Good Times And Killer Rhymes - Part 3

19/3/09
Adelaide, Adelaide, Adelaide as much as we love you, you are a bastard to get to. We all roll up at Far's parents place where he is having a nice birthday dinner with his family pack the van (including unscrewing two chairs from the 12 seater and stuffing it with mattresses to make a double bed, nice job kenny) and get in the van for the staggering 18 hour drive. Nothing really exciting happens as by now we have been in a van together over the course of this tour for something ridiculous like 30 hours everyone just keeps to themselves i put on my ipod make my way to the "back lounge" and fall asleep. Wow, the excitement.
20/3/09
Drive till about 1pm when we arrive at photographer extroadinnaire (sp?) and best friend to the mission Fiona Stafford's house where we all crash out in her lounge room for a much needed afternoon kip. Everyone wakes up, showers/shaves and we head to Fowlers for tonights show. I love fowlers i think its easily Adelaides best venue i just get a good vibe from it the staff there are super nice and they always hook us up with stupid amounts of beer so everyone is happy. Do the greet thang with the oneals and a year to remember. Happy to find out that my friend Josh and his new band The Miracle Is Now are opening the show i catch up with him and he tells me how the recording of their ep is going we enjoy a cherry cigar backstage and hang with everyone else. Before the show starts i grab Johann (oneal manager) and head off to get food, in every town i try to find a mexican place i like and stick with it on every tour in Adelaide we have Burp every time we have been here i hit it up so i grab a vege burrito and head back to the show. YUM.
Caught the last song of The Miracle Is Now, sounded great wish i had watched the whole thing. AYTR play well. We head on and after the first song Lachlan's kit pretty much falls apart so that sucked we go into a guitar/vocals version of Last Crusade to kill time, yeah didnt work as well as it did in Sydney hahah the kit is fixed and we get back into it. Its good to drive 18 hours and see a whole bunch of people singing along not the best show we have played on this tour in terms of how we played but still a good time. After that i head off to catch up with my friend Kaz while we watch the oneals. It kinda seems like a whirlwind trip this time as we are only in adelaide for like 8 hours, we pack up the gear and say goodbye to everyone (still manage to tease Pees a little bit) and then get to driving to Melbourne!! Drew is up for the drive and pulls a 7 hour stint behind the wheel to get us there, massive effort.
21/3/09
Far finishes off the driving and we arrive in the wonderful town of Berwick where our friend, viking, lord and god amongst fisherman Craig Eloranta is putting us up for the night. Craig has been a friend of our bands for years pretty much since we started and we stay with him every time we are in town. We hit the back porch as we always do beers are cracked, yarns are spun and in no time Craig has us all laughing. Dudds (Craigs right hand man in drunken debauchery) shows up a bit hazy from a night before at the local pub and the bbq is lit. After a massive feed we all crash out. We wake up get changed and head for the show. Tonights show is at the Curtin bandroom which is in Lygon street we get a bit lost but manage to find it after a few calls to the oneals, the room is great we have never played here before but it looks like its shaping up to be a big night. Three girls from Brisbane (who hooked me up with lollies when we were in qld!) have flown over to see the last two nights of the tour THANKS GUYS! so we hang and catch up before i head off for water and pineapple juice. Post PJ and H20 we all have a tour party beer where everyone from the tour sits around over a few ales and we all have a laugh about all the stupid shit we did over the last few weeks. Show starts, tonights opening band is Click On Colour and the guys play well and looked like they had fun. AYTR head on, they have this new song called Hey Tiger and it is such a good song it's on their new ep that is coming out around May so make sure you go buy it. Right before we go on my friend Jess shows up, if you have seen our video for We Take This To The Night Jess is the girl in the red hoody and one of my best mates so we catch up real quick while i warm up and then we head on. Probably one of the best shows on the tour everyone was in a really good mood and we had a lot of fun. I was pretty keen to see SON play in their hometown and they did not dissapoint, neither did the crowd everyone was loving it as usual they walk on to Rick Ross's "Hustlin" which has pretty much been the anthem of this whole tour. Top set.
Post show we load up the van and discuss whether or not we should go to bang and wait in line 20 minutes to get a beer, we figured it wasnt worth it so back to Berwick we go where we have a beer on the porch and everyone heads to their allocated space on craigs living room floor to crash out.
22/3/09
Wake up feeling like crap, those couple of beers i had were not worth it my throat feels disgusting. Drink fifty litres of water, have a shower and we are back in the van on our way to Frankston for the last show of the tour. We arrive and are told we are super late and the people from the venue are pissed, no one else is here yet so we load the gear in and wait for the other bands to arrive. Everyone arrives looking less than amazing apparently a year to remember had a MASSIVE night out that ended at 8 am so we hear all the stories, kinda bummed we didnt go out but im sure i would have felt a thousand times worse than i do now so im not too bummed. Kenny's older brother lives in Melbourne and has come down to the show with his son and daughter to catch up pretty sure it was their first show ever as they are really young so that was rad. The first band on today is Ikari unfortunately i didnt get to see them as i was out grabbing food but i asked how they went and were told they played great. A Year To Remember, for being hungover played well once again i waited for Hey Tiger and got stoked when they played it. We had fun we hardly ever get to do AA shows in Melbourne so we were all stoked to play my throat held up way better than i thought i bagged Pees out onstage for the last time of the tour. Afer we play i ask Bryce (AYTR) if i can have a listen to their new ep we head to their van and Bryce shows me the songs they are fucking great cant wait for it to come out if you like them you will love them when they release this ep. Oneals bring the mosh and played sweet.
After the show we do a tour photo with everyone which was all time then packed up the van said our goodbyes and had one last tour jam to Hustlin where Bryce and Ryan climbed a van and danced on the roof hahahahah shit was hilarious. We jump in the van and begin our drive back to sydney nothing too exciting happened as everyone was fucking exhausted. This tour was so much fun and we want to thank everyone on it for being so nice to us and hanging out thank you to everyone who came out to a show or bought merch or let us sleep on your floor we really appreciate it. Its now 9 am on Monday morning and i am going to bed cause we are flying out for Perth on Wednesday hopefully i dont get sick.
Good Times/Killer Rhymes
Brett xo.

