Blogs

Venue: Mike ‘N Molly’s
Location: Champaign, Illinois
Date: 06.21.08
Other Bands: Sangamon, Curb Service, Todd Kessler

We spent the morning at our favorite DeKalb eatery, The Hillside. It may have been Ryan and Stephen’s fourth time eating there, but in their defense, it is pretty great. I realized I don't seek out cheese blintzes nearly enough – so good.

Champaign is only a hop, skip and jump from DeKalb, so we got there in no time, which is great because we all kind of know what we want to do when we get there. We headed straight to our default pre-show hangout, Jupiter’s Pizzeria, where Eric E., Stephen and Ryan launched into a game of pool. Kiley and I decided to take a walk over to Dandelion, our favorite second-hand store in town. I found a few great shirts for cheap, rivaling the great finds I got at Revival in Akron, Ohio – two highly recommended shops.

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Venue: The House Cafe
Location: DeKalb, Illinois
Date: 06.20.08
Other Bands: Joie De Vivre, Dragonfire Parade, You

On the way to DeKalb, Kiley and I finally watched the third installment of the Indiana Jones trilogy, The Last Crusade, and I must say, Sean Connery is pretty awesome in that movie. I’m sure some Indiana Jones purists out there might hate me for saying this, but it might be my favorite of the three movies – it’s pretty solid.

Music in the van: The Cardigans, Elliot Smith, Janet Jackson, Pearl Jam, Spoon

We finally got into town, and cruised down the familiar main street of shops. This was our second time staying in DeKalb, but our first time playing there. We had hung out at The House Cafe before, but had no idea where to load-in. Once we got that squared away, we did the standard dispersing again: Kiley popped across the street to a women's vintage boutique, Mike and I stayed at the House to use the Wi-Fi, and the rest of the guys hit up the local pool hall. I'm telling you, this is how it always works.

The hours flew by, and before I realized it, the show was starting. Three local openers played to what I can only describe as a ''revolving door'' crowd, with any one band's fans coming up front for their set, and then retreating (or leaving altogether) when they finished.

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Venue: High Five Bar & Grill
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date: 06.19.08
Other Bands: Ruvane

After snoozing the morning away, we felt our tummies growling, so we piled in the van and followed Ahmed down toward the Ohio State campus.

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Venue: The Van.
Location: Drive from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Columbus, Ohio
Date: 06.18.08

Since we checked in to the HoJo around 2 a.m., the front desk kindly allowed us a late checkout, but we took even that down to the last second, and the housekeeping staff was there at 12 p.m. sharp to chase us out of the room. We made our way over to Franklin Trailer Repair, and were pleasantly surprised to see just how much work they had managed to lump into the original cost they had quoted us.

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Venue: The M-Room
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date: 06.17.08
Other Bands: Padre Pio, Seymore Saves The World, The Weather Underground

Once we had arrived in Philadelphia, we sought out the opinion of a couple local pedestrians to determine where we could get breakfast. Cafe Ole was the consensus, so we headed a few blocks to the quaint little eatery and found a spot to park the rig. Once we got out of the van, however, we noticed that something didn’t look right.

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Venue: The Middle East Upstairs
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Date: 06.16.08
Other Bands: Seymore Saves The World, Hospital Bombers, Daniel Oulette

We rolled out of bed early to eat some breakfast and say goodbye to our lovely hostess, the Tomkos’ Aunt Donna (Uncle Chris had already headed off to work for the day). As she issued parting hugs to all of us, she also inadvertently issued a new nickname to Eric H., telling him ''I'm going to miss you most of all, Tin Man.'' Classic. We loaded the bag of snacks and cooler of drinks Donna had packed us into the van (oh, yes she did) and hit the road for Boston.

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Venue: Piano’s
Location: New York, NY
Date: 06.15.08

Eric E., Kiley, and I rolled out of bed early to get a ride from Donna to the train station. The three of us were headed into New York early to hang out with some friends and check out the city. After an hour and half train ride, we got dumped out at Penn Station. Kiley and I parted ways with Eric and strolled out into Times Square, which is essentially an advertising theme park. We were meeting Kiley’s friends for lunch, but we had an hour or two to kill, and it’s amazing how Times Square can have SO much going on, and nothing to really do.

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What: Cafe Metropolis
Location: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Date: 06.14.08
Other Bands: The Marquees

The promises of a bountiful breakfast were fulfilled, as we awoke to French toast, seasoned potatoes, and made-to-order omelettes, which were all delicious. We hung around the house for awhile, catching up on our lives, which we can apparently only access via the internet, and vegging out to a Made marathon on MTV (seriously, how embarrassing is that episode where the girl wants to beatbox?). Eventually we had to pry ourselves away from the domestic comforts and hit the road, headed back to PA for our show at Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre.

