney harbor sightseeing and a trip to the beautiful Sydney Zoo. I gotso many pics of this beautiful place- it just takes so much time to post em up... I will though!
------Next day-----
Today Mike and I had a great experience walking through the botanical gardens up the street from my diggs. They have HUGE Cockatoo's that will land on you if you feed 'em! So cool! This park is the best chill spot I've found to either lay out, read a book or bring a nice cold bottle of white wine while gazing out over the opera house, the bridge and the harbor. Too bad we scheduled a rehearsal for tomorrow, or else the park is where you'd find me for sure.
We all had a group lunch with JAM- the agency that brings us out here. More free drinks and food! We have a great relationship with them- they're all young and professional and really pleasurable to work with every time.
We just ran into a Joe Sample's son who is a bass player at our hotel bar. He's in town with Randy Crawford. Aww yeah- we're goin to the show- can't wait. Here's a youtube link to hear what they sound like. Angelic voice over a jazz trio- perfect! I love when shite like this happens.
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Brisbane:
Another huge festival- maybe around 7000 or so. The hotel (The Oaks on felix) was the first one where we would have to share rooms which was a bit dissappointing... That is until Mike and I saw the room. It was more like a 2 bedroom condo, 36 stories up! The balcony view was wonderful, as downtown brisbane was surrounded by water on at least 3 sides. We were so high the festival could be seen from my bedroom.
Fun Boys.
We had to coin a new term... "Fun Boy". You see, back in Adelade, the 80's fashion had returned in full effect. There were pink short shorts on guys... Headbands too. Everything fluorescent! Yuck! The girls weren't much better either. It was so prevalent that perhaps it was US guys from the Bay area wandering around the festival that looked out of place. Well, just as we thought it couldn't get any worse, here we were in Brisbane, where GANGS of Fun Boys poured out of the elevator, 15-deep, with full flouro, gelled hair, and frat boy attitudes ready to take on the drugs and drinking required for enduring a whole day of electronic music. The girls can't be into this look! It's straight out of a Wham video! So it was, the term 'Fun Boy' stuck with our group. I think a song is in the works too. Gross.
The show:
Our travelling stage manager France has gotten to know our show pretty well now, making set-up a snap. He even tweaked Me and B'nai's guitars to perfection. Again we went on after Freq Nasty and his 2 hype men. The first part of their set is actually pretty cool. It's halfway through when the cover songs start comin' out and there's a bunch of yelling from the MC's (who are actually great entertainers) that I start to loose interest. We made sure to take proper time for line check this time. Lemme tell ya- It paid off in a Major way! That, combined with a rehearsal the day prior and a new intro made for what was quite possibly the best LB show I've done to date. There were definitely some moments where I felt like 'Daymn! This is IT!' Thumpin and stompin along with Darius on the drums - the whole band was feelin it- I was defiantly happy and there was for sure nowhere else on earth I'd want to be. The monitor guy knew what he was doing, which is rare these days. This was exceptionally important as our new intro song hinges on my triggred samples of 'Stronger', a Daft Punk/Kanye West song that's hot right now. We gave them a show that was completely unmatched by any of these DJ acts. There were fans as far back as I could see- a couple thousand strong. In the end- the boss, the band and the crowd was happy. Afterparty drinks in me and Mike's Condo! Wooo hooo!
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Back To Sydney:
The first thing we did upon our return to Sydney was eat (for the 5th time now) at the very trendy noodle/asian joint called Wagamama. It's not the best, but very addictive. I had first experienced it in London on the Whitesnake tour.
The festival grounds were HUGE this time, housing the largest crowd for us yet... 35,000 people, sold out months in advance. We were on the biggest stage. Unfortunately, the successful show that we achieved in Brisbane could not be repeated tonight. The stage was plagued with problems, from the 20ft monolithic DJ booth in the middle of the stage to the completely green monitor engineer, bless her heart. Cutting your teeth in front of such a crowd at our expense is completely unacceptable. It wasn't just wrong, it was HORRIBLE, and I'd never experienced anything like it in my life. So with our stage plot being ignored and our stage sound completely fucked, we still managed to work the crowd the best we could. They loved it! No after partys for us as we had a 4:45am lobby call to get to Perth (on the other side of Australia). I napped for a couple hours then trolled around the 2 clubs in our hotel until lobby call. I must say, Australia has the most drunk and drugged (probably E) youths out of any country I've ever been to. They party and spend money like it's goin out of style. To say the least, I didn't really fit in here. Perhaps there's another scene for us 30-somethings that I havn't found yet. Over the course of the festivals so far, I'd probably been given close to 100 free drink tickets! What the heck will I do with that?! I'm doin a job here, and can't bring anything less than my 'A' game. I got completely blitzed during our week off anyways. Off to Perth...
Today Mike and I had a great experience walking through the botanical gardens up the street from my diggs. They have HUGE Cockatoo's that will land on you if you feed 'em! So cool! This park is the best chill spot I've found to either lay out, read a book or bring a nice cold bottle of white wine while gazing out over the opera house, the bridge and the harbor. Too bad we scheduled a rehearsal for tomorrow, or else the park is where you'd find me for sure.
We all had a group lunch with JAM- the agency that brings us out here. More free drinks and food! We have a great relationship with them- they're all young and professional and really pleasurable to work with every time.
We just ran into a Joe Sample's son who is a bass player at our hotel bar. He's in town with Randy Crawford. Aww yeah- we're goin to the show- can't wait. Here's a youtube link to hear what they sound like. Angelic voice over a jazz trio- perfect! I love when shite like this happens.
