available exclusively from Under the Gun Review here

available exclusively from Under the Gun Review here

With a night to go before we make our return to the gigantic amazing States of America our van falls through. Many profanities were said but I had an idea to contact our good friend Jared from Music Saves Lives who we met on the Warped Tour. He lives in LA and I reckon he might just have a van. Minutes later Jared is saving another 5 lives. He has a van! Relief at Skinny HQ.

The journey to the airport turns into a saga. We start well but hit the M25 and quickly come to a standstill. We’re going to miss our flight. We wait 4 hours.
The whole journey finally ends after 26 hours when we arrive at our guest house, owned and very generously provided to us by the gorgeous couple Nils and Nicole. Thank you so much guys! There’s even a mini gym that I can work out at when we’re rehearsing! We have a van and a place to stay for the week before we head off to the east coast. Excellent.
We have a day to hang out in Pasadena and Hollywood before Coachella. The sun, the palm trees and all the smiles make for a very relaxing day. We pick our good friend and party wolf, Rosco, up from the airport and head over to SideOneDummy Record’s offices where we first played for them and Kevin Lyman of Warped Tour about a year ago. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year. Anyway, enough of that. Coachella!

I’m feeling nervous. As we drive through the desert the sun tries to shine through. An amazing fog sits at the foot of the mountains. We pull up to the festival site and see a massive main stage. I’m feeling nervous. After checking it out we head to the artist compound to get ready. We open the main stage at Coachella 2013. The very same stage that Blur and the Stone Roses will be playing later. Wow! We have a good sized crowd for a noon gig in the blazing sun. The setting is incredible and people are singing and dancing with us.


Following the gig we meet up with Nathan and Liam from Imperial (our funders), SideOneDummy dudes, Bill and Joe and the one and only Kevin Lyman and family. We shoot off to do a signing, then we have a couple of interviews, get free jewelry and a phone charging case before heading off site to go to the uber cool radio station 98.7fm party where we get drunker, go in the poshest bathroom ever, play a couple of tracks and have an alligator scrap in the pool before being kicked off the grounds.

Oh well, lets head back to the festival, dance to dubstep and drink more beer. Not too much though as we’re off to Las Vegas tomorrow and weekend 2 is going to be party time!

Here’s a list of the rest of our US dates over the next 2 weeks:
April 12th – Coachella – Indio, CA SOLD OUT
April 13th – Backstage Bar & Billiards – Las Vegas FREE ENTRY!!
April 15th – The Glass House (with The Selecter) – Pomona, CA TICKETS
April 17th – Club Nokia (with Dropkick Murphys) – Los Angeles, CA TICKETS
April 19th – Coachella – Indio, CA SOLD OUT
April 22nd – Middle East – Cambridge (Boston) TICKETS
April 23rd – Webster Hall – New York TICKETS
April 24th – North Star Bar – Philadelphia TICKETS
April 26th – House of Blues – Cleveland TICKETS
April 27th – Shelter – Detroit TICKETS
Here’s our list of shows for SxSW this week -

Sunday – British Music Embassy, Latitude 30, 512 Jacinto, 78701 – 8.00pm
Tuesday – Music Saves Lives, The Firehouse Lounge, 605 Brazos St, 78701 – 10pm
Wednesday – Macy’s Rag Show, Barton Creek Mall, 2901 Capitol of Texas Highway, 78746 – 1pm
Wednesday – Hyatt Regency Hotel, On the Lake, 2nd Play Stage – 7pm
Thursday – Omni Hotel 2nd Play Stage, 700 Jacinto Blvd – 6pm
Friday – Official Showcase – Meduse Lounge, 219 Congress Avenue, 78701 – 11pm
Saturday – BD Rileys, St Patricks Day Warm Up, 204 E 6th St, 78701 – 3pm
In Nashville we stay with two lovely girls. We head downtown to Broadway to see music before the gig which is in a massive warehouse. It was fun. We had video games in the changing rooms. The boys shoot stuff whilst I drink rum.

Next up is New Orleans. Yep! New Orleans! Too excited. We pull into what looks like the coolest town ever…people playing music all over the streets and GOOD music too. Wow! Bourbon street is crazy but wow must not forget we have a gig! The town is ready to party and that’s what we intend to do!

Then the last two days take us to Texas. Now these really do have to be HUGE party nights. Mosh pits, crowd surfing and drinking are essential.

Not too sure what happened in Dallas. Surprisingly, Dan has a memory of drinking an Irish Car Bomb. The wonderful Dave Hause gave me, dan and my hand luggage a lift to the hotel…against his will apparently.

Houston. Last night. All feel a little ropey, but hell – if we don’t take it tonight we’ll regret it! The gig is great as predicted. As I start crowd surfing Rosco dives off the stage and over the barriers. Amazing. I want to do that! Later in Floggings set I ask Dave to sort out a diving board and get my swimming costume and hat on…off I go…woooooaaaahhhh!
Later there’s more drinks had in the bar and on the bus. Let’s make sure we do all this again folks!

A Massive Thank you to Flogging Molly! For having us on the bus, on the stage and on the tour! It has been incredible sharing your crowds with you, opening up for you and drinking with you! Cheers!
Lorna and the boys xxx

Home Time!
A long drive ends with an amazing greeting from our hosts Mike and Tiff in Mims. A BBQ is stoked up and shots of rum are lined up almost the minute we step out of the van…more beer and lots of friendly faces. Mike makes up amazing hot dogs, steak and chicken. We return the favour by getting out the instruments. Ryan joins us on the cooler too. More beer, more shots. Cats in hats. Drunkenness.

The next day we head over to Mike’s tattoo parlour where I have a hoax tattoo job, we check out our new mate Rob’s record store before he kindly takes us to the beach. YES! THE BEACH! We drive through alligator swamps and pull in. Amazing. There’s reports from some (no names) that it’s too cold but I don’t give a damn…straight in and it’s warm. Lovely! The waves are pretty big but it’s so cool. This is amazing…shame it has to end but we have sound check to get to.

The gig is actually located in Disneyworld! I don’t get a chance to take a stroll but the lads have a quick look about. Never thought I’d make it here. Florida! Warmth. Loving it! Our friends join us for more rum drinking then we’re on. Mike plays bass on New Cross Girls and Tiff joins me for a waltz on Seventeen Summers…great fun! And Michael’s uncle has come too great to meet you Henry!

Next stop is Miami for a quick TV performance on NBC 6 In the mix. Great people, cocktails from Cricket and some Renaissance characters mixed in to boot! We have an amazing Cuban breakfast afterwards and then head to our next hotel to get a couple of hours sleep before the gig.
View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.
What a gig. I was pretty amazed by the response, there’s a proper mosh going on. I can’t believe Michael rises from the mosh with his bass. He does though and the show goes off. Great fun! I proceed to get drunk with Dave Hause at the merch shop. He draws a picture of me to pass the time…I added a bit.

All fun. Now we’re on our way to Nashville. Only a 12 hour drive!
Lorna xx