Good Times And Killer Rhymes - Part 2

13/3/09

This weekend marks the beginning of the NSW leg of the good times and killer rhymes tour so we get it easy as we dont have to do a bunch of driving. Drew picks me up from my house we load on the trailer to his trusty station wagon headed for our first destination this weekend - Campbelltown. We have played C-town on pretty much every tour we have done for the last year and its always such a good time but this time we are playing an over 18's club as opposed to playing AA venues like we usually do so everyone is worried how tonight is going to go. We get to the venue and start loading in the boys from AYTR have been here for the last two hours so i think they might have been excited to see someone they knew, shorty after stealing oneal arrive and we shit talk about how their trip was and i give their manager Johann a big hug cos i havent seen the guy in a while then i immediately head over to the merch table to start giving shit to Pees who is SON's tour manager we have been teasing the living shit out of each other for this whole tour and tonight is no different. If you are coming to any of the remaining dates go see the really tall merch guy and yell "Hey Pees! PSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTT!!!"

As it gets closer to show time people start rolling up and i start to feel not so nervous, our friends Mark, Dean, Pete and all the boys who usually come see us in Campbelltown are here as well as Danny and his mates who have made the trek from Canberra to see us tonight THANKS BOYS! AYTR head on and play really well especially with being down a backup singer as Sam voice has left him but they sounded great like they always do.

The oneals get on and rock the place out more people spill in which is great i have decided that Chin Up Baby is probably the catchiest song i have heard in the last six months when they play it Pees and i get into a dance off behind the merch table which probably looked like two really really tired dudes having a lazy epileptic fit. Towards the end of their set i bolt across the street to grab my trusty pineapple juice, grab my ipod and head to the bathroom to do my vocal warm ups, i think there was a dude droppin a deuce in the stall next to me i must have scared the shit out of him when i started doing my warm ups hahaha poor bastard. After the boys finish we set up, the stage in this venue is tiny so i figure fuck it and jump on the floor with everyone else and let the band have the stage everyone is singing along and we had the best time!! one of the funnest shows on this tour so far. Oh and Tim from SON got naked and jumped on my back during We Take This To The Night funniest shit ever the look on the crowds face when he came out naked was fucking amazing. I guarantee Jack from SON has photos of that so hit him up for them. After the show we hang about and chat with everyone then i head home for an early night!

14/3/08

Tonight's show is our last headlining show in Sydney before we head into the studio so we had honestly been promoting the living shit out of it so we could play one last time to everyone we love and everyone who (hopefully) likes us! I jump on the train from home to head out to the show tonight and listen to The New Frontiers - Mending such a fucking pretty album (www.myspace.com/thenewfrontiers). While sitting on the train i get bored and start texting Ace Ventura quotes to Chris from Oneal as we have been quoting the life out of it all tour.

