Alastair woke up the Americans again because we still aren’t sleeping in UK/Europe time yet. We drove around and picked up all the other Witch Cult dudes/their shirts and headed to the show. We got there and the first band started. The show was in Central London in the basement of a small café called Power Lunches. I’m not sure if they do shows/hardcore shows regularly. The promoters band, Dashwood, played 2nd and I dug them. Alex is a super nice dude and I think this was the first show he has booked. He did an awesome job with it and I hope he continues to book shows. After that I zoned out for awhile before we played. The room was super hot/small and everyone was sweating. The show was technically ”sold out” haha. The bands before us (Iron Curtain and Abolition) were on the heavier side of hardcore and us/Witch Cult are on the faster side so most of the people that went for those dudes filtered out of the show after them. Witch Cult started and all the freaks and misfits in the room come to the front and started going wild with us. I’m playing drums for them on this tour so saying “us” might get confusing. We played fast and we played hard and people enjoyed it and went off. Then BearTrap played and it was much the same. Some people sang along which is always pretty shocking to me. A few people bought some stuff and we got payed well and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the tour. After the show we drive to Bristol where we will play tomorrow.
Day 6/show 2 Bristol
Last night we got to Bristol and I slept like shit. The blanket I’m using is stolen from the plane we took so it doesn’t fit my whole body and I’m not in UK sleep mode yet. Other than that I’ve drank more tea in the past 6 days than I have in my entire life. We woke up and walked from the apartment to centre city of Bristol. Everything is sooo different over here compared to America, from the architecture to how friendly people are (at least in the northeast USA). We must have walked for 5 miles and took the city in, it was awesome. Then we headed to the show. It was in a venue called The Gryphon. The room we played in was smaller than most basements we have played and I think there were 150 kids total paid. It was our second show of tour and it was “sold out” again haha. The show was the upstairs of a bar and it was an interesting set up. It was basically 2 shows. First, 5 locals of multiple different genres played (a d beat band, a metal band, hc band and 2 others I couldn’t see cause I was watching the illegally parked van). After that, an hour long break. Then we played. I‘m awful with watching the crowd/guessing how many people were there but I was told 150 or something. Enough for me to stage dive off the bar and have my mind blown that people were singing along. Ed Eames booked the show and he is an awesome dude. We got paid well and he was constantly checking in to see how we were doing, something I am not used to in the United States.
Witch Cult played and it was even more wild than the BearTrap set. As for the last 2 bands, after playing 2 sets I was too tapped out and sitting in my underwear (which are called pants over here) to check them out. UNSU from France was one of them and I have heard them before. They were really nice dudes. People flooded downstairs after they were done and had nothing but nice stuff to say about them. After the show we headed to Tim's place in Exeter. I slept like shit again. Tim plays guitar in Witch Cult sometimes and he is currently making us chili in the other room. We are about to leave to go to some skate park in Truro before the show.
My favorite thing about the whole tour so far is the lingo arguments us/Witch Cult have. It's all a joke but yelling at a crowd “Cookies are called cookies, not fucking biscuits” is my favorite way to pass the time so far.
Day 7&8/show 3&4 Truro/Southampton
We ate the chili and then left for the skate park. The skate park was pretty wild. Mr. Shit loved it. I slept in the van for awhile and then we headed to the show. This show was at Live Bar in Truro. Ed from Moshtache Records (who also put out a small run of our record Nailed Shut in the UK) set up the show and he is super nice. We showed up to the venue and there was coconut curry and rice waiting for us which was awesome. Then after that we loaded in. The set up was a bar downstairs and a venue upstairs. It's pretty cool. We waited awhile and the show started. Unlike the other shows, this show only had 3 bands on it. Monilith was a 2 piece bass and drums sludge band and they opened the show. Then we played. A few people sang along again so my mind was blown. Witch Cult played and it was wild as always. This show had the odds stacked up against it because the 2 shows before it were mind blowing. We broke down our equipment in record time and loaded out to head to Ed's house to sleep. We got to his house and there was a bed and a blow up mattress and I finally got a good nights sleep. Woke up today to some fruit, nuts and other assorted goodies. It’s seriously soooo awesome to be eating healthy on this tour. It's equally as awesome that I feel better because the food isn’t pumped with as many disgusting hormones and other shit that fat Americans unknowingly get diseases from. While I was asleep the van was taken to get the brakes looked at and when I woke up I was told we had to leave asap because the shop in that area ordered the wrong part. We had to rush to another shop near the venue tonight. 4 hours later we are here at the venue and we have to wake up early tomorrow to get them worked on. The venue is called The Dorchester pub and it’s a bar with a cool area to play in. We waited around for the show to start. Had some vegan chili and it was awesome. Tom booked the show and was super nice and always checking in on us, again, something I’m not used to. This is Witch Cult's “hometown” area so I had high hopes for the show. The first band was called Shards and they were pretty good. I’d suggest checking them out. Then The Good Wife played. We played and it was awesome. We got a good response again and it blew my mind. Then Witch Cult played and the place went insane. Everyone was super nice and the show was awesome. The coolest thing about this show is that we walked upstairs to the venue and that’s where we are sleeping. So we loaded out and I took a shower and I’m laying in bed. So far the tour has been pretty easy going because Witch Cult is from the UK. Tomorrow we take a train under the sea over to France and that’s when the tour starts in my eyes. We wont have the security of “home” anymore.
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