Brrrr!!

So, after the marathon travel day we finally arrived in Tahoe for our day off before the show at Montbleu casino. It was actually quite cold so im pretty glad i carried my jacket with me for 3 weeks just so i could use it for these 3 days



There wasnt exactly much to do in Tahoe though in Sept as it was a little too cold to go out on the water and not cold enough to ski-ing yet. They also werent really sure about the dates of Octoberfest either


The only thing of interest i saw was this Sheriffs car


Unfortunately this wasnt a sign of my future as a sheriff, apparently we were just in Douglas County.

So after 2 days of casino life it was show day. Todays also featured our favourite unsigned band in America!!

Solarcade!! If you havent checked them out, drop by theyre mySpace page and have a listen

www.myspace.com/solarcade




After that it was off to San Diego for a an evening off at a ballgame watching the Padres get theyre asses kicked by the Rockies.


Next day was the final show on this leg at San Diego Street Scene alongside Social Distortion, Editors, Paolo Nuitini and Arctic Monkeys amongst others.

Just a few short hours later i was in a car driving to Los Angeles and a flight home for 2 whole weeks so i guess next time i drop by ill be in Atlanta.

Stay safe ya'll

Ah Shit!!!!

So, we are now into hour 37 of this travel day and luckily there is only 5 people on the bus or chance sre someone would die. All our backline guys flew to Tahoe from El Paso because of girlfriends coming into town etc. So i wake up at 6am this morning as i feel the bus slow down and pull off the road and stop and i think "brilliant, we're here!!". Nope......



We blew a tyre and had to wait for a guy to come remove it. Its now 11am and we're still in the car park of an office depot waiting for a new wheel. Isnt that just a whole bunch of fun and we're still a good 2 hour drive from our destination.

Oh the glamour of washing your teeth etc in the employee bathroom of an office depot eh!!

Ooops!!

Found this picture in my camera and realised i never posted it!!
This is a 24 hour walk in dentist in Budapest a while back!!!


Think i'd wait until i got home somehow!!

We Dont Need No Water, Let The Motherf**er Burn.....

So next day we were off to the Austin City Limits festival in ......you guessed it.....Austin!!

A fairly average day was moving along until there was a loud bang from behind the Main Stage and a 30ft fireball and tower of smoke from what apparently was a propane tank exploding.







2 people were seriously burned and taken to hospital, not surprising really when you see the aftermath of what happened


So after that little interuption i was off to the main stage to watch Crowded House. Great set and a nice bunch of guys too.


Backstage, the facilities werent exactly great, hence the sign on the door of the only toilet in the main stage area!


After that whole thing it was off to Houston for a show at the Reliant Arena before a 14 hour drive to El Paso, Texas. For all intents and purposes this is basically Mexico as you can see from this picture.

You see the bridge in the middle of the picture?? This side of it is USA, other side of it is Mexico!! Of course we went over, be foolish not to! Its quite scary the difference in living standard actually. Guess, this time the grass is greener on the other side!! Had a walk around the town of Juarez and bought some good Mexican tequila. Its quite funny that you can buy pretty much any prescription drugs you want without any questions in a pharmacy down there. Luckily for one of my lighting Techs Peter who discovered that the nasty looking bruise he had on his leg was in fact a nasty bite from a Brown Recluse spider. Apparently this can be fatal over time as they bite and then lay theyre eggs in your skin and the eggs feed on the muscle but apparently he was quite lucky that there was still fresh blood flowing through the wound so they could drain it and he will be fine now.

Couldnt resist getting a picture of this on the way back across the border


Wonder how many times people have contemplated painting over the word proud!!




Next day was our show at the Abraham Chavez Theatre before a mammoth drive to Tahoe. We left at 2am monday night and will arrive at 9am on weds morning, its now 12 noon on Tues and im on the bus near Ontario, Ca where we will soon be stopping for 12 hours for our driver to sleep.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Napolean Syndrome!!

So, after a 2 hour wait for my room it was off around Louisville. If ever there was a city with Napolean Syndrome it is Louisville. A small city overcompensating for being small. Nowhere is this more evident than in the 2 blocks of pretentiousness known as 4th Street Live. Its a small street of bars, resturaunts etc, the like of which you see in every big city. This one almost looks like 200m of Las Vegas had upped and moved to Kentucky.



Nowhere else in the world have i seen a bowling alley with velvet ropes, a bouncer on the door and a dress code. What Bullshit!!

Our hotel was an old refurbished place which kind of reminded me of "The Shining". Especially the hallway outside my room



Next day was our show at the Palace Theatre which is a beautiful old theatre in the middle of downtown.
It was a pretty good show with a very subdued audience for the most part who came alive by the end thankfully.



