Amanda Fucking Palmer Goes Down Under - Part One

Those that know me well know that the first few months of each year is an exciting time for me. Why? No, not just because I HATE the cold and those beginning months of the year are the warmest, but because Amanda Fucking Palmer graces our land down under. (Hmmm that didn't sound dirty when I first wrote it...)

This year however I have experienced a ridiculous amount of awesome. I went to 5 official Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under shows, 1 official Evelyn Evelyn show for the Adelaide Fringe, 3 Ninja Gigs and 2 BBQs, one being at my house that I posted my previous 2 blogs about. I probably would have gone to more had my Aunt not decided to finally get hitched to her now husband after being together for 18 years.

I have travelled close to 7500kms since the 26th of January; by car, by plane, by train, by tram, and by foot. 

It was by far the greatest experience of my life. Not just because of Amanda Palmer but because of the absolutely amazing people I have met along the way and have forged friendships with, or strengthened already existing friendships I had with those I have met on previous AFP adventures. I feel like I actually belong when I am with them. They don't roll their eyes when I start talking about music, and let’s face it, that's pretty much ALL I talk about, instead they join in!

Amanda Palmer

I'll start with where it all began. The Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under Australia Day Spectacular, January 26^th. 


The show featured The Jane Austen Argument, Mikelangelo and The Black Sea Gentlemen, Neil Gaiman, a very brief video appearance by Meow Meow and Amanda Fucking Palmer herself.

Neil Gaiman

The show was a beautiful mess. Yes shit went wrong, some songs were unfortunately missed but fuck it was an amazing show. My abdominal muscles got a great work out from laughter. My heart was broken and stitched back together again by the beautiful music, and words, we were blessed with hearing that evening.

Highlights from the night include Map Of Tasmania - it was full on sparkle fest, Holly Austin beatboxing and my first glimpse of Kim Boekbinder in the flesh! Dr Oz, In My Mind, Missed Me which involved an extremely intimate level of audience participation, Bad Wine and Lemon Cake - It was so amazing to see Tom and Jen ON STAGE AT THE OPERA HOUSE!!! and The Drover's Boy not to mention Neil fucking Gaiman reading from the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book, his poem about AFP, and the story about Mega fauna. 

BBQ Group Shot

Following the Opera House was the BBQ at my place on 28^th January. I won't go into much detail with it now as I have already written two blogs focused on it, but it was amazing enough to warrant two blogs! The night was basically a bunch of strangers becoming friends. We ate and drank and chatted. Amanda and Kim both played beautiful music, we hugged and smiled and revealed our deepest fears. I think I made some friends that night that I'll know for the rest of my time on this planet. 

Saint Clare

Sunday the 30^th January, Crystal and I drove to Newcastle for Amanda Palmer Goes Down on The Great Northern Hotel. The night began with a real treat. Kim Boekbinder opened and this was my first experience of seeing her perform an actual plugged in set live. She was amazeballs. The sound she is able to create with such minimal instrumentation... WOW!

Amanda Palmer & Kim Boekbinder 

Then The Jane Austen Argument played. They never fail to make my heart sing.

Next up Mikelango, one Black Sea Gentleman and the super sexy St Clare. Mikelangelo is probably the most charismatic performer I've ever seen. He has such a command of the stage. St Clare has an amazing sultry voice and the moves to go along with it. Despite the sound guy either being drunk or deaf and the sound therefore not being at its best, their performance more than made up for it.

Then Amanda Palmer took to the stage... Well she made her way through the crowd to the stage.

Sparkle fest during Map Of Tasmania

I can't really choose a highlight of the night for best song(s) because they were all amazing, but In My Mind always clutches at my heart strings.

At the end of the show, Tom Dickins pulled me aside and played Green Wings for me on his Ukulele. I am always requesting that he play it, even though he had gotten sick of it. Amazing! I fucking LOVE that song & I felt so special that he took the time to do that for me.

