We woke up in Cocklebiddy bright and early and as tempted as we were to luxuriate in the towns plentiful facilities we hit the road for another full day of driving. We had a radio interview booked in for 4pm and by golly we were going to make it! We arrived in Esperance at 4 on the dot and raced straight to the studio where we recorded an interview and a live version of “Texas” (which hopefully we’ll get our hands on soon to put up as a podcast) then sat around for a few knock off drinks with the radio station staff. After that we checked into our hotel room and then jumped back in the van for a cousin finding mission. My cousin Kelly moved to Esperance with her husband and 3 kids about a year ago and it had been well over 2 years since I’d seen her. I knocked on the door and she answered with a very polite smile before doing a double take and screaming some happy greetings. We had dinner with the family and played with the little ones while doing catch-ups and then went home for a chilled night enjoying such luxuries as showers, televisions and internet connection!
Friday was happily a non-driving day so we wandered around town catching up on some shopping and day to day things as well as bit of touristing before meeting our sound engineer Diesel for a sound check at 3pm. Sound check went smoothly and all was looking good for the gig so we took a short drive along the tourist loop to check out some of the beaches which according to the Esperance visitor centre were the best beaches in Australia. Now I grew up in Lennox Head (Northern NSW) and I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to beautiful beaches but I was absolutely stunned by the Esperance coastline. The contrast of white sand, crystal clear blue water and the red rock cliffs was spectacular so I took a bunch of photos and then we headed back to enjoy our free meals and get ready for the show.
While we’re on the subject of free meals we must than Alan and all the crew from the Esperance Motor Hotel for looking after us so superbly.
Now… the gig… After getting through the first few songs trouble free it was shaping up to be a great night, the crowd was plentiful and receptive to our little show, with even some woo hoo-ing and dancing as early as the second song. By song 3 we were starting to kick it up a notch and problems with our PA became evident. We cut the first set a little short to try and fix the sound issues, thinking we could really hammer it home with a long last set and a swashbuckling finale. After diagnosing the problem as an overzealous compressor a few necessary adjustments were made and we once again hit the stage. For the first minute and a half all our sound problems seemed behind us with the first verse and chorus of “close your eyes” coming through with gusto and clarity and the entire room starting to groove along with us. Chorus 2 – uh on, we sound like ducks… literally every word spoken through the microphones came out like Donald, first only through the left speaker, then after some quick re-configuring we managed to reduce both speakers to an inaudible quack. Oopsie. With poor Diesel trying everything he could think of in a music-less room for about 20 minutes it was concurred that the PA had been rendered useless. Kaput. Dead to us. So in these extenuating circumstances we engaged musician survival plan 001 and grabbed our beers, Boris (our box drum) and sparing no caution for voice or dignity, jumped on top of the bar and led the crowd in a sing-a-long version of Mercedes Benz. Whilst this was happening poor Diesel frantically unpacked his old Brick and Peavey speaker system to keep the show on the road. 17 verses of Oh Lord wont ya… later and we were back on stage, this time having to call the crowd in closer to make up for lost wattage. Ended up having a ball - played an encore, made lots of friends, sold lots of CD’s and now are sitting in the van once again with all fingers and toes crossed in the hope that we didn’t actually blow up poor Diesels entire PA system.
PS – we were told we had to go to Tanker Jetty to sample the best Coffee in Esperance and meet Sammy the Seal. We did both these things this morning before leaving town and have to agree that Coffee Cat do make some of the finest coffee we’ve tasted and Sammy is incredibly adorable. See the photos – I’m sure you’ll agree! Tonight we play Denmark tavern, about 5 hours drive west and I’m typing while we drive. Hoping tonights gig will be somewhere near as much fun but preferably trouble free.
