11/27 Blackburn Fish 'n Chips

I finally got my first taste of fish and chips on this trip. And me getting some fish and chips has been a moment everyone on tour has been highly anticipating. A little background: BBE is from Christchurch, NZ. In 2001, I hitchhiked around NZ for ten weeks, and about the only things I remember about Christchurch are the Wizard and that I ate some Fish and Chips that I got for $3.00 NZ (it was about $1.30 US dollars) and then literally crapped my pants in a park 30 minutes later. The story is much better in person, because I recreate the horizontal walking posture I used to get me from the park all the way to the second floor bathroom of the library down the block. So yes, me and fish and chips, what would happen? The place I found seemed like a real deal Chippery: you could get about 30 things, and 28 them came fried.

The other two were the ubiquitous pizza and doner kebaps, which worried me a little bit. Cause when they start offering additional items that aren't fried, you know they have to cut corners somewhere. I was hoping it wasn't in the fish dept. Just to be safe, I made sure not to eat my meal in a park.

After a hilarious interview, we made our way to the venue and slowly watched the night unfold. I don’t know if I can come up with the words to capture the setting, so I’ll just give you some facts: the opening band played a 12 string guitar that they refused to tune (one of those “too cool to tune, too dumb to know how” situations), the girls in the crowd were all wearing matching black tights and/or hypercolored tops, and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was the stone cold frat jam that got the crowd all revved up before BBE played.

The dressing room was up above the rest of the club, and there is a big piece of one way glass set in the wall so you can look down on the stage and a wee bit of the dance floor. I think it’s actually just there so the workers can look down girls’ shirts, but I’m usually wrong about these kinds of things.

As cool as Blackburn is, we leave town to stay with friends that have transplanted to Manchester from New Zealand. James and Zach just can't wait to show their gratitude for the hospitality.