Death City Pool Hall. (Song a Month: February)

(If you don't already know about my Song a Month project, you can read all the previous posts here.)

Yes, I'm a little late with this one. But this song turned out to be a perfect example of why this project could be both a blessing and a curse. This song was 90% done for most of the month, I just couldn't get the words. Even they were largely done, but come February 29th they still weren't finished. So with the deadline now passed, I gave myself the weekend to tweak what I had and fill in the blanks. There's still a few parts I think could be improved, but on the other hand if I wasn't setting myself deadlines for these songs then this whole thing would still be sitting in the back of my mind somewhere, probably to never see the light of day. Instead I present it to you now as a song that overall I am actually pretty happy with.

Musically this song is very influenced by the fact that I recently bought both a Fender Jaguar and a Jazz bass. I was going for a Drones/Birthday Party type feel with this one and I don't think that would have been possible with any of my other guitars. I also wanted to get this one as close to 'live' as I could. Of course this is impossible when you're using programmed drums and only one person is playing every instrument. But I did record each instrument in one take from start to finish, so there's plenty of imperfections and rough bits. I was even rocking out by myself in the lounge room while playing to get the feel right. The lead guitar parts weren't even properly written when I did that take, I just had a general idea of how I wanted them to sound. This meant all the lyrics had to be finalised before I could start recording though, otherwise I couldn't know how many verses there would be or how long they should go for. The vocals turned out to be the hardest part to get for this one. One thing that became apparent is I need to develop a non-metal style of yelling/barking/sounding sinister. I don't know what my neighbours would have made of all the yelling either.

Lyrically this represents my first attempt to tell a fictional story in the lyrics. In this case a tale of death, sex and revenge. Heavily influenced by Nick Cave's 'Murder Ballads' album, and Murder by Death (anything off 'Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?' or 'Red of Tooth and Claw' especially). The initial spark actually came from watching an episode of Skins, which is where I got the line "our eyes met over an eight ball". I remember reading an interview with Gareth Liddiard of The Drones once where he said that the trick with writing was to take an idea and just run with it. Use anything for inspiration and make your self write about it. I also knew that I wanted to end the song with the "She said 'I don't wanna see that look in your eyes'" part, which is something that popped into my head when I first came up with the riff, and that this would be a recurring motif. So from there it was a matter of figuring out what had happened to these people between meeting in a pool hall and her getting scared away. I started thinking along the lines of some epic character like that in MBD's 'Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue', or 'Ash', or 'Rumbrave' - outlaw, almost mythical characters who travel the land leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them. Of course the Pool Hall reference puts this tale more around the 1920's than the Old West, but that's more of a technicality really. I wanted it to be one of those stories that's not tied to any specific era. I also threw a Batman reference in there for good measure. Gotham City embodies that idea in some ways, a city outside of time where a classical style/feel and modern technology sit side-by-side. The line about "wine, women and song" is also based around this idea. I recently became aware of the fact that "Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll" is really just an updated version of this classic concept traceable back to at least the 10th Century. Death, Cards and Bad Ways are other vices that appear in some translations of the phrase, while the rest of the line refers to a 17th century poetical interpretation that "Who does not love wine, women and song / Remains a fool his whole life long." And as for leopards? I know they have spots, not lines, but lines just sounds much better, and technically a spot is a type of line. I could have used a tiger I guess, but again leopard sounds better, and they're smaller, stealthier animals which is the imagery I wanted.

I really wasn't sure what to call this one either. i thought about 'That Look in Your Eyes', but that kind of sounded like a love song. Then I thought 'Gotham City Pool Hall', but that sounds a bit gimmicky. So I've settled on 'Death City Pool Hall' for now, but this may change still. And that's pretty much all I have to say. Hope you enjoy it. If you're interested in the lyrics, I've put them below.

Song a Month: B-side 1

B-side 1: Untitled Bomb the Music Industry! cover

(If you haven't yet read about my Song a Month project you can do so here. And make sure you read about January's song in this post.)

I've decided to include a few "B-Sides" in this project. These will be things like covers, or re-workings of old songs or anything that doesn't quite fit. (It's my project, my rules, so these could all be pretty subjective.)

The first of these is a cover by one of my favourite bands, Bomb the Music Industry! This is not the song I talked about in my last post, though maybe I should do a cover of that sometime too. I don't know what this song is called. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have a name. It's the hidden song on their most recent album Vacation. (You can download the album, and all BTMI! albums, from that link via donation. However the bonus track is only on the CD version, not the download.)

