i_am_ghost

Oh wow. What a day.

I woke up with a phone call from Andrew from The Medics, saying that they might not be able to make it to Townsville from Cairns today. Last night a cyclone crossed the coast on the western coast of Queensland and then took aim at Cairns. The rainfall map on the Bureau of Meteorology website was showing all red dots (1000mm of rain or more).

I cursed the rain all morning as I was getting ready and crossed my fingers pedantically. Every text message I got I was scared to open in case it was bad news. I drove to the mall to get money from the bank as a float for the door, to buy a cash tin, and a new lip ring (I left mine at work and I didn't want to go in there for any reason to retrieve it.. more on that later). I got drenched in rain and went from being anxious to being very angry. The girl at the bank asked me if it was flooding yet and as I nodded yes I gave her a horrid "I fucking hate the world right now" look.

I arrived at the venue with trepidation.. would they get there? What do I do if they can't? I had asked another band to fill in for The Medics a week earlier when I didn't think they could come for other reasons. At 2:30 I thought that they were either making it through or were dead. I got the call.. The Medics and The Forest weren't coming.

Damage control.

Not 5 minutes before I got the call I got a text from Matt from Prey saying that if we needed them they would try and get everyone together. I immediately said yes, please do. Their singer.. who is the hottest girl ever and I would kill a whole country just to make out with her.. is in a musical and had rehearsals tonight. She couldn't get out of it at such short notice, so close to the time they are about to perform. My backup plan was gone. I messaged the beautiful Kate Martin and begged her to play. I called Gulliver and begged them to play despite turning down the gig in the first place. They haven't practiced for 4 months.. But I had my 2 replacements.

I was a little relieved at this point. If not scared that no one would come because of the rain. Under the circumstances, I was very happy with the turn out. And so was my liaison with the youth council, who is going to let me put shows on in that venue every school holidays at this point. I hope next time there's no cyclone.

It was a little sad because it was my last gig with my band. As was mentioned in my last blog, I've been playing music with my friend Todd for 8-9 years and now he's moving. I have to find new people. It's a good chance for a fresh start. But bad that we'd just started making the music that we've always wanted to make but never had the right people around to do it. As I've been sick all week.. mixed with getting wet, getting stressed, talking all day whilst organising and screaming for sound check and then mc'ing the thing, I just about lost my voice. I was pretty much unable to sing properly. I screamed my way through one song instead of singing it. I cut notes short in one because I couldn't hold them. And I was just generally flat for the entire set. I gave everything I had to sing properly but my voice wouldn't have it.

I'm tired.