Axis All Areas

Last month, North Coast noiseniks Axis Of declared their intention to play shows in each of Ireland’s 32 counties. As the band’s soon-to-be-released album, Finding St Kilda, takes inspiration from the natural landscape, folklore, and arcane local history, it’s safe to assume this trio aren’t the type of tourists who are afraid to lose sight of their guide bus.

Less a standard promotional jaunt than a quixotic trip along roads less travelled, their stated aim on departure was to soak up just as much as they sounded off.
To that end, drummer Ethan Harman adopted the mantle of an in-house DA Pennebaker, documenting much of the shenanigans on his hand-held camera, while front-man Ewan Friers took a more traditional approach – noting down their adventures in the pages of a battered journal.
The resultant Tour Diary will be released in conjunction with the album; however, Ewan has given us a sneak peek.
“On our travels we met lots of people and lots of characters,” he says, “Bands and punters all over Ireland, promoters, farmers, artists, naysayers, felons, friends, poets, fire breathers and their dogs. And as corny as it sounds, it’s them and all their stories that made this tour so unique for us.”

BALLINA
“After loading out of Emmet’s in Ballina, Co Mayo, we chatted in the back car park to the lads from “Chirps” and the promoter Conor. With promise of some supper and beds we made for the road heading out of town to the south. In the back alley a local drunk pulled me over and thrust his hand in the driver’s window. Gripping me by the wrist he held us there for what seemed like hours, very emotionally wishing us well on our future journeys. At one point he was reduced to tears. Once we’d prised him away and got moving up the street, I was washed with a strange feeling. Although on the surface it might have initially felt like an awkward encounter with the local carouser, maybe there was a significance to the feeling of being well wished or blessed.”

OMAGH
“As far as audience enthusiasm was concerned, we were lucky enough to have a tour filled with a healthy haul of crowd participation with crowd surfers in Belfast, stage invaders in Westmeath, impromptu guest vocalists at Electric Picnic and rafter swingers in Derry. But nothing could prepare us for Top of the Town in Omagh, County Tyrone. The crowd of local youngsters were head banging and moshing in full force by the first song. Then, as if commanded by some incognito choreographer, the synchronised crowd launched into what can only be described as “The Chicken Dance”. Arms like wings, knees bent and necks jutting in and out. 100 points for originality and fun factor. Our hats were off!”

CAVAN
“On days between shows, when travelling from town to town, we decided to put posts online requesting that anyone out there might ask us to stop off and play any guerrilla gigs they set up; house parties, shop shows, pop-ups of any kind. One memorable result of this effort was the Biker BBQ Garden show. We’d had a few mysterious emails from two brothers, Ricky and Dean, deep in the Cavan Countryside and decided we could make it happen.
We got to the house early and loaded our gear into a marquee. In the preceding emails I’d forgotten to mention that we were all vegetarians and started to worry this might go down badly at a BBQ for carnivorous bikers and their families. Our host did admit he’d only ever met two veggies in his life, so with the three of us and our sound engineer we’d doubled his experience! But he couldn’t have been more accommodating, laying on a massive feast for us. We soon found out that the younger of the brothers, Dean, had being following the band since our inception three years ago but this was his first time seeing us live!
With such good feelings, we played our hearts out to the small lively crowd and disappeared up the road. Ricky made sure to send us on our way with enough beer and Buckfast to sink a ship!”