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Summer
Tour 2006
Web Log
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[Day
1] [Day 2] [Day 3]
[Day
4] [Day
5] [Day
6]
[Day 7]
[Day
8] [Day
9] [Epilogue]
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Day
1 - 8/4/06 - New York, NY – Arlene’s
Grocery
MATT
As
part of the first-ever tour that The Motion Sick is taking part in;
I've decided to try my hand at doing daily logs of what happened throughout
the day.
So,
here's a brief run down of day one.
Spent
a frantic morning shopping, doing laundry, picking up equipment, packing.
I definitely did not give myself enough time; but fortunately I was
able to pull everything together.
I was
a little apprehensive about spending 4-5 hours in the car with everyone,
but I have to admit, we got along really well. After some iPod shuffling..
we decided upon listening to Radiohead's The Bends and some Rilo Kiley.
Both put us in a relatively good mood for playing even though due to
some hold ups, we were cutting it very very close to make the gig.
Gig
went well; however we had a tiny fiasco with our van/trailer combo;
as there are very few places in Manhattan that will allow you to park
a such a caravan. We ended up parking (fortunately) right in front of
Arlene's (albeit, almost completely blocking a fire hydrant).
So,
after booking it out of the city, we headed over to Queens; grabbed
some cinnamon toast and coffee at a diner, and am getting ready for
bed. Tomorrow, we expect to leave around 12-ish and we have a relatively
short drive down to Harrisburg for our show at the Gingerbread Man.
So,
until tomorrow's next exciting bat-blog...
Since
my last post was created at 3:30 am, I re-read it and found my entry
rather brief. Now that Im more coherent, heres some more info about
yesterday.
I have
a word of advice to all musicians, and everyone else, really. NEVER
bring a trailer into Manhattan if you can POSSIBLY avoid it. We were
running a little late to the gig and we pulled up to Arlenes with about
10-15 minutes before we were supposed to walk on stage. In an attempt
to be efficient, Patrick and I were going to park the van and trailer
while Mike, Jane and Travis set up our equipment.
Let
me tell you, Patrick and I had a hell of a time trying to park that
damn thing We drove to one garage that we got directions to and the
attendant comes out and tells us you cant park that here... So, we briefly
thought about backing out onto the two-lane road with the trailer. Well,
that wasnt going to work. Patrick worked his people magic and the attendant
allowed us to turn around in the garage, also a challenge; but much
easier than trying to back onto the street. Our parking debacle continued
but going to another lot, who wouldnt take the trailer. The attendant
there said he was going to get in a load of shit with his boss if he
allowed us to park with the trailer. After that, we went to another
lot. There were no lights and it looked almost abandoned, but we were
desperate (and about 10-15 blocks from Arlenes). Patrick got out and
peered in the attendants booth and apparently the guy in there suffered
from a few symptoms. Either he drank too much, was sleeping, or was
dead. Patrick yelled at him a few times and poked him to wake him to
no avail.
Were
now cutting it very close to stage time. After calling Travis, we discovered
that the previous band had a full stage full of equipment, so it took
them some extra time to make their way off. Patrick and I decide to
head back to the club to look for a street spot when Travis calls and
mentions just parking in front and figuring out what to do from there.
Well, fortunately for us, there was kind of a spot in front of the club.
However, a large portion of this spot was directly blocking a fire hydrant.
Im pretty hesitant about parking there, but seriously considering it
since Im had just about had it trying to back up with that damn trailer.
The bouncer mentions to us that the cops havent really been out tonight
so wed probably be safe. With out any better options available I begged
the bouncer to come in and let us know if we were going to get ticketed.
With
the van parked we hop on stage and quickly got prepared to play. The
club had all of the amplifiers ready so we only needed to plug in our
instruments. The sound guy figured we mustve been a Dub band, because
he took ALL the high end out of my bass. Oh well, I was hoping that
he put it into the front of house (although I still have no idea if
he did). We played pretty well and once we finished the last song I
threw my gear into the case and ran outside hoping that we didnt end
up having a $200 ticket and a boot. Got outside, no ticket, no boot.
With
that, I tried to hurry everyone out so we could get the hell out of
Manhattan and make it to Queens. After getting lost for about an hour
and a half, we make it to Queens and grab some food.
Were
on the road to Harrisburg as Im writing this, so hopefully later tonight
after the show.
MIKE
Off to a questionable start, we leave Boston about 3 hours late due
to a delay in getting our trailer.
Travis nearly broke his wrist at our Boston show on Tuesday,
so he is wearing a brace that is stabilizing the whole thing. I’ve been having trouble with my throat all week and a mild soreness
is still hanging on. Otherwise,
we seem to be hanging in there. We spend the entire trip from Boston to New York panicking about
making it on time to play. Luckily,
traffic is light. With minutes
to stage time, a cop at the entrance to the West Side Highway stops
us at the toll booth and says something about how we can’t bring the
trailer on the highway. The following exchange ensues:
Cop: What
have you got in the trailer?
Patrick: Music
equipment.
Cop: Are you
musicians?
Patrick: Yes.
Cop: What
kind of music do you play?
Patrick (nervously):
Um, the kind that we’re listening to right now (Rilo Kiley is playing).
Cop: I can’t
hear it.
The rest of
the band shouts out various genres to try to hasten the conversation.
Cop: Are you
going to a gig.
Band in unison:
Yes!
Cop: Okay,
I won’t detain you then…I am supposed to detain you.
He then shouts
to the toll collector that we have an extra axle. Our delay causes us
to arrive only minutes before we are to take the stage at Arlene’s.
Travis, Jane, and I start setting up on the stage; Meanwhile,
Matt and Patrick are still trying to find a place to park the car.
The garages in the area refuse to accept the trailer. Finally, they give up and park in front of a fire hydrant in front
of the venue and ask the door person to keep an eye on the vehicle. He promises to get one of us if there is a
problem. I.e., someone may have
to hop off stage during the set to move the van. Arlene’s has a small backstage loading area. The venue is entirely backlined, so it’s not
necessary (and highly discouraged) to bring lots of your own gear. The band after us fills the backstage area
with Marshall Stacks and other sundry items that make it impossible
to get through the area or open the door to the attached bathroom.
We
play a fairly short set to one of our smallest NYC audiences yet.
I guess we had a lot of strong competition that night (my
sister went to see The Rentals instead of us). The show ends and the band after us decides
it’s a good idea to wander around the stage and backstage area
completely making it impossible for us to offload.
After much struggle through the amp-filled loading area,
we get everything off the stage and out the door to the van signifying
the end of Day 1.
JANE
Ok
– this is my first blog and I didn’t want to do it but the other
guys are putting me to shame.
We’ve also been getting lots of requests to hear the female
perspective on this tour so here I am.
I must admit I don’t know how I feel about blogging. It’s
like writing in your diary except someone steals it and then sends
it to your worst enemy.
Today was a very busy day. I didn’t have as much time to get ready
this week as I would have liked (I closed on my house yesterday)
so I had lots of errands to run.
