Last night was a blast and I can now Die Happy (incidentally a pretty cool German band I saw at the Pumpwerk in Wilhelmshaven. In terms of live music venues, the Pumpwerk stands out as one of the best for me. Just the right size. Just the right atmosphere. Just the right everything. I would love it if the Pumpwerk were in Brisbane). Back to the topic at hand which was Sam and Helen’s semi-big night out.
The highlight of my night was of course when Women in Docs pulled Sally Dastey up on stage near the end to do Tin Roof. It went off. In case you haven’t realised Tin Roof is pretty high up in that handful of songs that make up my all time favourites. It sits up there with Marrakesh Express by Crosby, Stills & Nash (who are playing in Brisbane in 3 weeks but the tickets are waaaay to pricey for me), Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan, Safari by The Breeders, The Waitress by The Waifs, You Sound Like Louis Burdett by The Whitlams, The 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon and Garfunkel, Lady Madonna by The Beatles, Adelaide by Old 97’s, You or Your Memory by The Mountain Goats and a handful of other songs. Classic songs. Of course going to a concert and hearing one of your all time favourite songs is just top shelf stuff.
Last night with Sam was fantastic. So was the night before with Andrea. Though how could it not have been fantastic? Great music and good friends always equals fun times.
After the show was over we made our way down to Eagle St where Sam works to see Cory and to munch down some wedges and fold cutlery bundles for the next days trade. I have to say at the start of the night I didn’t think I would spend part of it wiping cutlery dry and giving it to Sam so she could wrap it up in a serviette. A couple of hours out on the town, dancing, drinking, chatting, walking and generally having a good time. Then we made our way home and that takes me to where we are now.
If you are going to be in Melbourne, Nowra or Canberra between March 14 and 23, I reckon you should check out the Gig Guide on the Women in Docs website and get a few friends or family and plan an easy night out with good music and lots of laughs 🙂
I had a dream last night that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were doing a gig at The Zoo and tickets were $36. Which is a pretty decent price for an international act at The Zoo. Somehow I don’t think that gig would be happening any time soon. I can still dream though.
We received a Christmas package from Karl yesterday and I got a CD that has quite possibly jumped straight into my top handful of all time albums. That is a pretty impressive jump for a new CD, normally they hover round the “this is cool” level for a while before I listened to it a few more times and it either floats up the list or sinks down the list.
Thirty seconds into the opening track Mojo Love and I was drumming my hands on the desk and grooving in my chair. The CD is the debut album from an Icelandic girl who goes under the stage name Lay Low called Please Don’t Hate Me. You can listen to four tracks off the CD on the Lay Low webpage or you can hot tail it onto a plane to Iceland, pop into a record store and pick yourself up a copy or find your self a loving family member who resides in Iceland. This is the video clip for the title track off the album.
If this CD is anything like the Benni Hemm Hemm CD that I received from Karl last Christmas, Time Off should review it in November. I was reading Time Off (a local street press) at work one day and flicking through the CD section I saw Benni Hemm Hemm mentioned and I just about fell off my chair at seeing an Icelandic group that is not Sigur Ros, Bjork or EmilÃana Torrini reviewed. I will be keeping an ear out to see what Lay Low does next because I like what I hear.
I made the bread, not the best effort as I sort of forgot till it was too late the lack of gluten in corn flour. This meant that it was slightly lacking in the bread department and more in the chewy department. Nice but not what I wanted. Maybe next time.
I made the pesto as well (of course :)). I had been on the eye out for good looking basil at the fruit shop for quite a while now and it was always wilted and sad looking. On Sunday Mum and I went to a local farmers market where I picked up the freshest bunch of basil I have ever seen. The smell was gorgeous.
The grape tomatoes came from the markets for something like $2 for a large bag which was a total bargain.
To day Mum, Matthew and I are off to the Brisbane markets at Rocklea to explore and to pick up some gorgeous bargains in the way of fruit and veg. I know last time we picked up 5kg of cherries for $20 at a time when they were selling for $20/kg in the shops. 🙂
Tonight I am off to see Madeleine Peyroux. Ohh it will be a delight. I was so delighted when I saw the ad in the paper back in October advertising the tour. I bought my ticket the day they went on sale I think 🙂
This is a photo of Clare and I at the Mountain Goats at The Zoo last night. Oh wait wrong caption but we could be called a pair of Galahs I guess. Though this pair of Galahs are a male and female, like bird seed and spending their days flying about the Glasshouse Mountains so I probably quit whilst I am ahead.
The above photo is from earlier in the day when we went up to visit Grandad at the farm. Had a pretty quiet day at the farm, washed the car (much easier to do at the farm where there are no water restrictions like in Brisbane), picked beans, had lunch and had fun with my camera taking photos of a small selection of the birds who visit Grandad for his good looks and charming conversation (ok they like the bird bath and seed he leaves out, a girl has to have an imagination).
Once we had returned from the farm and I had had a short power nap it was into the valley to meet Clare to go to The Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice (JV) show at The Zoo.
