Chromeo in NZ/Australia, Dec. 25-Jan 9, 2010/11

Chromeo in Australia, Dec 25-Jan 9

Dec. 25, Day 1

It's Christmas Day. What better way to celebrate than to leave all behind and fly out on tour? Apparently there is none, so this is what I do... At least I'm going to New Zealand and Australia, so sun and beaches await, warm weather and hours of sunshine.

I got to the Ottawa airport around 12:45pm, more than enough time until my first of four flights, scheduled to depart at 2:17pm. Go through security, customs, all good, waiting around. Waiting. Waiting some more... Around 2pm, they still haven't announced anything so I start looking around, and shockingly there's no plane at our gate. This isn't good. I only have a 30min connection in Washington, and if this plane is more than 10mins late, my entire trip is screwed.

After trying to find out what's going on, I overheard a pilot say they were leaving and only coming back at 2:46pm. Not good, not good at all! This is more time than I can spare. If I miss my connection in Washington, I miss my flight to LA, and then miss my flights to New Zealand. I got on the phone right away with United (better than Delta anyways...) and found out that the computer had already re-routed me through London and Hong Kong!? I told the woman there was no way I was flying through London with all the storms they've been having, and to find me a hub in the US and find one fast, time was of the essence.

After about 30mins, she barely had a workable solution that would send me to Chicago, but I'd have to stay there for the night. Awful! Unfortunately, still better than London... So I had to go to the gate, ask them to remove my bag from the plane (which had since arrived, no help to me), and then I had to go check in again, where I found out I wasn't properly re-booked and faced being stranded in Auckland, when in fact I had to make it to Gisborne (I've never heard of it either). So about 20mins at the check-in counter solved that, I went back through customs, chatted with the officer who wondered why he was seeing me again, and continued to wait 2 more hours to go to Chicago. At least I was able to get a hotel room at the airport...

Once I landed at O'Hare, I made a last-ditch effort to see if I could even get to LA, but no love tonight... That 40min delay cost me 36hrs of extra travel time. An unexpected Xmas night at the Chicago airport. Can't get that under the tree...

Turns out I had stuff to take up my time. One of the band guys was flying out of NYC the next day and the city was about to get pounded by blizzards and up to 2 feet of snow. All the airports were preparing to shut down. It took almost 5 hrs of phone calls and emails to travel agents and airlines, but I was finally able to snag a seat on an early flight that *just might* make it out on time... I had a crew guy scheduled to fly out of Boston, hoping we can sort something for him too...

Day 2/3

I woke up extra early today to make sure I could get the band member out of NYC on time, before the crazy blizzard hits. I checked all sorts of sites for flight and weather updates, and one site even said the flight was canceled! Couldn't believe it! By this time he was already on his way to the airport, so it was too late, but the airline website and the airport site both said the flight was still on, so I chose to keep my mouth shut and wait and see...

He was able to check in, so that was good, and there was no delay posted at the airport, also good, and it was with great relief that I finally got word he was sitting on the plane, heading toward the runway. I celebrated the miraculous escape from NYC by sleeping. You have to understand, this is huge. I know a number of other bands who got stuck for days, had to cancel shows, etc...

Our crew member in Boston was not so lucky, unfortunately... The storm go there faster than expected and the airport shut down. We lost a good man for at least 3 days and one show... Can't win 'em all I guess...

My flights looked good at least. I made the easy walk across the street to the terminal, my flight to LA was on time, all was good. The biggest thing is just getting away from the snow right now, and it seems to be coming together. I don't think I've ever been happier to get to LAX. Now I just have to kill 6hrs. Argh. To the lounge...

The Air NZ lounge is slightly antiquated, but decent. They have all the standard amenities - internet, plugs, alcohol, etc... They even attempted to help me track someone else's missing bag from a flight yesterday. One of the guys was traveling with a keyboard that mysteriously disappeared (and somehow ended up getting shipped back to Montreal!). The time went by a little slowly, but it went, and it was with great happiness that I finally boarded my flight to NZ. Only been delayed about 36hrs, but I'll actually make it on time...

The nice thing about this flight is that I'm in pseudo-business class. Get the meals, wine, etc... but the seats aren't quite as nice. The real bonus though, is that I was able to get a seat on the upper deck of a 747. This is gold. The plane seats 300+ people, but the upper deck only has about 20 seats. It might actually be a quiet, serene experience. And I've never been on the upper deck. I was really excited to board the plane and be directed towards the staircase. And then I saw it. My seat. Beside a 2yr old.

