Shapeshifter + Sunday

Shapeshifter were totally cool. Both of the opening bands for them were awesome, too.
They played at The Forum (in the entertainment quarter). Because of this, Leanne and I decided that driving in was the best way to get there. So Leanne drove in via Café de Hong Kong in Carlingford. We bought "Chicken and Chinese Mushroom Hot Pot" and "Chicken and Rice Cake in XO Sauce" for dinner. We also had San Choy Bow for entrée. I was very full. The food was pretty good, but not great. I don't think they were their best dishes.
After dinner we drove straight to Moore Park, and actually found a parking spot nearby fairly quickly, which was nice. We decided to stop by the Fox + Lion and I bought a Jäger and Red Bull (I felt tired and wanted the caffeine to wake me up) and Leanne had a "snickers" cocktail, then we headed over to The Forum.
We arrived during the first band's set. Budspells were their name. They were a dub reggae band from Bondi (I didn't get any photos, but this is not to say that they weren't worth it). They were pretty cool. I will keep my ear out for more by them.
After Budspells, a group called Solaa played. They were an awesome soul hip-hop band. See my flickr photoset for photos of them (and Shapeshifter). I bought their CD Steps in Time (which will be in stores Monday), and it's smooove. Freakin cool. Horn section, female singer, male MC, sampler/keyboard guy, a drummer and a percussionist.
There were a lot of Kiwis in the audience, and a few of them talked to me (a few of them were high at the time, so it made sense). One woman in particular was a little crazy. And annoying. And she wasn't even high. Just drunk. I don't remember her name. But I do remember that I met another Simon (although I didn't/don't believe that was his actual name), a Luke and a Michael (in that order). Michael was happy to tell me that him and his friends were on E and "heaps of K." He was like "look at my friends, we're all so high. We're all falling over. We're fucked." He then grabbed his girlfriend, and was like "this is my girl. Look at her." The girl looked a little uncomfortable, and was like "What?" he just laughed and said "She's so high!"
It was pretty funny. I'm getting ahead of myself; that was at the end of the night.
Leanne and I stood to the side of the mezzanine for Solaa and most of Shapeshifter, so we had a good view of the action, but we were standing under a light. I didn't really notice though. I took some pretty good photos. I'm happy with my camera. I switched it to manual, opened up the aperture (although it only goes to F8.0), and just changed the shutter speed. I didn't need a flash, but the flash was bright enough when I did use it to light up the crowd. The photos turned out pretty well. Check the photoset link I posted earlier in this entry for a selection of the better ones.
Shapeshifter started around about midnight, and they were very cool. Unfortunately, I still felt tired (despite having a second red bull based drink - this time Vodka), so I didn't get into it as well as I would have liked, but every so often I found a burst of energy and was able to funk out - if only for a few minutes.
But they were cool, and I'd like to see them again (when I have a little more energy).
Leanne and I didn't get home until about 3am... and we slept in like crazy this morning/afternoon. I don't think I needed quite that much sleep, but I wanted to keep sleeping, so I did.
We made burritos for lunch (breakfast), and went for a bushwalk in Leanne's local. We took along Leanne's DSLR, and I had a play around with it, as I'm trying to learn how to use it. I'm getting used to it, and the photos I took weren't terrible, but I still need practice, and a read of the manual would be beneficial. I will decide if any are worth uploading, so if you want you can take a look. I'll let you know (on this post) if I upload any.
Sorry that that is such a stark recount of last night's events... but my creativity is pretty low at the moment.