12/06/08 - Ding Dong with Project321Explosion and Signet Mae

Ding Dong is a magnificent venue, probably my favourite. Project321Explosion pulled a really good crowd and about half stuck around for our set, which is pretty good for a rainy Thursday night. Project321 organised the whole night but got their set cut short by the no tolerance schedule abiding Ding Dong, which was pretty ru-bash for them. We played pretty well and won the a few guys over at the front who went pretty nuts. Halfway through our set one of the dancing guys slyly stole a peripheral foot tapping guy's beer before dancing off unnoticed. Then, to my delight, I got to watch the other guy call him on it and it was AWWWKWARD. The guy got his beer back, but I personally wouldn't want a beer that another sweaty guy had slobbered all over.

As it was one of his last shows Ben really got into it and took off his top at some point. When he came over to my side of the stage one of the dancing guys started taking photos, so I started smiling and stuff until it became perfectly clear that the photo guy didn't even want me in the shot, he was only interested in entering Ben's cheese-grater abs into his digital wank tank.

Dan had decided to reign in his flipping a bit and waited until halfway through the set before letting it all out in one concentrated burst, producing an image that still makes me laugh in inappropriate social situations like trams and solo footpath walking. One minute he was singing on stage, the next minute there was just this cloud silhouette of him in mid air in front of the stage with limbs flailing around, Wile-E-Coyote style. He shot to the back of the room and convulsed all over the place for like 30 seconds in the most maniac dance style I have ever seen in my life. His was firing his limbs in all directions so fast they were a blur and I'm pretty sure the Ministry of Fashionable Dancing would have put him away for a long time had they been in attendance.

27/09/2007 The Espy Public Bar with Spider Vomit, Saint James and Sons of Stanhope

This was a big night for us. I had talked us into getting together our own night at the Public Bar by making out that we were a much bigger deal than we were and promising that our friends Ouch! My Face! would be headlining. Unfortunately OMF! couldn't do it in the end, and things looked pretty grim until Dan managed to secure the services of Indie sensations Spider Vomit. We got pretty excited and postered the shit out of Fitzroy with our first ever band poster (ever so kindly made by Bridget). A lot of people rocked up on the night and the room was looking packed, but it seemed that many of them had come for Saint James and some left before our set. We forged on however and things went well. We did our first ever song in '3D' and everyone tripped out. Dan spent hours and hours stapling bits of cellophane to those glasses and I spent most of that afternoon writing 'thegoodtimepartyband.com' on all the arms. My Dad came for the first time since our show at the Laundry and he seemed to really like us, which was a sigh of relief for me. Ben keg walked for the longest I'd ever seen him do, and Dan went nuts. Aaron's kick drum smashed me in the chest the whole set and it was awesome. Unfortunately Sons of Stanhope ended up going way over time and the whole night got pushed back, meaning that Spider Vomit's set was cut short and that sucked for them.

17/08/2007 The Blue Tile Lounge with the Shoes and the Plagues

This was our first time at the Blue Tile Lounge, it's a tiny little venue on Smith Street but it's pretty cool. We weren't too optimistic before the show as we hadn't managed to rally much of a crowd and it's a fairly unknown/new venue, but luckily for us it's pretty easy to pack out a small room. Our most hardcore fan base of four were there of course, plus some of our lovely female friends, and combined with a few random friends and the other bands it worked out pretty well. People danced and I laughed watching one of Leon's friends get wasted and attempt to pick up nearly every girl in the place. Someone started up limbo during our set and it was rad. As the room was quite intimate it was like the more that Dan flipped out, the more the crowd would flip out, which meant that Dan would flip out even more, and I began to get worried that someone would burst into flames. Aaron got the rare treat of using the house kit and only having to bring cymbals, but he ended up having to drive anyway and the kit sucked apparently. 

