Northern Ireland hard rock band The Answer don’t hit the States all that often, but when they do, it’s in style. Six years ago, the band were the opening act for AC/DC. They’re back again in support of their fifth album, Raise a Little Hell, and this time, the’re opening up for Whitesnake. The band have agreed to share their tour diary with us, so here’s the first installment:
Day 1 – Dallas Texas
Well Grand Prairie to be precise and so far so good. After a very busy weekend rocking out in front of 40 thousand of our closest friends at Hellfest Festval France we hightailed to it the exotic destination of Dublin, Ireland in order to get down down on our knees and beg the US authorities to let us into their wonderful country. You may have read in the papers by now that there has been a worldwide lock down on visa applications due to a bug in the system. Of course this lock down occurred the afternoon we applied which threw a super size spanner in the works with regards to our plans for US domination.
Thankfully our Dublin airport pre-clearance experience was a lot smoother than we had anticipated with pretty much the entire US immigration staff coming out to meet “Whitesnake” plead for mercy and grant the band a visa waiver. They didn’t even seem that pissed off when they realised its wasn’t actually Whitesnake…just four nervous looking Irish dudes trying to to hook up with the afore mentioned group. In fact they couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful. They even promised to come and check us out the next we rolled into Dublin!
So putting the stressful event s of the previous few days behind us we cracked open our first can of Budweiser and flew like winged warrior poets to Philadelphia and onwards to the holy Grail; Fortworth Texas. Waiting for us at the airport was our home for the next five weeks. A souped up RV with everything six guys and a gal (poor gal) might need for our shot at the American dream.
Tonight we play our first show of the tour with the mighty Whitesnake at Grand Prairie and I don’t think we’ve ever been more psyched about a tour in our lives. I don’t know whether its because its our first time to tour the states since AC/DC took us on a year long round trip all of six years ago. Or it might just be the fact that we get to see David Coverdale scream out his old Deep Purple masterpieces. Either way The Answer are ready to go, so come on down and enjoy the party with us. God bless America!!
Day 2 – San Antonio
I’m currently sitting in an empty theatre in Downtown San Antonio. For most musicians that’s a worst nightmare scenario. But as we wait to soundcheck I’m just taking in my surroundings and loving it. The “Majestic Theatre” seems like its been around as long as The Alamo (which is a five minute walk away). It’s like a cross between the Grand Opera House in Belfast and a Universal Studio Country and Western set. I’ve had a walk to scope the area out and there’s a Tequila bar next door to an Irish pub about thirty yards from the venue. This is gonna be a big night…I can just feel it in my Celtic bones.
Last night was one of my favourite gigs of all time and for that we extend our gratitude to the good people of Dallas and Fortworth. It may well have been an outpouring of pent up emotion, having narrowly escaped deportation the previous day or maybe it was because it was our first gig on American in more than five years. In reality it was probably a bit of both. We left the stage to a standing ovation and proceeded to sell out of merchandise in ten minutes flat. Now that’s the kind of start to a tour you want and it bodes well for the road ahead. San Antonio; you’re next!!
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