So it’s 4 in the morning and I am unable to sleep. Can’t figure out whether it is still jet lag from America, the crazy hours we have been keeping, or the tour bus.

It is an absolute privilege to be travelling around in the bus, but for some reason I am unable to sleep on them anymore. A combination of moving and the small coffin like space has finally got to me and I find myself up drinking myself to sleep. Alcoholic I know!

So tonight I have decided to go through the year to date, 6 months have gone past and we have covered a considerable amount of ground. We started off the year in Australia, which some of you may know. We toured with the Big Day Out and also had a few of our own shows. After that we finished the end of our European run that we postponed. That took us into Scandinavia and Germany with one of our favourite bands The Joy Formidable, you should check out when we get to Australia as they are supporting us there as well.

After that, we headed into the States for our 7-week tour, which was amazing. America is the final frontier for The Temper Trap. It’s wide-open spaces, picturesque landscape and blatant disregard for much originality when it comes to truck stop cuisine made it one of the best tours we have done. At the end of that tour we got stuck in L.A for a couple of extra days due to the mass of soot that was being spewed out of Iceland. This meant that out break between the US tour and UK tour was very short.

So from America we did our largest UK tour to date. We managed to sell out the entire tour, which was an amazing achievement and something we never dreamt of. We had a few visitors on the road and also life was made easier with the inclusion of two new crew members in Ed and Maddie. Ed the traitor jumped ship to go on tour with the ever so cool Mumford and Sons and we managed to keep Maddie. She is awesome and makes us sound great on stage.

During this tour we made a little detour to Germany to do a live radio show in a coalmine. This gig coincided with Campbell’s birthday. This was the second year he had spent his birthday in Germany and we made him pay for it by having a very boozy night on some of Scotland’s’ finest.
With a week of rest we were back on the road this time to ‘The City of Love’ (Paris) and then to Amsterdam before heading back into the states.

This time in the states was pretty short but extremely fun as usual. Our first gig was at Sasquatch Festival in Washington. This would have to be one of the most picturesque festivals I have ever been to. This and the plethora of rattlesnakes made it a great way to start of the US run.  From there we played our first gig in Vancouver, and then headed south to Santa Barbara.  We stopped into our second base in the US, The Orlando for a couple of days whilst we did a radio festival with the Stone Temple Pilots, Devo and a incredibly weird set from Hole.  After LA we did the same thing in San Fran, but we where greeted on stage with a massive joint that was supplied by a radio presenter who was shocked that we had tried the bay area bud.
 
Once we left the West Coast this is where things got really fun. We had been looking forward to our two dates with Warpaint and when we arrived in Kansas City, which is actually in Missouri we were all excited for the show. But alas it was Hurricane season and the show which was in this really cool outdoor venue was called off. So what do you do? You go straight to the bar with the support band and have a bonding session over a few frothies. They are a great band and if you see them playing near you, go and check them out.

So from there it was Bonnaroo in the great state of Tennessee. It was hot muggy and incredibly dusty, but also one of the greatest gigs I have been a part of. You can check out footage online. I haven’t watched it as I don’t like watching myself but people tell me it’s good.

That brings me back to Europe for the summer festivals, we flew back into Rome and now we are in Cologne in Germany after about 6 shows. Italy for me felt like home and the food was out of this world. It is amazing walking around a city and seeing things that have existed for a thousand or so years.
 
Germany has been great as usual it is our second home here in Europe and the people have been so good to us ever since we first came here in May of last year.
There are many more gigs to come and more countries to visit and we all look forward to seeing you all in the future.

One more thing we are currently touring with another great band in The Kissaway Trail from Denmark. We toured with them through out the US and now here. If you are going to Roskilde check them out. Fucking awesome.
 
Peace out.
L