the gig
- Venue
- Buffalo Club, Fortitude Valley
- Date
- Thursday, 25th March 1999
- Bands
- Pseudo Echo
- Real Life
- Tycho Brahe
report
This gig came about when Real Life were performing at B105's Greatest High School Reunion at the Metro, with Pseudo Echo and Kids in the Kitchen, and they wanted additional shows in Brisbane. Real Life were told we might be able to help, but when we spoke to them, they only had 2 days left to get things organised. Fortunately, it was a feat we pulled off, but we conveniently substituted ourselves on the bill, instead of Kids in the Kitchen (sorry Scott) in return for the favour.
We organised a promoter with a venue and then organised several interviews including Real Life with Time Off and Pseudo Echo with The Courier Mail.
This gig was the first of many we have since played supporting Pseudo Echo or Real Life. In fact it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship especially with Real Life, who have since done a remix for us and vice-versa.
The soundcheck in the afternoon was fun and we took the opportunity to play gushy fans and got various things autographed by the other bands. Allan Johnson from Real Life was being a terrible flirt until he worked out who was married to whom!
Coming from Melbourne, the two other bands had hired Taragos to lug their gear around. We remember something about a certain bass guitarist, scratching one of the vans rather badly and possibly costing the band their deposit on the van. Anyhow, we later pinched the idea of using a Tarago as a band wagon, when we did our Melbourne shows in July 2004 (and I bought Armorall for some reason? - see Crackler Tour report).
This gig saw an unusual amount of band coordination, namely we all wore army pants, black tops or tank tops in Ken and Steve's case. Ken also wore his blank dog tags for the first time, and he has worn them for every gig since. His explanation for this band look was - he was the unknown soldier and we were all members of the Synthpop Army- whatever that means? James Clark once again was our beloved sound dude and he was definitely wearing a stripey t-shirt, long shorts with coloured hair.
This night was videotaped, possibly by Briz31, but we've never seen it- maybe Marty Kalaja (promoter) knows the true whereabouts of that elusive footage.
The gig itself was a blast, the whole place was packed, but the portable air conditioners brought in especially, didn't cope so it was bloody hot!
Our set began with the crowd surging up to the stage, which was amazing. Steve felt honoured to use the same drum kit as Danny Simcic and had a drumstick autographed later.
The fourth song in was In Your Heart, a brand new song at the time and the moment of the infamous "T-Y-C-H-O incident". 5 Tycho devotees... with 1 last minute substitution due to illness. Each lifted their shirts to reveal they had a letter on their belly to spell T-Y-C-H-O. I remember the one girl in her black bra. What made this incident memorable, was that we were trying to concentrate on playing this new song properly, but instead were trying desperately not to laugh. Anyhow, thanks for the memory guys and gal!
[Sidenote: Someone out there snapped a photo... we'd love to get a copy, if it was you drop us a line! :) -h]
After our set we proceeded to take advantage of the generous rider, which entailed walking behind the bar and grabbing anything.
When Real Life played they were fantastic. Allan played with his trademark bare feet and didn't seem to mind me dancing on the side of the stage. Ken was thrilled when Allan's bass died and he had to use Ken's dodgy white "Anger" bass to play Catch Me I'm Falling (which was in fact the second ever 12" single Ken ever bought). He hasn't washed that bass since!
Anyone there may remember "Dodgy Dave" in the crowd with his mohawk, bad makeup and purple feather boa yelling some lewd suggestion to David Sterry, who replied "I'm desperate, but not THAT desperate".
After their set David and Allan collapsed back stage. They were all so dehydrated, David nearly passed out and Danny was seen running around in his jocks. It also, later came out that David gave himself a hernia at that gig.
Pseudo Echo were enjoyable, but they nearly melted in the heat - wearing all silver looked great but was a mistake. They disappeared after their set into a storage room/ improvised 2nd band room, apparently too good for the rest of us that night!
Anyhow, it was a great night, many drinks were had and much bonding done.
more info...
- Photos from the gig
- Real Life (www.reallifemusic.net)