And so it was...the first time the T-Bones proper had played together in quite some time. Miles our drummer was away the last time we played and Michael Barclay filled the seat , and I think the two times before that Alics had other gigs on her mind and so Charlie's daughter Loretta Wilde played bass.
It was great "gettin the band back together". It was a good crowd , we started loud and kept it up....I took my long time stalwart the white Elite Tele with the Bigsby and the Strat neck and naturally took the Musicman RD210 to plug it into, they're a tight combo and I don't use them often enough since I've been playing standard Tele's and using the Fender Vibrolux . Charlie had taken my Fender Concert 2x10 home after our last gig because his 4x10 Concert had dropped a valve.He brought it back and I was left with no alternative but to use it and the Musicman in tandem. The guitar just sang.
We played a couple of newish ones which is always great ...The Murray River song and one that I can never remember the name of , but it's in G if that's any help. We played All about LOve off "Low Down" the last album too.
In what was a very rare sight we had a dancefloor of all men, yeah it was strange, the two hottest items were two largish guys who'd given it a proper shove, they waltzed, and for a bit there shimmied their way through a couple of numbers.....heaps of people were dancing later but it was hilarious to see these two bigfella's, a lone "expressive" and a couple of other guys who, god love 'em, couldn't dance for shit and didn't care.
We finished at 12.30 after a final set that included Seventeen, Fightin at the Pub, Goodbye Loser and Train... A couple in their early twenties walked in just as we started Goodbye Loser ....a deconstructionist country stagger, they looked appalled at the scene before them ...the first verse with it's disjointed rhymes, the ragged drunken hillbilly guitar riffs and the assembled dancers.....but by the time the first chorus was over they'd caught on and were shreiking with laughter.....yep, the T-Bones, the best cold crowd band I've ever seen......
We ended the night after I'd paid "respect to Tony Hargreaves the traditional mixer of the Lomond Hotel"...
he had a toothless grin from ear to ear..." my favorite pub rock band, I dunno, I was singing along with every song and there not a bad one amongst 'em"
We'd had dinner with some of the Sunshine locals who hightailed it early closely followed by some of my workmates but those who stayed and those who turned up later like Beanpole and his son Bede went home with their ears ringing safe in the knowledge that Melbourne indy original country rock is alive and well.
Tomorrow the Tender Hearts at the Retreat........
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