12/07/2007 The Espy, Public Bar, supporting Johnny Rock and the Limits, with Elora Danan and the Reptiles

We were opening the night for Johnny Rock, the Reptiles and Elora Danan. It was a pretty good show, the room was only about a third full as we were playing so early, but it was fun. Massive props to my homie Johnny Rock for giving us the show. One of our friends got ridiculously drunk before coming and caused a massive ruckus, it was pretty funny. He was the only person up the front, but he went nuts and did some drumming on the keg for us. We didn't realize what a big deal Elora Danan were, they'd come all the way over from Perth and packed the place out. They were really nice guys. Their guitarist awesome to watch as he rocks out so freaking hard, he was literally bouncing off the wall. Unfortunately for him our drunk friend returned to the Public Bar halfway though their set and kept grabbing/bear hugging his legs, which was a bitch for him cos he was a big foot pedal using guy, He took it pretty well though and I had a hearty chuckle throughout the whole ordeal. I missed most of the Reptiles set unfortunately but Johnny Rock and the Limits were really good. Ben did a massive keg walk and it was sweet. I just realized that this was the Good Time Party Band's 20^th show! I think that we'd come a pretty long way since our first show at Monash, and it was good to share it with the esteemed 2004 Lots Wife editor Johnny Rock.

05/07/2007 Cmon Cmon at the Evelyn

We were only called up a few days before this show as another band had pulled out, and we faced the unenviable task of convincing heaps of people to rock up to a show in a few days time, especially when we were opening. We failed this task dismally and played to no more than 10 people, including the Dead South who were nice enough to check out our set. Although it was a mostly empty room, I was pretty stoked to play the Evelyn. It was cool meeting the Dead South too, their music is really good and different, and they dress really ridiculously well which made me look down at my tattered volleys in shame. Talkshow Boy is someone you really have to see to believe, whether you like the music or not you cannot ignore Talkshow Boy. That guy has a lot of energy.

22/06/2007 The Tote Cobra Bar/ A Good Time Guide to the Galaxy/Hannah's 21^st.

This one was a bit of a crazy gig; I think it was weird in the good way but can't be completely sure. We were playing Hannah's (Dan's girlfriend) 21^st birthday party and it was a sci fi theme. We were the only band in between DJ's, but people still danced and got into it though which was rad. We covered the Doctor Who theme and the Star Wars theme and it sounded pretty sweet. Dan got the most hammered he's ever gotten before a show and he was going nuts. There was a rad moment where he hollered 'Who do you loooove??' and before anyone had a chance to say anything he answered his own question with a big 'Meeeeeeee'. It was hilarious and we still give him shit about that moment in time where his drunkenness levels and onstage ego both climaxed at exactly the right time. I learnt that trying to play with a storm trooper helmet with pretty much no eye holes is pretty hard.

19/06/2007 The Espy Front bar

Every time we've played the Espy we've had a good time, and unfortunately all those good times at the front bar have rolled into one for me and I can't remember any distinguishing features of this night. I think it's safe to assume that we had a good time. I think our friend Stevie was there and took some rad shots, there's an awesome one of Dan sprawled out on the floor of the pub with his guitar totally flipping out. The espy has always treated us pretty well, we always end up playing to way more people than we brought as people just hang out all night there.

03/06/2007 The Arthouse

We were regulars at the Arthouse by this stage and were playing with Caliga and Rick's Bar. Although we'd plugged this show a million times on radio the night before we brought about 4 people to that show, and I played like shit. The Good Time Party Band was wedged in a metal sandwich full of guitar men, and this was the night that I busted like 3 strings in rapid succession which messed me up. I still didn't have a spare guitar by this stage and Phil from Caliga was nice enough to bring one of his up to me, and while it allowed me to keep playing I didn't play very well as I've gotten way too used to my own guitar and don't adapt well. The other guys did really well holding it together, and it was clear that they played good and I didn't.

02/06/2007 Live on 3RRR fm

It was pretty exciting to play live on radio, we got asked to play on the Saturday night 'party show' which was extremely appropriate for us. Steve Huf came and helped out with the megaphone and we all felt like superstars. I'm still not sure how it sounded because we never ended up getting hold of the cd, but it was really fun and a good chance for us to spruik our wares to people we'll probably never meet. I found a RRR subscriber newsletter and still have it now; it's a really good read. Every year we mean to subscribe to 3RRR but forget. Next subsribathon I swear.

