End of the Line...

Tuesday June 8, Houston. Sticky Little Flowers.

A few days rest seems to pay off as Rob and I are able to work out some material and recharge our batteries (literally). Make our way to Walther's on Washington and meet up with a rather friendly sound guy. I guess we're going on first so we get to load in, set up, and sound check before we split for dinner.

The current plan of staying well fed and not miserably hungry for most of the day seems to be working wonders. Back at the club we meet up with Dave and Frank of PLF and the SFN crew. Rob's friend Megs, who we are staying with that night, also shows up shortly thereafter.

Rob and I also learn a lesson from a new local that you should never have a benefit show thrown for you if you only have an inoperable spinal-tumor. Apparently, his friends in DC weren't too pleased to find out that this wasn't killing him. And I always thought that DC was an anti-tumor town. Live and learn.

We played pretty well and traded some tapes and records. I unexpectedly got my foot stomped on by the only person in the circle pit during the second band's set. PLF played a great set as well as SFN. The show ends and we say goodbye to PLF and SFN. Back at Megs' home, we fall asleep to the Bill Pullman/ Madonna classic, A League of Their Own.
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Wednesday June 9th, Houston. Last Day off, hopefully.

Get up early because Megs couldn't get time off to hang out. Shortly after leaving, the van is pulled over for "someone calling in a suspicious vehicle." In all fairness to the police and concerned citizens, the van was wearing a black and white striped shirt and a little robbers mask.

Rob and I hop around a few record shops as well as an instrument shop to see if we can get one of the drum-machine amps fixed/replaced--turns out we can't. We pick up some groceries for dinner at a few local stores before heading back to Cypress Creek. Go swimming. Eat dinner. Watch the Blackhawks win the Stanley cup. Go to sleep.
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Thursday June 10th, Little Rock. Good Cat to Train-Hopper Ratios.

Wake up. Send off from the Ciriglianos. Lots of driving.

Arrive in Little Rock and are greeted by Baby Huey and Tara. I make time to play with the house cat while we do the awkward how long were you in prison/ what did you study in college introductions. Wait around a little bit before load in. Bit of a small room but we play pretty well and a few people take notice.

Odd thing about the turnout, a lot of train hoppers. I really wasn't aware that Little Rock was a hotbed of hobo-culture . Also, we were in attendance for Baby Huey's wedding to (should have taken better notes). No champagne but there was Mountain Dew. Sadly, I tied the tin cans to the wrong train--how embarrassing.

Outstanding local, Dan, was kind enough to feed and house us for the evening. I'm still kicking myself for not taking home one of his adorable kittens--but I wasn't sure how or if a kitten would be able to survive a week on tour with us. I'm starting to wonder how I've made it this far.
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Friday 6/11 Birmingham. It's a lot like the last town except there's a lot bugs instead of cats.

Wake up refreshed. Start the day off with a stack of pancakes and hash-browns followed by some more wholesome kitty attention. Dan takes me on a scenic tour of downtown Lil Rock before Rob and I head off.

Long drive to Birmingham. After finding the venue Rob and I head off in search of dinner. We end up settling on a hamburger joint named the Purple Onion. My order is screwed up but I take a "roll with it" approach and enjoy my meal the same. I think I overhear someone order a burger with no onion--I, too, let this slide.

Show gets off to a slow start but we eventually go on followed by us not playing. Kind of a diverse bill--metal, us, instrumental indie, and pop-punk. Whatever. The venue we played in used to be a fire-station. I feel there was a missed opportunity by not having a fire-pole for bands to use to get to the stage--it would have been a nice chance to rekindle my past dreams of the career I wanted before settling on this rock and roll lifestyle--being a Ghostbuster.

Post show we take off for Tampa. Long drive ahead. Sleep eventually found near Florida border.

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Saturday June 12th. Tampa. BIRTHDAY! Wrong Tour.

We want to get to Tampa at a decent hour so we get up early and drive quickly. Roll up to Carson's house where we're met with a hot meal and large grasshoppers. Feels like home. We mix with the good folks of Slavescene/Neon Blud/ and MLU before heading over to the show.

Storage space show where we headline. Tomorrow also happens to be Carson's birthday so a nice party atmosphere seeps into the crowd. Rob capitalizes on this by busting out the pinata he bought in Chicago--he ends on breaking it and his guitar during Feel the Same. Also, injures Carson's foot in the process. We end the night with Exhibition and head back to the house to continue celebrating.

I fall asleep after the late night to the sound of Rob watching classic Simpsons episodes too loudly.