I get to the venue and we load in, one of our street team members Rachael is doing a tafe assignment in her music management course and has asked if she can interview me so we head off to get some mexican food while she asks me a few questions then i head back to the venue get changed and start waiting for all our friends to arrive everyone shows up and the show is ready to start the first band on tonight are some dudes from campbelltown called The Understatement so i watched them from the couch at the side of the venue with Ryan from SON these dudes have great harmonies the singer and guitar/singer's voices work really well together nicely done boys. Then AYTR get on, go to their myspace and listen to their song bombs (www.myspace.com/ayeartoremember) seriously go now ill wait here............................................... now i guarantee you dont have that song out of your head for the next two days its so good ive been singing it for 3 fucking days!! once again great show.

Stealing O'neal had the best show of the whole tour tonight they play so well everytime we see them but tonight they were so on and they smashed it once again i sang along like a dickhead frmo the merch table.

The room fills up and we hit the stage right before we are due to go on Far's amp blows up so we have to switch it with Tim's which delays us for 10 minutes after that we are off and cracking its always fun to play at home but this was hell fun just to see all your friends supporting and singing along as well as people i have never seen before feels so good. When we get to we take this to the night..... yup ya guessed it Tim balls and all appears on the stage hahahah since he did it last night i didnt see it coming still hilarious. After we walk off the old "One More Song!" chant starts we all stand by the merch table shitting ourselves cos we have no other songs!! all we practiced was the set for this tour and we didnt have anything else prepared so Far and i walk back onstage to do a Guitar/Vocals version of The Last Crusade which surprisingly turned out pretty well.

After the show i had to bail fast as our great friends Fifty Six(x) were playing their first show back after a long break and with new drummer Tim at the helm we didnt want to miss them so i jump in a cab with some friends and we head over, crowd is loving the boys tonight! I get there just in time to jump up and sing Let It Ride seriously this will sound so cheese but i missed this band we all love them as people and as a band and it was good to see them absolutely smash this crowd into the ground THEY EVEN HAD A WEDDING PROPOSAL LIVE ON STAGE! haha it was great and their new songs are a real big step up wait for that album to drop.

After the show finishes everyone else rolls up (oneals, mission dudes and our friends) and it starts to get really loose im not drinking so i can keep my voice because we have another show tomorrow at the metro so i say goodbye to everyone tell the oneals i will see them in adelaide and head home.

15/3/08

Wake up with my throat feeling like a frog took a shit in my neck ( gross i know but its the best way to describe it) and grab breakfast then head into the city. We are playing the metro today with the UK band McFly i have no idea who this band is but i was told they sold out the metro 2 weeks ago and are doing another show they asked us to play and as there arent many all ages shows on this tour we thought it might be good if anyone wanted to come check us out under the legal age.

I get to the venue and there is literally a line up around the street out the front of the metro i overheard some kids saying they had been there since 9 in the morning CRAZY! I get excited about the show and the fact that i am 30 seconds walking distance from Kings Comics so i head over there to scope the goods, saw a hellboy ouija board got a little bit stoked about that, checked out the amazing hard cover collection of The Walking Dead series and read half of the new Cal McDonald story before the lady behind the counter started eyeing me off like she was gonna say "Oi this isnt a library" so i headed over to the show to help Kenny load in. After load in we set up the merch and met the opening band who are a bunch of guys from Melbourne called Skybombers they were such nice dudes and have really toured their asses off they told us great stories about opening for the Foo Fighters in New Zealand and getting payed stupid amounts of money to go to Malaysia where the show they were supposed to play got cancelled so they got an all expenses paid trip to Malaysia for nothing. Doors open and kids FLOOD in all fighting over the front barrier spot hahahah i remember this shit when i saw Millencolin when iw as like 16 no fucken way was i giving my spot up at the front hahaha good to see kids still get excited about their favourite bands.

Our friend Jay came to hang out with us today and take some photos of the show and us hanging about in the dressing room (which i will post up when i get them off him) as we sit in the dressing room we hear the most ear piercing screams i had ever heard - Skybombers take the stage and the crowd is excited they are really good so go check them out if they are heading your way. After that we head on, most enthusastic crowd we have played too in so long thank you to everyone who was there it was a very warm welcome. After we play we head to the merch table to talk to people and relieve our merch girls so they can go to the bathroom.

