Gig 20030422 Journal

Source: Shihad.com (circa 03)

Date Published: Unsure

Who: Shihad.

Where: The Church - Nashville, TN

When: 22 April 2003

Reviewed by: Shihad (Tom Larkin)

The Church - I always love playing in renovated churches - The first ever Shihad show was in a church and there's a great rehearsal/recording space in Wellington called the church as well - Somehow filling these places with volume and energy feels more like true worship than holding sermons and telling lies.

This particular Church is run by a guy named Tommy who spend an inordinate amount of time making sure we're happy and well seen to - He rules. Nashville is weird - I know I'm supposed to bow down to the legends of country music etc. but I only really like Johnny Cash and my real problem with Nashville is the lack of food anywhere - I mean anywhere!!! It's like everyone in Nashville only orders take out - Creepy!!

We spend a long time driving today - Doing interviews, going to Mega Marts, hunting food etc. and by the end of that Chris our TM is pissed AND angry.

However the show goes really well - Karl knocks his leg up on the stage whilst running back full tilt - Jon spends most time in the audience - Singing from the floor motivating the crowd and surprise of all surprises Mark Slaughter from legendary 80's Galm rock hair band 'Slaughter' jumps on the mixing desk with Chris during our show - And by all accounts - They fuckin nail it, Funny how these guys turn up here and there - seeing Jack Russel from great white in New Jersey was a trip too - especially when he turned up on every news channel in the world 48 hours later.

So when all was said and done Nashville was awesome and I can't wait to come back - I'll just remember to bring my food hamper next time.

-Tom