Deaf Havana – 3rd ROAD BLOG from U.S. Tour with Ash

The UK-based rock band, Deaf Havana, is currently on their first U.S. tour ever supporting the Northern Irish alternative rock band, Ash. While they are on this tour, the band’s lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist, James Veck-Gilodi, will be writing a blog to tell you about the experiences he is having with his band while on this tour. You can check out the second entry, after the break.

February 6, 2014 – Houston, TX
The morning of Houston started out well because we visited Max’s uncle and made good use of his hot tub, even if it was freezing outside. By this point I’m pretty homesick and all I can think about is going home. The venue in Houston is okay, it’s a little bar with the worlds slowest wifi but it was a pretty cool place regardless. We hung around and sampled some local beer courtesy of Max’s uncle. The show was unexpectedly quite good. There were a few people who already knew of us but the majority had no idea who we were but we must have won them over because we sold quite a few records which was a nice surprise. Tom got extremely drunk which was hilarious as always to witness. I think Houston was the best of the Texas shows, still, we we’re all quite glad we were leaving Texas the next day (no offence to Texans).

February 7, 2014 – New Orleans, LA
New Orleans, potentially my favourite city in the US. Having been here before I was excited to be back but equally as annoyed that we had to leave straight after the show. We turned up slightly later than expected but swiftly after loading in to the venue, a few of us ran off to Bourbon Street to get a hurricane. We saw a great blues band and then some jazz, but all in all we only had about an hour to kill which was a shame seeing as this city is so much fun. The show was pretty awful for us, it was probably about a 600 capacity room and there were honestly about 25 stragglers dotted around the room, it was extremely empty. We played okay but couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened that our efforts were somewhat in vain.
After the show we met 2 girls who had come just for us so that was nice, we took photos and signed their CDs then had to leave. I was sad that we couldn’t spend a night here and wasn’t particularly excited about heading to Arkansas, but that’s the way it was so on we went.

February 8, 2014 – Little Rock, AR
Upon arriving, Little Rock seemed like a ghost town. It was quite pretty and clean but there was literally no one around. When we entered the venue we were greeted by death metal blasting through the speakers and a less than friendly sound man, good start. By now I’m getting worn out by the travelling and drinking and missing England. The venue was like a cross between a sports bar and a school hall, with tables (which I thought they’d move for the show, they didn’t) set up throughout. Underneath was a great Mexican restaurant which we ate at for free so that was a plus side, we were also kindly sent a huge fish bowl of frozen margarita by Ash’s tour manager, Brett. In return we gave him a glass of tap water with a note attached, written on a napkin saying “cheerz boyz”. The bar staff back in the venue were amazing and refused to let us pay for any drinks, needless to say we got through a bottle of fireball and probably a lot more. The show was similar to New Orleans except I actually had fun playing tonight (could be because of the fishbowl and fireball). We sold a few vinyls and CDs afterwards which was a surprise. All in all not a bad experience, but another sparse attendance, I’ll blame the snow.

February 10, 2014 – Nashville, TN
Nashville, like New Orleans, is somewhere I have spent a bit of time in before. I made some friends here last time and was keen to meet up with them again. We arrived the night before the show and me and Max ended up in a karaoke bar on Broadway. We met a lovely guy by the name of Chris and hung out with him a bit, then somehow made it back to our hotel.

On the day of the show, I contacted my friend Nick Cross and found out he was playing in a bar during the day so we went to see him, I played a few songs and in return he bought me a few beers. We ate at a BBQ place called Jack’s which was great, then headed back to the venue we were playing. The show was actually okay, there were a few people there for us which is always nice. As a band I think it was probably our best show, playing wise. After the show we headed back on to broadway. Max and I went with my friend Nick and our new friend Chris, whilst the others headed out with the Ash boys as tomorrow’s show was cancelled so this would be our last show of the Ash tour. Max and I ended up back at the karaoke bar and lost our minds. Nashville has that affect on me. It was a welcome break and felt a bit more like home than everywhere else.

Keep up with Deaf Havana on Facebook and Twitter. If you’re interested in going out to a date of this tour, check out the remaining dates here.