4:13pm, Buffalo NY
No-one, least of all I would have suspected I would be updating so soon (after all, look at my previous track record of updating my blog with ready access the internet at home,) but here we all are.
The journey was suspiciously easy, from flight to bus to other bus, to walking the width of Buffalo to drinking tea and watching Terminator 2, but I guess one shouldn't complain. The flight was suspiciously empty, so that I ended up having a row of three seats to myself, which I could almost lie down on comfortably. I even watched the latest Indiana Jones film, which as a veteran of EasyJet and Ryanair was shockingly luxurious. Then the buses through the night which were as uncomfortable as you would think but I slept pretty much the entire ten hours of Greyhound travel, waking occasionally to gaze vacantly around at the sleeping dead travelling with us.
Rolled into Buffalo at 6.30 am, got coffee and bagels, and decided to walk to Alex's (Lemuria, Art Of The Underground, and Tour booker extraordinaire) house, which as mentioned, is on the other side of the city. Didn't really mind as we got to see a lot of it, and it was a beautiful fresh morning.
Jealous much? Alex lives in a five bedroom house, total rent approx 850 dollars, with a large roof accessed via a window, and no attached neighbours. Passed the day happily cooking, eating, looking round a thriftstore - not just a charity shop, but a full-on warehouse of cheap stuff, and driving about. I didn't realise before quite how far away everything is from everthing else over here....
Looks like we'll be spending quite a few days here before tour, and quite a few once we start, so hopefully be updating quite a lot for now. Already I'm remembering lots more interesting stuff like the crazy man at the bus stop who told us in a James-Brown-preacher-from-Blues-Brothers style about the evils of modern capitalism and how Jive-ass-motherfuckers wanted cheap labour, but it will have to wait.
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?