DAMN. Why??? Who the hell gets a small child a seat like this? They haven't earned it. They don't fly 100 times a year, hoping that just once a flight like this will be fun. ARGH. The kid was even crying already when I got in... But what can you do? I sat down, ordered a beverage and waited for dinner. I will say one thing though, the kid was quiet most of the flight... Speaking to the father at the end, he told me it was her 5th round trip between London and Auckland. 5th! Two years old! Crazy.

So I got to Auckland, adjusted my next flight a bit to make it direct, and off to the domestic lounge. I had another 5hrs to kill on a layover. I walked around outside for a bit, it was nice after the long flight, had a coffee, chatted with the barista, and eventually made my way back inside, locked away till flight time.

The guy we got out of NYC just before the blizzard ended up meeting me there and we sat around till ti was time for the next and final flight in the journey. It was a small prop plane, about 40 seats. We didn't even have to go through security to board. I guess they figure that it's so insignificant, no one would care to do anything to it... So the flight is fairly smooth, and then with about 10mins to go, the pilot announces the ride down will be a bit bumpy.

Well. That was the most epic understatement in the history of aviation. I fly 100,000+ miles per year, I'm used to turbulence, doesn't really phase me. The last 10mins of this flight were *the scariest 10mins of my life*. It was absolutely terrifying, I thought we were done. We were getting thrown left and right, hitting air pockets, falling onto updrafts and bouncing back up, fishtailing in the air, falling sideways, people were screaming, the flight attendant looked terrified (the *ultimate* red flag of flying), I was white-knuckled clutching the seat in front of me. If you can name it, we had it happen on this flight. I don't know how we landed. It mystifies me. When we were finally on the ground, I tried to reply to some emails on the Blackberry, but I was shaking so much that I couldn't type. No words could ever adequately describe what happened on that descent. I really think there's no way that plane should've been in the air, period.

But, we had landed. I was very happy to be on the ground, and also, but not quite as happy, to get to the hotel and finally be able to shower after about 48hrs of travel. Now that was an actual good feeling. After the quick shower, it was out on the town to get a quick bite. Turns out Gizzy (as the locals call it) is so small, that it took no time at all to find the only option, which thankfully was quite good. After that, back to the hotel for a couple business meetings, then out to dinner (where the waitress was slightly starstruck. haha), and then back to the hotel to rest a bit.

It's been a long 3 days, and we haven't even done a show yet!

Day 4, Gisborne, NZ

Today is going to be a little bit crazy. First show after about a month off, making sure our gear makes it from halfway around the world, etc... We still have a crew member who got stuck in Boston because of blizzards and will miss the show... It's basically going to be a rehearsal.

But, first thing's first, we need breakfast. Went out wandering a bit, tried to get into a coffee shop with a Maori reggae band playing super loudly at the doorway, only to find out that there was a 45min wait just to get a bagel. (!?) Tried a couple other spots only to find out that it was a holiday (on a Tuesday) so most places were closed anyways. Eventually found a spot that was relatively quick, had decent coffee, all is good.

One thing we realized that would make the day interesting is that we found out some of our gear got shipped to the wrong destinations. A keyboard somehow got removed from a plane and sent back to Montreal, and two other cases had a few bits and pieces we needed in New Zealand, but the cases ended up in Melbourne. So, a could of us went out to the festival site early to see what they had there that we could use, then had to go through the nightmare of getting all our gear sent to our hotel so we could actually see what we had, and then we had to find a music store open on a holiday in a tiny town. Fortunately there was a music store, is was more like a Radio Shack really, and had nothing we needed. We did however get the owner to sell us parts of his friends drum kit while said friend was away on vacation... Happy we're not there to see how that turns out... Haha.

With things somewhat under control, we headed back to the festival for the show. Simple things like ordering food were fairly difficult, but there was a duck pond, so we had that going for us... Things are a little slow in these parts, a little backwards... At least everyone here is really nice.

Eventually we get to showtime. We had a substitute lighting guy for this one (our guy was the one snowed in in Boston), so I had to give him a quick training session, and we were off. We knew it was one for the books when there was a power surge in the first song and the PA shut down. That was pretty awesome... It all came back near the end of the first song thankfully, but it made for a long night. Hopefully we got all the demons out tonight and we can move on...

Afterwards we had an interesting ride back to the hotel with a driver making detours and picking up people at other stages, getting caught in the crowds a couple times, etc... But finally made it back, had a glass of wine and called it a day. Off to Oz tomorrow.

