Skip all the boring waiting at airports and all that jazz to Sunday 6th March and the Melbourne BBQ in St Kilda. Ian arrived at my house at about 6:15am and on very little sleep once again we drove to the airport. Our flight wasn’t on the screen when we got there so I started panicking that it had been cancelled and we’d not been told, we were flying with Tiger so it wouldn't surprise me. Eventually it did come up on the screen and after a minor delay we were on our way.We made good time and were in Melbourne by about 10:30am. We got into the city, ate sushi and then walked to the tram stop where we bumped into the one and only sparkle queen herself Kim Boekbinder! We hadn’t bought any alcohol yet so Ian and I quickly dashed off in search of a bottle shop. Much deliberating went down about what I should buy due to lack of money but expensive tastes but eventually I settled on Pear Cider. We thought by then Kim would have been on her way to the BBQ but to our pleasant surprise when we got back to the tram stop she was only just getting on and she had the delightful Saint Clare with her.
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| William Cooper |
We didn’t sit with Kim and Clare on the tram but once we got off to walk to the house we chatted about gigs, Mikelangelo, Saint Clare and the Tin Star are going to be in Sydney end of March beginning of April so everyone should come. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172122492835930 And Kim is also hoping to come to Sydney at the end of April so fingers crossed for that!!!
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| Kim Boekbinder |
When we arrived a lot of people were already there. Guy gave us the shirts we got as part of the fee we paid to go. The shirt is awesome and was designed by Marianne. Unfortunately mine is incredibly short so I doubt it'll be worn.
We met up with Alecia and Phil and I got tackled with hugs by Marianne. I talked to Lisa, who I met for the first time with Guy, Marianne, Candice and Crystal in Hobart at the Brisbane Hotel AFP gig in 2009. If only Bec and Crystal were there it would have been a reunion!
It was quite a hot day which I was loving! No one else seemed to be though. Alecia went and got a big picnic blanket out of her car and we found a spot on the grass in front of the make-shift stage where we continued to catch up.
I said hello to William Cooper who I met on twitter and then in person for the first time briefly in Brisbane after AFP's gig, as well as little Lisa who up until that point I’d only spoken to via twitter. See what I mean about community!!!
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| The Jane Austen Argument with William Cooper |
Before long the music kicked off and first up was Daniel Reeves. I missed some of his set as I was inside but what I saw he was pretty good.
Next up The Impossible Girl - Kim Boekbinder! She played “The Organ Donor’s March” which I did the inner happy dance to upon hearing; as well as my other favourite “Sex, Drugs and Nuclear Physics”, “Love is an Organ Grinder’s Monkey” and Ian’s daughter’s favourite “Gypsy”. It was a short but very enjoyable set.
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| The Jane Austen Argument with Amanda Palmer & William Cooper |
I think Amanda may have arrived somewhere during Kim’s set but next up was The Jane Austen Argument. During their set Jen played the first ever happy song she has ever written and it was beautiful. It made me smile on the inside and out! The rest of the songs were also amazing as always. Amanda got up and played with them during Bad Wine and Lemon Cake as well as William Cooper who plays accordion. He is very talented and has just moved to Melbourne, I hope he gets to play with them more often, or finds another band that he’ll get to perform and even write with.
Tom and Jen then debuted a song they wrote with Neil Gaiman for Amanda. It was incredibly sweet and once they’ve practiced it and played it live a few times I think it’s going to be a crowd favourite!
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| General Assembly |
After The Jane Austen Argument people just hung out for a bit. Amanda made her way around the different groups of people, and then ice-cream and sorbet was handed out to everyone. Amanda came and sat down on our blanket to eat hers… She opted to take the hard way as she seems to do with many things in her life, and ate it without a spoon… I'll let you create your own visuals for that.
The sorbet was delicious. I was not able to determine if it was vegan or not, sorbet generally is, but some people put egg in it so I am hoping it was vegan. I figure what I don’t know can’t hurt me though!
