The Stills Day 1/2, NYC to Perth, Mar. 4 2009
I'm still reeling from the jet lag coming back from Australia 10 days ago. I'm a complete wreck, passing out at 7pm, waking up at 4 or 5am, it makes no sense whatsoever. I've tried to beat it but I just keep digging a bigger hole. So, in order to solve this colossal problem, I'm flying back to Perth today. Oh, and I start another tour there too, so it's probably good for me to fly back. Back-to-back shows in Perth with a break in New York. So weird...
So today is the flight down. I didn't really unpack from the last trip, so getting things together wasn't so hard. I hopped in the car and headed out to JFK. I had the same driver and had to try and explain why I didn't call his son when I was down there last month... Anyways, I got through everything and relaxed at my regular airport bar waiting for the first flight to LA. Just trying to stay as relaxed as possible now that I know how epic a 34hr travel day can be.
The first flight was smooth... 6hrs across the US feels like a joke now. I met up with everyone else at the airport in LA, and oddly enough, most of the Kings of Leon crew too. They were all on the same flights as us the rest of way. Wild coincidence. We had a good little party at the bar before getting on the plane to fly to Sydney. And while I'm talking about flights, let's hear it for Qantas, best long-haul airline ever. Real food, free drinks, comfortable enough seats. Definitely the way to go if you head to Oz. But don't sit near the galley. I usually don't mind being near washrooms at the back of the plane, but on this one I was beside the kitchen. Non-stop noise and action. Not so fun, but survivable... Anyways.
Once we landed in Sydney, it was a bit of a hassle waiting to clear customs, get bags and gear, switch terminals, etc... It was sort of a long stopover. Once we got to the domestic terminal we did have some time to relax a bit though, and we actually met one of the promoters for our tour who was there with another band. Running in to people in airports all over the world today... After a quick bite and a coffee we got on the last plane to go across the country to Perth.
The flight was ok and I started to finally feel like I was back on schedule. When we got in we were met by our driver to take us to the hotel, we packed up and left. We didn't stay at the hotel too long; beautiful day on the Indian Ocean means hit the beach. So we got a cab right away and within 2hrs of landing we were working on our tans, watching people train to be surf rescue crew and lifeguards. It felt so good to be back. The brief tinge of winter I felt over the last 10 days was more than I could bear.
We had dinner at the beach too and just took our time heading back to the hotel. We didn't do much else the rest of the night, just tried to stay awake and eventually crashed.
Day 3, Perth
I was up early today and headed down to the lobby restaurant for breakfast. I really enjoy the lifestyle I started getting used to in Australia. I met a couple other people while eating and I ended up hanging out for about 3 hrs as people came and went, just drinking coffee, catching up... It was another amazing day and we wanted to head out again, so we figured why not the beach?
Instead of spending a fortune on cabs today, we rented a van (which was interesting to drive on the wrong side of the road with a right-hand drive). We headed back out to the same beach, Cottesloe, where the KoL guys & co were waiting. We spent a couple hours down by the water, had some food at a beachfront restaurant, got some ice cream. Really touristy kind of stuff I guess. We split up to head back to our respective hotels and made plans to meet up for dinner later.
After relaxing a bit at the hotel, we all met up again at a Japanese place and that was pretty much the rest of the night, just sitting around talking, catching up, etc... After a long dinner we were all pretty wiped, so back to the hotel to crash.
Day 4, Perth
Today is the first show, and it feels a little weird to have to work after sitting on a beach for 2 days. It was a festival though, so it was pretty laid-back, easy to deal with. Just show up, set up, play and hang out. The downside is that the site is about 45mins from our hotel, so we had to leave a little early.
Our driver picked us up and off we went. When we were almost there, we realized we had a little bit of time to spare, so our driver decided to take us on a little detour. To a cemetery. What was cool about this particular cemetery is that it's populated by kangaroos! They don't have that where we come from. The reason the 'roos are there is because they come out at night to eat all the flowers that people leave on the graves. So we drove in a little bit until we found a clearing where about a dozen kangaroos were lounging in the grass, eating, fighting, hopping. All kinds of things that seemed completely amazing to us. We hung out there for about 15mins before we kept going the rest of the way to the site.
Everything at the festival was just like any other festival. Big stage, big crowd (27,000 by the end of the night...) good weather, good times. We got all our stuff sorted out and killed some time before playing. We ended up sharing a dressing room with the KoL folks, so we had access to a ping pong table, which was gold. After our set, which went pretty well for the first show in Oz, we killed time at the ping pong table, hung out in catering (where most of us had kangaroo for dinner) etc... Just a laid back festival afternoon. We left a few songs in to the KoL set to avoid getting stuck in traffic with 27,000 kids.
On the way back, our driver took us down a coastal road, by the Indian Ocean. It was a pretty amazing drive. When we got back we didn't stay out because we have an early flight in the morning to head to Adelaide.
