Tour Post #2
Philadelphia, PA-
Unfortunately no show ended up working out here. However, we still had a great time exploring the city. After arriving on Saturday night and going out to Jones (associated with the soda) restaurant for a great dinner, we headed back to the hotel for sleeps. Sunday morning we headed back into town to record shop/get coffee but were disappointed with the amount of businesses closed for zombie jesus day.
However, Will was still able to find a philly cheesesteak
I also found a really cool gallery/shop that had special jewelry, including a ton of Frida Kahlo pieces. I indulged in a portrait magnet and this really cool handmade ring
OH and here is the fancy cigarette holder that the Pittsburgh gents gave me
Brooklyn, New York:
After leaving Philly, we ventured into New Jersey and finally New York territory.
We quickly found the venue in Brooklyn we were booked to play at (Goodbye Blue Monday)
The neighborhood was a little sketchy so our walk around there was short. We spent most of the early evening pre-show in the venue checking out all the oddities covering the walls (including barbie mobiles, umbrellas, a mirror frame covered entirely in female action figures, and piles of records and books). Here is a bit of the "flavor" and setting up for the show
Later Nicola came by. I was so glad to see her! Most of the people who came out to the show were weirdos (aka our people) but it was the greatest to see a familiar face! The set went well and the other bands seemed to have a good time too. Will's uncle Kevn came to the show and offered us a place to stay/post show pizza party, so we headed over there.
After many beers and home-made pizzas with Will's aunt and uncle and their friends (1 ex punk musician and 2 hilarious boutique owners), we called it a night and took Nicola out to wait for a cab around 3am.
Manhattan, New York-
In continuation of Kevn and Shayni's awesomeness, they took us out for the day to check out Brooklyn's great record stores, coffee shops, and places to eat. Since they both work at night (she books, he performs) they had most of the day to spend with us. We started out with a trip to Peter Pan's donut shop.
The favorite of the group seemed to be the "donut with little donuts on top (see: dan's face)
After hitting about 4 or 5 record stores, we stopped off for an afternoon drink
and a family photo, of course
followed by lunch at a tex mex place and something called a "Guaco loco" which is a hardshell taco with catfish (in my case), cheese, lettuce, wrapped in a tortilla with guacamole. Taco on taco action! (no photos unfortunately). We continued on with our sightseeing stopping off at a neat old venue
and Kevn took us for an unexpected photo shoot by the water (all artistic interpretations/hilarity/us looking in different directions are due to the direction given by the amazing photographer Kevn Kinney, haha)
Apparently these are "for the back of the album!"
I couldn't pass on the opportunity for a mini family photo (a real related family at that!)
After that fun and some more stops at a bookstore and coffee shop, we headed home to watch Star Trek and get ready for the show in Manhattan.
(EDIT: forgot to mention that Kevn invited us to play with him that night out of the blue! How nice!) Shayni puts together shows for The National Underground every Monday night and since Kevn usually headlines them all with his band, he invited us to open the show with some others from the area. Luckily the bar was full and the people were great. It made it very easy to feel comfortable, strangely enough in a huge and intimidating city like Manhattan. We couldn't have asked for anything better! Here are some pictures Shayni took with my camera
We took a break after the set at Ray's pizza down the street
Then watched Kevn's band
We headed home in the early hours of the morning to pass out.
This morning before leaving town, I stopped off at Brooklyn Label (the coffeeshop we frequented the past few days) and freakishly enough I ran into Steve Roche (fellow Milwaukeean) in the middle of FUCKING BROOKLYN! Weird! We sat down for a bit to have our coffee and see what the hell the other was doing in the city. Apparently he was in town driving some band from the UK around on tour. Most bizarre moment of the trip so far...
Today we drove through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and we are currently in Virginia, place of tall, creepy trees
It's really green here. Not as interesting as the other states we've been to so far, but it's kind of pretty.
Tomorrow we're off to Tennessee to play in Johnson City. More to come on the final tour update on Saturday or Sunday!
Oh! And here's a video Shayni took from my camera during our set at The National Underground of "See Evil"
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Untitled from Isa Carini on Vimeo.
Enjoy! I hope everyone is well.