So the tour was great!
Thanks to all the people that helped out with shows and who came out to
the shows. First time touring by myself,
some of the drives were real tough, but all were worth it.
Wednesday January 30th, Pittsburgh, PA - First day of tour,
Liz and I left immediately after work.
It was a terrible drive across the state of Pennsylvania. There was a huge storm that spanned across
the whole state. A complete downpour the
whole way, and it was dark, it was like driving through a tunnel. Of course we were running late from the get
go, not much I could do about it, but we arrived in due time and we only missed
the first two acts. The show was at the
Spank Bank, a house venue. The show went
pretty well, a bunch of real friendly people that were all staying up past
there bedtime on a work night. We caught
The Toys Du Jours' set, they were pretty awesome. Our hosts let us crash on the floor and made
us some excellent baked macaroni with government cheese!
Thursday January 31st, Asheville, NC - We woke up early and
headed out. It was an 8 hour drive to
Asheville. The weather wasn't much
better if all that day. First we had to
drive through the state of West Virginia which always makes me feel a little bit
uneasy, those mountains have finished off a transmission or two with my
previous vehicles. On top of that it was
snowing, pretty heavy consistent snowfall.
The only thing that made this drive better was that it was daytime and
there were brief intermissions of clear weather. No less the 30 miles away from Asheville we
got pulled over by a Tennessee cop for speeding. The cop was nice enough, told me how I could
get out of paying the fine and avoid points on my license, but still a
bummer. We made it into Asheville, met
up with some friends and got something to eat then headed down to the
show. The show was at the Odditorium,
formally the Get Down. Jack from
"The Suicidal Crack Babies" opened up with some punk rock acoustic
covers and originals. Then I went on,
played to a mostly empty room save for our few friends in attendance. A couple people came in after I guilted them
into it, and I kept the set pretty short.
Then the Hillside Bombers played and everybody who was in the other side
of the bar playing pool and ignoring the first couple acts came to watch the
music. I enjoyed the show regardless of
the lack of attention and the locals were great, big thanks to my friend Matt
from Just Die for helping us out with the show.
Friday February 1st, New Orleans, LA - I woke up around 5:30
am to embark on my most ridiculous drive to New Orleans. I left Liz at our friends house in Asheville
(as planned), and I would finish the rest of the tour by myself. It was to be a 10 hour drive, and the morning
started off with more bad weather, snow of course. This would subside as I got closer to South
Carolina, and turned out to be a sunny, beautiful drive for the whole duration
of the trip. I got to New Orleans around 5 CST; traffic wasn't as bad as I had anticipated(the
super bowl was happening in New Orleans that Sunday). I soon found out the most of the tourists had
already landed and were cluttering up the streets of New Orleans. I found The Big Top very easily. The venue is awesome and the people were
super friendly. I dropped off my stuff
at the venue and wandered around the neighborhood to kill some time before the
show, ending up at the Circle Bar to have a couple drinks. The show was awesome, all the locals were
great. It was a mixed lineup,
Ratherbright, Sun Year and Yelaphants were the locals. My friend Dan currently lives in New Orleans
(which you may know him from the best metal band from Richmond, VA Monarch!!)
and he offered me a place to stay and gave me directions to his place. Finding his house was absolute hell!! First
off there are not many street signs in that city and the ones that they have
are so small you can barely read them.
Plus the police were all over the place, most likely preying on the
drunken tourists that were swarming the city.
After getting lost, and asking for directions twice and going the wrong
way down a one way street I found my destination. I was offered water, beer, and whisky, from
my hosts which I said yes to all three and passed out shortly after.
Saturday February 2nd, Baton Rouge, LA - Unfortunately my
buddy Dan had to work the next day, but his wife and my new friend Gabrielle
(hope I spelled that right!) took my for a tour around the city. Had some awesome breakfast (forget the name
of the place) with grits (usually don't care for grits much but these were
awesome!!) biscuits eggs and boudin sausage!
Also went to see a puppeteer play, "The Snow Queen" or
something like that, at an old catholic church.
After that I hit the road, which was the shortest drive all tour, to
Baton Rouge. The show was at HTGT
Thrift, a cool little venue connected to a big thrift store. This was a pretty mellow show, all acoustic
acts. Beardless William, Ryan
Blanchfield, and Sara Cheney were the other artists. This was a pretty cool show; although it was
interrupted by a group of local hoodlums.
They would open the door to the venue and make faces, then they upped
the ante into mooning everybody, then for their finale they threw a plastic
bottle of urine into the venue. At that
point I lifted out of my seat contemplating chasing them, but I decided against
it, and other people went outside to chase them down. I really don't care that much, but there were
parents there watching their kids play.
No pee landed on anybody and it was pretty much harmless, and they knew
who the kids were, apparently one of them did there community service at HTGT
Thrift, not the smartest criminals. Afterwards
I got an offer for a place to crash. I
stayed with the guys from the band Squirtgun Warriors, stayed up late shooting the shit and sharing tour stories.
Sunday February 3rd, Panama City, FL - Woke up early, I had
the option to stay as long as I needed in Baton Rouge and take my time but I
decided to head out and get the drive over and done with. The drive took about 6 hours, although I was
fooled at the time because I crossed back into the Eastern Time zone. My stepfather who lives in Ocala, FL made the
4 hour drive to watch me play. We drank
beer at the local pub and watched the first half of the super bowl before we
headed down to the A&M Theater. It's
a really cool upstairs venue, thankful that I'm just an acoustic act and didn't
have to lug any heavy equipment around.
Saw a bunch of my friends I had met back in my days playing with Botox
Party. My friends Rogue Gallery who used
to be in Sobriety Starts Tomorrow played along with Rain, Ben Matthews and Mike
Anderson. Probably one of the better
shows I played, at this point I was feeling pretty confident with my set. After the show we all went to grab late night
diner food (no better way to finish off a great show). My meal was payed for, I was really spoiled,
especially after all the free beer at the show.
Then afterword’s it was decided that everybody would drink box wine
until all hours of the morning. This
took place at Paul (Rogues Gallery) and Jason's (passion on plastic records,
show promoter) house. A house full of
musicians, beer, wine and instruments turned into an impromptu jam that lasted into
the wee hours. Think I got to bed around
4:30 in the am.
Monday February 4th, Athens, GA - Surprisingly I was up by
9am without a trace of hangover, well maybe a trace, just a bit groggy. Somehow Paul was still awake and gave me
directions out of there (I don't use a GPS and one would of helped on this
trip). I made it out of Panama City
fine, and I continued north, except at some point I forgot I had to switch from
route 231 N to route 431 N. Route 231
continues north but in a westerly direction, which added a few hours to my
total drive time. In an attempt to save
money I didn't eat much, just went through a couple bags of sunflower
seeds. It was good and dark by the time
I reached Athens, and I was starving and dehydrated. I was met by my friends Mackie (hope I
spelled your name right!!) and Cody.
Mackie told me were to park and get some quick food, by the time I got
back everybody was getting to the venue and the show was about to start. My friends Nick and Tandi set the show up for
me. I've known all those people from the
days when I played in my old band I Live With Zombies and they played in Social
Awareness, and we've always stayed in touch trading shows with all of our other
musical projects. This show was at The
Flicker Theater, which is basically a bar with another room for music. It was pretty much an all punk acoustic show. I can't remember all the acts that played,
and I don't have a flyer, so if anybody has a flyer or a list of the people who
played they should send me a copy. I
thought I played really well this show, after playing day after day everything
starts to come second nature. I also had
a lot of fun playing for my old friends.
After the show I stayed with Mackie who lives a mile down the road. Hung out with him, Cody, Cody's mom and
Cody's girlfriend, and drank Mackie’s homemade beer!
Tuesday February 4th, Baltimore, MD - Yes Baltimore, MD,
another ridiculous drive. And I also
woke up just after 9am after staying up until 4am. The drive felt like forever, although I was
happy to be on more familiar roads, having been back and forth on I85 and I95
countless times. Again I arrived in Baltimore in the evening, about 45 minutes
before show time. My friend Alex Loeb
opened up the show, it was his first show in over a year and I think I permanently
pulled him out of retirement. I played
second, I played well enough but I was tired, and I usually don't tire too much
from tours but being companionless on excruciatingly long drives can wear you
down. I had home on the mind, which was
only an hour and a half away up north, and I had to work the next morning. The Night Goes played next, which was a full
band and played some brutal hardcore punk.
The only loud heavy band I played with all tour, I was happy to hear
some. There were two other bands that
were on tour from Massachusetts that went on next. I stayed for the first one, but started
loading up and just watched a song from the second. I hate leaving shows early but I was done, or
not so done with another hour and a half left to go, and I hadn't eaten
anything since breakfast, so sorry touring band that actually sounded pretty
good. Made it home by 1-1:30 am and was
at work by 8am. Next time I need a partner for the drive, but there will
definitely be a next time!!!
