Hooray For Hollywood!!

So last Thurs saw me off to LA for the last Killers show of the year. We were to be the "Secret" guest act at the second night of the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. First up however was a trip to the Roxy Theatre to see our good friends "Solarcade" opening for Puddle Of Mud. (Check em out at www.myspace.com/solarcade) A good night out was had by all even if it felt like an 80's hair metal night out with visits to the famous Sunset Strip rocck hang outs Viper Rooms, Whiskey A Go Go and The Rainbow included!!
Next day was very relaxed with a bit of Christmas shopping around Hollywood Blvd which was just outside my window.

Had a look at the Walkway Of Stars. The 3 most important of course being


And...

Spent most of today just hanging about the strangeness of Hollywood really and not doing much else.

Speaking of weirdos, unsurprisingly there is Scientology centres all over Hollywood. But they do know how to build a Christmas scene outside theyre building.

Saturday morning i was off to the Gibson Amphitheatre for a quick programming session to make sure everything was ready for our show on Sunday.

Spent the remainder of the day in the universal Studios Theme Park next door.

All the usual suspects are there, Jurassic Park, The Mummy, Terminator 2 3D but one of my favourites was sadly missing. Back To The Future the ride has been taken away to make way for the opening of the Simpsons ride next summer. Guess ill have to go back next year now to see that one. Although in true American style, the ride may not be finished but you can bet your ass the souvenir shop is.


i did find it strange that there was versions of this sign all over the park


Not quite sure what you could switch them for though....maybe a sweet remote control helicoptor...That'd be a deal!!

That night we were off to the Springbok bar in Van Nuys for our unofficial end of tour party at what is Solarcade's regular Sat night intimate club show. A night of beer, whiskey and jager with most of the crew and some of the biggest Killers fans that we've gotten to know over the course of this tour which ended at some time around 6am.

Sunday came around and it was time to actually do some work. Also on the bill today was Fiest, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World and the always fantastic MUSE.


We only had 20 mins stage time so it was a bare bones set which was a complete surprise for quite a large portion of the audience as it hadnt been announced that there even was a special guest playing so there was a deafening cheer as the guys came on and started with Shadowplay and Somebody Told Me. next up was the guys new Christmas single "Don't Shoot Me Santa" with our Assistant Tour Manager Ryan playing the role of a homicidal Santa and Dave and Bobby playing elves shooting the audience with Super Soakers.

We did try and make the show as Christmassy as possible with 20 Decorated trees on stage.

As well as having a confetti drop of fake snow during the closing "When You Were Young".

It was kind of fitting that the first song performed on this tour in August 2006 was also the last one to be played as well. (It was also apparently the first ever Killers live performance not to have Mr Brightside as part of it)
After a few end of tour drinks it was off to the airport to try and change my flight to San Francisco as i only had an hour to make my connection to Dublin. It took 2 hours and 7 people to change my flight and i made the earlier flight by 1 minute.
Luckily there was no such trouble on the long leg and i even got 4 seats to myself and was able to lie down most of the way once the turbulance dissappeared.

So there you have it. its all over for the time being. For the first time in 4 years i have a nice block of time off before my next project begins. Just as well as i do as i now have a new home that i've just purchased to decorate and move into over the next while.
Thanks to everyone who's been reading this and checking in. There probably wont be many updates for a while now so thank you very much for dropping by and i hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed living it.

This isn't Goodbye,Its just Goodnight....For Now!!