Metronomy Tour Diary (August 5, 2007)

05.08.2007

Last night was Washington DC. We managed to get Rachel to drive us to the White
House, Stephen said it was just like The West Wing, I opted for Independence Day
and Gabriel pointed out the spot where Martin Luther King made his famous "I
have a dream" dream speech. Rachel told Gabriel that he was wrong and off we
drove to the 'Rock 'n' Roll' hotel for our show.
Right now we're on hour 8 of our predicted 20 hour drive to Minneapolis, it's
raining. On driving through the Appalachians Oscar remarked it's similarity to
Jurassic Park.

--Joseph

On the Road

Today's weather: an occluded front runs the length of our trip. Temperatures
averaging 86-90F. Relative Humidity 75%. Overcast with periods of heavy rains
and some thundery showers.

In a word: squally

Driving across America is very different to driving around the UK. For a start,
there's the obvious: the distances are longer, the trucks are bigger, everyone
drives slower, the roads have more lanes, the food at service stations contains
more trans-fatty acid etc. But the real interesting point is how familiar
everything seems, the landscape and place names and so on. I doubt that an
American band touring around Britain and making the drive from Leeds to Hull
would have a nagging sense of recognition as they traverse East Yorkshire. But
here, I've seen the place where Fox Mulder met the Cigarette Smoking Man, I've
seen (pretty much) the opening shots of the Deer Hunter as we passed Pittsburgh,
and even not-too-visually arresting Ohio has roadsigns that people sing about -
CSNY of course, the Band doing Watch Out Cleveland.

Neil Young never sang about Wakefield, and Fox Mulder never came to Hull. A
shame, as he would have seen some pretty memorable goings-on I'm sure.

--Gabriel

I did think the Appalachians looked a bit Jurassic park both in the vegetation
(I could swear some of the plants I saw have not been seen in fossil records
after the Cretaceous period let alone present day but maybe I'm wrong) and also
the sheets of rain billowing against the hillside were reminiscent of storms that
hit islands off the coast of Costa Rica the setting of Jurassic park's park. I'm
enjoying the drive though its quite exciting to be driving through such a huge
country. I said to Joe a couple of weeks ago that the world seemed smaller to me
after all the traveling we've been doing over the past year and a half. But
since saying it our trips keep proving me wrong and it feels like a big place
again. Today's one of those days which is nice.
The gig last night was fun and the people of D.C. gave us a good reception. Thank
you D.C. Although I didn't get as drunk as I would like.

--Oscar