April 26, 2009

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