Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Warehouse, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, 1992

Band: Rubber Bug
Members: Gary (v), Ross (d), Big D (b), Carl (g)

Rubber Bug and Greenacres were quickly shunted from the Church, I can't imagine why. The next rehearsal room was at Ross's new residence, the Warehouse.


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This was a crazy joint. I don't know if anyone paid rent, there seemed to be residents migrating between floors, performance artists, installation artists, graphic designers, computer programmers, optometrists, architects, lawyers, musicians, boho central, there was art exhibitions, gigs, roller derbys, bashings and a lot of substance abuse at The Warehouse.

Ross used to practice there during the day. Many times I went to visit and he'd have the stereo on full blast, jamming with Helmet's Meantime, and nailing the chops. He was, and is, a machine of a drummer,and went on the play with the Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan (no relation) in FOC, and with some of the guys from Powderfinger in The Predators.

Once we were rehearsing on the third floor, the Rapeman song Hated Chinee, and a tall lanky dude had climbed up the fire escape to listen at the door. I couldn't see who it was, I never play with my glasses on. He was jigging, smirking, giggling and getting into it. We started another song and he gave the thumbs up, waved and left. Our audience with Tex Perkins.

Someone got us a gig as models. Laugh, I dare you, it's true. Models for the cover of a blank videocasette. Remember them?

7 AM we had to get to The Warehouse for the photoshoot. Ross, of course, although he lived there, was late, asleep, still half drunk. When he arrived the first thing he did was light a ciggie and was told that was not allowed on the set. One last drag, fuckit, stub it out.

It took about 10 minutes, we earned $70 each.

There we were, anonymous rockandrollers on a videocassette cover. And thats where we stayed, in fact.

Here's a pic of the site where the photos were taken, without a hint of cliche, the four of us against a wall with graffiti on it. The art installation pictured on the site, Wasteland by Craig Walsh, wasn't there at the time of the videocassette shoot, he set it up later that year.

Here's a Rubber Bug song. Lame start, admittedly, but the chorus is worth the wait
Metzengerstein

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