I had to do laundry, get food, do a CVS run and figure
out how to pack 10 days of clothes and supplies in a small enough
suitcase so I wouldn’t get yelled at. The shoe choice was hard.
If I could have taken as many shoes as I wanted I probably
would have taken 10 pairs, but I limited it to 6 which I thought
was pretty good considering that 3 of them are gig shoes.
I was going to try for the small suitcase, but it couldn’t
be done so I picked my next biggest suitcase. Once I saw the trailer though it was fine because
I could have brought even a bigger suitcase and it would have
been all good. But it’s
pretty heavy as it is and I wouldn’t want to lug around anything
bigger.
So I get over to Matt’s to meet Mike and Matt around 3. And we’re waiting and waiting for Patrick to
pick us up and we’re getting more and more worried about whether
we’re going to make the show.
Poor Patrick is dealing with the trailer and U-haul and
obviously having issues with it. He finally arrives – a knight
with a shiny white trailer and picks us up and we head over to
Travis’s. Despite brainstorming about various ways we can shave
time off the drive like by having Travis meet us while waiting
at the I-84 toll and transferring his belongings to the van from
his car while we’re both driving we did end up going to his house.
Once back on the road the traffic gods were smiling at
us and we made record time to NYC.
We were actually at Arlene’s in time and the band before
us was running late. But
parking with the trailer turned out to be a big hassle and Matt
and Patrick were denied at parking garage after parking garage
until they finally left it in front of Arlene’s under the watchful
eye of the doorman (thanks doorman!) and they walked in just in
time to play. Despite a small crowd and a stressful day we played good and I heard
that people could actually hear my keyboard and were happy for
it (not Mike of course). Luckily
I didn’t fuck up that much. Thanks
to all the peeps who came out to see us!
Now
after all that drama you’d think it couldn’t get worse, but it
does. I make the wrong
decision and instead of going back with Mike and staying at his
sisters decide to go with the other boys and stay with Travis’s
friend Tony. Now we get into the van and head over to Queens
and run into enormous amounts of traffic which boggles my mind
because it’s 1 in the morning but I guess that’s how it is in
New York. Now we were rushing so we didn’t eat dinner
and anyone who knows me knows that when I don’t eat I get fucking
grouchy so I was on a mission to get some food.
Now Tony and his friends had other plans like going to
a biker bar and getting stabbed so eventually Patrick made the
executive decision to drive us away. But now we’re in Queens and
we don’t know where we are or where we’re going to stay.
I call my friend John who had come to the show who also
lives in Queens and asked if we could all crash there. He graciously
agreed (thanks John!) and after grabbing some food at a diner
we headed over there and realized that Mike was right. Maybe we
should have gotten a GPS. But
we made it there and I got a chance to chat with John a bit which
was cool. Tomorrow should be a better day.
Day
2 - 8/5/06 – Harrisburg, PA – Gingerbread Man
MIKE
A
much more relaxing day. This
was mostly a last-minute filler gig, so we didn’t know what to
expect. We arrived in
Harrisburg with several hours to spare and met up with a friend
from college. We all wandered around trying to get a feel
for the city and ended up standing outside the baseball stadium
for the Harrisburg Senators.
While chatting with everyone, a baseball flew within about
a foot of my head, which was quite unlikely because of where we
were standing (outside the stadium on the 3rd base
foul line). So, we ran
off to head for safer ground.
The venue staff were quite courteous and helpful.
We had sent flyers to the club and they had hung them up
in every corner of the place…all the doors, the bathroom mirror,
etc. We played to a small,
but decent crowd functioning as a mix of background noise for
many and fixation for a dedicated few. Fell Upon Thieves performed after us. They are much heavier than we are, but we all
like a wide range of music and enjoyed their set. The bass player broke a string early on and borrowed Matt’s bass.
They thanked us profusely for playing with and loaning
the bass. It was all good
times. I managed to get
to sleep pretty early to try to work on some more throat recovery
as the rest of them did some after partying.
I always forget that smoking is allowed in some places.
I am spoiled by the smoking bans in Boston and New York. That is one thing that’s really hard on my
singing. Overall, we got
some good, relaxing recovery from our New York troubles.
Tomorrow we’re off to DC for what I expect to be a killer
show.
TRAVIS
So
as I sit here in the van on the quick drive to D.C. from Harrisburg,
I’m finding this is the perfect time to reflect on the happenings of
the day/night before… I think
first and foremost we made to Harrisburg without any travel woes or
delays, other than my complete disregard for listening to Jane directing
me to the correct exit. Its
ok, I banged a U-ie.
We spent our time listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and Jane’s
personal favorite, the Gin Blossoms.
I learned that Mike is a big fan, which blew my fuckin mind.
We arrived at the hotel and took some time to unwind, I read
more from the book about The Beach Boys that I brought along.
I learned from my readings that Barry Manilow didn’t write “I
Write the Songs”, Bruce Johnston did.
Bruce Johnston was a replacement for Brian Wilson when they went
on tour.
Oh, here’s the best part of my day yesterday…
I schooled Patrick on the art of “the dot”.
This lesson will greatly enhance the live performance of The
Motion Sick. I am convinced that I should officially become
the guitar tech of The Motion Sick.
Did I say that out loud?
We arrived at the venue fairly early in order to load in and
spend some time promoting the show through the streets of Harrisburg.
We learned that between the hours of 12pm and 8pm, Harrisburg
dedicates itself to catering to “The American Dream”.
The streets flowed with the blood of the non-believers! Just kidding. But seriously,
with every six steps we ran into families with small children, this
made hitting the pavement to hand out fliers fairly pointless.
Here’s where this blog is supposed to get interesting.
MIKE ALMOST DIED! No
shit, he really did! In our
quest to find people over the age of 21, we ended up crossing the Susquehanna
into a Minor League baseball Park.
The Harrisburg Senators were playing the Philadelphia something
or others. Mike was standing around minding his own business when out of nowhere
a baseball came shooting at his head at about 15,000 mph!! In typical Mike fashion, he took one step to
his right and strategically placed himself out of harms way. I believed it to be Armageddon as I thought
it was a Meteor shower raining down on me, because as Mike stepped out
of harms way, I nearly stepped into it.
I thought to myself “this is fucking bullshit, I’m going to die
in Harrisburg…” No disrespect
to Harrisburg, but I wasn’t keen on either Mike or I dying on the 2nd
stop of the tour. That fucker
can expire in Columbus, but only after we visit the Jesus statue. More to follow on the Jesus Statue.
So the gig was fun. We
rocked out. Patrick and I stayed out and partied with Fell
Upon Thieves until 6:30am, they were gracious hosts, and we’re looking
forward to playing with them in Pittsburgh Monday night. The rest of the band went back to the hotel
and did the right thing by sleeping like normal human beings should. Patrick and I are hung over, but in good spirits
as we are close to arriving in DC.
We’re currently listening to The Sheila Divine (they’re a Boston
band in case you don’t know), and deciding which Rest Stop to pull over
at to let Mike and Jane pee. They
like to pee a lot.
