the next night, the last night was the gothic theater, what a great venue. it was huge, and the sound rocked… All the gigs pretty much we got 16 track recordings done and great filming by mike and his his super new HD camera. He’s making a documentary called eyesonthebackdoor.com . a documentary of backstage antics and what happens on the road and at the gigs from the bands perspective… its gonna be interesting!!
Now were in Breckenridge Colorado, been offered free ski equipment from Mike who does biscuits shows out here… for a couple of days and feeling very lucky…
ciao for now!!
Ok so a 14 hour 1100 mile drive in the G wagon to Boulder Colorado… Arrived mid oklahoma to find all hotels full for the special olympics, next town 50 miles on is also full, so er .. yeah… so eventually arrived all scuzzed up into boulder, and played saturday night with Ott, the fox was sold out and my sunglasses arrived! yey… the gig rocked.. altitude got to us to say the least with the effects of drink. One of us ended up dry hurling on a gravel path outside a party somewhere…
OK ‘South by’ was nuts.. over 2000 bands in one city, it was everywhere .. every venue you can think of stuffed with 5 bands per night.. The first gig we did with kraak n smaak from holland, they were really good, and 20/20 soundsystem played with us, as they did in Camp Bisco, (and for the next 2 nights). Ended up at a party where the guy gave us paints to redecorate his hallway however we liked, (the kitchen had been done, and the rest) I got kind of architectural, ned got all blob orientated.. Crazy but fun, then the hotel and pool to rest for the next gig the next day at the karma lounge.. The cops didnt let anyone in to collect equipment and we had a lot to fit in Mikes G wagon mercedes and trailer, so a hot sweaty afternoon followed getting stuff to the next gig. It was mayhem in the gig. You literally got onstage where the previous drummer gets off, and so on. No time for a full set up, but that was a good thing, just digital drums quick and rough, and all keyboard bass, and ben shone oh yes he did..power went down 3 times but its all part of it… we ended up on a tour bus with the production guys for bisco ,a dave who had really nice shoes to give us from KEEN , very nice indeed.. Thanks guys..
And it was..Orchard Lounge played into the night. Next up was Knoxville Tenessee , a great gig in the ‘world grotto’ — We’ve been trying out a new tune ’something to do’ and it finally went off . ended up downtown playing with records and all…
Then we were off to Nashville for a night… met up with Razorlight for some bar nonsense and karaoke attempts and now onto Texas… were staying outside Dallas and tomorrow onto Austin for South by South West…!
Now we’ve just arrived and ‘The Bollers Ball’ is the event tonight, known for people who put on big parties in the electronic scene…Just bumped into Ott (we shared backroom beats1 on Twisted Records with him all that time ago), who is Djing, Orchard Lounge from Chicago, and Chris Grass from Atlanta… we’re surrounded by wires and leads and dim misty lights with smoke machines going off already….’somersettler’ drifting up from the floor below… its going to be a night and a half…
Whilst organising some summer festivals back in the UK, and over in the USA too, were on our way through Augusta (home of the late great James Brown) to play in Athens tonight, home of REM and more, a real musical town…
Were now with Michael Kapelli , very generously driving his truck with all our stuff in the silver trailer, (and his beautiful DW drumkit) as we drive through Georgia’s roads lined with trees and front porches , and listening to JAM ON satellite radio , plays all the Jam Bands, live recordings, and Jamtronica, Marc Brownsteins show, (he’s been playing ‘nothing’ quite a bit)…There’s no one on the road except us, and we’ve used up all our screen wash after we got rained on with bugs in north carolina swampland ……
Well here we are on the endless road… again! We arrived in Atlanta Airport all bells and whistles, security is so tight you have to re check back in to get out of the building, its crazy…then played the same night and we ended up in Hampton, Virginia, playing after the Phish reunion shows, they haven’t played for 5 years and 150,000 people turned up for 3 nights of 13,000 so a lot of jamband fans hanging around…
Then after a bit of beach animation in virginia beach, went on to Asheville, a real alternative town, played a reeeeally long set, said hi to the telepath guys and then a party with some xylophones and drums, nice people, talking about JamCruise, which is where 4000 jamband fans get on, well a cruiseliner with a whole bunch of stages and bands playing, all day by the pool, and more.. It sounds crazy we think.., and sort of perfect too. For now its more driving, onto Charlestown, South Carolina,, where we played last night .. And it rocked!!
We had a great double projector , big screen great vibe, 13 track recording and video,. A great crowd, everything worked… we all felt really good…And we started off with a video of the journey sped up and right up to the door of the pourhouse,,which started the gig off…One tune ‘ the egg over there charlestown’ is online on youtube somewhere …