23/05/2007 Monash 'Save Green Week Night' fundraiser

The Good Time Party Band love Monash and I think that Monash loves the Good Time Party Band. We played in a hollowed out old bar to trashed people that went freaking nuts. I got bought in a slave raffle and was forced to wear a gympish leather dress for the whole set, although I covered it up halfway. When I peeled it off at the end of the set there was actually sweat dripping of it and every girl within a two metre radius squirmed away in horror from me. The sound was rubbish in there and Aaron beat the shit out of his drums to compensate. Someone took some rad photos and it was awesome as we were only playing for a slab. Saint James were playing before us and they were really good, although some jerks kept playing beer pong during their set. I got peer pressured into playing for a bit and still feel guilty about it to this day. There is an awesome photo of Dan from this show and it looks like he's trying to take a dump onstage, it's really funny. He ended up getting bounced around the room by crazy punters who maintained a mosh pit the whole show, and he bounced right back to them in punk rock style and it was cool.

01/05/2007 The Tote

I think that by this stage the Plagues, the Shoes and the Good Time Party Band were technically related. We had almost learnt each other's lyrics and were still batting it out for which 'the' band would reign supreme. By the way I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that 'the' is just as much a part of our name as 'Good' or 'Time' or 'Party' or 'Band'. You may notice that 'the' had a lower case 't' while every other word starts with an upper case letter. Write it down, tell your peeps, because if one more venue gets it wrong I'm holding YOU personally responsible. Anyway, we were stoked to finally stand on the world famous and eerily sticky stage of the Tote. I think we might have actually flipped out more than at the Arthouse. I jumped off the stage, accidentally landed on my knees and had absolutely no idea where to go from there, so I just kind've crawled around on my knees for the entire solo and looked pretty dumb. One guy was wigging out so hard that broke his leg, apparently there was bone sticking actually piercing his skin, or maybe I made that up. He keeps promising to send us the photos of his rock dog injury for our myspace but hasn't done it yet. He will look down at the scar on his knee and remember our band for the rest of his life. That gives me a boner.

18/03/2007 The Arthouse

I think that this was with our friends the Shoes and the Plagues. It was our first ever weekend show, although being a Sunday night it didn't really make much difference. This show was the peak of us concentrating on flipping out so hard that we would forget to play well, and I still have a recording of this night to remind me to keep the flipping in check. The Plagues didn't let us down and again started a four man mosh right up the front, it was fully sick. I think maybe the Missing played this night as well, it was definitely one of the Arthouse shows. They were cool, I can still remember their guitarist, he was pretty young and looked like a young Angus Young. Three young's in one sentence, that's a low point in the Gigography. Anyways, this kid was fucking shredding it up and he had this rad/goofy grin the whole time he was shredding, I think that he was the man.

13/03/2007 The Espy

This was the Good Time Party Band's first show at the espy and we were excited. Although it was a Tuesday night, if you have to play a Tuesday night anywhere you'd want it to be the espy. There were lots of people just hanging out and drinking and stuff because it was still nice weather and our modest legion of friends showed up and had a good time. My old guitar teacher was there and I got so nervous about playing in front of him that I did a sneaky spew before we went on. How cool is that. The bass player from Saint James happened to be there playing pool with some friends so we ended up getting quite drunk with him afterwards at what may have been the seediest and most tragic joint in Melbourne. I can't remember what it was called or where it was, but it was the only place open in Saint Kilda on a Tuesday night.

