The last time we really talked, we were getting ready to tour a new album and we spoke as if all things were possible. In November last year we hit the road and set about collapsing all these possible states into one definitively onerous one. I did mean to do a tour diary as we went but the tour was kinda all-consuming so now, three months later i am left with the shabby remembrances of an, at times, hilariously bumbling tour to sift through.
DISCLAIMER: While on the face of it, the tour was a bit of an ordeal, it fused us all together in a really profound way. Despite anything I may say, we had tonnes of fun.
DISCLAIMER: While on the face of it, the tour was a bit of an ordeal, it fused us all together in a really profound way. Despite anything I may say, we had tonnes of fun.
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| Sim has a quiet 6am weep into Dee's lap |
BLACK BEAR LODGE // 14 NOV
The Ray Mann Three + Briscoe
I wonder if the three people in the crowd knew how unlikely a feat it was that we had gotten there that Wednesday night to play for them.
I wonder if they realised that we were sitting at desks and standing in front of classrooms and selling bargain instruments to people who love slap bass five hours prior, and about a thousand kilometres away.
I wonder if they saw in my eyes the abject disappointment of someone who had hired an 8-seater van to save money on taxis only to need taxis anyway when a miscommunication about gear transport meant that the van pulled up to the airport way too full of drum kit to fit things like band members.
I wonder if, while heading home from work that afternoon, these three punters had seen us waddling across town lugging amps and guitars and bits of drums because the only alley we could stop in during peak hour was so far away from the venue that the climatic conditions were different.
I wonder, if as they were on their way in to Black Bear later that night they saw me fidgeting in that same alley like an itchy addict, waiting for a borrowed amp to arrive as the rest of the band stood on stage waiting to soundcheck.
I wonder if they realised that the free tacos we received upon checking in to our hostel at about 830pm were the first thing most of us had eaten that day. And that this simple gesture on the part of the hostel may have saved the three of them from a flirty and ultimately lethal hostage situation later that evening.
I wonder if they appreciated that the insults I hurled at them from the stage and the rollicking looseness of the set were a result of 4 medicinal shots of tequila, administered consecutively, and that they were absolutely vital in averting a stress-induced pant-soiling sob-fest.
I wonder if they noticed that Dee was pregnant and that Ross and Joel pulled a mighty double shift - playing drums and bass respectively for us then as two thirds of the Ray Mann Three.
I wonder if, in the wee hours as they lay wide-eyed in their beds, tormented by my chillingly accurate tequila-fuelled deconstructions of their characters, they could have known that Ross and I were driving deliriously around the greater Brisbane area trying to find the guy who lent us the drum kit so we could get the fuck back to the hostel to sleep for a couple of hours before we needed to be on a plane back to Sydney, back to our places of business before FBi Social that night.