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| Saint Clare & Mikelangelo |
Tom and Jen had to leave not long after as they needed to get a flight back to Adelaide for their Fringe show that night. That’s dedication, flying in for a gig and out again within a matter of hours for another!
Another band, The General Assembly played. They were pretty good. A bit Boy and Bearish.
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| Adelaide boys singing Madonna |
Mikelangelo and Saint Clare then took to the stage. I won’t go on about it because I’ve already written about them multiple times in this epic 3 part blog, but they are incredible performers and I can’t wait to see them again here in Sydney in April.
There was then another bit of a break where people just mingled. After a while two of the Candice’s friends from Adelaide got up to play her and her housemates a song on Uke. A sort of farewell as one of them is moving to London soon. It was quite hilarious. They sung Madonna. Mikelangelo joined in as well on accordion!
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| Mikelangelo + Adelaide dude |
Then Eric played a song on Uke! I can’t remember who it was by but he did a great job considering he is not a musician and only started playing very recently.
Once he finished Amanda started to perform. She played Uke first from the couch as the keyboard/PA wasn’t working. She did a couple of covers, and I think she may have played a couple of her own songs but everything is starting to blur now. Mikelangelo then accompanied her on guitar as she sung The Ship Song. It was amazing. Spine tingling; goosebump causing amazing. My brain has exploded so many times with amazement over the last couple of months. I am surprised I am still able to string a sentence together!
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| Eric Uke-ing out |
Amanda then read to us from Paul Kelly’s book “How To Make Gravy”. She read a story he wrote referencing the Speigeltent Amanda had just performed in herself at the Adelaide Fringe. He’d written about his worst and best gigs and it was great to see Amanda read it and completely relate to it herself. She then told us a story about what she considered to be the worst gig she ever played as part of the Dresden Dolls.
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| The Ship Song |
She read another story that required a Scottish accent, and she did it perfectly! It felt like I was back in Scotland talking to my Scottish family, although it was much warmer than the last time I was there!
Then we ate. I ate the vegan curry. It was really tasty! I was a bit sunburnt by that stage despite applying sunscreen! Thankfully the sun had begun to go down. Amanda came and sat with us for a bit and told us about the two talks she was going to be doing at the high school and University over the next couple of days. Then there was a brief conversation on high school uniforms and how strict some schools are. From that conversation I got the impression that a lot of schools in Melbourne don’t have uniforms!!! I was not aware of this. Amanda also told us that before school started back after the holidays, she’d sometimes plan her outfit for weeks! I am glad we had uniforms. They were ugly as fuck, I had to wear a pale pink shirt until I was in year 10 and in year 11 and 12 it wasn’t much better being a pale blue shirt, but it meant not having to give it a second thought when I got up in the morning!
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| Amanda serenading Saint Clare and Mikelangelo |
Anyway… once everyone seemed to have finished eating Amanda got up to play some more songs, this time on Keyboard which was now working again. Amanda and Eric played a song for Marianne. Eric changed the words to Boston to be about taking photos! It was hilarious and incredibly sweet of them. She then asked for requests and there were a lot of songs requested that I was really looking forward to hearing! Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day, or night.
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| Reading from Paul Kelly's book "How To Make Gravy" |
The rest of the night was pretty much Amanda attempting to play a song and then the same drunk guy (one of those who got up earlier to play a song on uke) would start talking to her, trying to get her to do another cover. That got very old very fast considering we were all there to see Amanda play Amanda, or Dresden Dolls songs! She did manage to get a few more in though which was great including Such Great Heights with Kim!
It had gotten dark by this stage so Amanda suggested we take it inside. Alas! She had not performed “Missed Me” yet so I made sure to yell that out and she did and wow! Thank baby heyzuz I am a persistent fucker. It was unreal! Mikelangelo and William played accordion as Amanda walked around the backyard “getting intimate” with all the guests… A furry hat was thrown across the backyard. Amanda balanced on the backrest of a couch, she got all hands-ey with Saint Clare and Eric got all hands-ey with Amanda, in that moment I also doubted that he was gay. The song ended with a pash for one lucky guest.