I believe this blog to be long, but I do hope you find it somewhat
amusing. Just read it as if I were speaking it to you,
and for all of you who don’t know what I sound like when I talk, well
I can’t help you there, but trust me its funny.
Time to let the kids pee.
MATT
Patrick
figured out what the "dot" means today. We're
all very happy.
In a nutshell... Mike almost died and Travis was close to becoming
seriously wounded via a baseball. We had a much easier time parking
the trailer in Harrisburg, we found a lot with tons of "No
Parking, Violators Towed" signs hanging up, but we decided
to risk it and said risk was sucessful. The veune was a little
strange.. it was a bar where we had to move some tables and play
on the floor. And there was no sound person. Or microphones, or
stands, or microphone cables. (note to self: next time, bring
essential mic/stand/cable combos, just in case). Fortunately for
us, the following band had the gear we needed, which was super
handy. So, I had to play a little bit of sound man for the evening
(with Travis' valuable assistance) and it ended up working out
alright. Next band goes on and about halfway through the set,
Jane mentions that the bass player was trying to get my attention..
Well come to find he broke his "E" string (a pretty
hard thing to do) so I played the hero to some degree and let
him borrow mine. So, set finishes up, clean up, and we head to
our hotel.
JANE
I
can’t remember anything about the drive to Harrisburg so it must
have been pretty uneventful. It did take us a while to get out
of the city I think but that was about it.
We went right to the hotel and veg’d for a while. I took
a bit of a nap but we wanted to head downtown to see if we could
harass people on the street to come to our show.
We head down to the venue and realize that nobody lives
in Harrisburg. The venue
is weird – there is a bar part with a stage that will only fit
drums. There is also an
attached pool hall which got all the action that night.
A great part about this tour is getting to travel around and meet
up with old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. In Harrisburg a good friend of ours from college,
Evan, came to the show. Now Evan was in Engineering with us so
we saw each other every day in college and haven’t seen him since
so I was really excited about getting to meet up with him.
I’m standing outside of the place waiting for the boys
and I hear someone call my name – it’s Evan with his wife (who
is very nice)! It was so great to see him and to get to chat.
For the first 15 minutes it was a little weird, but then
it was like no time had passed since we had seen each other and
we caught up on each other’s lives.
We decided to try and find where the people in Harrisburg were
so we walked around. The city is pretty and has a nice park on
an island in the river and we walked over there.
Everyone was at a baseball game and we tried to hassle
people into coming to our show and gave out a few flyers. But
most everyone we saw were families with kids and I didn’t think
we could convince them to take their kids out to our show no matter
how much we might rock. So we’re standing around outside of the baseball field when a baseball
zooms over the wall and narrowly misses Mike’s head. We decide
that Harrisburg is cursed and we should leave the ballpark before
someone actually dies. That
would really cramp our style on the tour. We had back over to
the venue where we had dinner. The name of the place is the Gingerbread Man
and they put these cute gingerbread men cookies on the plate. They were very tasty – I ate mine and Matt’s.
I haven’t had a gingerbread cookie in a LONG time because I thought
I hated them but I might have to check them out again.
Now
for some actual band stuff. We start setting up the equipment and there is no sound guy there
so Matt is taking care of all the sound (and doing a great job)
and we start setting up my keyboard.
My amp sounds like shit and after testing out a few things
we realize that it’s broken. Only Day 2 and I have no amp. I can go direct on the shows but it might be
hard for me to hear myself. Even
though it’s hard when I can’t hear myself it’s also kind of fun
because I can’t hear if I’m fucking up or not so I can pretend
like I’m playing awesome. We decide to play What I Get because Evan
requested it and as they were the only people actually listening
to us we wanted to give them what they wanted.
The room was weird in that it was very long and most of
the people were far away and watching the game instead of us.
But we still rocked out and I had a good time playing. And we
did got some good response from the back during some of the songs.
After
we played we watched Fell Upon Thieves who we’re also playing
with us in Pittsburgh. A
little heavier then I like but they had some good sounds. Part way through the bass player tries to get Matt’s attention but
he’s staring off into space so I let him know that they’re trying
to talk to him. Turns out that they guy broke a string and wanted
to borrow Matt’s bass which he of course let him do.
This worked out for us because they let us use their stuff
in Pittsburgh. Now I want to be a good rock star and go out
and party but I was just too tired that night!
After the stress of the day before I just wanted to go
back to the hotel and relax, but Patrick and Travis were ready
to hang with the Thieves so Matt drove the losers (me and Mike)
back to the hotel. We got a chance to relax and get some sleep which was nice.
Day
3 - 8/6/06 – Washington, DC – The
Red and the Black
MIKE
We had a great day in DC. First,
we stopped at the Air and Space Hangar Museum near Dulles. It is amazing to walk into such a huge hangar
and see all these famous aircraft…The
Enterprise test Space Shuttle, The
Enola Gay, The Global Flyer, The Concorde, a piece of radiotransmitter
dog poop (used in Vietnam), etc.
There was someone denied entrance to the museum carrying
a stack of flyers about how the museum is monstrous because they
display The Enola Gay and make no mention of the fact that the
plane was the vehicle by which some 60,000 people were killed.
After
braving the heat and walking through the parking lot back to the van,
we drove down to Georgetown to get pizza at Pizzeria Paradiso.
I wanted to go back here this time because I enjoyed the soy
cheese pizza last time I was in DC. It was very good, but the crust was a little
dry, so I ate around it so I could dip it into olive oil later, which
led to the disclosure that Patrick calls pizza crust, “pizza bones”
and offers it to his dogs.
We head on
over to The Red and The Black after. It looks like it’s in a pretty sketchy neighborhood,
but we make our way inside and find that the place has a great vibe.
We met the staff, Bill and Karen and they were very nice to us
the whole night. Person was
playing before us. He was a
solo act, so he graciously allowed us to set up our stuff on stage and
do a soundcheck before he put his gear up there.
We chatted quite a bit with Miguel (Person) and the guys from
The Roosevelt over the course of the night and found them all to be
really awesome. We played well,
exhibited a few new rock star moves including when I accidentally headbutted
Patrick’s glasses off (ROCK N ROLL!!!), but I did pick them up for him
at the end of the song. We had
a great time playing and the crowd reaction was really nice.
A lot of people approached us after with gushing reviews and
many bought CDs. In general,
the audience, the bands, and the staff were all great and we had an
awesome time. There was also a bar next door that had some
crazy circus theme. I didn’t
get to look at it really, but they had some kind of unicorn and other
wonders…apparently worth seeing, but I never got around to it. Our friend Pia very graciously let us stay
with her and provided us fresh-baked goodies and allowed us to settle
for the night in the room with her pet bearded dragon.
MATT
Our
ride in the car was rather enjoyable actually. We listened to some tunes
that we pretty much all could agree on (Gin Blossoms, Sheila Divine,
Flaming Lips), had some good laughs at Patrick's expense and made our
way to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. Our main goal was
to see the space shuttle that was there (and yes, Jane, you were correct:
it was the "enterprise"). Saw some great stuff in addition
to the shuttle; The Concorde was there, some cool old planes (WWI era),
some Satellites, and the best one of all, some radio-transmitting poop
that was used in Vietnam for counter-intellegence (sorry I have pics
of almost everything else, except the poop). What I did get was some
SPACE FOOD! It was a freeze-dried Ice-Cream Sandwich. The taste was
actually half-way decent, but the texture was what I imagine eating
old styrofoam would be.
