✍️ Forward, Morning After...

A stream-of-consciousness 'tour diary' from the recent Holy Smoke (2025) tour, right up to the minute

Here follows a stream-of-consciousness, un-edited, not proof-read ‘tour diary’ of our trip to the United States for the ‘Holy Smoke (2025)’ Tour.

I suppose when we started this newsletter, this is the sort of dispatch I hoped to do often. But when I sit down to write things like this I always feel incredibly self-conscious and give up on it, so most of the emails you receive from us are just me trying to sell you things. Not this one. No links to buy.

A huge thank you to all of you who attended, it was a brilliant time for us. Sometimes I feel like I say thank you so much that it may feel meaningless, but I promise every single one is sincere. Thank you to our crew, Joe, Jarab, Paul and Sammy.

AUSTIN, TEXAS

We arrive late on Friday night, and despite our concerns about getting through customs/immigration, it’s a breeze. A customs official sees us hauling our 10 huge cases out of the Oversize Collection Area and grunts “do you have a carnet for that?”. He seems taken aback, and mildly impressed when we do, and then there’s only a brief delay while one of his colleagues stamps the relevant forms and I go through the usual “what’s your band called etc?” dialogue. We should be onstage in Mexico City right now, but that was not to be.

Austin airport is close to the city, and so we’re at our hotel after a 30 minute shuttle. Hotel bar closes at 10, we’re just in time to grab a beer before it closes, and then it’s next door to the gas station to grab a wedge of Modelo to drink in the hotel lobby. It’s nice to link up with the American contingent of our crew, and it’s necessary to stay awake as late as possible to fight the jet lag. We manage to get to around midnight.

We start the tour with an off-day. This whole routing was planned around us playing in Mexico, and as a result of that show being cancelled, the schedule now looks kind of a mess. Being in the US on a Friday and Saturday and not having a show is very foolish and detrimental to income, but we allow ourselves to make these unconventional decisions. The day off is glorious. We’re all up early and have polished off two different branches of Whole Foods, a river-walk, Voodoo Doughnuts, La Colombe, Target, Waterloo Records and 10,000 steps before 11am. The rest of the day carries on similarly. We know the following days are going to be pretty intense and tiring, and so we’re happy to take things easy. We make two different take out orders, one for the vegans and one for the meat-eaters and then spend late afternoon into evening just strolling around and going to bars. Myself, Jason and our Sound Engineer Paul play darts. Jason’s comfortably the better player on this occasion. I get my Gerwyn Price on and bemoan the open air board and how the breeze impacts my ‘technique’.

Sunday brings show-day, and we play at Empire Garage. The venue seems typical of the majority of Austin venues we’ve played, with the band performing on a covered stage, but the rest of the venue being outdoors, or under a marquee in this instance. Midway through the evening things get stinky backstage as the backstage shower (which has been decommissioned anyway and we’re not allowed to use) starts bubbling up shitty water. There’s an issue with the drains and essentially every time the ladies’ toilets are flushed, the waste makes its way direct to us. Subsequently the toilets are closed down, but the smell lingers.

Photo by Victor Gonzalez

The show is the perfect start to tour. It’s raw and aggressive and the crowd is really supportive and seemingly pleased to see us after 6 years away from Austin. There are a lot of kids in the front few rows, and it’s a joy to see them so into it. The millennials further towards the back hold their own too, and it makes for a room with a huge amount of good vibes in it.

