Thursday 5 November 2009

Whoops got a bit behind.

I was intending on writing a blog every day for every show.

Then it was my birthday, then I got busy sorting out some Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now stuff, then I had some song ideas I wanted to work on, then the days I hadn't written about started adding up and the task looked insurmountable, then the dog ate it etc.

Here are some of the days I've missed so I can start slowly catching up. It was ages ago though and anything amusing that might have happened has long been forgotten. Im just writing them because I promised myself I would.

Tuscon

We played at a place called Club Congress. It is the place where John Dillinger had his last stand against the local police. It is also a hotel. The hotel is pretty old by American standards and they try to keep it in that style. There are no televisions in the rooms and all the furniture and fittings are from the 30's (I think). Although it is an old building for America, it looked, in a good way, like the first bedsit I lived in when I left home.

The show was fun it was all ages so they put a rope down the middle of the room. It was one side for over 21 drinkers, the other for under 21's not drinking. I enjoyed aiming specific songs at specific sides of the room. Legally drinking and the age of consent in Arizona are both 21+ so most of our songs went over the heads of the under 21's who have definitely not had sex or drunk any booze. They seemed to enjoy the show anyway.

San Diego

San Diego was fun. We played the Casbah one of my favourite venues in America. I twittered about the show and quite a few people told us to 'Rock The Casbah'. This reminded me of a game my brother invented in which when at an indie disco with Jasper you request that the DJ plays 'Rock The Casbah' by The Clash. Once it starts playing you change the words to 'Rock The Jasper' and rock Jasper from side to side against his will. You can also change the words 'Sharia Dont Like It' to 'He Really Dont Like It' so the song becomes 'He Really Don't Like It/Rock The Jasper/Rock The Jasper'. He really doesn't like it, which makes it even funnier.

My friend Ben Lee has just moved to San Diego. I can see why. Everybody we met was really friendly. I was hanging out with the band that supported us Northern Towns and some of their friends from other hardcore bands afterwards and they were so nice I briefly thought about moving there myself.

Pomona

All I can really remember about Pomona is that one of the support bands covered the theme music from Ghostbusters which was quite funny as they were one of those sort of Killers-y bands and it was unexpected. It would have been funnier though if they had followed it up by immediately covering the theme music from Ghostbusters 2.

I spent most the day in Pomona reading Colin Meloy from the Decemberists 33 1/3 book about the Replacements album 'Let It Be'. The book is a lot more about Colin Meloy growing up than it is about the Replacements. I still really enjoyed it though, the album is clearly a very personal record for him. It made me wish I had owned 'Let It Be' when I was growing up. I think it would have helped.

I wonder how you go about writing those 33 1/3 books. I would like Paul Guided Missile to write one about The Yummy Fur's album Sexy World. Well I'd like to write it myself but he's probably far more qualified.




5 comments:

Unknown said...

Eddie,

The new place you're playing in Chicago is across the street from where Dillinger was killed.

So be careful.

Jellybean said...

From San Diego...

Art Brut hit and run.
There seemed to be less than fifty
but Eddie said it was fun.
Mikey looked rather nifty
and Jasper's huge eyes were shifty.
Metal Ian had a wicked hairdo,
Freddy was cool like the song Caribou.
Afterwards it was like Twist and Shout,
finally quenched my rock show drought.

XO

skiggs said...

tucson was muy fun! to help eddie's murky mind, here's my take.
fun show with eddie going into the crowd at one point. eddie was poked by someone with, what eddie described as, a knitting needle. eddie then advised the crowd to have th offender arrested....if eddie were to later die. later at bar...eddie said he was going to have jasper's fingers broken, or was it cut off? either way, i say eddie could then realise his dream of having johnny marr join art brut! ;) fun was had by all. Mikey, you did share those stellas i gave you at the end of the evening, right?

scott and jessica

Jessica Boots said...

Skiggs, don't forget the part when you told Freddy she was the "George Harrison" of the band.
The place you're playin' in Minneapolis is about a mile where Dillinger lived, briefly.
While at the Tripple Rock, order the poutine. The place has some of the best bar food around.

Jessica - Of The Phoenix Lovers

Anonymous said...

So sad you didn't do this for the rest of the tour, was looking forward to hearing about my town. If you remember anything I'm sure you'd make some kids who just want to rock out very happy.