We
got to the gig, and while it was in somewhat of a sketchy neighborhood,
the venue was really great (it is a brand new room, only about 3-4 months
old). The first performer was an individual named Miguel Lacsamana who
did a great laptop/triggered performance (and was also a great guy).
We went on second and the last band was a group called the Roosevelt
(also a great bunch of guys) and they played a great set too. The room
was packed for all the bands, the bartender was awesome, it was a great
way to get us really rolling on the tour.
I'm
sure that I'm missing something interesting; I'll try to fill it in
tomorrow. But, its 2:30am and we need to be out of here by 8:30am in
the morning.
g'nite
folks!
Also, see our whirlwind
photo gallery
JANE
Day
3 in the van with all the boys and getting to see what guys really
talk about. Apparently
it is all about shit – actual shit.
I think we talked about shit and other bodily functions
all day today. At least we’re not talking about sports.
With shit I occasionally have things to contribute to the
conversation. We also
talk a lot about music.
We
do have a cooler which has helped us save on money so we can each
lunch and breakfast. But today is the day no one steps up and
takes responsibility for the ice so everything starts to go bad.
So
Mike and I went to DC last year and went to the Air and Space
museum in DC but we didn’t go to the big hanger one near Dulles
so we had some time today so we wanted to check it out.
I’m a big fan so we headed down there and it was awesome.
We got to see the shuttle and satellites and lots of other planes. I missed the dog poo though! And
in the car we had discussed the name of the shuttle in the van
and I said I thought it was the Enterprise and everyone made fun
of me and said I had too much Star Trek on the brain. We get to
the museum and lo and behold it is the fucking Enterprise – take
that! So I took a picture
of myself pointing at the name.
When
we were in DC before we went to this awesome pizza place in Georgetown
called Pizza Paradiso – they have vegan cheese and awesome pizzas
so Mike suggested going there again and I was totally for it. I got the potato pesto pizza and it was delicious!
Then we headed over to the venue.
The venue is in an up and coming neighborhood that is closer to
the down then the up at the moment and we drove down this street
of boarded up and abandoned buildings until we saw these two bars
next to each other. Due to the fact there wasn’t anything else
around we did find street parking across from the venue. Now the
place itself is awesome! It
was so cool. It had a New Orleans theme and it had great
wood floors and great walls and ceilings. I don’t know what’s
it called but it’s like a repeated tile pattern on the wall that
was painted. The stage had red lights and the size was great.
We had a great crowd that night and played with some bands
I really liked. Person was up first and he was a lot of fun. I
particularly enjoyed his last song which he called his big hit.
Then we played and I fucking rocked man! I’m trying to figure out how much I can dance
around and still play without messing up. I was also wearing my new crazy black and white striped mini skirt.
I wasn’t sure I could pull it off but I got some compliments
on it. The staff was great there as well and thanks to Karen who
did a great job doing sound and tending bar! The last band was
the Roosevelts and I really liked their style.
I will definitely be checking out their stuff in the future.
Julie’s sister Sarah came to the show and her husband Joe (hehe
– husband, they just got married).
It was great to see them and I think they really liked
it. Joe bought a CD – thanks Joe!
It’s always nice to look out in the crowd and see friendly
faces especially when you’re far from home.
Mike’s friend Pia also came with other friends and she
was letting us crash at her place.
After the show we drove to Pia’s in MD. We passed her street the first time because
it doesn’t have a sign but we called her and she directed us to
some great street parking which we had to leave by 9 which was
fine because we had a long drive the next day. Pia’s place is
great and I really love the way she decorated it. She also made
us cookies and let us use her French press. And she has a pull up bar – Matt was showing
off his mad pull up skillz and Mike had to see if he could compete.
He did 3 and then hit his head. I think he just hit his head so
he had an excuse not to do anymore.
Day
4 - 8/7/06 – Pittsburgh, PA – The
Shadow Lounge
PATRICK
It
is day five of our tour and we are heading into our longest day
of driving thus far as we leave Pa. for Chicago on 3 hours of
sleep.
It
has been interesting to see some new sides of my bandmates personalities
who until Friday afternoon had not ever been in the same car together
at once. Each of us has also fallen into or taken on some role
or another. Jane is the navigator and though we don’t always go
the most “direct” route we always get to our destinations on time
and she seems to adapt well to unplanned stops. Sadly she refuses
to give all directions using the voice of “Hal” from 2001. Matt
is the worried parent and the voice of much reason when it comes
to parking the van and trailer, he is the only one who seemed
to think it was a bad idea to park in front of a fire hydrant
in Manhattan. Travis is most adept at backing the trailer up and
apparently he also has the ability to shit on someone’s tooth.
That is no small feat. Thankfully he only uses the latter skill
when pissed off to the point where shitting on one’s tooth is
the only way to express him self. Mike has established him self
as the guy that head-butts unprovoked, he is also the most likely
of us all to get choked out, that being independent of him head-butting.
As for me I have the humble job of being the jackass of the band,
I am sure you have all read about my guitar tuning woes. I also
burnt my fucking face off with some hellfire cheese from a Moon
over My Hammy.
So Yesterday was my birthday and the gang bought me dinner at
a place called Kelly’s lounge in Pittsburgh. The best part of
the day was getting to rock out at one of the coolest venues I
have ever been too. If in the area I recommend finding the Shadow
Lounge, owned by Justin Long who comes from a family of women
who marry the wrong men or maybe its men who marry multiple wrong
women. For those of you who grew up in the Boston area reading
this you may remember an anchorman by the name of Lester Long,
well Justin is his nephew. We also shared the bill with our new
friends Fell Upon Thieves who we previously rocked out with and
partied like rock stars with in Harrisburg.
I am generally optimistic about the good of strangers and
this trip has done nothing but reinforced that feeling. The amount
of good hearted and cool folk that we have met has been overwhelming.
The genuineness of their desire to be helpful and first class
hospitality is fuel. Even the authorities that often think their
jobs are to harass and make life generally difficult for bands
on the road have been considerate. I am wondering if everyone
on earth did exactly what they loved to do as we are for this
week then everyone you met would be like the folks we have been
meeting but before I wax philosophy on you all let me leave you
with one question, does the singing caged bird make a sound if
there is no one there to hear it?
MIKE
For Pittsburgh, we didn’t get a chance to do much promotion.
We sent out some flyers and did a little radio and press
work, but we were really dependent on the two local bands to draw
well to help fill the room. We arrived at The Shadow Lounge and found it to be one of the best
rooms we’ve been in. The
décor was excellent and the sound and feel of the room were exceptional. The owner, Justin Long, was one of the nicest
guys we’ve encountered on our trip.
We had some really nice chats with him about the venue
and the Pittsburgh “scene.” Spencerlane
opened the show. We thought
they had a really solid sound and well-crafted songs.
