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Grand Atlantic

USA Tour Blog - March 2011

Ten Reasons why touring the USA is great for your band. by Mat Von Diehm
1. Experience. You are in such a different
headspace when you tour, it's almost too hard to
come back down to earth. You meet so many people,
become friends with so many bands, play so much
that playing becomes just like it should be,
second nature. You walk away going "Gawdang we're
good, every show we're just killing it"
2. The cities are amazing. Chicago, New York,
Austin, Houston, Seattle, Portland, San
Francisco, LA all in the space of 3 weeks. They
each are beautiful in their own way, they all
have something to offer, they all blow your mind.
They all have something Aussie cities don't have,
and there's nothing like it.
3. Funny stories. You'll always have something to
tell someone when you get home/while you're
there. EG: The American guy that hears you talk,
asks you what part of Europe or England you're
from, and when you respond with "Australia" he
says "Oh yeah, My friends' sister's cousin went
to New Zealand once". Or the time I went to a bar
with some people, after being there for a while,
walked a couple blocks to get cigs, then turned
around and realised I didn't know where I was or
which way I'd come from the bar and subsequently
had to walk around for an hour trying to find
it... I have more, but this is meant to be a
short blog.
4. Currency. Our money is so good there at the
moment, and thusly you are literally on
one-for-one with money. Everything is super
cheap, so you end up paying $2 for beers, $5 for
cigarettes, and you can get a plate overflowing
with food for around a tenner.
5. Bands. Soundtrack of Our Lives, Bombay Bicycle
club, the Cynics, The Ugly Beats were all amazing
to name a few that we saw for free. We played
with some amazing USA bands- Sky Parade, The
Parties, Dirty Sidewalks And to name drop those
bands from Aus- The Level Spirits, Dom Mariani 3,
Bliss N Esso, Jezabelles, Hungry Kids, The
Novocaines, Dan Brody, Chevelles, Dash N Will,
Katy Steele, Paul Dempsey, Wagons & DZ are some
of the guys we got to meet and hang out with
whilst overseas. Something we probs wouldn't get
to do over here.
6. Opportunity. Out of nowhere we got a call to
go and record an acoustic song on a record to
benefit the Tsunami victims in Japan. The whole
thing was co-ordinated by Hanson, who we got to
meet, and we got to knock it out of the ball park
in one hit and contribute to a great cause, all
whilst playing in a great studio and meeting some
really great people.
The Youtube video can be found here:
7. Bars. You will always find a great bar with
great atmosphere, really cool people, and
they'll probably be playing the Stooges at about
11, with old horror movies on the TV, and have
cheap beers and friendly bar staff. Stay away
from sports bars tho, they're a bit rubbish (like
here) except that it was March Madness (a college
basketball tournament), so I was in heaven.
8. Sleep. You won't get any, so you will get used
to it pretty quickly. You learn to adapt and
sleep in between shows and partying, like on
planes/trains/cars etc. That way you'll always be
awake when you need to be. This is somewhat of a
lesson hard learned, but once you have, it's
pretty great
9. Ego. As soon as you say a word to an American
they immediately think you have an otherworldly
presence and coolness, unlike at home when you're
just another schmuck. They're genuinely
fascinated with Australians, especially ones
touring with a band, and are really happy/keen to
buy into the fame you may or may not have. They
will walk up to you in the street and ask 'Should
I know who you guys are?', in which you reply
'Nah, but we're big in Australia!'. What? A
little fib never hurt anybody! Always make sure
you offer to get a photo.
10. Wifi. There is wifi everywhere in the states,
because of this, you become a complete wifi ninja
and you can update your social networks almost
all the time. They have it on planes, trains,
busses, bars hotels you name it. Never be afraid
of asking for the password at a bar if it's
protected, it's totally fine to tip a waitress if
need be to get it.
All in all another amazing trip. Stay tuned for more vids,
photos and best of all, our NEW RECORD which will be out soon.
Cheers
Von Dee