Ainslie Wills Tour Diary: Part Four

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

It had now been fourteen flights, seven sound-checks and seven shows accrued since we started the You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine tour. Alas we had reached the end and were looking forward to finishing up in the north of A'straya with two shows, one in Byron Bay and one in Brisbane.

The first leg of our van ride to Byron Bay had the band and I nodding our heads to Wu-Tang Clan's Bring Da Ruckus, with Lawrence doing his best Ghost Face impression and trying to educate me on all the names of the rappers within Wu-Tang. Then came a bit of Feist, Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead, three quarters of the way through Led Zep's Physical Graffiti and we had made it to a somewhat overcast Byron Bay.

After checking out the front beach and inhaling our lunch we checked in to our accommodation and proceeded to have a little rest for the show that night. We eventually rocked up to the Railway Hotel, a staple venue of the Byron Bay music scene it seems, and we started to unpack the van, the next thing - I heard a voice - 'excuse me, you want a hand with that?' and with a quick turn of my head I set eyes on my big brother and my sister in law who had done a 10 hour drive surprise trip down to see the show, a nice little surprise indeed.

Local lad Garrett Kato warmed up the audience at the Rails, which is kind of like a massive alcove complete with an outdoor fire, followed by the band and I who played out the show to a crowd that gave as much as they got which was awesome. Post gig drinkies involved myself and Natalie trying to avoid a few middle aged drunk men who wanted to tell us how much they enjoyed the show, one of whom was so drunk that he was trying to pour beer into the side of his face as for him he was sure that was where his mouth-hole was.

Pretty sure that man was just trying to pour beer into the side of his face...

Arriving in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, at our host venue Black Bear Lodge the next day we were reminded of the treacherous load in, three flights of veeeery steep stairs which doesn't sound too bad but between the support band and us we had a full drum kit, two guitar amps, one bass amp, one keyboard, one massive pedal board, one bass and two guitars - we certainly had our work cut out for us.

We shall conquer you!

The wonderfully talented Emerson Snowe opened up the final show of the tour for us followed by the incredibly dreamy yet slick Skinny Jean who blew our musical minds clear off and then it was our turn. All went well aside from my awkward banter, some days are diamonds and some days are stone when it comes to banter.

The venue was ready to go to bed, lights were turned up, tables were being wiped and I found myself discussing my latest musical obsession with a Brisbanite and fellow musician, we were talking about Q-Tip's ability to be incredibly subtle yet cutting at the same time. At that point I thought to myself, never has it been more about the music - a good mind set to end the tour on.

Massive thanks to Lawrence Folvig, Arron Light, Natalie Lewis, Linden Lester and Jono Steer for being such a bunch of talented legends to tour with. Peace out, Ainslie.