Greetings friends!
We thought it was about time
we shared some of the stories from the road about the traveling musical troupe
that is MM9. We’re on tour so often we kind of take the shenanigans for
granted, and forget that the memorable (and often ridiculous) events that occur
may be of interest to others. So…...
*insert theme from ROCKY*
This run was with our great
friends Dead Letter Circus with whom we’ve done many tours. We were also joined
by our good friend and photographer extraordinaire Nick Bezzina who came along
to take some behind-the-scenes shots of us on the road. You can check them out
in our PICS section. (check out his previous work here http://www.nicbezzina.com/).
MM9 travels in absolute
luxury when touring...assuming your idea of luxury is being packed into a
mini-bus with seven other guys, a shitload of gear, and a wide variety of
interestingly offensive odours...
Fortunately we have the
man-machine that is our tour manager Big Matty to drive us most of the time, so
we get to sleep, relax, and get ready for the shows. Catering when traveling is
usually provided by the many hygienically questionable roadside truck-stops
that we frequent, and is generally served by surly women with names like Bev or
Raelene.
Lucky for us, the first leg
of this tour was a pretty short, cruisy run up to the NSW Mid-North Coast...
Friday 17/04/2009
Hoey Moey
Coffs Harbour
We've played here a couple
times now, so we knew tonight was going to be a great one. The people at Coffs
really made us feel extremely welcome and we smashed through our set to a great
response. We then, as usual, proceeded to demolish our drink rider, along with
pretty much anything else we could get our hands on…which tends to happen a lot
on these trips. During DLC’s set the flimsy crowd control barrier gave way so
our own Big Matty and drummer Ben assisted in helping security to keep it
stable. Admittedly seeing Ben attempt to hold back an excitable crowd was
pretty damn funny (at one point he was actually turned completely upside down
by the force of the crowd). Luke, Kerry and Dan assisted by drinking, pointing
and laughing. After the show, we took the party to the beach along with the DLC
gents. Once we got there, our sound engineer Evan, for reasons only he could
possibly understand, decided to challenge Luke to a wresting match.
This did not go particularly
well for Evan
It did provide further
entertainment for everyone else though, because seeing Evan eat sand is funny.
Thank you Coffs Harbour, you
rule!
Saturday 18/04/2009
Swell Tavern
Burleigh Heads
We arrived at the Swell
Tavern to find out that there was not only a band competition on before our
show, but a 40th birthday party was being held in the
next section of the club, right next to the stage and separated only by a
see-through curtain. We were certain the night would get canceled but
fortunately the show went on. The 40th birthday crew actually came across and danced! In the middle
of our set, the Dead Letter boys rushed the stage with shots of tequila for
us…a favour we would return later on. The venue was packed, both bands had
great shows and we made heaps of new friends. It’s always cool to go to a new
town/city and play for new faces even though sometimes it feels like we have to
work a little more due to people not yet knowing many of the songs as we’re
waiting on the release of our album. If nothing else it makes us work harder!
It's also worth noting that,
on this night, Kerry managed to get himself drunker than anyone has ever been
in the history of being drunk. To be honest, warning bells should have started
ringing when he had a beer before breakfast in Coffs that morning… Anyway,
after DLC's set, we packed the gear (and our drunken guitarist) back in the van
and headed straight to Byron Bay for the last show.
Sunday 19/04/2009
Hotel Great Northern
Byron Bay
Good morning Byron Bay!
We stayed at the Hotel Great
Northern, where the show would be later that night. We had the whole day off in
Byron today which can NEVER be a bad thing. We started with a relaxed breakfast
together and then headed our separate ways. We all tend to do different things
to pass time on tour. Ben will check out the local tattoo parlours, Kerry will
generally get a poker game going, Luke will do some Muay Thai training, and Dan
will tend to go and grab some quiet time away from everybody, reading. This
dynamic works for us pretty nicely. After seven years, time apart is necessary for
us stay together. Wow that was deep...must be the Byron Bay air…
The show went great and the
sound was massive! It’s amazing what a good sound check can do. There was a
really appreciative crowd at the Great Northern, and they weren't at all shy
about cheering their arses off; especially for a Sunday night. Friggin'
awesome! Post-show, we proceeded to do what we do best...drinking everything in
sight. There was literally nothing left, so our new friend Sam, a photographer from Byron Bay offered to
get us all into a club down the road. After some bad dancing and copious
alcohol consumption some of us decided to head to the beach where, perhaps not
surprisingly, events quickly degenerated; culminating in a nauseating battle
for beach-superiority between Luke and Kerry that you really don't want to know the details of...
So there you have it. The
next morning we got back in the van and headed home. Thank you to Matty for
being a driving/merching/all-around demon; Evan for the sonics, Nic for the
pics, Beau for the lights and especially all the Dead Letter guys. We fucking
love all of you guys and can’t wait till the next time!!
Stay tuned..