No Anchor - Wolves Bite and Disappear [AXXONN Remake]

Remixing

When things are 'stuck' mixing/making wise I find it's always nice to take a track from a group that you really dig and have a tinker with it, I'm working on a couple of remixes at the moment and they've already given me the prod in the right direction, can't wait to nail some of these new AXXONN tracks.

I'm just not sure how to release the next AXXONN, musically we live in very weird times, I can't decide whether to;

Release an EP before the end of 2011?

Wait till March for an LP, Vinyl perhaps with Free digital version?

Vinyl and Cassette?

Digital only EP?

Free Single before the end of 2011 with bonus remix?

Decisions....Decisions......

MUTED ANGELS

If you've ever wondered what Tom does when he's not doing AXXONN, wonder no more.

Documentary of the album launch for MUTED ANGELS










Check out his latest release MUTED ANGELS

Sound
Watch
Buy

Did you know?

Let's Get It Straight is on Spotify




Enjoy!

MUTED ANGELS

AXXONN man behind the button pushing, Tom Hall, released his latest album MUTED ANGELS today on Complicated Dance Steps



Listen/Grab It Here

Such a forest....

playing with album art

Big News

We're back in the studio at AXXONN HQ and album#2......will hopefully have something out before the end of 11.

The big news is AXXONNs back to 'duo' format...more on that soon....

The stench...

...of new blood.

Drum Machine

Just got my first ever drum machine, seems weird I didn't get one sooner.

Have only spent 20min with it but am really looking forward to sequencing beats.




Roland TR-505

Moog Love

We love MoogerFooger here at AXXONN HQ

we're most excited about this coming later summer...

The Tool Shed

Future AXXONN

TEN10 - AXXONN vs Claire Renton

I might be gone but I'm still doing more projects in Australia than USA.

I'm in a collab with this rad girl Claire Renton (animator)

Details Here

And a super short sneak peak at some of her animation, yes it's AXXONN in full flight and our first ever .gif

(click to see BIG)

We love....

Hot Tubes @ AXXONN hq

Wicked Words from Life Is Noise

Have a read, I hope it's a blast for you because the interview was loads of fun for me (and stay tuned for pt2).

http://lifeisnoise.com/2011/05/10/axxonn-part-i-more-light-more-smoke-and-maybe-even-perhaps-some-go-go-dancers/

Click Here to Read Article

Location:Historic U.S. 66,Williams,United States

Oh yeah now that was goodtimes....

Last Oz Show

Pics from the last Oz Show HERE

Final Oz Shows

This weekend is the last AXXONN shows in Australia (I say this with a tear in my eye) for quite a while, by the time I'm back you will have either forgotten about AXXONN or I will have died, 1 is more likely than the other. Anyway I'd love to go out with a bang so all the BRISBANE folk please come down to one of the last shows before I fly to Los Angeles to chase my Hollywood dream on Sunday morning.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two Ripping Shows

Tym Guitars ALL AGES Instore

Friday, 6pm

5E Wynn St. Fortitude Valley (round the cnr from The Zoo)

Last Drinks!

X&Y Bar w/ the super awesome TOY BALLOON

Saturday 9pm, Anne St. (opposite Mustang Bar)

Fortitude Valley

Sunday = Los Angeles

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I want to thank you all for the great support over the years, it's very much appreciated and I'm not too happy that i won't be doing the rounds in Australia for a while, but hey! I'm not one to stay still too long.

In addition, after the success of the latest album LET'S GET IT STRAIGHT both here and it's recent release in the UK/EU/USA you'll all be happy to know that intense work has started on Album #2 and by the sound of the early demos it's going to be bigger and badder than before (expect sometime late 2011).

In the mean time I'm going to release a few old recordings (that have never seen the light of day) once AXXONN has clocked up 1000 'Likes' --- If you guys could invite your friends along to share in the AXXONN love, all 1000 'Likers' will receive an exclusive EP, the sooner we hit 1000 the sooner it's yours. Please take a moment to click on 'SUGGEST FRIENDS' on the right hand side of the AXXONN page.