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| Amanda Fucking Palmer |
Following that photo session we all went out the front where more photos were taken. This time nakedness was a definite theme. 2 buys got their junk out, and well, Amanda got her tits out, but who hasn’t seen Amanda’s tits! I found out later that one of the penis's were actually freshly circumcised!!!
At about 9pm sadly it was then time for Amanda to leave. Eric and Amanda had been at Mardi Gras the previous night so they'd barely slept, actually I don't think Eric had slept at all! I said goodbye to, thanked and hugged Eric who went back inside for a massage, and then did the same with Amanda who got into a taxi and off she went.
I totally forgot to even get a photo with her! Oh well, I have a few from previous years I just didn’t really get any with her this tour other than at my house and one at Byron, which I don’t even have as someone else took it with their camera.We said our goodbyes to everyone else and then Alecia and Phil generously drove Ian and I back to our hotel. Thanks again guys!!!
Ian and I chatted and got up to date on twitter until Guy came back to the hotel and we talked about the day. Then we all went to bed. I didn’t really sleep and had to be up at about 5-5:30am but it was worth it.
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Thank you to my family for being very generous and helping me pay for a lot of it. It’s so lucky that Christmas was just before Amanda came to Australia because I asked for money to put towards it all. Thank you also for driving me to and picking me up from airports and helping out with the BBQ - and for putting up with me whenever I talked about it all!
Thank you to Crystal for being a part of most of it. I missed you incredibly at the times you weren’t there because you are my AFP ally and my best friend but I am really glad you were with me at the times you were.
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| Amanda getting handsey with Saint Clare |
Thank you to Alecia for coming to Adelaide Fringe with me! You made it extra fun!
Thank you to Mel and all the other people I met on this tour, or previous tours, for hanging out with me as well. You’re all wonderful! And to Ian for driving me back from Pretty Peepers!
Thank you to Marianne for being amazing and lovely and taking beautiful photos that will keep these memories alive for years to come.
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| Missed Me |
Thank you to Neil Gaiman for your beautiful words… Your stories kept me going as I travelled up and down the east coast of Australia.
Thank you to Tom Dickins and Jen Kingwell, Kim Boekbinder, Jason Webley, Mikelangelo and Saint Clare for not only making beautiful music that touches me and makes me smile, and laugh and feel, that breaks and mends my heart, that annihilates my brain; but for being so human when off stage. For talking to your fans and being so unpretentious, and giving people like Marianne the chance to take your photo, and Crystal the chance to do your make-up! Kim - an extra thank you for coming to my BBQ and for being so lovely and kind!!!
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| Amanda, Eric, Kim + Clare with the housemates + friends of the hosts |
Finally thank you Amanda Fucking Palmer from the very bottom of my heart, fuck it, thank you from every part of my being. She is an incredible person who does incredible things. Her existence has helped so many people including myself, in many different ways. I wish there were more people on the planet as creative and full of love, tolerance and beauty as she is. She has given me confidence I never had, and helped me accept and feel proud of myself and for that I’ll be forever grateful. Not only that, but I had such a great time travelling around going to those gigs and meeting such amazing people along the way, I truly had the greatest time in my life. 2011 has kicked off to a brilliant start. I probably won’t be able to afford to do anything for the rest of the year and I will probably still be catching up on sleep for the next few weeks but it was all more than worth it!!!!
Oh and thank you to you if you actually read this far!
For all of the photos I've posted in these blogs (other than the two that are Marianne's) go to my Flickr Page where you'll find hundreds more. Eventually I'll upload all the photos I've taken at various gigs over the last few years so if you are a Flickr member add me!
For all of the photos I've posted in these blogs (other than the two that are Marianne's) go to my Flickr Page where you'll find hundreds more. Eventually I'll upload all the photos I've taken at various gigs over the last few years so if you are a Flickr member add me!
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