••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• •••••••••••
Brisbane:
Another huge festival- maybe around 7000 or so. The hotel (The Oaks on felix) was the first one where we would have to share rooms which was a bit dissappointing... That is until Mike and I saw the room. It was more like a 2 bedroom condo, 36 stories up! The balcony view was wonderful, as downtown brisbane was surrounded by water on at least 3 sides. We were so high the festival could be seen from my bedroom.
Fun Boys.We had to coin a new term... "Fun Boy". You see, back in Adelade, the 80's fashion had returned in full effect. There were pink short shorts on guys... Headbands too. Everything fluorescent! Yuck! The girls weren't much better either. It was so prevalent that perhaps it was US guys from the Bay area wandering around the festival that looked out of place. Well, just as we thought it couldn't get any worse, here we were in Brisbane, where GANGS of Fun Boys poured out of the elevator, 15-deep, with full flouro, gelled hair, and frat boy attitudes ready to take on the drugs and drinking required for enduring a whole day of electronic music. The girls can't be into this look! It's straight out of a Wham video! So it was, the term 'Fun Boy' stuck with our group. I think a song is in the works too. Gross.
The show:
Our travelling stage manager France has gotten to know our show pretty well now, making set-up a snap. He even tweaked Me and B'nai's guitars to perfection. Again we went on after Freq Nasty and his 2 hype men. The first part of their set is actually pretty cool. It's halfway through when the cover songs start comin' out and there's a bunch of yelling from the MC's (who are actually great entertainers) that I start to loose interest. We made sure to take proper time for line check this time. Lemme tell ya- It paid off in a Major way! That, combined with a rehearsal the day prior and a new intro made for what was quite possibly the best LB show I've done to date. There were definitely some moments where I felt like 'Daymn! This is IT!' Thumpin and stompin along with Darius on the drums - the whole band was feelin it- I was defiantly happy and there was for sure nowhere else on earth I'd want to be. The monitor guy knew what he was doing, which is rare these days. This was exceptionally important as our new intro song hinges on my triggred samples of 'Stronger', a Daft Punk/Kanye West song that's hot right now. We gave them a show that was completely unmatched by any of these DJ acts. There were fans as far back as I could see- a couple thousand strong. In the end- the boss, the band and the crowd was happy. Afterparty drinks in me and Mike's Condo! Wooo hooo!
••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• •••••••••••
Back To Sydney:
The first thing we did upon our return to Sydney was eat (for the 5th time now) at the very trendy noodle/asian joint called Wagamama. It's not the best, but very addictive. I had first experienced it in London on the Whitesnake tour.
The festival grounds were HUGE this time, housing the largest crowd for us yet... 35,000 people, sold out months in advance. We were on the biggest stage. Unfortunately, the successful show that we achieved in Brisbane could not be repeated tonight. The stage was plagued with problems, from the 20ft monolithic DJ booth in the middle of the stage to the completely green monitor engineer, bless her heart. Cutting your teeth in front of such a crowd at our expense is completely unacceptable. It wasn't just wrong, it was HORRIBLE, and I'd never experienced anything like it in my life. So with our stage plot being ignored and our stage sound completely fucked, we still managed to work the crowd the best we could. They loved it! No after partys for us as we had a 4:45am lobby call to get to Perth (on the other side of Australia). I napped for a couple hours then trolled around the 2 clubs in our hotel until lobby call. I must say, Australia has the most drunk and drugged (probably E) youths out of any country I've ever been to. They party and spend money like it's goin out of style. To say the least, I didn't really fit in here. Perhaps there's another scene for us 30-somethings that I havn't found yet. Over the course of the festivals so far, I'd probably been given close to 100 free drink tickets! What the heck will I do with that?! I'm doin a job here, and can't bring anything less than my 'A' game. I got completely blitzed during our week off anyways. Off to Perth...••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••• •••••••••••
Perth:
The commuter city. There aint shit downtown. I liked the layout of this festival the best. Also, the folks here were the most normally dressed out of anywhere- they must not have gotten the 'Fun Boy' memo. The backstage trailer area was set up where it as easy for all the bands to hang and communicate with each other one last time. I really became friends with the band 'Greenskeepers' from Chicago- they were all cool cats, with a couple of songs that I can't get out of my head! Check their Myspace and see what I mean. The folks from 'The Herd' were nice as well. By this final show, I had developed a relationship with the DJ Freak Nasty and his 2 hype men, as I started to understand what they were doing more. No, they don't play or create music, but rather entertain crowds. They were still cool with us even though we were setting up the band on stage during their set, which I thought was disrespectful no matter if we liked their shite or not. I offered my services to do a 'bass segment' of the show. Who knows- Perhaps we'll work together in the future with me as a hype-man with a bass fronting DJ Freq Nasty.
Go Home- Pumpkin time.
No after parties for us again, as our flight home is at midnight, just after the Perth show. We get to go back to our hotel rooms just to pack, then start the 30+ hour journey home. To say the least, whomever coordinated our flights home needs to be slapped. The carriage is now a pumpkin. After the show with no shower, we fly Perth to Sydney, Sydney to LA, LA to San Fran with over 6 hours of layovers and a total of 23 flight hours. Fun.
In fact, I'm finishing writing this now in LA, after a breakfast and margarita at Chili's. Almost home though! As long as I get there before noon when the street sweeper starts ticketing in front of my house. Farewell once again, beautiful Australia.
-Uriah
Photos! Photos! Photos!
2 comments:
Hi! Really loved to read your blog again. Refreshing and thank you for travelling for me too LOL
Luv Minna
Good for people to know.
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