We've just completed our first tour, we started last wednesday night in Derby where we were joined by our new friend Owensie all the way from Dublin and our driver and all round legend for the tour Johnny Shepherd. We took over the open mic night at Ryans bar with our first local show after our original plan of a studio show had gone down the pan so it was nice to see so many friendly faces out and about for the wednesday night show, Owensie followed us and went down a treat with the beautiful songs taken from his debut album "Aliens" (which have been stuck in my head now for days).
Next stop Jam Cafe, Nottingham (home of the UK's best breakfast apparently) where we were also joined by Nottingham newcomer Alex Hel who opened the show reminding us at times of Frank Turner as he bashed out his set to an appreciative crowd. We were sandwiched in the middle and stuck out like a sore thumb as we turned the volume up in the cosy little coffee shop. Again another night of friendly faces helping ease us into our stride. Owensie headlined playing another great set ,those who listened carefully to his stories fell in love with his set, the others that talked during it missed out, their loss. After the show we took Owensie for a walk round the city with a trip to the castle and a meeting with Robin Hood before it was time to crash for the night.
Sheffield was next on our journey, we made our way to our friends Kimmy Yeah's rehearsal space where we were greeted by lots of lingering movember mustaches, the lads had spent the past fortnight building a stage and turning the space into their own awesome little venue. It was a freezing night out but that wasn't deterring anyone, we unloaded our gear and made our way to the Cromona pub for a quick pint and to meet the invite only crowd of about 30 ppl all up for a good night. The Smithereens kicked the night off back at Kimmy Yeah HQ, it was their second gig and they played a blinder, reminding me at times of Reuben. Our turn next and possibly our tightest show to date.
Then it was time for our hosts Kimmy Yeah to take to their new stage, they are a band that just seem to get better and better everytime i see them and there were no exceptions this time either despite being hammered.
Owensie headlined again, this time asking the crowd to take a seat on the ground as he proceeded to play another wonderful set, the crowd were silent for all his songs but couldn't quite hold back the drunken chatter between songs which led to some funny play school banter from Owensie as he let the kids have their "talkie time", nonetheless Owensies talents didn't go unnoticed as everyone loved his songs. We hung around for a while after the show before heading back to our buddy Jakes for the night.
The temple of boom in Stourbridge was saturday nights stop off and our last night with Owensie. The Temple is an amazing little studio/rehearsal space run by the guys in Inertia Blooms. Bands set up between 2 rehearsal rooms and the crowd swop from one to the other for each band. It was an eclectic 6 band bill, BYOB affair which very quickly got busy, a doom band whom i've forgotten their name opened the show and were followed by Owensie who played easily his best set of the tour with everyone keeping the talking to a minimum and giving him their undivided attention, Jamie and I joined him on Guitar and Percussion for his track "Aliens".
We had a brilliant night setting up in the middle of the room and getting the crowd to gather around us, a few minor technical problems threatened to plague us but we managed to stave them off and get through the set before inviting owensie to join us for an improv jam and proceeded to get our booze on, Dying giants were up next and they were stupidly good as were the nights headliners Diamonds who managed to get moshpits and a room of hugs kicking off in the tiny room and with that the night was over and we set off for the drive back to Derby as Owensie had a long day ahead of him to get back to Dublin.
Last Day and the tour's down to birthday boy Jamie, myself and our driver Johnny for the trip to Leeds, we arrived at The Cardigan arms in good time and soundchecked before nipping downstairs for a few pints where we got sidetracked by some older woman chatting shit at the bar resulting in us missing Maganpinna's set like douche bags (Sorry lads) :S
One of the things we've been asking audiences on this tour was if they'd ever seen the Trailer park boys (we stole our name and song names from the show) in every other city at least one or two people had seen it but not in Leeds, so we educated them briefly on what they're missing out on before launching into our loudest set of the tour. A band called Invisible Cities played after us, they were really fuckin good so you should check them out if you get a chance. After the show we headed home, dreading the early return to work in the morning but with the Trailer park boys live show in Manchester to look forward to afterwards.
MASSIVE THANKS to Owensie, Johnny Shep, Ryan Lauder, Chris and the staff @ Jam Cafe, Carrie @ One beat, Neff, Kimmy Yeah, The Smithereens, Jake, The temple of boom, Bruce & the other diamonds in Diamonds, Magnapinna & Invisble Cities and everyone who came along to any of the shows and had a banter with us afterwards.
Our next show is on the 27th January at The Workshop in London
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