So then, a while ago we wrote and recorded some music in Ireland, a while later it has brought us all the way over the Atlantic ocean to play our first tour of the United States of America. Over the 5 weeks we were there we drove coast to coast, north to south and the world got a little smaller again and our waistline and our photo collections grew a little bigger. Here's four thoughts about the trip........
ASIWYFA - US Tour Sept/Oct 2010
September 24th we flew out of Dublin en route to JFK New York to start our first USA tour. After a lengthy delay of about 8 hrs we get the call to board our connecting flight to Baltimore where we're playing our first date. As it's our first time out proper, we're opening up each night. The main headliners are legendary Japanese band Envy from Tokyo, along with California thrashers Trash Talk. The band after us are also from California, Touché Amore, who very kindly agreed to rent us their back line at a cut price rate saving us a small fortune! First show, Baltimore and a chance to meet all the guys for the first time. They turn out to be really sound thankfully seeing as we'll be together for 5 weeks! Also they fucking rock, hard! This'll be an amazing tour!
4 weeks in now, hard to believe it's gone so fucking fast! I was a bit apprehensive about how we were going to be received and being so far away from home for so long! I can honestly say that I've made some new friends for life, American and Japanese. There's only one week left now. We've travelled coast to coast of the USA and it has been the most unforgettable and fun experience for me personally in this band. Hopefully the first of many. Part of me can't wait to go home but part of me wants to continue on this trip, it's tough sometimes on the road and you miss a lot of things at home but I made my bed and I'll very gratefully lie in it!
Johnny Adger, ASIWYFA
---------------------
In America there's little tissue covers to put over the toilets in all the service stops on the road,this is a great thing. It saves 2 minutes preparation time per visit by eliminating the need to lay down your own covering which takes 7 lengths of toilet roll each 2 segments in size. It does not eliminate the need to check and wipe the seat of urine droplets before hand as although the covers are made of tougher tissue they are still fairly porous and will make for a surprise sit. These seat covers also eliminate the need to lay *"a splash pad" as the middle perforated section pops out to for a catchment layer of its own ontop of the water. Both these elements cut visit time by 1 to 2 minutes a time. 7 people on a 30 day tour with one visit each during transit collectively saves 420minutes, that's 7hrs which is an extra time each to soak up tour or talk to a new face or walk in the desert or make fun of a band member or Skype your parents or write a blog. God bless America.....
Rory Friers, ASIWYFA
--------------------
Terra firma, unexplored, by us at least. That's how I felt about our ....
US tour when it was just about to kick off. That and a huge relief/ ....
excitement to be out on the road once more! The fact we were carving ....
our way such a huge land mass and one that we knew only too well ....
through screens, whether they be TV, cinema, computer or otherwise, ....
but had very little experience of in real life filled us with a unique ....
sense of anticipation and enthusiastic trepidation.....
Plus the fact we knew we were going over to be first on each night on ....
a bill of four bands who had extensively done the circuit over here ....
and we would be relatively unknown, starting from the ground up and ....
wondering if anybody was gonna like us! I knew that the first US tour ....
basically destroyed the Sex Pistols ("ever get the feeling you've been ....
cheated?") and the Manics didn't even make it this far (well, Richard ....
James didn't, poor fella) so there was always the slight intrigue of ....
fear, danger and self destruction looming over us. Still, hasn't ....
happened yet...but then the Irish prospered here historically, right?....
Tony Wright, ASIWYFA
--------------------
This tour is 10 things.......
1: This tour is bouncing around in a converted school bus travelling thousands of miles around America.....
2: This tour is trying to avoid the temptation of insanely fatty and unhealthy food at every moment of the day, and the futile search for fruit at service stops.....
3: This tour is going to sleep in the bus while crack heads chat and smoke their pipes outside.....
4: This tour is getting punctures at the most inconvenient of points and nearly missing shows.....
5: This tour is being overwhelmed by all the amazing scenery and places we see, and trying to be a tourist and musician in the same day.....
6: This tour is finding out it doesn't always rain in Seattle and there isn't always sun in California.....
7: This tour is trying to not say 'parking lot' and 'gas station', just so people get you first time...let them work it out.....
8: This tour is starting at the bottom again,first on with most of the crowd having never heard nor heard of us.....
9: This tour is not having to drive but diving the big bus late at night anyway because it's fun.....
