Same Day Service

for those of you that don't do myspace - here's a copy of sarah's recent blog...aarrgghh.

we're standing at the indian takeaway place waiting for our food, when my phone rings(while in the uk, it's the sds phone). i don't really want to answer, b/c i'll get charged roaming since we're in ireland...but the number has called twice before earlier today, so i figure i should answer....just in case...although i assume it'll be a wrong number.
(FLASHBACK to last spring on the ferry to holland to do a bit of touring, so we have all of our guitars and stuff. a man asks if we're a band, and we get to chatting. turns out he plays sax for the violent femmes when they tour europe. we gave him a CD and a card, cuz thats what you do when you meet famous people....especially famous people that play in one of your favorite bands. BACK TO PRESENT)
so, i answer...and no, it's not a wrong number. it's the Violent Femmes calling to ask if we'd like to be put on the list to see them at Shepard's Bush in London!!! Of course we do....the only problem is, it's tonight, and we're in FUCKING DUBLIN!!!! Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!!!!

i'll try and do a summary of the last few show when i have more time...but right now, i want to talk about dublin. we are done with tour, so we thought dublin would be a good place to go for the weekend.

There is a big rugby game here on sunday between wales and ireland, so the ferry ride over was crazy...lots of DRUNK welsh dudes and dudettes getting ready for the game.

then today, we had guiness and riots...
two things that come to mind when i think of ireland....and this afternoon, while seeing the sights of dublin, i got both. (kind of)

the call of the guinness storehouse was stronger than the need to stay in the city center, and after about 5 minutes of walking towards the brewery, a bunch of policecars with sirens wailing sped past us. we wondered what was happening, but contined on towards the beer.

good thing too, since in the city center about 200 irish nationalists were rioting to oppose an attempt by about 800 northern irish Protestants to march through the city. apparently it's the worst rioting in dublin for over a decade.

sounds kinda exciting, but i'm glad we weren't in the middle of it. with my luck, i would have been hit in the head with a firecracker.

The last I heard is that when a band is on tour, they are supposed to play shows...however SDS likes to live on the edge, so we're doing it alittle different. Instead of playing shows, we're going to them. For the past couple of nights we've been staying in Glasgow at a friend's house(thanks Will), so yesterday we went to see The Shout Out Louds and tonight we drove to Edinburg for Motion City Soundtrack. Both shows were really great, but we almost had to be a normal band again tonight when MCS almost got us on as support. Didn't work out though, so we were able to continue on our plan of just watching.

Anyway, it's really not that bad...we actually are picking up our instruments once in awhile. We had a really awesome show in Keighley a couple of days ago. The place was packed for the opening band, and all the kids stuck around to the end and totally rocked it throughout. The venue was on the second floor of the bar, and at one point I was afraid the floor was gunna give way due to all the jumping. Our friend/driver/merchboy from last year, Tom, drove up from Sheffield and went with us...and afterwards we met up with the guys from Fastlane(one of the bands that played) and hung out in Hyde Park.

Tomorrow we head to Newcastle. It'll be a good time...and we get to stay with Marc and Lynne..the keepers of the "band hostel of the north". It's amazing....any WB series you could ever want on DVD. Maybe we'll cancel the show and have a Buffy marathon. Yeah! We might try to do a bit of sightseeing along the way....apparently there is a big wall that we need to check out somewhere between Scotland and Newcastle.

feb. 5 - mine and sarah's birthday. we drove from rotterdam to france where we caught the ferry to dover and drove to london. showed up at our friend ross' house. he wasn't there, but lucky for us his flatmate chris was. we chilled at the house for a while, another flatmate, frazer made spagetti, and then we went to a local pub for a couple of birthday drinks. it turned out the owner of the bar was american, christina told him it was our bday and we were surprised with helium balloons, ice cream and singing. i got a candle and a wish after all.

feb. 6 - we took a 7 hour (only about 200 miles) drive up to manchester. played a good show at satans hollow - lots of friends came out. after the show, we went back to a friend of christinas to sleep.

