THIEVERY CORPORATION – AUSTRALIA 2008

Stone’s Tour Diary…

Tour date: Feb.09.2008 – Melbourne - Update 1

We left DC on Tuesday, February 5th. Our original flight was canned so we were bumped to another airline resulting in a missed flight to Melbourne. After a night in the LA airport hotel, and another long day of lines in the airport, we finally boarded the flight to Australia. Fourteen hours of economy class hell later and were on the ground. Its Friday the 8th now and we have skipped Thursday completely; Thursdays are overrated anyway.

Upon arrival we were shuttled to the Good Vibrations site in Melbourne, a 12,000-18,000 capacity venue made of steel and concrete. It has a covered indoor area and awesome open lawn seating (similar to Merriweather Post or Wolf Trap back home)- should make for a great sounding and fun show for all.

After hanging out all night with Cypress Hill and nursing hangovers/jet lag, we set up the gear around 11AM OZ time for a 2:10 performance, only to be whisked away right after the show to fly into Brisbane for tomorrow’s show.

We will post some photos of the Melbourne and Brisbane shows ASAP, until then keep the Good Vibrations going!

Stone

MELBOURNE PICTURES


Tour date - Feb.12.2008 - Brisbane - Update 2

Lets start by saying that this is an amazing country; diversity is the ruler here with biodiversity on the board of directors. Australia is a very young culture, having only been settled in 1788 by a band of petty thieves and other undesirables cast away by the British Empire.

They have done very well for themselves. Everyone here greets you with a big smile and and inexorable desire to show you the best corners of everything. The band is happy, the herbs are fluffy, and the food is amazing.

The Brisbane show is where I left off last time, so I'll pick it up there. Brisbane is a meandering city of 1.8 million, a little smaller than Thievery Corporation's home in Washington D.C., (with a muddy river running through it also) This is where the comparisons end. Strangely, no one in Brisbane seems to be over the age of 25.

Needless to say, Thievery made a big splash in Brisbane. With a huge open festival site again, and a standing room only crowd, Zeebo was easily crowd surfed out and back again by the massive audience during Warning Shots. We keep changing the set around to keep things spicy (and to keep the band perpetually confused) but for Sydney we are going to unload the clip!

Stone


Tour date – Feb.13.2008 – Sydney – Update 3

Here we are Sydney - all yours for the taking. After a tough night of eating, socializing, and drinking copious amounts of spirits with rock and roll greats like The Rapture and Cypress Hill, we managed to stumble into a taping of "The Liar" - a show for MTV that apparently has a bangin' after party. I guess we will see..

Sydney is a beautiful city, with Darling Harbour, Kings Cross, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge known as "the big coat hanger". With beautiful beaches galore, temperate climate, and 3 days to go, I'm sure that there will be more for the band to discover here..

Stone


Tour date - 02.17.2008 - Perth - Update 4

What's up Washington DC! Thievery Corporation is in Perth now, the most remote capital city in the world. Most people don't realize how big Australia is, yes it is an island, but one of vast and varied landscapes, wildlife, and people. Roughly the same size of the lower 48, this city is no longer the sleepy town that it used to be, with a spurn of growth lately, Perth is as cosmopolitan as as any other city with beautiful beaches and vistas abound. But first........

Today, we also played the Sydney show, precluded by a Thievery Corporation DJ event at The Basement yesterday night. The Basement is the longest running venue in Sydney, owned by the same family for over 30 years. The Dj culture is huge here, with young and old flocking to see the latest acts to penetrate the Aussie and world cultures. It was a sold out show, with Eric and Rob dropping the usual suspects, as well as some new science. I think it is safe to say that we made a lasting impression on the Sydney DJ scene. Sleep is not an option when you are in Sydney.

The Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney was amazing, and as i sit in my hotel in Perth, (a 4+ hour flight and two time zones away) I know that people in Sydney are just starting to wind down from a long day of celebration and sister/brotherhood there. The name says it all, Good Vibes all the way around. With the number of attendees in the multiple tens of thousands, it is also the largest in the four show run in Australia, sporting multiple stages and tents. The stage manager Boi (pronounced as BOY) was kind enough to let us get set up and start 5 minutes early, allowing us to play an extra song. We started with the Outernationalist remix, into Heaven is Gonna Burn Your Eyes. By the time we played Lebanese Blonde, the audience was capitvated; then we turned it up, closing with Warning Shots and Coming From the Top. Zeebo and Roots again managed to crowed surf through the sea of people, busting sick lyrics the whole time.

Ten minutes after the show we were wisked away from the festival site to Perth, which we will rock tomorrow leaving our mark on the ears of all Western Australia. Tomorrow is the last in this run of four here, and as the waves of sonic pressure roll over Australia from our shows still, I am actually a little sad that this tour is almost over, I've made so many friends, and not a single enemy. This tour may be coming to a close, but Thievery Corporation will be opening the doors and minds of your city soon. Be there or risk missing out on an experience of a lifetime.

Stone




About the author - Chris Garrett aka ‘Stone’ spends his time working as the sound and recording engineer for Thievery Corporation and music label ESL Music. With over five critically acclaimed albums to his credit since 2002, Chris has also worked on several film projects; engineering the sound for the documentary Disarm, as well as the Operation Ceasefire DVD, and is currently working on post-production for Babylon Central – an original, independent feature-length film directed and co-written by Eric Hilton, shot on location in Washington D.C. in 2006/07.



Stone joined the band during their 2008 Good Vibrations tour in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.