Joey Burns of Calexico

What's on your rider?Food'n' drink, postcards, stamps, a newspaper, toothpicks, someone to point us in the direction to the old part of the city.

What's your pre-gig ritual/ routine?Some of the guys take a power nap and so there is usually one room with several people lying down, knocked out cold, look as if they drank the purple Kool-Aid. Other rituals include vocal war

How do you get to the gig – limo, taxi, walking?Twist and crawl.

What's the best gig you've been to?Lalo Guerrero and Los Changitos Feos (a youth Mariachi group) in Tucson, Arizona 1997. Lalo is the most important musician and songwriter to ever come out of Barrio Viejo in Tucson. He was awarded the Medal of the Arts in 1997 by President Bill Clinton and was named a National Folk Treasure by the Smithsonian Institute. The concert I saw him do at a low-key show with beginning musicians ages 9-12 years old was sweet and soulful, the epitome of the finer things in life here in Tucson and the Sonora Desert.

What are your favourite and least favourite venues?I love old theatres. I am not a big fan of low ceiling clubs, but I do like caves.

Most embarrassing on-stage moment?Losing my mind on space cake in Amsterdam . . . I think.

Have you a special stage wardrobe?Not really, but we all like vintage clothes and do our own ironing and washing the day of the show.

What's your best tour story?Playing in two nights in Dublin at Whelan's. A young couple announced to us at the end of the second night that they were going to marry soon and if we could play our song Not Even Stevie Nicks one last time for them. The show had ended, instruments were packed, amps unplugged. But we hopped back on stage and delivered the best version of that song ever. It's their story and I was honored to be part of the soundtrack to their love.

* Calexico plays Dublin’s Olympia on Thursday