Over, Over
Just to let you know that I am back in London. We flew back in at about 6.20am on Tuesday morning. The past two days have been a scrabble to get over jet lag and catch up with work.
More tour diary soon. You can check out all the moPhotos in the flickr set.
Next gig is a couple of weeks time in Islington. Feels weird...
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Down and up and across - tour diary #2
New York, Monday 20 August 07
Tiki Bar Otto's in the East Village had invited us back for Monday night. This was good because the incredible tiredness and jet lag that we were suffering when we played Saturday made it almost impossible for us to know how good we were or even finish the set.
So we tried again on Monday and it was great! We'd spent the day wandering around Soho doing a fairly substantial amount of shopping (and a feed at Fannelli's on Spring) and we got back to Brooklyn mid-afternoon to chill out for an hour or so before taking the F train back to Manhattan.
Carrying flight cases on the New York subway is not something we'd recommend...
Otto's the second time was good. A much bigger crowd, probably drawn by the fact that the second band (we were first on before them) was Black Flag guitarist / singer Dez Cadena's new outfit, Brick Bats, a great covers band playing well known and obscure punk rock classics. They kicked off with 12XU from Wire which is a song that always puts me in a good frame of mind.
We whizzed through a full set this time and had a good reception. Jennie was particularly interested in a tall, dark stranger watching us from the front who despite the hot and humid conditions, was wearing a woolen overcoat. Respect. So, tall dark overcoated stranger (let's call him "Sebastian"), if you read this, get in touch. Jennie would love to talk to you about coats and New York and stuff.
Headlining was The Rats, a brilliant, simple, punchy punk rock band who looked and sounded like they's stepped straiht off the stage at CBGB's in 1977 and into the wonderful, tiny back room of Otto's Shrunken Head, a place we'd love to play again.
We stayed and drank beer and Margaritas until late o'clock, talking to various friendly East Villagers, including Emma, the Rats' guitarist and resident DJ who suddenly surprised me and Jennie by being Swedish. A Scandinavian conversation followed. Jennie and Frankie on the door posed for photos. We were drunk but not too drunk.
We vanished our huge flight cases from hell into the huge trunk of a New York City cab and headed home, feeling good.
Thanks to Nell, Dot, Frankie on the door and the great sound guy whose name we never got for making us feel so welcome.
Otto's Shrunken Head night 2 (set)
- Funtime
- Lacka Lacka Firecracka
- I Cannot See
- Labradoodle
- YTFU
- 17
- 7-1 Regime
Philly, 21 August 07
Next morning, we mooched around Brooklyn for a while having banished our hangovers with a slap up feed at Dizzy's, an excellent neighbourhood diner in the Park Slope area, and then made our way to Penn Station on the Subway to get the Amtrak down to Philadelphia.
Once again, I repeat, carrying flight cases on the New York subway is not something we'd recommend...
The Amtrak was great. Spacious, comfortable trains with just the right amount of air conditioning. We rolled through New Jersey, alternately industrial wasteland and green suburbs, and were entertained by our fellow passenger, Jody, who told us in detail about her trip to New York, and the Greek restaurant she dined at which we won't have time to visit. She gave us Greek cookies from her dinner and friended us on MySpace later. Nice lady, very talkative.
When we arrived at Philly's 30th St. Station, it was, you guessed, grey and overcast with the promise of showers to come. After cabbing it to the venue to drop the gear off, we walked to our hotel to check in. In an error caused by bad website usability and my drunken tiredness when booking it, I'd accidentally booked a room with a (very small) double bed rather than a twin. Oops.
Jennie and I are close friends but not that close. Luckily there was a big shelf underneath the window which I converted into a makeshift bunk, surprisingly comfortable. Think I'll try and book a "shelf room" again in future. We at Deathline certainly believe it is the furture of hotel accommodation.
The Khyber is a great venue. Small and intense, the live room's next to a great bar serving good beer and wine. We were fortunate to play with three really excellent bands. Opening up was Wonderful Spells, a Boston quartet playing punchy, Merseybeat influenced pop rock with three part harmonies.
Then we played our set to a very enthusiastic response from the local crowd who'd come to see their friends, The Failed Alliance who followed us onstage. They come on like a frenzied, Philly version of McClusky laying down a magnificent wall of sound over which the twin vocalists, brothers, on bass and guitar shriek out a litany of rants that threaten to split our eardrums. Magnifique!
Headlining were the stunning duo bang lime from New York, two members of Canadian art rockers Metric, who play a stripped down, beat-laden rock that just sounds brilliant. Joules on drums is one of the best we've seen live, and his interplay with Joshua on guitar and vocals makes them a distinctive and exciting band which we totally recommend.
