09/05/2008 The Peninsula Lounge with Alpha Remedy, The Filthy Hearts and White Like Heat

I had dreamed about playing this venue since the very start of the Good Time Party Band. Dan and I (and Ben for many years) grew up on the Mornington Peninsula. The last time I was there was about two years before to see Kisschasy and Trial Kennedy. Leon and I had stayed up all night in his bedroom mixing down a shit demo which I then tried to hustle to the bands for supports. I thought I was being smooth at the time but now I'm embarrassed looking back on it.

All the other bands were really nice and massaged the crowd like a prostate. White Like Heat seemed to drag half the ..Peninsula.. down for their set, it was pretty impressive. We were all a bit nervous at first but I think it went pretty well. We all flipped out and I think it sounded good. We all did a few stage jumps, which I think is new terrain that we should definitely keep exploring. There's something about stage jumps that looks so cool in photos, but so fucking retarded live. I think that's half the charm. Nearly 200 peninsula-ites showed out so that was really cool.

01/05/2008 The Evelyn with Near Your House, Clive Drexler, DJ Ladyfist and the Sonic Manipulator.

Thursday the 1st was a cold and shit night. About twelve people and a few tumbleweeds showed up to see us, and the tumbleweeds thought they were there to see the Super Happy Fun Band. Unfortunately I missed the Sonic Manipulator's set due to crime fighting reasons, but I'm sure it was off the hiz-zay. Clive Drexler picked up some extra members since we last played with them and they sounded great. They brought lots of friends. We played pretty good, but it's pretty hard to play to tumbleweeds, the only dance they can physically do is rolling back and forth on the spot, and there wasn't enough wind flow to even get that happening. Near Your House are a really good band and if you haven't seen they live yet you're a muppet.

11/04/2008 The Empress supporting Project321Explosion

This show was a WEIRD one. The Empress has this whole noise complaint issue going on, so you have to play really quiet. The sound guy is even given a decibel monitor. So we played quiet. Dylan from Project321Explosion kindly let me use his guitar amp (as mine is being fixed again) but I put it too close behind me, so it was pretty much just blasting into the back of my knee caps rather than my ears. I couldn't hear half of what I was playing.

It was a bit hard to play well and rock out without much sound, but we did our best. Dan acclimatised pretty quickly and flipped out like a professional. Aaron was really sick and took it for the team to even show up that night. It was Ben's second night in a row at the Empress and he kissed a boy. Project321Explosion were really nice guys. They gave out party poppers and I let someone pop one in my mouth. It was pretty gross and the footage didn't come out half as cool as i'd hoped.

20/03/2008 The Old Bar with the Plagues and Not Quite Special

This was a pretty disorganized night, but sometimes those are the best ones. Being Good Friday Eve, I had pretty high hopes that people would actually have to crowd surf to the bar just to tell the bar girl what a good time they were having. Unfortunately there wasn't such a rush, and the Old Bar was pretty quiet up until 5 minutes before we went on. By this stage my fingernails had almost been bitten back to my elbows, Aaron had pretty much written off the whole night and Dan was masturbating into his shoes under other people's tables. Ben kept it pretty cool though. 

LUCKILY just as Ben hit the opening notes to 'Do the Grand Canyon' people started wandering in, and especially lucky that Leon, Adam, Nick and Disco Dan rolled right up to the front and started going off. Then all the people came in from the beer garden and they had to open up that divider thing between the stage and the bar because people were at grave risk of flipping out to death. I broke a string a few bars into the very first song, and although my guitar change-over technique would have been rated at least a 9.8 by the harshest of markers, it could not compensate for the fact that I never play my spare guitar, I'm not used to it and it doesn't make the 'woop woop' noise (used in Justine).

This aside we did pretty well. We tried a new song, played 'Take it like the Man' and got dragged on for an encore (a real one, not one those trashy 'we're going to wander off and conveniently leave our amps on and look toward the encore section of our set list') and got to talk to some people that had never seen us before. It was really good to see the Plagues play again as well, they got really freaking tight since we last saw them. On a scale of 1-478 I give this show a rating of 385.

15/03/2008 Great Britain Hotel supporting Near Your House

We only found out we were playing this show a few days before, as the Genie (3 dudes from the Cat Empire, one of the sickest groups going around at the moment) had pulled out and they needed a replacement. It has been a magical time as of late, where people have been asking US to play shows, as opposed to us hustling and putting out in alleyways for gigs. I was a little nervous about this one as I had no idea that the GB did live music or if people actually went there on a Saturday. I was also a bit on edge as Near Your House are a ridiculously good band, and their guitarist Josh went to the VCA. It's a long standing tradition that guitarists always watch other guitarists and try to compare if they are better than them, and I'm much more comfortable with this process when the other guitarists in the house haven't been to music school (Melbourne's most prestigious one at that).

