|
Canberra, October 28th
Electric Wizard and Pod People - Australia 2005
WHAT a tour!
I am barely back to normal following the best possible tour you could go on. To kick off the retrospective tour diary, I just want to thank DD and Brad for bringing it all together, Electric Wizard for being so damn cool and down to Earth as well as patient on all those long drives, all the people who put us up around the country, Rod, Nerri and Craig for their work in Brisbane, Jimmy the Boy for his tireless work ethic and all the people who came to multiple shows to see the Wiz kick ass time and time again. You were all integral in making the tour a success and thank to you all.
In brief - Here's a quick tour diary.
Thurs 27/10 - Sydney The Excelsior
We all hooked up early in the day to the news the Wizard had landed in Sydney safe and sound and had been given weed and lodgings at the Excelsior to have a rest after the long flight. We drove up in the van from Canberra with DD amusing us all with his inability to drive a manual vehicle. It was crunchy to say the least. We arrived at the venue and Jimmy D, our sound guy for the tour and DD's brother was out the front having a beer talking to Justin Grieves of the Wizard and formerly Iron Monkey. After some introductions we soon discovered Justin was a top bloke and started unloading the van for the first of many, many trips to the trailer for the tour.
JJ's camera phone in action
Canberra
1 November
Clagg from Melbourne kicked things off in suitably sludgy doomy style. These guys have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and it was cool as to have some of Aussie's keenest doom fans opening the show for us. They did a killer job from my vantage point in the merch stand! 4 Dead from Canberra provided a broodle job as always. I love this band; it's like hardcore that discovered Iron Monkey as opposed to Emo. Following their set we played a fairly tight set and went down as well as any Sydney gig we've done before. Then the wait was finally over, after the better part of ten years since Leo Smee of Cathedral asked DD and I over a post gig choof, "Have you ever heard of Electric Wizard?" we were finally able to see the band in the flesh rip through an absolutely killer set of tunes that covered pretty much everything save the Let Us Prey and self titled record. Such was the power and volume that about midway through the bands final song, a crushing version of the epic "Supercoven", the venue management were seen running around in a panic desperately trying to get Brad or DD to pull the power on them as they were too loud for the venue.
4 Dead
Canberra
28 October
Even after Jimmy D pulled the PA down, the only noticeable difference was the kick was quieter and vocals were no longer audible. Respect. The guys cut Supercoven short to the relief of management and we packed up to drive the three-ish hours back to Canberra to arrive home at 5.30 am the next morning where we all crawled off to get some sleep.
KM's - 580
Running Total - 580
Canberra, October 28th
Friday 28/10 - Canberra ANU Bar
Electric Wizard,
Return Trip
Canberra
28 October
We all had a big sleep in Friday, obviously! Justin and Rob stayed with Mel and were treated to a bacon and egg brekkie and Jus and Liz stayed with DD and Mez. I slunk into the ANU around 8 in time for dinner and a sound check where the Wiz bought out "Return Trip" from Come My Fanatics and probably my favourite Wiz song ever. DD and I hastily abandoned our Turkish Pizza's to come around the front and bask in some of the heaviest riffage known to man. I caught a bit of this on my camera phone, which I had neglected to crack out the previous night.
Pod People
Canberra
28 October
After a satisfying finger licking Turkish feed we settled in for another dose of Clagg and 4 Dead, both bands once again providing a solid foundation of brutality on which to build upon for the growing crowd. We played a pretty good set; including airing a few re-learnt older tracks that we cracked out for the occasion. Lumpton Swayle's from our first EP Swingin' Beef and Pommygranite from the Soil EP. Polished things off with a cover of Christbait's "Swing" and it was time for another dose of Wizardry.
Electric Wizard
Canberra
28 October
We got all Sydney got the night before, only we also got to enjoy "Return Trip" and a full version of Supercoven that is just so stunningly massive with the four piece Wizard. I'm kinda glad I never saw the three piece now that I've gotten to see Jus work with Liz who could well be the Malcolm Young of doom rhythm guitar, such is her perfect underpinning of Jus' playing and the vacuum seal of Rob and Justin's rhythm section. Little did we know at this stage the toll Rob's bass playing would take on bass amps...
After arranging a place to crash, I dropped Justin and Rob off at a mates house where we watched a DVD of a Japanese doom fest featuring >Boris, Church of Misery, Corrupted and more at a show called the Wizard's convention and a bunch of other stuff the guys had sourced. I even picked me up a copy of a High On Fire show from February this year which was totally killer too. I bailed the guys about 3 as they watched some Iron Monkey bootlegs I had gotten a few years back, I gotta remember send them to Justin.
