So LA

On Sunset Strip again in Los Angeles…we always seem to end up staying here (or out by LAX, the pox…), and have befriended the good folks of Mel’s Diner, who are good souls. Mid avocado burger I think it was, and in walk the band Anvil. Their documentary, or rockumentary if you will, has been a source of joy for all of us at this stage and we are thrilled through our spacey jetlag…Lips, Rob and the bass player, sorry, don’t know him…we gotta say hello and get a picture….but when??! We can’t just go up to them, can we? And now they’ve ordered…oh shit, deffo can’t do it now. Have to get a piece of apple pie (disappointing, too sweet, ice cream got shit in it that it shouldn’t…) and wait till they finish. OK, they’re done, they’re paying…”Hey Lips, man it’s a pleasure to meet ya”, Rory is first in. We tell them we love their film, and that we’re from all the way from Ireland, and it’s mad to rock up in LA and… they talk about having been at the Dublin Film Festival, and we have the conversation about Guinness, and how Temple Bar is great, but it’s a shithole, but it’s great. And we’re outside and Phil is taking photos and which band is Marc in again…? I ask Rob about his painting, and he says he’s had a rash of interest in it since the movie, but it’s not for sale…”When I don’t rock, I paint...”

The Oscar Wilde show is in a beautiful building called The Ebell, which is actually a women’s club of some kind. It’s an odd one…the room’s way too bright, and people are standing around slurping noodles and quaffing the free shit, and I’m on a little stage in front of the stage and they make us do a fucking raffle in the middle of the gig….it’s a salmon ticket

Still, thank you to the US-Ireland Alliance for having us… it does sound like some kind of iron curtainesque totalitarian partnership though, like VenIran, the tractor company that sprung from the special relationship between Venezuela and Iran. Or maybe they’re like Jedi Leprechauns – they did help us re-learn the dance with Homeland Security – “you do not need the rubber glove for these men…”

Also,  Tom Cruise and Dave Geraghty were in the same room at the same time – separate entities…now let that be an end to the conspiracy theories

The Hotel Cafe show was most pleasant, thank you for the warm welcome