One last thing check out AXXONN REMIXED a great album done by some of my closest friends and truly a unique work http://shop.sonoptik.org/ in itself, 100% of purchase price goes to the Australian Spinal Research Foundation.

Thanks for the support over the years and please keep in touch!!

Noise Out!

Tom/AXXONN

Studio Time

Work has commenced on AXXONN Album #2 (past two-weeks solid before heading to LA) - it's going to be a long slow slog but alot of fun. At present I'm working on a number of tracks with the aim of keeping the signal path as 'analog' as possible with a few tracks consisting of Roland SH-101 only (avoiding any post fx processing).

The outcomes are sound quite lush/warm as you can imagine.

my studio buddy (*best band mate ever*)

Perth/Melbourne final shows!

February 24th Thursday - Manhattans Bar, Perth

I get up early and pack my gear, touring solidly now throughout the World for more than three years I can pack my suitcase and grab the gear I need to play live in less than 1/2. It's reassuring that you have it down to precision amounts of underwear, metals shirts, hoodie and jeans, you know you won't run out and and you know how long you have before having to spend a moment in the coin laundry. It's a weird feeling, I'm int he country side of the east-coast playing with my dogs at lunch time and that night I'm going to play to a room full off people on the other side of the country, I still marvel at time difference and plane travel.

I head to the airport and catch my ride to perth, a nice little kanga jet to melbourne and then a connecting onto Perth. I have some dude who's jumped into the seat before me and laid claim to half off my seat, he doesn't seem to happy that I'm going to jump in there with him, he's covered in tattoos and a bit over weight. He makes a comment at me trying to get my (heavily over weight) carry-on bag into the very small compartment "that's why I travel with NO ahng luggage" he say to smiling at me. I think to myself "fuck-off" but then smile and say "I don't have an option!". It's true, I travel with exactly 23.5kg of luggage, it's a fine art and allows enough clothes, synth, merch and pedals, I then need to carry the res tin my backpack which is always at least 10kg+. So I finally get to Melbourne off this small ass plane and onto a nice big 737 to Perth, I have exit row and a nice tv screen with a surprising amount of recent films, a nice treat, usually I sit and fiddle and work up new AXXONN tracks. It's true, half of Let's Get It Straight was written on a plane flight to Japan.

I arrive in Perth and meet up with Stuart Buchanan, director of NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA, the guy that's making this whole AXXONN roadshow possible. It's actually really nice to have him around cause touring on your own can be a pretty lonesome affair, not quite to the stage where you're paying for $2 peep shows for company, but close. I have an interview on local radio almost immediately upon arriving, so Stu and I grab a taxi and get headed towards our hotel, I take the interview over the phone, it's pretty funny and the usual chit-chat, they spin a bunch of AXXONN and I get off the phone. Ok it's important to mention that it's VERY VERY HOT but I still haven't quite realised how hot. We arrive at out hotel, the Royal Hotel 'quality budget', it says on the side. We have a room right at the top, we open the door and it's hotter than a sauna with one very small window based air conditioner. With ,little regard to carbon emissions I set the thing on 16c, it tells me the room is 32c and i would say that's about right. Stu and I head out for an hour or so and come back to hear the AC working overtime, it's flickering somewhere between 29 and 30.

We head off to the first of two gigs in Perth, this one at Manhattans Bar, just out of the city, a place I'd played at before and a place I'll unlikely ever play again for reasons to follow. We became aware very last mintue of a 10am curfew, ridiculously early for a Thursday but also ok for me cause it kinda felt more like 1am anyway as my body was still on EST. We arrive at the venue and despite Stu sending through a bunch of posters there's none on display, kinda weird. I do notice though that there are posters as old as two weeks still around, I mention this to Stu later and he mentions that the only poster he sees is in the bin in the toilet, super weird. The other supports arrive in time.

