Aussies - please tell me about your clubs

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I'll be down under in a couple weeks touring with Blowfly and I wondered if you could tell me about the clubs we're playing. Any info about the PA, stage etc would be very useful. It's one thing to hear it from the promoter, and another to hear from someone who patronizes these places.

many thanks in advance.

Feb 22: Jive, adeliade
Feb 23: Karaova Lounge, ballarat
Feb 24: East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
Feb 25: Northcote social Club, Melbourne
Feb 26: Ruby's Lounge, Belgrave
March 1: Lucky Country Hotel, Newcastle
March 2nd: The Mandarin, Sydney
March 3: Troubador, Brisbane
March 4th: Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast

― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Thursday, 8 February 2007 01:46 (eighteen years ago)

Feb 24: East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
Feb 25: Northcote social Club, Melbourne
Feb 26: Ruby's Lounge, Belgrave

these are all great, recommended venues. probably the nicest places to play in melbs, pretty much

― jimbo (electricsound), Thursday, 8 February 2007 01:52 (eighteen years ago)

the PAs are decent and relatively new. i haven't been to Ruby's but everything i've heard about it has been positive

― jimbo (electricsound), Thursday, 8 February 2007 01:53 (eighteen years ago)

the mandarin club is just that, a chinese rsl with tons of poker machines and relatively cheap drinks.

with regards the stage and what not, i saw one show there and recall the sound being pretty good. don't know the specifics about the pa, but comparative to various other sydney venues most things seemed to be in the right place. would be a nice stage to play on, and the venue can get very packed, so should be good times.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 8 February 2007 04:16 (eighteen years ago)

the mandarin club is a festering hole of incompetent nepotism and thieving cunts. it was good for a few months in 2005-2006 when some enthusiastic young people started running it as a proper live venue for the first time in twenty years or so, then they got booted on the grounds that the site was being redeveloped into apartments. mysteriously the owner's nephew started booking it a few weeks later! here's one of many message board horrorstory collections. get a guarantee upfront or insist on running the door yrself or you will not get paid.

― r.i.p. light-up dancefloor (kit brash), Thursday, 8 February 2007 07:48 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah the Madarin club is a pretty cool venue. Just make sure you stay clear of the all you can eat buffet food....worst food ever.

― Tim Lucas (Piano Fire (Tim Lucas)), Thursday, 8 February 2007 07:49 (eighteen years ago)

hahah right on about the terrible buffet. quite tempting after half a dozen rsl priced beers, mind you.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 8 February 2007 07:53 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but the salmonella tends to sink in, drunk or sober.

― Tim Lucas (Piano Fire (Tim Lucas)), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:03 (eighteen years ago)

true true. actually went to a japanese buffet spot on bathurst street just recently and felt quite ill afterwards. i tend to forget my own rule that if oysters haven't just been freshly shucked they're not technically fresh.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 8 February 2007 08:10 (eighteen years ago)

As much as I love the idea of blowfly playing 20 mins up the road - I can't iamgine more than 30 people on the Gold coast knowing who he is......coolangatta is a pretty small place - and most of the bands that play there have some sort of a rep on JJJ or on the gold coast. but then again - I've only been living up this way 6 monhts and only been there once. maybe I'm wrong and people head upstairs no matter what - there's certainly enoguh people drinking downstairs on a weekend night.

― toe-foo (toe-foo), Thursday, 8 February 2007 11:34 (eighteen years ago)

thanks everybody. Good looking out. Chinese buffets can be dangerous, I know. my inlaws run one.

Could you tell me what an RSL is?

what's JJJ?

― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Thursday, 8 February 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

RSL (Returned and Services League)
http://www.rsl.org.au/

JJJ is the national 'alternative' yoof radio broadcaster
http://www.rsl.org.au/

If you ever get to tour Australia again, please come to Perth!

