We get exclusive access to UberByte‘s US tour diary. The band’s synth player Carbonel gives us his first lot of updates!
DAY ONE
“And it all started out so well…well not really, since it ‘started out’ at something like half past four in the morning, with a taxi ride across the Pennines to Manchester airport. All pretty un-eventful, tho the countryside as ever was superb.
Check in was similarly unremarkable, apart from the desk guy who looked like Ron Perlman(!) and the usual fun of New Rocks and metal detectors. Once through though, we set about the important tasks of finding breakfast and (inevitably) checking Facebook..
..which may have been a mistake, since Thomas [Rainer, Nachtmahr] posted that Massimo had found a vuvezala app for his iPhone, which prompted Char [synths/vocals, UberByte] to bloody find it too! There followed several minutes of what sounded like an elephant desperately trying to clear sinus trouble, followed by a polite but pointed warning from Rich [vocals, UberByte] and me that she could cease and desist the racket, or we could cease and desist her iPhone.
Thus, in golden silence, we completed the first flight to JFK, and then things started to go wobbly. With only an hour to go through immigration, customs, security and the rest, it was a bit of a run to the boarding gate. Still, at least we got our cardio workout for the day. Plus I got the lulz of describing our Korg D888 backing mixer as, ‘like a giant iPod‘ to a slightly confused security guy! Guess they don’t get many industrial bands. Oh, and I got to describe my profession as ‘musician‘ – Win!
We thought that would be the end of a LONG day (we arrived at San Francisco, 7pm local time, or 3am BST), but the worse was to come, and we found out when the baggage carousel shuddered to a halt with one of our bags is still missing! An important one too – with the keyboard controllers and power transformer in it. AAAARRGGHHH!
A check with the airline suggested it ‘should’ be on the next flight, so that was a further three hours sitting in the airport lounge.. I’ve had enough of airports now, kthx? Thankfully the bastard thing did show up though – HOOYAH – so, at least we have everything!
Thomas and Max were waiting for us at the hotel, and since pretty much everywhere was closed we headed across the road to a cafe diner for some food and a (very!) well-deserved beer!
So, here we are in Frisco..let’s see how the show goes..Though, it was a bit surreal as we were leaving and saw what appeared to be a fellow engaging in an act of.. shall we say simultaneous defecation and self-pleasuring? in a shop doorway! Decency forbade me from getting a photo..
Well, given we’d been up pretty much 28 hours straight yesterday, I was expecting to sleep like a sleepy thing..
..so it was much to my surprise I flicked awake at half past four, snoozed for a bit, and finally woke up proper by 8ish. Guess my body’s now in tour mode, and reckons four hours is enough?
Anyway, we decided to go check out a Mexican place called Pancho Villas that Rich had found – cue much hilarity of UberByte working out the BART network (like the Tube in London). It was well worth it though – the food was fantastic! In fact, Char said it was the best she’d had since her and Rich‘s last visit to Mexico in 2007.
Thomas and Max had gone to pick up Nick (our tour manager – an absolute legend) so we jumped on a tram and headed up to Fisherman’s Wharf to do some tourist-y photo taking and kill a few hours. Managed to see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge from very far away, and several pics of Rich pulling his pose (which is becoming a bit of a theme of the tour! ‘Check out Rob Green OMG‘ on YouTube if you’re confused) Then off to the DNA Lounge for show number one!
I’ve been looking forward to this venue since it was announced. Being a big geek myself, the amount of tech in the place (half of it running on software written by the people there) is awesome. Plus it looks like a massive converted warehouse, it has a wicked cool two-tier stage and serves (more) amazing Mexican food. And the bass response on the front of house when Nachtmahr were soundchecking made the hairs on my arms prickle!
..and OH MY GOD (64) the audience were incredible. I had a lot of worry over how they would receive us, but the simple answer is, Awesomely! They were singing along, clapping in the clappy bits, and generally going nuts. Even to total new song ‘Money Shot‘, which is one of Rich‘s ‘I’ve just released one album but written half the next one‘ songs, and which Thomas insisted that we include.
They went even more nuts to Nachtmahr – a truly triumphant start to the tour! Apart from the poor girl who fell asleep on the stage and could barely speak when Thomas was chatting to her – I think she may now be immortalised!
There followed a fun, if very brief, after-party-ette, with much dancing. It was also great to finally meet some of our label-mates (Ben and Kat from C/A/T), Dave from Cervello Electronica and Paul from Syndika Zero).
Then we all piled off to a motel and listened to Thomas making disturbing noises through the wall.
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