Ahhh now I made the blog go out of order

This is What we had for dinner at Hot Mama's.
We had a sleep in at Lu's luxurious pad in Motueka the morning after the gig. I think we had arranged a time to go and pack our gear down and out of Hot Mama's but I can't remember what it was. I feel like we showed up about four hours late, but it was all good. Luckily we had pushed all our stuff to one side the night before, so we weren't taking up the whole restaurant entrance way.

This is the tag that Shipsy did on the wall at Hot Mama's. Classic stuff. After the (tedious as always) loading of the van, we set out on the $5 challenge. There is a dairy just up the street where you can get $1 pies, and the guy in there is a funny guy, so we all ended up getting a few of those each (except Ben got the usual country fried chicken). There was a sweet 2-for-1 deal on some kind of scary looking soft drink, which enticed most of the guysh, but I stayed the fuck away from that. It turned out the pies were mostly stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth pastry, with not a whole bunch of actual insides, but you can't really expect anything more for $1.

This is what we did for ages. We must've looked like such street groms. If you look carefully, you can see me finishing off Bens chips. Paul, Steve and Logan are modeling the pies I was talking about, as well as the soft drink. We finally made a move and headed round the corner for an epic game of touch rugby. It was Gavin, Tiba and myself vs. Lahgan, Shipsy and PC, and we were 6-0 up before the groundskeeper came and told us the ground was actually closed (he had been on the other side of the field doing some casual leaf blowing - HUH? in Autumn in a park? - yeah buzzy ae). We set off for Fox Glacier, what a great day off.
When we stopped in Murchison at 7pm, I got some memories back from the last time I had been there (on tour with Rackets) when I walked into a bit of the ground while wearing jandals and stubbed my toe. Paul, Shipsy and I got sucked into a junk store called Somebodys Treasure, Great stuff but we got lost for a while, there are just more and more rooms attatched to each other. We found a cricket trophy for $6 with bob written on the bottom. Of course we had to get it.

We made a stop in Greymouth for a late dinner at McDonalds, then had a few passes on the way back to the van, until one went a little astray, and in my haste to kick the ball out of the way of an oncoming truck, I made the same ole mistake of kicking the road and stubbing the toe. Yuck.

By the time we arrived in Fox, it was 3 or 4am, but Trav, Chris and a few other troopers had waited up for us. Everyone bailed and went straight to bed apart from Seedy, who stayed up and watched Shortland St, which had been recorded from earlier that day, what a fiend.

Here's
me
dressing
my
wound
the
next
day
.

A bit of frisbee for the guys during the load-in.
That night Fox Glacier saw the first ever performance of Foreplay (the new opening band we created) and it went down really well, possibly because of the several gins and cointreau/ciders. The Alizarin and LOR soundsystem sets both went well but the renegade Porpoise set (featuring Paul Cathro on drums) took the highlight of the evening, before Pillow Talk took the stage and Trav had a go on the mic. Good times. Here's Seedy at the merch table with the infamous Cook Saddle Sauce rack.

Hey didn't we drive through Greymouth yesterday? Yeah we were all over the place that week. BARRYTOWN! That was fun. I'll put some photos here for you.

A whole bunch of polytech students from the outdoor recreation course in Greymouth came to the gig and had a party with us. We left the music playing too loud for too long (not too mention the wrestling and the shark) and one of the Barrytown locals didn't seem to like it. He came and woke us up in the morning in a rage, then a few hours later another dude came and did the same thing. With that feeling of being run out of town by an angry mob with pitchforks, we packed up our stuff and headed over to Shorty's for a delicious breakfast of chicken burgers. Can you imagine us being in a boy band?

Greymouth - Franks.

Yucky stairs to carry gear up, but Nel is a great hostess. We had a delicious meal, gear got set up, then we went for a drive to get a cheeky box of Mac's Hop Rocker and went to find somewhere nice to chill out for a bit. All of the Polytech students came back to party with us second night in a row, nice work, and the gig went awesome. After the gig Carvin took one for the team and drove us to Parrots house for coffee, before taking us the rest of the way back to Fox, where we spent the night at Shelleys house once again. The next morning we carried on to Queenstown to play at the Dux De Lux. We had our first good Queenstown show ever, and it was followed by the brilliant hospitality of Tim Sargeant, with a couple of magnum bottles of Moa's new Belgian tripel style beer. Delicious.

