Washington ,DC ;

Patriots vs Redskins ; 52-7 .
One of the things about touring is local radio . Like the John Riggins show in DC . The ex Washington running back figured the Skins could actually hold their own against the Pats . Never been beaten by more than 14, he says . Time for an upset , he says . The points spread today was 16 .5 . Maybe this is the kind of inside info a feller needs to win the Tragically Hip football pool . Pay $20 and win a few per diems back .
52-7 . If we are ever listening to radio again and the local shell shocked jock starts talking ' I got a feelin' ' , get yr Ipod out .

BOSTON ; woke up before dawn , put our boots on . Climbed into the white bastard and drove 11 hours through the rain from DC . No breaky , no dins , just the I 95 . Arrived late , set up the gear and shortly thereafter took the stage . All considered , it was a decent show . Packed up and loaded out . The Hip were in fine form , sending the impressive Orpheum into delierium .

Washington , The 930 ;
It's been awhile since we found the time , about thousand miles or more , to update the tour archives .So let us say this ... Nashville has the best anti pasto going . Still , Tennesee came and went with nary a spit in the Mississippi or a sniff of Memphis . Kentucky too . West Virginia was an autumnal blur that faded into the Virginia dusk . Did we stop ? Did we nuts . On we travelled .Playing ketchup with the Hip Bus , but it was a losing battle , and we ate their dust and watched their tail lights fading , headed for New Orleans .
Haggardsburg , Maryland kept us for a night , and then , we was off .Up the seaboard .

New York was New York and not another place .

The Fillmore in Philadelphia was a nice bit o alliteration . We think .
The punters downstairs are starting the Hip chant , so's it's time to go . This one,s for Gus the polar bear .

Jeeze , How about dem Red Fox ?

THE UNDERTONES
From our man in Havana , Paul Sutton ;

At a time when all around in sound and vision were into SAHB, Thin Lizzy, Slade, Hells Angel chicks and disco (as in diss goes 'ere, diss goes der) and the power of denim & leather, Party Sevens, and Norton Commando's, someone (a mate, a girlfriend, John Peel?) played me a 7" single with some whiny Irish git whining about his cousin named Kevin who always beat him at Subbuteo 'cause he flicked to kick and the Bogsider didn't know. Well, fuck him, thought I, anyone could beat that fucker. After eyeballing the singer in a silly jumper on the telly I knew I could. Alex Harvey would have stomped his arse back to Belfast and saved the bits for Delilah. Aye, the boys were back in town. What town? Deffo wasn't the town of Whine. I heard The Buzzcocks and thought - Ayup, same shite, different town, same sheep. Then, said pal got me drunk on Snakebites (Guinness & Woodpecker cider mixed up in a bucket) and as I lay dying played me Complete Control by the Clash. I fell asleep laughing, and when I awoke to sign on - it was a Thursday, I remember it well - I hummed White Riot, puked, laughed again, donned my double-soled blue suede Hush Puppy boots like what Alex wore - and hit the road that ended in Dole.

What the fuck was going on, thought I, as another bus driver attempted to drown me, my Daily Mirror, and a sausage-roll & HP Sauce with the over-spray from another abyss in the road. It took a while, but finally, as by time I'd signed my name on the dotted line and admitted no income, it dawned on me that these fuckers were singing about me.


Thank fuck.

Dallas ,Texas ; Big D , House O Blues , The Hip are in full effect as we write ... Ahead By a Century , which must be about cricket . Fitting that , Buddy .
Not a bad set from the JPE , rife with technical foul ups and some agression ensueing . Joel is off to Halifax before dawn and we'll see him in New York . The monkeys head out early and first stop may be Nashville . Good oppo to pick up a Nudies . At least a cufflink .
Travelling from Austin to Dallas we made sure to stop again at UP IN SMOKE for brunch . Authentic heart bustin' Bar B Q . Spicy please . Hall of fame included Earnest Tubb and Joe Perry . But the best thing was the arrival of the Boozefighters MC . All decked out in colours and roarin' hogs . Great patches . Funny how outlaws always have style . Some of the ladies had patches with names like Snowy Flakes and Lady Trouble . Pics will arrive . Very surreptitious pics .
Fireworks is tearing the crowd to pieces .Heard there may be some Dallas Stars here . I wish Dallas Good was here . All the Sadies , especially Jeets . Uh oh , Hundreth Meridian , the fists are pumping and hockey jerseys swaying . Strange mix , The Hip Nation , beeer league hockey and literary at the same time . It's got dimension .
How about them Red Sox ? And who the hell let's Joe Torre go ?
I'm off to find Dealy plaza .
ps Go Habs Go

Austin , Texas ; 92 degrees . WTF ?
Saw a pile of dead locusts and tonight is the Zona Rosa . Too bad Ian McLagan ( keys on Nowhere with You , Million Dollars , Ashtray Rock ... Also did some playing around in the 60's and 70's , I heard ) is gigging hisself , would have been cool to invite him up .
The Red Sox / Indians is starting . Sianora , BeanTown .

