The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

chicago chicago

yeah rawk baybee rawk

fuck yeah hell yeah and

whatever you like

minny-apolis last night my fools

great vegan huevos rancheros at a hippy joint round the corner

went back there for supper after show and had a TLT sanger

thats tempeh lettuce tomato with vegan mayo

and a barley soup!

the place was called the last days cafe

the show in minny was good

they caught on to us back in 84

4 years before most of the rest of america

we still got the connection my people

a good show

some transcendental moments

the crowds seem to digging it

i do yoga in a dressing room that gradually starts to freeze

because of a thermostat in the main room cooling down

as venue filled up with punters

so eventually i’m doing my shoulder stand

and my feet are fucking freezing

after show we climb in our bunks and we slip n slide down a snowy highway

now we are parked on street outside gig

its the no hotel tour and fuck it i aint doing this again

i need a fucking hotel room . i need a shower. i need some privacy

at sixty being a part of this travelling bunch of comedians and tragedians is a bit much

like the boy scouts on a camping trip

we never get away from each other that much

i love playing but its hard to sublimate myself in the rank n file

all i ask is a quiet room n a hot shower

all i ask is sumptuous vegan food and adoring friends

all i ask is a castle in dalmatia and maybe a small tropical isle

all i ask is obedience wealth and honours

could i be made a knight for fucks sake?

before they do away with knighthoods altogether.

couldn’t i be king for the day?

can’t i be young again?

can’t someone bring ian haug some fucking vegemite from somewhere?

this is a bizarre and random life

i am half genius half idiot

i have cold and damp feet

i got given a pair of new boots as part of a promo

i am recording with garage band down back of bus

my daughters are playing in america in a few months

my daughters are all beautiful and all have big hearts

this area of chicago used to be goth now its hipster

i miss sydney and its mild climes and its laconic people

i miss my local sea pool and my local cafe

i miss my friends and my anemones

i miss my little woofle too but we Skype a bit

and she loves to play with the emoticons

snow and sunshine here in chicago

the temperature is freezing in celsius and fahrenheit whichever way

the food in america is very eggy meaty and stodgy

except for the rare amazing cafe here n there

so typical US. the best is the best

and the worst is the worst.

i love our american fans too

they get us and they get us good

they understand

they understand this may be our last time around

any time could be

but its a miracle we get here at all ever

its a fragile thing

the audience last night was fantastic

it made me feel like showing off

the band plaid grate

we are fucking good aint we?

or not.

sometimes yes sometimes no

colorado stash running low

bring jazz and vegemite

and bring your love n faith n belief

you have believed in us

we will believe in you

cold n tired n dirty n unshaved

but willing to fucking rock

even tho its sending me deaf and broke

lifes a joke

i love you

from a bus in the windy city

your ever so ‘umble ‘ero

killbee

alights on the platform
in his usual uniform

this is a tough tour

we sleep on the bus no hotel rooms mostly

its snowing and forlorn in nebraska

(someone cue the boss please)

tim and i walk about and find a starbucks

the cold outside would freeze you quickly

lucky to have our nice warm bus

the shows are going well

i suppose

people disagree about how many new and old songs we should have

everyone has an opinion of course and so they should

i buy some legal products in aspen colorado

seems a civilised way to do things

one did not observe the fall of civilisation because one could buy weed

in fact it seemed like a pretty peaceful town as did denver

the gig in aspen was a bad reaction as far as US audiences go

probably one of the worst we ever had

they were just random skiers going to see whoever was on that night

a few fans but mostly just random punters

next night in denver gig is much bigger and better

outside you step out of theatre into silent swirling snow

someone gave us a mediocre review although she said i was “shamanic”

boy that word gets tossed around a bit

i guess its de rigeur for pop singers to be shamanic so there you go

its better than not being shamanic isn’t it?

who wrote all these rules i wonder?

i sit in back of bus ‘aving a smoke as usual

writing a blog on a lappy

whatever you groovers

i can’t tell anymore if its brilliant or rubbish or meh

any of it

not today anyway anymore

at 2am we shall depart this carpark for the sunny tropicals of Minneapolis

where we have lunchtime radio show

it doesn’t feel very shamanic here in this frosty and foreboding place

a cold dry wind moves across the prairies baby

someone commented oh he always moans about touring

but it affects me…am i allowed to say that?

if anyone thinks this is easy…

its not hard yakka in the trad sense

but for a thin skinned old fool like moi its taxing

i hope you think its all been worth it if you see us play

otherwise..

utah sword

after san diego we drive all night

drop off a guy in vegas

now we are in st george utah

we are waiting till 4am to drive on to aspen colorado

tim and i found a hipster coffee joint

i had a vegan wrap. small mercies exist.

