April 2009

Hello from Charlottesville. The view from where I’m sitting is incredible… open swaths of pasture, dense lush deciduous green woods running up the sides of the mountains surrounding… and giant bees the size of horses (slight hyperbole, but not much) buzzing around. We’re going to head into town shortly to grab some lunch, but for the moment we’re spending the late morning taking in beautiful sights and a nice cool breeze out in the country at the farm we’re staying at. I’d guess the temperature to be around 68 right now – perfect.

Our show last night was fun, though we pulled into town at 9:50pm for a 10pm gig… not ideal. We had to scramble to load all of the equipment, run our own sound, etc., in a 15 minute period. The result was a set where I couldn’t hear anything but drums (no time to set up monitors), and everyone else basically heard themselves (amp’d instruments) + drums. Makes it hard to connect with one another that way, and I certainly have no idea what the sound was like for the audience. About 3 songs into the set, the bartender came over and asked us to turn everything down a bit, which is also distracting… oh, well. We played well, though, and we had people coming up afterwards to say that they really enjoyed it, so that’s good times. We’ll be playing in Charlottesville quite a bit later this year and into 2010, so we’ll have plenty of opportunities to play rooms with house sound, etc.

We’ve decided not to go to Memphis today, because we were going to be playing a private event there, and upon looking at the tripometer and the route to Memphis, it’s a bit too much of a hassle to get down there. It’s a 13 hour drive from Charlottesville, and then we’d be driving 7 hours backwards (Northeast) to play Ohio tomorrow. We were all looking forward to seeing Memphis, but we did the math on that, too, and we would have had zero time to walk around the city to see things. We’re going to hop online and see if any last-minute gig opportunities present themselves in Charleston, West Virginia or maybe even here in C’ville… if not, we’ll relax for the night and hit the road to Ohio in the morning.

Anton gave me a bunch of photos from Vermont, so I’m going to publish them below in the Vermont post… scroll down to check them out.

More later from C’ville…

We’re stopped at a gas station and I’m about to take over the driving for a bit, so I figured I’d toss up another post here before we head out. We passed the home of Martin Guitars – Nazareth, PA – a little while back. Anton and I both play Martins, so we gave a nod as we passed the exit. We lost quite a bit of time in traffic, to the point that we’re now on track to arrive in Charlottesville at the time that we’re supposed to play… 10pm… never a good thing. Rushed setups aren’t fun… but c’est la vie. We won’t rush to get there… it is what it is.

The scenery is really nice right now… tons of lush trees, lots of green, etc… lovin’ it and can’t wait to play some music in 5 hours.

Hasta for now, more from C’ville…

We changed our routing a little bit this morning to avoid the dreaded I-95 interstate. That road sucks. Road conditions/pot holes, tolls, traffic around NYC and D.C… anything we could do to get around it, we figured we’d try. We’re now on I-84 in western Connecticut, heading to connect with I-81, which will take us all the way down to Charlottesville (VA). This drive is more scenic, too… more of our style of scenery (less buildings and people, more trees and hills).

Had a nice breakfast of turkey eggs and toast this morning before leaving the B&B… and washing it down here in the van with chocolate chip cookies made for us by Backstage Member Kristen up in Vermont (thanks, Kristen!).

It looks like we should arrive just in time to load in down at Bel Rio… around 8pm or so. Another long day of driving, but the weather is absolutely perfect today – the heat from yesterday has moved onward – so we’re enjoying it.

Funny how crowded the East Coast is. I grew up here (in MA), but having lived away from it for 10 years, coming back is eye opening. We’re stopped at a gas station right now, and every single pump is taken, and a long line inside at the counter – yet we’re “inland” from the main north/south route (I-95). I don’t think we’ll be seeing any remote/empty gas stations for a while. When I lived in MA, the idea of an empty Western gas station creeped me out… now it sounds like home (and these crowds are creeping me out). Life is funny.

One nice thing about being back East – Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner. Mmm. There’s one at this gas station… time to go check it out.

More later…

I’m in a good place at the moment. Sitting in bed watching a rerun of the Red Sox/Indians game on NESN (New England Sports Network), occasionally interrupted by commercials for local Boston-area small businesses, which is equally entertaining. I’m in a small bedroom on the second floor, at the back corner of a large, old (1700’s) colonial bed and breakfast, and I’ve got my screen door open to a deck at the back of the house. The wind is whipping through the trees near the deck, and a nice cool (almost cold), humid breeze is blowing through the open door and across my bed. Feels like a summer night, and it’s perfect.