As I mentioned last time, BTMI! songs often resonate with me, and this one definitely does at the moment. Something I've been enjoying recently is going for bike rides along the river while listening to music. This was recorded live after returning from one of those trips. I plugged my guitar into a little Marshall MS-2 battery powered amp and used my phone to record as I played while looking out off our balcony. Simple, lo-fi and effective. Inspired by the way the original sound, and a test to see how recording something like this would sound. I really like the way you can hear both the "acoustic" strums of the actual strings on the guitar and the sound coming out of the shitty little amp as well. I don't think this style would be effective for February's song, but it's something that may have worked well with January's.

Speaking of February's song, the music is all written. I have the seeds of a lyric idea, but it still needs a lot of work. And I'm going to attempt some drums for this one too(!).
We've also been working on a new Death by Death Ray track which is about 90% done now too, so I might have something to post for you on that front soon as well!

Artists Are (Shitty) People Too. (Song a Month: January).

Artists Are (Shitty) People Too

So here's the first song of my Song a Month project. (If you haven't already read my introduction to this project, you can do so in my last post, here.) It's called "Artists Are (Shitty) People Too", and was inspired by a conversation with a friend about heartbreak, overseas travel and the inherent emotional selfishness of the artistic.

For anyone interested, I've included some discussion about the song, and the lyrics after the jump.

Song a Month!

Last year I did one of those 365 - Photo a Day things, and while it was interesting for me to go back through and see what I was doing each day, the whole process didn't really excite me. Photography is fun, but it's not one of my main passions. In fact looking at the photos it's very obvious what my main passion is: probably 60% or more feature a band, band practice, or some kind of musical equipment. So rather than focus on that again, this year I've decided to take on a project that's much more personal to me.

I've been playing guitar, playing in bands and writing songs since I was 15. My first band Altered lasted about 1 and a half years. After we broke up it took a while before I joined another band properly, but I kept writing songs in the meantime. It was around this time that I first got the idea to record a solo album. This is when I came up with the name wysht for a band (it's a variation of an old English word for silence). This band never materialised because I couldn't find people who had the same visions for the songs as I did. So I started recording them at home by myself to make sure I at least had a record of them, and because I felt they went together and told a story well. (I also started using the name wysht for my online presence.)

Then I joined a hardcore band called Sinatra's Eyes and all that fell by the wayside. The music we were doing was very different and none of those songs fit into it. I continued recording the album in bits and pieces, but it wasn't my priority anymore. When Sinatra's Eyes broke up about two years later, I eventually finished the album and released early morning silence in 2006. It was incredibly rough, the production was horrible, and I learnt I'm nowhere near as good a singer as I wish to be. But I'm still proud that I had this concept and followed it through from beginning to end.

Since then I have been involved in a string of bands pretty much constantly: We Came to be Robots!, Kaviya and the Committal, which has now transformed into Death by Death Ray. These bands have taken the focus of my creative outlet and I'm proud of the stuff I did with all of them, especially what I'm doing now with Death by Death Ray. I still write music of a lot of styles, some of which doesn't fit into these homes and therefore often gets left by the wayside.

One thing I've noticed is that I've gotten very bad at finishing songs. This is not a problem with Death Ray because we tend to write collaboratively and feed off each others ideas. But for songs that don't fit into that style it means I have a whole heap of unfinished ideas sitting around that I can see the potential in, but never go anywhere. I've also stopped trying to sing so much, since Death Ray has an amazing singer and I just do backup screams. This means I've stopped writing lyrics too though, which is something I've always enjoyed. Recently I've been really taken with artists who tell stories through their songs, rather than personal tales and this is something I really want to try too.

So for this year I've decided to challenge myself to write, finish and record at least one song for every month. The aim being to improve my songwriting, singing and home recording skills. I intend to explore a number of different musical styles where possible. Some songs will incorporate the ideas I've had for years and finally finish them off. Hopefully some will be completely new. Some will be solo songs, some I will attempt to make sound like a full band. Some will hopefully be collaborations with others. Some might be demos/alternate versions of Death Ray songs. I won't be including any covers (unless they are significantly different from the originals), but I may put some covers up as references for the songs I do write, and to practice production/recording skills.

