Getting Lost, Vicious Storms & More With West Thebarton Brothel Party

Following a statewide blackout and a once-in-a-half-century storm, we got out of Adelaide and into Melbourne on a long weekend.

We caught up with our booker, Harry, over burgers and beers before settling in at the venue. With a rich blend of Melbourne locals, Adelaide expats and Old Bar Unicorns, we were proud as punch to sell out our first show at The Old Bar. Ray got hot and heavy with the crowd and chipped his teeth in the process.

After chatting to a few punters and loading out, we made our way to Yah Yah's to catch Mesa Cosa for the second time on this tour. They must've been a nine or 10 piece this time and they were at their chaotic best. We partied there till close and with my warped internal compass, I got lost on the way home with a dead phone.

By 8am my ‘sleep’ resembled a series of long blinking sessions so I decided to roam around Fitzroy while the rest of the guys dozed away. Nothing was really open of course but I managed to find a HTRK record at Polyester a few hours later.
We packed up the cars and headed towards Chopped Festival in Newstead which was about half an hour out of Castlemaine. Chopped was a deep scene with an amazing abundance of flannel, goatees and mud. The punters were lovely as hell for a pack of chirpy South Australians playing garage punk during the AFL Grand Final. We received the whole production treatment and sadly missed out on getting to play on the back of the rickety ute.
After soaking in a bit of the automotive atmosphere, we spent the drive back tuning in to last quarter of the footy and lapped up the victory for the Doggos. Would everyone peak too early or were they still kicking on in the suburbs and pubs? Turns out everyone has a second wind. Every man, woman and their (bull)dog was well and truly buckled by the time we loaded in to Yah Yah's. We steamed through a short, snappy 30-minute set and left the locals in a hot mess. There was an old burnout giving everyone the finger during Farnsey and we all boogied until we got kicked out (again).

We spent the remainder of Sunday afternoon drinking at the (Car)Parkview Hotel before returning to The Old Bar to see our pals, Rin McArdle and Nina from Hightime. When in Melbourne, support Adelaide as they say.