The View From The Bus!!: Into The Heartland...

So following a day off eating good BBQ food at Fat Matts Rib Shack its onwards we push into the deep south of Americas heartland with a show at Atlantas Fox theatre which is one of the nicest looking theatres i`ve ever been to. Although its bizarre that the doors beside where our bus was parked is still called the "segregation door" by some of the older staff, obviously it is not in use anymore but its scary that that sort of racial segregation went on only 40 years ago, thats within our parents lifetime for most of us.
Today was also the day that our new friends from Japan join us. A few of you may remember a while during our trip to Tokyo i went to see the Silver Beats Japanese Beatles tribute band. Well after a few string pulling sessions the band have been invited out to open for The Killers at a week of East Coast shows. Check "Japanese John" played by Eric, who is the only member of the band to speak much if any english.

They went down an absolute storm and are a very nice bunch of guys.

Bizarrely the celeb count was quite high at this show as i found out when i walked into our bands dressing room and without looking around i went straight for the cooler boxes in search of showtime vitamin water. Without missing a beat or looking up i asked whoever it was to move theyre feet off the cooler and upon not finding what i needed looked up and saw Elton John loooking back at me. Seems like a nice guy. Lance Armstrong was also in attendance.

Next day it was off to the "Home" of American music - Nashville.

We were playing at the Ryman Auditorium which was the original home of the "Grand 'Ole Oprey" which the definitive show to play from the 50`s onwards. This building has seen performances from everyone from Elvis and The Beatles through Johnny Cash to R.E.M. and Coldplay. Unfortunately it isnt very big so we couldnt take very much of our show in but thats not the reason to play at this particular spot. We did manage to set a record for the most trucks of equipment to show up with, our 6 beating R.E.M. out by one.

Before this show i did notice this guy waering a sign outside the show...

Very strange for a man wearing a sign saying " I Need Tickets" , he seemed to have quite a few in his hands....Dont think even the stupidest people would believe he wasnt a scalper, but thats what he tried to tell the cops.

After another great set by The Silver Beats which included Elvis` "Thats Alright Mama" since we were in Nashville and a rather story that Japanese John got to see his father for the first time in 20 years as he now lives in Nashville.
Our guys took the stage with a stripped down production for a great gig in the probably most intimate venue of the tour.