BIFFY CLYRO DIARY – 15 SEPTEMBER 2010

16/09/10

Good evening… You join us in Washington DC, where we begin our US tour, after a slight false start in Boston, that saw Simon take the stage alone, after the London US Embassy seemingly took a couple of days vacation before deciding to send the rest of us our visas. Good evening…

You join us in Washington DC, where we begin our US tour, after a slight false start in Boston, that saw Simon take the stage alone, after the London US Embassy seemingly took a couple of days vacation before deciding to send the rest of us our visas. Please note my use of the word ‘vacation’ as opposed to ‘holiday’. That’s just for you guys. That’s me changing my natural prose for you…

So Washington DC… James, Ben, tour manager Neil (hello), drum tech Adam, and guitar tech Richard, landed in DC late last night. After a frustrating cab ride from the airport (useless driver, though slightly alleviated by glimpses of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument) we arrived at DC9, and proceeded to load-in the frankly-ridiculous amount of equipment that we tour with. You don’t get to be this loud without a good many amplifiers behind you.

A short while later, Simon, and Jonny, our sound engineer, and Warren, our legendary US manager, rolled up, having travelled from Boston, finally reuniting all the pieces of the puzzle.

Everyone is very excited about this tour – previously, in the USA, we’ve been lucky enough to spend time on the road supporting our friends in other great bands – Queens of the Stone Age, Editors, Manchester Orchestra… each of those tours was an absolute pleasure, but we figured that it was probably time to roll out some headline shows.

Which brings us back to Washington DC, where, as I type, O’Brother are currently progging out on the stage, and bathing our ears in their beautiful, epic majesty. Apologies on the language there, but when you’re describing a band like this, you sometimes have to go to town on the adjectives.

Tomorrow, we travel up to New Jersey, to Maxwells in Hoboken, which, we are assured, is one of those ‘legendary’ venues. Everyone is looking forward to it, not least for the fact that it sold out almost immediately.
There’s actually quite a funny story regarding this show; Originally, it was due to take place in Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Bowl… Unfortunately, we had to move the venue, as a certain Former President Clinton, and Almost-President Clinton, needed the venue for an event. Before you ask, we’re not sure whether they’re just wanted to roll some strikes, or whether they have official business to attend to… Either way, we weren’t about to cause a fuss, so Jersey it is… We were disappointed when we realised that Jersey Shore (the TV show) is now in Miami, and our plan to hook up with The Situation will have to be postponed ’til next time. He’ll be incredibly disappointed.

So the Boston show a couple of days back – you may or may not be aware, but we had a bit of a pickle involving the delivery of our US working Visas, from the embassy in London. Simon’s, and Jonny’s arrived with smiles, but unfortunately the rest of the passports were nowhere to be seen. Simon wanted to try and do something for the folks in Boston, so he and Jonny jumped on the plane as planned, and travelled to the show with acoustic guitars in hand. The rest of the passports arrived a couple of days later, after much shouting down a telephone, and the rest of us jumped on the first available flights out, to Washington DC, where the tour will now begin properly.

So hello to everyone, and thank you for having us back in your (incredibly vast) country – we are very excited to be back, and are looking forward to a great couple of weeks.