Day 5, Adelaide
After rising early, we grabbed a couple late risers from the KoL crew and headed to the airport to fly to Adelaide. Pretty basic deal, fly for a couple hours, land and get picked up to go to the hotel. The rest of the day was free, so I just kind of wandered around a bit, looking for places to eat, hang out, etc... It was a little quiet because it was some sort of civic holiday, but I found a festival happening, a few places worth returning to for coffee and food, etc... Later in the evening I hooked up with all my people again, but it didn't seem like much was happening. Then, out of the blue, we got a call from one of them who was at some kind of indie art gallery that was apparently worth hanging out at.
The place was almost impossible to find, but we eventually made it in. They had some drinks going around, weird arty films being projected on walls, paintings, sculptures, things I never thought I'd see, etc... It made for an interesting evening if nothing else, definitely better than sitting at the hotel.
Day 6, Adelaide
Another day off, can't complain. Some of the guys went out on a wine tour but I decided to stay back; had a bit of work to do as someone realized there was a missing passport and we had to get it replaced asap... After a full morning of laptopping, I walked around a couple different neighbourhoods I hadn't seen yet. I found a pretty crazy indoor market in Chinatown where I stopped for lunch, and on the way back I stumbled upon a great coffee shop near the hotel, aptly named Short Black, which is what they call an espresso down there. By the end of it, I had probably been walking for about 6hrs so I was pretty wiped. I met up with the guys after their wine tour and we sat by the pool for a bit before meeting up with a couple other people to head out for dinner.
We ended up heading back towards Chinatown but ate at a pretty good tapas place. The walk back was cool; lots of clouds and weird ambient moonlight. It made for a couple interesting pictures.
Day 7, Adelaide
It's the seventh day on the tour and only the 2nd show. I like those numbers. As soon as I was up, a couple of us went for breakfast at a 24hr pancake place by the hotel. We were thinking we'd get something at least on par with Cracker Barrel. Turned out to be much worse, it was a big mistake. I went straight to the Short Black to cleanse my palate. For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, I went for another walk, this time along a river behind the hotel. Saw some great wildlife, which probably isn't so wild to them, and was able to just sit for a while basking in the sunshine.
And then it was time to work. The show today is in a huge outdoor tennis stadium. I've never done a tennis stadium before, but it was pretty cool. It sort of set the tone for what we'd expect the rest of this tour. It's kind of fun being on the biggest tour in the country. The place was pretty full by our set time, and it was pretty crazy. The crowd was wild the entire night.
After the set, we hung out playing ping pong for a little while and then headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow is another early flight.
Day 8, Melbourne
First order of the day was getting to the airport, which we did successfully, and then we had another flight. Today we landed in Melbourne. We're here for a couple days, which I'm happy about because when I came in and out last month, we had no time to see anything and I'm told it's a great place.
Once we got in, we went straight to the hotel, and then a couple of us went straight to the gym. When we got back to our rooms afterwards, I had messages from the Kings tour manager inviting us to a private screening of a new movie called The Brothers Bloom, which was to be hosted by the producer. Sounds like a plan to me.
So, we showered up really quickly and ran across the street to the KoL hotel where we were directed to meet everyone at the penthouse lounge for refreshments before the screening. After a few minutes we were rounded up to head to the theatre. The security escorts they sent us took us through so many back hallways and elevators that we weren't even sure that we were still in Melbourne by the time we got to the theatre. There was a cool little lobby with all kinds of food waiting for us when we got there, and, of course, an open bar. This is the best movie experience I've ever had.
And it got better. Once we went in to the actual theatre, which had a full-size screen, we had a choice of where to sit - in one of the 20 or so huge recliners. And each one had a table for your food and drinks and a buzzer to call the waiter over. Full dinner service during the movie. Sick. The movie itself was actually decent. Starred Adrian Brody, Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo. You'll have to go see it; I won't give it away.
After the movie we went out to a patio a couple floors up where we saw a crazy fireball display at 11pm. Once that was done, people started splitting up, some went to the casino in the same building (where they ended up being joined by Kylie Minogue and Zac Efron), but I went out to meet a friend of a friend. A "blind date" of sorts I guess. It was highly recommended that I hook up with this person in order to have the best time in Melbourne, so I went for it. We met up at Ding Dong Lounge, had a couple drinks there, and then went a couple blocks over to a great wine bar called The Supper Club. It was only going to be one quick drink and out, but we ended up there for a couple hours. And after you get through that threshold, you're pretty much up all night, so we went over to a legendary Melbourne rock bar called the Cherry Bar. That's where people like the Stones have end-of-tour parties. It's nothing crazy, just a classic dirty old rock club. We hung out there for a while with the staff after hours and it was a really good time. It was also on AC/DC Lane. That's cool. To finish off the night, as the sun came up, we went to a 24hr greek restaurant for some pretty amazing late night food. Then back to the hotel to crash. I do have to work soon after all...