Hopefully I'll improve my skills and have something I'm proud of by the end of it. And hopefully some of you will enjoy listening to it! To this end I've set up a Soundcloud account to share the songs with anyone who wants to listen. http://soundcloud.com/wysht The first song is up there now, with a brief description. It's called Artists Are (Shitty) People Too and was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend. I'll write another blog post soon specifically about this song to give some more details for anyone who's interested as there's a lot of references to outside things in the song, including this project itself and other songs I've written that most people have never heard. But as Amanda Palmer said "don't tell me not to reference my songs within my songs."

But I'll write that next week as I'm heading out for the night soon. In the meantime, I've started working on February's song. It's a killer riff and as long as I can get the lyrics right for it, I'm really excited about how it will come out. Also, if you're free on Saturday night, come see Death by Death Ray at the Prague, it's gonna be an awesome night! Death By Deathray, Babymachine (NSW), Thrasher Jynx, Boy Red @ The Prague.

wysht.

Top albums of 2011

Looks like I've kind of neglected this blog... whoops. Let's get back into it. A whole year has passed since I last posted, so to follow up my top albums of 2010, here's my top albums of 2011! With links included so you can check them out. Not in any order this year, just things that I loved and listened to over and over! Also I should say top releases, 'cause not all of them are albums:

Circle Takes the Square - Decompositions Vol. 1, Chapter 1: Rites of Initiation.
(only an ep/the first part of their upcoming album. But probably my favourite thing of the whole year.)

Bomb the Music Industry! - Vacation!

Adalita - Adalita

Fuck The Facts - Die Miserable

Thursday - No Devolucion

Glassjaw - Our Colour Green / Colouring Book (2 EPs count as one album, right?)

Harmony - Harmony

WILD FLAG - Wild Flag

Battles - Gloss Drop

Russian Circles - Empros

Saul Williams - Volcanic Sunlight

Raein - Sulla linea dell'orizzonte fra questa mia vita e quella di tutti gli altri

Ouch My Face - Build a House / Eyeball to Eyeball (Only a single, but what a single!)
 
and Death by Death Ray - Here is the Revolution! (only a single again, and a bit of shameless self-promotion, but it's the best recording I've ever done, so gotta plug it somehow!)

2010 in Review

(I know this is a bit later than everyone else's, but I think it's weird doing a year end piece before the year is over. Anyway, here's my opinion on the best albums and gigs of 2010)

Top Ten Albums of 2010.


1. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Album of the year for sure! Working with new drummer Billy Rymer while composing these songs brought out the best in Ben Weinman (instead of the programmed drums used to write Ire Works). This album saw Dillinger get better at everything they do, and add a whole bunch of new sounds. Amazing.

2. Murder By Death - Good Morning Magpie
A collection of songs written in a mountain cabin. Whiskey, broken dreams, living like a dog, carrying the weight of life, death and love, shaving with a knife and the wrath of forgotten gods.

3. Tim Kasher - The Game of Monogamy
Tim Kasher (of Cursive and The Good Life) delivers his first solo album. The Game of Monogamy plays like the score of a musical as Kasher grapples with the idea of settling down to married life. A perfect accompaniment to Cursive’s Mama, I’m Swollen album in which Kasher grappled with growing up (and which was my favourite album of 2009).

4. Julie Christmas - The Bad Wife
Another solo album from one of my favourite singers. This Time from Julie Christmas of Made Out of Babies, Battle of Mice and Spylacopa. Written mostly with John LaMacchia from Spylacopa (and also Candiria), or members of MOOB, it’s fair to say the sound will be familiar to fans of Christmas’s work. But what we have here are a bunch of songs which would not quite fit any of those acts, allowing everyone involved to stretch themselves in new areas. The cover of Jacques Brel’s If You Go Away (or ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’) is the most beautiful piece of music mentioned on this list.

5. Jaguar Love - Hologram Jams
A huge change from anything Jaguar Love (or their previous band Blood Brothers) have ever done before, I remember thinking when it came out that this album was full of summertime dance jams. I managed to forget about it in the months since until compiling this list, but now that I’ve come across it again tracks like Everything is Awesome and Polaroids & Red Wine will feature heavily in what’s left of my summer.

6. Xiu Xiu - Dear God I Hate Myself
A typically upbeat effort from Jamie Stewart. Just kidding! We love you Jamie, even if you can’t seem to love yourself. What is different about this album is that it’s full of a lot more electro beats than previous Xiu Xiu work. Other than that it’s got all the beautiful soundscapes you’d expect and lyrics so bleak you feel they may collapse at any moment and take you with them.

