Midwest March Tour Dairy

Saturday.3/13. Kick-off. Baltimore. etc.

Pulled the van up to Rob's place. Amanda turns out to be in deathly ill mode. With my birthday two weeks out, this tour was looking like my last real chance to join the 27 club; I start to fear I might be upstaged by Amanda's turn for the worse. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the van in for a tune up yesterday.

We collect Brick Mower after much directional confusion and head out towards Baltimore. New Jersey just happens to be engulfed by a wicked storm that makes driving incredibly stressful, add to the fact that the most direct route is closed. Static traffic and harsh winds push back our arrival time.

Luckily, we miss no bands' performances and take the stage after Brick Mower. Lotus Fucker took over the stage and put on one of the best sets I've seen them perform. We load up after the show and head out to hear some songs Chaos Destroy and Lotus Fucker just recorded. No one really wants to go out for food so we all head straight back to crash at Dan's place. Daylight Savings works it's magic as we fall asleep.
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Sunday.3/14. Day-off.

We wake up late and meet up with Rob and Amanda's best friend at a diner. Amanda, still sick, is afforded the luxury of not having to eat most of her food since the wait staff decided to lose her mostly uneaten sandwich rather than wrapping it up to go like she asked. We absconded with a deep-fat fryer to rectify this misstep. We spend the rest of the day in Jeremy's care making funnel-cakes and playing video-games not of this decade.
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Monday. 3/15. South Carolina.

Sun up. We leave Dan's and drive south for a while. Amanda finds a good BBQ place where we stop for lunch. Sweet tea, hush-puppies, sandwiches, and slaw are consumed before continuing to Greenville. Hours pass and we roll up to the hanger after a failed attempt to find the house we stayed at the first time we came through South Carolina.

Ryan and the Hanger crew were all great to us when we played there a few months ago and not much has changed. Super sweet fellows, those kids. We load in and play after Brick Mower--all hits; no covers. We pack up after the show and decided to get a leg up on the drive to St. Louis by leaving for Nashville immediately.

Progress impeded by a rock-slide. Go back three spaces. I drive until I can't see straight and catch a few hours worth of blinks. Wake up freezing cold, repeat the same maneuver. Need sleep.
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Tuesday. 3/16. St. Louis.

Roll into St. Louis exhausted. Meet up with Mike, a long-time e-friend (people still use that term, right?) of Rob's who we're staying with. Brick Mower takes the stage around midnight and clears the room--assuring that Silent Way will only get to play to a handful of people--too wrecked to actively ignore us. Load up/out, drop the Brick Mowers and Amandas off before heading back to the Club with Rob to dance and drink with socialites during the DJ set.
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Wednesday. 3/17. DeKalb.

Wake up and get sent off by Mike's staff. Business cards exchanged, deals made. Standard rock-n'roll stuff. The drive to DeKalb is mostly uneventful and pleasantly short by comparison to the 15 or so hours the drive to St. Louis took. It's a pretty flat, straight drive so I was even able to catch up on sleep between lane changes and toll booths.

We stretch our legs once we hit DeKalb by looking for a non-existent record shop and hanging around a guitar store. The guy working the counter tried explaining the advantages of buying relic'ed guitars while I looked over his selection. Sadly, we have to leave in a hurry when Rob demonstrates his trade marked neck stomp on the vintage 1966 Fender Jaguar for the store owner--I don't know what the guy got so mad about, the neck pocket broke pretty clean--nothing buying a new one and putting a belt sander to it wouldn't fix.

We ate dinner at local favorite Burritoville before heading over to a liquor store to buy our own booze for once. During load in, we get word that Alex Chilton has died. In a fit of inspiration, we decided add Big Star's In the Street to our set as a tribute to the Man. This idea is quickly scrapped in a moment of clarity when we realized that none of us could play or sing that song.

Brick Mower, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, played their all U2 songs set. That's a hard set to follow but we managed. I try not to make a big deal out of the fact that the electricity in the venue looks like it was about to go at any moment or possibly electrocute someone--luckily, that didn't happen until after we left.

Pulled into Chicago and hung out with some of my former room mates before settling in for the night.
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Thursday. 3/18. Chicago.

Eat breakfast/lunch. Head downtown for a live taping of Oprah, didn't make it on time so Amanda and Kristin had to settle on buying souvenirs from the Oprah TM store. Wander through a few record stores and a book store looking for an issue of MMR that we hear we're in. I don't find anything I need to get that day. I visit some other former room mates of mine before we make our way to Ronny's.

The crowd at an early show isn't as full as one might expect. I guess some people have to work at 5 pm on a week day in the big ol' second city. I get a little tipsy before drumming for Brick Mower but manage to keep it together. The crowd seemed pretty up for both Brick Mower and Silent Way. Sass Dragons and Granny Frost were both excellent.

We head out to the after party where I am left to my own devices while Brick Mower and the rest of Silent Way scavenge for food. Some point shortly thereafter, my drink is poisoned and I lose consciousness. I awaken in an ambulance where the EMT informs me that my heart would have stopped permanently had I not had such a massive dose of cocaine in my system at that time. Take that Mrs. Regan!
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Friday. 3/19. Last day of tour. Wherever.

Wake up to a big breakfast of Bacon, Ham Steak, Eggs, and Potatoes followed quickly by a slice of Birthday candles. Good byes are said and the van heads off to Ohio. The van comes back half an hour later to collect the 5 people that should be traveling in it. Good van.

We meet up with Daemon at the venue and set up. Brick Mower plays first, then us, then other bands. Rob wants to leave immediately but is out voted. He informs us that we're in Ohio and voting there is pointless so shut up and get in the van.
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Saturday. 3/20/ Homecoming.

Rob and I drive over-night. Nothing eventful happens. It's good to be back in Jersey.

Thanks to Everyone who made this tour happen. Thanks to Kristin and Eric for playing for us/ with us. Full thank yous and new news coming after some sleep.

--marty