Metropolis Coffee, Denver / Sunday / 1145

Boulder show:

Mile High Festival, Denver:

Denver, this morning

I love this sculpture

this may be a technicality, but if it's "owned" by the government, isn't it paid for by the people, and therefore not really the "property" of the government at all? either way, i stayed out.

"CAPACITY 2620"

Colorado State Capital

this was the line for food handouts. I didn't want to intrude so it's taken from far off, but there were a lot of people waiting in line. very depressing.

Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building.

scooter with sidecar!

As you can see, Denver is a beautiful city - tons of cool buildings, and an amazing Art Gallery. It's also hurting pretty bad, judging by the people i've talked to here and the line for food outside the Denver City and Council building. I hope you all know how much I love this country, and I don't want to talk out of turn, but it is very sad to see so many closed businesses, shuttered homes and above all, people struggling to get by. I guess I focus on these things a little, but in all the years we've been coming to the USA (since 2003), I've never seen so much pain all around.

Denver / Sunday / 0830

a few shots from Boulder, then gonna go and grab a coffee somewhere and go through the last few shots of the tour.

rubbish photo, but shows the snow just about remaining on the hills

Dear Santa part 6

Kyle paid 8 bucks for these shades in an antiques store in Lincoln.

Mile High Festival, Denver / Saturday / 1505

had a good time in Boulder, Jesse and I went for a wander in town - lots of very healthy outdoor-types wandering around, making us feel pale and unhealthy... pics from the last couple of days:

Minneapolis:

Fran Healy joined us to play Side. Honestly one of the best moments in the life of this band. He has long been a great friend of Keane, and it has been a pure pleasure to have him along for this tour. His new record comes out on October 18th, called Wreckorder. (This next one is now clickable...)

Lincoln, Nebraska

so, half way through a nice evening, Tom started looking up at something headed towards our table... looked like a small bird, turned out to be a praying mantis... then another one turned up... they are pretty big! not seen one before, but a teacher sat at a nearby table came over and picked one up. i left her to it!

great Blues bar...

next to the bookshop... hello again

Ozo Coffee, Boulder / Friday / 1337

Ok, they fixed the website, for me at least!

Milwaukee

me, my two twin brothers, and the Fonz

i have no idea what "free smells" means

this one is now clickable:

in the studio

Rufus Wainwright was in town too, and we went to this rather amazing German restaurant for a lovely dinner out. He's such a lovely guy.

Minneapolis

a sign of things to come... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwEoQZWkv-4

i made Tim choose a band to stand next to... everyone has been very patient with me snapping away for the last four weeks...

i know it's blurry, but i like this shot!

Lincoln, NE

Jesse and I spent ages in this bookshop, partly because we both miss our cats, and they had two rather handsome cats in the store. I honestly love bookshops with cats - it just works.

Ozo Coffee, Boulder / Friday / 1200

apologies for the delay, our somewhat annoying website software has decided not to work, and i can't upload photos at the moment.

Milwaukee / Monday / 1900

back from a day in a recording studio, where Tom was singing a few vocals on some new demos. studios are a great place to be on a hot day. it's very cool to be working on new songs - we're not in a rush, just trying things out. here are a few photos from the last couple of days (Philly / Cleveland).

Philadelphia:

Cleveland:

I popped into the studio to see Tim and Jesse working on some Mt. Desolation stuff - see http://mtdesolationofficial.blogspot.com/ for a few of the photos.

This is one of the huge bends in the Cuyahoga River - once so polluted it caught fire many times - in 1969 reaction to one of the fires is said to have spurred on the popularisation of the environmental movement here in the USA. It is referred to in the R.E.M. song, Cuyahoga - as the following quote from Michael Stipe in Rolling Stone Magazine explains - "It's an Indian word I mispronounce in the song. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969 because of pollution dumped into it. The song addresses environmental devastation and our history with Native Americans, which isn't pleasant."

I came back to take more photos later on...

and tried a couple of new tricks (this one is now clickable...)

the lights on the river are from a large boat that navigated the corner as i was taking the photo

this would have been even better if the lights on the bridge hadn't been turned off. one for next time...

Cleveland / Sunday / 1630

it's so damn hot today. we're back in Cleveland on our way to Milwaukee, and i could see the site of the Ribs Fest that we played last year as i got off the bus. happy memories of amazing sweetcorn! here are a couple of photos from yesterday in Philadelphia. from what people were saying after the show, the new song seemed to go down pretty well, which we are happy about.

Philly

The above monument - Law, Prosperity and Power is by a pretty famous sculptor, Daniel Chester French - see info below - he created another pretty amazing sculpture that a lot of you will have seen. this was just out front of the venue, up on the hill overlooking the city. I thought it was pretty great.

That'll be the city, over to the left...

Tim took advantage of the grand piano that was in our dressing room.

this one is clickable now...

two cityscapes from after the show. i was getting eaten alive by the mozzies.