10: This tour has cemented my hope that I will get to say "this tour" a thousand more times.....
Chris Wee, ASIWYFA
ASIWYFA - US Tour Sept/Oct 2010
September 24th we flew out of Dublin en route to JFK New York to start our first USA tour. After a lengthy delay of about 8 hrs we get the call to board our connecting flight to Baltimore where we're playing our first date. As it's our first time out proper, we're opening up each night. The main headliners are legendary Japanese band Envy from Tokyo, along with California thrashers Trash Talk. The band after us are also from California, Touché Amore, who very kindly agreed to rent us their back line at a cut price rate saving us a small fortune! First show, Baltimore and a chance to meet all the guys for the first time. They turn out to be really sound thankfully seeing as we'll be together for 5 weeks! Also they fucking rock, hard! This'll be an amazing tour!
4 weeks in now, hard to believe it's gone so fucking fast! I was a bit apprehensive about how we were going to be received and being so far away from home for so long! I can honestly say that I've made some new friends for life, American and Japanese. There's only one week left now. We've travelled coast to coast of the USA and it has been the most unforgettable and fun experience for me personally in this band. Hopefully the first of many. Part of me can't wait to go home but part of me wants to continue on this trip, it's tough sometimes on the road and you miss a lot of things at home but I made my bed and I'll very gratefully lie in it!
Johnny Adger, ASIWYFA
---------------------
In America there's little tissue covers to put over the toilets in all the service stops on the road,this is a great thing. It saves 2 minutes preparation time per visit by eliminating the need to lay down your own covering which takes 7 lengths of toilet roll each 2 segments in size. It does not eliminate the need to check and wipe the seat of urine droplets before hand as although the covers are made of tougher tissue they are still fairly porous and will make for a surprise sit. These seat covers also eliminate the need to lay *"a splash pad" as the middle perforated section pops out to for a catchment layer of its own ontop of the water. Both these elements cut visit time by 1 to 2 minutes a time. 7 people on a 30 day tour with one visit each during transit collectively saves 420minutes, that's 7hrs which is an extra time each to soak up tour or talk to a new face or walk in the desert or make fun of a band member or Skype your parents or write a blog. God bless America.....
Rory Friers, ASIWYFA
--------------------
Terra firma, unexplored, by us at least. That's how I felt about our ....
US tour when it was just about to kick off. That and a huge relief/ ....
excitement to be out on the road once more! The fact we were carving ....
our way such a huge land mass and one that we knew only too well ....
through screens, whether they be TV, cinema, computer or otherwise, ....
but had very little experience of in real life filled us with a unique ....
sense of anticipation and enthusiastic trepidation.....
Plus the fact we knew we were going over to be first on each night on ....
a bill of four bands who had extensively done the circuit over here ....
and we would be relatively unknown, starting from the ground up and ....
wondering if anybody was gonna like us! I knew that the first US tour ....
basically destroyed the Sex Pistols ("ever get the feeling you've been ....
cheated?") and the Manics didn't even make it this far (well, Richard ....
James didn't, poor fella) so there was always the slight intrigue of ....
fear, danger and self destruction looming over us. Still, hasn't ....
happened yet...but then the Irish prospered here historically, right?....
Tony Wright, ASIWYFA
--------------------
This tour is 10 things.......
1: This tour is bouncing around in a converted school bus travelling thousands of miles around America.....
2: This tour is trying to avoid the temptation of insanely fatty and unhealthy food at every moment of the day, and the futile search for fruit at service stops.....
3: This tour is going to sleep in the bus while crack heads chat and smoke their pipes outside.....
4: This tour is getting punctures at the most inconvenient of points and nearly missing shows.....
5: This tour is being overwhelmed by all the amazing scenery and places we see, and trying to be a tourist and musician in the same day.....
6: This tour is finding out it doesn't always rain in Seattle and there isn't always sun in California.....
7: This tour is trying to not say 'parking lot' and 'gas station', just so people get you first time...let them work it out.....
8: This tour is starting at the bottom again,first on with most of the crowd having never heard nor heard of us.....
9: This tour is not having to drive but diving the big bus late at night anyway because it's fun.....
10: This tour has cemented my hope that I will get to say "this tour" a thousand more times.....
Chris Wee, ASIWYFA
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