The best gig of the tour.
The rain came down in earnest at the end. The cab driver who took us back to our hotel amused us with his complaints about the English weather we'd brought with us.
Philly was full of nutters who would randomly accost you on the street, but the cab driver was funny. It's not a place Jennie or I would have thought of visiting but the music took us there, which is a good thing I think.
I got a good night's sleep on my shelf.
The Khyber (set)
- We Took Paris
- 7-1 Regime
- I Cannot See
- Labradoodle
- YTFU
- 17
- Lacka Lacka (Firecracka)
New York, 22 August 07 (day off)
After returning from Philly on the Amtrak (thankfully the final bit of Subway-based flight case lugging - not recommended...) we returned to New York, New York, our spiritual home, New York, New York, where you're never alone.
Wolfing down a Caesar Salad (3/5 stars) at the burger bar below Tyler and Kate's apartment, we hotfooted it into town on the F train to do some sightseeing. Manhattan was shrouded in dense, low cloud which obscured the tops of the high skyscrapers. We took in the amazing Grand Central station, the walked down Broadway (with a detour to Macy's and Victoria's Secret) towards the East Village.
We did some shopping at American Apparel and then plunged into Camden Town, I mean St Mark's Place, resisting the temptation to get tattoos at the various parlours dotted round. I bought a tie and a Rolling Stones t-shirt; Jennie later found great Led Zep and Kiss shirts.
Weary, we decamped to a comfortable and welcoming bar with a lovely, friendly barmaid, at the far end of St Mark's and drank and ate bread and olives and planned our assault on the Midwest that would start with a flight to Chicago the next morning.
We got home to the flat after 10 and slept soundly, unaware of the storm on the horizon.
Chicago / Madison, 23 August 07
Morning came and so did a cab to pick us up bright and early. We negotiated the traffic to the unloveably chaotic LaGuardia airport and checked our instruments in bfore eating a hurried breakfast bagel. Nice.
The flight was uneventful, and a couple of hours later we were touching down on a sunny Chicago O'Hare airport. It was sunny! It was hot! Perhaps the curse of the British weather had left us...?
Yeah right.
O'Hare is a huge, sprawling airport but well organised and when we emerged to baggage reclaim, our flight cases were already waiting for us, neatly stacked at the oversized baggage area.
We went to Budget and picked up our car, a massive American beast of a vehicle called a Dodge Charger which was the only thing they had that would accommodate our flight cases for the two hour drive up to Madison for a reasonable amount of money.
We drove out of the lot and onto the freeway, it was hot and sunny and we had over four hours before we had to be there. The aircon was on and the FM radio was blasting. It was all good.
Nothing could possibly go wrong...
Could it...?
to be continued
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SLCC Chicago gig streamed live via webcast and Second Life
Check out our performance in Chicago in Second Life at: The Blarney Stone on Dublin or set your parcel media URL to http://social.phreak-radio.com.
Or listen to the stream here using iTunes or WinAmp or whatever else you use: http://phreak-radio.com/social.pls
We're onstage at 8-9pm Saturday night Central Daylight Time, which is 9-10pm Eastern, or 6-7pm Pacific, 2am-3am Sunday in the UK and 3am-4am Euro Central Time.
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Coolwave (not Heatwave) - tour diary #1
New York - 18/19 August 07
Don't get me wrong, we love New York to bits and have had a wonderful first couple of days here, but as I recall from movie / TV cliches, it's meant to be stiflingly hot and humid here in August. Not so. The weather is cool, overcast and wet. It's like being in London, with bigger buildings, wider roads and friendlier people. OK, so it's not like being in London at all. Except for the engineering works on the Subway, causing cancellations, diversions and replacement bus services.
So we arrived mid afternoon on the 18th (WARM! SUNNY!) despite the jet lag, we managed to stay conscious and cheerful until 11pm-ish when we played our opening gig of the tour at Otto's Shrunken Head, a rather cosy llittle punked-up Tiki bar in the East Village.
We went to eat delicious Mexican at La Palapa on St Mark's Place after dropping our gear off and amusingly we were both asked for ID when we returned to the venue.
Anyone of my advanced years would find this fact flattering and comical. It wasn't so comical when I realised I had no proof of my age and it looked like the genial bearded guy, Frank, on the door (who is I suspect ever so slightly unhinged and imagines he's in some Special Forces anti underage drinking hit squad) looked like he wasn't going to let me in. Luckily he'd 'heard' that our band was playing that night and let me in after peering at my Visa card and shining his big black flashlight in my face a few times.