Then, we were to play, followed by our Harrisburg companions
Fell Upon Thieves. The
crowd was very light and Spencerlane, except the singer who stuck
around a little while, took off immediately after playing, which
was not really so cool in our book. Of course, Fell Upon Thieves didn’t give Spencerlane
a listen either. Perhaps
I didn’t match the bill up right or something, but neither of
the local bands did anything for draw, so we were left with just
our own limited promotional work. A couple came to see us who had heard us play
live on WMFO, which was very cool.
We played for a small number of people and used it as an
opportunity to try out some new things.
I added a coda to Satellite and played using a distortion
pedal that I borrowed from Patrick in a few songs.
In the end, I had a lot of ideas about what I want to continue
doing and some ideas about what I don’t want to continue doing.
I’ll be using the Rat pedal for the rest of the tour, but
I’ll likely switch to the good old big muff when I get back to
Boston. Justin invited
us back anytime and we took a photo
with Fell Upon Thieves, who, again, were great guys.
MATT
We stayed at Mike’s friend Pia’s place on Sunday night in DC.
Pia had a chin-up bar in her apartment, and Mike did 3
pull-ups before he banged his head on the ceiling.
Good times.
Our drive to Pittsburgh was fairly uneventful; I drove pretty
much the entire way. I
forgot how much I like driving in situations like this, especially
early in the morning when everyone is still sleeping/comatose.
I learned how to change the MPG counter from average to current
usage. It’s fascinating
to see your MPG change from 1 to 99MPG depending on whether you’re
driving up a mountain or down a hill.
It keeps Mike occupied.
So
we got to the hotel, took a shower, checked my emails (I had a
lot of work emails). Mike
updated the website where you will see this blog and we also posted
some pictures, so make sure you go the http://themotionsick.com.
We made our way over to the venue and we were reminded that it
might be slightly useful to have a GPS in the car. There was some grumbling before the trip that there was no need
for one, but after New York and unexpected detours along the way,
it would be nice to have the GPS lady telling us which turn to
make.
So
we get to the Shadow Lounge, and this place is really cool.
It was just a large room, probably approximately 45x35
with at least 20ft ceilings. One of the guys who worked there,
or had some connection with the club helped us back the trailer
into 2 parking spots, which was amazing.
It was later discovered that he drove 18-wheelers for a
spell, and had much experience backing up with trailers in tow. After loading all of our equipment in, we found this diner/restaurant
and quasi-celebrated Patrick’s 29th birthday. (On an aside, this particular area of Pittsburgh
seems like it’s an up and coming area. I was very impressed with the vibe of the restaurant, the club, and
some of the other restaurants, bar, etc that we walked by).
We
got back to the club and watched the first band play; they were
pretty good, but the draw was a little light. We were hoping for a few more people; especially
considering that both of the other bands were both from Pittsburgh. When we finished, I was a little annoyed that
the first band kinda, took off when they were finished… I mean,
I know it’s a Monday night, but honestly, as most people in bands
know, there’s an unwritten rule that you tend to support the other
acts on the bill (unless of course, you’re a bluegrass group playing
with a death metal act). Oh well.
Our set was awesome; and I don’t try to be a braggadocio but the
sound in the room was great and it helped our playing quite a
bit. Mike experimented with a distortion pedal on
Jean Paul and Grace Kelly. That
rocked. We also discovered that we had some fans that
came out to see us after listening to our performance last month
on WMFO. That was a very
nice surprise.
The
rest of the night I was basically fighting sleep and exhaustion;
and alcohol. I do need
to put a shout out to Justin and all the staff at The Shadow;
they were all really awesome and we excited by the show.
They hooked us up with one of the strongest Jack and Cokes
I think I’ve ever had. It’s
like that scene in Scrooged (the one with Bill Murray) where he
taps the can of Tab into the scotch.
Even if you haven’t seen it; the drink was tasty.
So
the gig ended up; we loaded our gear, took some pictures with
Fell upon Thieves and folks from the Shadow. We headed back to the hotel and had some late-nite Denny’s action.
Fortunately for us, Patrick got the Moons over My Hammy, which
I was really hoping that someone would get.
I got onion rings and put Tabasco on them.
I
needed to get up super early; we have a radio interview with Fearless
radio today at 4 and it’s a 6-8 hour drive from Pitt to Chicago.
I got Travis a coffee, but apparently, I didn’t make it
“light and sweet” enough for the man. I thought 3 creams and 3 sugars was enough.
Some people are having intestinal distress from the Denny’s.
I’m not looking forward to this drive.
TRAVIS
Yo-yo-yo,
So I’m sitting outside the venue here in Chi-Town waiting for
someone to come and open the joint up.
I’m illegally parked in a loading zone, and I quite honestly
don’t give a shit. The Po-Po are inside the restaurant right we’re I’m parked, enjoying
their shift time meal, and until they come out and tell me to
move, I’m gonna sit here and type away with my Iced Green Tea
Latte.
I took the drive from Pittsburgh to Chicago today.
It took about 8 hours.
We left on time at 7am, and stopped frequently to pee and
poop. The drive wasn’t
terribly taxing on me, other than I was forced to look at the
worst “scenery” EVER!
We did an in-studio interview and an acoustic performance
at Fearless Radio, which is an all internet based radio station.
It was cool, we played “Losing Altitude” and “Satellite”,
I ROCKED the tambourine! It’s 8:30pm and the venue is still closed,
we’re getting worried and agitated…
I’m having a good time out on the road with the boys and
girl. We laugh a lot,
which makes me happy. I’ve
apparently become an expert in parking the van and trailer. I aint gonna lie, that shit is mad hard, but
I seem to have a knack for it.
Props to me.
I’m looking forward to not having a long drive tomorrow.
I’m hoping to do some laundry as my shit is starting to
smell pretty funky. We
should also have a chance to take our time getting to Madison,
and hopefully sleeping in. Patrick likes to sleep a lot. Matt likes to eat Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches
and Mike ate a ton of Caramel Corn today. Jane likes Math.
Last night in Pittsburgh I ate some Kielbasa and Pierogies.
I also drank a few Jack and Cokes at the venue, which were
particularly strong. I’m
not complaining. I played well and my wrist held up until we
played “God Hates Kansas”, after that I felt like shit. Have no fear, I was still rockin like Dokken.
Well, it’s almost 9pm, and still no one has shown at the
venue. Shit is locked
up like Pandora’s Box. No
one in the surrounding businesses seems to know if and when the
joint opens. So be it. I’ve rambled on long enough. The battery on the laptop is dying so I’ll
end this blog. God Bless
you, and God Bless The Motion Sick.
JANE
So
we had heard that Pittsburgh was an underrated city. (I had read
that in the AAA tour book and then one of the guys in the Roosevelts
said that as well.) Well we don’t really get a chance to find
out anything about it because even though we had intentions of
checking it out once we got to the hotel room we couldn’t leave.
