26 Reasons - Melbourne Launch Tour

Tues 7th June

Trip to Melbourne was comfortable, due mainly to the fact that fate had intervened by way of a blown head gasket in the '84 Tarago and forced us to hire a New car - Hmmmm. reliable, comfortable, a great drive, but then again not very Rock and Roll.... Arrived after midnight, found our apartment. Try fitting 6 in a tiny 2-bedroom apartment and then an extra couple on the way. Somewhat of a tight squeeze...


Wed 8th June - Manchester Lane, Melbourne.
Right in the middle of town this one - looked pretty classy on the internet and did not disappoint on arrival . More of a Jazz venue, which is not necessarily the best home for us, but a show is a show, and this one had its own type of excitement anyway as it was out first in Melbourne.. Supported by Bridget A'Beckett, who is releasing an album later in the year. www.bridgetabeckett.com - great singer. Pretty quiet night around 30 or 40 people, but seemed to go down well enough. Safely negotiated - the Melbourne tour was officially in full swing.


Thurs 9th - Cornish Arms, Brunswick
Cornish arms is around 10mins North of the city centre. More our style of venue than Manchester Lane I think. Were supported by a couple of great bands - Kanvas Grey (www.kanvasgrey.com) and Sixteen Millimetre. "16mm" are some friends who I met about a year ago whilst google-searching the internet for places to play in Melbourne. Ended up finding some Melbourne band website and shooting an email to about 5000 bands to try and get a gig down there - I think two responded to this random unsolicited spam email - one of which was 16mm -good on you guys! But aside from them being "Crazy emailing Sydney artist - Friendly" , I also really dig their stuff. They'll be touring some more -check 'em out. www.sixteenmillimetre.com .

Cornish arms certainly somwehat of a name venue in Melbourne - gets some great touring acts so a good oppotunity for us to have a headlining show there from out of town. Quite crowd, but an enjoyable show - will be back down there again pretty soon I imagine...

BTW - Cornish arms has some GREAT TUCKER!


Friday 10th - The Espy, St Kilda
Probably the best show of the trip - Heard the reports about the Espy being a music lovers Venue and it did not disappoint... Pretty full room to watch us despite being on first. This night we played before the Hampdens (WA), "The Winks" (Canadian folk act) and "The Red Paintings".

Sat 11th - HMV Burke Street

Time for some more in-store antics. Big posters around the Store heralding the arrival of the Renny Field Band- a bit bizarre somehow... Band staggered in at Various intervals - a few late nights starting to catch up with us here, but still managed to pull it off... Sigh of relief after this one as we had Saturday night off. Went and watched some AFL Saturday avo at the MCG, hit the town with friends Saturday night. How good is Melbourne! People talk to you!!

Sun 12th - HMV Chadstone & Eisternwick Hotel

Final day of the tour - kicked this one off at one of those massive shopping malls about 30mins from the city... Bit of a Bizarre in-store - couldn't set up near the entrance, and had to be content with the very rear of the store, which basically meant that no-one knew we were there.... But managed to win over a few folks who stumbled in by accident, so not all bad... One gig to go...

Eisternwick was a double-set gig - 2 hours of Power. Good to get through some material from the old CD which we haven't had the chance to play for a while. Pretty good crew in for a Sunday night as it was a public Holiday Monday the next day. Eisternwick reminds you of the typical Sydney sports-bar setting with the stage set up in front of the TAB screens overhead - only difference is in Melbourne they have grapsed the concept of "listening" to the band - and thankfully black curtains were draped across the front of the screens so we didn't have to deal with Bluey and his mate yelling at the TV because their greyhound got checked around turn 2... Gig seemed to go OK - the pub has asked us back to play another show at the end of August - so no complaints there...

Thanks to all of you who came along to a show on our first Melbourne trip. First of many this year I imagine... Looking forward to getting back down there late July with Serena Ryder, and then again at the end of August with the full band ....and September......).

All made it back to Sydney in one piece - thanks for asking...

That's all for now - be back soon...

26 Reasons - Sydney Launch Tour

Fri 3rd June...

HMV IN-STORE, PITT ST, SYDNEY -
The first "gig" of the 26 Reasons Launch tour. Arrived at HMV around 2 hours prior to start time. Greeted by an odd little stage up the back corner of the store - this was our first in-store gig as a band. I am thinking as we arrive - how are we all going to fit on that..?? Somehow we manged.
Funny sort of thing an in-store show. Standing on the stage, you look out over the various aisles of CD racks to see a room full of people browsing through what's on offer. I guess the band for the main part basically replaces the CD player for around 30mins. Having said that, a big thanks to those of you who came along to the show and formed a little audience of sorts. And despite my ramblings - yes HMV we did appreciate the opportunity to play and sell some of the new CD's , so thanks to you too! Not helped a great deal in this show by our tired old little PA system, but not to worry - 1st show negotiated safely enough - good warm up for the Vanguard...

THE VANGUARD, NEWTOWN
Crowd was rolling in nice and early for this one - our first ever sold-out show!! I had a last minute call up to go and do a quick interview with Fbi radio in the afternoon which threw a bit of a spanner into the works for the sound-check, but over the years I have become quite accustomed to running round lie a mad-man, so this wasn't unexpected. If it wasn't a radio interview, it would have been a problem with the Tarago...
The Vanguard is a superb venue - and this was the first time the band had been able to do our own show there. Steve "Gramophone Man" Griffiths warmed the crowd up as I tried to figure out what was wrong with my guitar and finalise some sort of set-list (very out of the ordinary for the Renny Field Band...). Sarah Griesser came out and played a fantastic set as she always does - myself and my brother Matt really love her stuff - go and see her if you get the chance.
5 minutes before we were due to hit the stage I realised that I had left my guitar in the car... Nice work, but again not entirely out of the ordinary. Standard gig for the Renny Field band usually involves the following just prior to starting:
Renny: Looking for a guitar Pick or other related item.
Jeff Stanley: Gone to the toilet
Matt Field: Missing
Andrew Fisher: Standing ready to play next to the stage with hands on hips wondering if we'll ever get on in time...
Set-List: erm...

So anyway, we played and played, and to be honest it was all a bit of a blur. Someone told me we lasted for nearly 2 hours! From what I can remember, we all had such a great time up there! My thanks to our guest Cello player - Caddie - for coming on board for the launch shows at late notice - you legend!

What's the worst part about doing a launch TOUR?? Unlike the 1st CD launch 18months ago, we weren't able to hit the town till 6am, because management had organised another in-store for 1pm the next day (In the shire!). What's that all about...??!! Not to mention the 3 other full shows that were still to be played over the weekend - including a Double on Sunday, but more on that later.. Home to bed...


Sat 4th June

My head hurts.... The aforementioned in-store performance seems likely to be more difficult than expected...

HMV IN-STORE, MIRANDA
On the road for this one far too early for my liking. Detour via Shire music to pick up a new PA system - more expenses... Credit Card buckling under the immense strain... Must sell CD's...

Never mind my complaining - the residents of the Shire can take their hats of for their appreciation of fine music! (Or fine music according to us!). HMV Miranda proved to be our best in-store gig in the CD sales department. The new PA was cranked up a treat which pretty much meant that anyone passing by was going to cop a dose of "26 Reasons", whether they liked it or not. Probably worked in our favour the whole "Passer-by" thing, something which was not possible at HMV in the city because we were up the back of the store. Anyways, got through the set, quick photo of "26 Reasons" in the no. 1 spot on the chart rack (well it was for that 30 mins - OK so maybe Coldplay might just sneak past us for the month, but it will be close...) had some food, headed off to the brass monkey...

BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA
Wow - another one of these sound-check things! Starting to lose my nerve a little here. A bit out of my comfort zone when I'm not racing to a gig in the Tarago trying to warm up the voice by singing along to Casey Donovan on the Today FM hot 30 as that's the only station I can pick up.... Anyway, had a few hours to kill for a change, which was nice.

Arrived to the Brass Monkey to be greeted by the news that the night had SOLD OUT! You people of the Shire have really outdone yourselves... A great night followed with some cool tunes by Brian Howson and and impressive act from Brisbane - The Andrew Morris band. I'm looking forward to checking them out when they are back down this way. Also got to play "One More Song" (My song about the Brass Monkey) to a full house a the Brass Monkey - a nice treat indeed!

End of the night - pack up..... Damn... Sleep..... 2 Shows tomorrow!


Sun 5th June

A real test today - the Vanguard had given us an extra show on the Sunday night, which was real nice of them. Only problem is we already had an Album Launch (and DVD filming) booked in for the Heritage Hotel in Bulli that afternoon. Van making funny noises...

Got to Bulli on time and the film crew were in . A big thanks to Pat from musicOZ for setting the whole thing up at fairly late notice. Set seemed to go pretty well, although despite playing "One More Song" about 5 THOUSAND times before without any trouble, sure enough the moment the tape was rolling I managed to forget a couple of lines in the second verse.... Typical...
The set will also be featured on Foxtel digital, as well as a short interview i had with Charlie (host of the show) aterwards.

Mad dash back up to the vanguard in Newtown for our last show of the weekend. Brother Matt set off pretty quickly to get the gear back up there in time. Sadly the old Tarago had other ideas - it seemed that the "Funny Noises" i had heard earlier in the day were in fact something to do with the radiator, and Matt sensibly pulled over somewhere near the airport with the temp. gague disappearing into the stratosphere well beyond the dangerous "Red" section...
Nothing that a few bottles of Mt franklin couldn't fix... well at least it got us to the Vanguard, i have since discovered the van has a blown head gasket... Solong to a dear friend...

Vanguard show was our best i would say - A big thanks to everyone who came along on the Sunday. Thanks also to Eugene Wulf and Brian Campeau for their impressive sets to open up. Sunday night wasn't sold out, but it was approaching the mark, so nice to get some flow-on interest for a second night. Time for a few drinks after the show - but not too many - one more HMV in-store to go the next day....

Mon 6th June

The last Sydney show! - HMV Mid-city - we had come full circle. 7 gigs in 3 days, and it was all we could do to get through our allotted 30mins! PA was cranked, voice died whilst singing the last note, band fell off the stage at completion. (Alright so it wasn't that bad - i'll stop whinging).


At the risk of repeating myself, THANKS TO EVERYONE who came to see us at one of the Sydney launches - your support was amazing and nincredibly encouraging for the entire band!!! thanks also to the Venues and the other bands we played with.

Melbourne tour diary soon to be posted...

USA Tour Part 5 - New York and the Texas Two-step

One of the more interesting Bus Trips on the way to New York from Indianapolis. The whole overnight thing I have done before – never the greatest experience in the world but one of those “have to do it” type situations you find yourself in every now and then. The most interesting part of this trip had nothing to do with the bus – it was more to do with the passengers, in particular the one sitting next to me. Nice enough sort of chap – got talking to him about where he was going etc, then found out that he was in fact a guest of the state on his way in between two minimum security prisons. Hip hip hooray… Not much sleep there unfortunately. Mental note – next time at Greyound Counter, remember to ask for a seat “away from all inmates”.



New York is a fantastic city – prob. my favourite in the world outside of Sydney. A big thanks to Krissy for letting me stay, not to forget her flatmate Maggie who also didn’t mind me parking it there for a few days. Very fortunate to have that option as I didn’t really fancy doing the hostel thing this time around with guitars etc.



OK so I am here to be a Muso – once again I hit the open mic website and found a few about the place to go down and have a crack at. Don’t get as many songs over here when you play open mics – just a couple unfortunatey. Still worth the experience I guess. One was a cool little bar called C-note, which had its own keyboard. The other I played at “DTUT”, which stands for Down-town-up-town as there are two of them in the city. More like one of those coffee lounge type places with music set up in the back Small PA but pretty damn intimate and might have sounded better with no amplification at all… Good to go and watch other people doing a similar thing – everybody over here seems to have their own website, and most of them are trying to pursue a career in music it seems (at least everyone I met at open mic nights told me a similar story). I like the fact that it seems to be far more accepted here to be having go at being an artist – appears to be a lot more opportunities as a result. Same thing I noticed in Indianapolis – heaps of Independent stuff happening, which is encouraging. Will def try to get back over to NY and spend a bit of time playing about the place.



My days were spent wandering around the city, trying to figure out where I was and making some very shocking attempts to go shopping - still allergic to clothing stores it seems, even in New York City (although I did manage to buy a pair of Jeans, but perhaps I was influenced by the young French girls who sold them to me, … um, yes looking back on it that was definitely a major factor in my decision to purchase the Jeans, which really don’t fit me all the spectacularly…)



GIG AT CBGB’s

Little did I know before I got to New York that CBGB’s is actually one of the more famous venues in town. (Internationally renowned in fact). Lucky for me, I had met Liz Koch, an independent radio promoter person (takes songs into the stations to get them to play them..), in Indianapolis. Liz new someone who was putting a night on at CBGB’s and as a result I was able to sneak in on the start of the bill that Thursday night. Just stuck to the guitar as I didn’t fancy my chances of being able to pull off the Indianapolis stunt (ie Buying a keyboard then taking it back for a refund…). New York, I was thinking, was probably not on the same wavelength as Indy… Not too many people, but an enjoyable gig nonetheless. Pretty good response from the people who were there, and I guess that’s all you can ask for. Had a good night out to celebrate this small milestone with Krissy and a few others – ran into another guy I had met in Indianapolis (Singer-songwriter also – Jeremiah Birnbaum – http://www.jeremiahbirnbaum.com) Kris was a little annoyed that I could be on the other side of the world and randomly be running into people I know on the streets of New York, when she said this rarely happened to her. Perhaps she was more perplexed when it happened the following night again (different person) in the back of a convenience store! Fancy that.



Anyway, all in all a good stint in the Big Apple, one of many more to come no doubt. Seems to be one of those places I wind up in when I am overseas – this was my 4th visit. Never loses its charm though.



AND FINALLY…


Musically speaking, I guess that was the end of the trip. Saturday morning I set off for Dallas Texas to visit none other than the Dorneyshow himself, a mate who has been working for EDS at their international head office. No gigs booked in Texas, and didn’t bother trying to get one. Happy to give it a rest for a few days (knowing that I had three gigs in four nights awaiting for me on my return to Sydney…starting the night I got back!!). Won’t give you the guided tour on this part of the trip, you can do a google search to find out details of the JFK assassination etc. I will say that there were a few highlights though:

- Mr Lang’s (Dorney) “Welcome to Texas” stop for a Pitcher of Beer and a burger at the “Hooters” restaurant on the way to his place when I arrived.

- (THANKS M.LANG FOR HAVING ME TO STAY AND SHOWING ME THE TEXAN WAY OF LIFE)

- 1st night out – Saturday at the “Red River”. A massive Country and Western Bar. I literally thought I was walking in to the set of a movie. Circular dancefloor with couples performing the Texas Two-step around a bar in the middle. Also a mechanical bull, live country and western band, pool tables, cowboys, cowgirls, those big cowboy hats etc etc. Funny place – had to be seen to be believed.

- The recovery meal the next day in “Bone Daddies” – like hooters but better uniforms. Enough said, except mention must be made of “Chicken-Fried steak”. Steak cooked in Chicken Batter with white cream gravy sauce. I didn’t eat it, but I sat with someone who did and it made me sick just looking at it.

- JFK Museum was awesome.

- BBQ Crabs at the Crab Shack - Complete with Bibs so you could make as big a mess of yourself as possible. Fullest I have ever been...

- Texas is a fan of the “Big Store”. Plenty of them to choose from, and they are just Big and Bigger. Don’t think “corner store” is in the Vocabulary.

- Guns available “with valid Texas ID” at most regular sporting stores (also BIG).

- Ribs at the Plano Tavern. Fuller than the night before at the Crab Shack. Did I mention they like things BIG here??

- Hired a car for two days – on my way to the airport as I was leaving to head back to Sydney, I think my average speed was about 150k as I managed to get myself lost (again) on the many loop roads and freeways heading to nowhere in particular. Fortunately the guy who was checking people on to the plane was understanding of my plight, and the rental car company didn’t ask why there was steam coming from the engine…



And that final hurdle safely negotiated, I was on my way back to Sydney after a whirlwind tour of the States. Hope to be back over there in the not too distant future to punch out a few more tunes – hopefully next time the band can come along for the ride.



Till next time…

USA Tour Part 4 - Midwest Music Summit

So the time had arrived – the reason for this fairly extravagant adventure that I was on. The Mid-West Music summit. 270 bands and artists in some 30 different venues over the course of three days. Coming all the way from Australia on the strength of a CD which was recorded about two months after I first started playing originals music, I wasn’t sure what to expect. And in reality I was still relatively new at the solo gig thing – most of the stuff back home had been with the band apart from a few low-key spots just before I left. Anyway, I was there, and I had a couple of gigs booked in the showcase, so what the hey I was going to blast away and see what happened!



My congratulations must go to the team at Benchmark recordings who started this annual event 4 years ago. The logistics of so many bands, so much music; so many venues – I can’t even begin to imagine. They were up till 3 or 4 in the morning most nights in the weeks leading up to it, so hats off to everyone there, because it really was an incredible effort.



Over the course of three days, I got to see some incredible acts, meet some great people, and eat some of the States’ finest fast food delicacies. Three years ago, I had done a ski season in Mammoth California, and a friend who worked with me there came up to visit with a mate of his, so it was good to hang out with some people I knew. Found out that in fact the Oils had been through the place a few years ago, and more recently Powderfinger and Sleepy Jackson, so good to be able to talk Aussie music with a few people. Interesting to note I was the only foreign artist playing at the summit – a few people a bit intrigued by my coming so far, but given the opportunity, it was worth my while to go and check it all out.



I noted in the program that there was an open Mic of some sort running at one of the pubs on the main Street – “Dick’s Bodacious BBQ” (Yes, you read that correctly – in fact I even had some “Bodacious” smoked meat for lunch one day). As far as gigs go, probably wasn’t the grandest I have ever played. Thought I’d try my luck there at 10pm on the first night – I walked in and there were about 4 people in the room – two who were running the stage, one who was behind the bar, and one who was playing. Stage was facing the Soda machine, so you didn’t really play to anyone in particular, just an empty counter – I guess the occasional show of interest from the person behind the counter, but that’s only when she was standing at the Soda machine, and then her view was obscured by the people waiting for their soda (backs facing the stage of course…). Still I thought, a spot at “Dick’s Bodacious BBQ” would surely look good on the CV in a few years time. Or perhaps not… Nonetheless, chalk up a hit for the team.



Days one and two were pretty much spent taking in as many different bands as possible. The summit also had a number of panels/seminars, which provided an interesting insight into the business side of things from people who were involved in labels/radio stations/record stores etc. This was one of the main reasons I attended the summit – a great opportunity to learn a bit more about how everything works, and I haven’t come across any similar events down here in Australia.



Come Saturday 14th, I was ready to go. Gathering up my things, I set out for the Glendale Mall – venue for my first gig. Typically, and in true Renny Field tradition, I was running late and was forced to hitch a ride out to the mall with my gear. Fortunately I found someone understanding enough to let me jump in his car in a mad state – my brother would attest to the fact that I am often a bit irrational when time is running out and I am cutting it fine for a gig.



Now as far as gigs go, the old shopping mall thing probably doesn’t have a large appeal initially. Having said that, the organizers had arranged for my set to start directly after the A&R seminar, which was also being held at the shopping mall, so in theory this gig had potential. Fortunately the obligatory pre-gig beer was made available by the guys on the sound desk, and then another as well cleverly disguised in a café latte Styrofoam cup which was on hand for the duration of the set. Felt right at home.



As I played, there were a few people drifting through from time to time, but what I was realizing about the summit was that, although it was a fantastic opportunity, there was just literally so many acts that it difficult to compete for attention. Indeed, shortly after my set, I wandered into another venue in the mall (The House) and watched a superb band with a tight set and some great songs playing to about 10 people in a large room. This was not uncommon, and having talked to a few other people about this type of event, that is pretty much par for the course. Not necessarily a bad thing, but interesting that it is really far more a networking opportunity than anything else. Being from Australia, it was difficult for me to take full advantage of that side of things purely because I wasn’t really going to be around for that long.



Anyway, the gig went pretty well, and a good response from those who heard it. I had actually met someone from New York earlier in the conference who came out to watch the show, and subsequently managed to get me a gig at the prestigious CBGB’s lounge in Manhattan – thanks a lot LIZ you are a legend I owe you more drinks next time I am over there!!!! – but more on that later. Case in point there – the networking thing. Exactly the same back here – more about who you know really, which is a shame but if you’re going to be in the business then I guess you have to learn to play like everyone else.



Time for a quick tour of the downtown Indianapolis with Andy and Chuck before heading back to The Ripple for that night’s gig. Set to perform at the Red Room with a few of the more well-known local and US-based artists, I was looking forward to the show. In terms of numbers, it was a great night. Sadly though the room had been rented out for a birthday party earlier in the evening (surprise party actually – guess who walked in inadvertently and was greeted by hundreds of people who thought I was the guest of honour – for a moment felt like a rock star, then shortly after a moron…), which meant that by the time the music started (all acoustic solo singer-songwriters), everyone was well and truly on their way, and the party was, literally, “roaring”. So not the best setting for the acoustic genre, but we played nonetheless, and I even managed to sell a few CD’s - nice of the people there to show their support for this Aussie battler…Cheers!



And after hopping around to a few other gigs later that evening, the Mid-west Music Summit had drawn to a close. All in all a great experience, and one which I would like to repeat with the band. Faced with the opportunity again though, I would spend some more time in the lead-up trying to generate a bit of interest outside of the event program etc, as well as try to arrange a short tour of the surrounding states – due to population, there are far more touring opportunities over there than back here, and you can get it sorted out independently if you plan it well. The Australian thing could probably help the cause, but people have to be made aware of it in the first place. All these things I have learned I wouldn’t know about unless I went over there and gave it a go, so very happy that I did. As I said earlier, managed to meet some great people and the funny thing with Music is that you just never know what might happen further down the track and how certain things might end up helping you. Based on that theory I would have to give the whole thing a big thumbs up!

USA Tour Part 3 - Cath Coffee House

Arose determined to do what everyone has to do when they go to Indianapolis – get out to the Speedway. Fortunately the 24hrs rental period for the car wasn’t up till the end of the day, so I was going to try and make the most of it, as beyond that I would be permanently fixed in “The Ripple” (Indianapolis, for those of you who are considering a trip, is not blessed with the world’s greatest public transport system…).



The speedway was interesting enough – unfortunately the retirees behind the desk were not to keen on me attempting to crack the lap record in my Ford Focus (and, for that matter, I guessed the construction workers who had ripped up half of the track for repairs would probably have a problem with it too…). The museum was standard museum stuff – video about the start of the speedway etc etc, but I found the most entertaining part of the Speedway experience was on the bus tour.



The normal track tour was not available this day due to the repairs, we the rabble had to be content with the “Behind the scenes” tour. Interestingly enough, the people running the tour must have figured that with buses departing at 15-minute intervals ALL DAY that the old fellas behind the wheel wouldn’t be too keen on parroting the same information over and over again, and so the audio accompanying the tour was pre-recorded (struck me that the old guy, who was about 102, probably didn’t need the challenge of having to co-ordinate voice and hand movements at the same time anyway….). The tour will take “approximately 14 and a half minutes” he said. I wondered if he’d done this much before...



Conscious of a executing another “perfect run” (ie “Thank you for taking the tour” coinciding with the return to the carpark), the old man began to fret, when way off in the distance, he could see a golf cart on the road around the infield (Indianapolis speedway has a golf course in the middle). As the bus approached, and the audio continued to roll, the driver began to blow the horn furiously whilst still maintaining that perfect run pace. Seconds later, his worst fears were realised when he had to ........um…..slow down. Only briefly, but now the smooth running of the tour was suddenly in Jeopardy, and despite the golf cart eventually moving out of the way of the bus, the Driver, who had greeted us so warmly only moments ago, let fly with a barrage of abuse at the group of golfers the likes of which Speedway touring co has never seen, before thrusting his foot to the floor in a desperate attempt to get back on schedule. With a few tight turns coming up, this was beginning to really feel like the real deal (we were, by this stage, on the infield formula one circuit…). Fortunately a short burst was all that was needed and the tour returned to normality not long after (in time with the Audio tape) – I expect the old driver, however, may well have taken the rest of the day to recover…





Leaving the speedway, I had enough time to check out a few more bits and pieces and drop my things off at “Cath Coffeehouse” back at Broad Ripple, before heading downtown to return the car. Still plenty of time, and somehow I fluked a bus connection back to Cath from the downtown, so I was well on track by the time I got there (which, I assure you, is a dramatic departure from the Standard practice for gigs in Australia…)

Now upon hearing of a “Coffeehouse” gig, I was a little apprehensive. I have had a few bad gig experiences, and I wasn’t sure whether this one was headed in the same direction. Earlier when I had dropped my things off, the guy working there hadn’t expressed a great deal of interest in seeing me, and the place was set up in true “Coffeehouse / Arts community” fashion, complete with couches and tree-hugging promo flyers all over the place. The night before I had seen an advertisement for my show on the Indianapolismusic.net website – which I thought was pretty cool, but having said that I still wasn’t sure if that was actually going to make people come to the show.



Fortunately, I had contacts. That’s right, all the way over here – in the middle of Indiana, I had contacts. Andrew (Bass player from the band) had met a guy in South America whilst travelling that now lives in Tampa, Florida, but who grew up in ……wait for it…..Broad Ripple, Indianapolis. Incredible. So thanks to some emails doing the rounds and some word of mouth activity around the traps, there were about 15 people who came to see the gig, which was a nice turnout for a quiet Wednesday evening in a pretty small café. Turns out this is actually a really great place to play – pretty intimate setting and a nice feel to the room. Plus the people didn’t have any Fox Sports to watch, so they listened to what was going on, which was nice as well. (Some of them even brought me a beer from across the street, cleverly concealed in a plastic cup – thanks Josh and Pat!).



Admittedly I was a little rusty – at 2 hours this was my longest ever solo originals gig -, and I must have looked a bit strange, as despite the 30-day money-back guarantee on the keyboard I wasn’t able to score a stand to go with it and had to be content with sitting on a couch and delicately balancing the keyboard on two thin cane chairs. That said, the set seemed to go down pretty well, and I was happy with this my first full-length originals gig in North America. Thanks to Nora at Cath for having me play, and to everyone who came along on the night for making me feel welcome – had a great time.



There was now a need to celebrate this successful show with some trusty Budweisers and savoury (?!) Mexican bar food (unconfirmed reports that the latter came back up later that night). Fortunately I had found a place to stay – a friend of Matt’s (Andrew’s mate in Tampa) had a spare room not more than 5 minutes walk from the main street in Broad Ripple! Josh – you legend – didn’t even know me and had me crash there for 5 nights! Thanks a ton!



Ended up being out past closing time with a few Broad Rippleans, This seemed the right thing to do after the first show in Indianapolis. I am guessing I found my way home around 3am, being careful not to trip into the Canal which was right next to the path to the place I was staying. Too many Buds? No, we’ll put it down to jet lag… :)

USA Tour Part 2 - Chicago to Indianapolis

Tues morning in Chicago I am faced with a decision – do I stick with the rental car option, or do I take the high society option and score a seat on the Greyhound bus? The thought of the greyhound wasn’t doing it for me this particular day – that time would come in due course. Better stick to the rental car… Not exactly the struggling artist thing to do – perhaps I should have stood on a corner with guitar in one hand and the other thumb out just so I was really living the dream.



I was wondering what the man at the Hertz counter thought of me when he asked about insurance and I replied – “You’d better give me whatever you’ve got there buddy”. A little nervous about the whole car thing – I think a few years back when I was travelling around with Mike and Nick in the Ford Econoline it wasn’t such a difficult thing to come to terms with because if you were about to err slightly whilst at the wheel, there was always two other people to yell at you very loudly before the potential consequences of any such mistake could be realised. And being one of those people who likes to do everything whilst the car is in motion (I have been known to eat a bowl of cereal and read the paper on my way to work in the (manual) Tarago), I had a map and a CD selection to contend with as well, so that would no doubt make things interesting.



Whether or not I took the right route to Indianapolis is debatable, as is whether or not I actually caused any near-incidents on my way, but 10 Coffee Stops and 4hrs later I finally arrived in the downtown. At this stage of the trip, I was still yet to get my hands on a piano. The excess baggage charges from Sydney had prohibited me from bringing my own keyboard along for the trip, and thus with 24hrs till the first Indianapolis gig I was still in a bit of a predicament. Fortunately, in my research of local music stores, I had come across one that offered a “no questions asked 30-day money-back guarantee on all products”. This surely was an opportunity too good to refuse. So whilst still in possession of a car, I set out to find this mysterious and wonderful place – “The Guitar Centre”.



On thing I found about the people in these parts is that they didn’t seem to be familiar with a place if it wasn’t in their suburb. Several stops at service stations in the downtown had yielded conflicting arguments for the location of this “Guitar Centre”, and with a phone card that had run out of credit before I used it (International Airport Tourist Trap victim no. 5,023,456) it was only the kindness of Abu in the quickie mart and his donation of a local phone call that rescued the situation.



Sure enough, upon arrival at the guitar centre, I was greeted with an impressive arrangement of the finest keyboards available for sale….. and the “30-day money-back guarantee”. Probably shouldn’t have asked about that one so early in the conversation with the shop attendant – maybe it was the accent that gave me away completely, but in any case he was on to my scheme from the word go. Fortunately, he was a “struggling artist” himself, and thus could fully appreciate my predicament. Realising that the fate of guitar centre across America (several stores in every state – more guitars than I have ever seen in a music store…) was not likely to be resting on this one transaction of a bottom-of-the-range keyboard (wasn’t pushing my luck….), he fortunately sold me the thing and reassured me that, provided I didn’t destroy it, my Credit card would be charged back with the funds when I returned the keyboard (before I left Indianapolis). (…..Mental note – no beers at gigs….).



And so the final order of the day was to find my way back to Benchmark Records (the organisers of the summit) and meet up with the people who had kindly invited me across to play. For once I managed to follow the direct route instead of my own longer version, and 10 minutes later I was in “Broad Ripple” – the suburb hosting the Mid-west Music Summit. Kind of a student/artsy type area, but a pretty cool place. I noticed soon after arriving that there was no shortage of bars to choose from, and as is so often the case in America, no shortage of fast food stores to go with them. A fantastic place for a music event like this, with most of the venues being within a stones throw of each other. Not much else to report from the first night in “The Ripple” – but first impressions were encouraging…

USA Tour Part 1 - Chicago

Well I guess when you fly for close on 24 hrs you’re meant to spend the next day recovering or whatever, but sadly in this particular instance, I don’t have the time. Having just arrived in Chicago (which I have been to once before – really nice place similar to Sydney in some ways because it is on the water), I only had three days before my first gig in Indianapolis. So this is my first time travelling to another country for the sole purpose of playing my own music to people. At this stage, I had no idea what to expect from the Mid-west music summit, so I have to admit to being a bit nervous about the whole thing. In addition, I have only recently started to do the solo gigs back home. Most of this year has been with the band, which is a bit easier to hide in I guess. Ah well – too bad. Will have to get by, I’m here now.



That being the case, I did what any aspiring singer-songwriter really should – I jumped on the internet and tried to figure out a way to get a gig here in Chicago. It’s not that I was desperate to play, I actually felt pretty crap really, but I decided early on in the day that I would spend it trying to figure out whether or not the vocal chords etc were going to work in the same fashion here in the Northern hemisphere.



The internet is a funny thing – a wealth of information available but it is amazing how often you can sit on it for hours and get absolutely no-where. Keen not to play out this scenario due to the exorbitant internet rates at the hostel, I quickly gave up the thought of packing out one of the city’s more salubrious establishments, and hit my favourite website in the world – “google”. Hmmm… try typing “Open Mic Chicago”.



It’s pretty amazing – things are far more advanced like this over in the states. Immediately I came across this massive open mic database – www.openmic.org . It basically lists just about every open mic on every night of the week in every city in the States. Feverishly, I set about scribbling down details. Now Chicago is about the same size population-wise as Sydney, but I managed to get around 20 different numbers for places who all had open mic nights on that night. Fortunately a few of them had websites, and I was able to target the ones that looked the most interesting.



A few phone calls later I managed to secure a spot at a “jam night” at the Underground Wonder Bar (www.undergroundwonderbar.com). Was slightly encouraged by this, as it was a step above an open mic – turns out you actually get 20-25mins instead of the standard 2 or 3 songs (and before any of you say it – 20mins is not 2 or 3 of my songs anyway you smart asses I actually got 4 – plus a bonus cause they liked me!). Anyway, spot wasn’t until 11.30 so I tried to hit another one earlier in the evening. Sadly, the “Subterranean” was booked right through till 12.30 when I walked in the door at 8. Turns out these things are pretty damn popular over here. Have to be content with a cheap Thai meal across the street, then a long walk with my guitar as I looked for the train to the Underground Wonder Bar…..



About an hour into the walk I must really have looked a mess. Standing with a map in the middle of god-knows-where, a faltering guitar case leaking strings and everything else I shoved in before I left Australia - underneath a street light which was not working properly in an area which, the further I walked, became less appealing to be in. Thank god for that lovely girl who I will probably never see again, but will live long in my memory for giving me some simple directions which no doubt saved me hours more grief. Tempted to ask her to the gig, but then that might have stretched the friendship… Better leave it at “thanks”…”um”…. Nice one Renny. Very smooth.



So 30mins later the source of my frustration appears – The “Underground Wonder Bar” in downtown Chicago. Shouldn’t have caused me so much trouble because I had actually walked past it earlier in the day (Lots of walking this trip…). Furthermore, it wasn’t really “underground”, more like one of those semi-underground places – half a flight of stairs down. Pretty nice feel to it though – and was pleasantly surprised when I walked in that they actually had a proper grand piano available! Sat through a couple of other acts, which was nice to see, and knocked off a couple of beers to mellow out so I was ready to go. Nice little crowd of about 20 people in the bar (which probably held only about 80-100 max.). “Can I use the piano?” I ask. No problems. Nice one.



2 Songs on the guitar, 2 on the Piano, and then a bonus on the keys as I said before because they gave me a bit longer (I made the point to them that it was only fair if I was going to fly half way round the world to play at their bar….). And thus the first US solo originals gig was safely negotiated. Vocals were a little rusty, but I guess that was to be expected. Apart from that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the night when you consider that it really was only a longer version of an open mic. One more Budweiser for good measure, and whilst tempted to do the Rock’n’Roll thing and get plastered on my own as a “first-night-celebration”, I was aware that the next day I would be trying to negotiate my way in a rental car along the “interstate” to Indianapolis, and having not been on this side of the road for a number of years would find that slightly difficult if I did too much of a number on myself. Back to Hostel room with Old man who smells….. about 65 years old, he was on his maiden solo backpacking adventure around the USA – just got off a 30hr Greyhound trip that day he told me. That would explain the smell I guess – OK, benefit of the doubt this time. Nice enough sort of chap.

Bathurst - Newcastle Road Trip 2004

29/7/04 - Start Party - Supporting PACIFIER - Charles Sturt University, Bathurst
Got into Bathurst late for the afternoon in-store performance at "Stop and Rock" Records in the centre of town. Just a solo acoustic performance for around 45mins with the guitar. Not the hugest crowd I have ever seen, but good thing the likes of Jeff, Denise and Matt were there to support the cause. Thanks a lot to the crew at Stop and Rock for having me to play - and for sorting me with a few contacts to annoy back in Sydney... Check out the store if you're ever out that way.

Thursday night was the a cracking start to the trip. Three bands in total - Us, "5 Flavoured" (From Sydney), and Pacifier. Basically a two-stage set-up. We kicked things off in the Rafters Bar, then 5-Flavoured on the main stage, then back to us again for another 30min set before Pacifier brought it home in the main room. Great crowd on hand to see the action - I have word that the official numbers were around 750! A big thanks to the crew out at CSU for having us to play - will happily make the trip again if you need us. Couple of new tunes made an appearance, as well as a cheeky cover of the "Free Falling" - well sung by the crowd as well I must say. Watch out for 5-flavoured in Sydney - def. check them out if you get a chance.

Lesson number One when you are playing 4 nights in a row - TRY NOT to get too caught up in the excitement of the first night - a 5am finish does not make life too easy for the rest of the trip... As you migh be guessing, we learnt that one the hard way. Then again, as the saying goes - that's Rock'n'roll (or something like that....)

30/07/04 - Oxford Tavern, Bathurst
I should mention here that a trip to Bathurst wouldn't have been the same without a "hot lap" around Mount Panorama. Tarago was a little sluggish up the hill, but I reckon the lap record slipped away with a dodgy gear change up the home straight... Never mind. Good way to kill some time.

The Oxford Tavern is one of those old-style Aussie pubs that haven't really changed from the Colonial Days A daytime inspection of the upstairs room where we were to play that night had a few eyebrows raised - shall we say an "intimate" setting of sorts. Anyway - looked a lot better at 11pm after a couple of beers! A few problems with the sound in the place - speakers we had been given didn't end up working actually so there was a frantic last-minute search of Bathurst for some back-up equipment (hence the late starting time 11pm). Once we were away though a great gig - got through just about the entire repertoire to fill the allotted 3 hours, as we said our thank you's at 2.15am none of us were quite prepared for what followed....

One of the locals (who had talked to Andrew (Bass) on several occasions throughout the night - not so remarkable except that he was doing it whilst we were playing songs!..) was getting on Matt's case to jump back on the drums. So, under Shane's instruction Matt proceeded to fire out an impromptu Drum Solo - moving around the kit as Shane pointed to a different part he wanted to hear (yes you might have realised that Shane was enjoying his Friday night). Not to be outdone though, Jeff Stanley (our Guitarist from Oregon USA) assumed a seated position on his amp and began ripping out some sort of Hendrix-like number on the guitar. Soon there was also a guest appearance from a local Bass Player (could play too I might add), and before you knew it the music had started again - sort of a funky dance-groove type feel that went on non-stop for around 40mins. Didn't crash out till around 4.30. Great night - thanks to the Oxford Tavern for having us!

31/07/04 - Marquis O'Lorne, Lambton, Newcastle - "House of Steel" Band Room
One of those gigs that you're not too sure about until you get there. We opted for the scenic route from Bathurst to Newcastle, which meant we were a bit pressed for time getting there. Still had enough time to sample the fine delights of the Marquis O'Lorne Thai Restaurant - a few things on the menu not quite the colour you might expect them to be normally, but did the trick nonetheless. Band was beginning to show signs of wear and tear (Indeed, it was difficult to get away from our room at the Hostel) but were resolved to give it the best we could.

The "House of Steel" band room was an interesting place. Picture one of those American-bar type feels with a Big "House of Steel" sign (large Aluminium Letters I might add...) stuck up behind the stage. Then picture ZZ top behind the sound desk (no offence fellas but you have to see where I am coming from with those beards). Anwyay, ZZ top or not they knew what they were doing and despite a smallish crowd on-hand, another 1 hour of tunes was delivered. "Getting it out there" as they say.....
Thanks Deano for having us, and thanks to those of you who came down (thanks also Alana for taking us out on the town and ensuring yet another all-too-familiar post-4am finish).

01/08/04 - Hotel Delany, Newcastle -"Songwriters Live"
A sense of "coming home" about this gig. I have played with Keith many times before, and this was the bands third trip to the Delany (althought the first with Jeff Stanley). A great note to finish on - a warm crowd on hand and the Delany is a nice venue. Probably not the freshest we have been for a gig, but probably our tightest set of the trip (one could argue that this was because there wasn't the energy left for flambuoyance - although Jeff would have to disagree - Sunday night was the fourth night in a row he managed to crank out a guitar solo behind his head! Don't know how he does it, but it is a sight to behold - this was probably the best one of the trip!). Thanks again to Keith - those of you who like good live acoustic-based music should check out one of these nights as there is some great talent floating around beneath the stratosphere of Australian Idol et al - www.songwriterslive.com.au

And finally I found someone else to drive the Tarago for the trip back to Sydney. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz