Monday, October 19, 2009

October 17th: RPI - Troy, NY

It's 2pm when I come to. I have to be at our rehearsal space in an hour in DUMBO. I'm in Greenpoint. Better drag my carcass-body out of bed and hope that my head doesn't explode. I vaguely remember being kicked out of a bar around 4am. Jeremiah and our friend Adam were there. Then I jumped onto the bed of a parked semi-truck. Then I jumped down from a great height and fell to the ground. Then Jeremiah and Adam started beating me up. Did all this happen? Can't quite say.

I walk down to the G train at Nassau Ave. Transfer at Hoyt-Schermerhorn to the A train. I emerge out of the High Street station just before 3pm. Right on time. I see Gavin at the deli around the corner from our space. We see Jeremiah in our rehearsal space. He's hung over as hell. So those things DID happen. Funny.

We pack everything and carry it out on to the street, where Will is waiting with the Blue Torch. We pack everything just like we did on tour and we are off to Troy, NY. I am all of the sudden in the driver's seat. Carmen, our GPS, is being stupid. It's like she spent the whole two weeks since tour holed up in a brothel somewhere smoking crack. She wants us to take the Holland Tunnel, which makes no sense. She keeps on saying, "Recalculating," every time I ignore her directions. Then we hit horrendous traffic on the West Side Highway. Some stupid Asian dude cuts me off from the right side lane and then proceeds to cut all the way across to the left lane so he can go into Chelsea Piers. He nearly kills all of us. I shake my fists at him and cry inside that he's so stupid. We pass the Intrepid and Will comments that I didn't ask to go inside this time, like I alway do. I guess I am too hungover.

It takes nearly an hour to get out of the city, but once we cross the GW bridge, it's smooth sailing. We cruise into RPI campus a little past 7pm. We meet Shela, who setup the show for us. She's going to order pizza for us, which is sweet, because I'm still hungover and I need to eat something. We meet the other bands playing the show and then Gavin and I are dispatched to go get beers. We pick up Bud Light and some plastic cups so we can pretend like we aren't drinking beer on stage. Every since we went to the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, I've had an insatiable appetite for Bud Light's uncompromising drinkability. God, I can't wait to sneak the suckers into the band room and crack one open. Which is exactly what I do. I head straight past the door girl, past the crowd gathered to watch the first band, go straight back to our "green room" which is just a closet with all our gear stowed away in it, and I crack one open and pour it into a cup and guzzle it. Delicious.

First band to go on is a campus outfit called The New Pioneer Society. Seems like just about everyone cool on campus is in this band. Shela is in the band. She plays bass on a song. Some dude plays the ukulele. Someone else plays shaker. There's cello. Sax. Bandanas. Everything.

Henry Gale are on next. They are an instrumental band from Boston. They remind us of another Boston band, Caspian, whose guitarist is a childhood friend of Will's. Half way through their set, Will and I go upstairs to do our vocal warm-ups. Mmm, it's ok. Not mind-blowing.

We set up our stuff and slog through our set. We have some technical problems with mics and whatnot. Or maybe we are playing way too loud. Not our best work. We feel kind of bummed about it even though the audience seems to enjoy it.

We chat with some people for a while before packing our stuff and hitting the road. Jeremiah is driving now. It's close to midnight. I have to be at work at 8am so we are driving straight back to the city. Well, not exactly. Jeremiah drives us to a Taco Bell/Long John Silvers drive thru without telling me. My mind is blown. I am about to lose my LJS virginity. Then the lady at the drive thru tells us that LJS closed at 9pm. Bummer. We settle for like, 14 tacos. We pull around to the parking lot and scarf down the tacos. I have a Volcano Burrito or something, which is horrible. I think it has Doritos in it. I also have a steak taco, which is ok. The best is the regular crunchy taco. That is amazing. We finish all the tacos and we drive through another time and order more food. The lady must think we are so stoned. I order a Crunch Wrap Supreme or something like that, which is basically a taco frisbee. It tastes weird. And it's unnatural looking. It freaks me out. I can deal with San Loco, but this is too much. I finish the whole thing.

We need gas badly. We've been driving on an empty tank ever since we rolled into town. We drive around for a good 30 minutes from gas station to station, only to find that they are all closed. We decide to drive to Albany a few miles south and try our luck there. No luck.

I suggest that we get on I-87 and drive to the New Baltimore rest stop, a few miles south of Albany. We drive past a sign for the rest stop, 11 miles away. We start joking that we're not going to make it. I suggest that we will run out of gas a few feet in front of the pump and we will have to push the van the rest of the way. We pass another sign. 5 miles away. Jeremiah says, "good thing there isn't a huge hill that we have to climb right now." I say, "There isn't?" There is. We make it over the hill and roll down the other side. We see another sign for the rest stop in the far distance. We're going a good 65 miles per hour. Then all of the sudden, Jeremiah pulls over the rumble strip on to the curb. Will says, "is it happening?" It's happening. We coast for another half-mile or so and come to a halt in front of the sign. 2 miles. Sweet.

It's past 1am. We debate whether or not I can run to the station and back in less time than it would take for AAA to arrive. Not sure sure I want to do that. We'll wait for AAA. Jeremiah and I climb up the embankment and have a little dance party to Idlewild until it gets too cold. Here's a picture of me, I'm holding my phone to light my face. The van's in the background:



It's suppose to snow. We huddle inside the van and fantasize about how we would survive the night. We have four tacos left. Half a bottle of water. I suggest we could start burning Jeremiah's drums if it gets too cold. Jera suggests that my bass would be easier to burn. Will democratically suggests we put on our merchandise tee-shirts. We all think this is a good idea.

Every time a car drives past, the entire van shakes with the change in air pressure. It's pretty rad. But semis are scary. It feels like the vans going to be blown over every time one of those suckers zooms by.

About an hour later the AAA tow truck finally arrives. The dude is one surly fella. I'm pretty sure he's pissed at us for running out of gas. He keeps on yelling at Will. He must think his time is not worth this stupidity. He would much rather be using his jaws of life to save an accident victim. Not some stupid band that woke him up in the middle of the night so he can pump 3 gallons of gas into their stupid van's tank. Anyway, after much yelling and paper work, he says, "There's a service station two miles down the road. Get some gas." No shit. We briefly debate whether or not to keep on driving past the station and calling the AAA dude again, but we opt out and get gas.

We roll into DUMBO close to 4:30am. Probably the fastest we've ever unloaded our gear. Five minutes, six tops. Jeremiah and Will drive me to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop and I
get home by 5am. I set my alarm for 7am and hop into bed. But I can't fall asleep. Sucks. The alarm is already going off when I start dozing. See you at CMJ on Saturday!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

This is the Last Stop on This Train: New York

Eyes open, 11am, Saturday, October 3rd, 2009: Baltimore, MD. I'm sleeping under Felipe's coffee table. I say something about it feeling like a coffin. I feel just as dreadful. Day three of sickness, plus all the beer and cigarettes and other stuffs that went into my system mere hours ago. I don't know how I'm going to survive this day. Except this is no ordinary day; it's the last day of the tour!

We drive over with Felipe and Dainty to Top of the Hill near the MICA campus for breakfast. It's the first sunny day we've had in quite a few days and we elect to sit outside on the sidewalk. After much dawdling and eating and playing around with Wi-Fi (Which does not, in fact, stand for Wireless Fidelity, at least officially), we say our hearth-felt goodbyes to our gracious hosts and good friends, Felipe and Dainty.

Driving north along the New Jersey Turnpike, our hearts race. We start calling loved ones and friends and we can't quite believe we're really going back home. I'm deathly sick at this point. But i'm psyched to smell the dirty NYC air. That should do wonders for my mucus-filled lungs.

We arrive at the toll booth for the Holland Tunnel and it is chock full of in-bound bridge-and-tunnel folks. Carmen still thinks we'll be at Cakeshop in 7 minutes. How wrong you are, Carmen.

30 minutes later we arrive in front Cakeshop. Raise High the Roof Beam are already out front. We greet them and load everything in. Then we stand in front of van for a good 20 minutes until 7pm, when parking regulations end and we are finally able to stop pretending that load-in is taking us forever so the traffic cops will stop harassing us.

Sound check takes forever. And ever. I feel like I'm going to keel over and die. Not really sure how we sound, but no mind. We are 30 minutes late to our dinner reservation. We run out the door and sit down for some sushi around the corner. The service here is deathly slow. The food takes forever. And ever. Raise High are about to go on. We wolf down our mediocre sushi and run back to the club. Raise High have just started their set. They put on a great show. I'm hacking up my lungs in the back of the room.

Pow Wow! is up next. they've got a new guitar player. I love Eddie's voice. So manly. So cool. I'm drinking Brooklyn Lager. I'm hoping the beer will kill the evil in my throat and lungs. Not entirely sure if it's working.

We're pulled upstairs to do an interview. Actually, the other three are. I'm kind of in and out of the interview because I have no idea what's going on. I think the cough syrup is making me loopy. I have no attention span at this point and I'm being crazy.

Half way through My Teenage Stride's set, Will and I go out to the van to do our warm ups. We both sound like frogs. We decide to dedicate this show to Rod Stewart. Power through.

The show itself is sweaty. Very Sweaty. Will says that we're having a wet t-shirt contest on stage. Then the unthinkable happens. I snap a string on my bass. Ironic, because Will from Raise High is standing right in front of me and Jeremiah motions for him to go get his bass. The same thing happened in reverse at Quenchers in Chicago, if you remember. Then we power through the rest of our set. Rod is on my mind.

After the show we are exhausted. As we load our van, the saturday night crowd on Ludlow Street is out in droves. Everyone in a jovial, drunken storm. Ah, it's like we never left the city.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the show! A very special thank you to all the wonderful people we met on the road, to all the amazing bands we had the honor of playing with, and everyone who was gracious enough to put us up (and put up with us) and feed us and show us a great time. Thank you to Christine and Adam and everyone at Magnum for all the support. Everyone at AAM, like wise for all the hard work. Last but not least to all our friends and family and loved ones for putting up with us! We could not have done the tour without each and everyone of you! See you next tour!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Charm City (Friday)

Baltimore has always been one of our favorite towns to play. Sure, “The Wire” might have marred its reputation – we did pass by blocks and blocks of boarded up houses – but parts of the town are lovely and for the most part the vibe is chill.

On arriving, we hooked up with our old friend Felipe at his magnificent artist’s loft. With a few hours to kill, we launched into a crazy jam featuring drums, djembe, 80s Casio, guitar, and a Korg Kaos pad. After that, Felipe set up the ol’ Nintendo and Will and Jeremiah battled evil hookers with chains in Double Dragon 2.

After grabbing some crazy barbecue, Yoi attempted to have a session of phone therapy in the trunk space of a hatchback while the rest of the band talked loudly (about the complexity of Double Dragon’s plot) so we wouldn’t eavesdrop on the conversation. This backfired as we were so loud that Yoi’s shrink heard more of our chatter than Yoi’s woes. Communication is a difficult thing.

The show was at Golden West in a new neighborhood for the JC. I think it's referred to as the "Avenue." I might be mistaken, but surprisingly enough there were bars and restaurants and hipsters galore, suffice to say it was not our typical Baltimore experience. Golden West boasted a decent sized and appreciative crowd, and an excellent sound guy / manager / superdude named Neil. Exhausted afterward, we headed back to Felipe’s. The kids were in a film-watching mood, and Jeremiah noticed “The Karate Kid” on the shelf. We sat all four of us on Felipe's big couch, Yoi and Gavin enjoyed some mind expanding tobacco, and we all enjoyed a few Natty Bohs and a little nostalgia as Mr. Miyagi kicked those skeleton kids’ asses.

At 3:00 am, two of Felipe’s friends dropped by and in typical Baltimore fashion we were completely overwhelmed by the events that followed as we were treated to an amazing display of juggling, acrobatics, and David Bowie-esque acrylic ball shit (think Labyrinth meets Cirque du Soleil). This went on for nearly 45 minutes and our entertainer was seriously talented (I wish we had pictures but we were way too busy having our minds blown). He may even be a founding member of the Blue Man Group. This, with Daniel-san’s mastering of karate as background, turned out to be quite an event. By the time Daniel won the tournament (spoiler!) 4:30 am, we were exhausted by all the entertainment. Felipe is a master host.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

St. Bonnie / Pittsburgh / Somerset, PA

We wake up around noon at Uncle Tom’s house and I am starting to feel a bit under the weather as well. Will is coughing up phlegm and I just have a scratchy cough. Great. I go to the kitchen and grab a slice of cold pizza for breakfast. That should do wonders for my oncoming sickness. The others drink coffee while I have an orange juice. We pack ourselves into the van and get ready to hit the road, but something is in the way. There’s a giant turtle blocking our exit.