Everyone took some time to go online, check email, do some work,
etc. We finally head down
to the venue which is also in an up and coming arty area, but
this one was a little more up then the area in DC. We find the Shadow Lounge which is another awesome room. It is one
big room with lots of cool art and furniture. You can see some
of it in the pictures. The
owner is also super cool. He was so friendly and helpful and very
funny. He told lots of good stories. He cleared out a space in front for us to park
the trailer and we were assisted by some guy on the street on
how to back it up. Travis
is the man – he’s got mad skills at parking this thing.
We went to this place called Kelly’s to get some food – it had
been recommended to us as a good place and I quite agree. It had
some BBQ options but I had Mac N’Cheese and a salad. They also
had a deal on Mojitos.
We
were playing with two local bands so we were hoping they would
bring a lot of people but the crowd was small. But hey – it is
a Monday. Even though we’re such rock stars we keep forgetting
what day in the week it is because we’re not at work. There was
this couple in the back that I thought had come for the first
band but it turns out they were there to see us. This woman used to live in Somerville and worked
at the radio station where we had our interview and had heard
us on the air. She checked out our website and saw we were coming
to town and came down to check us out. It was pretty cool and
she was really nice – thanks for coming out!
There were also some other people there and this one woman
looked exactly like my Mom so that was weird.
I’d
been in contact with the first band’s drummer about the show (spencerlane)
and I was looking forward to seeing them. I really liked their
sound as well and quite enjoyed the show. Then we played and the
stage we pretty wide so I had space to rock out and dance around. And we got to check out Fell Upon Thieves again
and I was grooving on them a lot more this time. We got a picture with all of those guys and
the guys from the venue. It’s
been really great to travel around and meet all of these cool
people and to visit these cool venues. Everyone is really nice
and that part is a lot of fun. The bartender also hooked us up. I saw him
make Matt’s drink and I can say it is exactly like that scene
in Scrooged. There really was just a splash of Coke.
So we head back to the hotel – no partying with the Thieves tonight.
We should really go to bed because we have a long drive
tomorrow to Chicago but we go to Denny’s instead. I had hashbrowns
covered with cheddar cheese which I LOVE so I was very happy.
Day
5 - 8/8/06 – Chicago, IL – Fearless
Radio and Lilly's
MATT
The
rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. We stopped so Mike,
Jane, Travis, and I could get some more coffee. Patrick was passed
out in the back of the van for a large portion of the ride. That
man sleeps more than my old friend crazy ray.
We had a radio
interview scheduled at 4 at www.fearlessradio.com. Just an aside,
I have been very wary about parking the damn trailer ever since
NYC, so I had emailed Kris the co-host of the show to see if there
was ANY place to park. They totally hooked us up, and allowed
us to sit in the (15 minute) loading zone for an hour and a half.
The interview itself was pretty awesome; they actually had a real
on-air studio and the Host for the New Music Binge, Rocco gave
one of the best radio interviews that we've done to date. Check
their site out, as they have signed copies of Her Brilliant Fifteen
and tour posters that you can win by listening to the show. They
pod-cast all their shows, so check them out later in the week
to hear an acoustic version of Losing Altitude (unreleased) and
Satellite.
From there,
we really needed to get some strings for Patrick. This guy has
been breaking, on average 2 strings on 2 guitars a night. And
he only brought 2 extra sets. We've played 5 shows. Do the math...
We headed over the Guitar Center to take care of the strings.
Jane also bought a new keyboard bag, since the old one was breaking
itself up every time we tried to carry it. I forget how much wankery
there is at music shops. This was a relatively well-stocked GC,
but the chaos got to me, so I tried to usher everyone out as quickly
as possible.
Mike taught
us his stable of middle finger gags I was a big fan of the lipstick
and the compact, especially.
After, I think
about that time we had spent just a little too much time together;
so we split up for dinner. I had one of the greatest dinners of
the trip; I had some steamed vegetables with tofu (in a ginger/molasses
broth) with rice. Walked around, got some coffee, some Jim Beam,
some Red Bulls, etc. We went to the venue and although load in
was at 8, when we arrived around 7:15-ish, we figured that someone
would be there, as all the other bars/restaurants were open. Well,
no such luck. 8pm comes and goes; and by this time all of us have
gone into Starbucks a few times to buy coffee/lattes and use the
restroom.
9pm comes and goes and I leave to use a restroom thats not Starbucks.
At this point Im really thinking, Damn this fucking gig is going
to be canceled. I was trying to justify our stopping in Chicago,
and decided that the radio gig was worth the trip. Just then,
Jane calls and tells me that someone FINALLY shows up. Only 2
hours late But when I walked in, I knew why. I think the owners/proprietors
finally crawled out of their purple haze and were upright enough
to open the damn doors.
Any way, we
setup our shit; I think after this tour I will be quite a bit
stronger. All the gear seems to be getting lighter and lighter
(although my back is probably going to give out on day 7). One
thing Ive really noticed is how comfortable weve all gotten to
playing. The gig was certainly not ideal as far as sound goes;
no monitors, the stage was 20ft wide and about 2ft deep, so we
had to line up almost single-file horizontally so there was no
way in hell Mike or Jane could hear Patrick (who was all the way
across the stage), and both microphone stands were pretty much
broken down. But, we still played a really solid gig; remarkably
better than I wouldve expected considering the circumstances.
The gig was
essentially an open mic that gave us the opportunity to play (I
guess thats why punctuality probably was on the top of the owners
minds) and we stuck around to listen to a few of the people play.
I took a little breather (both literally and figuratively as smoking
is still allowed in bars and restaurants around here) and walked
down to a 7-11 to grab a soda since I was the designated driver
(again) so I wouldnt fall asleep at the wheel. I could tell that
Mike really wanted to leave and in an effort to be as accommodating
to everyone, Travis and Patrick took a cab to the hotel and I
drove Mike and Jane to the hotel.
Its funny
how Ive lost all sense of days and time, especially after being
stuck as a 9-5er. I knew it would happen since the only thing
we have to do is be around at 7-8 at night; but its still very
strange. I got a coffee next door at McDonalds (since there is
NOTHING near this hotel) and it was odd seeing guys eating hamburgers
and fries, and it feels like 9am. So I get my coffee and head
back over to the room and I guess were deciding whether we should
drive to Madison and do laundry/shopping there or do it here near
the hotel. Guess we'll figure it out.
MIKE
We had our longest drive thus far. We only slept about 3 1/2 hours
before we had to rush out of Pittsburgh to make a 4 PM Fearless
radio appearance in Chicago. I was so tired, I even managed to
pass out in the car for about 20 minutes of the 8-hour trip. We
arrived at Fearless radio and they had very kindly arranged for
parking for us. They are a really cool Internet station with a
great studio and staff. Kris greeted us and helped us get settled.
Then, Rocco did the live interview with us. We played 2 stripped-down
songs, "Losing Altitude" (currently unreleased) and
"Satellite" and they played a few songs off our CD.
It was interesting to try to change the arrangements without any
rehearsal, particularly the percussion. I am interested in hearing
how it came out. We also did a fun interview and then signed a
couple of CDs and posters for giveaways and for the studio. They
were really nice to us and the show was recorded and will be posted
for download.
