Danny Burns & Aine ...It musta been love....
- Surfchixxx on the road to the South, y’all!
Leaving New Jersey breaks our hearts, every time. However, the prospect of a road trip to Memphis was exciting, and so we loaded up our trusty old car, reprogrammed Charlotte (Our GPS, who often was my only friend, when Aine was snoring in the car beside me) and hit the road south. It’s a 14-hour drive from NJ to Tennessee, so on evening one, our aim was to get as far south in Virginia as we could. (That sounds like the title of a country/porn song!) And boy, did we listen to some amount of country music. Ok – lets get this confession made… the radio stations were wall-to-wall pure country shmaltz and cheese…and we loved every minute of it! The drive through Virginia is amazing… purpley cherry blossom-like trees give a blue hue to the landscape (Can anyone tell me the name of these shrubs?) and we also gave a high five to Baltimore on behalf of all our Wire-watching friends. We stopped off at some hairy-looking super8 motel about 5 miles from the Tennessee State line, fell in the door, slept, showered (I did, Aine never does) and back on the road again.
We made it to the Dublin House and met our booker, and gentleman extrordinaire, Malachy. We got all set up in a brilliant apartment, and hit the Dublin House around ten to play the first ever band-gig there. Such a laugh! We were surprised at the number of Irish there- a good representation from Dublin, Meath, Monaghan and Belfast. We also had great support from the Memphis Gay community, and I have a date with the lovely Lara next time I pass through! 
Dublin House is a great venue, Malachy and staff are legends, especially Keith From Dublin who gave us his bed, and we will be back!
Next day, we were off again, heading for Pensacola, Florida, and to our wonderful friends, the Bertram family. Tracy, Roy and Mary Willis brought us here last Fall, and we had a super gig at Goatlips. They invited us back, and so we arrived for a very relaxed Sunday evening gig, with a great support band named ‘Company of Ghosts’. There was loads of people back to see us again, and on a balmy Florida evening, where else would you be? Tom, our host supplied us with plenty of beer and mosquito spray, and Ron, our lovely sound man did a great country set during the break. This little bar is filled with photos of superb musicians, and we were pretty chuffed to see our own pictures up on this wall of fame. Brilliant!
The next night, we were off to Florabama, which is right on the border of Florida and Alabama. http://www.florabama.com/ This is a huge and amazing venue, with a great stage, a brilliant sound man, appropriately called Mike, and it’s the home of the bushwhacker cocktail, which proved to be the later undoing of one of the Surfchixxx (Clue, not me!) We had another brilliant gig, and met the very cool Jason Justice, who treated us to an afterparty, and the brilliant culinary skills of guitarist John Seymour. We had a funny late-night conversation about ..ahem…language differences, and we left promising to return to Florabama on our next tour.
We then enjoyed two fabulous days off, hanging out by the pool, and eating Tracy Bertram’s delicious recipes – her Gumbo is to die for! Thanks so much to Tracy, Mary Willis, and Roy for giving over their home to two messy, tired surfchixxx, and for looking after us so well. Mary Willis, Ryan says thanks for picking out the cool shoes!
By thursday, we were ready to gig again, and it was off to Pensacola Beach to meet the lovely Seamus and staff at Paddy O’ Leary’s bar. http://www.paddyolearysirishpub.com/ It’s always nice to see your name up on the venue, and these good people had improvised and made a few extra ‘x’s’ for surfchixxx out of duct tape! When you see that, you know you’re in the right place. Paddy O’ Leary’s was an absolutely terrific gig – our soundman Dennis also doubled as singer and musician, and we were alos joined by Adam and co from the company of ghosts… and Lisa from Ultraviolet, a great local all-chicks band. Aine also got a proposal of marriage from Mr. Kyle Gibbs, and may return for a wedding in the near future. Everyone we met at this bar rocked, and we will definitely be coming back again…maybe paddy’s weekend next year, eh Seamus?
The sadness of leaving Pensacola was tempered with the sheer excitement of moving on to New Orleans- we had never been before, but had heard great things. We were booked into the Kerry Pub http://www.kerryirishpub.com/ on Decatur St in the French Quarter, and folks- OMG, THIS CITY ROCKS! I tend to wax lyrical about many places, but if you have not been to ‘N’awlins’, you need to go. It’s beautiful, cool, friendly, resiliant, proud, music heaven, and full of nice people. We introduced ourselves to Doris, who is the amazing chick running the Kerry, and up we hopped on the stage to entertain the good folks of Decatur Street. We were delighted to be joined by Donegal Man Danny Burns, http://www.myspace.com/dannyburnsmusic who lives there now, and (I found out later) was Aine’s first boyfriend. And at age 11, he dumped her, as he said it was ‘just too much of a commitment’.
Our final night of our tour was in New Orleans – we had pencilled this in as our own little party – I had promised Aine a proper birthday celebration, as we had not gotten a chance to have our own night out with all the fuss before hand. It was also the 7th anniversary of the first ever chixxx gig, which was in Ramelton in 2004. The seven-year itch has not hit us yet, so we took a streetcar to Jaque-Imo’s restaurant (totally amazing!) and enjoyed alligator cheesecake, rabbit and crab, and plenty of fine wine. Then we met up with Danny, who introduced us to the venues all along Frenchman St. We caught Eric Lindell at d.b.a and Alex mc Murray up the road at the Blue Nile. It was a legendary night, thanks so much all…
And so it was, that we returned to Atlanta, amazed that the tour was over, and genuinely delighted that it was all so successful! We agreed that every gig, and every venue, and every day of this trip was a joy and a pleasure. Other than the drama of the driving licence on arrival, everything else went to plan, and we simply cannot thank those that booked us, and helped us along the way. One more time- thanks to Connolly’s, North Carolina, Mc Hales, South Carolina, GetRealNY, Rattle N Hum & Arlene’s Grocery in New York City, Drew University Pub, Hennesseys, Johnny Macs, and Expresso Joe’s in New Jersey, Dublin House, Memphis, Goatslips, Florabama and Paddy O Leary’s, Florida, and The Kerry Pub in New Orleans. A special thanks to Kathy Conlon, Patrick and Roz Donagher, Tracy Bertram and family, Colie Brice and Jim Sickels, Malachy Smyth, Tom at Goatlips, Doris at The Kerry, John at Johnny Macs, Seamus at Paddy O’ Leary’s, George and Brenda Wirth, Todd and Dale, Susan and Peter, Rick and Shannon, Adam Bro, Tony, Keith, Larry, Steven and all the crowd at Asbury Park, Mike, Jason and John at Florabama, Kyle & the lads at Pensacola Beach, Chris Cuzme, Charlotte our GPS system, the really really nice people at Atlanta Airport Car hire (ACE) (without whom we wouldn’t have made it) , everyone who came to the gigs, enjoyed themselves, from Aine Surfchick and Niamh Surfchick, thanks so much and hope to see you again soon xxx
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