7. Daughters – Daughters
Just Wow! The changes between Daughters’ debut Hell Songs and its follow up Canada Songs was incredibly dramatic, but made sense at the same time. On their third album they finished that journey. Unfortunately it’s also their last album as the band broke up shortly before it was released due to creative differences. That tension is what makes this album so good though. Not that you have to be strained to make good art, but members pulling in different directions makes for a very interesting combination of elements.

(There were no videos made for this album, but this is the audio of one of my favourite tracks off it)

8. Liars – Sisterworld
Liars started out as a Brooklyn dance punk band. Then they went all ambient and spacey with tribal rhythms. And now they’re doing something that has elements of both those things, but isn’t really either. Whatever, they’ve always sounded awesome.

9. Deftones - Diamond Eyes
This is Deftones' best album since White Pony. On it’s own that doesn’t say much since their last few albums weren’t all that memorable. But this is the first time they’ve gotten close to this level since White Pony. And it’s good to hear them do it again.

10. Deaf Wish - Mercy

2010 wasn’t a great year for Australian albums. A lot of great bands, and some really cool EP’s too. But not a lot of great albums. Then I heard this. I’ve never heard Deaf Wish’s previous recorded output, only seen them live. And I’ve never seen the band with their original guitarist Sarah Hardiman, who returns on this album either. So I had no idea what this would sound like, and was very pleasantly surprised. The rawness and chaos of their live shows is lurking underneath the whole thing, but there’s a lot of well crafted songs and some restrained sounds too. Taking their passion from the stage and turning it into a record with a purpose which you can listen to over and over again.

(No videos made for this album either, but here's some footage of the other version of Deaf Wish live at The Tote)

Honourable Mentions:

Rolo Tomassi – Cosmology
This album is good, but this band needs to be seen live for any of this to make sense. Such a brilliant show. Go see them!

The Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder
Melvins being Melvins. In every way. Whereas some Melvins albums rock hard and some are full of experiemental weirdness, this one has a lot of weirdness but it’s always underpinned with awesome riffs.

65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway
65 rely more on their electronic side here than on previous releases, but it works. This sound was always in their style in some form or another, so it’s cool to see them explore it a bit more.

Shining – Blackjazz
Listening to this album you’d never realise that these guys started out as an acoustic jazz band. Jazz musicians who came to heavy music instead of the other way around. Interesting.

My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
How to follow up a ridiculous caberet emo concept album? With an even more ridiculous retro-sci-fi rock concept album! Good job!

Cancer Bats - Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones
Contains my favourite hardcore-love-song line of the year!

“Some people call me a Nihilist / Say I don’t believe in a thing! / I know that can’t be true! / ‘Cause baby I believe in you!”

From a song called Black Metal Bicycle no less! I can’t decide if I think that’s cheesy or awesome, so it’s a good thing the riff (and ALL the riffs on this album) is so damn good!

The Toot Toot Toots – Curse The Crow
Like I said earlier, a whole bunch of awesome EPs released by local bands this year. I think this one was my favourite. Sounds even better when you turn it up loud.

Sleigh Bells – Treats
I listened to this album for the first time yesterday. And I’m sure I will be listening to it a lot more over the next few weeks.



Best gigs of 2010

Every Time I Die @ The Hi-Fi
Kicking off 2010 with a bang!

The Tote Farewell Show @ The Tote
A night that was equal parts awesome and devastating. Featuring Kamikaze Trio, Dave Graney, The Nation Blue, The Onyas, Dan Kelly, Beaches, Spencer P. Jones, The Stabs, Kim Salmon, The Meanies, Spiderbait, The Drones and many other Melbourne greats.

Amanda Palmer @ The Butterfly Club
Seeing one of my musical heroes in a room that fits only 50 people, in an old house converted into a bar, playing on a real piano and just singing over the top of it (no microphone needed) was just amazing.

Faith No More @ Festival Hall & Soundwave
It’s FAITH NO MORE!!!!! A band I never thought I’d get to see, and I got to see them TWICE!

Glassjaw @ Soundwave
I couldn’t go to their sideshow ‘cause it was the same night as FNM, but seeing them play at Soundwave was still a dream come true.