28/02/2007 The Grand Central Hotel

We were back at the Grand Central and about to learn a lesson the hard way. Turns out the Good Time Party Band still had a lot to learn about promotion, and although announcing your next show on stage and putting it up on your myspace is good it doesn't count as promo. It was just us and the Plagues playing, Talkshow Boy was booked to open the night but he didn't show for some reason, and I think that each band brought a crowd of 1 person each. It was pretty intense. Both bands rocked out nonetheless, although I broke another string. Dan was going nuts on the floor, I think Ben took his shirt off and I climbed up some high thing that was rad but then did a sissy jump off it and short changed myself. The Plagues moshed to our set like there was 2000 people in the room and I still love them for that. I may be wrong, but I think that this may have been the first time that Ben ever keg walked. This amazing stunt of his is ever elusive, he has to be really psyched up and having a really good time to do it and you never know when it's going to happen. I think Aaron may have busted a stick that night, I know we definitely busted one of his sticks on the keg. I remember we screwed up a few times but Aaron just pretended like they were drum solos and powered on like a pro. We had a good time, but definitely didn't expect any more shows at the Grand Central.

19/02/2007 Host Scheme Night at QBH with the Dukes of Windsor, Skybombers and the Inches. (Monash Uni's big party to celebrate the start of the year)

This was a fairly random and high profile show and a big jump from our last few shows. We were clearly in over our heads but we had a good time nonetheless. As we were the first band on and the token no-name band, we were the only ones not getting paid and the only ones to be done playing by 9:30pm. This meant that we were four rowdy guys cooped up in a room with a lot of slabs, intended to be split evenly amongst the bands. We had fully intended to honour this, but we accidentally got drunk and the Inches didn't rock up until pretty late, so they probably had about 3 beers left between them. Wild horses couldn't have dragged us away from a good time that night, and we got trashed and talked with the other bands like we too were rock stars and we knew what they were going through. Although the guys assure me that I wasn't being that wasted guy that talks way too much, it's hard to trust them as they were trashed too. Steve Huf gave it a nudge with us that night too and I decided that I love him.

Dan flipped out with his megaphone that night and tried to physically drag people to the dance floor, but a lot of them didn't want a bar of it. Those that did come were heavily influenced by our friends who were cutting up the floor and everyone had a party. Everyone had Eargasms over the Dukes of Windsor and Ben and I decided that they are our favorite Melbourne band. I was ready to get a lift back to my girlfriend's house when Ravi from the Skybombers peer pressured me into getting even more trashed, using the fact that I play in the 'Good Time Party Band' against me. I ended up freaking retarded and trying to walk from QBH to South Yarra at like 4am before luckily running into a friend who drove me.

07/02/2007 The Arthouse

After me hassling them and Dan flogging them a demo, the Arthouse finally called us up for a show. I was pretty keen to play there as not long before I'd seen Trial Kennedy, Horsell Common and the Scissor File there and it was a rad venue that was packed to the rafters with fans of those bands. It made the Arthouse seem like a pretty..ahem..'happening joint'. We asked our new band friends The Plagues and There She Goes Again to support and it was grand. There She Goes Again have an uncanny ability to pull crowds wherever they go, they could play a show at Frankston train station and truckloads of fashionable people would emerge out of nowhere.  This was one of the first nights we'd had a rider I think and I was pretty excited. Ben and Aaron had done it all before with other bands but Dan and I were but giddy schoolchildren waiting for the sex and drugs to leap through the windows while we were rocking and rolling. I think we flipped out pretty good that night and it was cool to hear nice things from people that we didn't know.

27/01/2007 Grand Central Hotel

I'm getting these dates from our myspace but clearly they're wrong cos we didn't do this show three days after the Barleycorn..anyways. We played after an experimental band called 'Thank fucking god we're alive' and 3 piece all girl band 'There she goes again'. It was a fun night but I'm pretty sure I busted a string and it screwed me up. I hadn't worked out yet that you have to change guitar strings more than 3 times a year, or at least bring a spare guitar to shows. This and the amount it put me off for the rest of the night became known as 'the Grand Central incident'. 