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What: Day Off
Location: Cooperstown, NY/Flanders, NJ
Date: 06.13.08

We rolled out of the La Quinta before checkout and headed over to the dealership to pick up the van. Eric H. and I dropped everyone off and drove down to the airport to drop off our Chrysler Pacifica rental. A few minutes later, the rest of the band came to pick us up in the van. Last stop: FastTrack – to hitch up the trailer and hit the road. Say goodbye to Buffalo.

Music in the van: MIA, Soul Coughing, Beastie Boys, Brian Posehn

Kiley and I watched Temple of Doom and, despite being kind of bizarre and ridiculous, it was a slightly less embarrassing watch than Raiders. I will say that the female lead character (the blonde singer - I don’t remember her name) in Temple is pretty intolerable in the beginning, and only gets slightly easier to stomach as the movie goes on. I think the little Asian kid makes up for it though – it all evens out.

(That’s right, it’s the kid from The Goonies.)

We decided to hit up Cooperstown on the way to New Jersey, since we had an off day with nothing to do, and a few of us had never been to the Hall of Fame. Mike, Eric E., and I spent a few hours working our way through the museum, reading up on the gobs and gobs of names and stories and statistics that make up baseball history. We got to see Abbot & Costello’s “Who’s On First?” (my first time watching the whole thing, actually), and now Eric and I want to make St. Louis Wolves jerseys. Any buyers?

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Venue: The Bug Jar
Location:
Date: 06.12.08
Other Bands: The Show Is The Rainbow, UUVVWWZ

Venue: La Quinta with Beers
Location: Buffalo, New York
Date: 06.12.08
Other Bands: None

a.k.a. The Longest Tour Diary Entry In History

We started the morning gathering our things and milling around Stephen’s friend Corby’s apartment in Erie, Pennsylvania, debating if we had enough time to go hang out at the lake for a little bit, stop off at Niagara Falls on the way to Rochester, and still make it to the club in time for load-in. The consensus was that if we wanted to get breakfast (which we pretty much always do if we’re awake before noon, and then we have to get lunch – we have some demanding stomachs in this band of ours), we would probably only have time for one water-oriented trip. So we figured Niagara Falls was a bigger deal than Lake Erie. Probably true.

None of us had brought passports with us, since this little jaunt across the Canadian border was totally spontaneous (and thus perhaps ill-advised), but we decided that if (text-message answer service) Cha Cha said we didn’t need our passports to go to Niagara Falls, then that was good enough for us. Go for it, right?

The merch falling out of the back of the trailer was a sign of things to come.

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(On a recent U.S. tour, I asked Gentleman Auction House's Steve Kozel to keep a daily diary of the band's goings-on. All this week, we'll be posting what happened, leading up to the band's CD release show for Alphabet Graveyard on Saturday night at the Bluebird. -- Annie Zaleski)

Venue: Garfield Artworks
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date: 06.11.08
Other Bands: The Show Is The Rainbow, UUVVWWZ, Moustache Required

So we found out about this whole tomato thing when we got breakfast/lunch at Einstein’s in Akron and we couldn’t get tomatoes on anything. Reminds me of when I was a kid and thought salmonella had something to do with manila folders. Ammonia and pneumonia were the same thing, too. Oh, to be young again.

Music in the van: N.E.R.D., Ha Ha Tonka, Why?, Stars

Kiley and I bought the first three Indiana Jones movies to prime us for seeing the new one (yeah, I know it’s supposed to suck), and we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark on the way to Pittsburgh. Man, it’s kind of a really bad movie. I mean, there’s plot points that are kind of like, “Wait, what?”, and some really bad acting/dialogue, and some scenes that just plain don’t make sense. We’re hoping that Temple of Doom is a more rewarding watch that fulfills our nostalgic expectations, but maybe some movies were just better when you were a kid. I’ve still been meaning to watch Flight of the Navigator again, but I’m kinda afraid I’ll hate it.

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Venue: Matinee
Location: Akron, Ohio
Date: 06.10.08
Other Bands: none

Our friend Matt and his roommate both work at Sweetwater, and their days start early over there, so we got out of his hair around 7:30 a.m. and headed Ft. Wayne’s much-lauded Sara’s Family Restaurant (G.W. and Hillary have both been patrons). The decor is a charming menagerie of Americana, and the vast majority menu items have a name referencing a president or historical figure. We loaded up on delicious blends of eggs (over-easy and Benedict), pancakes, bacon, hash browns, croissants, English muffins, and fried apples(!).

After stuffing ourselves before 9:00 a.m. (the earliest meal so far), we skipped across town to Sweetwater headquarters, where Matt gave us the grand tour.

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Venue: Mid City Grill
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Date: 06.09.08
Other Bands: Prabir & The Substitutes

The trip from St. Louis to Fort Wayne was certainly less eventful than Saturday’s flat tire drama. In fact, the only moment worth mentioning was when we were following a semi trailer full of soybeans, and I guess there was an opening somewhere, because soybeans were flying out and bouncing all over – ricocheting off of our van like hail. Soybeans bounce way more than hail, though. It was like a bunch of little tan superballs flying all over the interstate. It was bizarre, if not a little obnoxious, so as we passed the truck, Stephen mooned the driver while Ryan flipped him off between Stephen’s buttcheeks (okay, I maybe made that part up – it really was a boring drive).

