I have been largely absent of late from the world of blogging. Things have been insane for the most part with shows from both Anubis and Shine On; the final step of 230503 and general creative endeavours that have kept me from talking about it.
Anubis played one final show with the bands we had been playing with; at The Hermann's Bar in Sydney. It was for the most part an angry set, and at the end of 'The Collapse', one of our audience members actually passed out. What are the odds? The gig was stopped and we tried to restart it but suffered from a fatal musical car crash that left us all stunned. Momentum lost and nerves crowd paying no attention, we hit the abort sequence and made, as ever, for Lazikos.
I have to say that listening back the band was really on form too. The actual sound outside in the venue was really really good, and Steve in particualr carried well.
The on stage sound, aided and abetted by a total absence of stage monitors, was absolutely rubbish. The venue itself was very classy. We are braving it again on 18th Oct.
After the high of our mastering day, we finally got 230503 off to the manufacturers. Parting with cash is never easy, but the realisation that the whole project is finally out of our hands is quite strange. The artwork, when Matt delivered it, was tremendously exciting and the whole package feels classy. It will be out sooner rather than later.
The biggest single event of the last couple of months for me personally, not including the album, is the Shine On show we did a couple of weeks back at Nowra. Firstly, it was a step up again, from theatres to Entertainment Centre, and we played at a remarkable (huge) venue in a stunning part of the NSW South Coast. The band, now expanded back to it's full compliment of 9 wondering minstrels, with the addition of vocalist Sarah Schols, had been building through rehearsal to this set which was to include a full rendition of Dark Side Of The moon, a sort of pre-requisite at shows of this scale.
The nicest aspect of all is that all the minutae of running the show, organising the neccesary professionals etc. was taken out of mine and Dean's hands by our thoroughly enthusistic agent, Bob. A lovely offshoot of this, is that for the first time in five years of doing these shows, Dean and I did not have a single fight. A normal show day involves me being hyper-excited and ubiquitous, wanting to know everything that's going on, and what the likely outcome would be, and what we've spent our money on. Dean, on the other hand spends the day uber-tense, trying to avoid questioning and enthusiastic puppies all day long. The resulting mix of the two chemicals is particularly volatile, usually culminating in a blow-up from Dean, and me disappearing to brood behind a ridiculously high stack of keyboards, until he realises he is a twat and apologises... or something like that. Who needs marriage? Anyway, with Bob on hand to deflect the attention and stress, and me resolving to avoid Dean as much as possible after initial load in, and not ask questions AT ALL, the whole day went smoothly and we survive to tackle another project.
The band was at the most fragmented it had ever been. My longing for time for the 9 of us to spend together before the show was completely obliterated by the scale of the event with liggers and crew milling around. Rob, who roadied for me, realised his redundancy and buggered off up to the video control box to tape the show with Christo. Nobody else followed their lead. Although, that said, it would have been a waste of time as even the two minute warning for stage time wasn't sufficient to pull Lachlan out of his change room, where he was busy straightening his coiffiere. God forbid he ever gets caught out in the rain.
I will admit this is a major disappointment for me. Back in the old days, the whole band would be together before the show and it was wonderful. I guess things were more contained then, but I do feel we miss something nowadays when we can't even have 5 mins together, just us, before the show. It is, in my eyes, a vital part of the bonding experience that allows the musicians (and I include the singers) to switch on to each other's wavelength before attempting to communicate musically. Call me an old hippy, but I think that's a precious experience that some of those bands who aren't particularly close miss out on, and you lose a part of the vibe in performance. I think we managed 23 seconds before we went on, and even then that was at the side of the stage. It may be in my head, but in the days of the Catholic club, and Doyalson, we were a unit, and I think that helped shape those experiences as being so pleasurable. Don't get me wrong, there is no fracture in the personal relationships. In some cases they are healthier than ever. I just like to switch on to my bandmates before having to try and communicate through ESP with them.