KM's - 40
Running Total - 620
Canberra, October 28th
Saturday 29/10 - Melbourne The Greenroom
The first of the big drives faced us this morning as we all hooked up at Sound Underground ready to make the long trek south. It wasn't too hot and DD and Brad were bringing DD's Commodore station wagon so we had some room to stretch out in the van with Maggs, Mel, Jimmy and myself getting some time to talk shit with the Wiz over the 7 hour drive. The cloudy day made it good travelling weather and the Wiz were commenting how much Australia reminded them of the US, Liz coming from New York and having lived in Texas and New Orleans was saying it reminded her a lot of America - I guess all the servo's lumped next to KFC, Maccers and Burger King/Hungry Jacks didn't do much for our landscape. Everyone was on the lookout for Kangaroo's which had been conspicuous with their absence so far, I thought due to all the rain we had.
Anyways, we had a feed in Holbrook, a small NSW town hundreds of km's from a beach yet famous for being a submarine manufacturing town during the war and having a full submarine parked in cement in a park in the town. I took over driving duties just after Glennrowan, home of Ned Kelly's last stand, shortly after we found out that DD and Brad had been pulled over for speeding and that there was a smell indicating that naughty things were afoot in the car. After a brief trip to a small Victorian country town cop shop, the guys were left with a warning and had aforementioned naughty things confiscated. Lucky boys.
We arrived in Melbourne not too long after and headed straight to the venue as Brad had organised like 20000 bands to play or something crazy like that (OK, so 9) and Swedish death metal warriors Dismember were slated in to do the late shift. That left (deep breath) Van, Firewitch, Clagg, Whitehorse and Peeping Tom to doom and rock us through the night. Van were quite a stonery band from Sydney who were nice enough to lend us a Big Muff pedal for Liz to use on most of the tour. We got 70 bucks worth of Nando's and all pigged out watching the next act. Firewitch featured two bass players and I'm not sure why but they reminded me of Om, the former Sleep rhytym section's band. Whitehorse are similar to Corrupted. Bone jarring in heaviness and utterly breathtaking in all regards, the guys had a new line up with Pisschrist vocalist Yeap taking on the guitar role. Stunning. Peeping Tom remind me of Mountain, Frank Zappa, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Pentagram all at the same time, without being a derivative copy band of the above mentioned style. I love these guys so much, they slayed this night. We fired up next and had a killer show thanks to the locals, though DD's bass amp seemed to cut out at the end of our last song.
Maggs carries out mid song drum repairs
Canberra
1 November
Wizard fired up and the capacity crowd went nuts as Brad informed them it was Jus' birthday. Another killer set and a couple of things were becoming clear to me. Justin destroys drum sticks and hits harder than basically any drummer I've toured with/seen live. Insanely hard. Next, the first of the bass amp problems that were to afflict us began and Rob managed to kill 2 Sunn amps over the course of the set. The guys finished up and we all relaxed with some birthday drinks for Jus with the rowdy bar as Dismember, insanely drunk, managed to play a set that was almost inhumanly tight for a bunch of guys who were that drunk. It was one of their guitarists birthdays as well.
A late night finished up at the Clagg boys house in St Kilda and Maggs and I staying around the corner. It was 8.30 am when I finally got to bed, that's a big night.
KM's - 700
Running Total - 1320
Bass Amps - Sunn X 2
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Canberra, October 28th
Sunday 30/10 - Geelong The National Hotel
.jpg)
Electric Wizard,
Return Trip
Geelong, 30 October
Maggs and I attempted to stir the Wizard around 2 the next day to a nil response. We headed down Chappell St for coffee and I had eggs Benedict, exquisite it was too. Always like hanging with the Clagg guys, enthusiasm and good taste in tunes to boot. This was evidenced as we listened to Jerusalem as the Wizard came back to life with the aid of several "English Wake Up Juices", otherwise known as "tea". It's only about an 80 km journey to Geelong so there was no great rush, we headed off about 5 and were at the venue around 6.30-ish for Noodle dinner in the pub. We played with Whitehorse and Peeping Tom tonight and again both bands tickled my bits with their tunes, Whitehorse for their phenom heaviness and Peeping Tom for their song craft.