Photo by Reilly’s Bad Photos

A reasonably early start the next day to head to the airport. Plan is that we’ll arrive in LAX for 1:30pm and have the rest of the afternoon and evening to do a bit of sightseeing in LA. These plans are soon cancelled, when our flight hits a 5+ hour delay. Luckily our spirits are high and we make the most of it. We commandeer a large social area for our group of 10, and take it in turns to hold the fort while we stretch our legs, and explore the best food options. We pass the time with Uno and eventually our resolve breaks and Neil, Rob, Paul and I hit the bar for a couple of pints to see us through. Delta airlines, our gracious hosts, eventually issue us each with a $12 food voucher. I spend mine on 3 x Cliff bars. Always useful to have a Cliff bar on you.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Once we get going, the flight is smooth and we’re at our hotel by about 7:30pm LA time. Quickly dump our bags in our rooms and we head out for food. Beelman’s. Mostly vegan menu with a few meat bits too. One of my favourite beers, Pliny the Elder on tap. Couple more pints elsewhere after, at the Golden Gopher and then bed by midnight.

I often feel guilty when on tour, that I’m not making the most of it. Visiting these great cities, it often feels like you should be maximising your sightseeing and the culture you’re taking in, when in reality I’m too tired, and too busy watching the clock, nervous about being late for the next thing I need to do. Instead, I prefer to enjoy the comfort of a hotel room, and plan the next meal. Always a Whole Foods to walk to nearby. Honestly, on our first couple of US trips we were blown away by what Whole Foods had to offer. It was almost like a competition to see who could assemble the weightiest, and therefore most expensive, self-serve salad box.

Today’s venue, the Belasco, could not be more different to the Empire. A former playhouse and cinema, it’s spacious and ornate, and the backstage is positively palatial. The shower facilities are 5 Star, and there are multiple freebies. Belasco branded q-tips, phone chargers, pens, car air-fresheners, lip balms, socks and even dressing gowns, help yourself.

We played here in June of last year, in the build up to the release of All Hell, a sold out show, 1,300 capacity. Tonight, there’s just over half that amount of people there. I’m not concerned, as there are multiple reasons for why this is. By every metric our band is more popular now than it was a year ago (there’s a big argument to be had that we’re the most popular we’ve ever been, even more so than when we were a Buzz Band™). It’s a Tuesday night, and we’re coming off the back of Memorial Day Weekend. The fact we played the exact same venue as last year makes it a less exciting proposition for punters, and, if I’m being honest, I didn’t promote the tour as much in the buildup as I could have. It felt wrong to be encouraging people to buy tickets while we were dealing with the horrible CDMX show situation, unsure how it would go ahead. But what’s most pertinent, in my opinion, is that these days it’s incredibly difficult to even ensure fans know you’re visiting their city. Social media is way less useful than it’s ever been, and the music publications we still have just don’t share tour news anymore. 10 years ago you’d send a press-release about a tour and every outlet would gladly share the dates. These days, that just doesn’t happen. Promoters will request ‘assets’ to run ads on Meta, but I’m never convinced of the value.

The fee for this show is very generous. As mentioned, last time with the same promoter, we sold the show out, and so the ‘guarantee’ (an amount we will be paid regardless of how many tickets we sell) amounts to the same as if we’d sold the show out. I feel a little guilty for not fulfilling that trust (but not too guilty, as this is the only Live Nation venue on the tour).

The gig itself is great. When a room’s not full we feel like we have a point to prove and push ourselves even more. Actually that’s not true, we always give everything we have but the motivation is different. I think the extra space is sometimes nice for the crowd, and allows them to enjoy the show more expressively. Star 99 open for us and are great. I know they’re fans of our band, they called their first EP My Year In Lists, so it’s especially nice to share this stage with them. They’re also a really good hang, interested and interesting, they like a beer, and they and their friends are a pleasure to share a backstage area with.

Photo by Skylar Watkins

Jeff Rosenstock comes to the show, and I get to meet him backstage afterwards. Obviously I’ve been a Jeff fan for ages, and have seen multiple of his shows, but this is the first time we’ve spoken in person. I tell him how one of his songs influenced a lyric on All Hell, and he in turn tells me how, by complete coincidence, that song was about the person who introduced him to LC!. Love that cosmic shit.