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Sunday June 13th. Orlando. Don't stand so close to me or play that song.

Wake up to Carson's birthday breakfast plans: Cuban Cafeteria. Been a while since I had fried plantains and yucca. We're able to spend time having fun at the ocean until the beach-cops show up. Time to go. Thanks Zack.

Say goodbye to everyone and take off for Orlando. Told to be there around 7. Get there around 7 and wait for three hours until things get going. To pass time Rob and I grab dinner and do some shopping. I pick up a new pair of sunglasses as the ones I had were accidentally left behind at the beach after having to make a hasty exit. Thanks Zack.

Local cool guy, Mark, from the Teenaged Softies, helped us get on the show and it was nice of him to come out in spite of having the flu. We are informed that we're playing first so we set up in front of the band that was supposed to play first--putting us very close to being in the middle of a small bar-room. We sound check and play all the while getting hassled by a rather drunk local. Don't know why the bar let his stay around since he'd been bothering a lot of people there. Whatever. He eventually gets (literally) thrown out. Thanks Zack.

SFN shows up to play and we're later informed that their band fund had been robbed a few days ago. Sucks to hear how a good tour can turn into a liability at a certain point. The show ends and we say our good-byes to Mark and the SFN crew who we were grateful to see again. Best wishes to all of them.

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Monday June 14th. Atlanta. East meets West.

Getting a bit of a late start on the way to Atlanta due to me accidentally locking us out of the bathroom with some of Rob's stuff still in there. Lots of driving but we make our way there with time to kill.

Stop off at a record store where some kid tried to convince us to come to the show we were playing. Joke's on him. Next stop was another record store where the two clerks were discussing how annoying it is to have Fred Schneider as a customer--I cannot imagine the nerve of that guy to think he can go to the same shop twice in the same year! The other inane conversation the folks behind the counter had was about how great Alton Brown is and how great it would be to work for him. No arguments there.

Show up to the WonderRoot and find out that the show had been double booked! I guess there were going to be two competing ska shows in town that night and that shouldn't happen so they were combined. Luckily Dave was there to keep us company while we waited for the madness to stop. We go on and play our two songs, take our cut of the door, and leave to finally eat.

Shop the local Kroeger and cook dinner and chocolate chip cookies back at Dave's place. I fall asleep, upright, while watching the Monks documentary, Transatlantic Feedback.
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Tuesday June 15th. Nashville. or as I call it: the Love-nasium.

I get up unreasonably early, possibly due to falling asleep in a chair, and mill about waiting for Rob and Dave to get up. Rob and I hit up a Trader Joe's before making the drive to Nashville.

We arrive mid-day and start looking for and through record stores. I'm not as keen on shopping in music stores as Rob is so I spend a good time analyzing the lyrics of a song overheard on the house PA. "If women ruled the Earth, there would be no more wars..." Still doesn't explain Bride Wars.

After lunch we make our way to Jesse's house. I play with the house cat while Rob makes phone calls. We then mill about a bit before heading out in search of dinner. Before dinner we hit up another record store that had just been flooded. There was a lot of damage to the vinyl selection; luckily, the pornography section survived. A used media superstore was next where I picked up a couple books and old Nintendo cartridges. I can't remember if NHL'95 was one of the good ones or not but I figured it was worth the $.25 to find out--also, could make a good coaster if it isn't.

Dinner at Cinco de Mayo just because we could and then back to Jesse's house. Two stage set up with us in the basement and another band upstairs--not playing at the same time--just to save time between sets. Load in and play second with Jesse joining us on second guitar for our cover of Big Black's Passing Complexion to close the set. Haven't done that one since winter tour but it seemed to go over pretty well with the crowd.

I duck out to the van for a few minutes and end up falling asleep. Rob wakes me up around 1am and I attempt to fall asleep on the couch. Not enough wine to sleep comfortably in a sticky, hot noisy living room.

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Wednesday June 16. North Carolina and the states that come after.

Wake up and drive. I get a phone call detailing some bad news. Rob and I decide to cancel the last two shows and make our way to New Brunswick that night. Ending on a high-note in Nashville seems like the right thing to do as the next two shows weren't going to be attended by our friends and our very last show ended up not having a venue. Can't win 'em all. Gotta catch 'em all.

Thanks to everyone that was able to make this happen and made it worthwhile. It was exhausting but still very rewarding. I think we're going to hold off touring until next summer as we have a lot of songs to work on and want to focus more on that now.

Final Countdowns

Cats played with - 11

Toilets clogged - 1

Sunglasses - 5

Nosebleeds - 0