Electric Wizard,
Eko Eko Azarak
Geelong, 30 October
Beers flowing we played a pretty short set tonight to allow Wizard enough time to play a decent set. It seemed like a lot of places we went, curfews for noise were popping up out of no where. This happened in Sydney and a couple more times down the road. The National was more flexible than the others and the small-ish crowd made for an intimate show for Jus' birthday performance and for me this show was probably my favourite performance for the tour. Great lick and a highlight was watching the bar guy going absolutely nuts behind the bar as they played - If only my camera on my phone was more powerful, he looked like a drunk Muppet on speed or something, and I'm not paying him out here! He was INTO it - It was awesome to see and the set was just totally killer. Of course Rob managed to kill another 2 Sunn amps and ended up using the Whitehorse bass amp.
We stayed in the pub in 2 rooms. Justin's jet lag left him wide awake and on fire into the wee hours of the morning. We were all a bit overtired, but I hadn't laughed that long and hard in a long time as he regaled us with his impersonations of Bo Selecta, a UK comedian. Along with a bunch of other funny shit too, it was a fun night.
KM's - 80
Running Total 1400
Bass Amps - Sunn x 4
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Melbourne, October 31st
Monday 31/10 - The Greenroom Melbourne
The short drive meant we had a bit of time to look around in Melbourne today. Justin had met a good friend of mine, Rob, who owns a tattoo shop among his many other attributes. Justin was keen to get a tattoo so I was taking him out to get some work done whilst the others did Whitehorse vocalist Pete's shop Missing Linkand Minotaur Comics in the city which has a large collection of horror flicks that Jus was keen to check out for a birthday present. Justin and I left the others in the city and drove out to East Keilor to Rob's shop, Down To Earth Tattoo's. Justin picked out a design and got a chest tattoo dedicated to his lady back at home and I gotta say, he chose well and the artist in Rob's shop was an absolute pro in every way.
.jpg)
Down To Earth Tattoo
Melbourne
31 October
Justin is also a rare breed of person that laughs when having their neck tattooed. I was going to take a photo of it, but I thought that wouldn't be as convincing so I videoed him laughing and giggling as his neck is being tattooed. Tattoo's hurt? No Whukka's!
We go the lot down in about 3 hours and we hooked up back with the guys in the city in time for pasta/pizza dinner - Which I missed out on cause I wasn't there in time. The Monday show was with Firewtich and a "fancy dress" theme promised a discount to those making an entrance in Halloween costume, which quite a few people did. Firewitch got into the spirit with the two bassists rocking spooky white faces reminiscent of a gang from that old 70's movie "The Warriors" and the drummer looked like Papa Lazarou with a hair straightener. We rocked the doom robes for our set.
I managed to break not one but two strings during the first song and ended up using Mel's Les Paul which was quite fun indeed. The Wizard cracked out a superlative set, again ear marked by Rob managing to slay at least one more Sunn over the course of the evening. We followed the show with a video interview for Rob the tattoo shop guys new DVD zine he is making. I was far too drunk so I dragged The Eternals' (great Victorian doom band) James Hunt along to ask a couple of intelligent questions while I dribbled drunken crap at Justin and Jus about this that and the other.
Most of us stayed with a great long time friend of Pod People's, Cal of Dern Rutlidge. Dern are a killer band and I also saw guitarist Spazz at the show this night with the great news they're reforming and playing a show in Melbourne on the 6th of January - Get along to that one! Maggs and I crawled of to Fuller's and got our now standard 3 hours sleep.
Km's - 120 (including a few missions out to the tattoo shop)
Running Total - 1520
Bass Amps - Sunn x 5
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Canberra, November 1st
Tuesday 1/11 - Canberra Sound Underground All Ages Show
Rob's bass
Canberra
1 November
Another big drive up the highway today. I did a good stint til I gave up around Albury/Holbrook or something. We drove pretty much straight to the venue on the day of the show after I ascertained that the sample on Dopethrone where you hear "The WIZAARD!" was in fact from Conan The Barbarian. In your face to a certain someone who said I was wrong about that, but I digress. The all ages show was a nice early show so 4 Dead killed the kiddies first followed by a Pod in desperate need of a grease and oil change. We borrowed a Mesa Boogie this night, a bass 400+ and we figured that we'd have our bass demon's sorted for the night.
