Where's Amos…?

Leaving a band member at a service station is one of those tour clichés you think is too ridiculous to really happen. I mean, how the hell can you not notice that you are a person short and pull away into the night and only actually realise the person is missing half an hour later when they call you…? Our only defence for leaving Amos in the middle of nowhere, clutching two bananas and having to deflect the amorous advances of the (male) petrol attendant, is it was the middle of the night, we were very sleepy, Cathy mistook a bundle of blankets for our drummer, and we mistakenly asked Justin if Amos was in the van…

Suffice to say Nolan, our tour manager/driver/soundman/heavy, was more than a little galled at having to drive another ten miles before finding an exit to turn back, adding over an hour to an already soul-sappingly long night-drive (which included having to crawl through a snow blizzard of biblical proportions for several hours).

Amos nursed after trauma of abandonment

Anyway, Salt Lake City turned out to be a nice enough town, though being the capital of Mormonism did bring out my innate and deeply rooted suspicion of anyone with religious convictions and many of the townsfolk appeared to have the vapid serenity of doomsday cult members. This may have been a projection born from irrational prejudice, however.

Salt Lake City was our first show as a five piece and it went pretty well, though Justin felt a bit lonely by himself stage left. A clutch of very drunk women whooping and gyrating right in front of the stage was also a little distracting. I’m guessing they weren’t Mormons.

Next was a little known (to me) town called Boise. The venue turned out to be pretty big and the stage looked particularly impressive once bunted up and clad with our illuminated festoonery. After the show we were transformed into a bunch of cooing idiots upon sighting a racoon in a small tree. Despite warnings it would chew our faces off given half a chance, we hounded it with flashes bulbs for several minutes until it tired of us and disappeared into the night. Possibly blind.

Would have made a lovely hat

Leon x