Airiel
The guys from Airiel just packed up their tour van and are heading to the airport to pick up their bass player who is flying in from Chicago. They are playing tonight in Baltimore and then either coming back to DC or going on to NYC. Man what a great group of fantastic individuals, all of them. I had a whirlwind two days playing host to them starting with their fantastic and jaw dropping set at the Black Cat on wednesday night.
I met them around 8pm and did shots with the band before they hit the stage. I was good and drunk by them time they started playing and they even dedicated a song to me, which was sweet. After the show we went to an afterparty and got more good and trashed before finally getting back to my house around 4am. Their bass player had an 11 am flight to catch so I just stayed up the rest of the night with him and listened to their new album. It was really cool to actually be sitting with someone from the band listening to it track by track and getting the full story behind each song and how it was recorded etc. etc. I finally managed to get a little sleep (only about 3 hours) before we had to get him to the airport. By the time the drummer and I got back home from dropping him off the rest of the band was awake and ready to "do whatever". So I showered up and we hit the streets of DC checking out union station, chinatown, a bit of dupont circle and we even managed to go the Air and Space museum. They all had been here as little kids on school field trips so it was kind of cool to play host and tour guide of sorts.
We came home and took cat naps and returned to the Black Cat to hang out and drink some beers.
They really liked the Black Cat and they thanked the bar staff and everyone else there for being an awesome venue. They were treated really really well and the staff seemed to like them. Between the five of us, we easily drank a bar tab that was worth $200 of more. This included endless beer and several shots of whisky, vodka and god knows what else. We got our tab at the end of the night and it came out to $26 total. I knew it was going to be a cheap tab but I was shocked at how generous they were. I am a regular there and so I get a "local discount" but the fact that I brought 4 out of towners and they still hooked us up like that was amazing.
We all took a cab home and passed out. Woke up this morning and went out for food. We parked the tour van on a main road with metered parking, went to eat and then on the way back we saw from a distance that the van was being loaded up onto a tow truck! So we all fucking bolted which kind of freaked out the tow people because there were 5 screaming guys all running at them and yelling "STOP STOP!!" We were 8 minutes over the time limit and they were already towing! We had to pay a $60 "drop fee" and breathed a collective sigh of relief because if it had been towed the rest of the tour would have been screwed.
All in all I had a blast hanging out with them and I can honestly say that I made 5 great new friends, who happen to also be one of my all time favorite bands. I got an invite to chicago anytime to visit and it was a little sad to say goodbye to them. But all good things come to an end I guess.
Now I'm going to get some sleep!
The album by the way is availiable from Tonevendor.com It's called "Battle of Sealand".
It's getting rave reviews from just about everyone and the general feeling is that it's become an instant shoegaze/dreampop classic. I totally concur.
I met them around 8pm and did shots with the band before they hit the stage. I was good and drunk by them time they started playing and they even dedicated a song to me, which was sweet. After the show we went to an afterparty and got more good and trashed before finally getting back to my house around 4am. Their bass player had an 11 am flight to catch so I just stayed up the rest of the night with him and listened to their new album. It was really cool to actually be sitting with someone from the band listening to it track by track and getting the full story behind each song and how it was recorded etc. etc. I finally managed to get a little sleep (only about 3 hours) before we had to get him to the airport. By the time the drummer and I got back home from dropping him off the rest of the band was awake and ready to "do whatever". So I showered up and we hit the streets of DC checking out union station, chinatown, a bit of dupont circle and we even managed to go the Air and Space museum. They all had been here as little kids on school field trips so it was kind of cool to play host and tour guide of sorts.
We came home and took cat naps and returned to the Black Cat to hang out and drink some beers.
They really liked the Black Cat and they thanked the bar staff and everyone else there for being an awesome venue. They were treated really really well and the staff seemed to like them. Between the five of us, we easily drank a bar tab that was worth $200 of more. This included endless beer and several shots of whisky, vodka and god knows what else. We got our tab at the end of the night and it came out to $26 total. I knew it was going to be a cheap tab but I was shocked at how generous they were. I am a regular there and so I get a "local discount" but the fact that I brought 4 out of towners and they still hooked us up like that was amazing.
We all took a cab home and passed out. Woke up this morning and went out for food. We parked the tour van on a main road with metered parking, went to eat and then on the way back we saw from a distance that the van was being loaded up onto a tow truck! So we all fucking bolted which kind of freaked out the tow people because there were 5 screaming guys all running at them and yelling "STOP STOP!!" We were 8 minutes over the time limit and they were already towing! We had to pay a $60 "drop fee" and breathed a collective sigh of relief because if it had been towed the rest of the tour would have been screwed.
All in all I had a blast hanging out with them and I can honestly say that I made 5 great new friends, who happen to also be one of my all time favorite bands. I got an invite to chicago anytime to visit and it was a little sad to say goodbye to them. But all good things come to an end I guess.
Now I'm going to get some sleep!
The album by the way is availiable from Tonevendor.com It's called "Battle of Sealand".
It's getting rave reviews from just about everyone and the general feeling is that it's become an instant shoegaze/dreampop classic. I totally concur.