Blog

We’re driving along I-70 westbound right now, the last full day of driving. We should be home in Boulder by late afternoon.

Nice arch. (St. Louis)

We had a fun show in Kansas City last night, where we met a lot of great people. We had heard from friends about a gourmet burger place up the street from the venue, and we decided to go try it out. It’s called “Blanc,” and we all left there agreeing that they were by far and away the best burgers we’d ever eaten in our lives. They also served onion rings and sweet fries in little shopping carts. Yep.

Blanc (Kansas City, MO)

the “american kobe burger”

cart o’ fries

Beers and his cart o’ fries.

Our waiter ended up coming over to our show a couple of hours later, and after the set told us that we can consider ourselves having a free place to stay any time we come through Lawrence or Kansas City, as he lives in the area and has a big place with room for our van and trailer, plenty of sleeping space, laundry machines, etc. It’s one of our favorite things about tour – meeting so many kind and generous people. We’ve seen it this entire trip.

We played an hour set, opening with the new “D9” tune. Here’s how the setlist panned out:

D9
Turn My Egg
I’ll Race Ya
Story Of…
Eoghan, Late Saturday
View From Way Up Here
Obey –>
Life During Wartime

We met another band on tour out of Detroit, super nice guys and we traded tour stories for an hour or so… then split for Topeka, KS, about an hour away. Stayed in Topeka at a hotel that apparently had zero insulation in its walls. Our rooms were a steady 45 degrees all night, and no one wanted to get out from under their covers this morning. We got on the road at 8:30am, warmed up by some Hunt Brothers Breakfast Pizza from the gas station next to the hotel.

downtown Kansas City, Missouri

our parking luck continues… 15′ load in – Kansas City, MO

Loading in (Kansas City, MO)

Russ & Beers at the Riot Room

“give me thoughtful.”

Jay breaks character.

We’re all bittersweet about being back in Colorado… it’s great to see our families and sleep in our own beds, but it’s also a bummer to not be continuing on to new cities and new audiences tomorrow and the next day and the next…

Our big excitement for the next 90 days is to get back into the studio and record the new album for release in March. Should be a fun experience, and we learned a lot from the recording of This Room Becomes A Crowd, so it should be a bit more efficient this time around. We’ve got a lot of good material to work with in the way of new songs, too. Looks like all but one of the songs will be brand new tunes. Good times.

An observation to close out this post… we’ve literally been with eachother 24 hours a day for the last two weeks, much of that time spent in a 7′ x 15′ space in a van, bouncing along potholed highways and sitting stopped in traffic jams… and yet we’re all still laughing and joking and enjoying eachothers’ company at the end of the trip. We’ve all played in other bands, and we all agree that the chemistry and camaraderie in this group is unlike any other we’ve experienced. It’s an incredible project to be a part of, and we’re only at the beginning of it..

Hasta for now…

Woo-hoo… just crossed into Illinois. Still transferring all of my photos from the last 4 days, check back over the next couple of hours and scroll down to see updates from Philly, Nashville, etc..

We’re driving near Paducah, Kentucky right now… cruising down Hwy 24 westbound, headed for Kansas City. The weather is gorgeous, a bit crisp and cool, but clear. We stayed at a hotel just outside of Nashville, Tennessee last night and spent the evening walking Broadway Street in downtown Nashville. There was live music in every single bar that we passed, though it was pretty much all country music (I know, it’s Nashville – but I figured there might be a bit more variety). We grabbed dinner and a few photos, then headed for the hotel for the night. Wow, we just passed the “National Quilting Museum.” If only we had time to stop…

Man, what an incredible tour this has been. We’ve all been talking in the van about how there’s this feeling of being “on a little snowball, just starting to roll down a hill”… we played every single night over the last 11 nights, covering the midwest, northeast, mid-Atlantic seaboard, and the south. And every single night we finished our set and then had to get our Sharpies out to sign autographs for people coming up with CD’s, guitar picks, posters, etc. to be signed. We were all surprised by it at the beginning of the tour, but it’s become a normal part of the night for us now. It’s a pretty cool feeling to know that we’re nobody right now – just four guys making noise on a stage – and yet people want us to sign their stuff… because they see the potential in what we’re doing. In their minds, at some point, sometime soon, those autographs will be worth some bragging rights (“I saw those guys in a tiny room with 10 other people”). The staff and audience at shows have been SO incredibly friendly this whole week. We can’t wait to hit the road again in April with a new album to present along with This Room Becomes A Crowd.

