IF there’s an up-side to San Cisco bass player Nick Gardner shooting himself in the foot, it’s that Freo audiences should get the best performances of the band’s latest tour.

Gardner didn’t lie idle while recuperating from the accident on a friend’s farm, and says while the others were on tour in Europe and the US, he methodically planned how to make San Cisco’s stage sound mirror their second album Gracetown as closely as possible.

He’ll be trying it out for the first time at the Freo launch of their Australian tour, which is also his return to performing with the band.

Gracetown raced past their debut album’s pepak on the Australian charts when released earlier this year and only Madonna kept it from number 1.

San Cisco plays at the Fremantle Arts Centre this Thursday and Friday.