Massive night on Friday. Went out with Renata from The Vagrants to The Gasometer Hotel (cnr Smith St & Alexandra Pde Collingwood) to see Dirty Harriet & The Hangmen. And they were fantastic. Balls-to-the-wall punk rock n roll with a blistering rockabilly edge. Go see these guys if you can. High energy, wild attitude – great songs powerfully delivered. I met the lead singer after the show & ended up drinking with the band down the street at Ya Ya’s til 5am. Crazy night.

Yesterday, Australia Day, was a little slow for me. Ended up back at the Gasometer around 9 for a beer with TC. Home by midnight.

Right now, the Luna Festival is happening down the end of our street (Chinese New Year). They’ve shut down the main road (Victoria Street Abbotsford) for a huge carnival. I can hear the bands form here. Might have to head down for a look…

Fires out.

A community service post for this Australia Day & the weekend – how to effectively chill and keep your beer colder for longer. TC sent us a link to this article on FB.

Click here for the full story.

Have a great weekend.
Fires out.

Midi Festival, Beijing May 2011. We had no idea how big this show was until we walked out onto the main festival stage to a massive crowd. The artist bunker behind a festival stage can be an eerily quiet, subdued place. You’re going over your equipment, talking through the set with the guys, last minute instructions for crew, changing into stage gear etc. Next thing you’ve started the set, crowd roars, the whole thing goes like lightening.

Max at Midi Festival Beijing May 2011.

The shot above was taken by photographer Long Truong who also took some great pics at last year’s Strawberry Festival in Beijing. To see the full set of Long’s pics at Midi 2011, visit our photos page for the slide show.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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