Got to say I’m loving the 12pm check outs at the Euro hotels. WTF Australia catch up please! (Getting rid of dipshit Abbot was a start but hey I could write a thesis on that)!

Anyway, had a good sleep in today, being a non-snorer I thought lashing out for the separate rooms was a brilliant idea before an 8 show run. I keep mentioning this next run like I’m dreading it, but I’m excited because all of these 8 places I’ve never been to before. I love going to new places and to be doing it playing rad shows with KOTN is seriously as much a blessing as it is a mind-bending trip out. The only part I’m dreading is that a lot of the places we’ve visited recently the people have been so excited we are coming, it’s like they’ve booked that night in to party for weeks and want to/ really push you to party with them to the point where you feel rude for not excepting the 6th free shot. I have to look after my voice but I love to party. Ah.. the balancing act of rock life…? Singing a KOTN show for 1- 1.5 hrs every night for this guitarist at heart is no mean feat! I end up saying “hey, do you want me to party or do you want me to sing good?” Most say “do both”!

So that’s what I’m going through again here in St Etienne tonight. “Come on dude have another shot, I’ve driven 2 hrs to see you”. I’ve had to hide myself away in the band room, which is a really old little stone cave with a low dome shaped ceiling. The band room of the Thunderbird Cave is underground and holds about 50-70 people. The bar is really cool and owned by a nice American dude called James. It has a really bad load in, we had to park on a busy, narrow street at risk of fines and take turns walking all the stuff 50m+ up into the venue and then down a tiny dimly lit staircase. It’s sort of like a Venice vibe with cobble stone streets winding through really old 5-7 story buildings. The feed young Elise (the bar chick) cooked up for us was unreal. We had an entrée of local cheese (im loving this) bread and wine with chicken and beans, with a hot potato dish and salad. It was so good after a long day driving.

The gig started off with YouPOOR who also drove 2 hrs to open for us for free (things are different in Europe). They are a two-piece also but with bass instead of guitar.

We played to about 13 really enthusiastic guys and the bar girl. It was actually a fun gig because we ran through some material we hadn’t played in months and managed to pull it off. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, a good indicator was that they all bought albums and T-shirts, pretty classic.

We did the horrendous load out and went back to James’ place. After we finally got our van behind his gates we ate chips had a quick yarn and that was that, Tuesday night in St Etienne.

-Higgsy