The tour kicks off in Madison – snowy, freezing cold Madison. There’s a beautiful blue sky and clear white ground. We spend the first day getting stuff together and ready for a fantastic tour.
I have to say, I’m filled with nerves and excitement and can’t quite believe we’re about to support the almighty Dropkick Murphys on their St Patrick Day Tour. It is going to be MENTAL!
The room is already filling up as we wait on the sides for our stage time. A beer and a swig of rum sets me up and I feel like we explode on to stage. We’ve been waiting for this for months and its finally here and it’s great! I love it, I love it, I LOVE it!
Beautiful venue and a beautiful crowd! Straight after the show I head over to merch and meet loads of cool people. It’s so much fun!
The next day is a Beer festival, Brewfest, in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. It’s a long slow drive over treacherous icy conditions. Eventually we pull up at the black bear casino. It’s a long wait so we stuff our faces at the ‘all you can eat’ buffet and gamble. I put a dollar into a machine and won $5 back. Woo hoo! A good feeling and a good omen for the gig…the room is full of people singing and chanting and sampling all the great beer. It’s a fun show and again working on merch is great fun. Thanks for helping out Canadian Colin and oh my god!! I just remembered this….jeeeeeeeeesus!!
It’s another early start as it’s a 10 hour drive back south to Chicago. The windy city. The Riviera is an old beautiful theatre very near to the Aragon where we supported the wonderful Floggiing Molly last year and played our first ever US gig at Cubby Bear Bar the year before. Blimey…what a great few years its been. Life is good to us Skinnies! It’s even better when you get backstage and there’s a bottle of rum waiting for you (dropped off by Molly and Anthony! Thanks!)
The gig is great fun and its really fun hanging out with people at the merch table too. Thanks for all the drinks and cheers to everyone who bought something from us. Always appreciated!