Day 9, Melbourne
3hrs sleep. I just can't beat the lag right now. I felt surprisingly good though. Three of us met up and walked over to a cafe called Cervo for coffee and breakfast. I had soup though... We were eventually joined by fourth and then we watched a helicopter land and take off across the canal from where we were sitting. I don't get the science of the helicopter. It's a bizarre machine. Anyways. After breakfast we went back to the hotel. I went to the gym for a bit and took it easy until it was time to go to the venue for the first of our 2 Melbs shows.
Today we're in the Rod Laver Arena, which is an indoor tennis stadium. Arenas here are not hockey rinks, which is a little weird to get used to. All tennis. Still huge though, and still have crazy crowds. 15,000 tonight. I'm really into the arena shows, love 'em. After it was all done, we hung out backstage for a little while, played some ping pong, etc... A few guys went back to the casino, I went back out to Ding Dong Lounge. There was actually a show there tonight that was supposed to be pretty good, the drummer from Nick Cave's band, but unfortunately I had just missed it when I got there. The promoter from our show was already there though, so I had a drink with him, and then someone I knew from years ago in Ottawa came out, then one of my Stills guys showed up. Made for a cool little party. We hung out at the Ding Dong for a bit, and then went back to The Supper Club for some wine and food. By the time we got there it was probably close to 2am already and we were just getting started. We were there for about 3hrs, great dinners, great cheeses, great wine. We splurged a little tonight and got some really nice bottles. When we left there we had a hard time finding somewhere else to go, so we just hung out on the street. Turns out one of the people with us was a former gymnast, so we got to see a cartwheel display up and down the streets of Melbourne at 5:30 in the morning. Cool. Then we crashed. Have to work again tomorrow...
Day 10, Melbourne
At some point I'll have to sleep, just not today... I'm still amazed at how well I've been doing on no sleep for most of the last month. I think being in the sun and near beaches all the time goes a long way to help with that. After about 3hrs, again, we were up and heading back to Cervo for a quick bite. Today we have to go to a show before doing ours, so it's sort of a full one.
The show we're going to is the Sound Relief benefit show. It's to raise money for all the people in Melbourne that lost everything in the bush fires last month. It's also at a cricket stadium which seats about 85,000 people. It's absolutely massive. When we got there, Coldplay was being broadcast on the jumbotron, live from Sydney, where another benefit was happening simultaneously. The promoter for our tour was also in charge of this show, so we got hooked up with all the passes we needed, got to eat at catering, the whole deal. It was like we were playing the show, except that we weren't playing... The main reason we came out is because the Kings were playing. It's a pretty big deal, so we were happy to get to check it out. Standing on the side of the stage in front of a crowd that huge was incredible. It's really hard to put it in perspective. Easily the biggest production I've ever seen.
The Kings went back to their hotel right after their brief 4 song set, and we had some time to kill before going to the venue for our actual show. We wanted to check out a cool neighbourhood, and someone told us Brunswick St. was the place to go, so we went. It was alright I guess. I got a coffee at a cool little shop that had an old school hand pump machine from Italy. It was pretty damn good. We checked out a few clothing shops, but overall nothing too crazy. Right at the end of our little trip it started pouring rain, so we got a taxi as soon as we could and went back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the venue.
It's nice to play the same place on multiple nights. Makes things so much easier. The show went well again, and we stuck around backstage for a good chunk of the evening. Eventually people went back to the casino, again... I did not. I met up with some of the new friends I'd made a couple nights ago and hosted (an extremely rare) hotel room party. I never host hotel parties. I like my room for my privacy, but I had to pack before we headed out early in the morning for another flight and it just seemed like the easiest way to hang out with people I wouldn't see again for a while, and to get all my stuff done. So I did it. Have to live once in a while, right?
Day 11, Brisbane
Most of today was spent at airports and flying to Brisbane. It's so weird to be in some of these airports 3 or 4 times in 3 or 4 weeks when you live halfway around the world... Anyways, once we were at the hotel I went straight to the gym for a bit. It's started to become routine for me, which is pretty weird considering I've avoided gyms like crazy my whole life. Never like the idea of the workout, but I'm becoming accustomed to it... I tried to get some food after as I'd worked up an appetite, and it was quite the challenge even though we were at a Sofitel. Incidentally, it's the shittiest Sofitel I've ever stayed at, which is a shame because the best hotel I've ever stayed in was a Sofitel in Munich. The wait staff here is terrible (but the front desk people are good). They wouldn't serve us a salad at first, and then tried to charge us $30 for a Caeser salad. Spoke to a manager, no love, so we went to a corner store and got some overpriced chips.
