Some serious snow you’ve been having here…

14/02/11

We’ve been marvelling at the massive snow drifts at the side of almost every road that we’ve travelled in the North East of the US, the roads themselves have been mercifully clear, with all the snow manfully stacked along the roadsides. Impressive stuff. Though it looks like the flames of the sun itself would struggle to melt these roadside ‘bergs. We’ve been marvelling at the massive snow drifts at the side of almost every road that we’ve travelled in the North East of the US, the roads themselves have been mercifully clear, with all the snow manfully stacked along the roadsides. Impressive stuff. Though it looks like the flames of the sun itself would struggle to melt these roadside ‘bergs.

Since we last spoke, we’ve been into New York, managed to evade the Holland Tunnel, and made it to Boston, where the band were gifted some bottles of imported Irn Bru. One particular scottish stereotype nobody is afraid to perpetuate. On our way out of New York, we enjoyed a lovely drive up the east side of Manhattan, enjoying the view across the river. We obviously played Empire State of Mind on the stereo on a number of occasions.

The audiences at these shows have been great so far – the band have had a blast, and everyone present has been impressed with how loud some of the audiences have been. Nice work, pats on the back, full marks, etc etc. 
Today we are in Cambridge MA, home to Harvard University, and M.I.T. In the coffee place on the corner, I had the pleasure of standing behind a Future Leader of America. You could just tell. 
It seems like a lovely town, and has a particularly nice line in subtle street lighting. The snow helps lend it a slightly pretty air as well. We discovered that some of the roadside snow drifts are actually hiding buried cars, encased Han Solo – style, in an icy stasis. 

New York was a fun day, the venue was lovely, and the guys played a great show. All of the shows have so far been sold out, which has been massively exciting. We travel to Montreal next, followed by a couple of days in Toronto. We are warned that it’s even snowier and colder up there. It’s a good job that we happen to thoroughly enjoy the snow. A year or so ago, the band and I looked out of the window of the dressing room, to see the entire crew stripped to the waist, loading the equipment in a near-blizzard condition, in a wintery Rotterdam. We later realised it had been a flippant remark that led to a mass de-shirting, but on first glance, it just looked perplexing.

Will see if we can persuade any of them to do a similar manoeuvre this time around, for some lucky Canadians.

We’ll let you know how things go in Cambridge and Canada very soon, and stand by for some pictures from the first few days of the tour!

tour manager neil.