Post show i head out to get mexican food and now i am sitting on the floor of my living room typing this and about to watch some TV before i fall asleep for 2 days.

Adelaide and Melbourne, your next.

xo.

Good Times And Killer Rhymes - Part 1

05/03/09

Tonight we begin our long voyage to the Gold Coast to begin The Good Times And Killer Rhymes Tour with our new friends Stealing O'Neal. As we are sharing a van on this leg of the tour the Oneal dudes are picking us up from my house on their way from Melbourne so they get to mine about 8 we hang out and meet each other do the whole getting to know you thing load up the trailer and we are on our way. On the way we all hung out and talked about random shit and basically just relaxed. Tom from Stealing O'Neal brought a portable dvd player so we hooked that up to the stereo and the boys watched Saving Private Ryan while i tried to sleep and listened to my ipod and soon fell asleep.

06/03/09

I wake up with the sun hammering down onto me i sit up and try and figure out where we are im told we are just near burleigh heads, we always stop here on our way to brisbane to hit the beach and get breakfast before we head to the gold coast so we hang out and chill out for a bit then jump back in the van and get to the gold coast. The boys are staying in Brisbane and we are staying witha friend on the coast so they drop us off and head to their accom as our friend doesnt finish work till 3.30 we have all day to keep ourselves occupied so Drew and Far head to the beach and Lachlan and i cruise around window shopping, Kenny flew to QLD on this leg of the tour for a holiday with his mates so we are meeting him at the show tonight. After a few hours walking around i go meet my friends Adam and Emily who happen to be in town the same time as us and we grab lucnh after that Lachlan and i get back to walking around we get bored until we find a timezone and instantly get stoked and play games for 2 hours we ruled at House of The Dead and Silent Hill but i suck at car games so Lachlan smashes me, shamed.

After a while we head to our accom get showered and hang out and then we head to the venue. Tonight we are playing the Hard Rock Cafe which is pretty much a restaurant with a stage on it we head into the backstage and greet our other touring friends A Year To Remember who are opening this tour after a few hours of socialising the show is ready to start and A Year To Remember head on stage they play well these dudes write super catchy songs i was digging it we have seen these dudes before and they are always fun to watch. After that Stealing O'Neal head on and although i have heard their ep plenty i havent ever seen them live and holy shit they are super good they play great. Our turn comes we jump on and have some fun and get everyone singing along.

After the show we load out and talk to everyone who hung around then us and the oneals decide we want to head to the beach just to chill out before everyone goes back to their accom to sleep after we head to the beach we are all standing on the sidewalk just hanging and Far decides to play a game with everyone where everyone has to do a rock off and the last person to lose has to stand there for 30 seconds being stared at by everyone while they have to think of something to entertain us be it a song or a performance it really puts the person on the spot our loser tonight is Tim from Stealing Oneal when his 30 seconds were up none of us could have predicted what was about to happen - Tim strips down to nothing (literally balls flapping in the wind) and climbs onto the roof of a parked car where he does a hand stand falls forward onto his back and straight off the side of the car. I can honestly say without a doubt i have NEVER laughed so hard everyone was in fits of laughter for the next hour it was amazing. The boys drop us off at our accom and we head to bed.

Jack and Chris from SO hustlin up the back of the van

Tim passed out in the van, so i was watching him sleep what???

Waiting around.....

Fucken Timezone!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!! Curlzzzz get da gurrrlllzzzzzzz

"Dude why are you playing the Barbie pinball game?"

Being a douchebag while i do my vocal warm ups

Tour manager Pees acting like he is doing something constructive.

A Year To Remember bringing the mosh.

7/03/09

I wake up to a pillow cracking me in the head and Far going "Dude, shut up!" so apparently im a pretty loud snorer who knew? I wake up and drink 40 litres of water and then the rest of the boys slowly wake up. Blake (who is putting us up) and Drew went out last night after the show so we sit around listening to their stories of a massively drunken night out. Drew tells us he went to a bar where there was a covers band playing Blake in his drunken state piped up and yelled out "This dude is in a band!!!" so Drew drunk as hell got hauled up on the stage to sing Mr Brightside with a covers band hahaha loose. Blake is taking Far and Lach water skiing this morning so Drew catches up on more sleep while i spend a few hours in the pool. When the boys get back we pack up our stuff say bye to Blake and head to the train station to grab our train to Brisbane, we meet Kenny at the station and head to Brisneyland.

