Here’s some more live footage of The On Fires at Equinox Rocks festival, October last year (Toogoolawah Queensland). As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we received a DVD in the mail, just before leaving for Boston, featuring raw footage of the show (we’d forgotten about it). We’re belting out ‘Skeleton’ in the video below..

It’s midday Sunday and about minus 5 degrees Celcius here in Massachusetts (heat wave). Some of the snow has started to melt. Who knows, maybe things are warming up? (not betting on it – & not complaining either…). Max is out with a friend & I’m here at the apartment, working out how to use the new pedals I bought last week. A somewhat steep learning curve (but who doesn’t love a challenge?).

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

In the week before we left Australia for Boston, we discovered this footage – one of the guys from the festival film crew mailed it to us. It’s raw video of our show at Equinox Rocks festival in Toogoolawah, Queensland Australia (we’d forgotten about it). This clip features ‘Coming Home’ (and Max lettin’ loose).

And for those of you who haven’t seen it – check the sky diving video below, taken at Equinox Rocks festival (the day after our show).

Saturday night here in Boston. Just a little warmer today. Must have been pushing zero – the snow’s starting to melt.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Took a train down into Boston yesterday – just as a snow storm began to blanket the city. Shot this video at Salem station & on board the train.

I was traveling to Guitar Center on the other side of the city. My timing was not good. The mission was all about connecting trains and buses – but when the snow-falls got heavier I gave that idea away & resorted to a series of cab rides.

When I finally got back on the train home with a bunch of gear I’d bought, this huge guy asked if he squeeze in next to me. I said, “sure, let’s give it a shot”. After taking the seat and crushing me against the window, he turned and asked “How’s that?”. I replied (as politely as I could) “It’s a little tight, maybe you could find another seat. There might be room upstairs…”. I was thinking there was no way he was going to get up and try climbing those stairs to the upper deck. Fortunately for me, he did & I got home without injury.

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

Epic mission today. Cab to Salem. Caught a country train down to Boston (the train had WiFi). 2 more trains to the other side of Boston and Guitar Center. The trip took about 2 hours in the midst of a snow storm. Stayed at Guitar Center for about 5 hours. It’s possible to get totally lost & absorbed in that place.

Walked out with a bunch of gear at 9pm. Ukraine cab driver took me back to North Station in Boston where I caught a ‘purple line’ train home. Looks as through the worst part of the storm will hit overnight. Schools have canceled classes for tomorrow.

Hope ya had a good Australia Day, Aussies.

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.
PS. Mum, I know what you’re thinking – “why does he always pull those stupid f*cken faces?” …
PSS. Douglas Mawson was an Aussie Antarctic explorer (OK, wrong pole but you get the idea)

Kicking back at the apartment tonight. Friends of Derek’s rocked up. Few Beers later, they started freestyling. Check this out.

The guys on the right hand side of the video are from a local live hip-hop band called CFP (Constant Flow Producers).

Happy Australia Day, Australia (we’re 16 hours behind here).

Love & Checkya tomorrow,
The On Fires.

Minus 23 C last night (-9 F). Took a walk to Duncan Donuts again this morning for coffee & some kind of bagel thing. Crazy cold.

Just spoke to Dad and Ronda on Skype. Told them about the snow man on the beach – so I thought I’d post this pic. They proceeded to tell me it was 32 degrees (C) where they are (Australian east cost – right near the beach). Yep, that’s what I needed to know. Anyway, enough about the weather.

Spent a couple of hours in the local Guitar Center, a huge store for guitars, keys, drums etc. Going back tomorrow. So much stuff to look at. The cost of instruments & equipment here is way way lower than in Australia – which is great because I need a bunch of extra gear.

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

Absolutely freezing here in Boston. Arctic winds sweeping in. Took a cab to Dodge Bar on Dodge Street in Salem & caught Bob Kerr (from local band Vein) playing an acoustic set. He’s got a great voice, the timbre of Lou Reed & some Springsteen in there – but very much his own style. Great vocal delivery. It was so damned cold tonight that not many folks saw the show, Salem was like a ghost town (pardon the pun). Can’t believe people live in this year after year.

(Bob Kerr)

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

This, our local liquor store, gets a laugh every time we drive past…

We stopped in to pick up supplies at good ol’ Bunghole before getting home a few moments ago. We’ve had a big day visiting people, including a huge lunch at our host Kevin’s favourite steak joint.

It’s 14 degrees (-10C) in Boston tonight. The sun goes down early, about 4:30, so it feels like the middle of the night at 9pm. Hibernation weather

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Earlier this afternoon, when the snow storm had momentarily stopped, we got out & walked around the corner to our regular coffee place. Yep, that’s me in the car-park (they call it a parking lot) on the way out, standing in about the same position where I’ve nearly fallen on my arse twice since arriving on Monday.

There’s a layer of ‘black ice’ underneath the powdery snow. It’s dangerously slippery & you never know exactly where it is until you go for a slide. There’s definitely an art to walking on snow & we’re seriously out of practice. The locals seem to have it down, no problem. Today was a day when most people seemed to stay home due to last night’s blizzard, work and classes canceled across the New England area.

Got up at 5 this morning. Couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d take a walk through the snow down to Dunkin’ Donuts & grab a coffee. Managed to drop money all over the counter and dollar notes on the floor (for the second day in a row). My hand-eye thing doesn’t seem to work that early. Anyway, the girls at the counter had a laugh, “don’t worry bout id…”.

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

We’re all head down, working away on tour prep in our Boston log cabin hide-away. The tour kicks off in about 6 weeks, Starting in Canada & moving down the east coast to the deep south. In early Feb we’ll announce all the tour dates & cities for the USA and China.

A blizzard is expected overnight here (it’s just after 8pm now). They’re saying on the news that by morning we’ll be under a massive load of snow. They even ran a thoroughly riveting story about a school principal in the throws of deciding whether or not to cancel classes tomorrow. It helped pad the snow news out to about 15 minutes, or half the entire news bulletin. Nice work Mr Murdoch.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.