Fested out.

Man, the fest was insane. In a thoroughly good way, of course. Saw a metric buttload of bands, including Paint It Black, The Holy Mountain, The Ergs (double set!), Leatherface, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, The Copyrights etc etc etc. My biggest worry about the whole affair was that like larger festivals in Britain it would be so crowded you couldn't see as much as you would like, but for the most parts it was easy to get in anywhere. Oh, yeah and we played. Pretty chaotic but I think it came off well. Most of the people there had seen us earlier on tour so had a good few singing along. Nice feeling.

Some photos:

Alex, Sheena and myself listen to The Used Kids from the queue outside:

Our show at the Fest:
Some idiots:
We play the pre-fest show at Tampa:

Anyway, tour must go on. Today we finally got our LPs, straight from the pressing plant in Nashville. Also got our own personal tour of the process, pretty strange to see all the major label pressing happening in the same place as ours. The Guns and Roses album 'Chinese Democracy,' which  has been 17 years in the making, and was at one point never going to happen, was coming off the presses as we walked round. No interest in hearing it, but could have made a tidy profit if we'd managed to snaffle some.

Lalalala. 

More photo's:

We discovered the Niagara Falls (with some help):

Some rock and roll happened:
This is Alex's housemate, Pat. Pat is awesome and cooks you food:We packed all our lovely new t-shirts:
Finally, tour started. On the first day we were on college radio. Russ only swore twice:
Lemuria's homecoming show in Buffalo was crazy:
On the drive somewhere, some dude gave us pizza:
Some were overjoyed:

Others, less so:
At some point we saw Lake Michigan:
And had a photoshoot for our new shoegaze band:
Also in Michigan, some kind soul made us breakfast. We repaid them by fucking around with table decorations and breaking a glass:
We were very sorry:
Lemuria played a packed out show in Chicago:
Gordon Gano's Army got down to business:
And Jay and I blended in effortlessly with local fashions at a random gas station:
The advantage of being an international super-star is you get to meet washed out celebrities:
And amazing dogs:
Last night we stayed in a lovely house and told stories:
And had a fire:
The end?

Photo Dump in Birmingham, Alabama

So we've played some more shows and that's been pretty good. We've been moving further south, but for some reason getting colder, at least for now. We have ALL been sick, which I guess is inevitable when you live within a metre of five people for pretty much 24 hours a day.

Tonight's show was in a book shop (you realise how happy this makes me?) and that's where we are staying tonight. Not only am I surrounded by reading material but the owner has given me his laptop for the night. Here, then, is an incredibly abridged story of the tour so far told by photos from Rich's camera.

The first week we spent in Buffalo at Alex's house. It was pretty hectic:

We went out to the countryside and stayed with Sheena's dad. He has quad bikes:

Some people enjoyed it, while others had reservations:

Continued in following post...

St. Louis and Springfield

St. Louis was the first show we've had so far that the police showed up... Turns out they really didn't want to be there so they just told us to turn it down and wandered off. By the time they came back, all the bands had been able to play at least, and even then they just hung around chatting to people for a bit. Before they left (with a Lemuria CD) they just told the people who lived there to try and chat to the neighbours next time because (and I quote) "it's a really sweet party spot you've got here."

Stayed at an amazing house and finally washed all my clothes, and myself.

Last night was Springfield, which had a bad feeling to it when we first turned up, but then was one of the best shows so far. Went for pizza afterwards at the Pizza Machine, which is a warehouse that some kid has turned into a pizza shop and welded all of this amazing furniture and toys into the structure. It also had two slides and a smoke gun.

 

Too many shows...

To count in my current state.

Still haven't really stopped to take a breath since we got going, playing shows every night then moving on the next day. Played Fargo a few days ago, which is the furthest north and west we go on tour, now working our way south for Florida. Fargo was weird with a capital W, hard to describe why but just had a strange atmosphere. After the most lack-lustre show we've done so far, we went to the Cinema then decided to drive through the night to Lincoln. Arrived about 8 am and booked into a two person motel room. Lincoln was quite the opposite from Fargo, welcoming and friendly. Played a basement show and went back to our motel to sleep - it worked out as a nice break having somewhere to stay which wasn't someone else's house.

Last night was Kansas City, I guess you'd describe it as a basement show but they've really gone to town with the sound setup, there's a little stage (with a curtain) and a "bar" so it was a bit more than a simple basement. First time I've got properly drunk this tour, but it's hard not to when people are feeding you whisky when you play. Feeling a little delicate now to say the least. Oats are good.

5 Shows, 4 Days, Columbus, Ohio

Yes, you could say that I am tired.

Buffalo show was huge - I never thought I'd see a pit for Lemuria. Ninja Gun are seriously nice guys, they have a second hand church van which apparently stops them getting hassled by the cops. Anyway, show went really well, yes. Next night it was a Community church, yes, strange but ok. Plenty of free food but mainly very rich cakes etc, I still feel awful from them a bit.

Today's two shows were basement shows, so pretty rad. Unfortunately the drive between the shows (only two hours) infuriated me for no good reason. Missed the first band to have a little walk and cool down. Really did not want to go back and play, or talk to anyone. Of course, as soon as we started to play, felt amazing. We're also sleeping at the same house tonight and the sound of the keyboard is SO loud, i best go as everyone here is trying to sleep.

Rah.

Day Two of Tour Proper

Well, Russ only swore twice on the radio yesterday so I think we got off ok. Seriously though, it was pretty fun - we were interviewed all together with Lemuria which meant there was a slightly more serious element present. After that it was pretty much straight on to the show, held at a mexican restaurant, which could have been weird, but it wasn't. Healthy attendance, and people seemed pretty into it. We played as well as could be hoped for the first night of tour (ie. we messed up once, but in such a way that no one could have noticed,) and people bought stuff. They also wanted stuff signing which I still feel uncomfortable about, but it's more awkward to argue I guess. Rich did put his foot down when it came to signing t-shirts so we signed set-lists and 7 inches. Yeah, people are strange.

Buffalo show tonight should be massive as it's the Lemuria home crowd and a much larger city. After last night I am definately excited, not nervous. 

tata