Alexisonfire @ Billboards, Soundwave & The Palace
I think I saw Alexisonfire 3 times this year. And each show was great, though their Soundwave sideshow at Billboards was probably the best.

Golden Plains @ Meredith Supernatural Amphitheater
Pavement AND DINOSAUR JR! J. Mascis’s amp set up alone was mind blowing!

Terrordactyl (Last Show) / The Committal (EP Launch) @ Cherry Bar
Yeah I know this is my band, but it was still one of my favourite gigs of the year. After 4 months being out with a broken shoulder I finally got to get back on stage and launch an EP with my new band to a packed out Cherry Bar! And Terrordactyl put on a great show for their final gig too. And openers Johnny Uppercut were also pretty great.

The Dillinger Escape Plan @ Billboards
Probably the best show of the year too. I can’t think of another band who puts this much energy into what they do, while playing such technical and well written songs, and makes it look so effortless.

Xiu Xiu / High Places / Kyu @ The East Brunswick Club
Three great experimental bands in one night. But mainly Xiu Xiu. Jamie Stewart’s mix of fragile pop and noise is beautiful, and live it takes on a special intensity and desperation.

Rolo Tomassi @ Billboards
Like I said, you HAVE to see these guys live. Some bands spend ages cultivating their stage presence. These guys just put everything into their playing and the presence comes from that. Front-woman Eva Spence is the best dancer in all of hardcore, for sure! I had to pay for a ticket to see Architects, Comeback Kid and This is Hell (boring, boring and boring-er) so I could go to this show, but it was so worth it!

Meredith Music Festival
Always one of the best weekends of the year. This year was no exception. Custard, CLipse, Neil Finn, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Those Darlins, Broadcast, Reverend Horton Heat, Rat Vs. Possum, Kyu and, of course The Dirty Three!

And for the future?

So what about 2011? Only six days in and already there’s been some great news and some terrible news. Circle Takes The Square have posted on their blog that they entered the studio on January 1 to begin recording Decompositions. Given their last album As The Roots Undo is still the best hardcore album I’ve ever heard (the only hardcore album I would say that is truly a musical work of art and poetry) I have big expectations. And given it’s been SEVEN YEARS since that album was released, my excitement is palpable. I’m calling this one for album of the year already. On a much sadder note, a few days later they also posted a tribute to former guitarist Bobby Scandiffio, who has unfortunately passed away. R.I.P. Bobby.

Memories from The Tote

This weekend we had to say goodbye to an old friend. Like most of Melbourne I was shocked on Thursday to read that The Tote hotel would be closing its doors for the last time. Publican Bruce Milne put out a press release stating he could no longer afford to operate under the new liquor licensing requirements, nor could he afford the legal costs to contest these conditions. The Tote has been classified as a 'high risk' venue along with busy city nightclubs. Which is complete crap, because no one ever went to The Tote for any purpose other than to see some bands, hang out with like-minded people and soak up the atmosphere. There's a very comprehensive interview with Bruce on Mess+Noise in which he articulately lays out all the problems faced by The Tote, so I won't cover that here again. Instead I want to tell you some of my memories of The Tote.

I began learning guitar when I was 16 at Rock 'n' Roll High School on Easey St. in Collingwood. Only a couple of blocks away, The Tote was like home ground for us, hosting any number of RnRHS nights, giving many of us our first chance to play at a real venue. I first played there in 1999 with my first band Altered. Sure I was underage at the time, but my parents came along, so it was all cool. We were supporting our friends Matramuta for a gig celebrating their drummer Bridget's birthday. They were the coolest people I knew, and The Tote was the coolest place I'd ever been. We even got reviewed in Beat!

16 year old me.

Altered on stage at The Tote.

Matramuta.

Matramuta on stage at The Tote.

Rock n Roll High closed down a year or two after that, but The Tote remained our spiritual home ground. Almost every time I've been there I've run into members of Matramuta, Tuff Muff, Hecate/Litany, Tirany, Aspasia, Resistica and more. Even the odd member of Altered on some nights.

