On Fires’ tour drummer, Kent Arberle will arrive in Melbourne for the first time in just a few weeks. He’ll be doing shows with Kristian Bush, opening for Lady Antebellum’s Australian tour. They play Rod Laver Arena here, QANTAS Arena Sydney & CMC Rocks QLD. Awesome. We were talking about a TOF show with Kent in the new venue on his day off in Melbourne – but it’ll be tough to throw together at this late stage, and he’ll no doubt be exhausted. Looking forward to hangin with the man all the same. Last time we played together was the show below in Taipei, 2013.

Fires out.

Great song. Sharon Van Etten – Your Love Is Killing Me. Playing in Melbourne early next month at the Hi Fi Bar.

Fires out.

Huge weekend gone. Still recovering. Saturday working on the new venue. Saturday night, working at a local bar (Speigeltent) then over to Stalk’s & a few late night beers. Working at the Spiegeltent has been an amazing, eye-opening experience. Been there about a month now. Never worked behind a bar before, so I figured now’s the time to get familiar. Thrown in the deep end from my first night – the bar, cash register & EFTPOS machine – all things I’d never worked before. Starting to get clear about a good, practical bar design for our place. Sunday morning, went down to Rosebud for a 3 hour kayaking expedition out on Port Phillip bay. Sunburned, returned home to house-mate’s party which kicked on at volume til 5am. Yesterday was rough. Very slow start, but feeling almost human again this fine Tuesday morning.

Thanks to Stalk for this pic. We were both working the bar this night last week.

Fires out.

Heard this stuff last year & it’s taken a while to grab me. I guess we were out of the loop a bit, working on the new venue. The story of Future Islands goes something like this (to put it very briefly). Hailing from North Carolina, they’ve been around 10 years or so, pounding the US tour circuit. Then a break – appearing on Letterman last year with a performance that went seriously viral. Not hard to see why. I love the song – but the delivery is something else altogether. Enjoy –

Fires out.

This guy somehow slipped underneath my radar. First heard him last year – after the release of his 2nd album (didn’t even know there was a 1st album in 2012). The more you hear, the better it gets. Described by some as ‘Bob Dylan vocals & Johnny Cash rhythm’, Jake Bugg captures a bygone era so damn well. He brings it so uniquely to the present that it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what era we’re talking about. Feels like experiencing something new & unique while being lost in time somewhere. Just fantastic. The footage below is from a 2013 festival in Scotland, when he was 18 years old.

Fires out.

Yep, it’s been a little while between posts here. Took most of January off building the venue, needed to pull back & break for a bit.

Got a Skype video call from Kiev this morning. Spent about an hour talking with tour manager Sasha. Great to hear from her – though things aren’t going too well there. Large sections of the country ravaged by war. Pipa’s leg is still mending – he was badly injured a year ago at the beginning of the conflict. The guys aren’t playing any shows now. They feel this is not the time for enjoyment or celebration – but a time to respect the hardship and loss experienced by Ukrainian people as Russian troops invade & devastate their cities & towns.

Ukraine tour 2008. Legendary musician Sasha Pipa (top).

Pic above taken in happier times at a concert after-party, during the 2008 Ukraine tour. We traveled all over the country in Sasha Pipa’s tour bus for 3 weeks, 12 shows in 12 cities, opening for his band ‘@traktor’.

Fires out.