Jeremiah tries to fight it to no avail.



I pet it like a cat but to no effect.



Finally Will charms his way out of the door and we are on the way to St. Bonnie to do a radio show with the guys at WSBU.

We arrive some time around 2:30pm at good old St. Bonnie. We love this university. They’ve been nothing but supportive of our music and they are super cool dudes. We are greeted at the radio station by Pete and Zach and the gang. We’re to do a 30-minute Q&A with Pete and Zach with a few acoustic numbers thrown in. We play “Where No Wild Things Are,” “This Summer” and “Out of the City.” We’re getting pretty good at doing this acoustic thing. Funny thing is Will and I are coughing up a storm the entire time. Hope no one else gets sick!

We bid farewell to the fair gentlemen at WSBU and head for Pittsburgh, where we’re playing Howler’s Coyote Café. Carmin directs us through the Allegany National Forest, which is ridiculously beautiful. We roll in around 7:30pm and load in. They’ve readied Chinese food for the bands and all the bands get a free pitcher. Then they come back with four pizzas for the bands. How can we eat any more? Amazing! We greet Aushua and Civil Twilight, two other touring bands on the bill. Aushua are from L.A. and Civil Twilight from Nashville, via South Africa. Weird. They turn out to be pretty amazing bands. Both of them have a pretty big Coldplay vibe, which makes this billing the most serious (somber may be a better word?) lineup we’ve played with this tour. I am blown away by both bass players. I have some serious practicing to do if I hope to be like these guys.

At the show is the music director of WWVU, Daniel. He’s a super cool guy and he digs the music. He wants to set up a show with us at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown. I’ve been down there once to visit my friend Bob. Beautiful place. Can’t wait to play there.

We leave the club and drive part way to Baltimore to Somerset, PA. We’ve stayed in this town before, the last time we played in Pittsburgh.

I wake up in Somerset, PA and my throat is killing me. I am definitely sick. Will seems to be on the verge of recovery. We are here for one reason and one reason only: The Summit Diner.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Buffalo

We’re driving east on I-90 toward Buffalo and all of the sudden on the left-hand side we spot a huge expanse of steel gray water. Lake Erie. It seems much sadder than Lake Michigan. Something about it also seems wilder. I can almost see the buffalo that must have roamed these shores a millennia ago.

We enter New York state for the first time in two weeks and we’re overwhelmed with joy. Another hour and we’re in the outskirts of Buffalo, where we head straight to Ted’s for some hot dogs.

After our quick snack, we head for Tom’s house (Jeremiah's uncle) in North Buffalo, where we will spend the night. We have enough time to drop off our luggage before we head to Mohawk Place, where we will play the middle slot, sandwiched between two local acts, Patrons of Sweet and Johnny Nobody.

We backload our equipment on to the stage and settle in at the bar. It’s Gavin’s birthday. We enjoy a few Old Vienna's and Labatt's. I feel very close to Canada. In fact, it’s right across the water. I can see it. Buffalo has a very Northern feel; cold, with gray skies, gray buildings. Will is definitely sick now. He’s sleeping in the van wrapped in his sleeping bag.

The place starts to fill up with the Joyce clan. Jeremiah introduces us to so many people it’s hard to keep track of who is who. Patron of Sweet plays through their set as Gavin rocks out. Their music is right up his ally. A little birthday treat for our DC man.

I wake Will up toward the end of their set and climb into the back seat with the acoustic guitar so we can warm up our voice. We warm up with 'Oh, Yoko' by John Lennon and 'Dishes' by Pulp, two of the few songs we know how to cover. We declare the vibe of the show to be 'Do it for Jarvis.'

