tour journal
Mostly for the benefit of my own terrible memory:
-Monday
The Minneapolis guys pick me up after work and we drive down to Chicago. E does an interview on Baltimore radio on the way down. Later, as we're standing outside our big red passenger van debating what we're going to do about the fact that there are no empty parking spots in Rogers Park, an SUV right in front of Kid's building pulls out. A Christmas miracle! No gig or partying tonight, just a beer in the apartment and straight to bed/floor.
-Tuesday
Up at 5 am so we can play live on Columbus (point of fact, there are 35 million google hits for "Colombus, Ohio" but only 25 million for "Columbus, Ohio") public radio. We did that with a six piece (sax, trumpet, trombone, and rhythm section) since our second trombone player is flying into Columbus before the show, and the other trumpet player is meeting us in D.C.. It went well, and we dropped off our gear at the club and ate some lunch/dinner at the bar next door. Decided against the Dube Dinner Deluxe:
The show at Dick's Den turned out to be maybe my favorite one of the tour. Good crowd (dancers from song one to the end of the third set) and a bar I would totally hang out at. Not only were the drinks free, and not only did they have Bell's Two Hearted, but the bartenders absolutely refused tips from the band ("nah bro, we're on the same team").
Got some good pizza afterwards (I forget the name of the place, but one box had a dog on it and the other had some sort of pirate, maybe). We crashed at a band member's sister's place and she totally hooked us up. Nice air mattress.
-Wednesday
We had to be up early again to Baltimore on time. Got a pretty awesome bagel sandwich at a local deli, and I decided to adopt a friend's advice as a general life rule: Don't Order Wraps (Because They Are Never As Good As You Hoped).
Couldn't believe how many vacant row houses we saw when rolling into Baltimore. Hundreds of them. I had already told myself that I wasn't going to ask people in Baltimore about the Wire or assume that's how it would look, but damn. Another fun fact I learned: out of the four movie theaters in Baltimore proper, two of them are for porno (as in, like, first run adult movies). Apparently the internet hasn't reached Baltimore yet.
Bertha's Restaurant & Bar was pretty awesome. They had a locally brewed cask-conditioned ale on tap and they set us up with two huge bowls of seafood paella and two huge bowls of mussels. The bar was small and didn't seem like the kind of place that people usually dance, but after playing a traditional-heavy during the first set, we cranked it up and had a good ol' time.
We didn't really have a place to stay in Baltimore, so we were considering driving to D.C. after the gig. Christmas miracle #2: an old friend of one of our trombone players happened to be walking by the show. She had no idea we were playing or that he was on the tour. She ended up offering her big, beautiful townhouse (beds! for everyone!) and cooked fresh pasta for after the show and frittata and banana muffins in the morning.
-Thursday
After a leisurely morning hang we drove to D.C. We were planning on busking at DuPont Circle but took a wrong turn on Highway 4 that ate up some time. Ended up eating at Comet Pizza & Ping Pong, which was basically dope as hell. Free ping pong in the back, a projection screen showing footage of Rube Goldberg devices, and awesome pizza. Highlights were the soft shell crab pizza (which was basically a plain pie with a whole crab in the middle; cutting up the softie and distributing it appropriately was a key strategy) and another one with roasted asparagus and poached quail egg.
The gig was at Chick Hall's Surf Club, an old roadhouse outside of the city. I was a little worried about this one, since there was no one there when we got to the club and no foot traffic in the area (I think the previous shows benefited a lot from people walking by and popping in to check it out). It turned out fine though; friends & family (incl. my dad and stepmom, who road-tripped up from Charleston) came out in force, along with a small but enthusiastic local crowd. Our second trumpet player met us at this show so we had the full band for the first time on the tour. The sound guy recorded the show (without telling us ahead of time :/) and gave us a copy.
After the show we stayed at the tuba player's sister-in-law's place where we had sloppy joes, beer, and birthday cake (it was her husband's special day) waiting for us. Seriously guys, touring isn't too hard as long as you have awesome people willing to go way out of their way to put your band up.
-Friday
We made it over to DuPont Circle in the afternoon to do some busking (or as we like to call it in the brass band trade, "sweat begging"). Made some gas money and sold some cds. I love playing to unsuspecting crowds.
Afterward we piled into the van and hit a little seafood strip mall joint on the way out of town. Had a cheap & tasty crab cake sandwich. It was great being in a region where good seafood is just a normal, everyday thing.
Getting to NYC took a long-ass time because of traffic, but we made it to Park Slope and stashed the van away for the weekend. We cleaned up at a friend's studio apartment on 5th ave and got some food at the corner deli that would end up fulfilling all my sandwich needs.
That night took the train out to Water Taxi Beach in Queens and hit a hard 20 min set inbetween DJs. It was slamming and I wish we could have played longer. One of the DJs started playing a drum machine along with my bass drum parts and it took the hairiest of eyeballs to get him to stop. Amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. Also, it the first time we realized that people don't buy cds in New York.
It took awhile to get back to Brooklyn because they were doing work on the subway. At one point the train stopped and this transit worker is suddenly pressed against the window, it was some horror movie shit. Got a 4 am pastrami on rye at the deli.
-Saturday
Woke up, got some Gorilla Coffee (delicious, and I got a pound to take home) and a breakfast bagel sandwich. It was raining on the way to the subway so I stopped in a random store to pick up a hat and realized it was Brooklyn Industries, who hooked up the Youngblood dudes with some free clothes a few years back. Found the second hat in my life that fits and looks good on my head.
We got to Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade and got promptly soaked. To the bone. After wringing out our shirts we started playing some jams on the street, because that's the only time we didn't feel chilled and miserable.
Thankfully, it stopped raining right when the parade started. It felt great to play some real second line shit; brass band music never sounds as good as when it's outside and in motion. The small army of topless mermaids seemed to enjoy it too.
After the parade we went back to Brooklyn for food, coffee, and dry clothes. I got a t-shirt at Brooklyn Industries and we hit a bar down the street for a happy hour mojito special. Strangely enough it wasn't "buy one, get one free", it was "get one free, then buy one if you want". Guilt-based drink specials?
The gig that night was at Flatbush Farm. Lots of Madison ex-pats showed up, in addition to a random cadre of swing dancers and a birthday party. The room was boomy as hell but we hit it hard and had a great time. The show started and ended early because of noise considerations (I guess they don't usually have bands there) so we had plenty of time to party. They put on a cd of all the best Prince b-sides, continuing the tour theme of "bars I would totally hang out at". Had a Cubano sandwich at the deli before going to bed.
-Sunday
Last day of the tour. We got the van and drove over to Williamsburg for the Rose Live Music block party. It was supposed to rain but we got a beautiful sunny start to the afternoon and played our set in the street. Met a dude from mixtaperiot.com who bought a cd after hearing our brand-new arrangement of New Edition's "Cool It Now" (can't wait to record it for the next album). The block party scene was very hard to leave -- free drinks, killin' bands, and great burgers on the grill.
We finally pried ourselves away to drop off a couple bandmembers in Manhattan and get on the road. The next 18 hours were a blur of driving, sweaty sleeping and regional chips. Fin.
-Monday
The Minneapolis guys pick me up after work and we drive down to Chicago. E does an interview on Baltimore radio on the way down. Later, as we're standing outside our big red passenger van debating what we're going to do about the fact that there are no empty parking spots in Rogers Park, an SUV right in front of Kid's building pulls out. A Christmas miracle! No gig or partying tonight, just a beer in the apartment and straight to bed/floor.
-Tuesday
Up at 5 am so we can play live on Columbus (point of fact, there are 35 million google hits for "Colombus, Ohio" but only 25 million for "Columbus, Ohio") public radio. We did that with a six piece (sax, trumpet, trombone, and rhythm section) since our second trombone player is flying into Columbus before the show, and the other trumpet player is meeting us in D.C.. It went well, and we dropped off our gear at the club and ate some lunch/dinner at the bar next door. Decided against the Dube Dinner Deluxe:
The show at Dick's Den turned out to be maybe my favorite one of the tour. Good crowd (dancers from song one to the end of the third set) and a bar I would totally hang out at. Not only were the drinks free, and not only did they have Bell's Two Hearted, but the bartenders absolutely refused tips from the band ("nah bro, we're on the same team").
Got some good pizza afterwards (I forget the name of the place, but one box had a dog on it and the other had some sort of pirate, maybe). We crashed at a band member's sister's place and she totally hooked us up. Nice air mattress.
-Wednesday
We had to be up early again to Baltimore on time. Got a pretty awesome bagel sandwich at a local deli, and I decided to adopt a friend's advice as a general life rule: Don't Order Wraps (Because They Are Never As Good As You Hoped).
Couldn't believe how many vacant row houses we saw when rolling into Baltimore. Hundreds of them. I had already told myself that I wasn't going to ask people in Baltimore about the Wire or assume that's how it would look, but damn. Another fun fact I learned: out of the four movie theaters in Baltimore proper, two of them are for porno (as in, like, first run adult movies). Apparently the internet hasn't reached Baltimore yet.
Bertha's Restaurant & Bar was pretty awesome. They had a locally brewed cask-conditioned ale on tap and they set us up with two huge bowls of seafood paella and two huge bowls of mussels. The bar was small and didn't seem like the kind of place that people usually dance, but after playing a traditional-heavy during the first set, we cranked it up and had a good ol' time.
We didn't really have a place to stay in Baltimore, so we were considering driving to D.C. after the gig. Christmas miracle #2: an old friend of one of our trombone players happened to be walking by the show. She had no idea we were playing or that he was on the tour. She ended up offering her big, beautiful townhouse (beds! for everyone!) and cooked fresh pasta for after the show and frittata and banana muffins in the morning.
-Thursday
After a leisurely morning hang we drove to D.C. We were planning on busking at DuPont Circle but took a wrong turn on Highway 4 that ate up some time. Ended up eating at Comet Pizza & Ping Pong, which was basically dope as hell. Free ping pong in the back, a projection screen showing footage of Rube Goldberg devices, and awesome pizza. Highlights were the soft shell crab pizza (which was basically a plain pie with a whole crab in the middle; cutting up the softie and distributing it appropriately was a key strategy) and another one with roasted asparagus and poached quail egg.
The gig was at Chick Hall's Surf Club, an old roadhouse outside of the city. I was a little worried about this one, since there was no one there when we got to the club and no foot traffic in the area (I think the previous shows benefited a lot from people walking by and popping in to check it out). It turned out fine though; friends & family (incl. my dad and stepmom, who road-tripped up from Charleston) came out in force, along with a small but enthusiastic local crowd. Our second trumpet player met us at this show so we had the full band for the first time on the tour. The sound guy recorded the show (without telling us ahead of time :/) and gave us a copy.
After the show we stayed at the tuba player's sister-in-law's place where we had sloppy joes, beer, and birthday cake (it was her husband's special day) waiting for us. Seriously guys, touring isn't too hard as long as you have awesome people willing to go way out of their way to put your band up.
-Friday
We made it over to DuPont Circle in the afternoon to do some busking (or as we like to call it in the brass band trade, "sweat begging"). Made some gas money and sold some cds. I love playing to unsuspecting crowds.
Afterward we piled into the van and hit a little seafood strip mall joint on the way out of town. Had a cheap & tasty crab cake sandwich. It was great being in a region where good seafood is just a normal, everyday thing.
Getting to NYC took a long-ass time because of traffic, but we made it to Park Slope and stashed the van away for the weekend. We cleaned up at a friend's studio apartment on 5th ave and got some food at the corner deli that would end up fulfilling all my sandwich needs.
That night took the train out to Water Taxi Beach in Queens and hit a hard 20 min set inbetween DJs. It was slamming and I wish we could have played longer. One of the DJs started playing a drum machine along with my bass drum parts and it took the hairiest of eyeballs to get him to stop. Amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. Also, it the first time we realized that people don't buy cds in New York.
It took awhile to get back to Brooklyn because they were doing work on the subway. At one point the train stopped and this transit worker is suddenly pressed against the window, it was some horror movie shit. Got a 4 am pastrami on rye at the deli.
-Saturday
Woke up, got some Gorilla Coffee (delicious, and I got a pound to take home) and a breakfast bagel sandwich. It was raining on the way to the subway so I stopped in a random store to pick up a hat and realized it was Brooklyn Industries, who hooked up the Youngblood dudes with some free clothes a few years back. Found the second hat in my life that fits and looks good on my head.
We got to Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade and got promptly soaked. To the bone. After wringing out our shirts we started playing some jams on the street, because that's the only time we didn't feel chilled and miserable.
Thankfully, it stopped raining right when the parade started. It felt great to play some real second line shit; brass band music never sounds as good as when it's outside and in motion. The small army of topless mermaids seemed to enjoy it too.
After the parade we went back to Brooklyn for food, coffee, and dry clothes. I got a t-shirt at Brooklyn Industries and we hit a bar down the street for a happy hour mojito special. Strangely enough it wasn't "buy one, get one free", it was "get one free, then buy one if you want". Guilt-based drink specials?
The gig that night was at Flatbush Farm. Lots of Madison ex-pats showed up, in addition to a random cadre of swing dancers and a birthday party. The room was boomy as hell but we hit it hard and had a great time. The show started and ended early because of noise considerations (I guess they don't usually have bands there) so we had plenty of time to party. They put on a cd of all the best Prince b-sides, continuing the tour theme of "bars I would totally hang out at". Had a Cubano sandwich at the deli before going to bed.
-Sunday
Last day of the tour. We got the van and drove over to Williamsburg for the Rose Live Music block party. It was supposed to rain but we got a beautiful sunny start to the afternoon and played our set in the street. Met a dude from mixtaperiot.com who bought a cd after hearing our brand-new arrangement of New Edition's "Cool It Now" (can't wait to record it for the next album). The block party scene was very hard to leave -- free drinks, killin' bands, and great burgers on the grill.
We finally pried ourselves away to drop off a couple bandmembers in Manhattan and get on the road. The next 18 hours were a blur of driving, sweaty sleeping and regional chips. Fin.