We later boarded this ship but shhh don't tell anyone that. 
I had my first stint of driving the next day, and drove us all the way to The Penguin Club in Oamaru, where we were greeted by the familiar face of Theo. Foreplay played again, this time featuring the fantastic chops of Pat Trembeth on Harmonica. Pat and Kylie also managed to work in a trumpet/harmonica duel.

As this was to be our last night with Kathy and Pat at the Penguin Club, we made sure we sent them out with a bang. The night ended with shirtless wrestling, and more Pillow Talk, where Seedy actually fell asleep while singing. Hah! Second last gig of the tour complete.
Port Chalmers was our final destination, the homecoming! Heaps of people came out, even though it was a Sunday night and miserable weather, thanks so much to everyone who made it! The Maybe Pile were fantastic in their loud and electronic state, and it's very sad to hear that was their last show in this format. Here they are preforming.

We counted up all the EPs and it turns out we managed to get through 120 of the 200 we got printed for the tour. The next printing will include a barcode and will be distributed through Border around NZ, but until then, you can purchase a copy at Too Tone Records in the North East Valley in Dunedin, or else send us an email alizarinlizard@gmail.com we're friendly. Thanks to everyone who supported us on this tour, either by letting us play, having us to stay, buying our EP, or attending a gig. Hopefully we will see you all again soon, perhaps in August? Here are two more pictures. take care, Bugs.

No we aren't still in Motueka

So turns out in my zombie state i left my phone on the ferry. Hopefully it shows up in the mail soon. I'm quite enjoying not having a phone though. One day we will sort ourselves out and keep the blog up to date. haha date. we played a really cool game at Jamie Greens house last night. It had heaps of cards with things written on them and we skipped through radio stations. I accidentally put too much sugar in my beer and it exploded and soiled half of the cards on the table and the girl beside me. What? that has nothing to do with the tour, what are you on about? I don't know man, we are playing a gig tonight at Sammys. Circle Jerk. All the bands are playing songs by other Dunedin bands, it's probably gonna get messy. We have taken it upon ourselves to attempt Beta by Thundercub, The Harder it Gets by The Tweeks, Blue Skies by Die!Die!Die! and Omarama by Biff Merchants. It should be pretty fun. So the reason I havn't told you about any of the shenanigans from the second half of the tour yet is because I'm having trouble remembering the details. I'll go check out some photos and get right back to you...

House party in Wellington on the 9th floor of an apartment

motueka is the shit

wow tonight was way kool! who would have guessed that the gig in motueka on a sunday night would be the highlight of the tour so far? thank you so much Hot Mama's  for having us, what good times! Thanks to Lu for looking after us, as well as Andy and Amanda. Shit i need a sleep. Last night still hasn't really ended yet... (imagine one of those buzzy 'go back in time' effects right about now) So if i were to tell you exactly about all our activities last night then it would go on forever, so I'll try and summarise it. After Palmerston North, we travelled to Wellington into what seemed like ridiculously impending doom wheatherwise, until we suddenly turned right and avoided all that shit and turned up in brilliant sunshine and gloriousity. The trip seemed to take very little time, although the last hill we went over brought us into shitty clouds and other lame foggy stuff. pretty buzz because of Wellingtons windy reputation.
We arrived at 59a Boulcott street with no idea of what to expect, only to find a lift leading right to the flat door and an awesome open-plan living arrangement. Sadly we had to cover the ridiculously oversized television screen with a marshal cabinet for PC, but I don't think anyone minded. The noise control/eviction threat was always a scary thought, but we somehow managed to Paul Cathro our way through it. We made $69 from donations for the evening, which will totally get us through the next petrol station barrier. Thanks a bunch to Steven for having us bombard his flat for the evening, what a legend.

Ben and I wandered around Wellington until 7am biding our time before had to wake up the boys to make the mission to round up everyone else from wherever they had ended up. Good times, we made it to the ferry really early, what the fuck? I forgot to bring up the mixer, so when it was time for Paul to play he had to chose between plugging guitar or vocals into the speaker. Oops. I wasn't too phased though, I wasn't really there. I spent the majority of the ferry trip wrapped up in some kind of fetal position fast asleep. We arrived in Picton to beautiful rays of sunshine burning out our retinas, and drove the (relatively) short distance to Motueka, stopping on the way only to do a $5 per diem in Nelson which Ben and I collectively spent at Subway on a 12" meatball sub + a drink. The L&P sucked. next thing we''re all set up in Motueka and showering and recovering at Lu's house before tonights show. Who would have thought that Motueka on a Sunday night would be the best gig of the tour so far? I personally had no doubt, the south island kicks ass, although the north island was still quite good to us. 3:31am, this is the earliest I've had the thought of sleep in the last several days, but I think it's probably very needed by now. Thanks for having me, I'll be here all week. Bugs.