Gilbert Fawn is brilliant, Craig McElhinney's ambience is epic but he looses be with time and Erasers are short and sweet. Somewhere we get side tracked by the time and I'm left with a little more than 20 minutes to do a half hour set, 'shit!'. The sound guy then informs me he can't turn me too loud because the venue manager is there and that he might need to cut me at 10, I'm kinda delirious and just nod, pretty sure normally i wouldn't have excepted it so easily. I start off and the sound isn't too bad but soon enough I see the manager walking across the room and my volume dissipates. When your one man and making the kind thick nutritious sonic slabs that AXXONN does it's like having your throat cut, there's nothing you can do but hold your throat to coax every last second out of life. I always have a bit up my sleeve and usually save that for the end so consequently the mid section of the set sucks balls, volume wise. I finish it off and start packing up. The venue manager brings the sound guys his cash and me a point of Bulmers, a very very small consolation. We pack up and get out of there, a grand total of 9 payers and $30 once we pay the door girl, a real solid kick in the ass. 4/10

We head back to the Quality Budget hotel where our AC has successfully got the room down to 26c (in the next 12hours it doesn't go down anymore) it's 1am and 31c outside, brutal.

February 25th Friday - The Bakery, Perth

We wake stupidly early and head to a little cafe, it's the basics, two poached eggs and one avocado on toast for $16, wow I had forgotten how expensive Perth was till I had this. We check out of our Quality Budget accommodation and head to our next residence, the Mantra, a nice little 4* number with awesome air conditioning. It was however a total hike to get there, we couldn't get a single taxi despite calling twice and attempting to hail as many more. Finally we take the bus, it must be easily 30c+ outside and it's only about 10am. We leave our bags at the Mantra and head off in search of legendary local record shop Dadas. We find it and it's awesome but we're so tired and delirious we don't know what to look at first, I talk to an employee there for a while that I know and then huddle into the corner to read an article in the latest Mojo magazine about Nirvana and the year Nevermind came out. Stu leaves in search of AC and I stay a little longer, I catch up with him to find him in a comic shop, they're kind of cool as i think about many of the terrorising images a potential album art. We decide to head back to the hotel via a nice little vego cafe, i eat one of the nicest meals of the whole tour, a nice little veggie stack with side salads. We get back to the hotel and can finally checkin, Stu goes straight to sleep and i have a very small snooze before some friends contact me about going for a swim, I'm so close to cancelling it's not funny, but I go anyway. It turns into one of the best swims i've had in years, a beautiful beach, beautiful company and refreshing, for a small moment in my whole time in Perth I feel physically comfortable.

We keep it brief and my friends drop me back at the hotel. I go to sleep for a few hours, meanwhile Stu didn't even know i had left to the beach. I get up just in time to head to the venue. I'd been there only once before for a Laneway after party with PVT some years before hand, I knew that it had a ripping PA, that's usually the only thing I worry about. I'm supporting Perth band INJURED NINJA some of the nicest guys I've met in music, incredibly driven and an attitude of 'join the ride or move over', I think they're fucking awesome. They into AXOXNN and seem pretty excited to have me joining them tonight, they also inform me they've got in EXTRA SUBS for tonight, it's always candy to my ears. But I start getting concerned about temperature, it's easily 30+ outside and even more inside and more and more people start piling into the space, i already feel pretty exhausted and it's so hot that I can't even bring myself to eat, meaning not much energy coming in.

It comes time for AXXONN to play, I;m setting up my gear and already there is streams of sweat running off my heads, shit this is going to be crazy. Half way through the intro of my set the poor old synth is already covered in sweat but it's kinda crazy and fun, things get super loose and the crowd really responds, there's about 140 something people and slowly but surely they seem to come across to my side. The extra subs are doing double time and the lighting guys is too with plenty of strobe syncing and other cool shit, it's super hot and by the end i feel like my face might melt off. I wrap it up and feel pretty good about the set, the Ninjas say they dug it and a steady stream off randoms want to chat, always a good sign, all in all I have a good time but it takes me nearly an hour to recover, I stick around for Injured Ninja and head off just after their set, something like 3:30EST that I head back to the hotel, with an earlyish flight out of perth to Melbourne. 8.5/10 (a few off for the heat, not Perth's fault really)

February 26th Saturday [No gig - just heading to Melbourne]

Saturday was just weird, we wake up exhausted from two days of assaulting heat in Perth, have breakfast and head to the airport for our 10am flight, jump on the plane put our watches forward 3 hours, take our 6hr flight and arrive in Melbourne at 5:30pm. i get picked up by an old friend and Stu heads off to another Quality Budget hotel. I grab a bite, some cheap indian with friends and then crash early, I almost sleep for 12 hours, it's awesome, it's raining and it's a total contrast to the weather in Perth.

February 27th Sunday - Yah Yahs, Melbourne

I wake on Sunday and just kick it for most of the day as my body readjusts to being in what I consider to be a 'normal' temperature. I then shoot off to an awesome cafe on Sydney Road in Brunswick called GREENS where I'm meeting my sound tech for the night Todd Dixon and Tom Lyngcoln from THE NATION BLUE for coffee, chit chats and to discuss/work on a future project. Tom gives me a ride to YAH YAHS. I've actually never laid eyes on the place but am pretty casual as the staff, booking agent etc. are all very nice which always leads me to think the venue will be too. It's a nice place, not huge, not small but it's going to do the job, especially as its a FREE Sunday gig. Todd sets up and talks to the other supports PEON, NO ZU and MYSTIC EYES all very capable and awesome avant performers in their own right, it's going to make for a pretty good evening. As it happens a lot of people are turning up out of the blue from Brisbane, Tasmania, Melbourne including old high school buddies I haven't seen for some 15 years, it's exciting, kinda like playing in all those places at once.

I kick off my set and Todd's doing a sweet job of tuning every last morsel of sound out of the PA. But I start to have some tech problems, my foot controller which pretty much keeps everything going forward when i want it to starts working intermittently, it's the batteries and it make for some weird sonic interludes as I go to change with melodics changing and nothing else, I weigh up my options and remember that MYSTIC EYES who played before me had a Boss Loop Pedal, what I needed was a power supply, something I could plug in quick and get the foot controller back in action. I leave a monotonous loop running and jump into the crowd to find Lisa, she finds her adaptor and I plug it in and we're back in action, I'm kind of pissed that I let it happen in the first place so then things get really interesting, I think I play better when I get a bit aggressive, more focused. Anyway the last few tracks Let's Get It Straight and Urine Mote sound epic as Todd tunes the bass into the PA perfectly. But I'm still fuming about the foot controller problem taking out on the keys - it's by far the biggest tech issue I've had with AXXONN and in perspective quite minor. I finish the set and have that overwhelming 'end of tour feeling' when you realise there no gig to go to next, I'm quite a fiend for touring, I love it and would play every night if I could, I like making albums but for me they mean nothing if you don't play them live, I've never understood 'studio only' artists. For me it's engaging with an audience, seeing how your material sits in public and making the necessary alterations to have sit exactly where you envisaged. Yah Yahs 7/10

Thanks to NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA www.newweirdaustralia.com

Perth Review

http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/article/27525/new_news_item

National Tour - Brisbane Gig7 Feb.19th

Gig 7 - Brisbane February 19th

The next morning I wake and feel hungover, how could it be given i only drank two beers and ate a ton of food. I head out to the van and grab my stuff ready to take it back to the hire company. Not thinking I grab the passenger side door handle and think to myself 'what's this sticky shit??' then the proceedings of the evening before come flooding back to me, I held my vomit soaked hand to the sky and cursed the shit out of Ian Rogers, I'm pretty sure it was pay back for something I'd done. The side of the fucking van looked like Rogers had eaten 10 crunchies and power chucked the contents right down the side, so brutal.

