USA Part 2

Thurs 1st

Leeds didn't get their points back then.

Woke up far too early. Head bumping. Some of us stayed in The Skybomber's hotel room whilst some of us stayed at the good ole' Days Inn and went to the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) for Breakfast. The portions of food you get in the states are stupid. In Britain we get half the amount for twice the price.

,The rest of Thursday was spent doing nothing in particular. Just drifting in and out of consciousness by the pool as far as I recall.

That evening we drove down Sunset to have dinner at Cabo Cantina before heading to The Cat Club to watch a band called The Starfuckers. The Starfuckers comprise of members of Guns N Roses, Billy Idol Band, The Cult and a few others. They basically play covers. Mainly The Beatles, The Stones, Wings. It was quite entertaining although Laurie stated "I've never been more underwhelmed in all my life".

That club seemed like at reached 1989 and stayed stuck in 1989. Everyone was dressed like they were members of Motley Crew or like bands. We had a gig booked there 2 weeks later. We weren't sure how these leather clad, bandana sporting, tattoo laden rockers would take to some melodic British indie. Seeing as they'd all been jumping around to The Starfuckers who mainly played British stuff we figured we'd do alright.


Friday 2nd

Friday was the first day of our Tour and to kick it off we played at The Scene Bar in Glendale, Los Angeles County.

The venue was only half an hour away or so from Hollywood so we didn't have to spend the day travelling or anything.

We drove to Rancho Cucamonga in the day. I have family that live out that way and they offered to look after some of our baggage that wouldn't fit in the van whilst we were gallivanting across California and Nevada.

We were fed some information that The Scene Bar was a dry bar, ie no alcohol, so we were all ready for a right barrel of laughs (kids, alcohol doesn't automatically mean you have a good time, sometimes it's the opposite, it's just a nice social lubricant, and sometimes when you come off stage you just want a beer).

Anyway, when I walked in to the venue for the first time, I was immediately drawn to the words 'Jägermeister' in neon lights. Funny for a dry bar. It wasn't a dry bar. It never was. Relax.



This was the first of four dates with San Diego band, Syndicate. They're a mixture of Foals, Justice & The Rapture. Check them out. They're in our top friends.


Syndicate

Cat and Lou, friends from London, flew over from New York to see the show and to spend a few days in Hollywood. Shame we couldn't spend much time with them as we had gigs all over the place for the next few days. It was quite surreal seeing them walk in to this bar in Glendale. Krystal (got us this gig!) was there too with her friend Gina.

Anyway, we did the show and watched Syndicate do their set. We thought we were going to head straight to Reno after our set but we stayed due to Syndicate being quality and Chris the promoter constantly buying us shots of Jameson Whiskey.



Sat 3rd

We got up at the crack of a sparrow's to drive all the way to Reno. Hollywood to Reno is over 500 miles and takes about 8 hours. I think it took 10.

Most of us slept for most of the journey. It was amusing listening to this DJ. I can't remember the radio station, I think it was Hawk FM. He must have been the laziest DJ in the world. It was middle of the road Americana stuff. Ideal music for the setting but each song was about 20 minutes long. You could just picture the bastard going "ok here's 'down by the river' by Neil Young" and then pissing off down the pub for a couple of pints.


had to keep ourselves amused

It was strange to fall asleep in 100 degree heat, surrounded by sand and cactus and waking up by a ski resort freezing your nads off. As we were getting closer to Reno, some of the views were amazing. Snowy mountains and lakes. That's the contrast you get in California.


Freezing our nads off

We drove in to Nevada and got to Reno at about 6pm. Checked in to a proper American looking motel. Reno is basically a mini Vegas in the sense that it's main attraction is gambling. Bars are open 24 hours, you can smoke anywhere (much to Laurie's delight) and prostitution is legal. No, none of us did.

We got to the venue, The Underground, unloaded our gear, met Remy the promoter/owner and the other bands. The Underground was one of the bigger venues we played. Nice big stage. Remy told us they'd had 500 people in there the week before but also went on to say that people in Reno are unpredictable.



After we soundchecked, we went for a Vietnamese. Most of us did. I think Laurie settled for a Family Bucket from Kentucky. The Vietnamese was a family-run place just round the corner from our motel. Giles was having issues with his throat. All the smoking in the van and the air-con started taking it's toll. Not to mention getting pissed every night. Anyway, they made a special Sprout Soup for his throat. Not Brussel Sprouts. That would be a bad soup. This sprout soup did the trick.

We got back to the venue only to realise we'd missed the band we wanted to see, Stately Gentlemen. We went in to the green room and all 5 of us just crashed out and slept for half an hour. Did us the world of good. Went on stage and played a stormer. There weren't 500 people there. I think everyone in Reno was watching 'Rush' just down the road. The people that were there enjoyed the show. Giles got some of the people up on the stage for our last song. We played a cover of 'Ohio' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. After the show, drinks were sunk and bartenders quit their jobs.



Sun 4th

We got out of Reno and hit the 80 to San Francisco. About a 4 hour journey. Again we manage to add a couple of hours on to that.

We get to San Francisco at about 5pm and head straight to Haight Ashbury where Summer of Love 1967 happened and Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead used to live. In Haight Ashbury we met up with Jackie G and her friend Brendan from Sheffield. Jackie has been a Myspace friend for 3 years and has been spreading the word about us so it was great to actually meet her in her hometown.


walking down haight

One thing we noticed when we got out the van in San Fran was how bloody cold it was. We had to call in to the vintage clothes stores to buy jackets and other winter stuff. We unsuccessfully looked for a place to do laundry as all our clothes were starting to grow their own legs and run away. As it was a Sunday there wasn't such a place open so we decided to go somewhere to eat instead.

We didn't have enough time to do San Francisco any justice at all. Having arrived at 5pm, we had to load in/soundcheck at 8pm for our gig. But, we will be going back and next time we'll make sure we spend a few days at least.



So to the venue. It's gay bar on Polk St called Kimo's. We were playing upstairs at a club night called 'Unsolved Melody' which is put on by a San Fran band called 'Vows'. I got in touch with them about 2 weeks before we left for the states and Jitsun Vows was kind enough to give us a slot alongside The Flagpoles and The Unit Breed.

San Francisco is cool. Very different to LA. Not saying LA isn't cool. LA is tattoos and muscles. San Fransisco is skinny jeans and cool vintage threads, Rolling stones and The Faces.

We ended up playing at about 11:30pm and played an extended set. We had people crowd surfing and that was the other musicians. You don't get that in Camden now do you?

It was a very sweaty show. It was getting quite steamy in another area of the room too. Just after we finished our set we looked over and two transvestites going at it. Get a room.




Mon 5th



We were about to embark on a mission. San Francisco to San Diego. 500 miles – 8 hours.

Some of us got up early to do laundry and the rest slept in. Before we hit the road we checked out some vistas. We parked up near the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz and took photos like any respected tourist should.

We were only 1hr 30mins south of San Francisco when Steve realised that the brakes on the van were knackered. So as we valued our lives we stopped in Los Banos to get the Break Pads sorted. This added a couple of hours on to our journey. Los Banos doesn't seem like a happening town. A few shops here and there, a garage. That's it. Mexican music was blasting out some speakers from this shop where the local bikers congregated. They wore masks. James disturbed their lunch by shoving a video camera in their faces.

We got back on the road and didn't really have any more time to spare. In fact we got to San Diego at 9:30pm, just in time for Syndicate's set. The venue we were playing at was The Beauty Bar. It's set up and interior is like a Beauty Salon. Quite cool. The stage area was under a canopy outdoors so Laurie could smoke.



We'd been on the road for 11 hours that day and countless hours the previous couple of days and it was starting to take it's toll. The show was pretty good. We played quite well but after we came off we were exhausted and wanted a massage.


Tues 6th

Today was a free day with no gig so we could do a bit of relaxing and taking care of business.