.jpg)
Electric Wizard,
We Live
Canberra
1 November
Wrong! Rob managed to kill the Mesa as well. I was really warming to Rob. Not many guys can kill as many different bass heads as shows they've played without even owning his own. We had a feeling his pedal was stuffing up, but none the less, he killed the Boogie as well. I'd like to formally apologise to the very understating and generous 4 Dead for killing their awesome bass rig. Justin again pummelled the drums into submission before we all headed off for a quick kip ahead of a relatively short drive to Sydney the following day.
Km's - 700
Running Total - 2220
Bass Amps - Sunn x 6, Mesa Boogie x 1
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Mesa Boogie
Sydney, November 2nd
Wednesday Nov 2 - Sydney - Harbour Cruise Boat Of Doom
We dicked around most of the morning, I took the opportunity to be fan boy and got my Iron Monkey and We Live records signed by Justin and Rob. I also took them to Belconnen Mall, which no trip to Canberra can be truly experienced without. Of course this was to quickly pale in comparison after we arrived on Brad's 5 band boat of doom. Just quietly, 5 bands in 3 hours is a bad idea...which to all those who attended and who have emailed me after the night, if we played on the night too, Wizard would have had time for like one song or something.
.jpg)
Boat Cruise
Sydney, 2 November
Anyhooo...Peeping Tom started playing as soon as we left the loading dock, providing an awesome bluesy soundtrack to our trip around to the Darling Harbour dock where a capacity crowd were waiting to greet us. It was a fast pick up and Peeping Tom certainly had more than a few heads banging on board to their grooves once we got underway. They were followed by Daredevil from Sydney who always know how to rock any crowd they play too, most enjoyable as always! LOG then played their brand of down home sludge for all in attendance and I think they picked themselves up a new fan or two.
While all this was happening, I noticed that the boat trip accommodated at least three guys who had been to see every show of the tour so far and even more impressive was meeting Greg from New Zealand who flew out to catch the show. We bought one another several Coopers Reds, actually I owe Greg at least 2 more, but I had been in touch with him through the Stoner Rock Rules mailing list for many years so I was very happy to meet and drink with him. It was a cool crowd.
Wizard destroyed the crowd and all whom I've spoken too after the gig totally loved the show. Of course Rob, true to form, also killed another Sunn bass head, I'm not 100% but I think he may have killed two of them, but at least one went down. Respect! It was a great night and after yet another pack of the van we all headed down the highway to Wollongong to stay at Log bassist Amos' house (along with Pino, Dave and several others whom sacrificed their downstairs loungeroom to us for a couple of nights). We crashed pretty hard as it was a long day, but a great day it was!
Km's - about 380 km's
Running Total 2600 Km's
Bass Amps Sunn x 7 (possibly 8, I was drunk), 1 Mesa Boogie
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Mesa Boogie
Sydney, November 2nd - guitars on the boat of doom
Thursday November 3rd - Utopia In-store and The Oxford Wollongong
.jpg)
Electric Wizard,
We Live
Sydney, 3 November
Thursday was BBQ breakfast day. We had a busy day, but didn't have to drive too far so we were able to enjoy a huge breakfast closely followed by a BBQ. This included the obligatory "shrimps on the barbie" to maintain the façade of the great Aussie cliché. To those overseas, most Australian's do not buy prawns to BBQ. We eat regular BBQ food like steaks and sausages etc. However Amos cooked up a garlic/chilli prawn combo that was indeed delicious.
After digesting we jumped back in the van and drove back up the picturesque road to Sydney from the Gong and made it into Sydney to play a few tunes for our friends at Utopia Records. Loading in we played four tunes followed by Wizard doing a couple of tunes to boot. I believe Rob managed to make the amp cut out briefly, but DD amended the problem onstage, so this was the two song break he needed.
Back into the van after the Wiz signed some records and posters and I spoke to a guy who had attended every show on the tour thus far and promised to put him on the door if he came to the Gong or to Brisbane. Justin bought a Voi Vod DVD which we all "Oooede and Ahhh-ed" over. We headed back to the van and back down the highway to the Gong and made it to the venue in time to lug in and Maggs and I took the Wizard for a proper sit down dinner for the first time on the tour.