When we get there we have to find a hotel to crash at for the night as always we are duping the hotel industry and putting 5 people into a 2 person hotel room, total badasses. So everyone showers up Kenny gets excited about bath robes and we watch the first 2o minutes of Edward Scissorhands before bailing off to the venue after we drop our stuff off i head off to find dinner and find a really nice Sushi joint the name escapes me now but it was great! When your hanging around dudes 24 hours a day its sometimes nice to head off on your own and hang out so i walked around for an hour after dinner just listening to my ipod and hanging out i was listening to Ryan Adams - Suicide Handbook which was nice to listen to while i checked out the city. After this i headed to the venue and we all stuffed around in the band room. Chris from SO and i discovered we both love Ace Ventura the original (not the second one, Tom rates it, we were off it) so we instantly begin quoting the shit out of it and then its time for the show to start.

Stealing Oneal nailed it tonight they played great and pumped us up so we had a super fun show too sound was good, there was a singalonggoinon it was sweet!!! After the show we all hit the bar and started getting loose after a few beers we headed out to the van to drink more beers and hang out with people from the show after a few beers the subject of Far's game came up again and before we knew it the rock off was happening again i was absolutely shitting myself thinking it was totally gonna be me and what the fuck i was gonna do but alas it was Chris from oneal, when his 30 seconds came up he had no idea what to do so in true Stealing O'Neal fashion Chris stripped down to nothing holding his junk in his hand he bolted down the main street of Brisbane in front of hundreds of people running around and screaming we were all in tears with laughter on his way running back a night security guard happened to get in his way so the guard ran out of Chris's way so Chris spanked him on the ass and chased him up the street hahahahah it was sooooo good. After a few more beers Tom, Far and I headed to Hungry Jacks to chow down then to the hotel to sleep. Top night.

KG getting his sexy all the way right.

4MP 4 LYFE.

Kenny and Far dicking around before the show

Far and Ryan shooting the shit.

8/3/09

Today we wake up all feeling less than amazing we shower and check out of the hotel i head off to get water and pineapple juice (good for the throat) meet the boys at subway for breakfast then walk down to Kill The Music which is this record store in Brisbane that has a venue attached to it called The Hive where today's acoustic show is. We get to the store and all of us start checking out the cd's and shirts has anyone seen the artwork to the new propaghandi record? WOW! after we are done shopping we all head into the venue where there are plenty of kids!! STOKED! last time we played here we played to like 10 people so its nice that there are more people here. We like playing acoustic shows its nice to play the songs differently (and in a lower register because my voice is less than amazing today) but we get through the set and have fun and surprisingly i think it went pretty well. Stealing O'Neal play and sound great (oh! and a year to remember were good too!) also some girls from the show the night before brought me lollies for the van ride!! YES!! sour skittles rule, thanks guys!

After the show we pack the van and head home on the van ride we watch step brothers ive been meaning to get around to this movie but just havent been bothered to check it out, sooooo funny we all sit there exhausted pissing ourselves laughing until we all fall asleep i manage to squeeze myself into a comfortable position enough to sleep and wake up out the front of my house!!! STOKED!!! we unload the trailer say goodbye to the boys (who still have 10 hours left to get to melbourne, poor bastards) i head inside and catch the simpsons on Fox 8 before i pass out.

Cant wait for the rest of this tour!!! YEOW!!!!!!!!!!!

There's A Cave Where I've Been Sleeping......

Another adventure begins, i am the LEAST organised when it comes to touring always pack my bag like five minutes before the van shows up and i have to leave forgetting stuff and bringing tonnes of books and movies and shit i dont need and then five minutes after im in the van my stuff is spread from one end of the van to the other so i have made a deal with myself that on this tour i am going to keep myself organised lets see how that one lasts huh?

Not much going on with us lately except rehearsing for this tour writing has slowed down but will pick back up after we finish this tour, go to perth and then do the BCE tour. Another thing about touring i ALWAYS take a camera with me but i never take any photos so this time i am making a deal to take as many as i can i will post them on here for you guys to see dont get too excited i am a shite photographer.

I have been listening to so much stuff lately that i have gotten my hands on in one way or another and havent listened to so i have resided to going through the albums ive gotten one by one, im really liking mansions at the moment cos the guy releases like one ep a week its ridiculous but awesome suss it out www.myspace.com/mansions other than that spinning lots of Nada Surf and just a hint of Jeff Buckley for good measure.

First date of this tour is the hard rock in the gold coast tomorrow night so i will post and let you know how it went if you are coming make sure you come say hey.

Later xoxoxoxo