October 2008

Had a fun show at Saint Anselm College tonight. If you scroll down far enough in the Road Journal, you’ll see the post from our first time there last April. Fred was on hand to help us out with mixing front of house sound and recording the show, and we got a good pull that we’ll be able to post here for download. I got one of their Oreo cookie ice cream sundaes, which I was looking forward to on the drive up from Boston, remembering it from the last show there. Mmm. Everyone was super nice, enjoyed the set, and invited us to come back in April to play a large outdoor stage that they have. We’re already working on booking it for April 26th. We’ll post it when confirmed, for any of you New Englanders who may be able to swing by. We’re headed back to the farm right now on Hwy 3, making good time. We need to leave for Philadelphia tomorrow by mid-morning, so we’ll get a good rest tonight. More manana from Philly, jet black ‘Benz, plenty of friends, and all the Philly steaks we can eat.

Here’s the setlist from St. A’s:

Story Of…
IIOKYN
Hazel
ZED
D9
Don
Emil
Marula Binge
Park
List
Nightlite Jesus
I’ll Race Ya
Years Ago
Blame
Heat
Turn My Egg
View From Way Up Here
Obey –>
Life During Wartime

Heyo. We’re cruising back to Massachusetts from Burlington, Vermont after a fun show at Nectar’s. We tried their gravy fries and chicken fingers, and the verdict is that they are, indeed, as tasty as they’re reputed to be. There was a good crowd tonight, especially for a cold and rainy Tuesday. We were scheduled to play a roughly 2-hour set, but in the middle of “IIOKYN,” all of the lights went out and the fire alarms went off, sending everyone scurrying out the door into the rainy street outside. Classic. We stood out there for 20 minutes or so, and decided to take the opportunity to peddle CD’s to everyone, which was good times. Everyone was really into the music and they were eager to get copies of the record. When the building was cleared by Burlington’s finest, we all went back in and, just like at the barn show on Sunday with “View,” we came back in right where we left off on “IIOKYN,” which the crowd appreciated as a ‘clever’ move. All in all yet another great show, and the booking manager said that he wants to have us back in April on a weekend night. Good times.

Here’s the setlist:

Turn My Egg
Hazel
Eoghan, Late Saturday
D9
Park
I’ll Race Ya
Emil
List
Marula Binge
Blame
IIOKYN [lights out jam II]
IIOKYN reprise
View From Way Up Here
Heat
Obey –>
Life During Wartime

Oh, and the alley through which we had to drive (and back out) was about a foot wider than the van and trailer. Anton proved himself worthy of the title, “World’s Best Trailer Driver Under Pressure” yet again, just like at Red Rocks.

Foliage on the way up through Vermont – like driving through a bowl of Fruit Loops.

Beers loading in the stage door at Nectar’s – Burlington, VT

Nectar’s – Burlington, VT

The marquis at Nectar’s – Burlington, VT

Downtown Burlington, VT – Church Street pedestrian mall

Downtown Burlington, VT has been tagged.

Mmm…

…Gravy Fries.

SoundRabbit burns the house down.

SoundRabbit is on fire. They are so hot right now.

thread the needle.

Well, Portland didn’t disappoint. As was the case in April, we had a great time at North Star, made some new friends and fans, took in some salty air, and ate some great seafood. There was a good crowd in the room tonight, including some folks from “down east Maine” (which is actually far north in Maine) who are in a band called “A Patchwork Irony.” Really nice guys and we were able to give them some tips for recording, touring, etc. as they grow their band into a more formal project. The staff at North Star were awesome as always, and I was able to enjoy a nice chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk during our set. Mmm.

Here’s the setlist:

Park
D9
Hazel
Story Of…
Blame
Heat
Stop/Starts –>
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
View From Way Up Here
IIOKYN
Emil
Marula Binge
List
Turn My Egg
————————-
encore: Nightlite Jesus

 

I’m spending the night here in Portland, meeting the guys back at the farm tomorrow to make our drive up to northern Vermont (almost the Canadian border). More photos and updates then…

Thanks to all of the East Coast RabbitReps and Backstage Members who made it out to the “barn burnin'” show last night! It ended up being a bit different from what we expected, as our showcase was combined with a birthday party for the son-in-law of the owners of the farm. The crowd ended up being a mix of SoundRabbit fans and friends and family, totalling over 100 people gettin’ down in a barn. Woo-hoo. We had bbq food, an open bar, and, as it turns out, birthday cake to complement the music.

