Tour Diary - Artist Blog - Tour Story

We travel beyond the night into morning, and arrive in Atlanta in the early hours. We fall sleepily out of our new bunks into the back-lot of the the Earl, our venue for this evenings astounding performance. It's a cool bar venue of the type where you can come down, get dinner, have a beer and then walk through the back to watch a show. An astounding show from Scotland.

After the usual breakfast of whiskey and coke, we wander about for a while ferreting around for vintage shops and decent trainers, then hoof back to the venue for a look at the new hire gear. It's alright. Dominic our tour manager decides he's gonna go and get a tattoo of a lady blowing a kiss to someone on his foot. It's a pretty design, and David looks on and takes photos while Dominic grimaces through the pain.

Soundcheck is very easy, and afterwards the staff feed us up with some pretty great steaks and veggie burrito things. A few of us jump a taxi cab to the hotel for a wash of the undercarriage, and on the way back we meet a cab driver who tells us exactly who really knocked down the twin towers with planes. You wouldn't believe it.

We get back in time to see our new friends Bodies Of Water, the band who will be opening for us every night on tour. They are really great and so inventive and original -- no-one can put their finger on any immediate influences.

Next up are a band called Citay, who are also on tour, and are playing with us for one night only. They're really good too, and the audience are filling the place up nicely.

Hitting the stage at ramming speed, we plough into the first three songs without opening our eyes. Luckily when we do, there's lots of people still standing there and enjoying it. The show is great fun, and towards the end, Adele decides to trip and fall right through the drums Kurt Cobain style, almost knocking herself out in the process. Of course, the audience think this is great rock 'n' roll, despite the fact Adele has to be escorted of the stage to make sure she ain't concussed, blood trickling down her face and all.

After a couple of beers with some fans through in the bar, we all jump on the Million Dollar Wagon, ready to hit the north for some fun times in Carborro...

And we can feel the weather is getting a little chillier upon our scottish cheeks. You might think we'd be used to the cold, being as we are from Glasgow, but you'd have to be mental in the head to get used to something so uncomfortable. We skip off the bus in the morning (ie. late afternoon), and find somewhere to have a rock n roll mouthwash for breakfast. There's a cheap used DVD store next door to the venue, which we'll be visiting later, and the venue itself is a pretty cool big place called Cat's Cradle.

After using the bathroom and shower, we lazily bring out all our precious gear from the belly of the Million Dollar Ride and get set up for soundcheck. Sometime during the check, we find out that there's around 8 pre-sales for tonight's show. WTF? What's going on? This puts a bit of fear in our bones as we grind through the check, then head back to the bus with our tails hanging somewhere between our legs.

We decide to kill time by buying cheap Korean horror movies and drinking some beer. There's not a whole lot to do around where we are and nobody can be arsed walking anywhere too far. Bodies Of Water turn up in their $9,000 Dolphin winnebago and I am jealous. It's really cool, they show us round it: it's got 4 bunks, a kitchen and a shower. What a great way for a young touring band to travel, rather than shlepping in a van like we do back in the UK. We resolve to buy one of these things for ourselves, as long as it's legal to sleep in bed in the back while it's moving. Some of us walk across to a Creole/Cajun place, where David has alligator for the first time, and everyone has lots of crispy fried prawn things, as well as spicy sausage. More on the frickin' prawns tomorrow.

We hang around in the venue with some dread in our bellies that no one will come, and have a good old drink and chat with the Bodies Of Water. They're really good fun to hang around with, looks like we'll get on well.

Before long, it's time for them to do a set, and we keep back the set time so there's enough people to play to. Imagine everyone's surprise when Bodies of Water walk out and find the venue full to the doors, rammed with people having a great time. they play very well indeed, with a completely different set list to last night.

We're so ready to play that it hurts, and so we jump onto the stage and blast the audience with our rough 'n' ready noise. They're hanging from the rafters and screaming at us for songs, it's mental. We really enjoy ourselves, and it's over before we can scarcely believe.

Afterwards, we hear of an incredible bar across the road which serves all kinds of amazing foreign beers. Awesome, this particular news is like Chopin to our ears, we love beer more than anything else in the world ever. We take Bodies Of Water over there for a few Duvells and Chimays before waving goodbye to them in the parking lot. We both have separate shows to do in Washington D.C. tomorrow, but that is another story for a rainy day...

NB: SOME OF THE ABOVE IS DRAMATISED FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. THERE WERE 36 PEOPLE IN CARBORRO. BUT THEY WERE ALL LOVELY, EVERY DAMN ONE.

Remember, guys 'n' dolls, what goes on the road stays on the road, see you up the front! etc.