It’s been really tough to stay on top of the Road Journal, because I dropped my laptop and it’s basically worthless. We’ve been sharing Anton’s laptop between the four of us, and then we accidentally left our camera bag up in Vermont, so I don’t have the chargers and USB cables to get photos over to the computer – what a technology nightmare. I’m going to publish all of the journal entries that I’ve done here in a minute. You’ll see them below.

Well, we just had a nice big heaping helping of Southern hospitality. Holy guacamole (and fried chicken and sweet potatoes). We set up a house concert in Knoxville, Tennessee through a longtime friend of mine. The funny thing is, I’d never actually met her in person, nor had ever spoken to her. We met online through some music industry connections about 6 years ago and stayed in touch via email and IM over the years, but never had opportunity to meet. When we looked at our tour schedule and routing for this trip, I realized that Knoxville was nicely situated between our Virginia and Missouri shows, so we connected and she invited us to come play a house concert at her place. We pulled the van and trailer into her backyard, expecting to set up and play for a few people, visit, and then continue on westward. Instead, we walked into the house to find a spread of food, drinks, and overall love and friendship that blew our minds and left us wanting to stay the week! What incredible people. The hosts, Lila and Julie, had invited family and friends, and put together a potluck-style gathering with lawn chairs and blankets spread out under beautiful tall old trees, and plenty of room for our gear. The neighborhood kids came running over to listen, and even hopped on our instruments for a bit to make some sounds of their own.

We played an hour long set, with old tunes and new, and even got a congo line going around the yard during “Story Of…” They put a basket on the ground in front of my piano and proceeded to put way more money in it than we probably deserved. We had a great singalong with “Nightlite Jesus,” and played “ZED” as the requested encore at the end of the set. We visited for quite a while after that, and then as we prepared to leave, Julie and Lila filled our cooler to the brim with fried chicken, dumplings, sweet potatoes glazed in honey, potato salad, chips, hummus, candies, bread, drinks, and more. They sent us off with such a great feeling of friendship… we couldn’t say “thank you” enough times. We can’t wait to come back through here in the spring if our schedule allows. We’re now driving to Nashville where we’ll stay for the night. More later…

Awesome show last night in downtown Charlottesville. This is clearly a town that loves music. We gathered more email addresses (voluntarily) last night than any other night on tour (and maybe even more than any single night at home). We had some issues at the beginning of the set, as Jay’s bass wouldn’t make any noise. As it turns out, the power outlet on the wall by the stage is tied into the room light dimmer switches – so when the staff dimmed the lights to set the mood for our set, it also killed all of the power to Jay’s rig. Oops. It took a good 15 minutes to figure that out, but then we got to rockin’. Signed some more CD’s and posters at the end of the night and made a lot of new friends. Looks like we’ll be back there in April with no problems. Can’t wait.

The farm we stayed at last night is unbelievably beautiful. We strolled the property and took some pictures early this morning and then hit the road to Knoxville. We should be there around 2:45pm. I’ll let the photos tell the story of our morning on the farm, and we’ll post more later from Tennessee…

Charlottesville, Virginia is a beautiful place. Wow. I’ve had a few friends from here, and I’ve always wanted to visit. My parents almost moved our family here when I was a kid, but it didn’t pan out. I can see why there’s so much appeal, though. As soon as we crossed into Virginia from Maryland, the vegetation opened up into gorgeous tracts of land and pastures. There were low patches of fog hovering in little valleys all over the place, like ghosts sprinkled across the landscape. Overall, there’s an incredible serenity here, a sense of calm and slow pace. We pulled into town and grabbed some dinner, and then found the venue. It’s right in the heart of downtown C’ville, on the pedestrian mall. The load in was tough, as the closest we could park the van and trailer was a block down, and the venue is located on the second floor of the building, with a steep staircase that twists halfway up.

Dinner.

Dinner.

Dinner.

Loading in at the Charlottesville downtown pedestrian mall

Downtown Pedestrian Mall – Charlottesville, VA

The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar – Charlottesville, VA

the band photographer.

the dreaded load-in.

Beers, friends, and the stage – Tea Bazaar, C’Ville VA

Loading out at the end of the night.

