AXXON tour blog, part 3
27 February: Yah Yah’s, Melbourne
I wake on Sunday and just kick it for most of the day as my body readjusts to being in what I consider to be a ‘normal’ temperature. I then shoot off to an awesome café on Sydney Road in Brunswick called Greens where I’m meeting my sound tech for the night, Todd Dixon, and Tom Lyngcoln from The Nation Blue for coffee, chit-chats and to discuss/work on a future project. Tom gives me a ride to Yah Yah’s. I’ve actually never laid eyes on the place but am pretty casual as the staff, booking agent etc. are all very nice, which always leads me to think the venue will be too. It’s a nice place, not huge, not small, but it’s going to do the job, especially as it’s a FREE Sunday gig. Todd sets up and talks to the other supports Peon, No Zu and Mystic Eyes, all very capable and awesome avant performers in their own right; it’s going to make for a pretty good evening. As it happens, a lot of people are turning up out of the blue from Brisbane, Tasmania, Melbourne, including old high school buddies I haven’t seen for some 15 years: it’s exciting, kinda like playing in all those places at once.
I kick off my set and Todd’s doing a sweet job of tuning every last morsel of sound out of the PA. But I start to have some tech problems, my foot controller which pretty much keeps everything going forward when I want it to starts working intermittently. It’s the batteries and it makes for some weird sonic interludes as I go to change, with melodics changing and nothing else; I weigh up my options and remember that Mystic Eyes who played before me had a Boss Loop Pedal. What I need is a power supply, something I can plug in quick and get the foot controller back in action. I leave a monotonous loop running and jump into the crowd to find Lisa, she finds her adaptor and I plug it in and we’re back in action. I’m kind of pissed that I let it happen in the first place so then things get really interesting; I think I play better when I get a bit aggressive, more focused. Anyway the last few tracks ‘Let’s Get It Straight’ and ‘Urine Mote’ sound epic as Todd tunes the bass into the PA perfectly. But I’m still fuming about the foot controller problem, taking it out on the keys: it’s by far the biggest tech issue I’ve had with AXXONN and, in perspective, quite minor.
I finish the set and have that overwhelming ‘end of tour feeling’ when you realise there no gig to go to next. I’m quite a fiend for touring, I love it and would play every night if I could; I like making albums but for me they mean nothing if you don’t play them live, I’ve never understood ‘studio only’ artists. For me it’s engaging with an audience, seeing how your material sits in public and making the necessary alterations to have sit exactly where you envisaged.
Yah Yah’s 7/10
Thanks to NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA
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