feb. 7 - hung out in manc. for the day. we went to the Urbis, a museum about city life, and then to one of the oldest pubs in manc. so old that it survived the IRA bombing in the 90s because it was made of timber... or something like that. That night, Chris went barhopping with our hosts and Sarah, Jaimie and I took the bus into town and met our friends Neil at the bar he works. It was good to see him. I ate lamb sheesh kabob with mint and mango sauce... tasty.

feb. 8 - played leeds at The Fenton. We showed up early and Luke. the promotor, took us to his place for curry. the show was good. shotgun dem. played as well as a couple of bands from the USA - the Wednesdays and Criminal Class USA. a few bmxers came out... good to see everyone. afterwards we went to the dry dock with jonty and joe hodgeson... did some dancing and flirting with cute english boys.

feb. 9 - walked thru leeds uni campus and into town for a starbucks. hung out with friends, cooked dinner and spent the rest of the day reading, and online. Tried to get motivated to go out, but ended up staying in and having our own private dance party

(feb. 19, 2006
for ease of reading I am going to continue you on with my day by day calendar in this blog)

feb. 10 - our friend Tom drove up from Sheffield with us, and came to our show in Keighley… it was good to see him again. He took pictures, acted as merch boy, and kept us entertained. The show was pretty amazing. There were tons of kids, they jumped around, and they all put SDS stickers on. The other bands that played were Fastlane, Merry Men and Union Jackass. After the show we went back to Leeds, bought some pizza at Pizza Kano and hung out with the Fastlane guys for a while.

feb. 11 - Drove to Glasgow to visit friends. On the way we stopped at Bernard Castle. It was just ruins, but there was a cute little town to walk around as well. We arrived in Glasgow in time for coffee and vegan mac n’ cheese. Sarah, Jamie and I went to The School of Art to see The Shout Out Louds (Sweden) and The Flying Matchstick Men (Scotland). I really like The Shout Out Louds. I’d already heard a song on Sirius Radio, and saw a video on Dutch MTV… I think I might buy the CD when I get back to the States. (While waiting in line to get inside, we made up a sweet song, and Sarah and I got in for student prices, using our expired STA student IDs. Booyah!)

feb. 12 - Went out for vegan breakfast and I tried veggie haggis…not bad. Drove to Edinburgh to see Motion City Soundtrack play.

feb 13 - Drove to Newcastle. On the way we stopped at Hadrian’s Wall – a wall left over from Roman days – I think it was built to keep the Scottish out of England, or something like that. We also saw lots of sheep, a few cows and mud. The Newcastle show was fun, we had a few fans come out – and we signed some boobs.

feb 14 - Drove to Liverpool, we had the wrong address, so the GPS sent us to the wrong town. Fortunately is wasn’t too far out of our way. Stayed at Will and Morgan Flamingo 50’s house. There was a Liverpool vs. Arsenal football game, so we went to a pub to get the British football experience. Liverpool won. Afterwards we went to a “metal” bar, and then to a Valentine’s Day dance party. Everyone got rockstar nametags. I was Stevie Nicks, Sarah was Kim Gordon and Christina was Pepa (Salt n Pepa).

feb 15 - Hung out in Liverpool all day. Had a full English breakfast, and walked around Liverpool and Albert Docks. Drove to Manchester to go to a show, Forward Russia, Lucida’s Console and Whore, Whore, Whore.

here's a QUICK overview of our week in Holland...then it's off to our 2nd home... england.

we flew to london on jan. 25/26. Hung out at Gatwick for a few hours before catching a plane to Amsterdam. Went to the hotel in Amsterdam, sorted merch and fell asleep at 6pm until about 4:30 am. Bad idea - it completely messed us up for the next few days.