It was Clare’s first ‘Goats show so she didn’t really have anything to compare it to so I am pretty sure she had a good time. I on the other hand well there were parts of the show I enjoyed such as Peter Hughes passing a bottle of Jameson’s around the crowd or the encore of covers or JV joining the boys on stage after a couple of songs and staying there for the rest of the night and providing some cool harmonies. Overall though compared to the last two ‘Goats shows this seemed to missing the magic, the crowd was a lot more somber and there was a lot less singing along and dancing at this show.
The biggest bummer of the night though was that they had sold of shirts the night before in Sydney 🙁 🙁 🙁
Well we arrived back in reality yesterday and it is certainly a change from what life was like for the past week.
Woodford was everything I imagined it to be and a hundred times more. The music, the food, the people, the vibe. I had a blast and would happily go back tomorrow working 5hr shifts in the little grocery store, cruising round discovering new bands and kicking back to old ones, eating good food and finding all sorts of cool things in the shops the only problem might be that I would probably run out of money at one stage. mmmm Woodford Rocked!
Next year I want to camp in a better place with different people (read:not my brother and his friends) and change my mobile provider because my much loved Vodafone does not love Woodford much at all (why can’t the mobile providers be nice people and co-operate and share coverage). Though I did survive without a computer for the week, having a mobile with extremely patchy reception was not fun because it was chewing the batteries searching for reception all the time and I am still yet to receive a message from Clare that she sent on the 30th. mmmm.
Music wise I had a blast, I only missed two or three bands that I really wanted to see but I can go see them round here anyway and if not I will see them at Blues and Roots in April
I will quite happily admit that the one of the major drawcards (actually probably the drawcard, the tipping stone) in making me go to Woodford this year was the fact that Women in Docs(WiD) were playing a couple of gigs and oh what a delight that was.
It was great seeing them play and it is hard to believe that it took me what seven years? to see them play and get a couple of CD’s. I missed one of the shows as I was working but the other two I caught and they finished their set with the most delightful cover that I have not been able to get out of my head – Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. They have two gigs in Brissie in a bit less than a month’s time so we will of course go and check them out. Hopefully there will be some Tin Roof action at one of those because there wasn’t at Woodford 🙁
Over the years I have seen Tim and the Whitlams numerous times, but this relatively smallish gig at the Grande tent topped the list. It was Tim, a keyboard and a mike doing what he does best singing those songs. He made small talk with the crowd at the front and played requests as people yelled them out to him. Though he didn’t get round to doing Kate Kelly.
For me the music I saw pretty much divided into two broad categories of folky/rocky/vocal centered and then the funky/roots/fusion jazz/designed to get you shaking that tail feather. Pablo Discobar and De Jah Groove, Blue King Brown and Troy ‘n’ Trevelyn (now known as Banawurn) in the funk pile along with some others. Very much prefect music for some late night hip shaking.
One of the highlights had to be the 80’s Singalong, the Concert tent was filled with people singing, dancing and laughing as we were lead by a merry group of singers on the stage.
Whilst most of the songs were on the poppier side of the 80’s, the closing song Livin’ on a Prayer went off and I think the whole tent started laughing when Roz decided rock out and go for the stage dive. This photo actually for some reason reminds me of Joan Jett, can’t quite place why but it does.
Ms Clare came up to Woodford with her friend Katie for the couple of days that Katie’s band was playing and then departed. It was great fun to meet Katie though and to cruise the streets of Woodford with the both of them plus the various people Katie collected along the way.
Sporting their hippie head bands
Ms Clare trying to tempt me with a piece of Sushi (it didn’t work).
The two food highlights for me at Woodford would have to have been the Byron Bay Organic Doughnuts and the Hungarian Langos place. The doughnuts were so so good and pretty darn cheap. The cinnamon one was classic and a good snack but the chocolate filled ones were just like heaven in a little hunk of dough. mmmm but messy, I had melted dark chocolate all over me. The Langos were also so good and I am going to try my hand at making them at home. mmm tasty!
I also picked up a skirt, a dress, a couple of scarves, a couple of bangles and some other assorted trinkets. Plus a whole stack of CDs and quite a few gigs to go to in the coming weeks and more CDs to buy from the stores here.
Matthew and I are still wearing our wristbands and are having a mini competition to see who can leave it on the longest :). Oh and a gumboot report is coming, so watch out!
I was to young (read: not even thought of) when Woodstock was on so instead I am heading up to Wood(ford)stock (Woodford Folk Festival) for the coming week with my brother who went up this morning and another one of my friends who will be there for a couple of days.
It is currently drizzling here (Rain, what is rain?). Which means that maybe I will get to wear my gumboots round the site at Woodford, I painted them up last night so my feet will not get lost in the crowd!
Matthew and I are both going as volunteers which means we get free entry and camping in exchange for 5hrs work each day. I will be in the general store and Matthew will be working in one of the bars. I can’t wait for the bands to start playing tomorrow as there are so many bands that I know I want to see and I am sure there will be many others I will discover!
We come home on Jan 2nd so I don’t plan on been in contact before then. Have a good New Years and enjoy the rest of Boxing Day today 🙂