It worked out to be a really good night, GB gave us a massive rider (hint hint make sure you come next time we're playing there and we'll hook you up) and people got into it. I think it sounded pretty good, a lot of people came up to us after and said they liked it which was nice, even the drunken hecklers. There's a breakdown in one of our songs (Clap Clap Clap) where Dan shouts 'Girls love radicals' over and over, and just as he did it all these dudes burst into room dressed up as terrorists and soldiers and stuff, and just wigged out right in front of us. Aaron got me with another busted stick and I snapped a string in our second last song (the one night I forget to bring a spare guitar). Josh from Near Your House came to the rescue with his guitar, but he ended up snapping a string on that later on and also had no spare guitar.

Near Your House are a really good band. They're kind've like disco rock, their singer pretends to be German (maybe he is German, who's to say) and does the raddest dancing imaginable. Sam, Ben's brother and my mate, was the first to bust onto the dance floor and was loving it until all these girls came up to dance with him and he got nervous and ran away. We all ended up dancing to their last song and it was a Brady Bunch ending to a fairy tale night.

06/03/2008 The Tote, supporting Vaudeville and the Rex Wicked

This show was definitely one to bring us back down to earth, as not only did we have bugger all people coming but we were opening the night at 8:30pm. Apart from the other bands there were about 10 people there to watch us, including Aaron's parents. It turned out to be a pretty fun gig in the end, except I had some issues with my levels and we fucked up a few times. Dan went completely nuts for the first few songs and got totally ruined, and has since been talking about crazy things like running, bike riding and Pilates.

Aaron has become a master at pretending like we haven't screwed up, forging on ahead and allowing us to fluff around a bit until we catch up to where he's at. His skill was particularly handy on this night, pretty much just because of me. I was not quite in the zone, but luckily we pulled it together enough to make it a good (and definitely intimate) show.

Vaudeville are a really good band and are nice guys. You should check them out. Unfortunately I missed the Rex Wicked's set as i had work the next morning (probably the first time in my entire life that I missed the set of another band on a bill with us) but Dan watched them so he'll have to fill you in on what they were like.

01/03/2008 Weekender at Ding Dong with Small Affairs

This was a pretty big deal for the Good Time Party Band as headlining a Saturday at Ding Dong was the biggest show we'd had to date. We postered the shit out of it and harassed all our friends, and despite half the population of Melbourne turning 21 that night we did ok. Turns out Weekender actually brings a fair crowd of it's own, so we were playing to a pretty big crowd. It was a little surreal for me as I was pretty sick and had self medicated on a fairly large dose of Panadol, red bull, beer and seedy Swanston street nachos.

You never can tell when Ben and Aaron are going to freak out, but this was definitely a night that had agreed upon amongst themselves. Dan did his flipping and I got my rock on, and it seemed to win the crowd over. There were heaps of girls we didn't know dancing up the front and people were getting into it. I really like playing Ding Dong, they've got a really good system in there and heaps of fold back speakers, and it's really cool walking on stage from behind curtains. As far as I could tell everyone had a good time. My Dad, the most honest and knowledgeable critic I have, drove all the way from Warragul to check us out and he really liked it. Someone kept yelling at us to break more chairs, so perhaps word is getting spread.

29/02/2008 Pony with Clive Drexler and Daily Waters

This was our first show back in a while as Dan had been traveling through ..Asia.. since the Eurotrash show. It was a bit daunting as we hadn't played live in nearly 2 months, and we had used up all of our favors to make sure we had a crowd at Ding Dong the night after. We had also talked an important person to come and watch us, which was probably a bad thing to do at our first show back.

Anyways, the heavens opened up and people started trickling just before and during Daily Waters' set, and by the time we were ready to go there was at least a half full room. Although I was expecting them all to ignore us and continue their conversations, they actually went pretty silent and seemed to give us their undivided attention which was nice. We didn't play great, but we didn't totally suck. I think we did ok considering the break, and it was really good to get everything ironed out for our big Ding Dong show the night before.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason Dan had found a little plastic chair to sit on, and he decided to kick it in a frenzied moment of sex drugs and rock and roll. This must have really captured the imagination of some drunken punter down the back, who from then on kept screaming '…break the chair' and 'break more chairs' for the rest of the set. Dan (not a strong character in the face of peer pressure) eventually relented and started smashing the shit out of this chair, which stubbornly would not break until he picked it up and began hurling it at the wall. Unfortunately the wall had a shelf which was holding heaps of pot glasses, which of course smashed everywhere. It was pretty sweet and the chair thankfully broke, and luckily the staff at Pony didn't seem to notice/mind too much. Massive props to Stefan for bring his peeps out on a Friday night for us and Ben Presa for taking rad shots (check out our photos section for pictures of the aforementioned chair breaking fiasco). 