Day 5, Melbourne, AU

Today was supposed to be pretty simple. Fly to Melbourne, get picked up at the airport and drive to Philip Island. Well, not so much...

The first flight back to Auckland was fine. Auckland however, was interesting. They have this bizarre regulation about carry-on baggage that the staff themselves don't even understand. They pulled us all out of line, made us weigh bags, repack, recheck, etc... for about 30mins, and we were already rushing for the next flight. It was ridiculous. They couldn't tell us what they were looking for, what they were checking, what the rules were. It seemed there was a 10kg limit, but not including electronics or medication. We had to take all those thing out of our bags (I had 20kg of electronics alone, and I travel light!), they were weighing things individually, together, etc... It was a total mess. At the end of it, after a few yelling matches (which is not good at an airport) we just left and went back downstairs and tried to check in our bags. Even the staff down there didn't know what to do about it. It was pretty ridiculous, just a small thing that can really ruin a day. Some of the guys in the other band we were traveling with just started throwing out a bunch of books and souvenirs. And even if all our bags were under 10kg, we could still go buy loads of souvenirs and duty free stuff on the other side of security and get the extra weight there. What would they do?

So we get on the plane, fly to Melbourne, our driver meets us and we hit the road to Philip Island. The show is there tomorrow night, so we get in the night before and have all day to rest. Makes sense on paper. Thing is, reality is often quite different.

After 2hrs of driving, we pull up to this resort we're supposed to stay at. It's about 10pm, we've been flying allllll day. Exhausted. We go to the reception counter, no one there. Just a phone number for after hours arrivals. So we call the number, there's a key left for us in a little safe, we crack it open and go to check the place out. Turns out it's a tiny 2 room cabin in the woods with 3 beds. We're 6 people. This obviously doesn't work. So we start trying to get in touch with people, no one is helpful, everyone's trying to brush us off, it's pretty nasty. No one will even give us the number for the night manager to come sort it out. After about 30 mins I called the promoter and told them to get me 6 rooms in Melbourne immediately because we're turning around and coming back. Unreal, never been through anything like this.

It gets better.

So while we're making phone calls trying to sort out this accommodation disaster, our driver took the guys to get a quick bite to eat, and while doing so, wandered off and smoked a joint which, in and of itself, I don't really care about. Whatever. The problems in this instance are that A) he's our driver and B) it made him pass out, so he couldn't drive us back to Melbourne. Our local crew guy had to take the keys from him and drive us back. Insane. The driver was fired the next morning.

Finally back in Melbourne 2hrs later, around 12:30am at this point, thankfully the rooms were there as promised so we could finally relax after an epic travel day. A couple of us met up at one of the hotel bars downstairs for drink, made casual observations about the local nightlife, even had one guy give us $100 to buy a round (he had just won at the casino and was drunk), and called it a night. Can't win 'em all...

Day 6, Philip Island

After last night's drama, I spent most of the day on the phone with the promoters trying to settle our differences, of which there are now many. It took a few hours, but we reached some conclusions and the show will go on. It kind of sucked because it used up most of my free time in Melbourne, but what can you do... I am here to work after all...

So at 6pm we get in the van and start heading back down to Philip Island. They sorted out the mess from last night, so tonight we'll each get a cabin and then in the morning we get helicopters to Melbourne. (There's a much larger background to this story, but I'll spare you the details. I don't think I can even talk about this one anyways...). Tonight, the owner of the resort is supposed to meet us to personally show us the rooms, make sure all is good, etc...

Well, that didn't happen. At least we had a number to call him today, but he still brushed us off. Fortunately everything was ok this time.

Then we go over to the festival, everyone knows we're on our way. We get there, they don't have a dressing room for us (which was promised). So we take over someone else's trailer. Fun.

Then I go to the stage to check in and meet all the necessary people. The stage manager asks me to leave the stage because apparently I'm too early to check in and she refuses to let anyone watch the bands who are currently playing. I've never of something so retarded in my life of festival-going. They don't even want us to check that all our gear got delivered properly. And she specifically told me we weren't allowed to watch the band before us at all, and when I told their tour manager about that, he had a field day going off on her... Even when we started setting up in the wings while they were playing, she tried to keep us behind curtains and backdrops. It got to the point where I had to tell her she was no longer allowed to speak to my crew and I didn't want to see her near our show.

And throughout all this, the total douchebag of a local promoter who had screwed us the night before (as well as doing other things I can't speak about), didn't even come by to say hello, apologize for any drama, try to make anything right. I can't stand these people sometimes!

