Loon Lake Diary: $4 Roast & $12 Steak

So, this week you have Nick instead of Tim telling you about our travels. I play drums so I am automatically excused for making spelling mistakes. Awsome. The theme of this week's tour diary will be the shotgun rule and how that encourages selfishness, and allows complete disregard for responsibility and guilt.

Day 1 – Brisbane
T-shirts and shorts!!! If we weren't saying “shotgun” or “shotgun not” we were talking about the weather throughout this trip. Stepping off the plane in Brisbane felt like an instant season change. The clear blue skies and the smell of the air was a reminder of how winter will end soon and how good it will be when it does end. From the moment we felt the Queensland air, we were in a hell good mood!
So, first thing we did was get our hire car. This is where it started. Shotgunning not to drive, then shotgunning front seat. I think Sime drove this one and Sam got front seat. I wasn't worried though. I had my eyes on the bed situation. So after this, Sam and Sime went to 4ZZZ radio to have an interview and play a couple of songs. That changed my chances from one in five to one in three of best bed. I shotgunned the shit out it too. The others were not happy about this and I think I felt better that that was the case. Their fault though hey; shoulda shotgunned it!
After having a $4 roast in the Valley, we headed to Alhambra to do our sound check. Alhambra is a cool venue. We were pretty excited to play and then party on there afterwards. After sound check we headed out for some dinner. $12 steaks (we really fell on our feet when it came to meal prices in Brisbane). This was one of those joints where you had to take the buzzer up to get your meal and stuff. Anyway we were shotgunning not to get the meals. They were coming out individually too. So we could have made it even by all getting our own meals but instead we were still trying to get out of it. I was definitely worst off in this leg.
So, back to Alhambra and we played the hottest, sweatiest show we have ever played. And the Brisbane people were not phased by the heat. They went wild. They were shoulder to shoulder jumping and dancing and singing in what I would compare to the butterfly house at the Melbourne Zoo. I guess that's how it is when you live in 400% humidity though. Following the show, Clubfeet and Alpine deejayed so we kicked on to great tunes til we got kicked out. (I must admit, I was a little starstruck when we got to meet Alpine!).

Day 2 –Maroochydore
Waking up on Day 2 sucked. But we picked ourselves up and started planning what we needed to shotgun. Front seat, not driving, last minty, etc. When we got to our hostel in Maroochydore, we were greeted by Kennedy, who was about the friendliest canine you would ever meet (pictured above). We then went to Solbar to get set up and do a sound check. Following that, we ate what Tim described as “probably the best piece of pizza I have ever eaten” at the place across the road from the skate park. I can't remember what it was called but I will be going back.
If I could recommend anything to bands around Australia, it's to go and play at Solbar. I don't think there is any country town that shows out like Maroochydore and Solbar is a really great room with very hospitable owners. It sold out! We couldn't believe it. And they really got right into it. It was honestly one of the most remarkable gigs I think we will ever play. We also got so unlimited free beer so we stayed up for ever. Maroochydore was a really good fun time.

Day 3 – Back to Brisbane to fly home again
By now everyone was really exhausted so there was no chance that we were going to show mercy in shotgun times. I think this was best represented when we got to Brisbane airport and had to carry our stuff to the check in counter. We pretty much all shotgunned out of carrying anything and left it all to Tim. He had to haul everything onto a trolley and carry it. I really felt that I had earned exemption from carrying the gear just by saying “shotgun not”. Not even the site of Timmy struggling with all the bits and pieces made me feel bad. I don't know if the shotgun rule brings out our true colours or if it makes us into to heartless assholes, but it certainly allowed us to mistreat others.

Anyway, when I got home I crashed out pretty hard. Hell of a weekend!
Nick.