ouch

by Pete

Sunday November 12 2006

Ah… the dizzying highs and the depressing lows of life on the road. It feels like about a decade since Thursday when we left for Milano. Our very first engagement was MTV which was fine, but kinda weird as always. Then the first gig at ‘La Casa’ was lots of fun. It is a really relaxed venue that we had played at before and it was good to be back. In Sestri Levante we played in a venue whose name translates to ‘Swimming Pool of the Castles’. And indeed, there was a natural pool that came in off the sea, with a huge cliff face on one side, and a club on the other. It must be really amazing in the summer.
And then it was off to Torino. The club was supercool – very obviously run by musicians and people that understand what makes a venue good for a band. We had a cosy band room off to the side of the stage and made the most of it and hung out with some locals. Despite minimal hours sleep, we met up with them again the next day for a bit of a tour of the city centre which was great. It is a nice city, and it was a nice time to be around – on a Sunday morning when people were just hanging out… checking out a public photo exhibition in the main square, and generally milling about.
And then, that is when things got interesting. Unfortunately it seems to be becoming the case that it wouldn’t be a Sodastream tour without a huge drama somewhere along the way. Well.. the van was parked right near the centre of the city, by a busy park with loads of people around. But somehow it still got robbed and we were done over pretty royally. Basically all of our music gear except our actual instruments – Karl’s guitar is still getting fixed after being smashed on the plane, and they didn’t take the bass or the saw. But our two cases full of pre-amps and pedals and all that stuff got taken. Plus some gear that we were borrowing from other people and isn’t insured. And stupid stuff like all my toiletries and my phone charger – just to make life difficult. Luckily we didn’t loose too many really personal things like diaries and film and stuff. But it all served to make what was already a very long 3 days even longer. And now we are in a bit of a daze… without hardly any gear and waiting to get it all sorted out before the next shows. The dollar amount of what we lost was staggering.. more than I usually earn in a year and more than enough for 10 return flights from Melbourne to London to give you an indication. Oh well. Se la vie. Looking forward to more shows so that we can move on.