chrisg's Tour Diary

We’ve just finished our first show.  The White Hart and its location, Saxmundam, does indeed exist, contrary to the belief of almost all of the British we’ve asked so far.  We arrived after a couple of hours driving through green hills, occasionally interrupted by neon yellow patches of mustard (or some similar-looking weed for all I know).  The town seems rather dead upon arrival, but that doesn’t surprise us too much since it’s almost 6, and things seem to close early in this country.  Driving into the parking area, we notice a sandwich board outside that’s been chalked with the names of the night’s bands.  “The Annex” – check.  “Volts” – check. “Drugstore Crazy” (who we later learned are “Drugstore Cowboy”) – check…. Hmm, we’re not on this board, but we have a long name.  I’m sure we’re on the calendar.  We park and I see a calendar posted – no Citizens.  I panic for a second, thinking we are totally off our rocker, but Adrienne reminds me that we shipped our CDs and t-shirts ahead of us to this place, so they must know that we’re coming.

We talk to one of the proprietors, Andrea, who is super nice but a bit confused at our appearance.  Then the other proprietor, Ray, comes down with our boxes of merchandise.  He thought we were playing the next week, but has no problem with us playing tonight.  And the other bands, hearing that we’re all the way from San Francisco, are more than willing to accommodate us.  Speaking of accommodations, we get a room!  The venue is more of a pub/inn, and part of our playing is that we get to stay in this little attic room above the place.  So we go ahead and bring in our instruments.  I should also mention at this point that our rented amps are the heaviest things ever.  Adrienne is playing on a Twin Reverb that must be made of lead.  Dan, in an attempt to show her up, is playing a 4X12 Hiwatt cabinet and amp.  In the interest of full disclosure, I should state that I am playing through a 4X10 cabinet, but mine is by far the lightest of the bunch.  But I'm trying to look at this in a positive light, hoping that the consistent loading in and out will provide some sort of exercise to make up for all of the beer and fried food, like the fries and fish fingers that Andrea cooks for us that evening, and the cans of beer she gives us later.  Ah, to imagine a world where all of our shows are like this! 

Sound here is very DIY, much in the vein of Edinburgh Castle or any other place where you fiddle with the PA yourself.  Our set is a bit rough, but that was expected given the new equipment and the circumstances of the evening.  And not many people showed up (although I’m not sure what the typical crowd size is in Saxmundam).  None of that mattered, though, because of the enthusiasm of the previous bands and their friends.  They were awesome, and made playing fun (despite laughing at me when I mention that we have “buttons” to hand out, rather than “badges”).  They teach us how to eat Jaffa cakes (full moon, half moon, total eclipse!)  Still recovering from the flight, we’re a bit too tired to join them for a swim (which they swear they’re off to do after leaving the club). 

Later, we try and finish the free beers and get a bit giddy realizing that we are in fact in England, and have actually now played a show in England.  Tomorrow's show is back in London, and I know we're doing that one for sure because Adrienne and I saw it in Time Out this morning!