PS. Shipsy has photos if you want to visualise those visualisations

Callum had a dream Megadeath played Orientation in Dunedin

shit its been ages sorry guys, forgot how hectic things can get when you're away.
Paul an I got into Auckland at about 9:30 on Monday night. The novelty of being in a plane wore off within the first 20 mins but sitting next to Paul was pretty sweet. should have seen Salami's eyes light up when the flight attendant asked if we wanted a tea or coffee haha..
we stayed at Dan Coxy's folks house for the next couple of nights, that was awesome as! it was like living at a resort - comfy couches, big ol telle, swimming pool an the funnest house pets ive ever seen.
We set up in the garage and had a lil practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ3_O8mlPuo

Wednesday night we played Whammy Bar in Auckland with Tono and Beach Pigs, a great tiny wee bar in St Kevins Arcarde on K road. after sound check we met up with Yeshe, Samdrub Dawa's sister who said we should go have drinks at her friends flat which was just a few steps down from Whammy.
after spending about an hour there catching up with ex-Dunedin folk there was this huge sound outside, almost like a dump truck collecting trash from skips, after a few more loud noises we all popped our heads over the balcony to see some lady doing a backwards U'y into a parked red car setting off a chain reaction of car alarms GTA styles. it was real full on. We got word from some street groms that the old lady was off her nuts drunk an decided to go for a wee hoon
Tono showed up at the party an we convinced him that it'd be an awesome idea if the Finance Company joined him on stage that night, Tono sent a few txts out to Stu the drummer an boom, instant band

After the gig Bugs, Paul an I broke away from the guys an joined Vinnie, Oscar and Jeremy from RACKETS, the band we did "that" tour with last year, for a buzzy night out walking around Auckland. it was awesome to catch up with the guys again though

Thursday morning i got Wendys. it was fucking awesome

The guys came an picked us up from Jeremys flat an we headed off to Raglan to play at The Yot Club.
that place rules man, we were all awarded with a beer on arrival, which took the edge off the hangovers. everyone is super relaxed in Raglan. If what you need to get done today, doesn't get done, then it will probably get done tomorrow, or maybe the next day.
the gig went alright, we played to about 30 people? its not really a big bar but it was cool. we sold some CDs  an all that.

one of the pets at Coxy's folks house in Auckland. haha.

YOT CLUB - RAGLAN

- Alizarin Lizard -

some hero came up an gave us all a wee bundle of something tasty, Pete the bar man gave us a ride back to Whale Bay where we were staying. Everyone in our camp went to bed pretty quickly, mind you everyone was pretty wasted. Seedy an Callum had smashed 3/4 of a bottle of jagermiester during their set haha..  Luckily a bunch of people locals rocked up and were keen to keep partying so Bugs an i stayed up chatting shit an all that. Good times. We'll probably remember some wicked stories to tell you one day. think we found our selfs in bed by 7am. brutal as. we were woken up at 10 to get into the van to go down to Palmerston North. a six hour drive south of Raglan. nuggety.

We saw a bus that had driven off the road and down into a valley. Luckily it had hit a tree or something that stopped it from going any further down the hill. The passengers had smashed the emergency exit window at the back and were climbing out. Pretty intense. 5 Police cars, 3 Amulances and 4 Firetrucks. We drove past 2 more fresh car crashes on the way that luckily didn't seem to be too bad.
We found the Palmerston North Central Normal School pretty easily, the gig we were supposed to play at The Royal fell through somehow so we luckily got added to this All Ages Gig at this school.
it was awesome, there were probably 7 times the amount of people who were at our last Palmy show.

Today some of us had showers. what a feeling!
Wellington will be interesting. I'll tell you all about it next time.

BIG THANKS to Jakob for putting us up in Palmerston North and for being a general good man!

BUGS/BEN

How many musicians does it take to make dinner?

Ben and Paul have arrived safely in Auckland and we are once again all reunited. The EP discs somehow ended up being ready early and turned up in Dunedin (we were supposed to pick them up in Auckland today) just in time to be flown up here with the boys. I am pleased to be able to tell you that against all odds, we now have the EPs assembled and ready for you, and what a relief it is. In other news, there was a tornado today here in Auckland. We didn't even notice. Saw it on the news though and it looked pretty intense. We watched Waynes world 2 instead. Classic schtuff. We had a band practice and learnt a cover. Maybe if you're at the right gig over the next two weeks you might even be able to hear this cover. We made dinner for everyone tonight. It consisted of 6 pizzas and salad. It actually turned out alright. First gig of the tour starts tomorrow. Kool story. Bugs out.