For all of the time spent sitting on our arses in a van, we get a good workout with the load-ins and load-outs. We’ll be taking the stage in about 20 minutes, to play a 2 hour set. I’ll post more later, after the show… or in the morning on our way to Knoxville.

We bid adieu to the farm in Sudbury this morning, which has been our home for the week. What a gorgeous property to have as our homebase on tour. Comfortable beds for all of us, 9 acres of pastures and woods to wander during the day, and peace and quiet for writing, meditating, and generally relaxing. We can’t wait to be back there in April.

Beers’ dad has a mechanic shop just outside Boston, so we took the van there to get a look-over, and his dad fixed the hitch on the van, which was about ready to fall off after bouncing down the interstate to Philadelphia. I-95 is the bane of our existence on tour. Always full of traffic, always crappy roads that beat up the van, and tolls to add insult to the injury. The trailer hitch was getting jerked around like crazy, and the left side of it basically snapped off the frame.

Man, was this gig out of the way… we played in New Hampshire last night, and we play in Boston tomorrow night – and Philly’s a solid 6 hours each way. We’re pushing through the night to get back to the farm, and we should be in bed by 5am or so. We just got majorly lost trying to find I-95 in the Philly/Jersey area… ended up in a bit of the ‘hood somewhere near Trenton. We’re back on the right track now, but we killed an hour driving in circles. Bummer.

All of that said, it was well worth the trip. We had a fantastic time in the city of fraternal hugs. Some old friends of mine and Beers’ came out to the show, and the rest of the room was filled with Philadelphians who had no idea who we were… but at the end of the night they were telling us that we “should have played longer!” yadda yadda. Yet another crowd who digs the stuff. It’s nice to see that night after night. We’re all humble bastards and extremely critical of ourselves, but it’s nice to have that validation for sure.

I’ll post the setlist here when I get the recording back. I’m going to have a lot of Road Journal entries to update with setlist info when we get home.

The two highlights of the night (aside from the gig and friends):

1. We got to Philly early enough to walk around and see the city, and grab some dinner. We found a French restaurant after several blocks of wandering. The menu looked incredible and the place smelled even better than the menu read… so we decided to splurge and have the “celebratory dinner” of tour here (it wasn’t cheap). We ate one of the most filling and delicious meals we’ve ever had. It was authentic French food, starting with bowls of French onion soup all around, and some great wine and bread. The entrees included beef bourgogne for Jason, salmon in wine sauce for me, cassoulet (sausage stew) for Beers, filet mignon for Anton, and a pork shank for Fred. all of which could be cut with a fork and melted in the respective mouth of its consumer. Incredible. We got to see the city, walk off the meal, and return to the venue in great spirits.

2. If you scroll down and read the Road Journal entries from our shows in Chicago and New York City last April, you’ll learn about our incredible parking luck. It has continued on this tour. The streets of downtown Philadelphia (awww ya, Springsteen fans) are exceptionally narrow, most of them are one-way, and to drive by a single open parking spot is a rarity. We drove around for 40 minutes with no luck at all, narrowly avoiding cars parked on both sides of the streets with our trailer, and drawing funny looks from local pedestrians. We circled and circled until, magically, a parking spot opened up directly in front of the venue front door. As we need two spots for the van and trailer, Jason and Fred and I hopped out and stood in the empty parking spot, crossing our fingers that one of the cars on either side of us would open up. What was incredible was that we had several drivers pull up, roll down the passenger window, and ask us if we were saving the space. We’d say “yep,” and… they’d say, “okay,” and drive away. Holy CRAP. In Boston or New York we’d be run over. We couldn’t believe how nice these people were. After 15 minutes of holding the spot, a woman came out and moved her car from the spot behind us… TWO PARKING SPOTS directly in front of the venue front door in downtown Philly!! Woooo. Only challenge now was for Anton to circle the entire block and get back in time before someone mowed us down for trying to hold TWO spots. He made the full circle, and it took a few attempts at backing in (Anton’s trailer driving skills are top notch, but these streets were TIGHT and narrow). Again, we held up 20 cars in a SoundRabbit-created traffic jam in this street while attempting to park the rig, and there wasn’t one single beep. Not one car horn. It really IS the city of brotherly love!

All in all, another great night on tour. Made a bunch of new fans and friends, got to visit with some old friends, ate an incredible dinner, walked around a city we’ve never been to, and played a solid set of music. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday.

More tomorrow from New Hampshire after we sleep in a bit!