UNDERTOUR REVIEW
4.9 The Zoo, Brisbane
Sort of a rehearsal. Drunk pirate guy screaming at me in the front row…he later fell and lost his front teeth (no joke). Turns out he used to work for Universal Music…parent co. of Geffen/DGC. This is the spot where the ‘fallen mighty’ jokes come in.
4.10 The Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Wins the vote as most quiet and reverential audience of the tour, by a slim margin though. We count the Brisbane show the previous night as a worthy rehearsal, a way to get my sea legs steady on the keys, and a screening of the KS/Even Party Melt 2005…where them n’ me merge to deliver an ever-growing list of Bee Gees, Posies, Big Star, etc. (plus the odd improvised Smiths and/or Led Zep song)…culminating in a guitarless KS contorting himself around Neil Young’s ‘Down to the Wire’ as hinted at on the Soft Commands bonus track version…except here it’s madness lengthened, strengthened, and absolutely martian-ized. All voodoo and James Brown PCP shoot-out-his-tires-but-he-keeps-going style twists. Sydney witnessed the real flowering of this bulbous tendril trio augmented with preacher-screechin’ Hon. Rev. Strings.
Matt Downey was embarrassed, and for the first time in his short life, speechless…my stepdad, having just turned 80, was lauded, and received a dedication of Here’s To The Future, which was tear-choked, to be honest…I had to run off after and do a bit of sentimental sobbing backstage. After regaining my composure, I was able to entertain friends and enjoy the company of many old music homies, Brad Shepard and his lovely Ms., Wayne Knievel, and Jon and Richard from the REM visual team. With assistance from Mr. Downey, I was delivered to my hotel at a perfectly unreasonable hour.
4.12 The Swan Hotel Basement, Fremantle
It was with great embarrassment that I discovered that the Kevin putting together the show this night was in fact Kevin from Superscope (I mixed a couple of tracks on their record)…I had suggested via email he track down this band Superscope and see if I could borrow gear from them for the show…but mentioned I hadn’t a clue how to find them. It’s been that kind of tour. Well, Kevin was a hero, taking me to a Mac store to buy a new power supply, mine having become too tour-frayed to operate anymore (its owner rapidly achieving the same state), to the Outram Hotel where I had stayed with REM the previous week and left another plug converter behind, and ultimately to soundcheck…you wouldn’t expect the Swan Basement to be so damn Groovy…it’s a typical Victorian Hotel that you would expect to have musty old green carpet…and upstairs, it probably does, with a dart board, and all that. Downstairs it’s some kind of 2001 Pan Am Moonliner Lounge….anyway, once again the crowd was respectful and quiet, save for some kind of drunk thespian lady who heckled me into inviting her up onstage, and later berated me for not indulging her enough—evidently all people I allow to come up after they strongly insist to do so are supposed to get free CDs—and we had a very nice night. Dano, REM crew member who had stayed on for a little non R&R R&R, provided the tequila (giving new meaning to lighting crew)…Grant and Natalie provided accommodations…and a ride to the airport the next day…much obliged!
4.13 Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Obscenely sold out show at this pubby (read: ancient green carpet) venue, so packed I couldn’t do my ‘go out into the audience and play’ bit. This is where Even & I perfected our ‘craft’—or 'Kraft' as the case may be--where the KS on led, excuse me, lead, vocals-only Grant Hart was debuted, where Smiths covers were more than hinted at…a great night, all told. Sometimes, when they’re that good, you can’t really write that much about it.
