Melbourne’s spaghetti-western rockers The Toot Toot Toots will be performing their rowdy, flamboyant, mock-cabaret Outlaws for the 2013 Club Spiegel Season. Set in the fictional gold rush town of Gomorrah Fields, the performance tells the story of émigré Eli Rayne and the vengeance and bloodshed that shadows his arrival. Based upon their debut concept album of the same name, Outlaws is complete with narrations, gyrations, brass sections, projections and animated facial expressions. Catch The Toots Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd of February for these very special shows at the Spiegeltent in Melbourne.
What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?
I’ve always been a big fan of the curry, even when I was very young I would beg my mum to cook her Thai green curry. My family was never very conscious of healthy eating. The fridge was always stocked with a slab of cola and the pantry with chips and biscuits. It was kid heaven, and luckily I had a fast metabolism.
What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?
Every time we go on tour we claim that ‘we’re going to eat healthy this time’, thirty minutes down the Hume and we’re always chowing down on McDonalds… the boys like Vietnamese, but you never find Pho at truck stops.
Our trumpet player Greg is an eating machine, we kept a diary of what he ate on the first day of our last tour; Spanish omlette bagel, sausage mc muffin, two hash browns, cheese and pepper steak pie, sausage roll, bbq chips (large), crayfish mornay with chips and salad, bbq, chilli and original fried chicken and a few liters of beer…eww.
What type of food do you hate, and what is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?
When I was a kid I loved nachos, and decided to experiment with the formula. I tried using twisties, cheezels, cheetos and salt and vinegar chips instead of corn chips. Disgusting.
If the Toot Toot Toots were throwing a dinner party and could invite any musicians, living or dead, who would they be and why?
I know they’re not musicians but I’d like to invite Richard Dawkins and the Westboro Baptist Church to dinner. The Toots would kick back and eat popcorn.
Or I’d invite the original members of the Dead Kennedy’s over, of course each member wouldn’t know that their old band mates were coming. The Toots would kick back and eat popcorn.
Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at your upcoming Spiegeltent shows. What food do you put on it?
Probably an insane seafood spread, and some white bread for our drummer who’s allergic.
What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date?
When I was in high school I borrowed my aunts deep fryer and made my own buffalo wings. I made them so spicy that I destroyed my insides and had to take several days off school…. true story.
When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?
We haven’t managed to get the Toots overseas yet. But I did go to India with Steve (bass) and Bez (guitar) for a few months a while back. I don’t think I’ve eaten better in my entire life, but I did miss being able to eat without the threat of insane food poisoning hanging over my head. At one stage I was so ill I went partially blind.
If the Toot Toot Toots could invent a loliie or candy bar what would it be?
I’m struggling to think of one for the Toots, some kind of concept lollie? We’ve been playing with Cherrywood a bit recently and I can think of a good one for them. Those boys are obsessed with ‘playing dice’, so a lollie in the form of a dice which the winner can eat. Or perhaps the loser can eat it, since it’d be all smashed up and dirty.
This is your last day on earth, what is your final meal?
Every other human on Earth.
…or squid ink paella with crab, chorizo, prawns, swordfish and mussels.