Then,
we went down to the Lincoln Park area and ate dinner and ran to
a music store for Patrick to pick up some strings and Travis to
pick up some sticks. After that, we parked outside the venue around
7:15. Load-in was supposed to be at 8, so we were early. We panicked
a bit as no one showed up to open Lilly's until about 9:15. We
set up and played a set as an opener to an open mic. It was kind
of strange. A lot of people were clearly there for the open mic
and were not so interested in listening to us. Still, there were
a bunch of people sitting about 3 inches away from us who seemed
to enjoy our set a lot. We were reminded again that we need to
bring our own mic stands (even though all the venues provide them)
because a lot of times, the venue's equipment isn't in the best
shape.
After playing, we listened the open mic for a while, but I was
really tired so I decided to just rest in the van while the rest
of them hung out. I am definitely the only one in the band who
just wants to go to sleep every night after the show and not hang
out or "party" too much. I am trying to keep my voice
in good shape and it has been getting rougher and rougher as we
go along. I've had a mild sore throat since day 1, but I am hanging
in there. I'm so used to non-smoking venues from playing in Boston
and New York, so the smoke in these places is really killing my
voice and throat. Anyway, I got my own hotel room so I could have
continuous, solid sleep. I am not a very good sleeper as it is
and we've been sharing space every night, which has been more-or-less
fine, but I wanted a night of calm, uninterrupted sleep. That's
sort of the toughest thing for me. I never want to really stay
out late at the venue or go out drinking because I just don't
enjoy it and they all want to. I think mostly, I could normally
stand to do it, but I know I have 4 nights of singing ahead and
I already feel pretty crappy. The band has been good about accommodating
me, but I feel bad about it. Of course, we're staying in hotels
far away from the venues, so it's not even like I can just go
back to the room and go to sleep. I am sure they are sick of me
not wanting to "party." Anyway, now, I am laying in
bed in my own room after some decent rest. I've got to do laundry
before we get on the road today. I think we've been through the
tougher part of the tour in terms of not having connections in
town. Okay, off to launder...
I'm back a little later. The rest of these guys are laundering
in Madison. I'm feeling good today. I think it was nice to have
a good night's sleep and feel refreshed. We had a fun trip today
and stopped at the biggest
rest stop I've ever seen. Fun times. I'm excited to rock it
tonight in Madison.
PATRICK
We
drove from Pittsburgh to Chicago yesterday and now we are headed
to Madison. Last night’s show went well, if you want to tighten
up your band nothing does it quicker then playing ten shows in
a row. It has been a great experience to watch and be a part of
songs evolving with subtle changes over the past days. When we
get back to Bean town you will all be in for a treat (Mike just
scolded me for touching his computer screen just one more reason
to stab him in the kidney.)
The band vibe has been pretty jovial with just a few threats of
getting shit on, stabbed, or choked out. Overall I think we are
getting along pretty well. Matt amused us all with a story of
a forgotten Thanksgiving Day turkey that sat in a freezer for
six years and his dad blowing chunks.
We continue to meet really cool peeps. Last night we met some
great musicians in Chicago including a saw playing liaison and
a stand up bass player so it was a musical treat for my ears.
I
forgot to mention that Mike had a beer on my birthday!
TRAVIS
It’s
Wednesday and it feels like a Sunday. Actually, everyday has felt like a Sunday.
I’m at a Laundromat in Madison, WI, its fairly empty minus
the blond attendant who is currently folding some towels.
She’s cute. My clothes smelled so bad, I mean just god-awful.
Between the smoke, sweat and spilled beer I can only that
the smells resembles a Kodiak Bear's ass.
I
had a fuckin awesome time in Chicago!
I met many cool people and many musicians.
The venue that we played at also hosted an open-mic when
we completed our set. A lovely lady named Sarah played a saw… Yea, the kind you cut wood with. It was tremendous. The venue also graciously fed my beer habit for free all evening,
needless to say I took full advantage of it. Patrick and I closed down the place (big surprise) and then headed
a few blocks for some burrito action!
Shit was yummy.
Ended
up taking a cab to the hotel.
I passed out for almost the entire ride and when I awoke,
the meter said something like $45.80…
I had no idea that we were so far away from the hotel!!
Fuckin cabbie didn’t cut a brotha a break.
Jerk off. I slept
on the floor while Patrick slept in a windowsill…
I woke up with NO HANGOVER, which makes Travrad a happy
boy.
Matt
and I flipped a coin to see who was going to drive to Madison
as we both wanted too. You’d think after driving for 8 hours straight
the day before that I’d have no desire to steer, but I’m weird,
I like it. I won the coin
toss and took the rather short trip to Madison.
The city looks cool and we’re playing across the street
from the Capitol Building. The building is a great piece of architecture.
In
our travels today we stopped at a Walmart to replenish some supplies. Bought some more food, ice, and the new Gin
Blossoms CD. So far, I
don’t like it but maybe after Jane forces it down my throat a
few more times, I’ll be more receptive to it.
Mike and I rocked out to The Killers for awhile today,
I like rockin out with Mike.
I
thought I played like shit last night (Chicago), so I’m looking
forward to pushing myself tonight in hopes that I redeem myself.
I also smashed my middle finger and the swelling doesn’t
seem to be going down. It’s
purple. I don’t like purple. I’m still ready to rock this bitch and plan
on using a few of my “rock faces”!
Oh,
so I am the official Pack Mule of The Motion Sick.
This is in addition to being the new guitar tech. I carry as many bags as possible in one trip
and I also pack the trailer real well, so it’s a double whammy. I like the bag gig better. So, I will end this little rant with this one
question for you to ponder… Why
does Illinois make you pay tolls every 10
miles, but they don’t provide any scenery??? Tonight, we rock Madison!
JANE
Today
is the marathon driving day – 8 hours to Chicago. Thanks Travis for driving it! We managed to
leave almost at the time we wanted to and got on the road. The drive was long but not that bad. We didn’t
run into too much traffic and listened to some good music in the
car. We had to be there
at 4 for a radio interview at Fearless radio and we were actually
early. I took the opportunity to go take a walk around for a bit.
It’s Day 5 and after spending all day together in the van I needed
a little break from the boys. I get back and Patrick is reading
the birthday book that talks about your personality based on when
your birthday is. According to that anyone who is born on my birthday
is very challenging to Mike. I’m sure he would agree.
So
fearless radio was really cool. It was a great looking office
with lots of cool stuff on the walls. Kris who was helping us
out was great and Rocco did a fantastic interview. He asked some
good questions that I think really made us think.
He really kept things moving and I hope that people found
it interesting. We also played Satellite and Losing Altitude live
with Travis on the tambourine. I can’t wait to hear the recording.
After
that we head over to Guitar Center to get some strings for Big
Daddy because he beats too hard on his guitars and is breaking
multiple strings each night. Travis decided to get some more sticks
and I decided to get a new keyboard bag. My old one was falling
apart and it is a pain in the ass. So I got a lovely new bag which
is smaller and more manageable and not falling apart.
We parted ways to go grab dinner and I had some Pad Thai.
