i suppose this will be my lasy entry in the tour blog. i think the last time i really updated was post albuquerque so this will be a little spotty. since that time we’ve played austin, dallas, new orleans, atlanta, chapel hill, baltimore, new york, philadelphia, providence and boston as of tonight. Austin, for as large a music scene as it was, had some wonderfully nice people in the crowd. We spent the night wih our budy Josh and his new family and watched 1.5 million bats leave their roost underneath a bridge in the city which was fairly amazing. Dallas had one of the nicest clubs we played on this entire circuit. The Granada, as i recall, is a renovated movie theatre from the 1940s or 1950’s that is just gorgeous, and possesses a staff who treats every band like a major touring act. e played a house of blues in new orleans that was decorated like a medieval parrish centered around the seven deadly sins. Great looking interior with good catering and lots of fun folk art/handpainted signs throughout the building. In atlanta we played the Masquerade, which, stragely enough has two stages, the heaven and hell stage. We played the hell stage and at exactly the same time Blind Melon played the heaven stage right above us. A couple of the guys actually made it upstairs in time to hear no rain. Chapel hill was amazing. To everyone who came to see us; amos, george, gena, Allison, Steph, Mark, Tom, Leah (i’m sorry if thats spelled lia) and Ben, thank you so much. It means an incredible amount to me to have my friends come watch me play, let alone pay to do so. In new york we played at the bowery ballroom. I wish I had more time to wander around that city, i’d like to visit again, even though i don’t get the feeling i’d want to live there. In philadelphia we played at the north star bar, and as soon as our set was over i went wandering. I ended up walking down poplar street from 25th to 4th, down 4th until i hit south street, up south street until i hit 22nd, and back up 22nd until poplar. I got to see a wide swath of things from the seeedy to historic, and even wandered past the Rodin museum and the main art museum. That’s one of my fave nights this tour. Boston is beautiful, still. We’re actually in cambridge proper i suppose. If you noticed below I bought a wonderful old corona traveling typewriter with a case from goodwill, and I visited the MIT museum, which ruled. The amount of beautiful robotics, photographic and transportation artifacts and exploration is astounding. I actually wish I had/could attend MIT. I think I still want to live in Boston for a while at some point. all in all this tour has been phenomenal. Ive seen an amazing amount of the country I had never seen before, and discovered several new places I want to visit again. Ive traveled with some excellent folks, and though there’s been tension here and there, Its been a very positive experience. Thank you for keeping an eye on my tour. I’ll post a link to some high res photos some time after i get home and dump them off my camera to the g5. Love you guys and see you soon!
i’m hanging out at the merch table here in Albuquerque(sp?) so i figured i’d write a few lines while the honorary title plays their set. In the past few we’ve played reno, los angeles, phoenix, and tucson. Lot’s of desert driving, some really beautiful mountains here and there. I don’t think i’m particularly enamoured with ever living in any of these places, not cold enough and not enough trees, but i’m glad i finally got to see them. we’ve been driving at night in order to try and keep our engines from overheating, which has worked well. we’ve got a two day off period coming up and i think we’re going to check out the hot springs/natural pools of water nearby. i think i may have seen the Game drive by in a bentley in LA, but otherwise no celebs. That was a great show to play overall. We ended up with several hundred people in front of us, arguably our biggest show yet as openers, and they were really nice/supportive, something that the LA rep didn’t lead me to believe ahead of time. pleasant surprise. in tucson we played in the Hotel Congress, which if i’m correct, is the hotel that led to the arrest of the Dillinger mob. After a fire a couple of the dillingers paid a fireman to carry out a few suitcases. The fireman recognized the “wealthy easterners” and they were eventually captured and brough back to the town. Neat place. Well maintained and with a good vibe. the photo below is the back of the Launchpad where we played tonight. I thought it was fun that they spray painted the dumpsters to match the wall behind. Im off to sell some merch. we well talk to you soon! miss everyone!
sorry i’ve been derelict on the text lately, but we haven’t had much of an internet connect in a bit. we’ve been to a couple of really excellent places recently; chicago, st. louis, lawrence, denver, salt lake and reno. we’ve been spending a lot of time in the car and i’m a little excited that i’m all the way across the country. we’ve had some pretty wonderful crowds thus far. i’ve been surprised that so many people have reacted so positively to an opening band, and, happily people have enjoyed us enough to keep us afloat in terms of gas money and food via ep’s and t’s. sometimes its hard to fathom that the bands you love, even some of the larger ones, really are a couple of ep’s or shirts away from staying on the road or having to go home. i’ve really enjoyed seeing some of the major cities i’ve always heard about, and, i think i most want to revisit chicago and portland when i get a chance. st. louis and chicago both have some incredible sights, including droves of abandoned buildings. portland just looks like a really layered city full of activity and beautiful architecture. we went to a great restaurant/bar called the shanghai that’s based on the chinese/sailor slave trade that flourished there in the wild west era. we’ve had good luck in terms of places to stay, with friends in most places we had to bed down with couches and comfy floors. two of my favorite spots were vale and boise. we actually spent our day off in boise with andy’s grandparents, who are awesome and remind me extensively of my aunt carol and uncle coe, and enjoyed the comforts of a hot tub and an awesome old prowler rv to sleep in. more news to come aftr california!