Kansas to Gainesville , Texas ; man that was some official Kansas weather . Down right nasty .Made for some great pics , which will not be seen here until we get smarter , or younger , or find a Canon program . Have to wait til we get to port .

Boulder , Colorado ; From Aspen to Boulder via the Independence Pass entails clinging to a crumbling two lane , sometimes one lane , blacktop cowpath 13,000 ft above sea level . The ol' suburban earned her keep , pulling the gear trailor up that majestic son of bitch and down the other side . It would of been even more eventful had we hit the big horn sheep . Kind of like Tom Joads truck driven by Goofy ( sorry Steve ) over the edge of the Highlands , times five . Steve 'snickers ' Smith got us up and over and down to Leadville , home of the best baseball team west of the Mississippi , circs 1882 .
Last night in Boulder was right on . Nice theatre , great audience , kitty corner from the Shambala centre , which actually made us feel closer to home , if not closer to our inner chakras , in some weird way . Gord Downie once again giving the people all their moneys worth and more .
It's 7 am , some of the lads have gone to Dennys , and we have 1100 MILES 'til Austin . Stay in school kids , get a trade .

Glenwood Springs, Colorado ; two days of travel and we're in the mountains . Doc Holliday died and is buried in this town . Not feeling too good ourselves ----- inevitable tour cold .
Joel is in Aspen having flown from San Diego . Damn shame about the San Diego gig , but I'm proposing the band take up residence in southern California just long enough to get one of them orange tans . George Hamilton , like .
Rockies game is on . Big sports day all round , Pats beat Boys , England beat France @ rugby world cup , and they even showed the Bombers vs Stampeders game .
Tomorrow night , raspin' in Aspen .......right , that's our cue .

LA , House of Blues ; to gig on sunset blvd . is a wee bit surreal . But they put their hot pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else . Not everyday you meet a woman what lived with Richard Hell .
The HIP were in fine form and the crowd was festooned with hockey paraphernalia of all sorts .
We played a cracking set complete with technical gremlins and two minor injuries. It was a great crowd . We even went for a dip in the see- ment pond .

San Francisco ; The hotel St. Francis is pretty swanky . We are not . But we fit in on the 12th floor . Because that is the floor with the stories . And ghosts .

In room 1221 , down the hall , is the room where Al Jolson died in1950 .Playing cards , waiting to go on the Bing Crosby radio show . Way back in the blog there are pics of Joel and Dave at Jolson's enormous , waterfalled , domed mausoleum in LA .
Also in room 1221 is where Hollywood superstar Fatty Arbuckle saw his career go down in flames following the death of a young woman at one of his parties.

The gig at the Warfield with the HIP was great . Beatiful old theatre , with a warren of dressing rooms down in the bowels . And Dundee Alistair and I shared stories of GBH and Conflict until the wee hours , we did .

tell you about the pint I had with Lemmy some time .


tonight LA

US TOUR 07
' Screaming Eagle of Freedom Tour 07 '



The studio gets put on hold until November when the band return from the US tour with the Hip . First show is this Wednesday ,the 10th in San Francisco . That is if The Elk made it there with the ol' suburban and gear wagon . He's young and strong , we're confident .






Meanwhile Plaskett and Austin have been hard at it trying to capture Marsh's mercurial sound and sometimes bleary vision . We remain confident .

B g's, not Bee Gees .

Through the bottle darkly .

Are we still drunk or didn't Perez Hilton give Ashtray Rock a shout out ? Can't find it .

Our thoughts are with Emergency guitar tech and our pal , Phil Zwicker .

Heads up USA . We are playing in a town near you , all of October and into early November . Opening for The Tragically Hip no less !
Coast to coast , starting off in San Francisco at the Warfirld , Oct .10th . LA , House of Blues next night . Then down to San Diego where , with luck , we'll hook up with Steve Poltz in his native habitat and the Padres in the MLB playoffs .
Check out the complete tour on the mainpage of the website .