After Newcastle my life resumed as normal for just over a week until Crystal and I fired up the Prius and made the 12 hour drive to Byron Bay on the 9^th February. We arrived at about 6pm and checked into our motel, ate and then with grapes in hand headed to a Ninja gig on the beach with Amanda and Eric. Crystal and I were the first to successfully locate Amanda and Eric. By this stage it was almost completely pitch black and Amanda had twittered very nonspecific location tweets so they really could have been anywhere within a 2 km radius, the only way we were able to find them in the end was by following the sound of Amanda’s trusty Ukulele.

Amanda made a heart on the beach 

At first it appeared as though it was just going to be the four of us, so Amanda said we’d just go naked night swimming - thankfully (I know some people would not think thankfully but I did!) people found us and the ninja gigging began. Amanda played a few songs on uke, tim tams and grapes were passed around the group and we took some group shots and then headed back up to the town for gelato where Amanda proceeded to busk (Creep) in order to buy the kids who had come to the ninja gig some gelato. Unfortunately by the time she finished playing the song the gelato shop had closed! Amanda then started signing and taking photos with people so Crystal and I left to enjoy Byron by night.

Amanda Busking

The following day we just chilled, Crystal taste tested the local beer, which I am of the opinion all tasted like arse, but she seemed to enjoy it. Then we met up with photographer Extraordinaire Marianne. Find all her amazing work at http://www.mankissingbird.com. I've known Marianne since the beginning of 2009 when we met at an Amanda Palmer gig in Hobart but I hadn't seen her since then, until she came to my AFPINTHEBURBS BBQ. She is such a lovely person and I am so glad I reconnected with her.

Marianne, photo by Marianne
Make up by Crystal

Crystal worked her make-upey magic on her - Marianne can frequently be spotted wearing a moustache but Crystal's work was extra special for the Byron gig that night. 

Then it was gig time so we headed off the The Great Northern (yes she played in two venues called The Great Northern while in Australia and yes I know the twin peaks reference)! Once again we were treated with the amazing Kim Boekbinder opening the show. I can't get enough of the lady's music! Crystal, Marianne, and I danced along up the front... well Marianne danced when she wasn't taking photos. Sex, Drugs and Nuclear Physic's was my favourite track of hers that night.

The Impossible Girl
Kim Boekbinder

Next up was Mikelangelo, St Clare and The Tin Star. This was my first Tin Star experience and they were fantastic. Surf Western Balkan Guitar Rock goodness... and St Clare Go Go dancing = WHOA!

Then Amanda hit the stage... well once again made her way through the audience to the stage... This was the first gig I ever heard Astronaut live WITH drums. AURAL BRAIN EXPLOSION! The addition of drums to a few of the songs pretty much made my brain explode constantly throughout the night but I can’t even put into words what experiencing Astronaut with drums for the first time was like. I think it is my favourite song of all time. When Amanda first released the WKAP version before the rest of the album came out, I’d listen to it on repeat every day and I still can’t function if the song is playing... don’t even bother trying to have a conversation with me if it’s on!

The Drover's Boy

I loved the Bangalow gig last year because it was so different to the other gigs I went to. It was so laid back. This one was different again.... It was laid back in that there wasn't a massive crowd so Amanda + co just seemed to go with the flow in a way, but that’s not what made this gig so amazing and I can’t really put my finger on the reason it was. It could have just been the addition of the drums, but Mikelangelo played drums at the Opera House a bit as well. Maybe the fact I was with a number of friends who love the music & we enjoyed it together rather than Crystal and I being surrounded by a room of strangers had something to do with it. I felt like I was with comrades and that's what I love most about the Amanda Palmer + Dresden Dolls community.

I think seeing Amanda Palmer in Byron bay has become my most favourite thing to do now!

revealing THE famous
underwear!

