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Things Of Stone And Wood.
 "The
first time we went over to Adelaide we played the FrInge [1992],"
recollects Things Of Stone And Wood frontman Greg Arnold, "and
that was an absolute blast. I loved it and I'll always remember
it so fondly. I think we went in and played the Festival Plaza,
then the Exeter and then the Governor Hindmarsh on the Sunday.
I think that was the second interstate trip that we had ever
done so it was all new and exciting.
It was also a real challenge at that time because people had never heard of the band but I've always liked that about Adelaide, people would give you a shot and if you're any good they'll get on board. Then we played at the Spiegeltent a couple of years ago and we had a full house, so here's hoping we do that again."
Now, after many years and full interstate and overseas tours behind them, I wondered if for a band there was a difference between a festival show and a pub gig. "Yeah," he considers, "and it's a funny thing how you get different those responses. Last time it did feel like a lot of people did come to see us as they would any other gig, but definitely there's times you get a different feeling and you can get quite intimidated by those crowds.
"But we see that in a good way because in places like Port Fairy, or at any of these festivals, people really tend to listen to what you say and are really attentive. It's a different type of audience, whereas we grew up with the pub rock thing where people would come down, have a couple of drinks and then they're off and that's part of the fun, you know? But it used to freak me out at festivals because people are actually listening to what I'm singing. But I really do enjoy the differences because I guess it's much more like a concert than a gig. And that's been a big feature of the way we've played over the years. We've done lots of pub gigs and lots of festival shows and I like both of them. I like the fact that the band can move between the two so comfortably."
Another distinction between the two types of shows is the playing time restrictions. Should we expect a programme made up of mainly hits and memories? "Yeah, there will be a succinct kind of feature to it," he vows, "but in addition to that there'll also be the odd stretch out because we can't help ourselves. I've always loved the jamming quality of this band because it's always been there and it's never been as pronounced as it is now, especially since Tank's joined. We really do try to write a succinct set list, but I end up not following it anyway."
Steve Jones
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Things Of Stone And Wood play The Regal Tent, Fri 12 March.
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