7:30am lobby call. Feeling groggy. Another flight delay, but this time it comes after an aborted takeoff. Full engines were blazing and we’re picking up speed before a hazard light on the dashboard tells the pilot to hit the brakes. We sit on the plane for 3 hours while the necessary repairs are made, by which point about 10% of the flight has got nervous and decided not to make the trip. Haven’t got around to watching the finale of ‘the Rehearsal’ yet.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

We touch down in Chicago, and link up with our friend Sammy, who’s gonna be doing merch for us for the remainder of the run. We know Sammy from back in the UK, but now she’s based in Upstate New York and works in higher ranking positions than merch manager for the likes of the National and the Postal Service. We’re very glad to have her slumming it with us.

It’s around 8:30pm by the time we get to the hotel. That’s another whole day of nothing but airport and flying. Quick bag drop and then we stroll to find food. Just a block away is Pizzeria Uno, a traditional Chicago Deep Dish place. Despite the waiter’s warnings we over order. Or rather, the non-vegans over-order and we’re left taking away like two whole pies. It’s our first time having Chicago-style. For any Brits wondering what it’s like, it’s basically a hot quiche. Most of the boys go out drinking, but I head back to the hotel to rest my voice. I do vocal warmups these days, and I use a steamer to moisten my vocal chords, but the best thing I can do is not drink, and not yap, so I take one for the team (you guys) and turn in.

Slow start to the show day. Another Whole Foods for me, and I am very relieved to find stock of my preferred lip balm brand (Soothing Touch, Unscented), which is only available in the States and is a lot less easy to find these days. I started using lip balm religiously in 2017 (as immortalised in the Renato Dall’Ara video) and can’t go 30 minutes without applying it these days. I recommend to never use lip balm.

We’re on a tour bus for the next two nights. The drives between Chicago/Columbus/New York necessitate it unfortunately, as you can’t get 11 humans and a ton of gear and merch between those stops in the time we have, without driving overnight. It’s expensive, but we obviously save money on hotels, and it keeps us comfortable. The bus collects us from the hotel, and drives us over to Metro.

Metro is a notable venue for us. It’s our fifth time here, and we played it a lot in the early days. It was one of the first venues we played that felt fucking massive and like a big deal. It’s the only place we ever played our Blink 182 cover, and on one occasion I was gifted a copy of My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy mid-show, crowd-surfed to the stage by the crowd. 1,150 capacity, and we’ve sold all bar 100 tickets in the end. I’m pleased with that.

After soundcheck we meet up with our friend Dave, an actual Lego Master who’s been working on a large-scale project related to our band. I’m excited to share his amazing work with you all, but am holding off until we have the best possible photos.

Photo by Danny Marchewka

This is the first of 3 shows we’ll play with Empty Country. Empty Country is the new band from Joseph D’Agostino, who used to be in the band Cymbals Eat Guitars. We toured with Cymbals on the East Coast and Mid-West back in 2010, and it’s a tour I have very little memory of. I know at the time I was burnt-out and depressed. I wasn’t very present and don’t think I made much effort to make connections with anyone new. It was the tour that was delayed by the Icelandic Volcano. I love Joe’s music, especially Empty Country, and I see this as my opportunity to exorcise those demons. His bandmates are beautiful people, and after the Brooklyn show, Joe posts on Instagram saying of these shows “it felt like waking from a long dream and remembering, with relief, who I am”. I’m overjoyed. I love this band, and if you aren’t yet an Empty Country fan I’d really appreciate you giving them a listen. My favourite songs from each album are Ultrasound and David.

Photo by Danny Marchewka

Chicago delivers. It always does. I speak onstage about how it doesn’t feel like our band has a real hometown. No disrespect to Cardiff, we love Cardiff, but it’s never embraced us in the way it embraces a lot of its bands. It’s understandable why, our band members are English, not Welsh, and 6 of the 7 of us live away from there now. But it’d be really nice to have somewhere to play where we could confidently state like BIG HOMETOWN SHOW. I say how Chicago almost feels like that place to us. Our first gig on US soil was at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and tonight’s show is our 17th in the city. The crowd is packed and really fucking into it, such a joy.