Not as good as Wonder Spice, but good none the less.
Now time to head over to the venue. After driving in circles for
a while to figure out how to get on the same side of the road
as the venue we pull up in the loading zone in front of the place.
We are a little early and the place is dark. I was pretty tired
and a little grouchy so I took a nap in the minivan while we waited.
And waited. And waited. It’s now 9 and still no one is there. We accost people on the street
to ask them if they know if the place is open and we get lots
of different responses. Finally they get there and let us in.
I like the vibe of the bar but it’s kind of awkward to play there.
It reminded me of this bar I had been to in Seattle. The placement
is weird in how people can watch the stage. They are either right
on top of you or far away. The stage is also small so I’m standing
directly behind Mike. All I can see is the back of his head. I’m
also right next to Travis who goes kind of crazy so I’m worried
that he’s going to hit me with his sticks.
We played around with the set a bit tonight which was fun
and I think we played well. It was hard to dance around because
I didn’t have that much space but I took the opportunity to play
around with my volume pedal more.
We were drinking Miller Lites for free which was nice and after
being in a bad mood all day after we played I was feeling better. I chatted with a few people who had watched
us and talked to this one girl who was going to be playing the
saw later. Playing the saw is sooooooo cool. And it was
also so nice to talk to a girl after all the time with the boys!
There was an open mic at the bar after and we hung out for a bit
and watched. You could tell that it was a really tight group of
people at this open mic. Everyone knew each other and were very
friendly. They were very supportive of other people’s playing
and shouted out requests. It’s cool that they have this place with a
great atmosphere that people can get together and jam and have
a good time and play music with each other.
I was feeling a little more like staying out tonight but
someone had to drive the trailer back to the hotel which was far
away. It’s hard to find a cheap hotel in Chicago so we were by
the airport. Mike also
wanted to go back so Matt drove me and Mike back to the hotel
again while Patrick and Travis hung out with all the open mic’ers. It was a long day so I certainly didn’t mind
getting to go back early (well earlier – it was still 2 in the
morning). But I was a little jealous of Patravis being
out and partying, but we made up for it in Madison.
Day
6 - 8/9/06 – Madison, WI – The
Corral Room
MIKE
It
was an interesting evening. We went to Madison, did some laundry
and Travis and I ate at a Laotian restaurant. I had some veggie
duck. It was very tasty. (This discussion about food was for Jane's
benefit.) Speaking of Jane, I think we may have actually gotten
her to agree to write some entries here...coming soon I think.
We arrive at the venue and the bartender at the upstairs section
said he thought there was no show tonight. So, we panicked momentarily
and then he admitted that he probably had no real idea what was
going on. So, we get there. The show starts pretty late for a
weeknight (10:30). The first act, Cedarwell were pretty cool.
Almost like an Iron and Wine thing, but a little more rocking.
The mix for them, particularly the vocals, was pretty bad sounding.
We played second. The venue didn't have any DIs and they only
had 3 channels on the snake, so we had to drop Matt's backing
vocals and I had to borrow an amp modeler from Cedarwell so I
could get some acoustic guitar and still have the keyboards go
through the board. We almost just threw a mic on the keyboard
speakers, which wouldn't have sounded too hot. For the 1st song,
I seriously struggled with distortion on my guitar to the point
where I could barely play it. By the 2nd song, I managed to get
it in order. We played fairly well, though I thought overall,
the sound of the room was not as clear as it could be. Such is
life.
We were followed by a rock-posing band from Oklahoma. I honestly
didn't catch their name. We were impressed by their rock star
looks and moves. The bass player in particular made awesome faces
and looked like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap. Jeff Caissie closed
the night out. He played some cool stuff with a bass player and
a drummer. He made fun of the band for trying to pick up a couple
of girls (his friends) that were hanging around us. Jane pointed
out that Matt must have been hitting on them or Jeff wouldn't
have said it from the stage. Then, I said that it was nonsense
because he also said the same thing about me from stage...however,
Jane correctly pointed out that Jeff accused the girl of hitting
on me. "I like lead singers," he had said mockingly.
Anyway, none of us was really hitting on anyone, at least not
until we arrived back at Yogesh and Jodi's house where we're staying...
We were unloading our stuff to go in and some VERY drunk 40ish-year-old
woman was walking by with 2 fistfulls of flowers. Travis asked
for one. She gave him one and then walked over to me and basically
smacked me in the face with the flowers and then tried to hug
me. I ran away screaming and then she moved on and tried to shove
her flowers up Patrick's butt. Anyway, it was a bizarre day and
I feel like I was a little bit molested, but I am okay. I am definitely
at the point where I feel like I would like to sleep in my own
bed in my own apartment with my own Sophia. Three more days. I
think they're all really promising gigs, so I am excited for them.
It's 3:45 AM now and we have to be up at 7 tomorrow to drive to
Indianapolis...but everyone is still making loads of noise in
the living room, so no sleep for me...no point in even trying.
MATT
So
I had a hell of a night, or morning to be slightly more specific. But here are some observations from the day:
Patrick
said “we’re rock stars this week, not tourists” in response to
Jane’s request that we stop at an outlet village.
We
stopped at the greatest rest stop that I think I’ve ever been
to. It was like a strip mall/food court all bundled into one.
I also bought some stick-on “Bling” which I’m not 100%
sure what I’m going to do with it yet.
I
remembered why I hate Wal-Marts.
We had to buy some more food and some other materials for
the press kits.
So
after Wal-Mart, we continued to drive to Madison. Jane is getting somewhat grouchy at this point, but I don’t blame
her. I think that traveling
with 4 guys was really starting to grind away at her.
However, unbeknownst to her, while we were at Wal-Mart
Mike picked up the latest Gin Blossoms CD (which she had been
anxiously anticipating; for months) and we were sneaky enough
to import it onto my laptop and load it into my ipod.
We threw that on randomly, and she was very pleased.
We
did laundry after that and tried to find some internet, but for
some reason only Jane’s machine could get any type of signal. Damn wireless networking.
I
decided to get some promo work done by labeling the demo CD’s
that we’ll be giving away at the Music Summit.
I’m sure that someone will mention it in their blog, so
I should mention it here so my side of the story is represented
somewhere. I make a pretty
stupid mistake in my haste of printing all the thousands of pages
that we needed. I misspelled
a word on the CD labels. Somewhat
fortunately, it was fixable since only one letter was off and
was fairly easily transformed.
But I certainly felt like an idiot; and performed my penance
by correcting all 100 labels and pressing them on to the discs.
I’m sure that someone else will mention the
gig; the only thing that I think is important to mention is the
poor FOH sound that we had to deal with; I’m not quite sure the
guy even knew how the gear worked.
Oh, and the fact that the bassist from the 3rd
band had the greatest bass-moves I think I’ve ever seen, but he
could’ve backed it up a bit with some more bass-playing…
Last
night was a slight departure from our previous shows, where our
place to stay for the night wasn’t 20+ minutes away.
Knowing that, I preceded to party down a bit. Mike and Jane’s friend Yogesh (who we were staying with) bought
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