the ginge in the states: dodie's US tour (Patreon)

On September 4th I set off on a tour of the States with dodie - not playing my own set but this time in the band, on guitar & backing vocal duties. It turned out to be one of the best months of my life. I’ve been home for a week now but my head kind of refuses to believe tour is truly over.. so I decided to give myself some closure by reflecting on the whole experience.

I’d been to the States a couple of times before - first to California in 2014 and on a headline tour of my own in 2015. When us Europeans ‘tour' the States we usually just scratch the surface - a couple east coast dates, a couple west coast dates, maybe a Nashville or Austin stop if you’re lucky. This tour, however, went right in. With almost 4 weeks on the road we had the chance to dip into the south and drive right through the middle; first to Boston, NYC & Philly, Silver Spring & Atlanta, over to Nashville & Chicago, to Denver & Vegas (!) and then right up the west coast; San Diego, LA, San Fran, Seattle & Portland. I felt so lucky to be asked along.

I was a bag of nerves when we set off from Heathrow. A long (& boring) faff with my visa meant I had to dash to Dublin to grab it that same morning, before setting off Heathrow > Boston at lunchtime. Yawn. We all met at the airport with our silly amount of luggage & instruments. I panic bought travel insurance. We paid to get into one of the boujie airport lounges with minutes to spare before boarding.. I wolfed down several bowls of mac & cheese and a couple gin & tonics. Worth it? 

We arrived at an artsy hotel in Boston. I’d been awake for 24 hours straight and the bed welcomed me like a friend with outstretched arms. Cue one of the best sleeps of my life. The next morning I used the hotel gym, thinking I’d start off on the right foot & work out all through tour (lol). Setting up in the Cambridge venue felt strange; the same but different. That’s the same vague description I’d give almost all the shows on this tour; the same but different. Every night we were met with the same warmness & enthusiasm I now expect from dodie’s audience, but elevated somehow; more emotion, more volume, more HECKLING (omg. So much heckling). At the Cambridge show there was a girl stood up front, right by my pedalboard. Every time I glanced her way she shouted “YOUR HIGHLIGHTER IS ON POINT AND YOU’RE PLAYING WONDERFULLY!”. Wow. We were not in England anymore.

I’d never been to Boston or Philly before, I liked them a lot. In New York we parked up in a sketchy part of town, right outside Brooklyn Steel - one of the most incredible venues I’ve ever played and everything I expected from a venue called Brooklyn Steel - tall ceilings, big pipes, exposed brick; industrial, very cool. I met my Best American Friend™ Regina for brunch in Manhattan & explored for a couple hours before soundcheck. The New York venue was the biggest of the tour & nerves were high but the show went down smooth - heck, there was SO much energy in that room. I took out my in-ears at the end of the set and was met with a wall of noise from the crowd; it felt like in that moment everyone there was so glad to be that room. I definitely was.

Silver Spring and Atlanta are a blur; tour gets ya like that sometimes. I do remember Atlanta being super humid and I remember eating a delicious curry there. Nashville was incredible - I wished we’d had more time to see the place. The support act Tessa (Violet) lives there and took us to her favourite coffee spot & some thrift stores, and I bought some shiny red shoes that give off serious Dorothy-from-the-Wizard-of-Oz vibes. The audience there felt like a proper music-loving crowd - super respectful & a little more reserved than the others, and after the show lined up to ask us questions about all the instruments & gear on stage. Then we headed downtown for drinks. Pete (bass) was truly in his element. Seeing Pete in Nashville somehow made Pete make more sense. 

My mood dipped in Chicago. Tiredness hit me like a brick & brought with it a stuffy cold - not cool. My headspace was full up of bad things going on in my friends’ lives and I became sad & cynical. I got a hotel room & slept through our day off - it was the first time I’d been on my own in 2 weeks. Life on a tour bus means close quarters - the beds are stacked up in bunks of three, so imagine twelve people waking up together, spending the whole day & night together and then starting it all again the next day. If you don’t like the others it can be intense; luckily I have nothing but love for the band, crew & dodie herself. Heck, touring with people you dislike must be tough.

OK, so I did not expect to enjoy Vegas as much as I did. I’d decided before we arrived that it wasn’t a very ‘me’ place, but we had a day & night off there so rather than sulk I decided to get into the spirit of it. Yes. GOOD MOVE. It was insane! Like a playground for adults. We went on a zipline over Fremont street and drank cheap salty margaritas in the casinos, I gambled for the first time and walked away with $80 (shoutout to Sophie (cello) for telling me to cash out & quit while I was ahead). We played the Hard Rock Hotel the next day and I spoke to the crowd beforehand, asking them what the heck it was like to live & grow up in such a wild place. The Vegas show turned out to be one of my favourites of the tour. We rushed off stage straight into an uber to see the last water show at the Bellagio hotel. I didn’t know water could be that impresive. It felt surreal to be there.

We played a big church in San Diego, literally stood playing where the priests do their thing - it was nuts. Then we parked up on Hollywood Blvd and played 2 L.A. shows at the Fonda Theatre. One of my favourite ever humans Lauren Aquilina was also in L.A. and came to see our first show there. Lauren & I met over Skype when we were 16 and first spoke about how hard it was to balance music & school (lol) and about how desperately we wanted to be full time musicians. When I came backstage after the show Lauren had been crying through the show, thinking back to tiny Loz & tiny Orla with big dreams, and how we were now in L.A, living them out for real. It made my heart feel so full. That night I went on to drink too much gin and lost most of my worldly possessions.

San Fran, Seattle, Portland were last - I really love the North West. I kind of hate sentences like “it just has a vibe”..but.. it just has a vibe. The people seemed cool and I liked that you could walk to most places. I danced too hard on stage in San Fran and the batteries fell out of my in-ear pack during ‘In the Middle’ - so I went rogue and just listened through the P.A. whilst jumping around - it was weirdly liberating. The hotel in Seattle had an Alexa that greeted you when you walked in.. we asked Alexa for more towels and some arrived at the door. I felt like I was living in the future. I recorded my September Patreon demo in one of the dressing rooms and Elliot (tour manager) put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, which made me happy. The Seattle show was probably my weakest - after a fairly smooth month I was met with aaaalll of the technical issues, but luckily Sam (our tech) was there for moral support & guitar-swapping. I learned a lot from Sam & Pete on this tour.

Portland felt heavy.. THE LAST SHOW. Luckily it went better than Seattle for me.. it felt strong across the board, really. By the end we were a well-oiled machine; no amount of broken keyboards or amps could really phase us. We emptied the tour bus and said goodbye to Bert (the greatest bus driver of all time). We boarded a flight to L.A for a week off and the structure of tour fell away, but with most of the tour group intact.. we rented mustangs and ate a lot of burgers. It felt like a crazy end to a crazy month.

When I first moved to London, I really believed I had to spend 100% of my time focussing on my own music.. that would make me 100% better as an artist, right? Wrong. Weird maths. For me it resulted in a lot of overthinking (classic) and with me almost hating my own music, trying so hard to write that I’d end up banging my head against the wall, lost & confused. Now alongside my own project I write songs for others and play for others, and I’ve never felt more fulfilled. My own music will always be my no.1 but collaborating and getting to be part of something bigger.. that’s special. Heckity heck, I’m a lucky sucker.

Shouts to dodie for taking a chance on the ginge and bringing me along on this craaazy ride. It’s so fun to sing with you and just a total honour to stand stage right every night, watching you kill it again and again. Legend.

og

x