'Eight Days at Sea'

The title of the new Shivering Timbers album, launched last night at the Thornbury Theatre.

Another back blip as I didn't arrive home until after midnight again. Gee two nights in a week out to watch some great live music.

Had a chance to finally catch up (briefly before the show) with Samsticks, another local Melbourne blipper, who also happens to be the drummer with the Shivering Timbers. We've been following each other for quite a while on blip now, and watching each others families growing up, so it was really nice to meet up. Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up again with our kids and wives at some point.

The album launch was in quite a swish theatre and the room looked like it was at capacity. The show opened by Tess McKenna and the Lucilles who played a great set our country based songs with some very nice guitar and vocal work.

Then on to the main act. The MC for the night was a pirate named James who did a great job getting to crowd into the mood for the night. The Shivering Timbers started the night by playing the full new album in it's entirety, follwed by a short interval and then a second set which really had the crowd up and dancing just in front of the stage. The music was a great mix of frenetic guitar, double bass, mandolin, accordion, harmonica and drums mixed with some more slower soulful melodic songs. They are a five piece band with a few multi instrumentalists, and were also joined by two great horn players for the album launch. A young girl playing trumpet and a young guy on trombone adding some really nice textures to the overall sound.

It seemed like everyone in the room was really enjoying themselves, particulary the band who were in fine form. I would call the night a great success judging by all of the crowds reactions and finishing off with 3 encores.

If you're in this part of the world, do yourself a favour and get along to one of their shows at some stage. You won't be disappointed you did. Really enjoyed the night and hopefully we'll get along to a daytime gig with the family soon.

Bought myself a copy of the album and listened to it on the way home last night to keep the memories fresh in my mind, will finishing listening to it today.

I've got a couple of hundred photos from the night, so quite a bit of work ahead of me to cull them down to some of the more interesting shots which I will post on my 500px account at some stage.

Just about to head up to the kids school for a working bee now and it's just started to rain. Oh well, better grab my raincoat and get up there.

Have a great weekend all.