now its rainy . sitting on bus ready to go

reading a book about alex chilton

myself feeling disconnected

dislocated

discombobulated

discontented too i guess

we are in the middle of nowhere it feels like

i made a girl blush in a supermarket blush with my accent

people in restaurants are questioning me and haugie where we come from

i do yoga in a day room

its a long long day

in a long long life

gotta keep track of everything

a night off for my sore fingers and throat

gonna read some more now folks

lotsa love

kilbey

san diego parked outside gig

yeah we rock n we roll

whatever the fuck that means

i spend yesterday round at greg d’s house in LA

oh man what a beautiful serene pad

cactuses and trees

how very nice and civilised in that quiet street

oh yeah i could live there very easily

a haven from the madness that is only a few minutes away

the gig at the el rey is perplexing

we have some trouble somehow

the A notes seem to go nowhere from the bass  guitar

they seem snatched away by some acoustic gremlin

a few nights before it had been the opposite

the A notes had been booming like blooming muthas

whatever i don’t know

today i am in san diego

gig looks too small for us to me

i am but a soldier in the rocknroll wars

very good attendance at el rey

and a great crowd

we nearly transcended but not quite

why was that?

its strange but i don’t know

theres still a lot of unknown variables

its hard to get it perfect

still sometimes it happens

love from kilbey here wherever the fuck i am

san diego go go

backstage san från 15

touring is weird weird weird

i am drawn into its whorl into its whirl

and into its world

we travel  on the bus sleep in the noisy darkness of bunks

suddenly a lovely hotel room full of sunlight and white sheets

then the gig which is a lifeless cave by day

backstage its dark and quiet

i slip into reveries induced by sleepiness

as i sit here and type

tonight will unleash our music

for a short time i will be invulnerable to age or tiredness

the zeitgeist will have no hooks in me

bass guitar with stored energy will release as curtain goes up

words and notes will travel  and merge

spirit of rocknroll etc

and then

and then what..?

bb

well here i am back on hard nose the highway

valve bouncing down the fricking west coast

we play pretty good

it all goes by so fast

we play a record store and meet and greet

hello how are you

the ground still moves beneath my feet

the customs lounges

the bunks on the bus

the blisters on my fingers

the things i left behind

we walk on stage

i am off my face on music

yeah we are pretty good

we jump on the bus and then

we are gone

hype o conned react

such a warm night

today has escaped

tomorrow awaits

travel for almost a day

to play somewhere far away

pulled in every direction i am

to want to stay

to want to go

or let this night wander on forever

i never expected to be so lost in it

guess i’ll just sit here and think it all through

thatll do

hemming away

the oblong sky behind me

the purple sea before me

the undulating fields of elysium with waving grain

laying down silently beside someone long now gone

whispering those words in languages already forgotten

telling them about the glorious sunset of an empire expired

and how we loved one another through almost endless nights

telling them about the way the world looks now in a new light

with the muted dawn dappled upon a morning from antiquity

i stand up nearly young again an impossible reversal i know

look at those black black crows in that oblong sky

the shapes on the hillside like men from a distance

for a moment i freeze a frame in my mind

with a sensation of nausea i am able to zoom up close

i see the salt in the air eating the metal

i see the columbine wind twist among the gravestones

i feel my old wounds which split up time

the ache of the clamour of the blood of the charge

my boys rushing rushing into arcing dark darts

i thought i’d never see you amongst these tombs

i thought the moss and flowers had reclaimed you

i thought you had wandered away scattered as in life

i thought maybe it is me who has evaporated

nothing seems that real as when we were children i say

it could easily be a memory i am living in my own past

a cracked fountain against the oblong sky

its too warm to sleep but its too late to dream

in the hollow at the foot of my bed a cat spirit sleeps

in the arches of dianas temple a guarding angel watches on

in black marble mausoleum you will have your say

in white mist of morning you will go your way

oblong sky straight ahead

expect delay

Tune into Double J from 3-5pm AEDT today, and on demand all week. The baroque geniuses, boogie boogie tinklers and rock’n’roll freaks. SK zooms in on the ‘keyboardists’  ab.co/1A2FTCQ

solutions r us

soft hue coming down on the swimmers behind the nets

perfectly twilight as the trees seem to drip down the cliffs

oh warm sea envelop us wash us cleaner than we ever could be

oh i languid and glide on the deep green side under leaden sky

breathing in through my nose out through my mouth

dragging myself through the briny billows

little wavelets crash into me and fly off my goggles back into their sea

so it will be for you and me entering eternity

even then a sun shines inexorably on behind all the clouds

its rays permeate the water of the harbour

illumination of its clear depths

verdant valleys of moss and shoal way below me

i try to remember the names of who i used to be

my rushing self is stilled

i have willed it to a standstill

darting schools of thought fly out of mind

ideas come unbidden into a garden prepared for peace

ripples from outside the whorls

marine films projected on the white screen of evening

fish on hooks screaming

everything you think is real

just seeming