24/01/2007 The Barleycorn hotel

I'm not sure how it came about but we ended up recording a demo at Steve Huf's (our more often than not sound guy and bass player for Ouch! My Face!) house in Richmond, and this show was supposed to be a 'demo launch' show. I suppose I'll slip in a quick word about the demo.. Recording with Steve was sweet and it became pretty clear that Ben and Aaron had signed on for Good Times with the Party Band, and everything was finally moving. Highlights include: Steve living opposite McDonalds, Aaron and Ben and Steve creating this whole rad eerie start to 'They're Coming For Me' using a double bass and cymbals dipped in and out of water buckets, Dan realising he could comfortable sing like an octave higher and that it sounded awesome and me doing massive death screams for 'They're Coming For Me' until I thought I'd busted a rib or something and couldn't talk just to find that Steve had forgotten to press record.     

The Barleycorn show was the first one we'd organized ourselves (well actually Dan organized it), and we got the Shoes to play and also Dan's friend Joe Charles to spin some slammin tunes. It was another good crowd, as it had been a while since our last show and people weren't sick of us yet. I think also that because Dan had labeled it a demo launch that people thought it would be a massive EP launch and that it would be this huge show and that the Good Time Party Band had made it. Anyways, people showed up again and we were completely spoilt although we didn't realize it at the time. Ben snapped a string in the first song and I witnessed what may have been the fasted string change since 1846. We played 'pass the parcel' and everyone got demos except the last and ultimate winner, who won Dan's onion. The manager of Ouch! My Face! came along and asked us to play at the Grand Central Club as he was booking the bands, so it was sweet to tee up a follow up show quick smart.

21/09/2006 Chelsea Heights Hotel supporting the Go Set (Round 2)

This was another night in the semi empty room at Chelsea, except this time there were a few more locals there. A few old beardy biker dudes that I thought were heckling us from their table turned out to be having a good time and just flipping out from the comfort of our chairs. One of them, after a few more refreshing ales, took me aside and told me how great we were, and how much we reminded him of Killing Heidi. It was a weird sort of a compliment, but honestly I was just glad that he wasn't punching me in the face. Some more of Adam and Dean's friends came who were actually fans of the Go Set so they were pretty stoked to have some real fans there. Just before we played we were hanging out in the TAB which was right next to the room we were playing in and Dan was betting on the greyhounds. He ended up losing money it became something of a ridiculously funny personal joke amongst the Good Time Party Band that night. Unfortunately I forgot that it was a personal joke, and just after Dan said something really funny onstage I followed it up with a 'yeah, don't bet on the greyhounds'. There was something about the way I said it, I just thought that I was the funniest man in the world and that this line would actually have people urinating in their pants, it was just that funny. This dumb comment silenced the room like a dead baby and it turns out that Ben was recording the show that night, and every time I hear that stupid joke it makes my stomach turn. You can almost hear the tumbleweed and everyone in the room thinking 'this guy is a complete tosser and I hope he never uses the microphone again'.

 Although the rest of my band drove home to bed like little nancy girls, I stuck around until the end so I could try to schmooze the Go Set for some of those city shows they kept talking about, and during their last song they were rocking out so hard that they asked the Good Time Party Band to get up and sing a song with them. Unfortunately it was just me left and I had no clue what half of their names were let alone lyrics. This was kind've awkward but luckily Adam and Dean's friend's jumped up as well and they knew the words so it was sweet. They asked us to come back again the next week but I think someone had another show on or something and we couldn't do it. We were also a bit bitter that the Go Set were smashing slabs of Corona's from their rider but didn't share so we were forced to keep sipping our waters like they were little cups of pain.

This was the night that we met the Plagues, who played before us, and although we didn't end up talking for that long we ended up being friends and doing heaps more shows with them.

