In retrospect, I don't think I should have slept at all considering how late I stayed up last night and how early I had to wake up. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever had this kind of problem in Australia. Come to think of it too, I don't think I ever had to go to acoustic gigs till wee hours of the morning, nor did I ever nap for short periods of time. I'd just stay up for the whole day and sleep the next night.

I'm babbling. I know. I shall try very very hard to get to the point.

Troubagangers was good. A little cramped, claustrophobic and smoky in an otherwise small part of La Bodega expecially with so many people coming to play and watch. Still, with the company present, who the hell cares about how cramped the place was.

I finally met Justin who happened to be performing there as well. First performance of the night too. I can imagine he must have been pretty nervous about it. I was talking to him two nights prior to him singing in Troubagangers and it sort of went like this.

Justin: I don't even know what songs to play for that night. I don't know if I'm ready.
Me: I don't know about what songs you'll be playing, but I do know what you could do as a start.
Justin: What?
Me: Stay calm and smile.
Justin: Good idea.

Come the day itself, this is what I get.

Ok we can't blame him for not exactly smiling. His songs were good. The mellow emotional kind. I would think it's a wee bit hard to smile when you're singing a song you wrote when you're in a more depressed part of your life. But it wouldn't matter anyway…he had groupies. Cute groupies if I might add. You don't see many of that these days, especially for small acoustic gigs like this. You got to love groupies…especially the cute ones.

To top that off, I finally chilled with Lainie. It's been a hell of a long time since I met her at the Saisaki blog meet some ages ago. It's funny meeting bloggers for the second time in ages after following their entire lives online. On one hand both of you have changed a lot since you last saw them. On the other hand, they are exactly the same (crazy) people you know and love on their blogs. She did have something to say about my hair though.

Lainie: Your long hair looks good on you.
Me: Thanks.
Lainie: Does it make you feel demasculinated?
Me: Nah…I'm perfectly comfortable with my masculinity.
Lainie: Damn.

I like my hair. I think I'll keep it that way for a long while.

Update: She blogged about some other parts of the conversation in La Bodega. Check it out here.

Going back to Troubagangers, I can understand why you just have to love some bands. Panda Head Curry has got to be the most insane one of the lot. Too bad some other people left before that since they were the last band to play, but it was worth listening to them. Here is the reason why. While the other performances were playing, there was this list that was passed along for people to write one endangered species they know. What we didn't know was that they were going to select some animals and put them in the song. This is how my endangered animal went.

Gator Farm:

Went to the one eyed snake farm,
My double barreled shot gun,
Drinking Jack at the one eyed snake farm,
Gonna shoot me a big one.

And is tastes like chicken,
Smells just like chicken,
Finger lickin' chicken,
Fine.

In retrospect, putting down One Eyed Snake as a endangered animal would always be a very good idea…especially when it's sung out loud. Cheers to that.

Too bad I'm going to miss all of this when I'm back in Australia. It's not like Wagga is chokefull of acoustic gigs every so often, unless I've been missing out on the local scene. Nah. The town is small enough that everyone knows everything about it…which in itself means that it's got to be that boring a place. Oh well…you win some, you lose some. Now if you'd excuse me, this masculine guy is going to grab something to bite. I think they are serving chicken…or at least something that looks like it.