We all meet up at 2pm for a soundcheck at the venue for the evening, Woodlands Bar. Luke Walsh aka Blank Realm is our sound tech for the night, in the World of soundtechs he is like the finest gem one could ever expect, a keen and diverse ear for all things sonic and not adverse to mixing the hell out of someone giving him only 2-lines, it's a nice change to the usual fuckwits i get recommending to me which of my two inputs I should put into left or right to avoid shit being out of phase. Soundcheck is loud, everyone has a crack and I get pretty excited about opener DOT.AY who's joining the previous nights lineup. The guy has a laptop and 2 gameboys and makes the sweetest gabba/industrial/hardcore/chiptune/breakbeat/8bit beats one can think of, he's pretty rad to chat to and his whole persona reminds me of a young Tim Hecker, I was nearly going to ask him is he wanted to hit the Gold-Coast afterwards.

We all meet back there around 9 and DOT.AY gets away to a cracking start at around 9:30 - the crowd is a little quiet and mainly stays stuck away in the dark corners of the room whilst DOT.AY physically moves like he's playing to a raving crowd of acid freaks, I always respect someone that despite using a laptop as the basis of their sonic mainframe, still knows how to rockout, so much more interesting than button pushing. The crowd lap it up and give him a good applause at the end. Next up is Ian 'Spewie' Rogers aka AMBROSE CHAPEL... to be honest i don't take too much notice of the first few minutes of his set but the ominous sound that starts to shriek out from the PA grabs my attention, I spin around to see him wearing a fucking rain coat, this is common sight when you see Ian play solo, I swear it's his PVC security blanket (I call it his 'doom jacket'), but seriously all jokes aside, when the coats ON and the hood comes over his head, look out, shit is going to get brutal.

Ambrose Chapel rips a perfect set of laptop doom, really I wonder where this is going to go, he tells me of future plans for the Chapel project and I'm looking forward to it. Next up are sonic warlords Die On Planes, great guys who know how to use dynamics and gain structures superbly, their set is tight but short, it was weird and kind felt like it was as little as 10-minutes. The crowd got pretty into it but still seemed reluctant to get into the 'main-frame'. Woodlands has this kind of sonic sweet spot, where the soundwaves enter your body not just through your ears, it's not for the faint hearted, it's pretty much anywhere on the dance floor, the closer to centre the better.

I decide to follow suit and play on the floor, 3/4 of tonight bands have chosen it as their location. Personally for me it's about breaking down barriers between 'performer' and 'audience' which certainly end up getting broken down tonight. I kick off my set and am pretty dam excited about nothing more than stamping on a beaut new custom made pedal I have in my arsenal tonight by electronic guru Tim from Tyms Guitars, this is literally a prototype and I can't believe I'm using it live. As the set progresses I get more and more excited to get to the 'big' sections when i can unleash the new bottom end that has so sadly been missing of late, the Woodlands PA is ripping tonight and Luke is tuning it to within an inch of it's life. Matt Brady pumps the shit out of his new toy, a bubble machine and it's makes for a hairy ride as more and more bubbles pop over me and my gear and keys start getting slippery. There's one track I play all on blacks and with my heavy hand it means my fingers are sliding all over the place, there's a few wayward notes but i get over it and really don't know if anyone even notices. I finish up with epic track URINE MOTE, an easy one (3 chord progression) to play but super fun, the problem is my fold back is a bit out of whack with this one and my timing goes way out, I go with it and just dissolve the whole thing into a wayward wall of noise, I modulate things and let them get really nasty before turing every thing to 11 and cutting the release on the synth back to nothing, it means I can kill everything instantly, kinda like hitting a brick wall at 200kph, but in reverse. The crowd (well the boys up the front) are a little unruly, one decided he wanted to play on after I'd finished but with my synth, it's kind of the equivalent of kissing my fiancee or scratching my car so I inform him sternly that it's not on, he didn't really get the message, it was safe to say all his brains were in his biceps (probably with a lot of protein shakes too) so he was hastily removed from the venue. All in all it was a super fun night and probably my most favourite AXXONN gig in Brisbane, not the biggest but the vibe was sweet. Brisbane 9.2/10