14/09/2006 Chelsea Heights Hotel supporting the Go Set

We did two of these shows and they were very strange. We were still very wet behind the ears, and when I got a call from Justin from the Go Set asking if we'd like to support them while they were doing shows in Chelsea I naturally jumped at the opportunity. I was just stoked to have another reason to keep playing with Ben and Aaron who both clearly didn't have the time to spend on a band going nowhere. It was in the big glass dome at the start of the Frankston freeway, but it was in like a pub/bistro bit where they'd clearly just cleared the tables and dimmed the lights. It was a very awkward setup and I'd had fantasies that because were playing with the Go Set who had toured the world and had records out and stuff that we would be playing to a sizeable crowd and that this was a big opportunity for us. The Go Set, I now realize, were under the impression that as we were a semi local band that we'd bring the crowd. Needless to say, it wasn't a packed room. We were lucky because we had our friends Adam, Dean, Leon and some of their friends there (who are still the most loyal and diehard Good Time Partyers to date and have missed about two shows) and they danced for us and got trashed. We had a good time because we were just stoked to be playing somewhere. The Go Set asked us back the next week and we were excited, if we kept doing these shows with them then we would be assured support slots at their city shows, which was a pretty sweet deal for us although we're still waiting by our phones for the Go Set to call with those shows.

23/08/2006 Monash Uni Band Comp Final at Laundry

A combination of us being a wildcard draw and Ben and Aaron having another gig that night meant that the Good Time Party Band had to play first, which is usually the death knell for any band at these types of nights. Luckily the Good Time Party Band had an even larger entourage this night than the last show, and they all rushed up the front and flipped out even though we fucking sucked. This show was a 30 minute set and we were a band with only 15 minutes worth of A grade music. We came up with this really hard riff with a wack time in a song called 'I'm walking home' that I actually dreamt/had nightmares about the night before. That one riff had me completely captivated for 2 days and I still managed to forget it on the night and screw up the song. We flipped out as best we could, and our friends rocked out like we were an international band and didn't notice/pretended not to notice how much us and the sound sucked. My Dad came to that show (my one honest critic) and just kind've shook his head after it. Although we came second last, we won another 2 bottles of beam for having the most crowd which meant we now had a bottle each and it was rad. My Dad got a parking fine but I was sweet cos Ben showed me a secret car park near Laundry about which I've already said too much. 

10/08/2006 Monash Uni Band Comp (our first ever gig and all that happened beforehand).

This was a huge night for the Good Time Party Band. Less than two weeks before our first show our drummer stopped showing up to rehearsals or answering his phone. This didn't impress anyone, least of all my friend Ben, whose jazz trained bass playing services we'd begged for and temporarily obtained for this gig. I'd signed us up for the band comp a while back even though we weren't ready, because we needed something to force us to start actually being serious and stop messing around in Dan's garage. We had one more rehearsal before the gig, Ben was still learning the songs, and we had no drummer. We were fucked. Ben jumped on the blower and phoned up his mate Aaron, who he'd played with in many other rock bands, most recently Whisky Go Go's. Aaron, for some unknown reason, said 'yeah sure I'll play this ridiculously unrehearsed, unpaid riderless gig for two dudes I've never met before'.

The first time we played a song together, even though it was probably messy, it felt like we were actually ejaculating rainbows from the top of our heads. We rehearsed in a dingy little room at Jamtin rehearsal studios (which would end up being our home for one night a week) and there was a sign up on the wall asking us not to spit on the curtains. We had a pretty good time, having a sweet drummer and bass player driving things made whatever Dan and I do sound decent and it was the first time that things had really clicked for the Good Time Party Band. It was a bittersweet moment because I knew that even though we sounded freaking rad at the time, Ben and Aaron had pretty much signed on for one night contracts and I was scared we'd go back to being hacks after the show.

Our first show was probably one of my personal highlights, it was my first show as a guitarist (having played Bass in my last band) and we dragged heaps of people along to watch us flip out for just 15 minutes. It was the first time I'd ever seen Dan unleash the fury and Ben and Aaron made us sound good. There were party poppers and blowers. In what some would say was the 'upset of the century', others the 'dirtiest moment in modern rock history' we didn't make the top 3. This was disappointing as the only plan I had for extending Ben and Aaron's stay in the Good Time Party Band was to win and go through to the next round. Fortunately I managed to end up talking the judges to let us through as a wildcard and Ben and Aaron stayed on board for another show.

We won 2 bottles of Jim Beam for having the most people through the door and it was freaking sweet. People showed out in a massive way. Some people that were at the first show still come to our shows and some of them have barely missed one since. They are wonderful people and I intend to give each and every one of them romance explosions with my hand party.