Now, the show itself benefitted, on my part, from Dean's clear head (a curry before showtime helps... lucky git. Next time, short one, we're going together.... next time...), and from the fact that the keyboard empire sounded extraordinarily good. The downers were that the light show was, whilst good for what the venue had got, painfully wanting by Floyd standards. It looked little more bright and exciting than the high school musicals we used to do (under the eyes of my exceptionally talented old pal, Ryan Phillips on lights), which for an entertainment centre in front of 600+ people is quite disappointing; and the fact the sound person was palpably out of their depth, resulting in missed cues, absent vocals and a blast of feedback that lasted almost the length of 'The Great Gig in the Sky'. Given the requirements, she did well, but it was a tough gig.
The band was, however, on fire. Precision and spirit abounded in spades, and the sound was extraordinary. Dean played with more enthusiasm and venom than I have seen in ages, Chris' renewed vigour and work ethic saw his stock increase, the creases were ironed out of the rhythm section just in time and they played as one, and I, quite frankly, played a blinder. Very satisfied. The hammond bubbled and roared, and maintained signal integrity throughout. The farfisa was spacy, the moog stayed in tune. The only disappointment was the lack of delay in 'Any Colour...' which was working beautifully in soundcheck. Always one fucking gremlin...
I listened back to Rob's recording. The first two songs suffered from the drum mic having fallen and resting on the cymal, resulting in a very unattractive gong like sound which sounded disgusting. The performance was excellent, however.
By the time we got to the third song, sonic creases had been ironed and the sound mix was good. The first half culminated in a performance of 'Echoes' that ranks amongst some of my best live work recorded, and a performance of 'Dogs' in which I took centre stage. Greatfully recieved by the die-hards and a joy to play for me, we hit a plateau we needed to maintain.
The second half began with easily our best ever rendition of 'Shine On' and into 'Dark Side' which we have swapped roles around in a little and the whole thing sits better. Dean and I harmonise far more and the similarity in our voices makes for some very good harmonies. 'On The Run' was a triumph with my analog tour-de-force succeeding on all levels. Time was let down by an absent mic in the first chorus, rendering me inaudiable. A mistake that proved far more costly than the engineer expected.
In 'Great Gig', my second mic began singing, and drowned out the band. The first half, sang by Kat, was off the map in terms of quality and power, and easily shows why she beats, ahands down, virtually anyone else I have heard do this. What a pair of lungs.
Elle's live debut on the former Becky section was vocally exquisite. Unfortunately, the mic had decided to outsing our diminutive beauty and as a desperate sound engineer tried to rectify the problem, she pulled out Elle's monitor. Ouch....
Dean, being a sound bloke par excellence realised the culprit immediately and strode over whipped the second keyboard mic out the way.
Elle handled it like a trooper, although disappointed. The audience were warm and forgiving, and "Play that again" came out of the dark. Opting for the artistic route, we went on with "Money". Money was great, except our friendly sound reinforcer had not put Martyn's mic or foldback back on. Martyn overblew his high F#. One mistake for Martyn, in Martyn's eyes, is nothing less than total failure. His high expectation usually gives us flawless perfomances. He got out of it well, but was unhappy. He did however, doubly-compensate with a sublime 'Us and Them'. The band hit their stride again and held it to the end of the piece, with "Eclipse" reigning supreme as the jewel in the crown and Kat's sensual vocalising bringing goosebumps to my arms.
We obliged the audience for the encore with a repeat of Great Gig, and this one was far better. The first was actually the stronger of the two performance wise, but at least this one was audiable.
The encores of Cigar, sung by a slightly hoarse cold-inflicted Dave sounded pretty good, and the evergreen 'Wish You Were Here' sounded great. "Comfortably Numb" and 'Run Like Hell' were exactly what we expected them to be.
The show, musically, was a high point for the band and hopefully a solid fouindation on which to build and grow. The positivism and unity after the show made up somewhat for the absence beforehand. A great night.
As I have been writing this blog, another event has unfolded. Mad CD has just called to say 230503 is pressed and ready.
The next chapter begins here.
IT IS FINISHED!!!