Next Stop Perth followed by Melbourne

National Tour -Toowoomba Gig6 Feb. 18th

Toowoomba is a place that I know little about bar meeting and knowing a lot of people in Brisbane who have left in search of nicer horizons. I will never rag on someones town because one mans shitter is another mans kingdom so they say. But to be honest Toowoomba scares the shit out of me, first I see it as a 10x larger version of the town I grew up in (Devonport, Tasmania the land of thugs), secondly the only people i know from Toowoomba moved away and generally don't hold it in the highest regard, thirdly you don't have to go far before you hear some horror story about something that happened in Toowoomba.

So as Myself, Die On Planes and Ambrose Chapel slowly chugged up the mountain in our 4cylinder Hyundai people mover laden with a back line that Motörhead would be proud of (I think Die On Planes defence mechanism was make enough noise that they won't even get close enough to do anything), we all voice our individual concerns of what could come of the night, we were all willing to call 'last gig' before we'd even begun. See this was where things got good, a long drive, a car full of gear and blokes, it's my kind of touring, where you can say the first thing that comes into your mind without any judgement.

We arrived at The Spotted Cow (a newish venue doing live music in Toowoomba) to be greeted by a smiling fresh faced 'Tom' (our sound tech for the night) who was rather impressed when none of us needed microphones and all we wanted was the kick drum miced. He seemed rather perplexed by our setup but none the less excited, especially when Ian (Ambrose Chapel) engaged in a lengthy conversation about hardcore, thrash, screamo and every other type of metal you could think of, it would seem the sound guy was quite accustomed to the louder stuff, something that always helps.

The manager of the place 'Phil' greeted us with 6 beers (for the 5 of us) and a smily face. 'What would you like to eat?' possibly my favourite thing to hear from a venue and had me instantly thinking back to awesome times years ago touring in Europe. We were still hours away from playing and the gig had literally been turned around. Nothing could stop us now, especially with a gut full of Toowoomba's finest calamari (out of interest how far is the ocean from Toowoomba?). An hour or so went by and I got hungry again so I went for a walk because I couldn't find 'Phil' to see if I could get some more food, he'd already treated us better than most venues in Australia so I didn't want to push the friendship. I went to the local servo (home brand type) to get a milk shake and meat pie except all their pies were out, but the girl behind the counter recommended the 'made on premises' hamburger, risky but she was adamant I'd be into it. I gave it a shot and before I'd even got to the corner half of it was gone, it had the works and tasted fucking amazing, best hamburger I had eaten in a good few years (box ticked) the night could only get better from here.

Ambrose Chapel kicks off the evening, to be honest I thought the sound guy mixed him a little quiet (none of us got to soundcheck) The crowd dug and Ian I think he felt relieved to blow out some cobwebs having not played for a while. Next up Die On Planes (with their Sunn O))) backline got on the stage (a very small corner of the venue) they sounded awesome, for me it was like John Butler Trio meets Faust and then drops Acid and rolled around in grassy meadows together. The volume was brutal and I watched half the set only about 10metres away and slowly retreated until I was actually standing on the other side of the road (the stage opened onto the road) where I could only just hear myself think, it was every kind of brutal and I didn't want it any other way.

