Halfway through the roadtrip.
For those who are just tuning in, I left on Thursday morning (4 AM to be exact), to go see the Hold Steady in Baltimore last night, and in NYC tomorrow afternoon.
Well I'm halfway through and I'm having a fucking amazing time.
I left my house at 4 AM on Thursday morning and took the commuter rail into South Station, and my bus left South Station at 7:30. On the way I listened to: Jaguar Love EP, Drew O'Doherty - "Starts", Tourmaline - "The Swindle", Lifter Puller - "Live At The Triple Rock 6/6/03", Lifter Puller - "The Entertainment and Arts EP", Lifter Puller - "Half Dead and Dynamite", The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive", Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run", The Flaming Lips - "Clouds Taste Metallic" and Fuck Buttons - "Street Hoorsing".
The bus down to NYC sucked. It was a (incredibly surprising) sold out run. So I sat next to the bro-iest kid I've ever seen. And because of his bro-ness, and being a gimp (broken leg), I gave him the aisle seat, which made it impossible to open up my macbook. While Bro boy slept (his head ending up on my shoulder, of course). I too tried to sleep, and I did for about 20 minutes, until the driver blasted the AC right into my ear. Thanks.
When I got to NYC, the bus was an hour late. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30 but didn't get there until 12:30, leading to me running approximately 3 blocks to make my connecting bus to DC.
The bus to DC was pretty awesome. But new jersey was exactly as I expected. Well, northern new Jersey anyways. It was all refineries, factories, and airports as I could tell, while southern New Jersey actually reminded me quite a bit of Massachusetts, with the amount of green-age with shitty roads to match. Right when I entered New Jersey I put on Born to Run. I just felt that it was completely necessary. And while listening to it, I completely understood why he wanted out. If I lived there, I would too. As we traveled through Delaware, I realized that is essentially useless. It took the better part of about 20 minutes to drive completely through there. Pretty state from what I could tell though. The view from the Delaware bridge truly was gorgeous. But I suppose I'm just a whore for bridges, myself. Then Maryland was reached, which is where we finally hit traffic, and took our sweet time getting through.
It's funny, when on the Bolt Bus it seems that the drivers always take you through the really shitty parts of the city until getting to the nice part. In Boston they drive through Jamaica Plain, in NYC they brought us through Harlem and the Bronx, and with DC they brought us through north DC. I just find it kind of strange, but if it gets us there faster I don't really have any place to complain at all.
At about 5:30 I got into DC, and Rebecca was waiting for me. Across the street, but hey, who am I to be picky. We went back to her apartment at the University of Maryland, and I got a little bit settled in. My first impressions of the place. Hot as fucking hell. Nice and Humid too. So not only was I working off of 3 hours of sleep roughly, but I was also sweaty and disgusting.
We walked a little bit down the road to California Tortilla, apparantly a local favorite place, and I can definitly see why. I hadn't eaten all day, so I had two soft tacos, a coke, and some chips, while Rebecca went with the bean burrito. $13 for both of us I believe, which isn't too bad at all in my book. After this, we went back to Rebecca's, met up with her boyfriend, Sam, and they proceeded to go back to California Tortilla so they could get some dinner, as I groggily explored the interwebs on Rebecca's Macbook. About an hour later, around 10ish, I was passed out on the loveseat in her Apartments living room.
The next morning I woke up at about 10, feeling extremely refreshed, after having an incredibly surprisingly comfortable sleep on the tiny love seat. I guess the extra chair I added onto the end for my feet helped out a little bit too though....
After getting dressed and making some Scrambled eggs and toast, Rebecca and I headed into what could only be called the fucking most awesome thrift store of all time. I got an extremely well fitting Suit Jacket, an AFL-CIO t-shirt, an 80's New York Mets T-shirt, and Eels - "Blinking Lights" CD, for a grand total of $10.88. Now that is an incredibly hard deal to beat.
After unsuccesfully trying to find the Trader Joe's in the area, we went back to her apartment, defeated, but excited for our soon coming trip to Baltimore to see The Hold Steady.
We left her apartment with her boyfriend Sam, and friend Nick, at about 3. Only getting mildly lost on the streets of Baltimore in the process, but it honestly wasn't all that bad. Arrived at the venue at 4, and I met up with some Unified Scene members, Brendan and Emily, outside. While Rebecca, Sam, and Nick decided to walk around, do some shopping, and grab a bite to eat, we waited outside the venue.
Brendan, Emily and I decided to take part in the "Rockstar Enterence" at the venue. Basically you pay $10, you get to go into the venue 2 hours before doors opened, get half priced drinks, and hear the band do soundcheck. And it was raining out, so it seemed like a great idea.
