Before the show at Zebra Festival, Chengdu China, May 2011.
We’d flown in from Beijing, after a slot on the Midi Festival main stage, in the early hours of the morning before the Zebra Fest show. It felt like days – but it was 24 hours later. I don’t think we slept – too much adrenaline. We were all coming down with something too. A combination of fatigue and not being used to the smokey air. The Zebra Festival show was great all the same, around 30 thousand people at the main stage.
Fires out.
New festival shots on Flickr – we’ve just loaded a series of pics taken at Strawberry Festival Beijing, May 2012. Photographer Long Truong did a fantastic job capturing the band at this amazing show. Check out the full set.
We’re returning to China in April & May this year. Tour dates announced soon.
Fires out.
Great Flickr set of shots from a show we did at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City 2011. Click here to see the whole set.
Max & Marty airbourne at Arlene’s Grocery NYC 2011 – Kent Aberle, hidden away on drums.
Fires out.
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.