03/01/2008 EXXXXTRAVAGANZA at Eurotrash with E.L.F, Miami Horror, the Breaks, the Hondas, Clive Drexler, DJ's Ladyfist and Yes No Maybe

This was another Dan Hawkins project and it became clear that everything he touches turns to gold. Somehow he convinced E.L.F (one third of Gerling) to fly down from ....Sydney.... to play and it paid off. He and Tim organized the whole night and it was wicked. Dan's sister made a kissing booth and Guils from the Hondas took it from the team and made out with people for a dollar. DJ Ladyfist (May) sat in there with him for a bit, and someone paid them $3 to kiss each other. Apparently it was a tongue kiss too. I saw 50c in the jar, which means that either someone stinged out and paid 50c for a kiss or someone paid $1.50 for a massive kiss, which makes sense because Giuls said that a few girls did actually slip the tongue in. He was pretty stoked about that. During sound check the manager from Eurotrash came in with a decibel meter and kindly informed us that we were playing way too loud and if we played that loudly during the night the cops would probably show up and he'd shut us down. Fortunately for us, when we played twice as loud that night, no such thing happened and everyone had a good time.

The Honda's got the ladies hearts pounding as usual and Clive Drexler were freaking awesome until their laptop broke. Their guitarist Kate, who had waited patiently the whole set so she could come in and play the last two songs, had to leave without playing and I didn't envy her. The Breaks did well even with a stand in Bass player, and the DJ's and VJ's and HJ's all did really well. This was a highlight show for me; it was probably one of the biggest crowd's we've played to. Dan went crazy and Ben went the most nuts I've ever seen him go. Aaron, as always, was an absolute pro and he managed to break a stick without throwing it at me. I'm not sure if I feel lucky or a little hurt that he forgot to throw it at me. I couldn't help but notice that the room was packed for the first third of our set, but then about halfway through it was a predominately male audience. Are we getting too heavy girls?? This show and our show at Ding Dong (both Dan Hawkins specials) would be my favourite shows so far.

05/12/2007 The Tote with Saint James and the Filthy Hearts.

This was a more low key show than Ding Dong, but it was cool to know that we could still pull a crowd without a big name headliner. It was the Filthy Hearts' first ever show (Stefan the guitarist and I used to play in a band before me and Dan started the Party band), and they ripped it apart. Saint James had a fill in Bass player for the night and did well, and we played good I think. We started pretty modestly but went crazier and crazier as the set went on. Yet again our hardcore friends/fans showed out, and although Leon was still out of the country, Dean, Adam and Ian shouted out all the words and jigged hard enough to cover him.

08/11/2007 Ding Dong Lounge with Little Red, Ouch! My Face! and the Breaks

This was Dan's first try at being manager man and he freaking smashed it. It was the first time I'd met Little Red, and I had no idea of how huge they were until then.  We chucked everything we had at this night, I postered half of Melbourne (with a rad poster kindly created by Celeste from OMF!) and the Party Band spent about $300 000 on sms's. Either all our hard work paid off, or was completely unnecessary as Little Red would have packed the place out anyway. Anyways the Breaks opened and were really good; I actually forgot how good they are.

There was a fair crowd by the time we got on, and it was a really good gig for us. It was sweet to be able to walk on stage from behind a curtain and we played really well. Aaron was smacking the skins so hard that he kept breaking sticks and throwing them at me. Ben went really nuts and Dan was his usual rock star self. He made everyone bunch up at the front so he could do his first ever Party Band crowd surf and it was pretty funny. I'd just spent the last of my paycheck on a brand new foot pedal tuner and it was worth every cent. I was so excited about it that I was even tuning up in the MIDDLE of songs, it was rad.

My amp was still in the shop at this time and Marty from Tic Toc Tokyo descended from heaven to lend me his. This was awesome because his amp is about one hundred million times better than mine. Seeing as it was the first time we'd ever played with Ouch! My Face! we decided to insert one of their riffs into the start of 'They're coming for me' and it was awesome as they weren't expecting it. OMF! played really good despite being the most polar opposite from Little Red you could find. They are a really awesome band. Little Red, of course, stole the show and there was so much estrogen spraying around the room that it actually stained my shirt. I thought that girls were going to start throwing their panties they were loving it that much and I still have nightmares about my girlfriend being left in the same room as them.

10/10/2007 The Espy Front Bar with the Mad Feeling

This gig went surprisingly well for a Wednesday night, with lots of people hanging around to watch us and cheer loudly. Steve from the Mad Feeling kindly let me use his wicked Orange guitar amp as mine was in the shop getting repaired after I blew it. They were really nice and we had a good time. This was the night that Dan (Leon's friend not our singer Dan) graduated into the realm of hardcore Party Band fan. He'd chosen to spend his birthday with the Party Band, while less than 5 months ago he'd broken his leg dancing to us at the Tote. What a guy.

29/09/2007 The Blue Tile Lounge Grand Final Party with the Shoes and the Breaks

This was a pretty lame gig as we were playing to a practically empty room. We still played pretty well, but it's near impossible to flip out to about 8 seated people. We met the Breaks this night and really liked their music. Ben was sick and had to keep spraying that anti snot stuff up his nose which was pretty funny, and everyone was a bit slow due to the Grand Final that day. Dan and I proceeded to get wasted after the show and hung out with Breaks for ages after.

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.