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!