What am I doing?

Hihihi there.
How are you? I'm great. How did this come about? I've been hanging out with Left or Right for the past week while they toured up the country. I'm still not entirely sure what my role in this whole expedition was. I was dubbed ARGC and just ended up being some kind of roadie/guy that hangs out with the band. Great fun, I hang out with the guysh, sit in the back of the van assembling the Oh, Colour EP covers, drink beer, and casually do a bit of lifting/patching every now and then.
In brief; the ferry crossing was funny as. Experimental improvisation in the key of G. Mighty Mighty was awesome (as usual) heaps of friendly faces and good times. Kalah bar in Rotorua/Ngongataha was pretty buzzy, but turned out to be all good. The Yot Club in Raglan was fantastic. Pete Coddington, what a guy.

Me ole mate Shipsy has been doing a wicked job of multi-tasking, as official documentour and member of the  Oh, Colour assembly line. They're getting done slowly. we've got about 100 all folded and glued, so that's halfway. Maybe Ben and Paul will help us if we're not finished by the time they get here (which isn't today! haha what a massive fail that would've been aye Ben!!) Good thing I read the blog this morning.
Wow what an epic gig last night - Left or Right @ Khuja Lounge. Fire alarm goes off, gig has to pause, fire engines arrive, people gradually bail, then we are finally let back in and a few staunch fans are left to see the last couple of songs, what a great show of appreciation.
Here's another photo stitch job Shipsy did inside the van. Actually looks pretty cozy.

After the fire alarm escapade and the gig finished Shipsy and I went down Queen st on a pie mission and got kidnapped by  The Twitch who were driving home after their evenings gig. We woke up a few hours later in west Auckland and had pancakes and stuff for breakfast. Awesome work Fleur and Sims! What a great place. We went for a walk in their backyard (forest) paintball field with Pubes the dog.

I wish we had time for a game. They've built towers and dug trenches and heaps of other kool shit it woud be wicked. There's nothing like shooting people with coloured balls. That could work pretty well with this whole Oh, Colour thing. One day I'll organise myself for one of these tours. Kool story bugs.
DO YOU LIVE IN AUCKLAND? You should come to the first gig of the tour. Be the first one to get the brand new EP (man I hope we can pick up the discs without any hitches). If you can't make it to the gig for some reason, you should tell all of your friends and relatives in Auckland to come to the gig, and then you should come to another one of our shows.

I'm looking forward to picking Ben and Paul up at the airport tomorrow. I was thinking we should just not show up to collect them and mess with their heads a bit, but we'll see how that goes. Seedy and I picked up the role of trailer tetris master at pack-out today now that Metua and Mikey have left. I miss them already they were great value. This tetris is next level compared to the 42-date tour we did last year with Rackets. Metua has about a million drums. Oh well, we still have 2 weeks to perfect it.

Here's some pictures to keep you going.

Don't bite your fingernails.

Love Bugs

paul probably woke up looking handsome as

moring y'all
i did the posters like i promised i'd talk about last time.. it was a bit of hassle -i fucked up 6 years ago not paying attention in Mr Body's "special" math class an i miss counted so i left with 20 less posters then needed. 20. 

did i even leave with any? 

did i even go in?

but everyone knows to come to the gig at Chicks on Sunday the 15th May with support from The Maybe Pile though aye..
aye guys

Paul an i went to a Glamorous dress up flat warming last night with friends, wires were crossed, drinks were had an we ended up going as 80's classic Glam rock. it was a lot of fun 
weather they let us on the plane today remains to be seen.
Salami also been gifted a home made pedal from Gorden from Maybe Pile, Logan V popped round to Bugs' place the other night where we were having a few drinks an pulled out this new box for Pauly, now ya mate has a new original distortion pedal.
its all coming up PC
he's taking it with him an i cant wait to hear it

so we meet up with the rest of the guys tonight when we touch down in Auckland at 9:30pm
they've just finished their Nuggetour

This tour blog should start properly tomorrow
my phones camera's playing up so fingers crossed i can suss it before then
then again we have the majestic SHIPSY on tour with us this time. brohammers a documenting machine an general hero

good shit, good morning.

Paul an i get to go to the bar in the Wellington Airport later on today haha
BEN

Tom Clark if you Sherlock this i'll high five you