Met up with a few more Unified Scene-sters inside after a little bit, as well as some non-US people, who were all a lot of fun to talk to , and some of which had also traveled, as we had. (Emily drove from Minneapolis, and picked up Brendan in Chicago).
As the time for normal doors came closer, we were allowed into the room, Noand the three of us got settled in front of Franz and Galen. Now normally, I'm Koob side, but I think I might finally be converted to this side.
The opening act, Birds of Avalon, I was pleasantly surprised by. We got their CD at the radio station back in March, I believe. I thought it sounded kinda generic on the album, but live the music just pops out. The only way I can really describe it is as Heavy British Blues, mixed with a Less-Proggy Mars Volta.
Unfortunately, the drummer broke his bass drum head somewhere in the third song, and while Duck Tape fixed it for about a song, it again broke through, and was forced to turn his bass drum around, using his ported front bass drum head, as the batter head. Luckily, it held for the last few songs, and as they left the stage, I was incredibly impressed.
Before and after this, there were several Unified Scene meetups. This show was essentially the biggest meet up we've ever had, with roughly 40 shirts being in attendence, and bringing along 30 friends.
Now, some people might find the whole Unified Scene group kinda weird, I don't at all. We're all just huge fans of The Hold Steady, and would essentially go anywhere to see them. But we also all help eachother out, be it giving rides to shows (one of the members was flown out to the show by the unified scene, we all chipped in for her flight), or just kinda being someone there when someone is needed. To quote Finn, "A Double order of love and respect".
Anyways.
The Hold Steady took the stage, and fucking rocked it the entire goddamn time. It is honestly the best show I've had the pleasure of ever seeing. The crowd was going absolutely crazy, and the band was eating it up, and going crazy as well. Before starting the encore, Craig made a little quip about the Webster Hall show from last month, saying "In New York City, they let you play a 45 minute set and then kick you off the stage before you can do an encore. that's not gonna happen tonight."
But anyways, I'll get to the setlist I suppose (which I happened to get at the end of the set.)
Constructive Summer
You Can Make Him Like You
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Chips Ahoy!
Navy Sheets
Bangin' Camp
Hot Soft Light
Joke About Jamaica
Same Kooks
Lord, I'm Discouraged
Stay Positive
Sequestered In Memphis
Sweet Payne
Hornets! Hornets!
Yeah Sapphire
Slapped Actress
----------------------
Don't Let Me Explode
Stuck Between Stations
Hot Fries (note: wasn't on the setlist)
One For The Cutters
Killer Parties.
I'll give information about the rest of the trip after NYC.
-Matt
Well I'm halfway through and I'm having a fucking amazing time.
I left my house at 4 AM on Thursday morning and took the commuter rail into South Station, and my bus left South Station at 7:30. On the way I listened to: Jaguar Love EP, Drew O'Doherty - "Starts", Tourmaline - "The Swindle", Lifter Puller - "Live At The Triple Rock 6/6/03", Lifter Puller - "The Entertainment and Arts EP", Lifter Puller - "Half Dead and Dynamite", The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive", Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run", The Flaming Lips - "Clouds Taste Metallic" and Fuck Buttons - "Street Hoorsing".
The bus down to NYC sucked. It was a (incredibly surprising) sold out run. So I sat next to the bro-iest kid I've ever seen. And because of his bro-ness, and being a gimp (broken leg), I gave him the aisle seat, which made it impossible to open up my macbook. While Bro boy slept (his head ending up on my shoulder, of course). I too tried to sleep, and I did for about 20 minutes, until the driver blasted the AC right into my ear. Thanks.
When I got to NYC, the bus was an hour late. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30 but didn't get there until 12:30, leading to me running approximately 3 blocks to make my connecting bus to DC.
The bus to DC was pretty awesome. But new jersey was exactly as I expected. Well, northern new Jersey anyways. It was all refineries, factories, and airports as I could tell, while southern New Jersey actually reminded me quite a bit of Massachusetts, with the amount of green-age with shitty roads to match. Right when I entered New Jersey I put on Born to Run. I just felt that it was completely necessary. And while listening to it, I completely understood why he wanted out. If I lived there, I would too. As we traveled through Delaware, I realized that is essentially useless. It took the better part of about 20 minutes to drive completely through there. Pretty state from what I could tell though. The view from the Delaware bridge truly was gorgeous. But I suppose I'm just a whore for bridges, myself. Then Maryland was reached, which is where we finally hit traffic, and took our sweet time getting through.
It's funny, when on the Bolt Bus it seems that the drivers always take you through the really shitty parts of the city until getting to the nice part. In Boston they drive through Jamaica Plain, in NYC they brought us through Harlem and the Bronx, and with DC they brought us through north DC. I just find it kind of strange, but if it gets us there faster I don't really have any place to complain at all.
At about 5:30 I got into DC, and Rebecca was waiting for me. Across the street, but hey, who am I to be picky. We went back to her apartment at the University of Maryland, and I got a little bit settled in. My first impressions of the place. Hot as fucking hell. Nice and Humid too. So not only was I working off of 3 hours of sleep roughly, but I was also sweaty and disgusting.
We walked a little bit down the road to California Tortilla, apparantly a local favorite place, and I can definitly see why. I hadn't eaten all day, so I had two soft tacos, a coke, and some chips, while Rebecca went with the bean burrito. $13 for both of us I believe, which isn't too bad at all in my book. After this, we went back to Rebecca's, met up with her boyfriend, Sam, and they proceeded to go back to California Tortilla so they could get some dinner, as I groggily explored the interwebs on Rebecca's Macbook. About an hour later, around 10ish, I was passed out on the loveseat in her Apartments living room.
The next morning I woke up at about 10, feeling extremely refreshed, after having an incredibly surprisingly comfortable sleep on the tiny love seat. I guess the extra chair I added onto the end for my feet helped out a little bit too though....
After getting dressed and making some Scrambled eggs and toast, Rebecca and I headed into what could only be called the fucking most awesome thrift store of all time. I got an extremely well fitting Suit Jacket, an AFL-CIO t-shirt, an 80's New York Mets T-shirt, and Eels - "Blinking Lights" CD, for a grand total of $10.88. Now that is an incredibly hard deal to beat.
After unsuccesfully trying to find the Trader Joe's in the area, we went back to her apartment, defeated, but excited for our soon coming trip to Baltimore to see The Hold Steady.
We left her apartment with her boyfriend Sam, and friend Nick, at about 3. Only getting mildly lost on the streets of Baltimore in the process, but it honestly wasn't all that bad. Arrived at the venue at 4, and I met up with some Unified Scene members, Brendan and Emily, outside. While Rebecca, Sam, and Nick decided to walk around, do some shopping, and grab a bite to eat, we waited outside the venue.
Brendan, Emily and I decided to take part in the "Rockstar Enterence" at the venue. Basically you pay $10, you get to go into the venue 2 hours before doors opened, get half priced drinks, and hear the band do soundcheck. And it was raining out, so it seemed like a great idea.
Met up with a few more Unified Scene-sters inside after a little bit, as well as some non-US people, who were all a lot of fun to talk to , and some of which had also traveled, as we had. (Emily drove from Minneapolis, and picked up Brendan in Chicago).
As the time for normal doors came closer, we were allowed into the room, Noand the three of us got settled in front of Franz and Galen. Now normally, I'm Koob side, but I think I might finally be converted to this side.
The opening act, Birds of Avalon, I was pleasantly surprised by. We got their CD at the radio station back in March, I believe. I thought it sounded kinda generic on the album, but live the music just pops out. The only way I can really describe it is as Heavy British Blues, mixed with a Less-Proggy Mars Volta.
Unfortunately, the drummer broke his bass drum head somewhere in the third song, and while Duck Tape fixed it for about a song, it again broke through, and was forced to turn his bass drum around, using his ported front bass drum head, as the batter head. Luckily, it held for the last few songs, and as they left the stage, I was incredibly impressed.
Before and after this, there were several Unified Scene meetups. This show was essentially the biggest meet up we've ever had, with roughly 40 shirts being in attendence, and bringing along 30 friends.
Now, some people might find the whole Unified Scene group kinda weird, I don't at all. We're all just huge fans of The Hold Steady, and would essentially go anywhere to see them. But we also all help eachother out, be it giving rides to shows (one of the members was flown out to the show by the unified scene, we all chipped in for her flight), or just kinda being someone there when someone is needed. To quote Finn, "A Double order of love and respect".
Anyways.
The Hold Steady took the stage, and fucking rocked it the entire goddamn time. It is honestly the best show I've had the pleasure of ever seeing. The crowd was going absolutely crazy, and the band was eating it up, and going crazy as well. Before starting the encore, Craig made a little quip about the Webster Hall show from last month, saying "In New York City, they let you play a 45 minute set and then kick you off the stage before you can do an encore. that's not gonna happen tonight."
But anyways, I'll get to the setlist I suppose (which I happened to get at the end of the set.)
Constructive Summer
You Can Make Him Like You
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Chips Ahoy!
Navy Sheets
Bangin' Camp
Hot Soft Light
Joke About Jamaica
Same Kooks
Lord, I'm Discouraged
Stay Positive
Sequestered In Memphis
Sweet Payne
Hornets! Hornets!
Yeah Sapphire
Slapped Actress
----------------------
Don't Let Me Explode
Stuck Between Stations
Hot Fries (note: wasn't on the setlist)
One For The Cutters
Killer Parties.
I'll give information about the rest of the trip after NYC.
-Matt