First Spring new moon dangled above our heads like a sickle that became a wink, as our boho tour ship was tossed and tasselled by the gods of bohemia just below the freshly mown lawns of Parliament House.
Canberra, the bush city carved with circles within circles got a double dose of our shapeless mercury and the kids came unstuck.
How hungry they were, like lamb wolves, hundreds already lined out the door before 8pm.
50 cases of Gypsy cider had arrived on the steps hours earlier after a series of transport disasters, our tech van was dead, our sound crew drove the PA uncovered on a ute through the most spectacular of spring days to be drenched by a downpour on the final kilometre to the hall, they hit the ground running throwing tarps over the gear and cursing the fickle Melbourne weather that had trailed us.
If that wasn’t enough the mechanism of the curtain broke just before show started and was manually dragged across for the rest of the night.
The first song of the first act of the first show of the tour by an immaculately dressed Mojo Juju (who had turned up in a black valiant w/burlesque incomparable Frankie Valentine) on her shining silver guitar against the giant red curtains of Albert Hall, as the audience stood in poise was interrupted, by a 10 piece marching band led by our bus driver George with full indian head-dress_
*Mojo collected her cool, while
:we at the bar were 100
deep
in a queue
for absinth, cider & beer
that didn’t ease up until midnight.
Over six hundred frolicked the enormous Albert Hall, surprising all of us, and we were completely run off our feet and the bird managed to fly through our lips.
Highlights:
• Frankie Valentine curling her feather fans python like to create a silhouette of smoke around Mojo Juju.
• The Brothers Grimm, led by a charming wolverine James Grimm who was held back on a short leash, until our techs extended allowing him to leap onto the massive speaker stacks, to scream at the city he was born in.
• Our 1/2 woman, 1/2 man bride-groom shotgun wedding MC Mr-Ms Hadley was well received by the audience, and torn apart by a flurry of young boys in the back showers.
• Selling out of Green Fairy Absinth by 9:30
• The Orphanage’s howling set was a dirty mashed-ed deep reverb that wobbled the windows.
• A man in a sumo suit stripped to a full body red lycra suit to pull a coin out of his crutch, a magic trick apparently.
• One guy not knowing what the ball was about and turning up in an 80’s Glam Rock get up.
• La viola Vixen licking her lips to have the crowd in the palm of her moistened hand.
• The Barons of fucking Tang fucking encore went through the fucking roof.
• Racing in my sisters fiancees car to the casino with $10,000 to turn into change at 10pm.
• Drinking top shelf scotch at The Phoenix with the head engineer at 3am, with a dirty burrito, then sleeping on ancient red curtains in a very empty Albert Hall that was very, very, very dirty.
First show, done dusted and delivered.
Onwards…no sleep till Brisbane…
