We ought to have posted a heads up for this, but it was a late discovered gig and therefore a spontaneous excursion. That very excellent Brisvegas venue, The Troubadour, has been celebrating (in some style) its fourth birthday this weekend. If you click through to their website’s front page, you’ll see the red stage curtains which give the bar its own David Lynch-y like charm (and weirdness). Anyway, the Troub, in part because its owners/managers, Jamie and Marty, are big alt.country folks, has fast become Brisvegas’ saloon of record for all things that can be subsumed under some sort of metonym that would involve boots with those spikey things that American cowboy boots often have. (Here, you have to forgive me, the hour, etc… please do feel free to supplement my memory and imprecision in comments… spurs, see I remembered!)
So, Marty, not just a bar boy (as if!), led off the night with his Leonard Cohen-esque solo stylings, and you just can’t go past a good Concrete Blonde cover – and what better tune for a noir-ish country cover can there be than a vampire song?
They used to dance in the garden in the
middle of the night
They used to dance in the garden in the
middle of the night
They were naked as the day they were
born
skin all bone-china white
O you were a vampire
and I may never see the light
Here’s Marty:
Ok, before you ask, and previous readers of Mark’s photoblogging posts should ask, where’s the digital camera? He actually finally does have one, and not a bad little Sony Cybershot, but apparently it’s hasslish to remember to take the thing with when you go out (more training will no doubt rectify this slackness). Observe camera, picture taken (obviously, like the rest here), with Mark’s camera phone.
Anyway, we were really there to see Texas Tea. I went home after, so missed Dick Desert and his band, which features the spectacular drumming talents of Bob Weatherall from Faira, who’s one of those Murris who’ve been active in politics since St Noel Pearson was in short pants, but doesn’t get kudos in The Government Gazette for “epoch-making orations” or as a “Leader”. But, then, try to imagine Mr Pearson playing drums. Just sayin…
Anyway, I came back home, and as with all these nights out, fully intended to be in bed by midnight, but somehow got obsessed with these intertubes, tonight talking about an elephant in the room at Catallaxy. As you do, but now I’m enjoying some Glenlivet fine 12 year old malt, as we inner urban latte leftie elites are wont to sip at 2.30am 
/irony
But enough of that – here are some photos of Kate and Bill playing. Dig the steel guitar.
Anyway, a totally fabulous night had by all, and a gorgeous venue. Long may it continue to not only celebrate birthdays, but bring Brisvegemites the best of Indie acoustic music on every other night.
Here’s what Time Off (aptly) says about the band:
The wistful tunes of two-piece country outfit Texas Tea could well serve as a soundtrack for those times when your tears get mixed with the whiskey you know you shouldn’t be drinking.
And here are some nice shots, courtesy of Texas Tea’s myspace. Do click through to listen to some songs. I’ve been trying to upload The Winner Makes The Graves, which is my fave of their original tracks on the cd, but am having the devil’s own time with Wordpress errors. I suppose I should be outside waiting at a crossroads somewhere for magic to strike me, at the cost of my soul (such as is left of it, for my sins…).
A couple number of postscripts:
I was going to call this post “I have one massive leg”, to quote some remarks made from the stage tonight, but to explain the banter between Kate and Bill would take me too long, and anyway I may have one leg but it’s not massive!
And the lyric of the night comes from Whisky and Wine:
And I have wasted some time, drinkin whisky and wine, and gettin heartache, romancin your man…
That one is on the myspace.
Also an update: Facts you might not know about Mark. He used to sing occasional backing vocals in a jazz band around West End and South Brisbane in the early 90s. Always appropriately attired in a double-breasted suit, I understand. And one night, after a gig at The Sitting Duck Cafe, he gave away his Akubra hat to a Murri fella who asked for it on Boundary Street. That was Brisbane, back in the day. Though, back in that day, we couldn’t afford malt whisky and were prone, on cold winter nights like this one, to drink VB mixed with Stones’ Green Ginger Wine. You could always get a good Vietnamese meal for eight bucks up on Vulture Street, though, and listen to Madonna songs in Cantonese (I doubt intellectual property rights had been respected…). I was only eighteen back then.
We begin to grow old, as another song says.
N’allez jamais trop vite
En aimant simplement
Pour avoir de la réussite
Soyez très très prudent
L’amour alors viendra
Se blottir dans vos bras
…
Btw, just wondering, is the whole alt.country scene in Australia Brisvegas-centric?
Sheeze, i’m out of the loop since i got back to Australia.
Damn well missed Chris Pickering last night.
(A big fav of mine since he did gig for me (fer nix) for White RIbbon Day a few years back.) And if per chance, i’ve missed Gentle Ben recently, i’ll scream.
Dude! Time off is on the intertubes now with the gig guide…
http://www.timeoff.com.au/index.php?area=Gigs&pg=36&PHPSESSID=519a45e4460e94cd93bdf0c4329b5468
Next big alt.country night at the Troub, we’ll have to know in advance (tonight happened because of sitting around at 9pm wanting to go out and coming across it on the Timeoff site) and we’ll have to make a night of it!
deal!
Kewl! You’re on then!
Click through to Texas Tea’s myspace btw for some songs. I’m trying to upload one but am having all sorts of Wordpress error problems!
Here’s what Time Off (aptly) says about the band:
Also an update: Facts you might not know about Mark. He used to sing occasional backing vocals in a jazz band around West End and South Brisbane in the early 90s. Always appropriately attired in a double-breasted suit, I understand. And one night, after a gig at The Sitting Duck Cafe, he gave away his Akubra hat to a Murri fella who asked for it on Boundary Street. That was Brisbane, back in the day. Though, back in that day, we couldn’t afford malt whisky and were prone, on cold winter nights like this one, to drink VB mixed with Stones’ Green Ginger Wine. You could always get a good Vietnamese meal for eight bucks up on Vulture Street, though, and listen to Madonna songs in Cantonese (I doubt intellectual property rights had been respected…).
