Darkest Era Tour Diary – Part Two
Here we have part two of Darkest Era’s Tour Diary from guitarist Ade Mulgrew while they currently travel the UK on the Useless Drunken Bastards Tour supporting Alestorm…
Southampton – The Cellar, 8th February
The Cellar is probably the second smallest venue of the whole tour with a capacity of 250, but it’s been sold out for weeks and we knew it would be a good show. There were no showers so some of the Alestorm guys came back to our hotel where we all got naked and touched each other.
The stage tonight was hotter than the sun. We got a good reaction but the local support meant no soundcheck, so it took the sound a little while to settle. Tonight was definitely the loudest crowd so far for Alestorm; before they came onstage they were roaring verses and choruses of ‘Keelhauled’. The ceiling of the room below where we were selling merch was actually shaking with the crowd upstairs jumping around and moshing. Totally nuts. Long drive tomorrow so we get an early(ish) night.
Manchester – Moho, 9th February
Tonight is definitely the most fun show of the tour so far. One of the bars in the venue is cordoned off for a dressing room making it nice and comfortable. We hit the stage to a packed venue and an enthusiastic crowd. It’s Krum’s birthday today, and halfway through our set Alestorm and Claim the Throne appear on stage, some in horse masks, with a massive pizza with a candle in it, a birthday cake and a bunch of balloons. The whole crowd sing happy birthday to him which was awesome. There are balloons everywhere for the rest of the set and it’s a bit like an Alice Cooper gig for a bit! We do good on merch tonight, everyone gets pretty merry and we (eventually) have a lovely curry at the end. Killer!
Glasgow – The Garage, 10th February
Biggest venue of the tour so far, it’s huge in here. Again there is a bar area beside the stage cordoned off for us, and a great backstage which is about 4 miles from the stage. It’s all a bit Spinal Tap for the first while trying to find our way around. One of the drawbacks of opening a bill is that depending on the curfew, sometimes you have to go on just after doors open. Thankfully, by the time we’re into our third or fourth song the room is filling out nicely and we get a great reaction. For most of the crowds on this tour, we are unknown to them before the gigs so to go down so well really means a lot to us, and we do great on merch again after the show. We quest for Buckfast but offys closing and a snappy, stressful load out foils the plan.
The show sells out on the door and people are turned away, which apparently doesn’t often happen at this venue these days (in fact the presales exceeded those of when Alestorm played here with Sabaton). The manager shows his appreciation and sends down a 12 year old bottle of high-end Scotch to the backstage. Tonight it occurs to me how lucky we are to be on this tour; we’ve played to roughly almost 3,000 people so far and we’re only half way through.
Tonight the tour party breaks up as Alestorm and Claim the Throne head to Belfast and Dublin, while we go back to Manchester to stay with friends for two days as we are playing headline shows in those cities in April. I’ve gotten used to the touring routine at this stage and initially would rather be heading to the next show, but Krum, Lisa and myself are starting to come down with the cold and the driving is starting to leave me exhausted. The tour reconvenes in Leicester, so we’ll hopefully be better by then…
For part one of Darkest Era’s tour diary click here.
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