Afterwards, the bus doesn’t leave until the middle of the night, so we have time for drinks in the bar next door. I sign autographs outside for a lot of lovely people, mostly young kids. I meet 4 teens dressed as clowns. I’d clocked them in the crowd mid-show and spent the whole gig looking forward to their reaction when we played Clown Blood. Initially I get on the bus rather than going into the bar. There are quite a lot of people drinking in there who’d been to the show, and I don’t feel like I have the energy to chat. I am always so grateful and flattered that people want to speak with me, but my voice is feeling sore, and I’m generally just knackered after the show. Kim comes on the bus to fetch me and I sit in a corner quite inconspicuously surrounded by my mates. It’s really nice. Jason’s an amazing magician (he really is, this is not a bit), though he’s usually shy about it. Not tonight, he delivers card-trick after card-trick for bandmates and fans alike, we’re all in awe and hysterics. Isn’t it a beautiful thing to get to do this?

COLUMBUS, OHIO

We arrive late morning, greeted by rain. Vindication for the 50% of our group that packed a waterproof layer. The venue doesn’t have a shower, which means we get a ‘day-room’ at a local hotel. I use the fitness room for the 3rd time on this short run and feel very pleased with myself. The venue is in an area out of town and has very little to offer. Anyway, by the time we’ve all showered and got lunch (Meat Eaters order in from Katzinger’s Deli, vegans from Vida’s) it’s basically time to soundcheck.

A delicious Vegan Reuben from Vida’s Plant Based Butcher. Sorry, I didn’t take many pics in Columbus.

The venue is kind of weird, but I like it. The stage is unnecessarily high, like maybe 6 feet, and the drum riser is even higher still. There are LED screens all around, advertising upcoming gigs (Buckcherry, Everclear, La Dispute), drinks promotions and the food menu. During Empty Country’s performance I sit in the balcony and watch bar staff bring a plate of food to a family seated in a small, raised VIP area.

The gig is a lot of fun. Ohio is always good to us. Barely a tour goes by where we don’t play Columbus or Cleveland. Been getting a bit of grief from Minnesota for that, but Ohio are our guys sorry! The stage is unbearably warm. Maybe the warmest I’ve ever experienced, and I can think of no good reason why. The shirt I wear on stage is still soaked through 24 hours later, when I check to see if I can get a rewear out of it for the Brooklyn show.

Our friend Adam from Times New Viking hangs out at the show, and we have a great time reminiscing on old times. Immediately following the gig, venue staff tell fans waiting outside for signatures/photographs to disperse because we’d left the vicinity in a cab immediately following the show. This is a cruel lie, which we obviously didn’t ask them to tell. When we emerge to the bus 30 minutes later there are around 20 hardy fans waiting, who we gladly sign and take photographs for. The bus leaves before long, for an 11 hour drive to Brooklyn. As wagons roll, we gather around the television, rapt by old episodes of Deal or No Deal, guffawing as greedy contestants lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. We Google the main culprit, he sadly died in 2017.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

We pull up in Brooklyn at around 11am and are all ready to make the most of our two free hours before load-in and soundcheck commences. Kim, Jason and I get a doughnut from Dun-Well and then get a cab to Bedford, and I do my usual checklist of favourite places…Baggu, Muji, Spoonbill Books, Catbird, Whole Foods and Oasis Falafel.

I’m very glad we chose the Monarch for what ends up being our biggest New York show to date (1,295 tickets sold). It’s not without its faults (no hot water in the shower, less reliable/older equipment), but it feels good to be in the Big City and playing an independent venue. From what I can tell, most comparable venues in New York are owned by the Bowery Group or Live Nation, and that sort of duopoly isn’t good for anyone other than themselves. As is always the case before playing shows, our booking agent gets in offers from different promoters who are willing to host the show. Bowery came back with an offer for Webster Hall (1,175 capacity) and at sell out the fee would have been $16,000 (and 20% of all merch sales going to the venue). Wheeras at Monarch the offer was 90% of gross ticket sales, after the first $4,000 of sales). So, no guarantee, but a very generous offer considering we knew we’d sell the vast majority of tickets. This saw us walking away with just shy of $30,000 in show fee.

