Telluride

After we played two nights at the Fillmore in Denver and got to see Nathaniel Radcliff and his band play to their home crowd, we made the seven-hour drive to Telluride, and it was as beautiful as everyone said it would be. The village is set like a jewel in the mountains, with a waterfall at one end and gondolas that take you over to a neighboring village on the other side of the peaks. The main stage had a vertical pine-covered slope for a backdrop and faced another just like it, so the bands could feel like they were singing out to the wilderness. The air was cool and fresh and the place we stayed at backed onto the fast-flowing river. We sat on our balcony and just absorbed the scenery and the clean air for a good few hours.

We played our first gig in a theatre after the main festival had finished for the night. Dave was still recovering from a bit of altitude sickness and we were all feeling short of breath and slightly dizzy, so we weren’t sure how we would fare on stage. Our stage banter was maybe a bit spaced out, but apart from that, the show went pretty well and the audience danced around a lot, which was nice to see. Afterward, the Head and the Heart played an upbeat set and we enjoyed watching them.

The next day was a sweet day off. We took a gondola to the top of one of the mountains and then climbed up even higher. It was tough, especially because of the altitude, but the views were sublime, and it suddenly got really quiet and peaceful up there. I took some pictures and then just lay down and looked at the sky for a while. Later on we watched the Decembrists and the Old Crowe Medicine Show on the main stage, and finally Mumford and Sons in the intimate setting of the old Sheridan Theatre.

On the last day, we went up to an even higher village of old miners’ cottages from the late 1800’s. A photographer and his Glaswegian wife who were living in one of the cabins kindly let us record in their front yard, and we did a live session up there. It was very beautiful, the immense mountains surrounding us as we played and sang.

Council Bluffs

Harrah’s Flooded car park, Council Bluffs

We’ve been doing a lot of driving lately. After our show in Atlanta, we had a night off in the little town of Boonville again, where we basically ate Chinese and went to bed. From there, we traveled over to Council Bluffs in Iowa. We thought that because it was a casino it might be on a Native American reservation. Also, someone had told me it was named after the councils held there by tribes before their land was taken away from them. So I was expecting rolling plains and hills, but what we found was a casino sitting in a river that had burst its banks. The car park was completely flooded and geese with their goslings were floating around it.

After we played, we left early to get a start on our drive, and on the way to the motel passed through an incredible storm. I’ve never seen one like it-the sky was flashing all over the place and huge jagged veins of lightning snaked down in the distance. It was our second big storm on this tour, and we almost had one when we played in Bonnaroo too. That night we stayed in a place called York that had a cheery water tower. 

Now we’re on our way to Denver after another full day of driving. After this we’ll be able to settle down for a couple of nights, which will give us all a rest from the van. The landscape has changed again from vast fields of corn peppered with barns and silos, tiny windmills pumping water out of wells for the livestock and huge open skies. Now the ground looks drier and grassy and is not so flat, and the Rocky Mountains are towering and snow-capped straight ahead.

A few days ago in the van- and the Fox Theatre

Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia

As I’m writing this, in our van, we’ve been on the road now for about 3 hours and we have 5 or 6 more to go. We passed back through the dust-strewn crawling traffic outside of Bonnaroo and now we’re back in Kentucky. The landscape has changed from Appalachian forest hills to fields fringed with trees. The fields are a kind of straw color (which I guess is wheat) or dark green for the corn and farms buildings and pylons are scattered all around.
We just stopped at a gas station where I had to use a flashlight in the bathroom and where we continued our sampling of American snack food. Harry got some hybrid of polystyrene and Skips called Puffcorn, Dave got what looks, and might even taste, like cheesy dog biscuits. I got a fruit juice that leaves a flourescent stain on anything it touches and Matt went for the hottest potato chips he could find. Zac, our TM, is subsisting almost exclusively on cans of Red Bull and, because of his wheat intolerance, Tom is living off of a giant jar of peanuts…

Last night we played at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, which looks like a romantic homage to the Alhambra or some other opulent Islamic palace. It has a dome outside and inside the seats are surrounded by faux castle turrets and walls. In the dark ceiling above the audience twinkle hand-pricked “stars”.

Fox Theatre

It was the Low Anthem’s last night so we went into the audience for the first time to hear them out front. We’ve been listening to them at the side of the stage, but it was good to get the full effect of their show from the audience. They played powerfully and delicately, letting loose on their bluesy numbers and then drawing the crowd in to their softer songs. We will really miss hearing those guys play.

Big Mike’s Basement Party

Two nights ago we played a basement gig at Big Mike’s house. Mike is Harry’s friend in Nashville and he sets up his basement for bands to play in. He has an amazing house and a very sweet dog called Marie, who makes the back yard kind of a hazardous place to walk around in the dark. The beers were flowing and, although it was hot and sweaty, the audience were listening and we had a great time. Thanks to Big Mike and everyone else who helped set that up.

After we played, a bluegrass-style band erupted on the porch out back. They had a washtub bass and there was a guy blowing into a bottle that was supposed to sound like a drum and they were all singing great harmonies together. We heard the confederate anthem, which sparked a bit of a history lesson from our tour manager, Zac, and then someone got a hoedown going, so Tom and Harry joined in and danced with all the southern belles.

After a while, we went for a wander around the neighbourhood. I saw fireflies for the first time as we left the yard-a girl had caught one in her hands. We saw them lighting up over the lawns. The night stayed close and warm and finally we crashed in the living room.

The next morning we left for Asheville, NC, where we played last night. We had a really great audience who were there for the beginning of the show and, although the venue was pretty intimidatingly huge, we did our best to vibe out and have fun. After the show we got to meet some of the audience and I even signed someone’s arm-rock and roll!

Arrival

This is the beginning of a blog that tracks our tour through the US and hopefully we’ll keep adding to it when we get back home.

Two days ago we landed in the Windy City and, after a long stretch at passport control, we folded ourselves into our brand new Ford Transit for a five-hour drive to the motel. Sinc then, we’ve been driving a lot and gazing out the window at the passing landscape, which has been mostly fields and fast food joints. So far, we’ve also seen: old farmhouses, some of them collapsed and dilapidated, clapboard homes, muddy rivers, wooden pylons, lots of birds of prey circling on the thermals, squashed june bugs, yellow and tragically spattered across the windscreen, tractors, people on lawnmowers, huge billboards urging the consumption of drugs, soda, insurance and religion, a massive lit-up baseball stadium, and lots of neon. Although the list might sound mundane, these are small moments of wonder for us, in between the jet-lagged slumber.

Yesterday, we arrived in Kansas City for our first gig of the tour with Mumford and Sons. The venue was a farmers market in the warehouse district of the city, but we didn’t really get to see any of the town before we played. It was hot and humid, with a little breeze that stirred the air around. Although, being British, we were hungry for the sun, we had to give in to the miracle of AC for a lot of the time.

Despite some technical difficulties with the sound, it was a great feeling singing out to the people who had come to see the beginning of the show. The crowd put up with the delayed start without any complaint and were with us for the whole set, clapping along and just being a great audience.

Today we have a day off, and we are taking it easy in Boonsville, Missouri. So far, we’ve sampled the motel’s spread of toast and cereal and looked out the window at a majestic bird of prey soaring and swooping to land on a big billboard advertising adult theatre. Today we’re planning to head to a national park for some exploring and then we’re hoping to check out some genuine American bowling lanes-we’ll let you know who wins.