St. Louis Music Blog

The Blind Eyes are Seth Porter, Kevin Schneider and Matt Picker. They are playing on October 17 at Off Broadway with the Safes, Gentleman Auction House, and Beth Bombara. But last weekend, they trekked to the upper Midwest for a few shows. Porter was kind enough to share what happened. Read below!

THURSDAY
6:15am: As with all major rock tours, day one begins with the lead singer [me] getting up and going to a half day of work. Rock & roll.

12:27pm: Pick up van, or more precisely, the minivan. Is the Toyota Sienna better suited to hauling kids to soccer practice than rock travel? Perhaps, but I appreciate the agility. If the Econoline van is the Spanish Armada of rock touring, consider the Sienna the Sir Francis Drake.

1:43pm: Stop at QT and purchase, among other things, one bag of Combos to share. I'm not sure that any of us actually enjoy eating Combos, but they have become a road tradition. The bitter herbs of our rock seder.

6:05pm: Speculation arises that Meatloaf and Brian Dennehy may be the same person.

9:20pm: Show up at the Borg Ward and unload in absolutely miserable weather. It is significantly colder than St. Louis, and it's raining (as it has been for the bulk of the drive). The Borg Ward is an art space with a spot for shows in the back. It's pretty cool, but I am a little disheartened by the "NO DRINKING" signs everywhere.

Joseph Hess from the band Spelling Bee wrote in to say that Internet issues and time have slowed the band's ability to send us tour missives. Instead, his friend Mitch Gilliam -- in the band Only the Bugman -- penned the following account of the tour's first show. And don't worry -- Hess promises a full report when the they return!

Spelling Bee's Mini Cooper, clutched by the cold hands of oblivion, rolled into Joplin, Missouri. The Cesspool Castle (French slang for Cesspool House) sat ominously atop a mountain which rose more ominously above ground level from a trench of interminable depth. Thunderclaps tore through the thin veil of comfort they had managed to maintain in sight of the cobblestone fortress. The bridge that gave pass over the chasm creaked and swayed under the weight of their car and gear. Joe's eyes seized Mabel's and they both understood the silent ocular agreement they had made: "We may die, but we will shred."

(Local synthrockers the Pragmatic are currently in Portugal playing the Optimus Alive 09 fest, which is one of the country's biggest events. The band is keeping a diary for us about its travels. Here's the second installment! The first one can be found here, while part two is here.)

Our new friend Silas (Seelosh) picked us up from the train station in Lisbon yesterday, I like to call him "the face of Portugal." This guy uses the force on everybody. There wasn't a place we went that he wasn't getting the hook up. So first he took us out for snails. He told us snails are what they eat here in the southern part of Portugal. They are cleaned and then made completely unhealthy by cooking them in a Papa John's-like garlic butter sauce. I must say that if you can get past the little antennas sticking out of their cute little heads they are quite tasty. So we had small snails and then they brought out bigger snails, which tasted more along the lines of salty rubber, but probably helped a bit in soaking up all the grease from the smaller ones.

Courtesy of the Pragmatic

(Local synthrockers the Pragmatic are currently in Portugal playing the Optimus Alive 09 fest, which is one of the country's biggest events. The band is keeping a diary for us about its travels. Here's the second installment! The first one can be found here.)

Courtesy of the Pragmatic

After sleeping for 13 hours, I woke up feeling fatigued and my throat felt pretty dry. However, some lunch, tea and granulated Ibuprofen (must be a European thing) made me feel a lot better.

We headed into Porto this afternoon to check out Taylor's Port, one of Portugal's famous wineries. The parking at the winery was blocked by some construction so we had to park at the bottom of a huge hill. It was quite the trek up but well worth it. Atop the hill we were greeted with free wine tasting and an excellent tour. For those who aren't familiar with Port Wine, it is a dessert wine that is fairly sweet in its flavor. Wine is good.

We got a beautiful view of Porto today and our personal photographer (Andre's mom) got some sweet shots. Later we went to pick up some of the EPs we had released here in April on Optimus Records. We only got 50, but hey, we didn't have to pay for them?

Courtesy of the Pragmatic

Tomorrow we are going to head down to Lisbon and hang out with some friends there. Talks of an MTV party tomorrow night.

-Karl (someone else will say something one of these days)

(Local synthrockers the Pragmatic are currently in Portugal playing the Optimus Alive 09 fest, which is one of the country's biggest events. The band is keeping a diary for us about its travels. Here's the first installment!)

Its been a long trip but we made it. None of us could sleep very well on the plane, but it's nice to be able to stretch out a bit now. They don't account for tall people in Spain, so I was pretty tight for space on the flight over (I'm 6'4''). Its 10 A.M. Central Time, we haven't actually slept since 6 A.M. yesterday morning. Yikes! I logged our trip out for your entertainment.

4.5 hour drive to Chicago
1 hour wait in the city
45 minute train ride to the airport
2 hours waiting in airport
8 hour flight from Chicago to Madrid, Spain
2 hour layover
1 hour flight to Lisbon, Portugal
30 minute taxi ride to train station
1.5 hour wait for train.
2.5 hour train ride to Porto, Portugal
45 minute drive to Fiero, Portugal.
=
1 day 0 hours and 30 minutes.

Should be fun now that we are here, but it will be way more fun after we get some sleeps. We are staying at Andre's parents house outside of Porto for a few days. We had tiny coffees and Portuguese sodas when we got here. I think we are all looking forward to Optimus Alive this weekend, It will be our first European show and from what we've heard it's one of the biggest festivals in the country. Dave Matthews Band is going to be there. I wonder if his European fan base is a bit less dude-bro than his American one? Oh yeah! [Drummer] Jon [Mambo] can't wait to see black eyed peas.

-- Karl Kling, vocalist/keyboardist

(Earthworms and Fresh Heir are currently touring around air force bases in England and Europe. Mathias from Earthworms is keeping a diary for us while he's away. Read on below for the first installment.)

Greetings from Germany! As I type this, we are at the end of a very long travel day involving two planes and a pimpadelic tour bus. It is amazing that after all the years of commercial aviation, it is still almost impossible to get proper sleep on a plane. Xanax may have helped, but I can tell you that the jet lag we all feel is profound.

 

However, we are in a beautiful resort town in Bavaria called Garmisch, complete with snow capped mountains and lots of very good beer. After we finally landed in Munich, we collected our gear (discovering that some less than smooth baggage handler spilled coffee on Ryan's keyboard while inspecting it) and met up with Armin - our very capable and congenial tour bus driver. He is a native of Germany, and is an excellent tour guide.

The bus is nothing short of rock star plush. Beds, a fridge (with a bottle of whiskey already in it), carpet, Playstation, flat screens, and plenty of room for the thirteen people on this tour. We found out Lit was the last band to use it before us. Hopefully we do it more justice than those unspeakable hacks. (Apologies to anyone out there who likes Lit.. actually nevermind. If you like Lit, you have no taste and deserve to be ridiculed. I digress...)

(Last week, we told you that the Monads were going to be invading Europe. The band is going to be kind enough to send along some dispatches from the road. Here's the first installment!)

Hey all, it's your good friend Patthew writing you from far across the Atlantic Ocean in a country called Belgium.You can look it up on your map if you like.

Wikimedia Commons

So let me give you a brief account of what's occurred so far. So we get to the airport Wednesday morning, all of our stuff in hand, having done a walkthrough and getting the okay on everything -- and they won't take the bass and the enormous case we had for it. So we had to leave ole blue back in the states.

Traveling a little lighter, we get to the gate only to find that our first flight, the connection in Newark, has been delayed an hour. Originally we thought we had an hour and a half window, suddenly we didn't. So after a cramped couple of hours to Newark, we make a frantic rush through the Newark airport to make the flight to Belgium. To get an image of what it may have looked like, watch the scene in Home Alone when the family is trying to make their plane, not realizing poor Kevin has been left at home...alone, much like the title of the movie.

Chicago hipster hip-hop duo The Cool Kids just wrapped up a five-week North American tour that took them pretty much everywhere in the Midwest except, it seems, for St. Louis. Still, the pair have a strong connection to our fair city on the banks of the muddy Mississippi.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

(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.

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.

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.]

(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:

(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 Beat Kitchen
Location: Chicago, IL
Date: 06.06.08
Other Bands: Sleep Out, Weinland

We don’t make very good time in our current traveling arrangement of a twelve-pass van with a trailer, illustrated by our six-hour trip to Chicago. I could swear I’ve made that drive in four-and-a-half hours before. Gas mileage isn’t great either, which is great because gas prices keep going down every day (I know, right?) Anyone want to refit our van to run off of some sort of alternative fuel? For free? Christmas is coming up, so…

Music in the van: Constantines, Tally Hall, Mika, Cloud Cult, Missy Elliott, M.I.A., Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Topics of discussion: How to most efficiently pack our road cases and gear into our trailer; How a clairvoyant can never really claim to not know whether they’re going to attend a given event; “_________er!? I just met her!”

Here’s a Chicago billboard promoting the motion picture event of the summer, Wall-E. It’s going to be so good. It’s like Pixar meets Short Circuit, how can you go wrong?