4.14 Grace Emily Hotel, Adelaide
Before we flew out of Melbourne, I finally got to SLEEP PAST NOON. I had been in dire need. Plus, at the home of Wally from Even, there’s a backyard hot tub…and a turtle or two loping around…the Grace is a sweet little place, an extended living room that luckily serves enough hard drinks and hosts enough rawk and roll to keep from being TOO hobbity-cozy. There’s a back patio for smokin’ and drinkin’ under the stars, and the upstairs has accommodations, and, amazingly, permanent residents who don’t seem to care. A common kitchen serves all, and they had not one oz. of caemenbert for me to ‘borrow’…and god bless it if the Publican didn’t come thru in the morning for me with my Norman-style cheese fix. Many thanks to Ian for the “I Can’t Be Fucked” pin badges, which amused the Air New Zealand staff to no end…
4.15 Repbulic Bar, Hobart
Tasmania conjures up a few distinct images, depending on which culture you come from and/or whether or not you get your news from the Cartoon Network or the Spice Channel. Someone (a Tasmanian, in fact) also described Tasmanians as ‘quite feral’…let’s just say, that’s where Errol Flynn hails from. Well, they seemed to have calmed down a bit. A lot of dreads. Nothing you couldn’t say about Bellingham. Looks like it would be beautiful country to drive around in for a few days. I didn’t have that much time. It was a Friday, and I had to get my little show heard above the din of the regulars yakking away, but I achieved that without incident—I just spoke to the people who had crowded in to listen, and told them, I don’t get to Tassie much and I feel they should know the real me. And the real me plays quiet songs for about half his set. No one seemed to mind, and we it simply brought us all closer.
The Even + KS rock finale was un-f***in’-real. I can’t describe. I gave it all and then some…came back like JB….screamed like a dragon giving birth and worked more Bee Gees ref’s into every minute of entertainment than even I (or I, Even) thought possible. Many audience members were lampooned without their noticing, to the audience’s great delight (and did they not know their time was gonna come?).
4.16 King’s Arms, Auckland
Ah, En Zed, so civilized and polite. They really are too nice and generous in this land. And you can’t get mad at ‘em. And evidently, you can’t get ‘em mad at you…anyway, when I walked into the King’s Arms after dinner, you could hear the carpet getting old it was so empty. I decided to wait it out…then the Checks, their girlfriends, and parents arrived, and that right there filled up a lot of the empty space! Huzzah! Rock saves the day AGAIN! But still, this girl that used to work for my dear friend Hammi in Cologne came in the bar…last time I saw her was at a dismal show of mine 3 years ago in Hamburg...about which she said at the time (and she had reason)that it was the worst show she had ever seen. This time she opened the floodgates of charm with, in typical middle-European directness, “I have never seen a club so quiet on a Saturday night”. At least damn me with faint praise. Ouch. Well, over the next couple of hours, we actually managed to assemble a nice crowd there, 50 or so folks, and with everybody there to see the show and the show only (the 4 drunk kids who took 20 minutes to figure out that they were not at the metal show—even though there was a country swing duo onstage!!—eventually asked for their money back), no regulars to work around, it turned out to be a great night. There were the three drunk gals in the front row, who had bought 5 advance tix for the 3 of them, and even if they weren’t math geniuses, they were a superb boost of energy for the night…anyway, it was a real pull-out-the-stops KS show, with me in the audience, the audience onstage, etc. Many props to various members of the Nudie Suits, who played the middle slot, for adding high lonesome tinges too 'Here's To The Future'. Good stuff.
4.17 Matterhorn Bar, Wellington
What a note to end on… what must certainly be the center of good taste and hospitality in Wellie, the Matterhorn Bar, and hosts Sam and Leon, were a true dream for this weary traveler.
Sam from the Phoenix Foundation, whose music I had just heard for the first time at my lovely AKL hosts Cath and Dylan’s place, DJ’d and provided a very able neck and shoulder massage. I played to a seated dinner crowd, and space was tight so I couldn’t quite manage my mid audience mix it up thing, but I did manage to tell a good chunk of my life story, cruise the audience for shot partners, and have an absolutely great night to wrap up 7 months of solid touring. Thanks to Mellie for setting up the gigs!
**********
Since I arrived Monday in Seattle, I’ve been decompressing from 14 time zones worth of jet lag, unpacking and finding there’s no room to unpack anything into, figuring out how to make my house safe for and from my daughter, who arrives next week, etc…we mastered the Japanese edition of the new Posies album, which will have an extra track: an original tune we recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis exactly a year ago. I took stuff to Goodwill that I had set aside to do so 5 months ago…I STILL haven’t opened all my mail. I got a hug from my dry cleaner when I dropped off my clothes there earlier this week…! I’m still kind of a wreck. But I will give big shout out overview frmo the tour to all the people therein I met, everyone who helped me get from point A to point B (mentally, emotionally and physically) and everyone who has been moved by my music—all these things, if I didn’t point out how much I was touched and how much I appreciated any of the above…please take this humble note into account.
Love
KS
Seattle
ANTIPODEANAMERICAN SENTIMENTS
Evidently I raised a bit of a stir with my commentary about the state of culture and music in the US and Australia in my interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Good. Evidently many members of murmus.com, an REM fan site, took offense at my statements or laughed them off as uninformed, or worse, frivolous. However, I meant what I said. I was not edited to look more controversial or contrarian than I am. Funny that REM, Bright Eyes, et al can visibly agitate against the current US Gov. admin. without taking flak, but, I, apparently, don't have the credentials to allow myself an opinion. An opinion that I thought would be shared by many music fans, who I would think would lean more left than right.
And, to respond further:
1)The capacity of REM's show in Perth was nowhere near 20,000, in the configuration for that evening's concert. Even the biggest venues we played indoors in Europe earlier this year topped out roughly between 12,000 and 15,000 capacity.
2) U2's bulletproof popularity would be difficult to compare to REM's. Musically, U2 is much more straightforward and far less experimental (at least in recent years), and Bono tends to do his politicizing offstage rather than on, and about humanitarian issues rather than say, the Iraq war, for example. Do they have a 2 song segment in their set that was written 'in protest of the the current US administration and the actions of the US government?' I don't think so.
3) Yes, there was a republican in the white house when REM began their career. Many bands spent the 80s fully devoting themselves to protesting the cultural vanillafication policies and megabusiness-friendly excesses of the Reagan and Bush 1 govt's. --the Dead Kennedys, and, oh, nearly every US punk band, and...oh yeah, REM.
Moving on...the KS/Even tour is underway, with last night's kickoff in Brisbane a success, considering how long it had been since i had played a KS show--almost a month. REM's last show was festive, to say the least, I broke my code of no drinking before the show and appeared onstage hoisting a bottle of french vin blanc...details get hazy from there but by 4 the following morning I was on a plane across Australia to switch over to an entirely different...approach, shall we say...from sideman to front man, from keyboard rattler to, at one point, lead screecher...much fun ahead and kudos to the Even gents for organizing a great tour and learning some Posies songs to boot!
And, lastly, but most significant to me, I send out lots of love to my stepdad, G. Dewey Huston, who turned 80 yesterday...he'll be rockin' at the Annandale in Sydney tonight...
Love
KS
Sydney AU
VICTORDOG UNDERIOUS
I have a new favorite bar in Sydney: Baron’s. No, I don’t wish to keep this a secret. You can go there, and there’s no way to fuggit up. In King’s Cross…don’t worry, it’ll find you. I was there all three nights I spent in Sydney…once til closing…but the damn thing doesn’t seem to close…it’s like the lid on Bill Rieflin’s Powerbook…which often has a mango on it.
The second show in Sydney, for the record, was a stürmer…one of my favorites of the tour, my fave audience of the Aussie tour so far…tough one to beat. After hours, at Baron’s, natürlich, I was reunited with my secret life partner Matt Downey, of the band ‘Matt Downey’…also…many friends…Darryl Mather, brainfather of the Orange Humble Band, was kind enough to take my mom and stepdad around town yesterday…big chance to meet the Hustons at the Annandale show…
Enjoyed an evening of relative cool in Melbourne last night…and power luncheoned with Scott McOi and my new boss starting next week, Wally EvenMeanie… I feel, well, despite the lack of sleep (southern hemisphere seems to have that effect on me)…I feel damn fine. Like the canary that finally ate the cat for a change.
Superhuman feat of the week: played 2nd Sydney show; managed to steal my friends away from Nasty, Nasty techno club to my local (um, again, that name is BARON’S), stayed there til…just shy of too late to mention without legal eagles getting involved…somehow it was 6am when I got to my hotel, and was up at 8.45 readying myself for 9am tennis match with stepdad…1.2 hours and I at least took a couple of games off him! He’s a monster tho’. Fell asleep during subsequent phoner however. Don’t think anyone noticed…and it makes gives you the heroin chic vibe, passing out in front of journo’s.
Almost stage time…
Love
KS
Melbourne
