15th November 1991 - The Flagstaff hotel

The second gig. We supported Unprimitive man. Came about as me and Andrew went to Derringers (music store), where I bought a strat (so I could finally live out my Ritchie Blackmore fantasies!). As we were coming out we ran into Andrew's old housemate, Colin, who said his band were playing the following Friday, and couldn't get a support band. So we said we'd do it.

Played at the Flagstaff. We had to oragnise a PA, which we got from our good mate Craig at Showworld for $100. Peter, Wayne's buddy, did the minimal mixing (basically just vocal, snare, and bass drum). We hired some blue and white scanner lights which rotated form side to side, and a strobe. We didn't really play that well at all, but everybody we spoke to afterwards said it was better than Le Rox (our previous (and first) gig), although I didn't really think so. We didn't soundcheck or anything, so we played the first songs not knowing how the mix was, and as far as I was concerned, it showed.

We played the following set:

This peaceful place
Sunday
Led
Darkest, lightest day
Haunt
All one moment
Said August
Time spent

We only really got Said August into shape the previous week, so it was pretty loose. I think we probably all stuffed it up somehow, but it still sounded OK. I completely fucked up of DLD, when the distorted guitar comes in. As soon as we'd finished I decided it had to be changed, and we changed it first thing at the next rehearsal. I stuffed up the start of Led. I was just about to come in when I realised I was holding down the wrong chord! So I just missed out a cycle. Haunt was played really good. It has emerged as our standout song, and with the lights it came across really good.

I was pretty upset about it all later, but as everyone who saw the first gig unanimously said we were better, I felt a bit better. We ended of getting ripped off (again). We (naively) assumed we would get half the money. But we didn't, and ended up making $5 (!), which we gave to Peter for mixing us. Not a very savoury experience, but one that probably opened our eyes and gave us a good kick up the arse. I don't think we will go into this sort of scenario again being so blase about organisation.

Looking back, probably the most satisfying experience was the fact that we definitely got a better reception than the other band. Not that that was really a big deal, as they played some form of outdated rockabilly type shit.

Postscript - a few other things worth noting:

1) Said August was written after hearing Adelaide band The Mandelbrot Set (local Adelaide band that had just signed to Australian indie label RooArt) perform on Triple J's Live at the Wireless. I was so impressed with their song Lush that I wrote my own (and IMO better!) version of it.

2) We had our first heckler at this gig! Someone yelled out "play some Cold Chisel" (Aussie pub-rock legends). Andrew introduced the next song as "Bow River"!