Music in the van: The new Weezer record, The Hibernauts, Tegan & Sara, Of Montreal, 2 Skinnee J's, Lykke Li, David Cross, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ice Cube

We saw some pretty gnarly flooding in Eastern Illinois and a little in Indiana, but Fort Wayne itself seemed to have suffered more storm damage than anything. The house across the street from the venue had a huge tree limb laying in the front yard, which appeared to have smashed into the roof at the front of the house.

We met Prabir as we were loading our gear in. He and his band, The Substitutes, hail from Richmond, Virginia, and they drive an awesome yellow utility van with a yellow light on top.

We also got to see our good friend Matt, who most of us went to school with at Webster. He moved from St. Louis over a year ago when he scored a job at Sweetwater, which is based in Fort Wayne.

The show we were playing was part of Mid City Grill’s “New Music Monday,” which is booked by a very cool dude named John. The crowd was a mixture of bar regulars and music enthusiasts, but once we started our set, it seemed like we had everyone’s attention. The applause between songs was spirited, and they seemed to like to keep the clapping going for awhile until one of us spoke. Since there were only two bands, we played a longer set, but the crowd remained attentive and engaged, which was encouraging and appreciated.

Once we started loading off of the stage, it became apparent that our set was well-received, as everyone from John, Prabir and his bandmates, and Matt, to the bar regulars, the bartender, and the bar owner had nothing but compliments for us. One girl stopped Eric H. and I while we were loading gear out: “My face exploded. Thank you.”

Prabir & The Substitutes took the stage and launched into a '60s garage pop frenzy, twirling microphones, shuffling feet and occasionally throwing a knee up on the Rhodes keys, just for good measure. The result kind of reminded me of what would have happened if they had commissioned Ben Kweller to write all the songs for That Thing You Do. They even took it down a notch when they stepped off the stage and walked out into the crowd to sing the five-part a cappella number “Everybody Falls In Love With You.” Honestly, I was really drained after our set, but Prabir & The Substitutes were so full of energy, and just plain fun, that it rubbed off on everyone.

After the show we headed back to Matt’s apartment, since he was so kind to put us up on short notice. For that, and for what he had in store for us the next day, he wins MVP Of The Day.

(On a recent U.S. tour, I asked Gentleman Auction House's Steve Kozel to keep a daily diary of the band's goings-on. All this week, we'll be posting what happened, leading up to the band's CD release show for Alphabet Graveyard on Saturday night at the Bluebird. -- Annie Zaleski)

Venue: The Bluebird
Location: St. Louis
Date: 06.08.08
Other Bands: Mates of State, Headlights

Since we were playing St. Louis again, we had what I would call a “home day,” where everyone kind of got their stuff packed up to go out for the next couple week, except Mike, who valiantly took on the job of finding us two new tires for the trailer. He wins MVP of the day.

Kiley and I went out to buy some food for the road, and when we got back to my apartment, we were surprised to find a house sparrow flying around the top level of the stairwell. Now, all of the windows in the stairwell were closed, so I’m not really sure how this guy got in, but we ended up (inadvertently) letting him into my apartment and corralling him around a bit until I could get him to fly out of the balcony double-doors.

[NOTE: The house sparrow is a member of the Old World sparrow family, and a relative of the Weaver Finch family. It was brought over from Europe in the late 1800’s as a means of pest control, whereupon it quickly multiplied and expanded its range across the continent, displacing many indigenous species. It’s kind of like the “white people” of bird species.]

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(On a recent U.S. tour, I asked Gentleman Auction House's Steve Kozel to keep a daily diary of the band's goings-on. All this week, we'll be posting what happened, leading up to the band's CD release show for Alphabet Graveyard on Saturday night at the Bluebird. -- Annie Zaleski)

Venue: Private Birthday Bash
Location: St. Louis
Date: 06.07.08
Other Bands: Fattback

We started the day by getting some Mexican breakfast (huevos rancheros!) and then heading back to the Beat Kitchen to pick up an equipment case that we left there the night before (I won’t name names – he/she knows what he/she did). The cottonwood seeds were blowing all over, which made it seem like it was snowing in Chicago on a bright summer day – very surreal.

We hit the road to head back to St. Louis, of all places. A friend of the band was having a big birthday bash and asked us to play ($$$), and since we were only going to be in Chicago the night before, and in St. Louis the next night anyway (I’ll get to that tomorrow), it worked out very nicely.

Music in the van: MGMT, Phantom Planet, The Pipettes, Soul Coughing, Rogue Wave, Ryan Lindsey

Topics of discussion: Why Culver’s butterburgers are really bad for you but taste good because of our primeval urge to consume and store fat; Ryan [Adams, drummer]’s propensity to explain why a joke was funny after he tells it – otherwise known as “reliving the joke.”

Speaking of jokes, here’s a Kiley original:

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