.jpg)
Electric Wiazrd, Dopethrone
Wollongong
3 November
The Gong show was surprisingly poorly attended. Usually the Gong is the spiritual home of the big muff and wah pedal, but only about 30 odd payers showed up to an empty Oxford to catch Stone Ox kick off the night in fine style. We played a set of old and new tunes for a dear friend of the band who's 30th birthday party we were supposed to play at a couple weeks earlier. Hope you liked it Mick! Anyways, Wizard did a sterling job all the same and while the crowd was small, they were totally into it. Jimmy and I did a fair bit of air guitaring that night, the on the road lifestyle of little sleep, little food, lotsa grog was working wonders for me. Of course Rob managed to kill another Sunn amp. Rob's reputation for bass amp destruction restored after a cleanish run at Utopia, our second last show for the tour was complete.
Back to Amos' house for a sleep and a cone and get ready for two big long ass days in the van en route to Brisbane!
Km's - 200 km's
Running Total - 2800 km's
Bass Amps - Sunn x 9, Mesa Boogie x 1
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Mesa Boogie
Crescent Head, November 4th
Friday November 4th - Night off in Crescent Head (NSW)
Well, we kicked off with a long drive up the coast through the pain of Sydney traffic and we were all in fairly good spirits considering that it was a mercifully overcast day and we had a nice greasy lunch in a small country town. Jus' and Liz were asking me what the Aussie (cheese) burgers were like and being thankfully free of any mad cow disease, I think they enjoyed our beefy burger goodness.
We arranged a backline in Brisbane so we freed up a bit of space in the trailer for excess bags etc and were able to enjoy a bit more room in the van. I had a good chat with the guys on this leg of the tour as I didn't have to drive for too long after initially taking the wheel for the first leg. I've found in the past that a lot of bands you tour with and admire end up disappointing as people, but not the Wiz. Genuine salt of the earth folks I say.
.jpg)
Loch Ness Monster sighting
Kempsey
4 November
We got to Kempsey after a long day in the van and finally saw our first Kangaroo's of the tour all feasting on grass on the golf course. We then got to a house of a dear friend of ours and former band mate of Maggs', Bill. Bill has spent many years building his dream house of totally recycled timbers in some thick bush on a hillside over a dam populated with some very fat fish and five minutes drive from the best scenery we'd had a chance to see all tour.
Put Crescent Head on your holiday map as it's a bloody beautiful place. We drove up to a headland not long after arriving and soaked in the view. Stunning. Then we headed down to the beach to dip our toes into and it was surprisingly warm. Bill made a filthy ripping pasta dinner for us all and his girlfriend Pip and friends entertained us as we drank and talked the night away generally relaxing after a hectic schedule. Maggs, Justin and I watched the Voi Vod DVD which was totally killer and crashed out ahead of another long drive up to Brisbane.
KM's - Approx 600
Running Total - 3400 km's
Bass Amps - Night off. Sunn x 9, Mesa Boogie x 1.
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Mesa Boogie
.jpg)
Brisbane, November 5th
Saturday November 5th The Guild Bar Brisbane
Well, we kicked off the day with a group shot in front of Bill's dam and I kicked myself for not properly photographing his awesome home. After fond farewells we headed off on a bright sunny day for the rest of the long haul. We stopped in some tiny town where I was again impressed with the English ability to drink a hot cup of tea even at 35 degrees, which is just under 100 F for you imperial measurement types.
We stopped off outside of Lismore at Jimmy D's house, who was by now going by the name of "Jimmy the boy" from Mad Max one (only it was Johnny the boy in the movie). The reason? Well Justin G had expressed a keen desire to see some Aussie muscle cars of the 70's and Jimmy happens to own one sweet ass 1974-ish VG Valiant. V8, gutsy as hell; plus we got to see yet another pristine lovely house in a gully along side a creek, where Jimmy the boy lives.
Mel, Justin and Rob jumped in the V8 for the last couple of hours up the coast and the rest of the guys took the opportunity to stretch out and get some rest in the relatively empty van. I drove the last leg from lunchtime onward as I actually kinda like driving. A) Because you get more room than you do in the back and B) Because DD couldn't change gears to save himself ;o).
The drive was lovely, we arrived at our dear friend Rod's and his house mates Craig and partner Neri who all did a HEAP of work to make our Brisbane show happen. We'd not played in Brisbane with Pod before (DD and I have played there with other bands) and we weren't really sure what the night would bring.
We made our way down to the venue after a quick shit/shower/shave and loaded into the venue after we worked out how to use the lift to get up to the second story venue. I did a video interview after sound checking and it was good to get a chance to ask a bunch more questions of the guys BEFORE getting drunk and I think I managed to get a few decent answers from the guys. We went into the city for tea after that and apart from Brisbane city having the highest concentration of 7-11's of any place I had ever been, we eventually settled for some big ass pizza slices and headed back to hit the rider.
