Massless

From Liberty to Royalty and Back Again, Citizens take a Bath.

Escaping politics on election day? Not bloody likely. (Accent theirs.)

Nearly every person we've talked to for an extended time asks about the American presidency. It started moments after getting the van in Heathrow and has continued every day. The comments have a wide range...if it's presumed that a wide range exists between "incredulous" and "puzzled".

There's no escaping politics when a country's voting on a new (or old) Prime Minister. So, Citizens is getting a quick lesson in the British political process and so much so that we've instituted parliamentary procedures in the van. I keep having to refer to Adrienne as Her Honorable Gentlewoman from Fresno.

Procedures aside, we're getting along great and having a fantastic tour. Last night was at Moles, a club that's hosted the likes of Radiohead and Stereolab and Spiritualized among many others. We played with Gay Dogs (fun, quirky, brilliant lyricists) and Hooker. Hooker is one of those accidents of timing and had Carrie and Janet and Corinne not met and formed Sleater-Kinney then Hooker might be the biggest band in rock music today. I suspect any reviewer that doesn't mention SK when talking about Hooker is working too hard, I can't imagine there's any way to avoid it. Nonetheless, they blew doors off the club, dropping jaws and kicking everyone's ass. In fact, I confess I enjoyed their show more than SK in part because Zoe, Hooker's lead singer, has such a uniquely strong and rich voice. (More than C, to my ear at least.) I found myself continually wondering how that much voice can be coming out of *that* frame. Also... Every. Single. Song. Was a hit.

Hooker is also now included among the set of "nicest bands we've met", they were gracious and interested in us and, as they're UK touring veterans, they happily gave us the skinny on our near future. I think they've set our expectations accordingly. We're ready.

So, onward we boldly go to London. To Highsbury and The Garage on a Friday night. This might be *the* show of tour so we're excited. We're as a giddy as a Labour Candidate with a high-grade 100kg bag of cocaine!*

*Cocaine, as I understand it, is traditionally a Liberal Democrat drug of choice, so I'm taking some liberty here.

posted at May 06, 2005, 2:47 AM