Dave Stringer in Brisbane

Dave Stringer's Brisbane concert was awesome. Everyone in the band agreed that it was the best one of the four date Australian tour. I played bass guitar and really locked into Patrick Richey's groove on the cajón. Local keyboard virtuoso Rob Stevenson, who plays for Deva Premal when she's in town, smoked it up on the ivories. Edo Kahn played guitar and his fiancée Jo played flute and sang backing vocals. Prem Yogi laid down double-time cartals and chimpta. We had a great mix by Dominic, who is the sound man for Le Carnaval Espirituel for their Australian and Polish tours.

The Yoga Den was buzzing with 70 people who enthusiastically responded to the chanting. People walking by came off the street after hearing the chanting.

We got home after midnight and sat around eating samosas and salad. By the time we finished the dishes and hit the hay it was 2 am.

The next day, Thursday, Edo and Jo headed back down to Byron to do a kirtan that night.

Dave and Patrick rolled out to do their laundry at the local laundromat. In the evening I taught our Thursday night yoga class while Param cooked.

After dinner we did some kirtan with the yoga guests. After they left Dave belted out an "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" - the mantra we chant in the yoga class. Man - usually I am the one singing too high for everyone else, but Dave left me in the dust. I got a sense of what's possible, singing with him, and I'm inspired to practice more.

Then we sat around and talked about gnostic gospels before Dave hit the dishes like they were going out of fashion, then disappeared into his room to do an interview over Skype.

This morning I grabbed a copy of Patrick's latest album with his Moroccan band, Aza, where he plays a frame drum and tabla. Dave gave me a pre-release copy of his upcoming album "Leela".

Dave and Patrick just left to catch their flight to Bali.

What an ecstatic week!