Tom McShane

Irish Tour: Part Two

It’s been pretty busy in the run up to the release. Rich at Volver and Nick at Penny have both put in a lot of man-hours to getting coverage for the single. Now their hard work is paying off. We’ve been getting some great media coverage and some good feedback from bloggers.

Last weekend Nick took a trip to London to meet with buyers from Rough Trade East & West and Sister Ray. The single is now available in all these stores. I tagged along for the ride and we made a bit of a weekend out of it. We stayed with Nick’s sister, Judith and her boyfriend Giovanni. They were hospitable to the max and showed us a great time. They have the most fun friends too. Also I got the opportunity to meet up with a very old friend who I hadn’t seen in the longest time. The trip was quite literally, all good.

So this weekend the tour rolls on. We played two shows on Friday, an afternoon show in Dublin and an evening show in Belfast:

Fighter/God Says Tour Date 2a // Tower Records, Dublin // 4th July
On Friday we played another in-store, this time a full band set in Dublin’s Tower Records with Escape Act. When we arrived Yo La Tengo’s “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out” was playing over the tannoy. A good omen and no mistake. James and Neassa at Tower were really nice too.

Escape Act were up first and played a blinder. It was very fun to watch the shoppers, pulled away from their browsing, foot-tapping appreciatively. They have a new song, I must find out what it’s called, but it really slays me.

Our set seemed to go down well, but none of us could hear each other on stage which made things a little tough. Playing at low volume can be a bit restrictive. The simple fact is amps just don’t sound right when turned down low, or at least I’ve never managed to make that work. But we played are hearts out none the less and folks seemed to, as they say, “dig”.

We ended with “Guide” and as the last chord hung in the air, the music from the store PA faded in once again. But no Yo La Tengo this time. “This sounds terribly familiar” we thought the opening notes of my “Departures” mini album began to emanate from the speakers. Amusingly, the first track from “Departures” is “Guide”. Still, we played it well so at least it wasn’t a “now here’s how that should’ve sounded” Shooting Stars moment!

Escape Act, Conor and Ross loaded their gear out and hit the road straight away in order to reach Belfast in time for sound-check. Nick left to retrieve his car from the carpark leaving me to mind our equipment. Standing in the shop, the only remaining member of our party while the entirety of my last release blasted across the store made me feel more than a little self-conscious. I buried myself in vinyl browsing!

Fighter/God Says Tour Date 2b // Lavery’s Attic, Belfast // 4th July
Back on the road again and the race was on to get back to Belfast in time for sound-check. However, us being a bit smart, or so we thought, we’d arranged for our Belfast support, Serpentine Smile to be at the venue from 18.00 so that load in and sound-check could commence in our absence. However, when we arrived at 19.30, we found them waiting patiently to get on with this, as they had been since their arrival at 18.00.

You see, we had originally booked to play the Pavilion but as the Pavilion is currently being renovated, the management shifted us to the Attic in Lavery’s. This is a new venue in Belfast of which we had no previous experience. As it turned out, by day it is a pool room, part of the larger pool area on the top floor of Lavery’s. In the evening the tables are moved, the hanging lights are taken down and the room becomes what is actually a really great venue. It’s a great shape/layout and it’s got a great PA. The stage is strange, dangerously high (they store the pool tables beneath it) and it runs the width of the venue. It’s not terribly deep, so there’s always a fear that one might fall off it, also there’s a rather large gap between the stage and the wall right behind the drumkit which struck fear into the hearts of our percussive contingent.

Anyway, the problem was that sound-check couldn’t commence until that section of the pool room closed (the main pool area remained open for the duration of the show). This was not explained to us when we made arrangements for the two obliging chaps from Serpentine Smile to waste a large part of their evening sitting about:

The show was great though. There was a great turnout and we shifted some vinyl too, which was very encouraging. There was one, to use the Belfast vernacular, “Spide Ballbag” who watched almost the entire show from the door to the main pool room, his trusty pint of Harp in hand. I asked him if he would like to come in. He said, “Fack aff, why the fuck would I pay in when I can watch the whole thing for free from here, like?”. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Belfast.

We’re heading back to Dublin in an hour to play our Whelan’s show. Also we’ll be doing a spot for Balcony TV too! Can’t wait!

Road trip!

Tom