I was only eighteen back then.
We begin to grow old, as another song says.
Lordy, where would the net be if not for insomniacs!
The latest reports from government think tanks suggest that any further alcohol-fueled comments may result in the introduction of breath-testing to blogs.
Also cause for (minor) celebration: latest Galaxy poll has Labor 55/45 on 2PP, and 58% of voters think Howard’s plan for NT is an election stunt.
I’m listening to Ms Beth Orton on my computer! And drinking more Glenlivet. The first nip…
What did the Mentals sing back in the 80s – the nips keep getting bigger…
Great poll result, but does it really sit with the whole nostalgia/alt.country/whisky drinkin theme? Perhaps if a poll had shown that 55% of folks wanted Keating back…?
Let’s tug on some invisible kite strings.
Here’s Ms O:
you up still HR? Or are you just and early riser?
(get yr mind out of the gutter everyone)
Moving on to Feist now. She’s Canadian, so she can cover the 60s Francoise Hardy songs well. The title translates to – “Love Doesn’t Always Last”:
L’amour ne dure pas toujours
http://www.frmusique.ru/texts/l/lemaire_jo/amournedurepastoujours.htm
yeah, whats with the stats my boy?
Neither Howard or Rudd seem like whisky men to me…..
I’m listening to Mr Cave…
I do some of my work late at night. Odd-houred job.
‘Howard reportedly said to a packed Press Club this afternoon – “We shall decide what bloggers drink, and the circumstances in which they drink it”. Gerard Henderson described the policy as “tough but fair”, and Matt Price queried whether the Labor party would be wedged on the all-important Insomniac-Drinking Bloggers Intervention Scheme’.
I don’t believe for a second any of the pollies or The Government Gazette columnists like Mr Price with his “whatever? who, me? Serious? I had a crush on Natasha Stott-Despoja, and look where my big journo act got me” schtick appreciate a good malt whisky like us humble bloggers.
Cave and Orton are good accompaniments to drinking, but some of their stuff is getting more wine than whiskey.
Will Oldham and Tom Waits are both good whiskey singers.
And I think I’m falling in love with Kate from Texas Tea…
Oh, dude, I’ve already listened to Waits – “Blue Valentine” and “Somewhere”… That was two whiskys ago!
How come you’re up, sc? Are you not a good sleeper normally?
My back is giving me a lot of trouble at the moment, but I suspect tonight Glenlivet will see me sleeping more soundly than Ibuprofen…
mmm….mazzy star
next….the be good tanyas….
Mazzy Star is very 5am!
Have you seen Clean? If not, you should! Maggie Cheung’s character, a forty something ex-VJ/rock chick, recovering smack addict finds redemption by singing with Mazzy Star’s producer.
That’s a sucky and trivialising plot summary, but the film is guarenteed to appeal to Mazzy Stars.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388838/
Hamilton, Ontario.
I’ve been there.
I met her once. Not in Ontario though. In 1997.
Now I’m listening to Blade Runner Blues.
never would have seen that coming Kim!
I’m staying up (cleaning and sorting bedrooms actually) so i can get to bed at a civilised hour tomorrow.
I’m a hideous insomniac at the best of times, but i’m completely out of synch at the moment having the house to myself.
Cave’s Hallelujah atm btw.
I thought maybe it was still jet lag!
She’s way cute, though, isn’t she?
Anyway, I feel that it is perhaps time for me to lay myself down to lie… (wasn’t that a tricky english usage exercise they used to give us as kiddies? Or is it a misrembered quotation?) – and go to sleep remembering my encounter with Ms Cheung:
Night!
xxx
sweet dreams (no doubt!)..
t x
Oh yeah, babe!
Night!
xxx
Lordy! I can see blue in the sky!
Really must away – sleep soundly, sc and sweet dreams to you!
xxx
Dammit I miss the Troub!
Something about the atmosphere of the place is just so enticing. Well, that and one of the bartenders used to enjoy getting me sloshed cause I’d turn all flirty…
I remember one of the first gigs I went there was the first Bob Evans tour. Me and a mate rocked up to the bar to realize that the guy knocking it down next to us was Kev Mitchell. He opened his gig (a few hours and many beers later) with the line, “Man, this has been a great night and now I’m going to f#$k it all up cause I’m so drunk” (or something along those lines). He didn’t by the way, it was an awesome gig.
Kim, FYI only – the song is called Hi-Heel Sneakers written by Robert Higginbotham aka Tommy Tucker – first on Chess Records.
Also covered by Elvis, Jerry Lee, the Stones and everyone really. It’s an R&B standard.
it even has its own wiki entry! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tucker#High_Heel_Sneakers
Put on your red dress baby,
‘Cause we’re going out to night.
Put on your red dress baby,
‘Cause we’re going out to night.
You better wear some boxing gloves
In case a fool might wanna fight.
Put on your high-heel sneakers,
wear your wig hat on your head.
Put on your high-heel sneakers,
Wear your wig hat on your head.
I’m pretty sure now baby
‘Cause you know, you’re gonna knock ‘em dead.
Put on your high-heel sneakers,
Wear your wig hat on your head.
Put on your high-heel sneakers,
Wear your wig hat on your head.
Well I’m pretty sure now darling
‘Cause you know you gonna knock ‘em dead.
Kim,
have you seen Disgraceland? some of my sidders friends are 6 degrees separated to them and the Pineapples (a brisbane institution apparently).
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=82104130
I think I know which one, mick!
One of the many other good things is reasonable drink prices!
Heh.