Working through hours of video footage from the China tour. Lots of file transferring, backing up & conversion. Looking forward to posting live festival & club footage soon…

Strawberry Festival Beijing, May 2012.

Getting back into Aussie life here – albeit a very quiet existence in Tamworth town. Leaving for South West Rocks tomorrow to visit more family for the weekend. ‘The Rocks’ is a coastal oasis 5 hours north of Sydney (& 4 hours from here). My Dad & partner Ronda organise a football club there – so I’m gonna film a junior footy game tomorrow. Always a fun time at the club (Macleay Valley Eagles).

Back home to Melbourne early next week.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

Feeling a little shell-shocked today. It’s so quiet here in the valley, just outside Tamworth. Clear skies, clean air, no horns beeping or people massing about the place. Probably shaking off some jet-lag. Don’t feel awake yet.

Lu Dao Festival, China 29 April 2012.

Coming off tour is like being spat out of a whirl-wind to find yourself still & suddenly in a slow-paced existence. No gear to lug in a few moments, planes, trains, cabs or boats to catch, crowds to push through, sound-checks or shows to deal with – or band mates to hang out with. Nothing. Weird.

One day at a time…
Checkya later.
Fires out.

Sitting’ here at Sydney Airport awaiting a delayed final flight to Tamworth.

Nearly home from China. Been traveling 24 hours. Max is in the air en route to Melbournia.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

Boom. And it’s all over. I’ve been dreaming of this moment. The day after. Last night we played out a massive set at Mao Live House in Beijing. Totally exhausted, the show had wild energy & collapse – felt like a classic punk rock show. And on that big final note, the tour of China ended. Mao brought to a close 11 shows in a row in different cities – and 16 shows in 18 days for the tour total.

Lu Dao Festival, Zhenjiang China – 29 April 2012.

I’m sitting in a coffee house just across the road from the club as daylight starts to fade. Max is out somewhere walking about in quiet reflection. Kent is somewhere 39,000 feet over the Pacific on his way home to Atlanta.

Tomorrow afternoon, Max and I will be in the air on our way back ‘Down Under’.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

Massive couple of days. We’re in Dallian at Hertz Bar waiting to go on.

This pic from Strawberry Festival Beijing a couple of days ago – shot by Luong Trong.

Another city tomorrow.

Fires out.

It’s 3am. Went to bed a few hours ago, after Strawberry Festival in Beijing, because we’ve gotta be in the hotel lobby at 6am. Can’t sleep, completely awake now. Strawberry Festival was massive today. It was such a fun show. This pic isn’t great quality (Kent’s got my transfer card) – it’s straight off the camera view-finder.

We walked into the crowd after the show & got totally mobbed. Posed for hundreds and hundreds of photos, signed endless t-shirts & festival programs. It was totally insane. Toward the end of the day I was worn out & slightly scared to leave the back-stage compound – it’s not dangerous, you just get swamped & you can’t move.

We’re collecting a lot of video and pics to upload when we get better internet speed here. There’s some amazing video we’ll be uploading soon. This has been a phenomenal tour – with some epic festivals & massive club shows.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

We’re in our hotel room with a couple of hours til we leave for Beijing’s Strawberry Festival today. We’re in the middle of a long run of dates, 11 in a row. 2 nights ago, we played the biggest festival we’ve ever done – Lu Dao, in Zhenjiang.

Lu Dao Festival Zhenjiang, China – 29th April 2012.

We’re also in the middle of 11 shows in a row. I’ve been a bit sick for the past few days – but starting to come good today. We’re due on at Strawberry at about 3pm today.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind. For a start, I got sick like a fucking dog yesterday & got through the show last night in Shaoxing by some act of god. Might have been the frogs I ate, thinking it was chicken. I wondered why the bones were fish-like. Back to the hotel after show & collapse. The back of my eyeballs hurt. When we left for Shanghai this morning I couldn’t see straight so I left my toiletries bag in the bathroom. There goes a whole bunch of stuff I need not to a; stink and b; shave & brush teeth. Dammit, I hate losing stuff on the road. I REALLY hate it. Nobody uses deodorant in China, can’t get it anywhere – so that’s it for the tour. I’m gonna stink this country up.

Marty & Max at the bar at club Yuyintang, Shanghai China.

We’ve got a show in a couple of hours – we’re at the club now, Yuyintang. They’ve got working wifi – which has been hard to find.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

A couple of days traveling & a show last night in Hangzhou at 9 Club. The show went pretty well – the club was massive, the crowd a little light on & the best back-room ever. We had a three-quarter size pool table in there, a huge flat screen TV, stereo system, couches from a palace & two mini-kegs of Carlsberg – which I did my best to destroy (after the show).

Woke this morning, piled into cabs to the station & caught a bullet train to Nanjing where we’re eating now before soundcheck at 61 Club. The guys aren’t happy. It’s taking ages to get food served here. They just brought out the first bit. Gotta go eat.

Here’s some video from Shanghai Uni last week.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

Played Freedom House in Changsha on Sunday night. The show went great, good crowd in a small room. We were pretty tired after 4 shows in a row in different cities but somehow found the energy to smash out another one. The opening band were great – a Chinese version of Oasis. They totally had it down. Great beer swilling tunes with an epic swagger.

Freedom House crowd, Changsha China – Sunday 22nd April.

Since Sunday, it’s been a long couple of days working on lap-tops with not much sleep. Tonight we’ll board an overnight ‘sleeper’ train to Hangzhou for the show at 9 Club. These sleeper trains have bunk beds stacked 3 high to the roof right along each carriage – and smoking is allowed (which ain’t so good for the rest of the band). We’re planning on picking up some beers for the journey to knock ourselves out. We should arrive in Hangzhou by 8am.

Freedom House crowd, Changsha China – Sunday 22nd April.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.