Electric Wizard,
Eko Eko Azarak
Brisbane
5 November
Peeping Tom were up first this night, having put in a well above the standard effort of coming all the way up from Melbourne off their own bat to play. Unfortunately when we arrived we were again confronted with a previously unmentioned curfew and had to ring the guys and rush them to the venue to play. That sucked, cause Peeping Tom seriously are one of my favourite Aussie bands and they as always had been just top class guys. Don't hate us Peeping's it wasn't our fault!
Pod then got a very warm reception from a keen crowd who kept berating us for not coming to play sooner! That was cool! Great reaction to our whole set and I was pretty happy in general with the set.
.jpg)
Thanks for coming
Brisbane
5 November
It was now time for the last Wizard show I will be able to catch for a while so I lathered up on some booze, Cougar and Coke on tap to be precise (yeah, pretty wrong!!!), and caught a totally stunning set which...ended with Supercoven and no bass player as Rob had finally killed not only all the Sunn's he could get his hands on, but the hire amp. I believe an SVT transistor head from the backline hire place was the culprit, though the backline guy (cool as hell by the way) reckons the power in that venue was to blame. Either way - Rob Wizard kills bass amps dead, the ultimate Bass Amp Assassin - Love your fuckin' work mate!
We had a great night and had a few bevies on the last night of the tour and enjoyed ourselves after a huge tour. We had an absolutely MASSIVE drive ahead of us the next day, only a few hours kip, but what a night!
KM's - 550 km's
Running Total - 3950 km's
Bass Amps For Tour - Sunn x 9 - Mesa Boogie x 1 - SVT x 1 - WAY TO GO ROB!!!!
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Mesa Boogie
SVT
Canberra, October 28th
Sunday November 6th - Horror drive day
All good things must come to an end. Which is probably why it seemed to be so fucking long before we made it too Sydney. We left town and the foreboding signs telling us "Sydney - 972 km's", was really crappy. Basically we spent the day reflecting on the tour, saying goodbye and love your work to Jimmy who only had to drive an hour and a half home, bastard.
We worked out we drove the entire length of England in a day. Not bad.
We had lunch in Grafton, which was 99% shut down at 3pm and then drove through road works, driving rain and shitty drivers for the rest of the way. It was a boring day capped off with the best meal of the tour in Newtown when we arrived in Sydney 13 hours after leaving Brisbane and we all appreciated the last big meal.
It was then off to the Formula 1 Motel for a stay in their cruise ship like accommodation and impossibly small bathrooms. We had a laugh and a chat into the wee hours once again and got some crappy short shuteye to ease us into the last leg of our journey.
KM's - 980
Running Total - 4930
Sydney, November 8th
Monday November 8th = Goodbye's and long drive home
Electric Wizard's baggage
Canberra
1 November
We packed up at the hotel, made our way to the international airport and had a remarkably painless check in. The guys had to pay an exorbitant extra baggage fee on the way over, but all the merch they sold and gave away to us made them come in under the limit (just).
We went and had a last breakfast together and a smoke and it was over! Fond farewells, email addresses exchanged we left the guys to a fucking horrible flight home with an awful 15 hour stop over in Shanghai awaited the guys, we had to drive down to Wollongong to pick up gear making our drive home more like 5 hours as opposed to the usual 3-ish.
We headed back up the picturesque Macquarie Pass after dropping in on Pino and Dave's place to get our gear and a few pipes and we all planned our next recording and how much we wished the tour was continuing.
DD and Brad - Thanks heaps guys - I never thought I'd get to see Wizard play, let alone 11 times. Killer. Wizard - I can't give enough props - Thanks for coming out and I hope we play again real soon.
To all those that came along - YOU made it possible!!! Thanks so much for all the support and kind words/beers we shared on the road, there were more than a few guys who came to 5+ shows - AMAZING effort!!!!
Hopefully we can do it again in 06 with another great band, and maybe Wiz again after their new record. Proper bo' I tell thee!
JJ
Justin Greaves' tour diary
Electric Wizard on myspace
Pod People photos from Canberra - 28th of October
Electric Wizard photos from Canberra - 28th of October
Pod People photos from Canberra - 1st of November
Electric Wizard photos from Canberra - 1st of November
Canberra, October 28th
|
