Stars and stripes

Los Campesinos!

Posted on Jan 31, 2009

Stars and stripes

So we've been in the mighty U S of A for nearly two weeks now and it feels like

the time has come to update you guys on some Los Camp! touring antics...the

crazy rock n' roll lifestyle we lead...ahem.

Also, today is one of the longest travel days of the tour and boredom inevitably

leads to blogging (and daydreams about Marks and Spencers food at petrol stations,

god you bastards are lucky). First of all we were going to do a completely hand-drawn

picture blog, but we have a short attention span so we gave up, but one has made

it in as proof of our good intentions. So going back to the beginning...

We flew into the bright lights of NYC to be greeted by our lovely tour manager Joe...

complete with jaunty cap (oh how we've missed that cap), fancy tour itineraries and

personalised baseball card laminates.

It has to be said, the initial delight of having a laminated baseball card with our

names on it has kinda worn off - me and Ellen have had some pretty confused looks

from bouncers when trying to get into our own shows by waving our laminates

at them. I guess they kind of have a point.

But yeah, New York was awesome as always; we only got to spend a day there but

we experienced some new places in Brooklyn:

[in front of a blue wall somewhere in Brooklyn]

Gareth got excited about some glorious vegan-friendly fudgy cake, me and

Ellen got excited about the chance to raid through Beacon's closet, everyone

else was probably excited for some other reason...more importantly though,

we went bowling.

Here is the interview and video of us bowling

http://www.thetripwire.com/features/2009/01/22/bowling-with-the-band-los-campesinos/

And I'm not mature enough not to gloat about winning, so woohoo (I, Ellen,

would like to now point out that I may have come last, but it was my

choice to fail so dismally). I think the boys are recovering slowly but surely.

We played an instore at Soundfix, and then raced across to Habouken where

Titus Andronicus were playing with Vivian Girls. Sadly, our poor little

jetlagged selves couldn't handle a late night so we had to leave promising

the Titus boys plenty of future partying on tour.

So the first proper show was at Baltimore...this is what it looked like

from where Ellen was standing:

She drew it whilst playing bass and juggling with knives. It was our first

chance to hang out a little with the Titus boys; the start of something

beautiful.

In Carborro we celebrated Tom's birthday:

there was cake, animal birthday candles, an on-stage birthday singalong...

everything to make him feel every part the birthday boy. He loved it:

We played 3 shows in Florida, where the tour motto of Bromance was born

after Titus and the boys shared a hotel room for the night. We can't elaborate

on what happened, but how about we just all let our imaginations do the

work.

While we were in Tampa, Gareth spent the whole day on a mission to

claim the top 3 places on "Puzzle Bobble" leader board, only to be creamed by

a local after her first go on it.

The Bottletree in Birmingham was one of the prettiest venues we've ever played,

and had an amazing array of things to keep us amused in the backstage area:

rubiks cubes, massage chairs, Connect 4, 'The Complete Guide to Erotic Cinema',

Rosie O'Donnell's biography, Hulk boxing gloves, an ataris, some lint.

Then we played a show in Memphis where the crowd were probably the best

we've ever had. That made us happy. The next day we realised two of our

glock beaters had mysteriously disappeared...So we're going to go ahead

and throw it out there that perhaps they may be somewhere in Memphis...

Of course it could just be that we lost them. We're pretty scatty.

Either way: Glock Beaters Number 11 and 12 (average lifespan is 3 months) we miss you.

[Memphis]

We had some time off in New Orleans so we all got up to some interesting things:

Todge had a cheeseburger for breakfast.

Ellen got her hair done so now she's a bit ginger. I'm talking her through it.

I went to a Voodoo temple and got some blessed "success" oil. Me and

Ellen dabbed some on yesterday, so I'm sure success is imminent.

Ollie and Tom sampled the local doughnuts, bought some postcards, did

some laundry.

Gareth found a vegan friendly cafe.

Neil found a burger place.

We all tried typical Creole cuisine which was yummy and then we might

have had some group outings to establishments on Bourbon Street.

We probably watched some Family Guy somewhere along the way.

[Your favourite bloggers on Bourbon Street]

To sum up we've learnt some important lessons so far:

1. Pickled products are the height of popularity...some "favourites"

we've come across are pickled pigs feet/noses and pickled sausages

2. Eric from T.A. can solve any rubiks cube

3. Barely Legal>Big Daddies>Little Darlings

4. Which venues can cater for vegans.

5. No one leaves N.O.L.A. with any dollar bills left in their wallet.

6. I (Ellen) am fairly certain I am not a cylon. But I can't be sure.