Crystal and I stuck around in Byron the next day as well, and then drove Marianne back to Brisbane on the 12^th. That was another brilliant day. Marianne had set up a photo shoot at the Old Museum with Mikelangelo and Saint Clare and I set one up for her with Tom Dickins and Crystal did make-up for both.

Tom and Ange photo shoot
photo by Marianne

Marianne took some absolutely beautiful photos of Tom and Ange, his girlfriend, for her birthday, as well as some other “artier” photos of just Tom. The venue was perfect for photo shoots. 


She then shot Saint Clare and Mikelangelo. All of the photos can be found at the address I mentioned previously but I've added one here as well.

Tom, Mikelangelo and Saint Clare are such beautiful people, inside and out. They all made us feel welcome despite the fact we were in their space and taking up the short time they had to relax before the show. They’re so down to earth and human. I’ve been around many arrogant and pretentious artists in my life; you’d not find any of that with them. We just chatted about music and love, it was a wonderful afternoon!

Once the photo shoots were wrapped up and the artists went off to rehearse and sound check, Marianne, Crystal and I went to line up for the gig.

Tom Dickins

I don’t really know what to write about the Brisbane gig. All of the artists put their all in. Tom was amazing despite being solo for the night, Mikelangelo, Saint Clare and the Tin Star owned the stage, and Amanda, well what can I say, she is a trooper - there were many technical difficulties which were distracting and even that wasn’t a problem. It was the audience.

The reason I held that BBQ and invited a bunch of strangers into my house is because I’ve only ever had the most wonderful experiences with Amanda Palmer fans. I’ve made many friends all around Australia and even the world and they are so lovely but the crowd at that Brisbane show, they just seemed feral. From talking and making noise through The Drover’s Boy, which is a song that demands respect, to the psycho fan just not shutting up and threatening to really ruin the show.

I know many artists who wouldn’t have been able to recover from the distraction of technical difficulties, especially seeing as though Amanda was having the show filmed, and even more so I know many artists who would leave the stage and not return if they were being hassled, as Amanda was, by the psycho fan girl, but Amanda took it in her stride and recovered, and the quality of the artist’s performances was never affected. That is why following them around the country is an easy decision to make.


I have a very difficult time being around people who don’t seem to respect one another, especially when it is the audience appearing not to respect the performers. I just can’t understand why people pay money just to get drunk and risk not even remembering a show afterwards, and then in turn negatively impacting upon others people’s experience. Anyway there is no reason to dwell because musically and performance wise the show was killer, but Brisbane audience get it together!


As I said Amanda Palmer is a trooper and the show must go on and it did and it was incredible. Mikelangelo even came down off stage and stood with Marianne, Crystal and I until he had to go take care of the psycho fan girl problem. Also at the end of the night he got me up on stage to dance to Leeds United!!! At first I was too chicken but then I thought fuck it and got up there and did quite the happy dance! It was exhilarating! A few people jumped up including Crystal but unfortunately about ¾ of the way through the show Marianne had started feeling sick and had to leave early which was really sad because it would have been brilliant to have her up there with us dancing and taking photos. I've yet to see any photos of Leeds United actually. 

 Formidable Marinade

As soon as the show finished Crystal and I once again fired up the Prius and drove through the night to get back to Sydney by the following afternoon as Crystal had tickets to a show. I don’t think I’ll do that again unless I’ve had sufficient sleep. I kept myself awake by blasting Mikelangelo + The Black Sea Gentlemen, Mikelangelo + The Tin Star, Kim Boekbinder, Vermillion Lies, The Jezabels, The Jane Austen Argument as well as Tom’s older solo stuff, and of course Amanda Palmer and The Dresden Dolls but by the end of the drive it was almost painful to still be awake and concentrate.


I got home at 1:15pm. We left Brisbane at about 12:15am (Brisbane time)…. It took a couple of days to really recover from that drive but it was definitely worth it.

.... I'll post part two tomorrow!