Andrew Vladeck

Blog / Sydney: Yacht Rock… Not.

Ordinarily we like to have more truffle oil on our procutto before the lobster is served.  But trying times call for desperate measures, and somehow we all made do.   Somehow the band was blessed with a harbour tour of Sydney on a yacht complete with lovely people and good food.   It wasn’t so indie-rock…  more 1970s Van Halen… but i was impressed with how adaptable everyone was in the band to this new environment.     We had a couple of days to kill, and we got some good help.   Our show at The Supper Club was so much fun.  A cool neighborhood.  A ton of great people came out. 

I’ve had the great opportunity to play gigs BOTH with The Honey Brothers, AND solo “Andrew Vladeck” shows on the same tour.  Pretty neat how that worked out, i must say.   The only hitch has been having to haul a 1,000 pounds of combined musical gear.  Walking through all the airports with two suitcases of gear makes me feel like a prima donna.  But it’s all gear… not wardrobe changes, I swear.    Hopefully the next tour, we’ll have a full wardrobe planned out.  and pyrotechnics.  and fake blood.

My first solo show was at The Basement, in Sydney, with fabulous Ann Vriend.    Yet there was something brilliantly pathetic about the way the night began.

The soundman insisted on plugging my board in without a transformer.  When I questioned “going for it,“ he said “it should be fine, but if it starts smoking, we’ll know.“   Well… the power supply melted licketly split.   melted plastic oozing down the stage.   I took that as a sign to 1) trust my instincts; and 2) carry on.

It all worked out just fine… in the end, it’s all about the SONGS and not about neato effects, as attached as one does get to them.     That being said, the gig was great, and the soundman was great, and the audience was great.   And Ann Vriend blew us all away - virtuosically amazing.     It was also nice to play Sydney as we got to spend the better part of a week there and I met a ton of awesome people I hope to be in touch with for a long, long time.   They taught me about vegemite and “took the piss out” of just about anything.  And they taught me this curious sport of “jowling.“

Posted on 01/06/09 at 02:30PM | Filed under: blog | 1 Comments