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we got back from tour earlier this week, but i am already bored being back, i havent really worked since returning, which is strange, i guess i dont really need to, but it still leaves me with not much to do. the tour was great, probably one of the best ones we've done so far. this is what happened...
Thursday 6/08: driving from last night until i cant remember when, i think we got to my aunts house around 5pm, then we watched my name is earl and the office on their tivo all night.
Friday 6/09: woke up, watched more of the office, did a short photo shoot, drove to nyc, got there late, missed the first band, the club was in a basement, good soundsystem, but crappy, small space, everything was way rushed, reminded me of our first show in nyc with an albatross, minus the hundreds of people. stayed at robs apartment the next three nights.
Saturday 6/10: woke up and went shopping with rob and jason, the show that night was at a hipster hell sort of place, we get there and there's hundreds of people probably, and it seemed awesome, since the show wasnt even close to starting, but slowly i realized they were mostly there for the bar-b-que, and maybe a quarter of them were actually going to pay to see the show later. the show itself was cool cause the soundsystem was nice again, and a lot of our friends were there, part orlando friends who just happened to be in nyc, and part orlando friends who now live in nyc.
Sunday 6/11: woke up and went over to matty and snees apartment with rob and hungout there most of the day, caught up on stupid internet stuff, this was our weird last shows with mixel pixel, this time at a restuarant, in the room that we play it's basically a big square room with four square walls, all the walls have videos projected on them, nice couches and tables all around the room, leaving a square in the middle to setup. we decided to setup all at once so we could leave it there all night, and it worked out pretty well, the only thing i didnt like was the soundsystem, which was more of a home theater sort of thing, all the speakers were above our heads, it just sounded funny, so that awkardness and the awkwardness of playing to people while they are sitting there eating made it hard to really get into it, although the first show was really awesome, the second show we were both kind of not feeling it, it seemed.
Monday 6/12: woke up and got food with rob, and then took off for rochester, the drive wasnt too bad, we got there early, the show was awkward too, we sound checked and it sounded awesome, so we were really pumped to play, but the show kept being pushed back, more and more, roger played kind of early, then we were told by a dj to wait to play until later, that way more people would see us, but we just wanted to play for the people who were already there for the show. i felt so bad making the few people wait for hours throuhg a lame 80s night thing just to see us finally perform 3 three hours later than we thought. but it was still pretty cool, the people stayed, it sounded good, and they charged everyone a cover for the 80s night that is usually free, and gave us that money.
Tuesday 6/13: our next show was in buffalo, which was only an hour away, so we spent shopping for most of the day, got to buffalo early, and hungout at the venue, which was a really sweet warehouse turned art gallery/show space. we soundchecked and it sounded good, but we were still worried, since there was only one opener, and she was just added, we've never been to buffalo, so i was wondering what kind of turnout we would get, but as it got later, more and more people showed up, and by the time we played, the room was pretty packed. it was by far the best show of the tour for us, because it was just perfect, it sounded great, there was a good turnout, we sold a lot of stuff, made really good money off the door without a guarantee or anything, and we stayed in a really nice place too.
Wednesday 6/14: i was really worried about trying to get into canada again, we had all the papers we needed, had a work permit approved and the money for it, but i was still worried, since we just got unbanned 3 weeks before, but we got in with no problems, and it was really exciting. i cant really explain it, but it was a great feeling. we lost our phones soon after entering, so that was kind of weird, i felt like we were on our own, and the only thing we had was our directions and contracts for the shows. we got to toronto early again, and i slept and drew for most of the day. we were playing on the second floor of a restaurant, it was a long wait before stuff actually got started with the show, it was really kind of irritating actually, from the long wait before the place opened, to the even longer wait before the other bands and promoter got there, and the soundguy playing some of the worst music, cd after cd, then the bands, who were all besides one, kind of joke bands, even though most of them were entertaining, and super nice guys, it was just a little too much. we played and it was okay, the stage was horrible, you would have to see what im talking about to get it, but it made the show kind of difficult to play everything right. it was weird too, cause all the shows had these guarantees, but to pay the guarantee and the hundred dollar a night of immigration fees they were paying us back every show, i dont know how they got enough money to pay us every night.
Thursday 6/15: the worst day of the tour. we woke up, and only had an hour drive again, so tad drew us a map of toronto and had all these cool places marked, like record stores and music store, so we took off for those in the afternoon. we found some really cool stuff the first few places, i found a vox continental (that was really expensive, not like we had room for it in the car anyways), a bunch of sweet pedals, i found a couple used ska cds, jason had coffee, it was all okay so far, just killing time, but on our last stop, we parked on a pretty major street, next to a bunch of parked cars, it was almost 4pm, we paid the meter and went in the record store we drove there for, left soon after that, and decided to keep shoppoing on that street. we found a music store, went inside and found all this stuff we wanted, a super space drum, a sweet korg organ, a sweet roland jupiter 4 synth, a bunch of sweet pedals, and we were doing pretty well with money, so i was even thinking about buying something like the space drum, or one of the pedals, but decided not to. we leave, go to another store or two, and then come back, and we are walking down the street for a while, and we walk a couple blocks before i start to wonder, cause it didnt seem like we walked this far, but where is the block with all the cars parked? where we were parked.. we walk back and find the record store that we were parked right out in front of, and realize our car was towed, there were no cars on the street anymore. i couldnt before it, the only place it said no parking was on the meter itself it said no parking 4-6pm mon-fri, but it was mixed up with a bunch of other stuff, i would have never seen that. we found where it was towed and took a taxi to the other side of the city where it was towed to. it cost $140 and we got a ticket too, so i guess that helped with the money burning a hole in my pocket, cause that was all the spending money we maybe could have spent. found our way to hamilton, which is figured would suck, since everyone was saying it sucked there, i figured it was like when i book shows around florida for bands and i book lakeland on a tuesday and you know its not going to be awesome probably, but it's another show and not a day off. we got there and it took a while to figure out exactly where we were playing. the show sucked, it didnt sound very good, but it didnt really matter, we got paid after some weird shit with the guarantee, we walked away with a hundred less than we were supposed to, but it was covered the next night. it felt really weird cause if there wasnt a guarantee, i wouldnt have expected anything at all, there was no one there, and we played in a room that no one even went in. oh well.
Friday 6/16: montreal, this was the day we were waiting for, we drove all night from hamilton so we would get there early, and not have to bug anyone for a place, so we got there early and kind of split up so we could rest and get out of each others hair for a bit, and that helped i think, we had so much time to kill before almost every show on the tour, so sometimes we need to do that. i ran into andre from aids wolf, and also the guy who booked the whole canada part of the tour, and came with him to their practice space. it was awesome, montreal is nice, the part we were in way beautiful, the weather was great, everyone spoke french there, it was so different. we soundchecked and it sounded great, the way everything was being setup was cool, bands in different parts of the room. we were slowly running into all these people we had met before like the aids wolf people and the usaisamonster people. it was great to see them. we got free food and waited a while longer for the show to start. the show was awesome, every band was good. our set was good, we changed and rushed out to see aids wolf, who were incredible. they were good back at cmj, but it was even better this time, then usaisamonster played and killed it too. i havent seen them since we played with them at austins and the skatepark, this was my first time seeing them in a really club, and they ruled. they played a bunch of new songs off of their new album coming out later this year, and they were so proggy and crazy. the show did a lot worse than they had expected, but the tunrout was still okay for us, i think there was over 100 people there, so that was fine, but you could tell other people were bummed a little. i was happy, and totally inspired to get home a few days later and write new songs and stuff. we ate french fries and stayed with chloe and yannick of aids wolf, it was fun
Saturday 6/17: we woke up and had brunch with most of the same dudes from the show, at the restaurant below where we played, then said our goodbyes again and took off for door's house new brunswick. we got there right on time, it was good to see door again, and we were playing with dynasty, who we saw in orlando and also has dudes from kites and bryon house, they were really nice and both of their sets were awesome. we played last and it was fun as usual there. really really loud and distorted, hot and dripping sweat off the ceiling and down the walls. i got truck sandwiches after that with door and then started the 17 hour drive home. the drive was long, but as usual seemed like a lot less time than it was. our tour was successful, we had fun, and we are looking forward to going out again soon.