We drove back to Hollywood from San Diego and checked back in to our home, the Days Inn.

We didn't really do much that day! Drove to Rancho Cucamonga to pick up the rest of our luggage where we were treated to a homemade vegetarian chilli and beers.

We went out that evening to The Standard Hotel on Sunset Strip. Our friends, Cat and Lou, were staying there and it was their last night in town. We just sat around drinking wine and taking photos. Oh, and Cat hosted our very own awards ceremony with awards for: Best Vocalist of the tour, Best Guitarist of the tour, Best Bassist of the tour, Best Keyboard player and best drummer. Decisions were unanimous. The award was a specially made keyring.



Wed 7th

Today we were playing at Club Moscow @ Boardners in Hollywood.

Again, can't remember doing much that day. Might have wandered around Hollywood causing trouble. Then again, might have stayed by the pool at the hotel.

Oh, I remember one thing that will stay with me. Some bloke in Starbucks working on his music. He had his midi keyboard and laptop.



We turned up to soundcheck at Boardners at about 8:30pm and had a look around the venue. It was all very goth vs art deco. High ceilings and big archways. Very nice. The live music was going on outside under a canopy. Club Moscow is a very popular club night for bands to play in California (Thanks Krystal). All the scenesters come out to play. It's open to over 18s too so they're very tight about ID. Giles couldn't buy a drink as he brought no ID and you couldn't buy a drink for anyone else unless they were present at the bar with you, with their wristband/ID.

We headlined the show and went on about 11:30pm. There were about 200 people watching and it looked like they were getting in to it. There was a crowd down the front jumping around. It got to the end of the set and there were shouts for 'more'. We looked at each other and decided we'd do a cover. Giles asked the audience if they'd like to hear a Kinks song or a Neil Young song. The majority went for The Kinks so we played 'All Day and All of the Night' much to the chagrin of one girl in the crowd who gave Giles a right bollocking when we came off stage for not playing Neil Young.

We really enjoyed the show at Boardners. There's a good thing going on there!

The rest of the night got a bit silly. Some partied, some slept and some didn't. Those who didn't really looked forward to the photoshoot at altitude the next day.

Thurs 8th

We had a midday date at The Griffith Observatory in L.A. for a photoshoot with Matt Kent. Matt's taken shots of us before at a gig in Wimbledon he just happened to be out in L.A. so we arranged something.

Steve and Laurie hadn't been to sleep so they were dreading this a bit. Laurie suffers badly from vertigo too and the observatory is high up in the Hollywood hills. Ideal!


enthusiasm

We nearly had a crash on the way there too. Some idiot woman on her phone was driving straight in to our cab. Our idiot cab driver was on his phone too. The woman swerved at the last minute. Could have been all over. The cab driver resumed his conversion on his phone in Russian. We now know the Russian for 'bitch' and 'women should never be allowed to drive'.

We got to the observatory, admired the views, took some shots. There was a school trip assembling for a group photo on the steps at the front of the building. One of the teachers asked Giles if he'd take the photo. He ran off with the camera.



No, not really. Even funnier. We hijacked the photo.

After the shoot we went back to the hotel where a couple of us caught up on sleep and the rest sat in the sun by the pool. Hard life.

That night we played at 'On The Rox' which is a bar above 'The Roxy'. We were competing with Camp Freddy for an audience that night. Camp Freddy were playing downstairs at The Roxy. Members include Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum and the singer from Stone Temple Pilots. Slash joined them on stage for a few numbers apparently.

Meanwhile, upstairs, we played a loud set. It felt really loud. It was quite a small stage and none of the amps were mic'd up so it was just a case of turning knobs to 10 and going for it. We dedicated 'Sending Out' to Joe Braidwood who'd flown over from Providence to see us.

After the gig we went to a bar called The Room where Ok Go were DJing. After drinking a Jager-Bomb, memory is a little hazy though I do remember ending up back at Mel from Swing House's apartment, drinking vodka coke from a mug and eating mini-corn dogs.