US Tour Diary – Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn

We drove into Philadelphia the following day for a radio session at World Café. The session went well, and the studio was great. We were loading the gear out down a back alley under an overhead railway line, in a pretty industrial looking neck of the woods, whilst a mile-long freight train sparked and scraped by above us, and it struck me that we couldn’t have been more “in America”. There was little time for whimsy however, as we had to head on over to the North Star Bar for tonight’s gig.

The North Star had an interesting stage set up, with monitors suspended from a balcony which extended to about two metres in front of the stage. They also had cheap wings, and good pasta on the go, which was welcomed by everyone. We were informed by an old friend that this part of town was a little off the beaten track, and with the recent snows threatening to return later in the evening we weren’t expecting much by way of turnout – as mentioned previously, this tour was going to run much like our first time round England, or anywhere else for that matter: some highs, some lows, and some in between. It was really up to us to maintain the momentum for the next three weeks, and be able to pick it up every night, no excuses. We had two opening bands tonight, the first Gunfight!, followed by US Royalty, both of whom played good solid sets. I watched US Royalty from the balcony who were pulling all kinds of shapes up on the stage, and throwing in a bit of timpani as well. The crowd was small but enthusiastic, and there were more people here than I expected given the fact that it was now a certifiable blizzard outside. Indeed, at the end of the gig everyone left within about two minutes, and on opening the back door it became obvious why they were in such a hurry – a good five inches of snow had fallen whilst we had been playing, making loading out a bit more fun than really necessary…

We made our way at a snail’s pace, passing the “Rocky steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and on out of town in a single-file queue of traffic which was sticking to the middle lane of the snowbound freeway. It was at this point that our parting gift (“Take them away. Please…”) from Lauren and Susannah came into use – four “snuggies”, which for the uninitiated are essentially fleece blankets with sleeves attached, designed for people who spend way to much time in front of the television, the sleeves allowing sufficient mobility to pick up a remote control or handful of nachos. It was both freezing and uncomfortable in the van, as we had yet to work out the best seating arrangements in the back, and it didn’t bode well for the sixteen-hundred mile drive between Minneapolis and Seattle. However, tonight was just a short run to New York, and we arrived to the sight of the Manhattan skyline at about three in the morning. I was a little too hypothermic to fully appreciate the view, looking forward at this stage more to a warm bed than anything else. We finally got to our hotel in Brooklyn sometime after three.

The next morning we awoke to bright sunshine, the freezing wind had backed off a touch, and after a hearty breakfast of bagels, waffles, coffee and the like, we re-packed the van (which had changed in appearance from bright yellow to an off-grey, caked in salt and mud from last night’s drive) and made way to WNYC’s studio on Varick Street for our one live radio session of the tour (the others being pre-recorded). We were playing three songs on the Soundcheck show, starting directly after interviews with Pitchfork editor Ryan Schreiber discussing the new Radiohead album, and Valery Sergiev, principal conductor of the LSO. We played three tracks, starting with A Darkness Rises Up, followed by I Used To Dream and finishing with You Know You’re Not Dead, which all seemed to go pretty well – although it was hard to tell as there was a sizeable extra layer of nervousness added by the fact that every noise you make in the room is simultaneously being transmitted off the top of the Empire State Building…yikes!

We made for the Mercury Lounge, situated on East Houston Street, just along from Katz’s Deli and Ray’s Pizza, both of which we were to hit pretty hard over the next day or two. After setting up and soundchecking, we took a swing round to a great coffee and cake shop, the name of which escapes me but I get a funny feeling was simply called “Cake Shop”, for some exorbitantly (yet oddly quality-appropriate) priced carrot cake and coffee. Then it was to the drugstore to load up on extra-useful stuff like little tiny packets of hair gel and lip balm, the liquor store for a bottle of gin, and Ray’s for a hefty pizza-slice dinner. Healthy living does not come better than this…

The gig was sold out, which was a good start to the night to say the least, and we had a ball. As we had several friends both old and new in attendance, afterwards we opted to leave most of the gear in the venue and make for the biggest dive of a bar that we could find, playing pinball and drinking Maker’s on the rocks into the wee small hours, in a haze of flashing lights and genuine surprise at actually being in New York. We were staying in Brooklyn with Nellie, another brave friend-of-a-friend (soon to become friend of course!), who was willing to put up all of us, although may have neglected to tell the other residents of her apartment who looked a little surprised in morning. Having woken at about nine, to hear tales of the previous night’s shenanigans, such as my blaming Kas for what transpired to be a cat pawing at my arse in the night, and our general abuse of the communal basement area, we stumbled out into the morning sunshine blinking and bleary eyed to head to the Bronx.

We were playing a session for Fordham University’s WFUV radio, which went surprisingly well given the lack of sleep involved, then it was back to the Mercury Lounge to pick up the rest of the gear. Around this point some decided that a $20 pastrami sandwich from Katz’s was an appropriate expenditure. And on viewing the many pounds of meat crammed into it, it didn’t actually seem that ridiculous an outlay. We made tracks towards the Rock Shop in Brooklyn, which was a long, narrow venue with a particularly tight stage for six. Soundcheck was an hysterical affair, with Doug walking in at one point to find all six of us on stage, and Kas at the desk, laughing so much that we couldn’t actually play. There was something odd going on at the back which seemed to be focusing Craig’s electric guitar sound directly into my left ear at an impossibly high volume – it sounded absolutely mental. We decided that things weren’t going to get much better until there were some people in the room so headed round the corner for massive bowls of ramen, which was nearly the undoing of Craig who found himself standing outside the restaurant, clutching his stomach and proclaiming that he was going to die right there on the pavement – whilst the rest of us rather callously laughed…

The gig was full again, and the sound on stage had improved considerably (Kas discovering at the beginning that the guitar was turned all the way up to 10 in my monitor for no reason whatsoever). Everyone was on top of each other and there was very little room for manoeuvre on stage, but the gig seemed to go down very well regardless. We packed up and headed back to Nellie’s apartment, where, after a couple of drinks, everyone slept with the studious focus of people that hadn’t slept yesterday.

We rose in the morning and headed out onto the beyond-repair fire escape for coffee and cigarettes, then climbed back in the kitchen window and said our goodbyes. We were making for Boston today, and we left New York happy to have had a great couple of gigs, but sad that we didn’t have enough time to explore or take in even one percent of what the city has to offer. The place is just incredible. Around this point I promised to myself that this wouldn’t be my both my first and last time here, a promise I intend to keep one way or the other. Once we had left the amazing jumble of the Manhattan skyline behind us, it was foot-to-the-floor all the way to Boston, and time to start unloading the gear all over again…

BR xxx