A little over a year and a half ago, I played my first “real” Aussie gig in Bondi Beach at the Beach Rd. Hotel. I also spent a fair bit of time in Bondi because my cousin, who I was staying with at the time, was living there.

I remember our first cruise down the beach strip and the windy main road full of little cafes and bars. We were headed down to the Beach Rd. to check it out and have a pint. My cousin ran into several friends that day, all in a casual stroll up and down Bondi’s little streets. That was the vibe there, pretty cozy little beach town where mostly everyone knew everyone. I remembered having heard about Bondi in a Mason Jennings song not long before, which added to the romance of being there. There was definitely something charming about it and that’s why I’m always happy to visit again.

Since then, I’ve played the Beach Rd. several times and it has become a venue that I’m always happy to return to because it reminds me of that day and my first tour down under, when they opened their doors and welcomed me.

This tour would be no exception and in addition to a laid-back Tuesday night set at the Beach Rd., I also got to go into Bondi FM 88.0, the local roots music station, for a little interview and in-studio performance. Ash and Ian, the hosts of the program were very friendly and quite funny. The spot was supposed to go for 10 minutes but we were having such a good time that I ended staying on the air with them for 30 minutes, having a good laugh and playing a few tunes. That was at 9AM in the morning and despite being a little groggy, I perked right up as soon as I heard the words: “we’re live”.

Later that night, I played a short set at the Beach Rd. Hotel. After the interview in the morning and a full day at the studio (more on that in the next blog), I was a little low on energy and searching for a way to get myself going for the Tuesday night crowd. As I watched the band before me playing their set, I became very engaged by one of their members who was seated on the stage, legs crossed, eyes closed and playing the tabla, one of my favourite percussion instruments. Aha! As soon as they were done, I went to say hey and invited him (Andy) to sit in on a few songs during my set.

Here’s a little clip of us playing “Tomorrow”, one of the new songs I‘ve been trying out on the tour. At the time, it felt like I was playing it in fast forward, but after watching the video, I actually quite like the more up tempo vibe that Andy and I were jamming it at.

Never a dull moment in Bondi!