A little while later, we hooked up with a few people from the KoL crew and went for a real dinner. We found a cool little Italian place down by the waterfront. Had to wait a little bit for a table, but they had a bar so we were able to get in to the wine while we waited. The meal ended up being really good and once we were done eating we went straight back to their bar for a couple more drinks as the restaurant was shutting down for the night. Eventually they asked us why we were in town (we kind of stick out when people hear us speaking), and when the story got out, they got so excited that they started giving us complementary bottles of wine. Sweet deal. The next day we mailed them some shirts and CD's, and got a couple of them some tickets for the show. It turns out that a large number of the staff had tickets already, so many that the owner had to tell some of them that they couldn't have the night off because he wouldn't have enough staff to operate the restaurant for the night! It was a little bittersweet for them I guess. Made for a really good night though. When we left the bar, I went back to the hotel to crash. Gotta try and get some sleep, and with Sydney still coming, I need all the sleep I can get...
Day 12, Brisbane
Today started with a slow walk to Alan's Espresso, which had great reviews but in reality was quite disappointing. The people were nice though. I like the Aussies. They're a good bunch. If nothing else, at least I was caffeinated and went back to the hotel to work for a bit, spend a few minutes at the gym, and then make the trek out to the show.
It was a little far today... The venue is a 40min drive from the hotel. We wondered why we stayed in the city centre when we found that out, but it was instantly obvious when we made the drive. Not a very nice neighbourhood out near the Entertainment Centre and the only hotels were the equivalent of a bad Motel 6. When we finally did get in, we had a quick check, I brought the guys out to do a couple interviews, had some dinner and we put on another rock show.
The highlight tonight was after the show. The Kings made arrangements to have a wild animal trainer come out, so when we were done, there were a bunch of crazy snakes backstage. It was pretty insane. I don't feel the need to ever be that close to a python again. It was sort of freaky, but pretty awesome at the same time.
We didn't hang out much longer than that given the long drive back to the hotel. Once we got in, we sat down at the bar and had a couple glasses of wine, talked for a bit and called it a night. I'm saving my energy for Sydney now, and it's coming up fast...
Day 12, Sydney
Back in Sydney today. This I like very much. It's one of the few cities where I've felt at home right away, and I have a couple friends here now, so I'm looking forward to a good time over the next few days.
Again it was straight to the hotel once we landed. We're staying down by the Circ. Q this time, which is nice for ferries, so our first outing of note was hopping on the ferry and heading out to Manly. I made arrangements to take the guys to the restaurant owned by my brother-in-laws parents. The ferry ride was amazing, as usual, and when we got off we walked over to the beach and stopped by a bottleshop to pick up some wine for dinner. We were all pretty hungry and the long walk up to the hill intensified it. It was worth the wait and the walk though; another great meal was had. We must've been there for about 3hrs and too many courses to count before walking back down to the ferry docks.
Once back in the city, we walked around the Harbour wharves to get to the Park Hyatt hotel, where the bar was closed down for our touring party. We met up with everyone there, the promoters were there too, and we enjoyed the hotel's generous offerings for a little while before heading back to crash.
Day 13, Sydney
It's really nice to be in a place you already sort of know. A little bit anyways. I won't pretend to be an expert on Sydney, but I've found a few places I like alot. So, first thing today I walked out to Mecca Espresso bar for a couple macchiato's to start the day properly. I went back to the hotel after for a quick round in the gym, and then I took a couple of the guys for a short walk down to Hyde Park to relax a bit before heading off to the show at the Haymarket Entertainment Centre. So far, an amazing day. Unfortunately there was no one playing chess in the park... maybe that only happens on certain days, I dunno, but the good little coffee stand was still there so I was ok with that.
The show tonight was the first of 3 in Sydney, and the venue is huge. 16,000 tonight. It was filling up fast so we had a really good crowd for this one, and the kids ate it up. Great vibe tonight. After this one, we had an after party set up for a place called the Q Bar which was a short walk from our hotel, so we headed over after dropping off some stuff in our rooms. It was a really good night. Most of the KoL crew came out, which is rare for them because their days are always so long, so it was fun to hang for once, to see everyone wearing clothes that were a colour other than black. I ended up talking with a couple of their Aussie record label people for most of the night, one of whom had Lebanese roots like myself, but who still has family there and has visited. Crazy. I don't think I'll ever go to the motherland, but then I never thought I'd go to Turkey, Israel or Russia either, so who knows... Time will tell. Anyways, all that to say it was a really good night, topped off by a french fry dispensing machine. I've never seen anything like it. It's like a regular vending machine, except it sells fries, and they're actually good. Take 90 seconds and a little bowl pops out, nice and fresh. A quick stop in the photo booth for memories of the evening and we were heading back to the hotel.
Day 14, Sydney
I got up at a semi-reasonable hour today, got a little bit of sleep anyways... Went out to get some food and some coffee and all was good in the world. Back to the hotel, to the gym again, and my start-of-day routine was complete.
