So, I am writing this now we're home safe and sleepy, back from a whirlwind Albany tour with our buddies from skyrocket fights! This is going to be a marathon entry, because I'm writing it while it's fresh in my head! If you get bored, just skip through and look at the photos!
Thursday!
The four of us (the band, plus ferg) met up at brad's house to load up the cars with all our gear, take some stupid photos, and head off down to Albany! We'd decided to drive down earlyish in order to avoid night driving. Ferg and Owen in one car, Brad and Sean in the other. Anyway, you'll notice "the bullet holes" stuck in letter magnets on the side of the sean-mobile. This provided an endless source of hilarity through the trip, reshuffling the letter to come up with the best anagrams we could. I'll stick in some photos of the various combinations people came up with a little later on!
Four hours later, we arrived in
Albany. After a quick look around the time, the other two arrived, and we grabbed some dinner, and found out the skyrockets crew were going to be extremely late, so after some last minute accommodation re-shuffling, we headed over to Matt's mum's place. To the caravan! So, we crammed four of us into the caravan for the first night – on top of being a caravan built for two, there were two large leather backed office chairs in there, which were impossible to remove – they'd been constructed inside, so there was no prospect of removal! After some acoustic jamming (the new stuff sounds excellenet people, be VERY excited) and a tense few rounds of the pirate-dice game (brad bowed out early, and I beat sean in a close finish!) we got an early(ish) night. No prizes for guessing who got the floor!
FridayUp nice and early the next morning to meet up with the skyrockets crew, and head over to the highschools where we were each playing a show in the lunch hours – we took ASHS (pronounced ashes) and the skyrockets gang took NASHS (nashes!) After a speedy setup, and a nearly non existent soundcheck, the bullet holes ripped into their set with ferocity, and the kids seemed to like it!
Afterwards we chatted to the kids, and met a group of guys who ended up being probably the BEST PEOPLE IN THE UNIVERSE! We're talking about jake and the rest of his crew (peter, callan, etc) – after jake graciously signed owen's setlist for him, we packed up and headed back to our various "homes" – myself and sean were then moved over to renae's place, where we had a lot more space than the caravan, as well as a bathroom with hot showers, and a tv with a lot of family guy DVDs! Guess what the bullet holes did that afternoon? Anyway, renae is a very cool girl – make friends with her if you ever get the chance! Nice brothers too.
Eveningtime meant heading over to saffron's parents' place (saffron's dad is skyrocket matt's brother – we were constantly confused as to who was related to who, and how, until the last night of the trip!) The girls were all off doing different things, which meant fish and chips, coffee, and very very violent action movies! But seriously, it was a sweet night, and a good chance to just kick back and chill with the guys, with everyone getting to know each other a little better.
Saturday
The big day – we headed over to RIPE, the youth group where we would be playing that evening's all ages gig. After setup, soundcheck, etc, we headed over to dome for a band meeting, coffee, and a couple of hours of conversation. Plus a lucky coincidence with us bumping into Jake/Peter/Callan at dome, and their hilarious sock art. Funny dudes….
Skip forward to Saturday evening, for the gigs. RIPE – steve fischer is an awesome dude, and puts on a sweet youth ministry! We were a little worried at first, with the guys kicking off a ten song set to a fairly empty room, but as the set progressed more and more people came in, and things were rocking pretty hard, with one of the most blistering renditions of Lost Cause I've ever heard. Afterwards, there was the obligatory signing of cds, stickers, shirts, appendages, and whatever, we grabbed photos with the BEST PEOPLE IN THE UNIVERSE and then busted a groove on over to the London, taking Renae and Kate with us to introduce us to the deaf sound guy (don't ask….) and make sure we didn't get screwed around or anything!
The London was pretty empty once we got there, which though a little disheartening, also relieved the pressure a little. We took our time setting up, as a few people started to filter through into the London back-bar. Midway through the set, we got a call from the running late skyrocket boys, asking us to stall for time, so we threw "a place we call home" and the willie mason cover "oxygen" into the mix to pad things out a bit.
Once the skyrocket dudes arrived, so did the party atmosphere! After selling a bit of merch, and loading into the cars, we were all set to leave. But we didn't really want to! There were new friends and new fans to chat to! So we kind of prolonged the goodbye – I wanted a photo with the two bands together, but the skyrockets dudes were already on stage by then, so owenbrad&sean crashed the stage mid-set and got a "band-buddies" photo.
Gary is the one hidden at the back on the right - unfortunately you can't see him!
After this it was a hurried goodbye to our wonderful new friends, who made the tour an absolute blast (a blast, in Albany? I know! But seriously, it was a fun time INDEED.) In the first one is TEAM MANAGEMENT (myself & saffron) and the second is TEAM OTHER PEOPLE WHO WERE ALSO USEFUL (myself, nae and kate!)
The drive back to perth was long and painful, and we made it (only just – me and sean almost hit a kangaroo.) After a few hours sleep, it was up bright and early for yac it up. Woo!
Anyway, this wouldn't be complete without a few thankyous. Big thanks must go out to our buddies in skyrocket fights – Matt, Gary, Justin and Jordan. All four are absolutely fantastic guys. Team skyrocket's tour management are also the cat's pyjamas – the amazing band-manager Saffron (who made the entire trip happen) and her trusty sidekick, the wonderful Renae, who was a constant source of fun, hilarity, and directions! On top of those wonderful kids, all of the friends and relatives of skyrockets down in Albany who came to any of the shows, fed us, entertained us, or let us sleep on their floors – your generosity and warm welcomes will not be forgotten!
(Oh, and for anyone reading who was having trouble with the skyrockets family tree, I'll explain it to you! Saffron (the manager of SRF) has a brother named Jordan, who is the skyrockets drummer. She has a dad, who is the principal of NASHS I believe. Her uncle, and her dad's brother is matt, who is the frontman of skyrockets. Renae, Justin, and Gary are all just friends of the Sharp family, but not related!
And in case you thought we'd forgotten, here are a few of the more interesting anagrams we came up with. And I know, sometimes we didn't use all the letters!
