The success of a tour is largely dependent what you eat before the show. After a long discussion with Yves Klein Blue about bulk-buying baked beans, acid reflux incidents and all-day cereal, I settled for a Hot Mona burger at Chickens Plus Mona Vale. Delicately balanced atop a lightly toasted bun were two perfectly marinated spicy chicken fillets, lettuce, cheese, peri peri sauce and yet another well-toasted bun. Earlier experiments with marinated chicken burgers hadn’t turned out so well (when we toured with Dev from Lightspeed Champion a few months ago he proclaimed Oporto to be the worst moment of his life), but Friday night was different.
With chicken coursing through our veins and the broken air-conditioner sending temperatures upwards of 75 degrees centigrade, we took the stage at the Mona Vale Hotel for the opening night of the Immaculate Confection Tour. The crowd was louder than the industrial fans next to the stage and thankfully much larger, I spotted my mum up the back and it nearly put me off. By the time we were playing our last song some rogue dancers had invaded the stage and were taking apart drums and microphones with glazed-over eyes. The song finished and I jumped off the stage, landing squarely on a broken glass in bare feet – whatever man. We hurriedly put everything back together for our team encore with YKB, which is an epic cover of a old favourite (can’t say which one or I’ll spoil the other shows) that we had never practiced and only 2 or 3 of us actually knew the chords to. We only forgot the words in one verse and stuffed the bridge, but the wild singing and laughing of the crowd managed to mask (or highlight) the shambles. I think it went down pretty well because when we left the stage I saw two drunk girls crying.
The after party; kindly hosted by Matt, friend and drummer in support band Chambers, was a similarly glassy event with a girl falling through a plate glass window on the balcony. Alex our bass player helped out by picking all the glass out of the carpet with his hands and completing the pyramid of cutting that was Friday night. We’re looking skinnier with more nervous excitement than ever about the shows ahead… No doubt plenty more intrigue.
Our new EP When The Ship Goes Down is out this weekend so check it out on itunes or jb hifi etc. and come along to the show nearest you for tears of joy and pain!