We went to the venue, did our quick check and show and all was good in the world. Tonight my craziness begins. After I escaped from my duties around midnight, I met up with the local tour manager I had on the Chromeo tour last month. We started out with a couple drinks at a place on Oxford St right under the Q Bar, where I was last night. One of her roommates showed up too (who I had also met last time through) and he stuck around for a couple more with us. It was a crazy scene tonight, the whole street was rammed with people, but somehow we found the one little place that wasn't crowded and had room to sit. Maybe it's because the place playing the weirdest variety of music, totally random going back and forth between 80s dance tunes and techno. After we had had enough of that we went over to the ultimate dive bar called the Courthouse, open 24hrs for your convenience. It was the only place that was still serving that late, so there's no way it could be bad, right? On the way we ran in to someone else I knew from the tour last month, so we stopped and talked for a minute before continuing on our mission.
The thing about the Courthouse is that it reeks. It smells like a combination of wet dog and puke. But whatever. We'll get through it. It was a fairly friendly place if nothing else. We met a couple kids who we were certain had run away from home, though they claimed they were just in town for the KoL show... All kinds of talkative locals. At 3am in a place like that, most of them would be... Eventually the roommate admitted defeat, and attempted to bike home, which was a whole other story... We stuck around a little longer, partied with whoever was left and before we knew it, the sun was coming up. It was about 6:30am when they cleared the bar to clean up for breakfast. I knew I'd have a late night, but I wasn't expecting that... We sat around for a few minutes outside before I hopped in a cab and went to the hotel to crash... Even that had it's moments. The cabbie was on something, don't know what, but he was all over the road, stopping 10 feet short of stop lines, zigzagging everywhere.... Every time he said something he'd lean over and get right in my face. It was messed up. I made it though, I suppose that's what matters...
Day 15, Sydney
I did not wake up early today. I did go to bed after the sun was up after all... It was about 11am when I got out of bed. That's late for this tour though, so it has to count for something... Me and one of the guys met up and went for a short walk to get some food. Found a good little sidewalk cafe where we were able to sit for a bit, have a coffee, etc... I will admit to moving a little slowly however... When we went back to the hotel, I went to gym again to try and get the juices flowing, muster up some energy. And then we went to the beach.
The guys wanted to hang out at Bondi for the afternoon. I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I'm getting it now. These people abuse themselves every night but survive because of the beaches and water. It's really rejuvenating. I went in to the water a few times, trying to perfect my body-surfing technique. Got a couple good waves but for the most part I was eaten alive, thankfully not by the sharks. It was a great way to spend a couple hours. Getting smashed by huge waves actually makes you feel alive. It's a pretty powerful feeling being beaten up by nature like that. That doesn't happen where I come from... Before we went back we stopped at a beach front restaurant where our server was actually from France and delighted to speak french with us. We sat there for a little over an hour before making our way back to the city.
We all cleaned up for the evening once we got back. The guys went to meet the KoL folks for a dinner at their hotel, I went out to meet my Aus. TM friend for round 2. It started with 3 of us having dinner at a place in Chinatown, followed by a couple stops at local pubs on our way to who knows where... One place we stopped at, called Hollywood Cafe, was exactly the type of place I'd be at every night if I lived here. Love this town.
So we carry on and eventually end up back on Oxford St going up and down, looking for places, club hopping a little bit. Went to a weird arty place in the basement of the Q Bar (where they had a drink called the Maggie Trudeau - that was my Canadian moment). We tried going to a place across the street where another guy I met last time through was hosting a hip hop night, except that was actually scheduled for tomorrow... we're a day early... So we head out to a different neighbourhood altogether and settle at a place called World Bar.
During the time we were doing this, my guys were looking for stuff to do after their dinner, so we made some suggestions but none of them really panned out. So they came to meet us. We somehow wrangled a table for 10 on the patio and my friend managed to get the bar manager to give us a tab. Amazing. So the guys show up and we hang there for a while, at least until the tab is maxed out. We thank the bar for their hospitality and try to find other places to hang out. By this time it was probably around 3 or 4am. I just don't know anymore. All but one of the guys bailed at that point, just 4 of us left.
Anyways, we end up at the worst dance bar serving the worst beer ever. It was open, so that counted for something, but we never thought bottled beer could be that bad, so we bailed and went back to the lovely Courthouse. Somehow on the way over one of the people managed to bail (against our advice) so we were down to 3. It started to become a bit of a repeat of last night. After about an hour, the last Still bailed and we were 2 to deal with the locals. Cool. And then the sun starts coming up. It is what it is sometimes and you just have to embrace it. No point fighting it now so we keep going. A couple of middle-aged men tried hanging out with us, which got a little awkward after a few minutes due to their "friendliness", so it was with great relief that the bar got cleared at 6:30am again to get ready for the breakfast crowd. We managed to shake the men and were just sitting in a small grassy area finishing up, about to leave when a wired dude with purple hair walked over...
We had seen him lying down earlier and had written him off as passed out. Well, now he was up and talking to himself and his imaginary friends and having a chat with us. The guy was fried. Probably crystal meth. He didn't really know where he was, almost jumped in to traffic a couple times and was just generally messed up. We gave him some water and tried to calm him down but he was on a whole other level. After what was probably about 30 minutes, he started walking away and we sort of followed him for a couple blocks because he was in no shape to take care of himself. Eventually he stopped walking and tried to withdraw money and order food from a brick post. Right by the brick post, there was an old homeless guy hanging out, and my friend stopped and talked to him for a bit, try and figure out his deal. I sort of babysat purple hair dude during this time. We got him a real slice of pizza and at some point he just decided it was all too much and ran away. Oh well, tried to help...