Jan 27, 2006 Had McDonalds for breakfast (hurray for the $ menu!), found our driver Jaimie, watched a bunch of Dutch MTV and walked around Amsterdam a little, Christina went to a "coffee shop". Went to Amersfoort for our first dutch show. Stayed at a guy names Bones' house who's in a band called "Snatching Jenny". Hung out with his bro and his bandmate DJ.

Jan 28, 2006 - Bones took us to breakfast, we walked around Amersfoort a little, froze our asses using wireless in the middle of an outdoor square. Drove to HI Ambacht for the next show. This show was pretty good - there were lots of kids there and The Better Offs and High School Fever played. We were fed some funky chinese food and stayed at a guy from High School Fevers apt.

Jan 29, 2006 - Roosendaal - I don't remember much. We played with Puz, and ate Doner Kabobs. We drove to Rotterdam and slept at Marjolin's (from the Lulabelles) house. Beds and showers! Yah!

Jan 30, 2006 - day off - hung out in Rotterdam at Marjolin's house. Didn't do a thing all day except watch MTV, play on the internet and go to the grocery store. I've hurt my back so Christina gave me a muscle relaxant. It knocked me out.

Jan 31, 2006 - Marjolin babysat, so we played with the baby, and walked around Rotterdam. Drove to Den Helder, a city on the Northern coast of Holland - this show was really fun. A tiny bar, nice people, and even a few fans that requested songs! Christina got smashed on a local herb drink... about 10 shots I think.

Feb 1, 2006 - We woke up, ate leftover chinese food and coffee for breakfast. Went to the club to load out gear, and quickly stoppped by the seaside. It was COLD! Drove to Oldenzaal - a nice little town. Walked around the mall, and the the venue took us to a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner!! The show was small, but fun. Sarah, Jaimie and I went back to the hotel early and showed eachother photos and videos from our "other" lives. The hotel was super nice, and we got a feast of a breakfast the next morning, including Christina's favorite - pate', and chocolate sprinkles that are meant to be eaten on toast.

Feb. 2, 2006 - we played a giant venue called 013 in Tilburg. We got a private dressing room, with lots of food and drinks. There was potential for it to be a great show, but unfortunatly only 12 people showed up. Got a hotel that appeared to be made of plastic. The rooms were tiny and had only a bed and sink. The toilets and showers were at the end of the hall, and self-cleaned after every use. It was cold, and sarah and I got the room right next to the bathroom. It smelled like a fart all night. Oh well, better than sleeping outside in the snow.

Feb. 3, 2006 - Had some extra time, so we drove to Antwerp, Belgium. Walked around the cobblestone streets, looked at weird statues and tried Belgium beer. It was freezing, I thought I was going to get frostbite on my feet. Drove to Rotterdam for our show. It was all girl bands. The Icons and The Cheap Thrills played. Both very good.

Feb. 4, 2006 - we walked around Rotterdam a bit, and did some shoe shopping (I scored some fancy furry, purple boots for a measly 6 euros) , before heading off to Barendrecht for our last show in Holland. It was really fun. The venue was in the middle of nowhere, and we were a little concerned no one would show up, but we actually had a decent crowd. The promotors got us pizza, which was great. It's amazing how little things like that can make us happy - something familiar in a culture that is pretty different than ours. It was just like american pizza, except for the one with tuna (which tasted like a tuna melt), and one with kabob meat on it - kind of tasted like a curry flavored pizza. We played with High School Fever - nice to hang out with them again.
It was freezing outside, but all the kids showed up on bicycles... there were probably 50 bikes outside. It was really cute. After the show, we hung at the bar, celebrating mine & Sarah's b-day, making friends with locals and talking about the differences of the USA vs. Holland. I even got proposed to. Fortunately, Jaimie muscled the guy away before he got to creepy. Hurrah for body guards. :) We spent one more night in Rotterdam at Marjolins (thanks so much for giving us a place to crash!!!), and woke at the buttcrack of dawn to drive to France to catch our ferry to England. Of course, one perk of having a driver, is that only Jaimie had to stay awake.