Here’s the setlist:

Heat
Marula Binge
D9
Nightlite Jesus
View From Way Up Here [lights out jam]
ZED
Hazel
IIOKYN
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
Turn My Egg

We jammed a bit too hard during “View,” knocking out the power in the place… quickly remedied by a flip of the switch at the fuse box… at which point we picked up right where we left off in the middle of the tune.

Our good friend Fred met us at the show last night and will be running lights, merchandise, and recording gear for the rest of the week. He helps us out on our Northeast tours, and in return he gets to eat stuff off the floor of the van with the rest of us.

Fred working his magic.A little later today we drive north to Portland, Maine for a show at North Star. We can’t wait – it’s a beautiful city with great seafood and incredibly nice people at the venue. More later!

We’re cruising to Sudbury, MA today from western Massachusetts, where we stayed for the night. We’re seeing some gorgeous New England foliage here:

Last night at Beardslee Castle was incredible. Talk about the stars aligning and luck being on our side. Shortly after the road journal post below, we went into the castle and downstairs to “The Dungeon” bar, where we set up our equipment in a small area near one end of the room. The owner, Randy, came over and greeted us, and said that they’d have dinner down shortly for us. We had no idea what we were in for. Holy guacamole. In comes our waitress and new friend, Holly, with plates of the finest prime rib I’ve ever laid eyes on, a mashed potato and sweet potato concoction, fresh scallops over pasta, chicken picata, bread, and drinks. All on the house. Holy guacamole.

The Spread

Pinching ourselves

Beers eating fast before someone takes it away from him.

Jason fell out of his chair about 3 seconds after this photo was snapped.
Food knocked him for a loop. Can’t believe I turned the camera off and missed it.

Beardslee Castle has been tagged.

Jason in the dungeon.

We ate like kings in this castle, everyone encouraging us to relax and take our time, asking how our trip has been thus far, etc. We took the ‘stage’ around 10:30pm and rocked until 1am, with the room filling up as we went and a good time had by all. Randy had sent an email out to his friends when he booked us, so a bunch of them came down on the spot to check us out. The best part was that the entire staff (chefs, wait staff, etc.) all came down and partied with us, which gave us a chance to thank them for the incredible food and hospitality. Two friends from Syracuse drove 90 minutes to come see us – we had met them when we played at Bull & Bear Pub in April in Syracuse, and they came out again to listen to the tunes and visit (thanks, Mike and Jess!). There was a funny interlude between our two sets, when Holly and Stephanie (two of the castle staff) got up and sang a few children’s songs. They really got the room going, and then we got ’em dancing for the last set. All in all a fantastic time and a great last-minute gig that fell into place. They want to have us back in the spring, so we’ll be booking that soon for April. Good times.

Here’s the setlist:

Hazel
Story Of…
List
Heat
Park
IIOKYN
Don
View From Way Up Here
Turn My Egg
Blame
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
[interlude by castle staff]
D9
ZED
Marula Binge

Tonight we’re playing a private ‘showcase’ style gig in the big barn/event room at the horse farm where we’re staying for the week. Can’t wait to relax and stroll out from our bedrooms to the stage, quite literally. More later…

Woo hoo… we landed a gig in New York to replace the canceled one… we’re playing at Beardslee Castle in Little Falls, NY. Super cool place – one of the “most haunted structures in America.” It’s a true castle (stone and all that jazz), and as we’re driving up to it right now, there’s a big orange harvest moon (3/4) over it. Wow. This is awesome. And spooky. And awesome. We’re going to be running like crazy to load in and set up, so the next Road Journal post will probably be tomorrow from Massachusetts. Our plan at this point is to drive to the inn in MA after the show. We’ll be in bed by 5am.  🙂

More manana…

We crossed into Pennsylvania a little bit ago, seeing Lake Erie off to our left (north). Beautiful weather we’ve had for this whole trip, and we’re now starting to see some really nice fall foliage. Lots of farms surrounded by stands of maples, oaks, etc. that are all yellow/red/orange.

Pennsylvania foliage

Pennsylvania foliage

Pennsylvania foliage

We slept 3 hours in Lawrence and left town before sunrise… and arrived in Yellow Springs, Ohio at sunset. Saw some interesting sights along the way…

Welcome To Ohio!

Hmm… perhaps a name change is a good idea, Tom.

We had a great time in Yellow Springs, Ohio last night. The venue had great sound, a great sound guy (who also started working the lights as he got to know our music and cues), and the attendees in the room included comedian Dave Chappelle (“Chapelle Show”), who enjoyed it enough to dance at the back of the room during “Marula” at the end of our set. Funny.

Stage Setup – Peach’s Grill, Yellow Springs, OhioYellow Springs is a funky little town of about 4,000 people. It sits between Dayton, Cincinnati, and Springfield as a “liberal bastion” in bible belt country. Antioch College was founded there by Horace Mann back in the day, and it ran up until this past summer when it had to close due to financial issues. The town is waiting to see what life without a college population will be like… pretty interesting.

The great part about the gig was that they gave us all dinner AND a place to stay. The owners of the venue have a guest house on their property that they give to touring bands for the night. We all slept really well, staying up until 3:30am or so watching “Airplane” before hitting the rack.

Our abode for the night in Yellow Springs.

Checking out the digs for the night.

The bedroom… SoundRabbit Summer Camp!

Watching “Airplane” at 3am before bed

The lovely note from the venue and cottage owners (they’re incredible!)

The house guard.

Beers finds an old pilot helmet.

Beers in your FACE.

FYI, I won’t have the USB cable for the MR-1 until tomorrow, so I’ll post all of the show recordings over the next couple of days. Here’s the setlist:

Park
Story Of…
Turn My Egg
Emil
Around The Bend
Hazel
Heat
ZED
View From Way Up Here
IIOKYN
Nightlite Jesus
List
Don
D9
Blame
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
I’ll Race Ya
Eoghan, Late Saturday
Relief
Marula Binge

At the moment we’re awaiting a call back from the owners of a venue in upstate New York, to see if we can play a last-minute gig there tonight. It’s called Beardslee Castle (www.beardsleecastle.com), and it’s a haunted old castle in the middle of the countryside. We’re hoping it comes through; if it does, we’ll have some more cool photos, stories, and another setlist to post tomorrow. If it doesn’t, we’re pushing on to our inn in Massachusetts, arriving around 1am or so.

More later when we know what’s going on!

Howdy from the van, everyone. Sorry I didn’t post an update here yesterday, our internet connection was spotty at best through Kansas. I’ll make up for it now with a nice long post here.

We had a great show at Jazzhaus in Lawrence last night. An incredibly friendly town and room, we made a bunch of new fans and friends, and they want to have us back in April when we swing through again. Good times. We recorded the show, and I’ll be posting it here to the Backstage ASAP… some highlights were the debut of “Blame” and “D9” live. They both went pretty well, considering that I wrote the lyrics in the van between Denver and Lawrence and we’d never tried them in front of listeners. Many versions of lyrics will be tested on this tour, so we can return to the studio in November with some ideas for the album versions.

Here’s how the setlist panned out:

Story Of…
Park
Emil
Heat
D9
Hazel
Turn My Egg
IIOKYN
View From Way Up Here
Blame
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
List
I’ll Race Ya
ZED
Don
Around The Bend
Eoghan, Late Saturday
Nightlite Jesus
Stop/Starts
Relief
Marula Binge

We’re cruising down I-70 in Indiana as I write this, just east of Terre Haute. We got in to our hotel room in Lawrence just after 3am this morning and had to leave there at 6:45am to hit the road, so we’re all taking naps as we can get them. The hotel was pretty funny. We arrived at 3am and parked the van and trailer out front. I said to the kid at the front desk, “hey, man – we have a lot of equipment in our trailer, is this a safe neighborhood?” His reply was, “Umm… what day is today? Thursday? You’re probably fine.”

