After soaking up the Auckland scenery and greeting Robin Hood with mixed reviews the night before, the band set up at camp in the EMI offices this morning for a bit of an acoustic hit out. Now we’re a relatively sober band these days and try not to drink before lunch time, but the good folk from The Rock and the rest of the departments were well ahead of us. The casual meet and greet looked like we really were just going to have to stay a little bit longer once 18 pizzas and more drinks came out. Luckily for us sound check at the Kings Arms Tavern was beckoning and we were back on path.

Fast forward to after the show (that had to have been one of the sweatiest on record) and holy shit did Auckland represent. We virtually played the same set as the shows in Oz. before hand and the crowd did not miss a word or skip a beat. There were really good vibes going into this show and the brief three night stay was a very welcoming one, but tonight has perhaps suggested we will be visiting again sooner rather than later. Choice as.

Posted by : Adam W

We left Noosa where we had played a festival which turned into a frickin mud pit and its a good thing we stopped to buy wellys for everyone.. rip all yee white sneakers that lay caked in mud.

Now in Hobart with sound check out of the way its was time to frolic the local dining spots. On the way to a Japanese place we were heckled by a dunk and rowdy mob at a passing pub who were under the impression we were British India.. hehe funny shit..

It is Sunday night in Hobart and you wouldn’t know it if you were in this crowd.. they were loud as hell, shaking their ass’s and drinking like it was xmas.. yup good times all round.

Posted by : Kenny

It was the best of times, It was the blurst of times!

Ok, So today we are playing a festival in Noosa called Ripe fest the night before we played our 2nd Hifi show in Brisbane and it was rad, great crowd and great vibes. After the show Diffy and I went to the Valley for a quiet dirty martini and learnt about the 13 alternative dimensions from some local new agers, a typical but forfilling day in rock camp.

We all meet in the lobby the next morning at 11, pile in the van and head off out of Brisbane. We get a call from the promoters saying that the festival iss rained out and it would be a good idea to get some gumboots to combat the mud. After a short trip to the dirty burger we find ourselves at Bunnings to stock up on boots. Rosco is playing with his new flip camera as we are walking in and is chased down the aisle by an angry staff member ordering him to turn off his camera “You can’t bring a camera in here!” Altercation number one ensues!

Rosco’s other job is a competitor scout for Mitre 10.. yeeah?!

We arrive at the venue and it is a total mudpit, the sun is out now though, the vibe is rockin’ and we are looking like shock troops in the trenches of world war 2 in our new footwear while everyone else is getting around in soggy, soiled chuck taylors and some even barefoot.

We play just as the sun is going down as the kids slop around in the mud, a good, fun set all round. Everyone seems to enjoy it. We all agree to stick around to watch Grinners before we head back to Brisbane to attend a men’s magazine launch party, with many bikini models rumoured to be in attendance. Unfortunately it becomes apparent that the keys to our tarago have gone astray. After looking everywhere we admit defeat and presume the keys are somewhere under 2 ft of mud.

Being the selfless humans we are we decide to take the crews car and leave them to get a cab all the way back to Brisbane.

Steve brings the car around but is fighting to keep the car from getting bogged in the mud. As he enters the back stage area a clever security guard decides to stand in his way and tries to push the car backwards, Steve hollers to get out of the way as he is accelerating to keep traction. Altercation two ignites as more security guards appear and excuse Steve of trying to run over their comrade. Somehow Sparki gets involved, not the most diplomatic person in the world, but probably the most assertive.

Sparki is well known for his public fire ups at festivals, the last festival we played he was involved in a sausage throwing incident when the hotdog man ran out of tomato sauce. When I happen on the scene there are profanties being thrown around we are told to “F@#% off”. We get the hell out of there, but get back to Brisbane to late for the model party.

Everyone is still fired up from the festival incident so we decide to chill at the hotel and have a few calming drinks.

We regroup in the crews room and all share a glass of red over a game of dice, to which Diffy is the victor! We disperse back to our rooms and attempt to go to bed. Weston is still firing and doesn’t want to sleep so he decides to throw a box of Sultana Bran at poor Kane as he is sleeping in the lounge room. After several attempts I eventually coerce him to go to bed.

All and all a long day with its ups and downs but at the end of the day a success. Tomorrow we fly to Hobart!

Posted by : Adam Spark