Before the gig I have time to dash around the corner to the Anchored Inn to have a pint of Daisy Cutter with our friends Pete and Gillian. The bar is full of LC! fans, half a dozen of which very politely approach me for a handshake and to say they’re looking forward to the concert. What a mad fucking world, hey?

Empty Country tear it up again. I watch the majority of the show from the middle of the crowd, about 15 rows back, the people around me too focused on enjoying the band to notice I’m stood amongst them.

Photo by Juliette Boulay

Our show is, I think, an all-timer. There are some technical issues, but as is always the case this just helps make an even deeper connection between us and the crowd.The set we’ve been playing on this tour is a really good one, and it plays out perfectly in this environment. There’s pogoing and moshing, a circle pit, and 1,300 smiling fees screaming back at us for nearly 2 hours. What a feeling. We end the encore with Baby I Got The Death Rattle, and for the first time in years I jump into the crowd. I want to be in it. I extend my mic cable to its maximum and push through the crowd, almost to as far as the sound-desk and smile as people belatedly notice I’ve appeared next to them, too distracted by their own rocking out. At the culmination of the song’s lyrics someone in front of me waves the rosary they’re wearing. I gesture for them to put it around my neck. They do as I ask and then they bless me. Truly.

Photo by Juliette Boulay

HOME

By the time we’ve landed at Heathrow it’s Monday morning. Tom, Matt and Rob head off in their respective directions home, and Jason picks up a van to drive me, Kim, Neil and all of our instruments to the South West.

I can’t resist a nap as soon as I get in. I sleep lightly, but it feels blissful. I wake up feeling insane. It’s Thursday now and my sleep’s still not straight, nor my guts. Since returning it’s been a lot of admin. Paying our remaining outgoings and getting prepared for the weekend ahead. Watching the bank account dwindle, because the income always arrives way later than the expenditure goes out. But the forecast is good, and the income should keep us ticking over for another few months. We sold £35,000 of merch. Probably about 60% of that is profit. And show fees will have amounted to around £70,000 total. Between £25-30,000 profit all told I think. Still some numbers to be crunched.

Tomorrow we fly to Barcelona for Primavera, a gig we’ve been looking forward to for months and hoping we’d get to play for years. These sort of festivals make me a little nervous. It’s cool and we’re not, I know that. I worry nobody will watch us, and then I worry that lots of people will, but only because “oh I remember this band!”, and we’re no longer the band they think we are. But I know we are worthy and I know we will play one of the weekend’s best shows and have the time of our lives. Last night, figuring I already felt barmy and so had nothing to lose, I did the 5 hour round trip on public transport to Cardiff to watch caroline play at Clwb Ifor Bach. They played in Bristol while we were in the States, and I didn’t want to miss them on this tour. I am obsessed with the new album, I’m going to live inside it for months I can tell. I wanted to be at the show alone, to stand right at the front and swallow it whole. But when I got there I immediately heard someone call “Gareth”. Someone I know from home, and who, don’t get me wrong, I like and would ordinarily be glad to see, started talking to me about the happenings at my local football team, which totally knocked me out of my zone, and made me feel a lot more present than I wanted to be. I left home at 4:30pm and got back at 1:00am. The show was still great, I’m glad I went. It’s easy not to do things.

Haircut this morning. Now I need to pack. Going to Bristol airport in an hour with our 12 flight cases, to do the ‘Twilight Bag Drop’ ahead of our 7am flight. My Nintendo Switch 2 arrived this afternoon, but I decided to write you this letter instead.

xoxo G