Dustin Tebbutt Tour Diary: Part Three

After being spoiled by Melbourne's turning leaves and warming crowds last week, the band was sitting in a pretty comfy pocket of sorts, and we were all amped to be playing at home in Sydney. Jake flew up from Melbourne first thing on Wednesday, and made the most of his taping skills, recently honed from packing up after the shows…

Innovation

I also had the chance to spend a day back on the studio where I was acquainted with this amazing piece of craftsmanship. Sometimes it feels like instruments have songs waiting in them, almost like they've got their own stories to tell, and they just need you so sit with them and 'listen.' It's a pretty cool thing when it happens, and this was one of those days.

I'm listening, Straube...

After checking all the gear, we headed over to Manly for a bite to eat. It is actually pretty cool being a tourist in your own city, and the 40 minutes on the ferry there and back was good for both the mind and lungs. We also made a new friend in the local commuter/ vagrant/ homeless philosopher that for some reason always seem to find me on the ferries! He had his Vivid Festival sorted though… his tips for avoiding the Quay's human traffic jams: "Yeah, I'm going to that Vivid Festival thing, I don't go at night but, it's best before 4pm, before all the people start showing up… gets too crowded later on." That's all fine, but I'm wondering if he got the whole 'lights shine brighter when they're not competing with the sun' vibe?

The venue, The Newtown Social Club, has just been renovated, and despite being only a week or so into operations, it was running like a well-oiled machine. There's been a lot of venues closing over the last few years, so it's great to see such a firm flag for the live music front placed in the sand here, and if last week was anything to go by, were looking at Sydney's new premiere small club room.

The shows were once again, in a very quiet, attentive way, mind-blowing!

At the Newtown Social Cub.

On Thursday, it was a late night pack up, before an early flight up to Brisbane for the last hurrah. And by this stage, there was a bit of sleep deprivation happening.

Jake catching some zzz's.

And now it's Carlos' turn.

We made it to Brisbane in one piece, and after some hectic parking manoeuvres in an underground car park involving way to many hand gestures and multiple mutually exclusive directions we were up and running just in time for a quick sound check. Carlos was fully recharged after his airport kip, and morphed into the drummer I've always wanted to be …

The Toilet Paper Bandit.

The Brisbane Show at Alhambra was a slightly rowdier Friday night crowd, in between songs, we were at the mercy of a packed room full of people winding it up for the weekend. We rolled with it of course, which quickly transformed the tone of the evening to 'Massive Party Vibes' for the end of the tour.  I was surprised to find however, while we were playing, people were still really attentive to our slightly down tempo winter sounds. Once we'd finished our set, it only took moments for the DJs to crank it up, and we were quickly thrown into a churning club. The generous rider/bar tab did wonders to lubricate this transition, although it did make the 2am load out slightly hazy, with us leaving a few road cases of gear behind, including all the merch, which was stacked in the corner along side our faded hopes of avoiding a catastrophic hangover.  A few hours later, and the sun was rising over The Story Bridge as I reflected on the amazing journey of the past few months. I couldn't stay for long, as my undivided inebriated attention was needed to do up my shoelace, and make the first hard decision of the day… Sleep then eat? Or, eat then sleep?

The lads.

I'm back in Sydney now, and after a day or so I'm already starting to miss the wild thing that is touring; the anticipation of the next show, meeting so many awesome people along the way, seeing new places, and travelling with a purpose … I can see how this could get really addictive. A huge thanks to everyone who has been involved in this tour, either behind the scenes, or supporting in the audience. These shows were by far the best I've played to date, and mark the start of the next chapter in a way. I'm just so grateful for being able to finally share my music in this way with you all, so cheers! Best get my head down and write some more songs, so we can do it all again soon!