Hmm.

We got to our rooms and Anton and I noted that our door had been kicked in at least once…

Forced entry = classy hotel.So let’s talk about yesterday… and let’s do it with pictures, that’s more fun than my rambling:

Packing up the trailer at Anton’s house

Group shot with Anton’s dog before we hit the road.

We have a stowaway.

Russ providing “driving music” vis a vis some incredible dual-pennywhistle playing.

Beers riding shotgun through eastern Colorado.

Anton takes the first shift.

99% of the country that we see on tour looks like this.

Kansas truckstop – Anton yells, “Hay! Hay! Wait up!” (wokka wokka).

Okay, so here’s the first thing worth stopping for on the tour. We’re driving through western Kansas on I-70 and we see signs for “World’s Largest Prairie Dog – next exit!” Not inclined to miss an opportunity like that, we pulled off and decided to check it out.

We walked into “Prairie Dog Town” in Oakley, Kansas at around 2pm and met Larry, its proprietor. He gave us what I’m sure is his typical salespitch – “It’s $6.95 per person to go in, which is cheap considering it costs me $100 a day just to feed the rattlesnakes.”

Hmm.

“Well, you can wait and pay $25 to see the 5-legged cow when it dies. Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not museum already paid me for it, they’re gonna take him when he dies and have him on display forever… for $25. You can see him now, alive, for $6.95.”

Hmm.

Okay, we’ll bite.

Beers and I paid the fee and walked through the door to Prairie Dog Town. I’ll let the photos say the rest:

The guys check out the inconspicuous, understated entrance to Prairie Dog Town.

“Roscoe’s” small stature pales in comparison to extra bovine limbs.

Beers says “how can I count the legs? They’re laying down!”

The famed 5-legged cow.

Russ says, “uhhh… this is the world’s largest prairie dog?”

It is, indeed, giant. I used to own one of these as a kid (for real). They yell when cornered.

Prairie Dog Town (aka “Bubonic Plague Village”)

Larry, owner of Prairie Dog Town – and the prairie dog he swears he ‘bagged’ in the 1970’s.
I had to buy this postcard, which is now pasted to the ceiling of the van.

So ya… it was interesting. I have some great video that I’ll have to edit and post on my blog when we get back to Colorado. Let’s just say that Larry is proud of his 42-year old business.

(Side note: as I write, Anton has selected the Goonies theme by Cindi Lauper as our driving music)

Anton hates the popparazzi.

Awesome midwest sign.

Rest. Stop. Rest. Stop. Rest. Stop. Rest.

The future…

“Oh, Anton – tell me another.”

The musician’s worst nightmare – “the load in upstairs.” (Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS)

Loading in… Lawrence, Kansas

Beers warming up in the green room / storage room B.

Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS

Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS

Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS

Jazzhaus green room has been tagged.

The new Merch setup.

Beers’ homework before we left for tour was to set up an easily packable and easy-to-set-up merchandise display. He found an old steamer trunk on Craig’s List and created an “open, set it, and forget it” table display that makes life much easier for us before shows (see last photo above).

Okay, so it took me an hour to make this post… and we also crossed into another timezone and state, so it’s now 6:18pm Ohio time. I’m going to sign off as we watch the sun set on another day spent in the van aaallll day. Can’t wait to play the show tonight.

More later…

Thanks to the folks in Fort Collins who came out to the show last night, it was a blast. I accidentally set our recording gear too “hot” out of the soundboard, so I won’t be posting any audio (BUMMER!). We’ll be fixing that before tour for sure, with plans to post every single show here to the Backstage within a day or two of playing. We’ve got shows booked for every single night of tour, so it will be a busy process in the van the next day, bouncing the shows down to MP3s… but no job I’d rather do on a weekday! Thanks to Karina for the Friendship Bread, too. That will be making its way into my blog for the next couple of weeks for sure.

The next show is Oct 16th in Lawrence, Kansas… more from there!