EPICURE TOUR DIARY

By Epicure guitarist Dan Houlihan

Ballarat based rockers Epicure have been incredibly busy since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album The Goodbye Girl in early 2004. The band has played to packed venues nationwide, with crowds keen to hear faves like "Armies Against Me" and "Life Sentence", songs which had entered our consciousness due to heavy rotation on the national radio network Triple J. Keen to find out what life’s like for a band on the way up, Australian Musician asked guitarist Dan Houlihan to document a couple of weeks in the life of Epicure on tour.

The following are some dates from our National "Firing Squad" tour when we were on the road to promote the latest single "Firing Squad". In between dates we had to come back to Ballarat to work!

Sydney - 5th June
The long, long, long, long, long drive to Sydney. Oh how we enjoy it!

Twelve hours in the van, yippee!! It’s not that bad really, lots of laughs, not much sleep, lots of toilet stops, not much sleep. We are all looking forward to the gig at the Annandale.

Finally we arrive in beautiful Sydney. This time we’ve got a hotel with a heater, very nice! All sound-checked, fed, showered, and shaved. Time to play! Fantastic crowd. Sold out show. We have a great time playing to the Annandale audience. Shit, have to drive back to Ballarat tomorrow for a few days work.

Western Australia 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th June
Rise out of the gloom of Melbourne bound for the west where we hope it will be a little bit warmer. Arrive in Perth to find that the Victorian weather has followed our plane.

Into the trusty Tarago head down to Dunsborough, which was a little farther than anticipated. It did take a long time but that may have been due to the fact that were travelling at the breakneck speed of about 50km/hour because of the rain absolutely pissing down.

Arrive in Dunsborough, eat and then watch Fourth Floor Collapse knock out a great set. They continue that form for the whole leg of the tour, great to play with those guys again.

Drive back to Perth the next day for a show in Sorrento.

Saturday go into the fair city of Perth for a spot of shopping. Everyone goes their own way. Lots of money spent on records. Tim and Dan spend the afternoon following visiting second hand shops where Tim enjoys the various pieces of deco furniture and oddities.

Off to the gig at the Amplifier Bar, we have a great time and the crowd enjoys themselves. We continue to enjoy ourselves after the show. Dan may have enjoyed himself a little too much. He pays for it the next day on the drive down to Fremantle. Maybe the Fremantle doctor can fix him up?

Play to a fantastic Freo crowd and then have to high-tail it to the airport to hop the redeye back to sunny Melbourne.

Brisbane - 17th June
Ahh sunny, warm Brisbane, damn we seem to have towed that shitty weather with us again. Check into motel, have a bit a rest then off to the shops in search of more records, what a great way to pass the time. Head back to the motel for a bit of a siesta.

Playing at the Zoo tonight and looking forward to it. Crowd behaves like a pack of animals. The night was a great success and the Zoo keeper very happy. Party on with a few Brisvegans, hit the hay pretty late.

Early morning flight back to Melbourne Dom, Tim and Dan a little worse for wear.

Melbourne - 25th June
The very familiar drive down the highway from Ballarat to Melbourne. Tonight we play in our adopted home at the Corner Hotel in Richmond. Everyone’s excited about playing the Corner, if not a little nervous. Spend time watching Love Outside Andromeda make their way through a shit hot set. Crowd has definitely exceeded our expectations, what a buzz to play to a sold out Corner Hotel. Our new keyboardist Heath McCurdy sure picked a good gig to start with.

What a great night!

Tasmania July - 2nd & 3rd
Tim and Dom depart for Tassie on the boat with the van and all the gear.

They eat a lot and don’t get much sleep poor bastards. Juan, Heath and I fly over the next day and meet up with them. Hobart is such a lovely place even if it is a little cold but we are from Ballarat so we are used to it. Looking forward to having a bite to eat at the Republic Bar, they always have great food there. After everyone has their fill, it’s onto the stage to play to a very, very excited crowd, it’s always a good night at the Republic.

Saturday we head off to the Salamanca Markets for some bargain hunting and

gourmet snags in bread. We spend some time on the waterfront doing some new band photos. Back at the motel we spend the rest of the afternoon in front of the T.V. We were pleased to discover the video channel at the Motel, but not so happy to find that it’s playing Toy Story 2 and 8 Mile on repeat. We end up seeing sections of both the movies about four times over the weekend. It’s off to the Republic for a repeat performance of the previous night. Good food, great people. A sold out venue and we have lots of fun performing to the Hobart fans. One fan even asks Juan for the T-shirt that he’s wearing! Tim, Dan, Juan and Heath fly back to Melbourne the following day, while Dom stays on for a spot of sightseeing and to bring the gear back on the ferry. Dom decides to take the back roads to Launceston, and ends up stuck in a blizzard for hours. Luckily he makes it to the ferry with minutes to spare!

Adelaide - July 9th
Saturday morning. We are on the way to Adelaide for a gig at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel. Left the van at home this time in favour a more comfortable ride, a Holden commodore wagon. We must be moving up in the world! It’s a pleasant drive and we are very much looking forward to playing to the Adelaide fans as they are always great. After a quick sound check and a few games of 'hackey sack' we head back to the motel for some rest and a bite to eat before the show. We spend some time watching the Aussie Rules game on T.V, then off to the Gov. There to watch Love Outside Andromeda rip it up again.

Unbelievable! Another awesome crowd and sold out show. We play a great set and hang around afterwards to meet some of the friendly Adelaide Epicure fans. A very fun and long night. We attempt to continue the party at the motel but fail miserably when half of us end up falling asleep. Not looking forward to the long drive home!