Next up, AXXONN, the setup was casual and straight forward and I was more than happy with the quick line check. One local was continuously calling on me to 'hurry up'. After a while he got shitty that I wasn't playing fast enough and came over to ask exactly what I was going to play for him/them, I simply told him to expect 'break-beats' to which he was excited. I don't recall him being around at all soon after I started :( -- the set came together well and people seemed to be into it, towards the end of the set I had an impromptu collaborator who thought I needed drums, he was going to town on Die On Planes kit, honestly that shit kind of pisses me off, I mean I don't really care if his drumming added something or not, at the end of the day if I wanted a drummer I'd get one, simple as that. As it happened he was a member from improv local band 6majik9 ( http://www.myspace.com/6majik9 ) after the set i got over it and we had a beer together. To cap things off they gave us more free beer and paid us cash straight from the till without invoice.

The trip home to Brisbane continued on a downward slope of debautury as Rogers got a bag full of lollies from the server, ate them all and then spewed the contents of his gut along the side of our tour van. 2 members of Die On Planes fell asleep while 3rd member put inanimate objects in their mouths. As the driver I felt somewhat responsible for all of this but at the same time the long mind numbing road back to Brisbane was relieved by all of the above. What scared me most was we had to do it all again the next day..... stay tuned for Brisbane. Toowoomba 8.5/10

Brisbane

In Brisbane ahead of shows in Toowoomba (Spotted Cow) Fri 18/2 and Brisbane (Woodland Bar) Sat 19/2.

In the interim I've been working on a documentary, catching up with friends and setting up a video installation at the Judith Wright Centre as part of Optica12

Airports

They something I'm quite fond of, there 'transitional' qualities are outstanding. I mean you can whinge and moan about security but it's just a reality we have to get used to, I mean ultimately they're there to keep us safe.

My favourite airport in the whole of Australia actually happens to be in my home town of Devonport, Tasmania and my reasons a not biased, the reason it's my favourite is because it simply hasn't change since my earliest memory as a chile, potentially 25years.

The cafeteria is the same (the prices have changes with their shitty $4 instant coffee), the decor is the same, the seats, the toilets, the pictures and there's not even any security, it rules. But really the single thing that give me a buzz there is my nostalgic sense for all things 80s, the time when I was a kid and the summers were long and endless.

It's always going to be a good coffee when you get this number.

The Main Frame

Tails From Outside The Four Walls - FREE ltd time only

Tails From Outside The Four Walls by AXXONN

Free to Download

Gig5 - Devonport Regional Gallery February 5th

Feb 5th Devonport Regional Gallery, Devonport

Next Stop was DEVOnport. My home town and the one I grew up in. Salamanca Arts has said as we departed "let us know if Devonport shows us up". Well by the time we arrived they already had with a nicely presented bar, there's only publicity campaign with AXXONN posters spread all around the city and a church to play in, I mean the church alone would have ticked the box over Hobart. It's always weird to play in Devonport but also fun. Weird because I remember going to all sorts of performance events by travelling outsiders but never imagined I would be that traveling outsider. It's always fun because random people turn up that I haven't seen for years and the guys i usually play with take delight in hearing the wondrous stories i have about the place. The gig was pretty epic with the venue being the Devonport Regional Gallery, an old church with beautiful acoustics and a PA system big enough to fill a stadium.

The acts were decidedly more 'heavy' tonight as as it happened my grandmother (70+) had decided to drop by to see what AXXONNs all about. Having sat through soundcheck I was worried for her to say the least. I realised I'm happy to terrify others grandmothers but wasn't so sure about terrifying my own. It's not that they don't know what I do for a career it's just I don't often get the chance to play nearby. It also probably doesn't help that as a representation of what I do my mother gives my grandmother the most 'user friendly' track from the recently AXXONN album, a masterful arpeggiatored piano/drums melody ;)

So the night goes off without a hitch, my grandmother spends most of it with her fingers in her ears and a look of her face likes she having a heart attack. A great and appreciative crowd turn up who are lapping up the array of merchandise on display, something I've noticed more regional areas are keen to do. We discovered Devonport's newest restaurant Bento a sweet Japanese place with great meals and service, something Devonport's been lacking for a while. All in all the shows went well with a couple of curve balls (HOBART) and some great laughs with the local supports Duo, Spheres and Oceans.