― Mil (Mil), Thursday, 8 February 2007 20:37 (eighteen years ago)

The Troubadour is basically a thin corridor that was set up as folk music venue. It can be really nice, but main problem with it is that there is little space for the audience to spread out and the band is often on ground level - you're either up at the small front row, tall, or you're not going to see that much.

http://www.thetroubadour.com.au/gallery/

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 8 February 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

i should add that the mandarin club isn't technically an rsl, but it's certainly rsl style. you know the deal - sign up at the door, cheap drinks, poker machines, heaps of sports screens, maybe a bit of gambling. the music venue itself has a different feel to the rest of the place though

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Friday, 9 February 2007 04:07 (eighteen years ago)

jedmond,
is the stage at the troubadour that small? it looks like a 5 piece would fit on it from the picture.

mil,
thanks for the translation - I'd love to go to perth, just wasnt in the cards this time. if you go to that festival they're playing, enjoy the bellrays. afraid we're just too nasty for most festivals, which is a real drag.

charlie thanks for the detailed and continued information.

― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Friday, 9 February 2007 05:02 (eighteen years ago)

yeah i'm really looking forward to the bellrays.

shame the perth festival didn't pick you guys up, though i can kinda see how you might scare that kinda crowd (poncey art types) a bit haha.

just noticed i screwed one of the links up - its http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/ if you hadn't already found it.

― Mil (Mil), Friday, 9 February 2007 22:04 (eighteen years ago)

charlie,
couldnt help but notice on another thread you're singing the praises of thai food in sydney -- please tell me where to go!

― Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom), Sunday, 11 February 2007 02:30 (eighteen years ago)

tom,

there are plenty of good thai spots on george street, heading away from the city in the direction of central station. there's a few good one's congregated near chinatown.

i'd recommend the darlinghurst part of oxford street also (located inner city). plenty of good thai places to be found there. or if you fancy some japanese, there is a great place called 'don don', which happens also to be fantastic value.

also, you'd find thai along crown street in the surry hills direction (runs off oxford street). there is a good restaurant in particular called 'prasit's thai' along this street. it's also an interesting neck of the woods, good bars and what have you.

further, if you happen to be in a suburb called newtown (quite close to the city really), you will have no trouble finding good thai along king st.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:11 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

Hey guys,
your observations were pretty much spot on - save for the coolangatta being "small" it's freaking huge!

East Brunswick was far and away our best gig. Killer venue. Northcote was fun, and when we played ruby's people showed up in Duffman and Pope costumes. the backstage at ruby's has a secret door disguised as a bookshelf right outta scooby doo.

Mandarin Club was a very weird experience. We played in the 4th floor ballroom, which apparently had never had a show before. Getting up there was like a chinese puzzle. only one elevator went up to the 4th floor and only 10 people could get in at a time.

The thai food in melbourne was better than the thai food in newtown . I had lemongrass crocadile and chili kangaroo in melb. freaking unreal.

Melbourne has the best radio I've heard in a major city. Even JJJ, which the people I met bitched about being a corporate hellhole has decent specialty shows. If it wasn't for the bullshit door deal policy that all of australia's clubs share, I'd say Melbourne would be in the running for most music friendly city in the world. I hope we're able to go back next year.
thanks again

― UncleTomfly, Thursday, 8 March 2007 08:17 (eighteen years ago)

Last time I was at the Coolangatta Hotel's woeful nightclub "the Balcony" I got spat on. There are some charmers about on the Fucken Goldie I tell ya.
The Troubadour's nice though.

― Drooone, Thursday, 8 March 2007 08:33 (eighteen years ago)

Charmers come in all places and all sizes. The balcony, or whatever its called has the nicest sound and light guys ive ever met.

I had a great time at the troubadour after the gig, and we had good sound -- but the disaffected hipsters who made up half the audience at the joint kinda left me cold. I hate it when people go nuts for a few songs and then remember they are "cool" and start chatting to each other.

― UncleTomfly, Thursday, 8 March 2007 08:41 (eighteen years ago)

Ha, yeah there's a massive brood of them hipsters ponying around Fortitude Valley late at night.

― Drooone, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:11 (eighteen years ago)

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