Earlier in the day we paid a visit to the Louisville Slugger factory. For those who know baseball, you'll know what im talking about. For those who dont its where the top quality baseball bats are made. It was actually quite interesting to see a piece of wood being turned into a bat in less than 60 seconds. And i walked away with my own Slugger...representing the RED SOX of course!


Bizarre though was this emergency exit sign i saw. Now, im all for having a back up plan but is 114 plan B's eally necessary??


Next up was a 14 hour drive to Dallas for what was left of our day off, which i spent by walking downtown to Dealey plaza and seeing the place where the JFK assassination took place in 1963. It was weird to stand on the spot where Oswald supposedly took his shot from in the Book Depository.

Its the corner window 2nd from the top, unfortunately you are not allowed cameras inside the building nowadays.
I also had a look from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll where the theorists say the real killer was positioned.
This is the view he would have had, the car in the frame is pretty much where JFKs motorcade would have been. Now, it is marked only by a white X on the ground in the middle of the road.


It was strange to be standing in a pivotal moment in history, one that you have seen replayed for real on historical programmes and in movies. Its such a familiar place that it feels like the first time you go to New York or Hollywood. Everything almost feels like it is a movie set and someone is going to yell cut at any moment and part of the background will be wheeled away. unfortunately it was real and did really happen.

Random You Tube-ness!!

Thank god for buses with internet. Now i can find all these type of things on my long drives to share with you!!





That is the "Haka" as performed by Gingerbread men. The Haka is a dance performed by Maori warriors before they take to battle and was adopted by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. Heres the original!!

What A World !!!

I know i've posted this video before but i think its warranted another look, purely based on the fact that it won an Emmy for Best
Original Song last night.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Dick In A Box

Back In The USA

So after a 9 hour flight to Chicago, a 3 hour delay and a 2 hour flight i finally made it to Denver in advance of our production rehearsals at the Buell Theatre.
We also played a warm up show in Boulder, Colorado at the 600 capacity Fox Theatre.


This can be quite a challenge when you have a truck of gear that is 3 times the floor space of the stage you are playing on.


I think we did pretty damn well to make it all fit considering our normal set up is 56' x 38' and we squeezed it onto a 25' x 18' stage, this was probably the smallest show i've ever done with these guys and the crowd lapped up every second.



Next day it was back to Red Rocks to make up the show we had to postpone when Brandon lost his voice there after 2 songs in May. This time there was no such problems and the band played a great show to make up for the cancellation.


Next day it was off to Council Bluffs, Iowa and then on to Cleveland, Ohio. After that it was off to Colombus, Ohio for an eventful day. We were playing an outdoor show at the LC Pavillion and of course we were outdoors so that could mean only one thing.....rain!!

We thought the worst had passed when the regular afternoon shower had passed and then we were home free....or so we thought. Midway through Louis XiV set the rain was so heavy and the lightning had gotten so close that we had to abandon the show due to safety concerns over people on stage being electrocuted from standing in 2 inch puddles of water and lots of electrical equipment. Luckily, the rain passed and we could resume the show without fear of death. The crowd were great and deserve great praise for braving it through the storms. After that it was off to Toronto for the worst organised V festival ive ever seen with Smashing Pumpkins and now after a 12 hour drive and another border crossing i am sitting in a hotel lobby in Louisville, Kentucky waiting on my room to be made available so i can check in. Give me my room dammit!!!

Time off??!! Whats that??

So while we had 10 days off from the Killers there was no rest for the wicked as i was straight off to be the Lighting Operator for the NME/Radio 1 stage at the Reading Festival in England for 5 days with up to 14 bands a day on my stage, needless to say not a whole lot of sleep was had. I did however find a good use for a lens that came off one of our LED lights


I think my old boss Kanye would be proud of my new bling.

After that it was a whirlwind couple of days.

Mon Fly London to Dublin
Tues Fly Dublin to Manchester
Weds Fly Manchester to Dublin
Thurs Fly Dublin to Chicago to Denver

4 days in a row in Dublin airport is too many as far as im concerned.

I did however get to go see my team Liverpool beat Toulouse 4-0 in the European Champions League.

Every Godamn Year!!

So, it rained at Lowlands festival...again. Luckily all the stages are indoors in tents but unfortunately the main stage tent only holds 15,000 and the festival capacity is 50,000 this can lead to lots of people being stuck outside.We played on a pretty good bill today with Editors, Kasabian and Damien Rice all playing good sets.


After that it was off to UK for the V festivals in Stafford and Chelmsford alongside Kasabian, James Morrison, Goo Goo Dolls, KT Tunstall and Manic Street Preachers.


Follwong two good shows and not much sleep it was off to Belfast for the final European date of the Sams Town 06/07 World Tour at the Tennants Vital Festival. It was a fitting end to the tour with a great audience proving i was right to keep bugging the band to play Belfast at some point.