A lovely family pic this fine Monday. My Dad (we call him The Great KA) gettin’ it on at one of our shows a few years ago. In fact, this shot was taken at one of our ‘Mardi Gras’ shows at the Yak Bar in 2005.
Did I mention KA was indeed a VFA footballer? A grand final player at Yarraville FC when they won the premiership some years ago.
Fires out.
Right before our first overseas tour in 2007, this shot was taken by photographer Ben Thomas. He has an intriguing way of developing his work, creating a kind of miniature environment. We used several images from this photo shoot to promote the tour which started in Amsterdam & ended a month later in Istanbul.
Fires out.
This pic was taken early in 2004 to promote our first Australian tour – which was an album launch tour for our debut record ‘Sky Caves In’.
We played shows in Newcastle, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Geelong & Melbourne. That’s our first ‘permanent’ drummer Adam Baldwin on the left, and the mighty Rob Oshlack (bassist) on the right.
Originally, we’d intended to be completely naked for this photo shoot. But we chickened out at the last minute…
Fires out.
As mentioned, this week we’ve been unearthing classic shots & video from our archives. And we love this one – a dress up show at Stalk’s infamous Yak Bar. Every Sunday we played the Yak for a year (2005). It was the birth of The On Fires & an awesome time for us. That’s Stalk in the pic with me & Max.
Ahhhhh the memories…
Have a great weekend.
Fires out
Weezer were great last night. Went along early to the Myer Music Bowl to catch openers, Ball Park Music and Cloud Control. Ball Park were great – so many songs you already know but don’t realise. Definitely wanna see these guys in a club somewhere, tight band, harmonies and great fun energy. Cloud Control came on next & we enjoyed them too (but BPM were a hard act to follow).
Weezer at Myer Music Bowl last night.
Then the mighty Weezer hit the stage around 9pm. How many hits have those guys had – amazing catalogue spanning nearly 20 years. The first set they played a mix of songs from various albums. There was an intermission which included a slide show about the formation of the band, and the making of the Blue Album. Then they came back on & played that album, start to finish. A killer record and a fantastic night. Left on a high, still going today.
Cloud Control at Myer Music Bowl last night.
Ball Park Music at Myer Music Bowl last night.
Craigie, Max & Marty on the grass at the Bowl.
Fires out.
Going through our band archives at the moment, checking for what we’ve got & what’s missing. Uncovering all kinds of classic pics & video – including these shots below – Ukraine 2008. We’d just done the first show of a 3 week tour there & the club owner had us all back to his place for a banquet/drinking session.
Sasha Pipa (@traktor), Marty, Max & Naomi (The On Fires, then Asleep In The Park) – at the banquet after show.
Things started calmly enough, vodka flowing like beer. Dancing started about an hour later, everybody up shakin’ it. Then the singer from the opening band pulled out a fire extinguisher. He threatened us all with it for a while, til the tour manager made him put it away.
At this point – this being the first night, we realised we were in for a wild tour. Which was pretty much how it went…
Fires out.
Stephanovs Starlings kicking it in Russia and Eastern Europe…
We played with the guys at Seven Festival in northern Poland July 2010, with back-stage vodka frenzy after the show. They’d just won a battle of the bands on a smaller stage the day before (we saw that show & loved it), which landed them a prime spot on the main festival stage the following night. We had a wild time hanging out with em. Hope to see Starlings again soon…
Fires out.
American: The Bill Hicks Story, was on TV last night – ABC Melbourne. Regarded as one of the greatest comedians in American history, Bill Hicks’ relevance withstands the test of time. He died in 1994 at the age of 32, and much of the material you’ll see him perform in this documentary happened in the late 80s & early 90s. But it doesn’t seem that way – it feels like he’s talking about the world right now.
Hicks was a ground-breaking comedian at war with the establishment, his often dark humour a vicious satire on American culture, politics and way of life. There was nobody like him at the time. There have been very few like him since. Check it out.
Fires out.
Saw Life Of Pi last night. Not bad, really nice kinda film. No car chase scenes or gun-play acrobatics. Amazing cinematography and a philosophical depth about the meaning of relationships, life and ‘God’. It’s a slow burner at times, but I never felt bored. Beautiful looking film. We saw it in 3D which was pretty cool. BTW – if you’re watching a 3D movie and your glasses are flickering a strange grey/black colour it means the batteries in the glasses are running low (yep, they run on batteries). Take em back for a fresh pair.
Life Of Pi – with CGI tiger.
Fires out.
Caught New Gods at Northcote Social Club last night. The band had a great sound, vocals were striking – excellent harmonies. The first band on were Jessica Says. I really dug their show – something different; electronic drums played live, violinist, keys & backing vocalist. Charismatic lead singer Jessica sounds a little like Kate Bush at times – an amazing versatile voice.
Jessica Says at Northcote Social Club Friday 11th Jan 2013.
The 2nd band, Montero, were great too. Reminiscent of early Flaming Lips & Mercury Rev.
All up, a great night which got very messy toward the end. Don’t remember too much about getting home – made it somehow.
Fires out.
