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Entry Four: a summary of events that occurred on February 21st, 2005

Dearest Tour Diary:

We got up late (because that is what rock bands do) and demanded that Ernie make us some omlettes. They were delicious. I got a parking ticket for being parked on the wrong side of the street (hey, it's the right side in the US!). It was for like a million pounds. Dammit. I guess there are no small parking violations in England. Every time you screw up it costs you $200.

Eventually we got on the road. Ernie was navigating and we ended up driving into the CONGESTION ZONE while we were trying to get out of London. The congestion zone is an area of London that you have to pay to drive through. It wouldn't have been so bad, if I just called up and registered the car over the phone but I didn't get to call in until 12:20am that night, which apparently is during the NEXT business day, which means this screw up costs me $200. I love England.

Action shot of us getting a Congestion Zone Fine ----------------------------------->>>

Drive, drive, drive…Manchester! We got there way late, but everyone was happy to see us. Jorg and Annie were there. They were visiting from Holland! They came to see us play and hang out. They brought us the saltiest drop (Dutch licorice/salt candy) they could find. Awesome.

Speedmarket Avenue, from Sweden, played first. They were pretty cool. I didn't get to ask them about Whale though (Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babes circa 1994). We played next and we totally turned the Phoenix to ash! I guess I didn't mention that the Phoenix was the name of the club we were playing at. So yeah…ASHES! All the indie rock muggles were brought to tears by the incredible power of wizard rock. Not a dry eye in the house.

Saturday Looks Good to Me played after we did, but they pretty much phoned it in. It is rare that a band is prepared to follow the grander that is a Potters rock show and these folks from Michigan were not up to the task (although their set was pretty enjoyable). Maybe it was the weather.

Later we moved the party to a more neon setting, namely Manchester's famous Curry Mile.

Yes! Indian restaurants as far as the eye can see - all open very late or possibly all-night. There was no good way to distinguish between the attractive neon of one restaurant over the attractive neon of another, so we chose one based on the quantity of desserts visible through the window. We got some of this and we got some of that and we even got a bunch of those desserts too. We brought it all back to Dan's house in Oldham (Harry and the Potters fun fact #1: Paul and Joe both went to the Oldham Elementary School! Not in Oldham, England, but in Norwood, MA). We hung out at Dan's and ate our Indian food and stayed up late talking with Dan and Toby about indie rock and hardcore and all that stuff. They were so INTO American indie rock that I told them if they ever came to a place like Boston then their heads would EXPLODE because there would be so many shows that they would want to see. Then we slept on Dan's floor.

-Paul

I'm dying to check out Entry 5!