Throughout the years The Tote remained the coolest place I've ever been to. I've seen so many of my favourite bands there including True Radical Miracle, Mach Pelican, Baseball, The Assassination Collective, Bird Blobs, theredsunband, Jihad Against America, Crayon Fields, The Mad Feeling, The Toot Toot Toots, Ouch My Face, Grey Daturas and so many more that I've forgotten due to the mists of time and/or drinking too much. I've seen and done all sorts of crazy things in the front bar from building pyramids out of the glasses of stockpiled drinks bought in the last minutes of 'crusty hour', to people dancing on the pool table, to dogs hiding under it on quiet afternoons, to Tim Rogers face-planting off the couch while too drunk to stand, to always having an unexpected friend to run into.

A few years and a few bands later I played my first ever headline show at The Tote. I was in a band called Sinatra's Eyes and it was the biggest gig we'd done to date. Friday night headline at The Tote. Awesome. It was the first time we were ever called back for an encore too. Having played all our polished songs in the main set we came back on with a new song that none of us knew very well yet. Needless to say it was a glorious mess, but no-one cared. Much like The Tote itself.

The last time I played The Tote is still one of my favourite gigs ever. It was with Sinatra's Eyes again, in what turned out to be one of our final gigs (we didn't know that at the time, but we broke up a few gigs later). It was Australia Day eve, we'd recently released an EP and just got back from our first trip interstate, there was a party mood throughout the venue and we were supporting The Five Venoms, who were always a shitload of fun. It was the first time I ever fell off a stage while playing, but it's also the most fun I've ever had.

On the speaker stack, right before I jumped.

Landed on my ass, but at least I finished the song.

I went down to The Tote on Friday hoping to see the last ever Grey Daturas gig. But word had gotten around about the impending closure and by the time I arrived the gig had sold out. So instead I joined the hundreds of people in the front bar and squashed in for a beer with friends (fittingly this included members of Matramuta, Resistica and The Mad Feeling).

On Sunday I went down hoping to get in but there were even more people, so instead I joined the street party/liquor license protest out in the street. I took a few photos while I was there:

The line at 5pm

Bruce Speaks.

Monday night was last drinks at The Tote. I was lucky enough to get a ticket and headed down in the early afternoon to say goodbye to my favourite pub. An amazing lineup of bands representing The Tote's history was put together at the last minute by band booker Amanda Palmer and the night was equal parts awesome and terrible. So many great performances to celebrate The Tote and remind us why it was amazing, and so hard to believe it's gone. I only have one good arm at the moment (I fractured my shoulder on Christmas day), and I was drinking, and I only had a phone camera to take pictures with, so excuse the poor quality of some of these shots, but I was determined to capture and share as much of The Tote's final hours as I could.

Bathroom wall graffiti.

Kamikaze Trio. (Well, part of.)

Lineup. (Amended at the last minute due to an injury in The Cosmic Psychos. Spiderbait stepped in).

Bombshells.

Rain in the beer garden.

Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist.

The Nation Blue.

Dan Kelly's Dream Band.

Note on the window.

Onyas. (Now that's a man gut!)

Crowd photo 1.

Legends of Motorsport.

Beaches have a lovely collection of guitars...

and pedals.

Lance from Gembrook tells us some stories of his days working at The Tote, including the 'Taste of Lance'.

Digger & The Pussycats are two funny guys.

Spencer P. Jones joins Digger & The Pussycats for the chorus of 'You Drive Like a Cunt".

Bruce.

Bruce & Amanda.

The Stabs.

Stabs guitar in the roof of the Cobra Bar.

Down the stairs.

Precious Jules (aka Kim Salmon).

Punters in the front bar. The carpet has always been sticky, but by this stage it was hard to pull your feet up off it.

The famous jukebox.

Tote sling.

The Meanies.

Spiderbait (2/3rds of anyway.)

Crowd photo 2 + Can Bar.

The Drones.

The Drones are joined by Joel Silbersher (GOD, Hoss) for a rendition of "My Pal", the final song ever played at The Tote.

Crowd Shot 3.

An empty stage.

Meanwhile in the front bar someone programed in an hour of Slayer.

The bar.

Bar Staff say goodbye.

The history.

Final drink at The Tote.

Goodbye my friend.

---

Postscript: the combined RRR/3CR/PBS broadcast of The Tote's final hours can be found in the 3RRR archives. A video and fantastic article about the significance of My Pal as the last song can be found here. And as if things weren't bad enough, The Arthouse (the first pub I ever played a gig at, a month or two before I played The Tote) has now announced that it will close it's doors next year for much the same reasons. Head on over to Tonedeaf and sign the petition on behalf of Fair Go 4 Live Music so we can stop this before it gets any worse!