It was a pretty weird experience for me because anywhere I've ever lived, that dude would've been ignored by everyone, no one would have even pretended to notice him. I never thought I'd be up all night and end up helping someone like that, especially in his state, but I guess that's my life lesson for the tour - it's ok to care and to stop and help someone out. (Ed. - It still runs through my mind every time I walk by someone sitting on a sidewalk...)
We were both a little worn out after the entire thing so, it being breakfast time for most, we went over to a coffee stand in Hyde Park that had recently opened and while everyone else was starting their day, we got a couple coffees and sat in the park for a while to chill out and decompress before calling it a night. I got back to the hotel at 10:30am.
Day 16, Sydney
I slept til 2:30pm today. I was warped. And there's a show today. And the venue is different. This one is a 40 min drive from our hotel, out at the Olympic Park. And of course I ended up riding shotgun in our van which meant I had to somehow manage to talk to the driver the whole way when I just wanted to curl up and die. Thank God I was able to get a couple shots of espresso before we left the hotel.
Somehow I started feeling human again once we got through the soundcheck and had dinner. The venue today is amazing, which definitely helps pick up your spirits. Acer Arena, 21,000 people. It's huge. One of the biggest arenas I've been in, and I've been to a lot of hockey games... The crowd tonight was insane too, the show was awesome, definitely our best night of the tour. Unfortunately we didn't hang out too much after this one given the drive back, so we enjoyed what we could and left.
I had planned to meet up with my friend for round 3 tonight, but she called it off citing exhaustion, which I understood and decided to let her off the hook. I ended up grabbing some leftover beer from our rider and went out and sat in the Harbour by the Opera House, under the bridge. It was pretty chilled out. I sort of crashed a wedding, maybe even got in to a couple pics, but generally just enjoyed the quiet serenity of the harbour at 1am. The lights on the bridge and the Opera House were awesome and it was just great to be able to sit in that particular spot and relax. It's pretty cool to be able to even have the opportunity to do that. After about an hour I went back to the hotel to crash.
Day 17, Newcastle
I thought 40 mins was a long drive to the venue. Today was 2hrs. This means being ready earlier than we're used to at this point, but whatever. It'll be our only real drive through the Australian countryside. It'll be an experience if nothing else.
Before we left though, I went out to have breakfast with my friend out near her place. Good little breakfast/cafe type place. Outdoor patio, astroturf on the ground, it was like sitting in your backyard. Good coffee too. There wasn't a whole lot of time left before I had to hit the road after that, so we went to a corner store, grabbed a couple newspapers and sat in a park across the street for a while. I got a lift back to the hotel, we said our goodbyes and I had to hit the road almost immediately...
The drive up to Newcastle was nice, great scenery, etc... The most interesting thing was probably the road signs, which warned of things like kangaroo crossings, deadly snakes and poisonous spiders. Not anything I've ever seen before, and nothing I really want to experience on a personal level. Turns out our driver works as an environmental scientist, so we got all the details about everything around us, which was actually kind of interesting.
And then we pulled up to Newcastle. Talk about a hole. It's like the Flint, MI, of Australia. Pretty nasty. The venue was kind of funny - again an old indoor tennis stadium, but this one had multi-coloured brown, orange and yellow seats from the 70s. It also had terrible catering. We ended up eating habanero peppers for the most part, cause everything else was horrifyingly bad, and waiting to see who could handle the fire. It wasn't pretty...
Anyways, we did our soundcheck while the KoL crew practiced their cricket skills, and it was sounding surprisingly good for a hole. After soundcheck, we had a couple impromptu photo shoots with the legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin. If you haven't heard of him, he's best known for being Metallica's official tour photographer for many years, and has also shot The Who, Jimmy Page, Def Leppard, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, name it... he's the man. The first shots were of the entire touring party outside beside the trucks, and then we went back in and he took a few shots of The Stills in the dressing room right before we started. Still hoping to get my hands on those, but I'm just happy to say I got my picture taken by Ross Halfin.
So... The show actually wasn't bad, in fact it was really good. I think Newcastle was really happy to have a rock show in town. After it was done we didn't stick around for long though because of the ridiculous drive back to the hotel.
It was pretty late and no one was really doing anything once we got back because we have a flight to New Zealand tomorrow. I didn't feel like sitting around the hotel, especially on my last night in Sydney for the foreseeable future, so I grabbed some leftover beers and walked down to Hyde Park and sat by the fountain for a little while, then went down to the King George fountain at the south end of the park. Just sat, watched, observed and generally relaxed. I didn't want to leave so I appreciated these last few moments, not caring at all that I looked like a wino drinking in the park at 2am...
