Gig 20030205 Journal

Source: Shihad.com (circa 03)

Date Published: Unsure

Who: Shihad.

Where: Atlanta, GA, USA

When: 5 Febuary 2003.

Reviewed by: Shihad.

This is the city of Coca cola, Outkast and Ludacris and i'm feeling fucked!! We just did the mega flight from Perth to Melbourne to Sydney to San Francisco and finally to Atlanta. It's freezing here and we have a new couple of people on board helping us out - Chris Raughly is our FOH guy - we met him on the Filter tour in Australia back in 2000 and since then he's been running around the USA with various bands. Also Lucas Berrini is our New Drum Tech/Toys out of bed manager. The Flight over had one redeeming feature in that I was seated beside Rob Ellis who played Drums for PJ Harvey not only on the BDO but on 'Dry' and 'Rid of me' as well - really cool - We just banged on about music and how he did stuff with polly and recording with Steve Albini etc. He has been one of my hero's ever since I heard 'rid of me' in 94 and it was an absolute thrill to spend time with the guy. I got all groupied out.

We'll we got a whole bunch of new gear today - But you always have to take time to break it in - My kit sounds great - a new DW but one thats just stained wood finish so it really sings when you smack it. I Also got two bronze snare drums that just sound enourmous - OK I'm a happy chappy - It's my goddamn christmas - I admit it!

It's our first show with Trust Company and they seem like nice guys - the other band on the bill is Depswa - They're a little more mellow.

The Show went really well - for a bunch of jetlagged muthafuckas!! I was actually really surprised by how well we did go down - people seem to really love how we do things - probably because it's nothing like most of the other bands in the USA or more likely phils hair. I just need to believe that we make a difference - Sniff sniff!!

Anyways - Awesome to be here can't wait to get some sleep and I can't wait to play in REM's hometown tommorrow and blow it to bits.