Friday, 4 June 2010

On the road with Allo Darlin' (photo diary, part 1)

After the New York Popfestivities it was time to say goodbye to the big city and hit the road. Allo Darlin had a whole bunch of shows booked up and down the New England(ish) area. I'd always wanted to do a US road trip, so this was a bit of a dream coming true.


A rather grumpy Bill Botting at a rest stop somewhere.


The first show was on Sunday 24th May in Northampton, MA. The odds were really against us from the start. Small town, Sunday evening and the grand finale of LOST on TV meant that our expections were pretty low and sure enough, only a handful of people showed up. Nice town, nice venue, but no peeps.

Before the show started, which was insanely late (first band out of four on at 10:30pm!) we had time to check out some of the sights.

Sadly, we didn't actually visit this important museum. One day.


Paul and Elizabeth's. Get it?


A personal highlight of Northampton was definitely Herrell's ice cream parlour, where you could mix any type of sweets with any type of ice cream and sauce, nuts whatever. I went for the slightly unusual combo of Cookies and Cream with gummi bears.

What can I say? It was pretty fucking awesome!


Driving + junk food + Ice cream + late show = food coma

After a looooong wait the music finally started. Hearts!Attack was the first band on.

Hearts!Attack


Moustache played a much better set than at the New York Popfest. We didn't really mess up at all. Shame there was hardly anyone there to witness this most unusual performance.

Allo Darlin' next. Again, great set, but still no people.

Bill Botting rocking his bass.


Allo Darlin'


We spent the night at Skipping Stones Records HQ, aka known as William and Christine's house. They are pretty much the nicest people ever, so you should buy their stuff and listen to their music....and then go to The New England Popfest later this year.

Skipping Stones Records website

Singing Bridges myspace (their band)

After some sleep it was time hit the road again. Next stop Cambridge, MA, home to Harvard and loads of posh university students....pretty much like Cambridge in England. Nice little place, though, with the diner of diners.

Seriously, Town Diner in Watertown...amazing. They even have a website, where it says their food is healthy! Hmmm. Not so sure about that one.

FOOOOOOOOOD!!!


Harvard graduation ceremonies had just been, so there were alot of chairs around. I'm sure if we had been slightly more patient we could have taken some cool band photos. Chairs are cool, right?

Allo Darlin'

Freddy was nowhere to be seen.


Elizabeth found a love heart in her Rolling Rock, which must be the the indiepop equivalent of finding the face of Jesus in your toast/tortilla (or wherever his face tends to pop up)

Amazing!

Tequila!



Eventually all the bars were shut and we went back home. Rebecca of One Happy Island is also one of the nicest people ever and kindly put us all up in her massive and totally awesome house, which incidentally was just around the corner from the awosome diner.

New day, more sun. We decided to try and get to Walden Pond to do some swimming. We got there and the pond was closed due to overcrowding, but due to reopen in two hours. Only in America really. How can a lake be closed? We tried to sneak in from the back, but after too many scary directions involving ticks and abandoned railway tracks, we decided to just wait until the lake would reopen.

We walked past the Bates house without incident and eventually got to...

...the lake!!!

After a quick swim we headed back to Cambridge. The GPS kindly took us straight into Central Boston and what should have been a 30 minute drive took two hours. But at least it meant we got to see this awesome dude busting some awesome dance moves on the pavement.

Sweet!


Paul 'Johnny-not-two-but-three-hats' Rains


In the evening it was time for a mega pop show. It was the complete opposite of the Northampton show and was rather awesome.

Hearts!Attack


Allo Darlin'


Allo Darlin'


A Smile and a Ribbon


It was a great night...

Next morning we were off to New Haven, which was pretty odd town. We had our doubts about the venue and area before the show, but it turned out to be a nice place with a decent crowd.

Allo Darlin' homies


Bill 'chocolate liquorice' Botting



If you stand like this on a container, you might fall


Doin' the merch

Last band on that night was Women's Basketball, who were rather awesome. Check them out.

Women's Basketball myspace



Eventually.....we headed back to William and Christine's house.

To be continued....

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