Day 18, to New Zealand
It's always fun to go to a new country, so despite the fact that I was sad to leave Sydney, I was looking forward to landing in New Zealand. We got our shuttle to the airport fairly early so we would have extra time to check in our gear, and it all worked out and was fairly smooth. When we landed we had to do all the immigration stuff. We were a little nervous because we heard that Coldplay almost got turned away a few weeks ago, and if it can happen to them, who knows what'll happen to us... Apparently the Kiwis are pretty sensitive about who they let in to their country. Fortunately there was no drama for us, although I think the border guard was disappointed when I said I wasn't a drummer (I think he wanted to "bond"). We picked up all our gear, made sure we had no meat or nuts and went through the exit screening and we were in. One more stamp in the passport. Nice.
We went straight to the hotel again, which was a really nice Hyatt. We had a minor problem with the rooms that got sorted out after a few minutes and we ended up with a killer suite that overlooked the Auckland harbour. Sweet deal. I made a quick trip to the gym, and then we all met up and tried to make it out to a beach.
Turns out that there's a beach only a 15 min drive, so we got a cab and made our way down. It was with great disappointment that we arrived on the beach. It was pretty nasty. Not the beautiful sand and waves that we were accustomed to from Australia. The sand was grey, dirty and hard, the water freezing. And as soon as we got there, the sun decided to disappear. It was obvious we weren't going to win, so we just decided to roll with it, threw down our towels and tried to get the last little bit of a tan we'd get in the South Pacific. Really made me want to go back to Bondi...
So after the beach, we walked over to a little strip of restaurants and cafes across the street. We found a good little Italian place so we sat down and had a bite before going back to the hotel. We wanted to get back soon though because there was a party planned for the whole touring party. There were a couple birthdays to celebrate, so someone arranged to get a local pub shut down for us and we all ended up there a little later on in the evening. It ended up being a lot of fun, and it was also the last chance we really had to hang out because there was just one show left. Everyone was out, pictures were taken, cake was eaten. All was good.
Day 19, Auckland, NZ
First order of business: coffee and food. Me and one of the guys went on a hunt, initially ended up empty handed, but then stumbled upon a cool little cafe that had good coffee and a menu. I ordered a bagel, which they claimed to have run out of, but then when we told them how far we traveled to have breakfast in Auckland, the girl admitted that they just hated making them and sheepishly pulled one out and threw it in the toaster for me. Busted. At least it was good. Then back to the hotel and to the gym.
At the gym, I ran in to one of the Kings and we had a short work out session together and started outlining some plans for the night. Rooftop BBQ in the penthouse suite seemed to be the way to go. Nice. Staying in good hotels with huge bands has a couple perks...
After the gym I stayed in for a while to do a little bit of work and ended up having dinner in my room. By the time I was done everything, the bbq was well underway but I decided to wait a while before heading up. I wanted to get out and walk around the town a bit and try and figure it out. Turns out there's not a whole lot going on... The downtown area was mainly ferry docks and a small area of restaurants where people eat before going out in their schooners. (It's definitely a boating town). So I walked in to the city a little more, went through the tourist trap area and ended up on "K Road", which is supposed to be the cool place to hang out. I didn't see anything worth doing. Most of it was closed for the night, except for a couple bars, and once I got a couple blocks down the street, I had one of those moments where you know you've gone too far as soon as you crossed the street. It was sketchy. I felt really weird right away, started looking over my shoulder after almost every step and quickly crossed the street, doubled back and got the hell out. On my way back to the hotel, I passed the Auckland equivalent of the CN Tower or the Space Needle. It was weak. So all in all, I was not impressed by this town at all. It's too bad. I had high hopes, but at least I can say I've been there. That counts for something.
When I got back to the hotel, everything was pretty much wrapped for the night. I missed what was left of the bbq, but I wasn't too worried. At least I got out to do what I wanted to do.
Day 20, Auckland, NZ
So this is it. The final day of the tour, my final day in the South Pacific. This is a hard one to walk away from. I've met so many people down here and had such a great time. Can't wait to get back. This tour in particular was amazing. When you're out with one of the biggest bands in the world, things go really well and you get to do a lot of things that would otherwise never happen. But alas, such is life, hopefully something like this will come up again in the future...
I started the day with a trip back to the cafe we found yesterday. I ordered a bagel again, but this time they were genuinely sold out, so I just got coffee and some sort of pastry thing. On my way back, I walked by a post office, so I went in and sent a couple postcards to the folks waiting back home. Not everyday you get a postcard from New Zealand.
Back at the hotel, I had time for a quick trip to the gym before heading over to the venue, which was the lovely Vector Arena just a few blocks away. It's a pretty new place and it's sounds pretty incredible for an arena. I think it was actually the best sounding show of the tour, until a couple techs started experimenting with the PA... Sometimes as the opening act, you're reduced to being the guinea pigs of the night. Such is life.
