Tornado Alley in June.

Wednesday. June 2nd. Iowa City. Mo merch. Mo problems.

Get a jump on the day by leaving De Kalb with Burritoville in our bellies. Lots of driving. Lots of toll booths. Arrive in Iowa City and take up a table at a local coffee house.

Rob informs me that our shows in Austin and New Orleans aren't happening. Bummer. Was looking to get some good BBQ on our way to Austin--and isn't that really what all this is about?

Get to PS1 around 8. Cool basement venue formerly owned by the university then donated to locals. We wait around after load in and pass the time playing E.R.S. One band we were on the bill with seemed to have a lot of merch--variety of tee shirts, shorts, hooded sweaters, patches, etc--they even brought their own merch guy. Only thing I didn't see for sale was music. I guess they know what they're doing.

We go on second and play to a few folks. Most of whom ended up being on the bill as the rather talented These Needles--whom we end up spending the night hanging out with and crashing at their house. One of the members of Animal Mothers eats a can of olives instead of the food Rob cooked. I try to keep a good mood by playing with the house cat before turning in for the night.
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Thursday. June 3rd. Liberty MO. How old am I? old enough to have to ask.

Geddupngo. Lots of driving to do. We end up passing a sign for a "modern" rest area and decide that we'll stop there to stretch our legs/ internet fingers. I hope the sign is "not twenty years old." Modern ends up meaning spotty WiFi and vending machines so we waste an hour or so off the highway.

Our host informs us that some local highways are closed due to construction. Luckily, this doesn't affect us too much and we make it to Liberty with time to spend (at a Panera Bread Co.).

Well fed, we arrive at the Venus Flytrap and are greeted by our host, Deto. Things get started by high-school aged band Trainbow. It's always fun seeing young bands because they're usually made up of kids of different tastes and musical ability and reasons for playing music. There always seems to be at least one member that looks like they'd rather not be in a band at all. They played their fun songs that don't drag out forever, not that I'm complaining.

We follow and play alright as people seem enthused to give us money, and in one instance, a guitar cable, for tapes and records. Jabber Josh played after us and the show was closed out by an acoustic set by a local song-smith (should've taken better notes). After a dinner of hot dogs, we take a bunch of the locals down to the store for cup-cakes as none of them are old enough to drink with us--or vote.

Rob and I don't want to get in trouble with any of their parents so we get to bed at 11PM sharp.
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Friday. June 4th. Norman OK. Thanks to all the (box) fan that came out to see us.

Traditional Silent Way breakfast of pasta and peppers to start off the day before heading to Oklahoma. We get to town and are let into the house we're staying at and shown our bed. The house smells of spices--possibly Worcestershire.

House show at the Avery House where we show up and meet Avery. We find out we're the only band on bill before the promoter leaves for work. I don't remember the name of the other band that was supposed to play with us but it was some type of dinosaur thus I will boycott all future dinosaur-named bands until I remember the specific name of the band or forget the boycott. (Drucker Edit: Steogsaur, from Austin)

We play to no fanfare and leave. Spirits are lowered when we get news of another canceled show. Poorly run shows as well as low turnout have us talking of turning around and heading back to NJ. We could make it back to see The Wankys in New Brunswick if we left in the morning.
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Saturday. June 5th. Fort Worth TX. Chicken fried unemployment form.

We decide to soldier on for no apparent reason--which is pretty rock and roll if you ask me. We make it to Fort Worth and meet up with local awesome guy, Rick, at his place of employment where we enjoy some local vegan foods (citation given) and beer. Rick gives us a key to his place and we spend the rest of the afternoon watching Simpsons tapes and napping.

Head over to 1919 and load in. Rob and I run to the local convenience store for nourishment--candy and "throwback" Pepsi. We go on second. Third billing was all around great one man act, Smile Full of Ale, who we were supposed to play with last year--but due to his good nature, helped us onto another bill and gave us a drum-kit instead.

The show ends and Rob and I head out to a local diner for some chicken fried whatever. Our waitress was, sadly, a northerner who seemed none too interested in faking southern hospitality--or getting us silverware--or the Texas toast we ordered.

We retire back to Rick's house and watch classic episodes of Futurama. I fall asleep in the jet stream of the air conditioner.
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Sun/Monday June 6/7rd. Houston. Days off still get no fancy title.

Woken up by Rick's cat's meow. I think we watched more Matt Groening cartoons before leaving for Cypress. Good byes said, on the road. Thanks again to Rick for keeping our spirits up.

We almost make it to our destination before our trusted van has troubles. We had already scheduled an oil change at a local auto-chain and they're more than happy to fix whatever was wrong with the van--because that's how they make money.

Rob and I spend two days resting up, writing new songs at the Cirigliano homestead. Van is fixed and well fed. Not too much else to tell now but, hopefully, the worst is behind us. Stay tuned to see how wrong that last sentence is.