2006-09-06 || 5:46 p.m.
|| Adelaide ||
It is distinctly cooler in Adelaide. Ross picks us up, and he�s completely adorable. We stand at the curb with him holding our bags and Kirsty brings around the station wagon to take us to a hotel off South Terrace. Ross gives us the layout of the town, and I love how small and square and navigable it is. We leave Ross to watch �Neighbours� (trans: �Neighbors�) in our hotel room for a bit and then meet up with Mark and Curtis at the Exeter Hotel, beginning our foray into Adelaide nightlife. We drink Cooper�s and whiskey and I finally get to tell somebody that my grandpop was a member of ANZAC (Dear Dad, they were properly impressed). We then move on to the Grace Emily Hotel. In the spirit of tour we drink Raging Bulls (a shot of tequila and Kahlua. Delightfully good!) and more Cooper�s. Curtis tells the story about stashing chocolate bars in a water trough in Basel for his daily bike rides home. If it is a ploy for us to further fall in love with him it completely works. It�s so nice to see these boys in their own town. Owen trades stories about musicians he�s played with, and by the time poor Ross shows up to shuttle us to our respective places, I am so thoroughly enchanted by the city of Adelaide and the Clue to Kalo boys and Owen for letting me tour with him and Ross for magically appearing and the bats that fly around the lights of the used car lot. We sit in the backseat of Ross� car and I wish we could drive around the grid in the dark forever.
The next day I lie around in the hotel room trying not to move my head too much. I watch morning television shows while Owen gets lost finding coffee and breakfast since we�ve missed the hotel continental breakfast (roo sausage!). The playground across from our hotel room is full of school children wearing uniforms and wide-brimmed hats. I fight the urge to take pictures of them. When we�ve fully recovered from the night before we walk into town to meet dear Mark at the Rundle Mall. We wait at Haigh�s Chocolates and it takes forty minutes before we muster up the nerve to call him. We�re at the wrong Haigh�s Chocolates. Owen and I run past very stylish teenagers and moms with kids and businessmen sneaking out of work to buy packets of crisps at Wooly�s (!!!). Mark takes us to the market for lunch, and we walk past the governor�s house and the university and the office Mark never uses. We are terribly jealous of Adelaide and its beautiful market�vegetables and seafood and all kinds of places to buy delicious lunch. Curtis happens to be there, and we all get to sit together and eat.
Owen has a radio interview at the university station.Mark and I sit in the lobby and can almost hear Owen�s voice being piped in through the speakers. I realize how weird it must be to answer the same questions over and over: where did the name come from and what are your influences and I hear you�re a film-school dropout. We will invent some sort of device that cues up answers to the top ten questions. Owen can add his more famous jokes and maybe the sounds Haima makes at sound check.
Walking back to our hotel we get horribly lost. I have absolutely no sense of direction but am sure the hotel is this-a-way; after a lot of ambling about and punching each other on the arm and being reminded how damn funny Owen Ashworth is we end up at West Terrace. Our hotel is on South Terrace. It�s getting dark and Owen walks very fast. We stop to get whiskey. We stop for Owen to try on boots. By the time we get back it�s been an hour and a half and Ross is to pick us up in twenty minutes.
The show is at the Jade Monkey. It is very cute with small tables and chandeliers and a very nice boy behind the counter. Ross brings us our very first Tim Tams and Chomp bars, but we�re too excited about the concept of the Tim Tam Slam to actually eat them. Anthony opens again with another great set. He tells jokes and gets into a conversation with an audience member in which you can only hear Anthony�s answers. Clue to Kalo plays and it strikes me how odd it is to hear their songs night after night, and how the songs feel different having gotten to know the boys better. I get to spend more time with Ross and realize his magnificence. He quotes �Dirty Dancing,� for chrissakes. He is absolutely hilarious and has a wealth of musical knowledge and I am so sorry we didn�t get to spend more time with him.
Casiotone plays and we get heckled by some dude who emphatically motions to Owen that he can�t hear me sing. I am afraid he�s going to wrestle Owen onstage. There�s a girl to the right who mouths all the words and does such a brilliant job with her interpretive dancing that I consider trading places with her. I take notes to do something more interesting with my hands. Owen plays �Graceland� again. It totally makes me cry. For an encore he does �Streets of Philadelphia� and falters; Haima plays the intro to the Springsteen version on his iPod as a rescue. Owen says while he was singing he looked up at Haima and Haima plaintively nodded and saved him. Owen says it made his night.
After the show we get to talk to a lot of Adelaidians. Owen signs �Casiotone 4 Prez� on a girl�s cast. I trade slang terms with said casted girl and her friend and make broken promises to meet up with them at the Crown and Anchor. We help the Clue to Kalo boys pack up as an excuse to hang out with them as much as possible. We will miss Adelaide.
See also:
Brisbane
Sydney
Melbourne
Auckland
Wellington
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