We drove 4 hours from Burlington, Vermont since I last went to sleep (and since my last road journal post below). Stayed at the B&B for the afternoon and worked on our various computers while trying not to move too often. It hit 94 degrees with 90% humidity in Boston today, so we were all really struggling to keep our energy up, going on 1-2 hours of sleep the night before, spending half of the day in the van, and then the heat. Again – where I’m writing you from right now is just about perfect for ending this type of day.

We played in Waltham, MA tonight, and if I’m honest, it wasn’t the best show/experience of the tour by any stretch. Nights like tonight can be challenging to the morale, but you have to focus on the ‘war,’ not the ‘battle.’ It wasn’t a terrible night, but it definitely won’t make the ‘favorites’ list for us when we recap this trip from home. Not sure exactly what it was… partially us being super tired… partially the Celtics game playing on the wall through the whole show… partially some technical and sound mix difficulties before and during the show… the audience feeling it being a weeknight/work night… yadda, yadda. I don’t know. Nights like tonight are perfectly suited for the internet-era word, “meh.” Oh, well… the last 5 nights have been fantastic, and the next 5 will likely be the same… so we’ll focus on the big picture.

[I definitely don’t want to take away from those who came out tonight, of course! There were a few Backstage members there, which was great… and friends we hadn’t seen in many, many years. We really appreciate all who braved the rainy weather and ignored next-morning-alarm-clocks to come out on a work/school night to support us.]

We’ve got another long drive in a few hours. We’ll leave around 9am for the 10 hour drive to Charlottesville, Virginia and a show at 10pm at Bel Rio. Never been to that venue, so it will be a little adventure for us. Through the day, we’ll pass Hartford, New York City, Philadelphia, Newark, Baltimore, and Washington D.C… quite a drive.

On the entire tour to-date, we’ve been trying hard not to leave anything behind in the various cities that we visit for 24 hours or so at most. Computers, music equipment, cell phones, bags, clothing… lots of things that can get lost, in a hotel room or in a venue. We’ve been lucky to have Fred along to make sure that we don’t lose things… and to make sure that our shows are promoted online, that our sound and lighting is working, that the neighborhoods around the venue are full of flyers, and that we’re getting honest feedback after each show, and that anyone in the room who we’re meeting for the first time leaves with a CD, and that our email list continues to grow, etc. Tonight in Waltham was our last show with Fred on tour, as he lives in Boston, so he’s jumping off the boat and leaving us to continue on as a quartet. We want to send a HUGE ‘thank you’ to Fred for all of the help and hard work and driving and support and setlists and recordings and photos and on and on. We’re definitely feeling like we’re leaving something important behind as we pull out of town in the morning… we’ll look forward to the next time we can have Fred out with us. THANKS, FRED!

I’ll post another update with pictures as we make our way down the East Coast.

Hello from the hotel room. Everyone is asleep but me (Russ)… I’m doing some website updates here, trying to get them done asap so I can grab a couple of hours of sleep. We had a great gig at Nectar’s tonight, the people there were fantastic as always, we had a good crowd for a Monday night, and people were dancing until the last note of the last song at nearly 2am. We played a new “Afrikaans” tune (working title) tonight, which worked out well… and a new version of “Diggin in the Dirt.” Anton had some great work on “View” again tonight, with a very nice rendition of ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ in the middle. We visited with our new friends in the audience (and Backstage Members, too!) for a bit after the set and then packed up and headed back here to the hotel. We’re getting up at 7:30am to leave for Massachusetts, per Beers’ orders (his kids are down in MA for the week, so he wants to see them). I plan on trying to sleep in the back of the van. but it doesn’t really work that way. Anton calls it “stasis” – where you basically get as still as possible, but you never actually fall asleep, because the ride is bumpy or the conversation/music is too loud, or there’s lots on the mind, etc. It’s about a 4 hour drive to the place where we’re staying outside of Boston. We’ll get there around noon or so, and we’ll have the afternoon to try and nap for a bit before heading to the venue in Waltham to load in and soundcheck for the one and only Boston area gig of the tour.

 

Sorry for the short update, but I’m about to pass out on my keyboard here… going to jump in the shower and then let my head hit the pillow for an hour.

Hasta.

We flyer’d the University of Vermont campus tonight…

I think the students will see that one.

We also flyer’d downtown Burlington, and we’re going to head back to campus tomorrow to do some more flyering, along with an acoustic set with two guitars at lunch time over by the student union.

We had a fantastic dinner tonight at a somewhat fancy French restaurant in downtown Burlington… similar to the place we ate in Philadelphia. We enjoyed French Onion Soup, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, steak frites, scallops, Vermont pot pie, and some damn good wines. Our one splurge for the trip, and we enjoyed every bite. Of course, being in Vermont, Fred and I had to swing over to Ben & Jerry’s afterwards for some dessert. Mmmm.

We’re at the hotel now, resting for the night before the day of promoting tomorrow. Weather forecast is for 85 degrees and partly cloudy, so it should be a beautiful day for promoting. Woot.

Hasta for now, more later…

I tried to add an update on the road, but we were in the middle of nowhere and had no cell or internet service, so here’s the recap. We’re now in our hotel room in Burlington, Vermont… I’m on the computer making this update while the guys are all watching Jurassic Park and providing colorful commentary as they do. We’re going to catch a bus into downtown Burlington to grab some dinner and hang some flyers and do promoting for the show tomorrow night. This is our only night off for the tour, so we’re enjoying it.

The drive over here was about 3.5 hours and it was absolutely gorgeous. The weather’s not as nice today as we’ve had on this trip – in the 50’s/60’s and overcast – but the scenery was really beautiful regardless. Lots and lots of water everywhere… we decided to take a scenic road (Rt 2 – map here) that hops island to island to island en route from the Canadian border down to Burlington. We passed through a series of tiny towns, deep woods, open waterways, and rivers and creeks and marshes… really, really pretty. Spring hasn’t quite hit up here yet, so most of the trees were bare, but it must be incredible in the fall here with the foliage.

Here are some photos from the van en route…

More updates later tonight, including the all important report on dinner… I’m hoping to find some good seafood, even though we’re not technically on the coast… we’re closer than in Colorado!

Wow, what a great day and night today. We played just before sunset on the main lawn/quad at St. Lawrence University, with 70-degree temps and a thousand kids on laying out on blankets, dancing in front of the stage, playing whiffle ball at the back of the lawn, etc. Incredible vibe, incredible weather, great sound system, and a great musician to play alongside in Keller Williams. He came over to our van after his soundcheck and we hung out for a while, talking about touring, etc… super nice guy. We played an hour set, opening again with Wartime, which got the kids dancing right off the bat. Ended the set with “Egg” and calls for “one more song!” but we had to decline because of the strict set schedule.

We stayed backstage for Keller’s set, watching him from behind the stage, which was a cool angle on all of his pedal work, etc. Fred got to know his road manager, Andrew, well, as they were both running around helping with anything that needed their attention. After his set, Keller disappeared for a bit while the crowd dissipated, and then he came over to our van and we hung out for a while longer, and discovered that we were all staying at the same hotel around the corner from the school. Fred and I broke out to go grab some food at the cafeteria (where were were visited by kids coming over to our table to ask for CD’s and to tell us how much they dug the set, etc.). It was great, we probably got another 40-50 copies of the albums out while walking around on campus late night after the festival ended.

Fred and I headed back to the hotel around 1am, where we met up with the Keller crew at the pub in the hotel and we were the last ones to leave the bar at 1:40am. We actually took another walk because the weather was so gorgeous (the “after rain” smell in the air, 65 degrees or so)… and now it’s 3:04am and we’re about to hit the rack. Tomorrow we head to Burlington, Vermont, which should be a really nice drive, about 3 hours through the lakes and mountains region. Here are some pics from the festival:

spike jones video

watching keller’s set from backstage

Saturday, April 25 – 12:15pm Watertown, NY time
Okay, so the “ahead of schedule” thing might not apply anymore… nice string of 1,000 bikers just cut in front of us here… good times.

By the way, we’re in the middle of nowhere up here…

More later, after the gig… hasta!

Anton’s camera at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame…