Bye Nana

My Nana died today. This is the last time I saw her, at my Dad’s wedding last September. She liked to dance. Love you Nana.

Hawaii

Usually after being out of the country for a while I’m pretty psyched to get back to the states, if only for familiarity’s sake (and the abundance of ice & napkins). Coming from New Zealand & Australia I was less eager to return. I could’ve easily spent the rest of their summer down there, returning north in mid May or so. Of course, the fact that we were going to Hawaii on the way home made leaving that much easier. I’d never been to Hawaii and was looking forward to a few days in paradise. I hadn’t figured on Waikiki. Now, I know it may seem utterly ridiculous to most people to bitch about being ’stuck’ in Waikiki, and I certainly enjoyed it as much as I could. But this place is like Orlando, Vegas and downtown LA all puked in a pile on an island. The absolute epitome of a tourist trap. Shitty, cheesy hotels and chain restaurants in all directions. Busloads of the kinds of tourists that thrive in these ready-made, one-stop vacation hell holes. I spent the first day on the beach getting a sunburn and swimming, drinking beer at a resort bar and fighting the newest wave of jetlag. When you fly from Australia to Hawaii you cross the date line, so we left Sydney at 8:00pm on Sunday and landed in Honolulu, 10 hours later, at 9am on Sunday. On top of that you’re going from summer to winter, which in Hawaii doesn’t affect you so much temperature-wise, but length of daylight-wise it’s a bit of a headfuck. I crawled into bed early, cursing how strong the sun has become and sticky with aloe lotion.

This is what you want to see when you get off an 11 hour flight…

Kapiolani Beach Park, Waikiki…

Not a bad place to battle the jetlag…
Hotel Balconies, Waikiki…
Sunset in Waikiki…
The next day was show day. Mine started as every day in paradise should…with drilling and hammering across the hall at 9am. We were supposed to be staying at the Sheraton on the beach but the promoter-cheap, slimy bastards that they are-switched us at the last minute to the ‘Renew’ hotel, a couple blocks off the beach and completely under renovation. I could go off on a profanity-laced tirade about this hotel, but that’ll be no fun for anyone.

ANYWAY, the show was at a club called the Pipeline, which actually wasn’t too bad of a room. I was stuck right onstage next to Mickey again. Like Perth, it was an amazing place to be for the show, but far too visible for my tastes. Still, I settled in for the last show of the tour and watched the band proceed to play for almost 4 hours (3:45 to be exact). It was probably the best show I’ve seen them do. The encore alone will go down in Ween history. It was definitely a fitting way to end this run. I even got Mickey to do ‘Goin Gets Tough’ for me. They finally wound it down with LMLYP and the usual stage full of dancing girls. I don’t think most of these girls understand how long they’ll be up there when they jump on stage. They usually get to the point where they don’t know what to do with themselves. Rock and roll ain’t what it used to be.

Pipeline, 2 minutes to showtime…

Does this happen at your work?…
The club had these crazy jets that would come on for like 20 seconds and cool the place down by blasting the crowd with CO2. They looked amazing…
Gabe changes the 1000th string of the tour…
I had basically 2 more days there after the show. The first day was spent sleeping in and hanging out in the beach front park, using the palm trees to hide from the sun. The next day Chip & I rented a Mustang convertible (as you do) and drove up the coast to the North Shore. This was much nicer than Waikiki and much more like paradise. Still, you get the impression that Oahu isn’t the nicest of the islands. The waves up north were unreal. We met a local on the beach who, after hearing we were not, in fact, from Hawaii but NYC, hugged us both and called us ‘Brother Chip & Brother Jamie’. I couldn’t help but laugh to think of how a more ‘typical’ New Yorker might have reacted to this overture. Me? I just gave him a squeeze and said ‘mahalo’…

The east coast of Oahu…

I hate zoos and even more I hate seeing birds in cages. Especially big ones like this guy…

A sure sign that you’re in some shitty tourist trap is if you see a guy spray-painted silver being really still. You know, like a robot. This robot is apparently a big Mighty Ducks fan as well…

It’s funny how in one day you can go from this (North Shore of Oahu)…
To this (Newark, NJ)…

Last Days In Oz

Ween’s tour of Australia ended with 2 shows in Melbourne at the Forum and a slot at the Golden Plains festival in Meredith, which is a couple hours outside of Melbourne. The Forum is an old elaborate theater that’s actually been split into 2 venues. We played the main room with all sorts of statues and whatnot looking all grandiose and yet rundown and haggard. The balcony is walled off into it’s own all-seated theater which seemed to be used as a movie theater. There’s all kinds of passageways and dark, closed off places, giving the place better than average character. Both shows here were top-notch and well-received. The last night ended with the whole band playing Claude’s drum kit.

The Forum, pre crowd…

Mickey, pre-show…

The backstage at the Forum hasn’t been so much as painted since it opened. There were all kinds of cool, old signs painted in the dank basement halls & stairwells. I like that kind of shit so I took some pictures…

A more typical vantage point for my world than Perth…
Chip works the smoke…

Johnny On the Spot…

Debating the encore…

The drum jam…

The day of the 2nd show I walked around Melbourne a bit and checked out the Nick Cave exhibit. Mickey couldn’t get his head around the idea of an exhibit for a guy that’s still alive and making records, but I think this made it more interesting as Cave was involved with choosing what went in and wrote and recorded stories about various items. It was a lot of photos and typical memorabilia type stuff but there was a bunch of really cool stuff that belongs to him that gave a different sort of insight into the man’s creative process than a normal museum exhibit would. Pictures were tough to get but I got a couple.

A couple random Melbourne shots…
The Nick Cave Exhibit…

The last day we made the hour & a half drive out into nothingness for the festival. It was one of the most remote festivals I’ve done and one of the smaller ones too. It was a bit lacking in amenities but they made up for it with good vibes and an accommodating attitude. Saw Iron & Wine play which was good but I prefer the solo acoustic setup to the full band. The gig itself went well once it got going but the 30mins before were a nightmare getting ready. Typical festival. On the ride back into Melbourne you could see more stars than I’ve seen in years. No ozone to get in the way I guess. After one last night in a “serviced apartment”, it was back to the airport and off to Hawaii.

The road to Golden Plains…

Hospitality…
The Pink Flamingo…
Chip is a city boy who was shy about the cows at first…

But we had him up to speed soon enough…
The Front Row…
Festival crowd…

Chip & Gener wait…
And back to America. There’s no place like home…

Perth>Melbourne

Perth. They say Perth is the most remote western city in the world. It’s on the west coast of Australia, a million miles from everywhere. I’ve never had any time off here, so I’ve never ventured out of the city center, but apparently the beaches are amazing and never get crowded. I wish they could say the same about the rock venues. Our show was at smallish nightclub that was more set up for disco nights than rock shows. The stage was so tiny that I literally had to set up ON stage. Like I could put my feet up on Mickey’s amp if I wanted. It was actually an amazing spot to sit except for feeling like a completely conspicuous douche up there where everyone could see me. The whole day was a nightmare trying to get everything happening. Plus there’s a smaller club that’s attached where some shitty scream-o bands were playing, so we were battling their noise all day. The gig itself was packed & sweaty. The band played a great set, marred again by gear troubles for Mickey. Poor Mickey, between playing in Ween and being a Philly sports fan, I now know what he means when he tells me “welcome to the losing team”. Still, he knows how to dig his heels in and overcome. Here’s a bunch of shots from the show. I was so drowned in the lights that most of them came out bad, but you get the idea.

To give you an idea how close I was, these were taken with no zoom…

I had to lean way back for this one…
Mickey playing inside the sun…
Dave rocks it…

The Mollusk…

The end of You Fucked Up…

Good night Perth…

Yesterday we flew to Melbourne where we had a night off. A bunch of us went to an Italian place called Pelligrini’s that was one of the coolest restaurants I’ve been to. It’s a hole-in-the-wall family style place. You walk in and there’s a long bar on each side running the length of the place. It was full when we arrived so they sat us at a long table that was literally IN the kitchen. They don’t really have a menu, they just ask you what they want and make it for you. They offer you seconds or to try different stuff and you just agree on what to pay (we paid $20 each). The food was good but not amazing (the pasta’s pre-cooked so it wasn’t as al dente as I’d like). It reminded me of Papa Frank’s back in Vermont. The experience was great though. The owner & staff/family basically hang out and talk & serve you. It’s more like being in someone’s home than a restaurant. We ended up sharing our table with some nice folks and the whole thing was just a great experience.

We’re in Melbourne for 3 more nights which is a nice break from all the flying. We have 2 shows in town and then a festival a couple hours away. I’m going to try and see the Nick Cave exhibit in town, which will likely lead to me gushing about how cool that guy is.

Adelaide

Another early morning flight today. This time to Adelaide, which is a lot like southern Arizona. Which is to say “hot as fuck”. Oh, but it’s a dry heat. Never mind that there’s no ozone and the sun feels like an evil laser beam. The show was at one of those clubs that is a total nightmare to make a show happen in, but the band love playing. To be fair, these types of places usually have the best gigs, but it’s no fun getting it there. Tonight was one of those gigs. The band played a really long set with a lot of stuff that doesn’t get played very often. That’s always a good sign with Ween. The whole thing ended with Never Squeal On The Pusher with the usual drum solo. This somehow devolved into Claude moving from drums to bass, Dave moving from bass to guitar and Mickey moving from guitar to drums. The ensuing madness made for good theater.
I also managed to take some random pictures today. Travelling definitely resurrects the inspiration on that front. Show in Perth tomorrow. Only a 3 1/2 hour flight in the morning then. On we go….

Claude Coleman…

Aaron Freeman…


G-Blaster…

Kirk & Chip…

A Slanty Building…

The thing that sucks about Adelaide is that “the MAN” is always trying to keep you from drinking the toilet water…

Sydney

Before I get into the last couple days in Sydney, there’s a few random things I feel like pointing out about Australia. In no particular order….

I hate Qantas. I just do.

For some reason the hotels here (and in New Zealand) feel as though the going rate for this new fangled internet thing is slightly less than the cost of a high-end sushi meal. They charge like $35 a day when you can get a 24-hour plan. Half the time it’s some hourly shit that costs even more if you actually use it. Then on top of this, they cap your usage. So if you download any large-ish files, you’ll reach your cap and they’ll shut it off on you. I call bullshit on Australian internet robbery.

It’s like Asia here now. There are so many Asian people living and visiting down here that it literally feels like you could be in Japan, except you can read the signs. I have no issue with this, in fact I quite enjoy there being Asian food on every block, but it just seems weird.

So anyway, yesterday was a 7:30am departure from the hotel in Brisbane to fly to Sydney. The thing about touring here is that you have to fly everywhere, which wouldn’t be so bad except you end up flying on show days, which means you’re up early and always jet-laggy and exhausted. Plus it’s always on Qantas and you know how I feel about that shit. The gig in Sydney was a good one. Ween hasn’t played down here in 11 years and Australia is the only place in the world that they had a top 10 hit. The crowd was way into it and, despite being plagued with gear issues all night, the band rocked it out. As you do.

Today was a day off. I was up fairly early to switch rooms to one with a balcony. Since it was a rainy morning I lazed around bed and took advantage of some internet time which is rare down here. Around noon I ventured out for a roam around Sydney. This is one of my favorite cities to visit and I always love having a day off here. The sun burned off the clouds and it ended up being a perfect hot sunny day. I walked thru the botanical gardens, checking out the bats that sleep in the trees along the way. They call them ‘flying foxes’ cause that’s what they look like. They’re huge with really big, sinister looking wings. It’s really cool to see them up close. After looping around the bay taking in the views of the opera house and harbor bridge I took a ferry to Darling harbor and walked up the hill to the hotel. After an hour of sitting on the balcony soaking up some melanoma, I joined everyone except Aaron & Mickey for a dinner that the promoter treated us to. We went to this amazing high-endy Thai fusion place called Long Grain. They just started bringing us food, all of it amazing. One course after another, mostly seafood. We were there for 2 1/2 hours stuffing ourselves with all kinds of crazy food. A solid end the day. Tomorrow it’s off to Adelaide, which is a half hour time difference from here. What’s up with that? Anyway, here’s some photos….

Tree tunnel…

Sydney Opera House from the ferry…

The bats…


Looking down on Kent St…

The Enmore Theater, Sydney…

The blue balloons…

The sex doll reaches the stage…

Dave rocks the doll…

Gener holds the doll aloft…

The end of Buenas Tardes…

Goodnight Sydney!…

She’s not as hot when the lights come on…

Brisbane

After the good times that were New Zealand, it was time for team Ween to board the first of all-too-many Qantas flights and head to Australia. Brisbane to be precise. We got to the hotel, which was actually ’serviced apartments’ to find one of the best hotel rooms I’ve ever had in my life. Considering that in 2005 I spent more nights at the Cumberland hotel in London than I did my own bed, I feel I have some authority to speak on hotel rooms. This hotel wasn’t really even all that nice. It was fine, but a little cheap. But the room had this great balcony with an amazing view of some bridge and up the river a bit downtown Brisbane. On top of that the room had not only a kitchen but laundry machines. You people who don’t tour can’t possibly grasp the true gravity of this. I promptly went out to the supermarket for some supplies and spent the next 6 hours doing laundry, reading and eating on the patio. A fine way to land.
The Brisbane show was….actually I have no recollection of the show. I seem to remember it not being as good as the NZ shows but that might have just been because it was a bigger venue. Regardless, Ween played. I’m pretty sure of that.

Gener smokes where Gener wants…

How do you return it after you’ve used it?…

My view of Brisbane…

The Aussies really lionize AC/DC…