Six or seven friends turned up to cheer us on, and we managed to hold the attenton of the other punters for most of our set, though they'd turned up to see the acoustic singer songwriter who was on stage before us and looked like they had never seen anything as loud and scary as us before... Half way through the set Jennie and I both found ourselves flagging badly so we dropped a couple of songs and finished early. The sound? Out front, deafening and clear - 6/10. Onstage? 2/10
We fell asleep in the cab on the way back to our friends Tyler and Kate's pad in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was sat up front with the driver and have confused memories of being stuck in traffic on the majestic span of Brooklyn Bridge nd listening to deafening hip hop on the cab stereo. I still slept.
Tyler and Kate's cats investigated us in the night and deemed us OK, so we woke with faces intact. I was in more danger as Jennie had the elevation of the futon sofa bed whereas I was on the floor below on a wonderfully squishy air mattress. I woke up at 8 to find the kitten, Ella drinking my bedside water and felt happy to be in beautiful Park Slope.
The Sunday we spent ambling around a warm, wet Manhattan, having consumed leiurely brunch at the amazing Freemans restaurant and bar downtown. Shopping was done and Central Park investigated, and found to be teeming with people. We drank two pitchers of Bass in Dojo's near NYU and went to Forever 21 (a cooler Primark) on Union Square to buy excellent cheap clothes. The men's department was like Bloc Party's wardrobe. I found a nice stripey cardigan. $22. Yes!
We went back to Brooklyn, by now pouring with rain, and scoffed a mountain of sushi at the fantastic Blue Ribbon before a nightcap at the loacl French music bar, Barbés.
Bed.
It's 7.30 am on Monday morning as I write this on my air mattress. Jennie's reading the Time Out New York Guide. We play Otto's again tonight at 9pm, so please come if you can.
Then Tuesday it's Philly, Thursday, Madison, then onwards to Chicago. The rain seems to be following us around America, but it's OK. We're on tour. It's a laugh!
Otto's Shrunken Head night 1 (set)
- Funtime
- Lacka Lacka Firecracka
- I Cannot See
- Labradoodle
- YTFU
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US tour starts this Saturday...
...in New York and finishes next Saturday at the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago.
I'll be blogging here and on our MySpace.
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Windmill again
I haven't spent so much time in Brixton since I lived there many moons ago. First we play at The Windmill on Wednesday, then we go to The Windmill on Thursday to see the incredible Dexateens play, and now we and The Dexateens have both been booked at short notice to play the Windmill again tomorrow...
More info here! Please come. Free CDs! And The Dexateens from Tuscaloosa Alabama are one of the best live bands around, no hype. They're incredible!
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Still time...
...to get yourself down to Brixton where we headline Spoon of Music at The lovely Windmill tonight. We have free CDs to give away at the end.
More info here!
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Headlining at The Windmill, next Wed 11th
Deathline pause to headline the fantastic Spoon of Music night at The Windmill in Brixton next Wednesday before jetting off to do a few dates in the States.
Spoon have hosted incredible bands like The Pistolas, Mighty Roars and Kalev in the past few months. Now us. Wow!
Please please come and see! Support comes from Dexy and the Hand Me Downs, Tuesday Heartbreak, plus an acoustic opener from the excellent Los Muertos, who are causing a buzz all over at the moment.
After introducing three new songs at last month's gig in Camden, we'll be adding two more new ones this week. It's going to be a 50% new set, so come and laugh and point as we forget the lyrics, the tunes, the very power chords that make up the consttuent parts of those precious jewels we, our friends, call, "the songs".
Spoon of Music
The Windmill
22 Blenheim Gardens
Brixton, London SW2 5BZ (map)
£4, doors 8pm | Tube: Brixton
Confirmed US dates:
18th Aug: Otto's Shrunken Head, New York NY
21st Aug: The Khyber, Philadelphia PA
23rd Aug: The Annex, Madison WI
25th Aug: Second Life Community Convention, Chicago IL
We're still looking to confirm a few rogue dates for the upcoming US trip (for confirmed dates, see above), due to promoters yet to confirm, and pulling one date etc.
If anyone can help with the following dates (suggesting venues, promoters, anyone to contact for last minute bookings, fill-ins and replacements or sneaky additions to existing bills) then we'd be extremely greatful:
20th: Baltimore or Washington DC or New York
22nd: New York
24th: Chicago
If we can fill even one of these that would be great.
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I'm a Musician, writer, photographer, designer, transgendered z-list celebrity. Insomniac's boyfriend. Tragic glamour and sleepless nights are my fellow travellers. Skinny jeans and pointy shoes are my mode-us operandi. I like cats. Especially the ones who talk. Oh, and David Lynch.