We burn through our set, sprinkling in some requested songs we haven’t playing in a while ('Beat of My Heart' and 'This Summer'). The vibe is good. The crowd is really into it, which always lifts up our spirits.

After us are Johnny Nobody. Great sound. Jeremiah thinks they sound like the Archie Bronson Outfit. Anyway, they rock. I also think that the singer looks like Eamon, Jeremiah’s brother. But I keep that to myself (except for Will, who I tell immediately after the thought comes into my head).

After the show, we go back to uncle Tom’s house to eat chicken wings and pizza. Well, all of us except the birthday boy. He goes off with some new friends and takes my phone with him so he can get in touch with us later (he left his own phone in DC the first night of the tour). I keep on reminding everyone that we need to catch up with Gavin, but they keep on telling me that that will not be happening. I don’t understand why. He’s just hanging out with some girls, and it’s his birthday.

Really late at night, Jeremiah and I play Frisbee in the street. Jeremiah is holding a beer in one hand and I don’t have shoes on. This is how the night ends. For those of us at uncle Tom’s house, at least. Thanks to everyone in Buffalo, especially the Joyce family for all their support and hospitality. See you next time!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Columbus, OH

A straight shot southwest from Chicago to Columbus. Well, not exactly straight but an insane zig zag of small highways and towns that our GPS, Carmen decides to take us through in order to get there the fastest. We pass Gary, Indiana and we have a moment of silence for Michael Jackson. Well, not exactly a moment, nor silence, but poor guy. Afterwards there was pretty much nothing but cornfields and gas stations the entire way. We pass American, Ohio, which seemed to be the quintessence of Main Street, USA. Which is to say, boring. Then out of nowhere we see the Columbus skyline. A city! A beautiful sight to behold in the dark Ohio night.

We drive into the parking lot of the Treehouse, a quirky little club near the Ohio State University campus. There’s actually a full grown tree in the middle of the venue, which goes straight through the roof and outside. Weird.

We have quite the time setting up the PA (there is no sound guy) but with the help of Wing and Tusk, our host band from Columbus, we get the thing rolling around 11pm. We burn through our set and immediately afterwards I drive Will to our motel. He’s quite under the weather and he needs his rest.

I get back to the club just in time to catch the tail end of The Seedy Seeds from Cincinnati. What an explosive trio! And the drums are flickering all crazy-like to the beat. They’ve wrapped these string lights around the kit and attached them to some sort of trigger that goes off every time the dude hits the drums. Pretty Rad.

Wing and Tusk are on next. It’s the final show of their residency at the Treehouse, and though they said that no one would show up, quite a few are in the crowd. The members of the band were at the bar moments before being rowdy and slamming whiskey. Their music, in comparison, was surprisingly delicate and subdued. Gorgeous harmonies. That juxtapositioned the keyboardist Roseanne shooting off swear words between songs. Bad ass.

Past midnight, it’s Gavin’s birthday. Happy birthday Gavin! He enjoys gratis drinks. We’ll do it again in the morning.

Thanks, Columbus, we’ll be back!

Aunt Connie’s House

After the Elbo Room on Monday nihgt, we head to Jeremiah’s aunt Connie’s apartment, where we are staying for the night. Cindy, who we saw at the show, is also staying here. She offers me a beer but in a surprise move, I turn it down in favor of a delicious diet ginger ale. She also gives us these enormous “pancake” cookies, which are about the size of my face. We settle down on in the living room and watched “wall-E” on TV. What a wonderful movie. It’s probably Pixar’s finest work in my opinion. Probably has something to do with their collaboration with Studio Gibli, who in my opinion makes the best animation in the entire world.

Then we watch “Half Brothers” with Will Farrell. I think everyone else dozes off halfway through the movie so all my comments go unanswered and I just laugh myself to sleep.

In the morning, we scramble to get laundry done and I take my first shower in five days. All the while, Cindy is making us a wonderful breakfast of French toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs two ways, one with pepperjack and the other with beef. There’s tomatillo salsa, hot sauce, and freshly drawn maple syrup. There’s coffee and there is orange juice. A truly wonderful breakfast. Thank you Cindy and Connie for your generous hospitality! Next stop, Columbus, Ohio.