22rd March - Ballarat Uni Lunchtime Gig |
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After great time in Adelaide we hit the road and travelled towards Ballarat, stopping overnight in Lorne via the wonderful Great Ocean Road. We stayed in a little cabin with enough bunks for the four of us and managed to see some of the local wildlife including some Kookabura's and a huge Kangaroo, who jumped in front of us as we drove into the capsite after eating in town. I have actually seen more live roos than dead ones this time, which is a big improvement on last year. The next morning we were up bright and early and drove to Ballarat in good time to do a quick sound check and then play the gig. The stage was outside, which made this Abdou's first open air gig. It was also an incredibly windy day and cymbols and mic stands were being blown over all through the gig. There wasn't much of an audience though which was a bit disappointing. Considering the adverse conditions, we played really well and I really enjoyed it. Jason, Richard, Pange and the sound guy Rex all got sunburnt during the gig, which was rather amusing ;-) In no time at all we packed up the stuff and headed for the Bridge Mall where we were to play that evening. |
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22rd March - Ballarat Bridge Mall (with Superego) |
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We arrived at the gig way too early and decided to visit the local tourist attractions. An essential destination had to be the Eureka Stockade where Australia's first rebellion occured. By sheer coincidence, Her Majesty The Queen Of Blighty was due to follow in out footsteps the very next day. Kuckily there were no crowds of Union Jack wavers lining the street for the Abdou tour. After that little excursion, we went back into town and set up for the gig.We had great luck to have the same sound engineer (Rex) as at the afternoon gig, he is a great bloke and a fine technition. He also has a great line in Reggae tapes, which made me a little homesick for Brixton. We were to stay upstairs at the gig that night so after the soundcheck, we retired to our rooms and chilled out for a bit, trying to learn a new song called 'Let Bogans Be Bogans'. Before long Superego were onstage and played a great set of tough and charming songs. The guitar player made some awesome noises when he hit his distortion pedal. Pretty wicked, I'd say. We went onstage about midnight and played really well to a very small but appreciative crowd. Hightlights for me were Queen Bitch and Nazi Girl, but Shut Up was really good too, that song is really coming together now. After the gig, a few people came over to congratulate us on a good gig and a couple of people also bought CDs too, which was very helpful as we are relying on t-shirt and CD sales to pay for petrol and food. The landlord kept on feeding us beer, so were went to bed very late a quite tipsy! |
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