So the show is finally over, we're all packed up, we get rides back to our cabin at 3am and try to put it all behind us. Our crew only gets 3hrs sleep tonight before having to head off to Sydney, whereas I'll get about 5hrs as I'll travel with the band. It's not necessarily a bonus, just a different set of problems... sigh...

Day 7, Sydney, Melbourne

So this is the long one. by the end of the day, we'll have done 3 shows in 3 cities, 2 flights, 2 helicopter rides, etc... Long.

Our crew got 3hrs of sleep last night. They had to get the early chopper ride back to Melbourne to then fly to Sydney and begin setup for our early afternoon show. They're travel was relatively ok. They made it one piece, and got the job done.

I got a couple extra hours of sleep, but I also had to get the band through the same thing. We got to the helipad on time and things were looking good. As an aside, the helicopter ride was awesome. I've never done anything like it. Cruising at 110mph across the sky at a low level is pretty awesome, and I got great pics and video I'll post soon.

So, we land at the Melbourne helipad and there's supposed to be a driver to take us to the Melbourne domestic airport. No car in sight. I start calling, no answer. Many times. Nothing. I call the promoter rep, wake her up, she can't get the guy. Fortunately there's a vet down the street that's open, so I run down there and they have a number for a cab I can call. Get one on the way, and sure enough, moments later, our hero comes zooming around the corner. He was obviously sleeping because when he opened the door, his seat was in a fully reclined position. Oops.

So we barely make it to the airport on time, find out there's a problem with our reservation, and somehow it all gets fixed and we board at the last possible second. That's a little too much so far. As it is, we only land in Sydney one hour before the show.

And so we land. And the transport people have no record of us coming in because apparently the message didn't get through that we were traveling in 2 separate groups. They don't have a ride for us. This, obviously, is a problem. Thankfully, through sheer luck, A-Trak was on the same flight as us, and for those of you keeping track at home, you know that I also work with him and that his brother is in Chromeo. A-Trak has a ride and he's a good dude, so he let's us hijack it to make it to the show on time. His karma is later repaid when he's presented with a platinum plaque for his Duck Sauce record. Well deserved.

We get to the show, everything is good. It's all coming together. The production is rock solid, the kids are loving it, I can finally take a deep breathe. Everything was made 1000 times better by running into friends there who I hadn't seen in ages, one of whom spent the show in monitor world with me, which made the day worthwhile. Sadly, we have to leave right after the set to fly back to Melbourne for show #3 of the NYE Spectacular.

Show's over, pack up, load out, off we go, back to the airport. This one was fairly painless. Again, the booking was messed up somehow, but we sorted it. Got on the plane, flew to Melbourne. At least this time there was someone there to meet us and drive us straight to the show. It was even tighter on this end because we couldn't send the crew in advance; we had 90 mins from airport to show time. Nuts.

We arrive at the festival, find our stage, and are hit with the realization that the highlight of the day was Sydney, for many reasons. One of which was that because it wasn't set up properly, we actually had to build our rig on stage while other acts were playing. That didn't go over so well, but what can you do... Just have to make the best of this one and get through it...

Finally done, we head back to the hotel for the night. I had grandiose plans of going out and partying in the lovely city we were in, but those plans disintegrated almost instantly. The last 24hrs were an absolute mess, but we survived, and sleep is of great importance tonight.

Day 8, Gold Coast

Why mess with a plan that works? Woke up, went downstairs to get our ride to the airport, and of course, no van, no ride. Amazing. We tried calling everyone again, no love, so we started our day hopping in cabs to head to the airport. Awesome. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you have to travel like this every single day, this single pre-arranged car that never appears becomes a rather large headache. Especially when it happens 3 times in a row.

So we get to the airport, get our flight, everything is ok, thankfully. Get to Gold Coast, have a ride (!) and begin the long drive to the festival. The drive itself isn't actually long in the physical sense, but with all the traffic, it took almost 2hrs. Should've been about 30min. At least we were early, so we had a chance to stop by the hotel for a bit to chill out and have a quick bite to eat.

And so we go to the festival, and lo and behold, it all makes sense. Rock solid. Same people that ran our stage in Sydney yesterday. Everything is really a million times better when you don't have to argue with people over details that should've been looked after in the first place. And, with all this going for us, the show was actually great.

We had some time tonight, and a lot of friends playing at this festival, so we hung around for a long time. It was good too. We made our escape before the throngs of Gold Coast mutants (if you've been, you know what I mean), and in no time at all, I was sitting in the jaccuzzi in my room with a bottle of wine. Nice.

