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<.ROAD SONG FEVER.>

<...FEAR OF DEATH.>

Quite an experience. I was in the equipment van with the lighting & sound guys, Danny and Paul. Ever been in a mini-van, cruising at around 160km/hr, with several tonne of equipment behind you?? Quite nerve-racking, especially when overtaking and missing on-coming traffic by metres!!

1st night (same day as UQ): Gold Coast

Cool gig, cool night. Think we overloaded the recommended maximum weight for the lift when loading the equipment (oh yeah, I doubled as a roadie - pretty ridiculous considering my puny frame), but the cable held, so...

<.ANGEL IN THE DEVILS SKY.>

2nd night: Toowoomba

Very interesting night, to say the least!
Spent the day setting up, which consisted mainly of me crawling upside down under the stage, gaffer-taping it together so it wouldn't fall apart! Back to the hotel to shower off, then shared a Pizza or two with Sean, Dave, and Sean Fonti (actually, I think this was Sean F's first tour with Def FX - supposedly temporary, but later becoming permanent). Stories were told, secrets revealed, shit thrown, etc...

Bloody freezing night, with me sitting near the open entrance door selling tickets and merchandising - think it hit below 0c!
Cool gig, but afterwards, when we were packing up, all hell broke loose: The support band, (can't say for certain who it was - feral 3piece, anyway), took it upon themselves to raid the bar, and got pretty aggressive with Ian when he refused, on behalf of the proprieter, to pay them fully - Danny luckily tackled one of them as he was about to hit Ian over the head with a bottle!! Naturally, I was out packing up, but there was a hell of a commotion...

In an amusing side-light, I get told the next day that when they (Def FX) got back, Dave decides to throw his sweaty jocks at Fi, with a play-rumble resulting between Fiona and the naked Dave, ending with bodies strewn everywhere...

<.ELECTRIC ECCENTRIC.>

3rd night: Brisbane, QUT

Relatively quiet, but not uneventful. After setting up, Sean gives me a bit of an intro to samplers - this is basically when I decided I needed a sampler!!
Fiona receives shit from some drunk guy in the audience all night, totally ignores him, then he fully apologises afterwards - Fi says she didn't notice anyway!
Met Lee Christensen (helper at alt.nrg.bond, and general mad Def FX fan - must be somthing in the name!) afterwards, Fi introduces us.
Also run into one of the girls I knew from school in Coffs, Jenny Lidster, get the crew to sign a poster for her.

<.HAPPY AND SOFT.>

4th night: Night off in Brissy

Go to The Zoo to watch their support band Kaktus Mantras play - Kaktus lead singer Cristina Calero and Fi go way back! Gig pretty much goes off, me, Dave, Sean F and Ian have a few games of pool, it's all pretty cool.
Off to see TISM at the Roxy, but have to wait for Fi. Dave is the only person I know who can call out stuff to Fi she would normally deck you for, and totally get away with it!

Fi takes me under her wing, making sure I feel like one of the crew. I decide I'd better leave early 'cause we had to be up early next day. Around the time I was leaving, the sound system was rapidly entering a downward spiral to distruction; one of the TISM members had stage-dived with the microphone, and the feed- back was gradually worsening till it felt like the walls were going to fall down...

5th night: Mooloolaba

Bitch of a day. The gig was up-stairs, there was no lift, and we needed to get extra PA and stage equipment up there as well. Had to carry several tonne of equipment up a series of stairs, fell over one of those brazier fire thingies 'cause I couldn't see where I was going carrying part of the stage...
Not much to report. Fi introduced me to Cristina and Bunny Calero, pretty cool, and a had a bit of a chat with the other guys from Kaktus Mantras - gave me a shirt for selling their merch...

After finally packing everything away, I get a lift back to Brissy with one of the guys that brought the extra PA equipment.

A long five days!