Melbourne

One of the amazing things about Australia is proximity of the outback to the major cities. Less than an hour after leaving the rural splendor of the winery we were at our hotel in the Brunswick section of Melbourne. Over 90% of the population live in the five largest cities. When you consider that Australia is about the same size as the US, you realize just how much outback there is.

At first glance Melbourne pales when compared to Sydney, mostly because it lacks the gorgeous waterfront and stunning modern architecture. Melbourne shows the undeniable influence of the British, and at times I thought I was walking in London during a heat wave. It didn't take long to discover that this city has it's own charms. Our hotel is in the middle of a leafy section of town that boasted a huge, lush park across the street and an incredible restaurant row just down the block with an amazing array of small ethnic eateries. There's a great tram system that runs everywhere, and it was fun exploring the city by hoping on and off the trams. Chris is to play 3 separate shows in the city over the course of a week, so there's plenty of time to poke around.

Our first Melbourne show was held in the Brunswick town hall and hosted by Chris' Australian agent John,McAustian, a slightly eccentric but completely charming man who books tours for a number of American artists. This is the fifth tour of Australia for Chris, and he has a large and enthusiastic fan base all across the country. The Australian audiences are amazing. They arrive early, are extremely attentive and quiet and then buy LOTS of CD's. One of my primary duties on this tour is to man the merch table each night. The moment the show is over they storm the table, and it seems like every member of the audience buys at least one disc. The remarkable part is that CD's in this country sell for $30 each! Every show I walk away from the table with a huge wad of bills. At this rate Chris will sell over 2,000 CD's on this tour alone. Who says the CD is dying? There's no evidence of that here.

The day after the Brunswick gig Chris has a taping for a national TV show. It's a weird set that looks like something out of Wolfman Jack's Midnight Special circa 1972 with strobe lights and a smoke machine. Chris plays the same songs over and over again til they get the lighting and sound just right. I can't wait to see what it ends up looking like on TV. After the show we wander around Melbourne killing time before out 9:30pm flight across the country to Perth.