Tomorrow, off to Sydney for 5 days. Awesome.

Day 9, Sydney

Today is a nice, easy travel day to Sydney. Got up for breakfast at the hotel, was served by a Canadian ex-pat who was thrilled to talk hockey, made our way to the airport, all was good. Even the flight went well.

When we arrived, we went out for a quick bite, then decided it was band movie night. There wasn't much to see, so we hit Tron 3D. It was awful, don't waste your time or money. Most of it isn't even in 3D anyways.

Afterwards, I took a couple of the guys around the town trying to find a cool pub to hang in. Turns out Sydney is pretty slow on Mondays, so it wasn't a smashing success, but we did find a Irish bar where a dude in a pink shirt took off his belt and started whipping the floor. Interesting approach, made better when he took off his shirt and displayed some of the worst tattoos any of us had ever seen. Sigh...

Day 10, Sydney

Today is press day. Usually I hate press, but today is great because our PR person is a dear friend who I never get to see given that we live halfway around the world from each other. We were able to make the time count by getting breakfast before we had to work, and the schedule itself was actually quite easy. A couple quick things in the morning, a long lunch and then the afternoon outlets even canceled. Bonus!

Found a great wine bar to get through the evening, followed by a great restaurant and then a dive bar with incredible people watching. All in all, exactly the kind of day I needed after the craziness of the last 3 days.

Day 11, Sydney

Today is press day #2. It's easy though, only one live interview in the afternoon. I spent the morning working, with breakfast and coffee interludes, before heading off to the radio station. It went quickly, barely even noticed.

Afterwards, we were invited to a bbq by some friends at one of the local promoter companies. We went over for a couple hours, had a great time time with all sorts of people. Once we left, we stopped by the wine bar I had hit the night before, then up to a place call the Clock Hotel (where the bouncer asked us if our parents knew we were out late) and then slowly made our way back to the hotel.

Day 12, Sydney

Almost a day off today. The only real event is a boat cruise in the evening. I have mixed feelings about it as I've done a number of them before, this is 4hrs, can't bring a couple friends and I'm a bit tired and would just like a full day with nothing on the sched. Anyways, I went, it was fine. It's hard to complain about getting driven around in a boat in Sydney harbor with free booze and food.

Once we got off, I tried to hook up with a friend, it fell through, so I ended up at the Metro. The Rapture and Erol Alkan were playing there tonight, it was sort of the feature event for the touring folks. Always good to make an appearance. The AC in the venue was broken though, so it was insanely hot and sticky. I survived a couple drinks before I'd had enough and just had to get out. An early night wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Day 13, Sydney

Alas, back to work today. We had most of the day to chill though, so a couple of us hopped in a cab to go to a good breakfast spot, then went for a wonderful round of coffees and started making our way back to the hotel for the inevitable. It was a great day to walk around, even added a nice long tour of the botanical gardens, and got more than our fair share of sun.

And so the momentary freedom comes to an end, back to work we go. Today is more like a normal show though, we're supporting NERD at the Hordern Pavillion, no festival craziness for once, nice to get back to normal. The show was reasonably smooth, seemed to go well by all accounts. We were done nice and early too, which is good because we have an early-ish flight to Perth tomorrow, and also because it gives us time to hang out in Sydney.

Though no one else went, I did meet up with other friends at a club for 90's night that went a little longer than planned, but fun. Quote of the tour, from the bouncer who checked my ID upon entry: "F*ck you're old!". Great way to end our stand in Sydney.

Day 14, Perth

One final show in Oz, and of course it's a 5hr flight away. So we get our stuff together and make our way to the airport. Personally, I could've used a little more sleep, but whatever...

The flight was uneventful, always good, and before we knew it we were in the most remote capital city in the world. Or something to that effect. Either way, it's Perf. We didn't have a whole lot of time, stopped at the hotel for a few mins to drop our bags, and then off to the site. It was what it was, nothing to crazy, not bad, show happened. We were all just happy to have it done.

And of course, as soon as I started to taste a bit of freedom, I heard that one of the guys' flights home the next day had been canceled. Argh. So I had a quick bit to eat at the festival (they graciously served me leftovers as catering closed at 8pm ?!), and went straight back to the hotel to start calling airlines, etc... Took a while, but it worked out, and I just started relaxing for the rest of the night. I'm staying in Oz for another week, in Sydney, for relaxation purposes. Can't wait, getting started right away...