After the show we had our official farewell party. There are actually a couple shows left on the tour, but we have to leave early to fly back to Vancouver for the Juno Awards, where the guys are nominated in 2 categories. Anyways, it all started when we got backstage after our show. There was a huge card signed by all the KoL touring party sitting on top of a case of wine. Amazing. We each got a bottle of something undoubtedly nice to bring home with us. Classy people. We spent some time playing some ping pong backstage, then the guys in The Fray stopped by and played a couple rounds. When we were done with all that, we went back to the hotel where they kept the bar open late for us, and we just sat outside on the patio til about 4am. This was good because we have a stupid early flight to Vancouver and we have to go to the airport at 4:30am. Damn.
Day 21, to Vancouver
So we stayed up all night in order to sleep on the flights, same concept as the last time I left a month ago. So far so good... We got our stuff in to the chartered bus to the airport, got to the airport, got checked in, no problems. Then, right before security, some dude (who in his defense is just doing his job...) tried to confiscate my carry-on bag. It only has my laptop, printer, various accessories, etc... that are absolutely necessary for me to work. So I put up a fight. He said the reason is that the bag is overweight. Ridiculous. I've already had about 30 flights this year alone, no problem with any airline. I eventually talked the guy out of it, but he called the gate to warn them I was coming with an oversize bag. LAME. When we eventually did get there, no one cared. Like it makes a difference if the bag is over my head or under my seat. Either way it's 20lbs on a plane. Whatever...
So our first flight is back to Sydney (wish I could've stayed), and we had about 2hrs to switch planes. We had a quick bite to eat and I somehow managed to resist getting some coffee, knowing that if I drank some now, my plan to sleep on the plane would be shot to hell. We spent most of our time trying to upgrade our seats, to no avail. Guess it didn't really matter in the long run; I don't remember much from the flight, which I guess is a good thing, means that I slept.
When we finally did land in Vancouver, cold weather was waiting and it became brutally real that my winter spent in the sun of the southern hemisphere was over. I'm a little sad about it, but at least I got the chance, which is more than most others can say... We spent the rest of the day doing typical stuff to beat jetlag. This included coffee at Wicked Cafe, shopping for jeans and a scarf, going to the gym, dinner at the hotel, meeting up with friends at a couple different places, etc... We ended up being a pretty big group of people by the end of the night. I hung out with a few people I hadn't seen in a while which was pretty cool. I pushed it all the way til 1 am, which was pretty awesome. It was also pretty nasty because I have to get a flight to Alaska in the morning to go do a show with Brand New...
Day 22, to Alaska w/Brand New
Today promises to be an adventure. I'm supposed to fly up to Alaska to do a show with Brand New, but there's been some volcanic eruptions near the airport in Anchorage. The tour manager called me yesterday when most of the crew was flying up to let me know that all their flights had been canceled and that they were stuck in Minneapolis for the night. Interesting. And to top it off, when I got to the airport this morning, the woman at the check in counter asked me if I really wanted to go through with it because the flight would likely get canned. I thought about it, but decided to go forward. What do I have to lose?
So I got on the first flight to Seattle and began the wait for the next flight to Anchorage. The first 2 flights of the day were canceled, so this did not bode well. I sat around the gate area for a while and watched while everything was delayed, and some flights were re-routed to Fairbanks, but they would not be responsible to get you out of Fairbanks once you got there. Interesting. My flight got pushed back a couple times, but not re-routed or canceled, so I held on to my slowly fading feeling of hope. Eventually all the guys that were stuck in Minneapolis last night showed up. Their new flights were routed through Seattle. At least while all this was going on, I got to meet them all for the first time and hang out for a bit.
This stuff went on for about 3 hours when it was finally announced that all our flights were being re-routed. Fairbanks is no good for us as the show is in Anchorage. All the roads up there are closed, there's no way out, so there was some discussion and the final outcome was that we actually canceled a show due to volcanic activity. It was too bad... Who gets to go to Alaska? We were looking forward to it, and I was especially looking forward to going up near the North Pole after being at the South Pole a couple days before. I thought that was going to be pretty cool.
All this being said, we went back outside security to the ticket counter and we all got flights back to where we came from. I just went back to Vancouver for the night, but not before stopping for a drink at the Alaska Bar in the airport lobby. It was symbolic if nothing else.
When I got back to Vancouver, I went to Air Canada to try and switch my flight back to NYC to tomorrow instead of being stuck here for 3 days. Incredibly, for the first time in history, Air Canada helped me out. No service fee, no charge of any kind and even an offer to drive me back in to town. The guy I spoke with was a real champion. His company could learn from him.
When I got back in to the city, I went out to meet a couple of the Stills guys at a bar where K-OS was DJing. We stayed for a bit before going to a couple Juno parties where I ended up running in to a boat load of people I knew from all over the country. It was a pretty cool night. Ended up at a Greek restaurant at 3am getting a pizza before heading back to my hotel. Tomorrow I fly back to NYC. What a whirlwind.
