Saturday 7th July
Here are those Oakland show shots I promised...
This one is clickable...
London / Wednesday 4th July
another big photo catch up...
Salt Lake City
Here's a clickable crowd shot...
LA
Another clickable one...
Here's ace support band Kiev.
San Francisco
I'll have the San Francisco show pics later this week
Oakland / Saturday 30th June
lots of catching up to do...
Denver
This one is clickable....
Day off in Lincoln, Nebraska
Milwaukee
we drove past a massive amusement park called "Six Flags"
Another clickable one...
We went for a beer with Patrick and the band - Jesse found a newspaper full of photos of criminals with info about their convictions. This struck us as quite odd.
Chicago
Yes, I am listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as I upload this blog
I love my coffee... these people do it very very well:
The wonderful Patrick Watson:
Clickable crowd shot...
Nashville
see the website story on the Tour Posters to see some photos from in Hatch Show Print - this place is a proper old-school print shop, and one of the most amazing places I have ever been. And they had cats.
the above poster is made from this:
which is made of these:
and printed with these colours:
which are made in-house like this:
If you ever go to Nashville, you simply must got to Hatch Show Print - it's on Broadway, right in the middle of things.
Just as I thought Nashville couldn't get any cooler, it did... we went to United Record Pressing, where we recorded a 4-track acoustic session, entirely analogue - mixed straight onto tape with no electronic effects whatsoever - the reverb was recorded with a speaker and microphone in a stairwell, and the delay was a tape-delay running while we recorded. Much of the equipment belongs to long-time friend of ours, Mr Brendan Benson, and we were really happy that he dropped by to catch up. We'll do a story on the recording at some point, but we recorded 4 tracks, two of which we have never played before in any form.
United Record Pressing is another magical place - they manufacture vinyl albums here, including the Vinyl version of Strangeland. I took about a million photos, so I'll get on with it.
this is the master for one side of Strangeland, from which the records are pressed:
they even print the labels here themselves:
bags of resin waiting to become records:
in machines like this:
the writing is reversed on the master so it comes out the right way around on the record:
we recorded to the machine on the left, and the one on the right ran the tape delay.
oops
Nashville show, at the Marathon Music Works. This photo looks like I was taking a risk, but this was a freight line, and the trains are slow-moving, and you can hear (and feel and see) them coming from miles away. Don't try this at home, kids.
We were gutted when, 8 or so songs into the set, the venue's transformer (outside) caught fire, and the PA inside failed. Whilst there was no danger to anyone, it couldn't be fixed, so Silenced by the Night was the last song, though the crowd heroically finished the song without the music (just the acoustic drums!). I did remember to take a photo, so here you all are, and sorry!
Toronto
different tour, same beautiful skyline:
Montreal / 18th June
border crossing...
great cafe behind the venue
Keane tickets, anyone?
squirrels live here!
This one is clickable...
Philadelphia / 16th June
this next pic should be clickable to open large (unless I have done something wrong)
NYC / 15th June
stained-glass water tower:
Leaving NY for N. Bethesda / 14th June
we happened to drive past a display by the Blue Angels
N Bethesda show
click for large version:
NYC / 13th June
Boston / 12th June
click for large version: