Chapter Four: More Yak Adventures
22nd May 2001

Well, hello again! We arrived in Brisbane on Saturday, after a gruelling five days travel from Morwell last Sunday morning. We passed the time in recovery-mode, reading and resting. On the road, our diet was rich in essential truckstop vitamins and minerals and we may have been in grave danger of scurvey. Fortunately Huw kept the bus well stocked with mandarins and apples for us to snack on, and in the evenings we took it in turns to cook.

Our first stop of that long leg was in Eden, where we stayed in a cabin right next to the beach. Exhausted from the long haul, Meem, Steve, Justin and I stumbled into town to check out the action and found ourselves in the middle of a mothers' day bash in the local pub. The mums of the town, from 17 to 70, were done up to the nines in fancy dress costume and were dancing to the best and worst juke box pop. This was a cultural event of unbelievable charm and I was sorry to not have the video camera with me. But as Justin says, the best things happen when you DON'T have any other means to record them than with your own memory.

We reached Sydney on Monday night where Telemetry Orchestra left us (they will fly up to meet us in Brisbane) and the rest of us headed on to our next destination: Coffs Harbour. We stayed with Bre's parents where we had our first real home cooked meal in ages, a roast dinner. Sam, Bre's dad, is Deputy principal of the local high school where we were invited to present workshops on the Wednesday. Meem and Deepchild presented a session on audio sampling in theirs, and Justin and I ran a video mixing workshop. In our group we had students called Justin and Cindi! The students were keen to experiment with the video mixers and fairlight CVI (discovering unprecedented effects!), and everyone wanted to know about what playing at the Big Day out was like.

On Thursday we played at Lismore at the Southern Cross University, and where we were joined by Joe and Ollie (Ubin) who travelled with us for three days. Half an hour before we started the gig there was a freak hailstorm, which is apparently quite common in those parts. I had the camera out in a flash and then later mixed the hailstorm into the visuals, all good fun stuff! It made up for the hard time I had up a ladder rigging a projector sideways before the gig (Blast venues with no decent rigging points, grrrr!)

The day after the Lismore show we went to Byron Bay for a beach side respite, but sadly the weather turned cold. We'd had great weather the entire journey (our friends in Sydney complained of rain while we toasted our sunshine in Melbourne). But why did it choose the one night we couldn't find accomodation to piss down with rain? Seven of us slept (very cosily) on the bus that night, as rain pelted the roof and dripped down into carefully placed buckets. Fortunately the beds and gear remained dry, and Huw did some quick repairs to prevent future leakage (viva le gaffer tape).

We arrived in Brisbane on Saturday just in time for Meem, Deepchild and Ubin to make their interview appointment at 4ZZZ radio station. It was relief to arrive in Brisbane knowing we'd be there for a few days. We knew it would be a long trek, hardest of all for our driver Huw who had to cajole Zahir the magic bus up the challenging Bulli pass. From this point our hardest drive would be up the mountainside to Toowoomba - and it really is all downhill from there!

During this part of the tour we were amused by Pete, a guitar playing traveller with a skanky beard, who showed up at the Lismore gig. He surprised us in Byron, and later turned up at our first Brisbane gig too. We were starting to think he was part of the crew! Other memorable people were friends Adam and Hayley and Rob who helped out in all sorts of ways, and Laura and Anthony of 4ZZZ, and Sean Healy of Electrofringe. I'm sad to say I saw very little of Brisbane; managed to escape to a housewarming party on the first night with Justin and Ubin, and later found an hour for a riverside walk just before leaving for Toowoomba.

We were in Brisbane for four days but its all a bit of a blur for me, due to gear and accommodation logistical headaches, but we eventually found a secure place to keep the bus: inside the zen reactor warehouse at Southbank. Our first Brisbane show was at the Mantra nightclub on Brunswick Street Mall, in the cosiest venue yet! Our lineup included Ubin, Telemetry Orchestra who'd just rejoined us, Octagroover, Meem and Deepchild and the resident DJ Anthony. The energy amongst the group was high and excited and we had a great response from our audience. The space has had little in the way of video visuals before and we settled for the tried and true method of rear projected bedsheet due to lack of space. The makeshift screen divided the space in two, with images being enjoyed from both the dancefloor and a lounge/bar area. Tony Bowler, a local video artist and member of the vidi-yo nexus came and contributed his own material to the mix, freeing me up for some live camera contribution. I particularly enjoyed Tony's "nasty drag queen" footage which I mixed with disco fabrics and stroby feedback. Tony is an absolute sweetheart who provided crew accommodation for the night and Justin, Tony and I were still up at 4 am after the gig talking video mixers!

Our second show in Brisbane was at the QUT Campus Club at Gardens Point which had (oh luxury) an elevator! No stair lugging, hooray! Sadly, Justin had to return to Sydney the day before and I was without my video partner, and even rigging the minimal video rig was hard work. Fortunately Sean and Adam came to the show and helped out with the mixing and lugging. I was pretty tired by this point so I can barely remember the show! I know we had some local acts play, including Neon Princess, Ambersound, Arkeeopterix vs Spanglebug!

Next Day we headed off to Toowoomba up the long and winding mountain road, entranced by an enormous luminous rainbow above the glowering rainclouds. Will there be a pot of gold at Toowoomba?

More of our travels soon,

Cin

© 2001 cindi drennan & team yak