25th January 2008 - Dallas

It was a nice short journey to Dallas from Ft.Worth, although when I say short it’s still as long as it would take us to drive to London from Bristol. We’re all pretty hanging so it’s mellow and subdued on the bus. The last two nights were pretty hardcore drinking sessions so we discuss having a quiet night after tonight’s gig – but that option is quashed when the Tattooed Millionaires inform us that we are partying tonight………. oh go on then!

We arrive at the venue pretty early and it’s not open so we grab a bite to eat in the burger place next door and then head to guitar centre to pick up some supplies. On the way back we all chip in some cash for a motel room to get hot showers – a welcome relief.

Back at the venue an hour or so later and we discover that the capacity of the place has been restricted to 50 because somebody got stabbed there last week……. interesting.

People start to arrive and notably a myspace friend of mine called Dennis has driven with his buddy for 10 hours to come see us play! 10 HOURS!!! I love this country! On top of that there are some ladies from the Texas street teams turning up and they are ready to party. I’m trying to take things easy, as is Scott who is feeling particularly rough. Unfortunately the crowd of people have different ideas and we are being bought bottles and shots all the time – we wouldn’t wanna offend people by refusing, that would just be rude of us.

We played a great gig tonight. Everyone was in the zone and playing hard for the people that had made an effort to be there. One thing that I love here is that people actually like to stand at the front for the duration of the set and it really makes us step it up a notch.

TM’s also play a rocking set and before you know it we are jumping in the bus to go and party. This is where the interesting evening begins…..

Our destination is The Clubhouse – which is a fully nude strip joint owned by Vinnie Paul (those into music will know that’s pretty cool). This place isn’t some shady backstreet lap dancing venue, it’s full of gorgeous women……. Hello! When we arrive we have nowhere to sit and are stood around like average Joe’s – that is not how we roll!!! Two phonecalls later, one of them to Mr Vinnie Paul himself and we are escorted to Vinnies table which he has said is ours for the night. Rock N Roll enough for you?

The vodka is flowing heavily and there are already a couple of casualties, namely one of the young ladies that came with us (who is later thrown out) and Mr Freddie Riot who is close to the end!!! We are the last people to leave and then things get weird!!!!

Some people roll back onto the bus, some people go in search of a late night drinking spot. Ash ends up back at a strippers house and by all accounts had a very good time – and a hot shower in the morning. Freddie and I go to another bar to meet a couple of people we were hanging out with earlier. It’s actually a techno bar. It all seems a bit strange here, and the blokes in the place are a bit hostile towards us – especially when Freddie starts dancing in the middle of a group of 6 HUGE black guys in vests. At the same time I get on the dancefloor and get my groove on and every time I get near to a girl in there (JUST DANCING!) I get given verbal abuse from all the men. This is not my kind of place and clearly Freddie is bored cause he is passed out on his back in the middle of the floor and I have to punch him as hard as I can in the stomach just to get him alert for a second. Time to leave! We manage to score a lift from one of the security guys who wanted to help out some rockstars. What we find out in the morning is that we had been partying in a gay club and everything just slides into place.

We get back to the bus at 7am and after a feeble attempt to scavange food from somewhere, retire to our bunks.

Tomorrow we head to San Antonio.

Marty:Riot