We got a nice knock on the door this morning at exactly 11:48am, check out being at 12pm. The lady actually said we have 12 minutes ha. So, a couple quick showers and then a big day ahead.

We left the gear at the venue last night for security, so we had to first load the van then hit the road for a 5 hour drive straight to the next venue to load in. It was a beautiful day, and right outside the hotel there was a market. Perfect as we wanted to grab some fruit. So we stopped at a stand, and I personally bought 3 oranges, a peach and a plum. This will come into play later on.

We loaded the gear and had some fruit for brekky and then Higgo suggested we visit the town of ………….. as he’d heard it was pretty nice, and it was on the way. So a two hour drive ahead for our first stop and we planned to have lunch there. Now I ate a peach and the plum before we hit the road, on a completely empty stomach. Upon eating this plum I had a weird reaction on my lips, they kinda tickled and went real dry. Odd, as I don’t have reactions to anything. Sure enough as I was trying to doze off my stomach was feeling a little weird, then it became painful, then really painful. Higgsy was pretty hungry and thought I may need to eat something as I didn’t know what was going on, so we stopped at a servo for a fill up and a meal. At this point I was basically crouching over in pain and we got some warm food. Without going into too much detail, my body was working quite hard to get out whatever was on that plum. I believe I was reacting to something they’d sprayed it with, and it was very, very painful. It settled soon after my body sorted it out and I began to settle down. That was harsh. I called my lovely housemate Mia Durance as she’s a chemist, and she helped with the advice and her opinion. Back on the road.

We then arrived in the beautiful town of ……….. and Higgsy was right, it was pretty nice. We decided to grab a quick snack somewhere and have a quick look around but upon driving around we realized we didn’t have as much time as we though. So a quick look around and a quick bite and we were off again for the last two and a bit hours straight to the next venue.

Esteponia is the city, and this city is beautiful! It’s on the beach too right on the brilliant Mediterranean sea. Reminds me a little of Nice in France. We find the venue and a park becomes available right in front of the joint, rad. Louie Louie is the place, and it’s a super cool rock n roll bar. Pictures and paintings of motorcycles, old gig posters, pics of bands, it’s a dedicated rock n roll bar. Soundcheck is all good and we’re taken to our accommodation, which is an apartment 5 mins walk away, where we’ll have separate rooms, separate showers, a kitchen, a washing machine! Now when on the road with the same person and same clothes for 3 months, this shit is awesome.

We’re taken out for some local Spanish cuisine and it’s rock time. The gig has a super rough start with Higgsy’s pedal board playing up like it never has before. The bass was cutting out, now I know we don’t have a bass player but for those who haven’t looked into our sound too much, a bass amp is used and it is actally the emphasis of the KOTN sound. So when the bass cuts out, it’s a huge gap that simply can’t be replaced so we can’t play our show. It interrupts the first, and second songs causing premature endings and a vibe change. The crowd is supporting us with applause and cheers of support, we get back on track, the pedal board starts behaving itself and we carry on with the show till the end and Higgsy digs deep to bring it back. Expect it cuts out right near the end again. We don’t know what’s causing it, and having this happen right before two days off in the same city is frustrating but better now than on the road I guess.

The support after the show is great. We end up staying up at the venue having beers and a few shots, hanging with bar staff and punters alike. Myself singing out loud with a bunch of people to songs we love, and drumming like an idiot on the bar. Good songs will do that ha.

We wind up and head back to the rooms after a quick kebab and look forward to the first proper sleep in we’ve have in weeks. Night.

X

-Danny