Day 8: Adelaide
Welcome
Yesterday we played in South Australia, the festival state.
Tristan headed off first thing in the morning to visit cymbalsmith Craig Lauritsen. He returned a few hours later with a new crash cymbal which looks very similar to a lot of his other cymbals but sounds and feels quite different.
While he was gone I went for a jog in the Adelaide Park Lands, the broad strip of green space that borders the central city. It was while I was skirting Victoria Park Sports Field Oval #3 that I heard a pesky buzzing sound coming from high above me and saw a small white remote controlled aircraft orbiting the field. I spotted a few white-haired men and a small squadron of polystyrene aircraft parked under a tree and headed over to investigate.
The gentleman piloting the orbiting aircraft was fully immersed in his task, wearing a VR headset, and sitting in a chair so he didn’t get motion sickness (this is now called VR sickness in this context). This modern RC aircraft he was flying was constructed from a strong form of polystyrene and uses Lithium Polymer batteries which are lighter and allow longer flight times than old style batteries. There is a tiny camera on the nose of the plane that transmits back to the pilot - and there is even an emergency return to base button in case you get lost mid-flight. I was told all this information by a very friendly and enthusiastic man who is part of the local club. For anyone interested, they fly on Tuesday and Friday mornings at the Victoria Park Model Aircraft/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Zone.
Tristan and I breakfasted late in the morning at Carton Deli, just around the corner from our hotel. I had a Jamón and Watermelon sandwich with Stracciatella.
We met Jon and Liz back at their room and had a quick singing rehearsal before heading out to the festival, which is situated in the northwest corner of the Park Lands. Our set was nice and early in the afternoon so we decided to try and catch as much of the festival lineup as we could while we were feeling fresh and caught-up on sleep.
The Beths pictured after loading up the Kia Carnival post-set.
There were many great musical performances throughout the day but there were also many great non-musical moments, some of which I managed to capture on my video-recording phone.
Joshua Harmon the front-man Utahn band The Backseat Lovers performed a shoey in the middle of their set.
We signed someone’s sock (a classic gen. 1 Beths sock!).
Girl in Red really struggled to get the audience to make a wall of death. The whole band pitched in with hand signals but the Adelaidean crowd really weren’t up to it. (This happens about halfway through the below video).
My favourite part of the night is watching Joji. I’m not sure who he is or where he comes from but I love that he knows what city he is playing in and that he puts heavy effort into addressing the city every time there is a gap in the singing.