Saturday, March 12, 2011

loud pop music in the cold cold midwest




Ok. Here it is...a brief wrap-up of our short tour:

Chicago -- Van brakes down within first 20 minutes of our tour. Visions of the most depressing week and a half ever spent are smashed by the generosity of Max Sentenney (I doubt I spelled that right). "Hey Max, can we borrow your van...um, right now...uhhh, for 9 days...please?" Who says yes to that kind of thing? Thank you, sir! Weird show...waaay late...throwing up hamburgers. Stayed with Kaliegh and Justin. Talked about comic books after jazz just seemed boring.

Madison -- Find me a city more alive than Madison, WI right now. Not only did we get to play with our good friends in Icarus Himself, but we got to check out a Saturday afternoon protest at the Capitol. It's humbling to see people so unified in such an intelligent way. "We" and "us" replacing "Me" and "I"...and because we were there to play for them, they accepted us as one of there own. Petty bullshit out the window! Take notice! Nice people working for something...what an idea. [read up on this, please, and check out the nonsense in Michigan immediately].

Dubuque -- Rode with Icarus Himself to Iowa. Great show. Great place (when you enter Iowa your thoughts immediately travel toward "oh, shit...really? Not the case!). Karl informed us of celebrity deaths that didn't really happen the whole drive home. Wu-Tang at 4am. Bacon and Eggs with Nick, etc, etc.

Minneapolis -- Snowstorm, Kitty Rhombus, Cause Spirits and Soundbar. Kind of a dead one, but who goes out on Sunday in a snowstorm? Man, not me. Stayed with Ian, Jason, Andrew, and John (for two days...thank you). Ate at a hipster place where they made you write down your order even though they stood right by you and could have easily used their ears. What novelty!



Iowa City -- Played a free show at the Mill. Talked with Sam about Guided By Voices for way too long. Stayed with a Nashville transplant named Amar. Maybe the most chilled out dude we met the whole time.

Omaha -- I turned 24 at this show. Details are hazy, but I do know we stayed with Scott (who is a chef) and he made us one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. [writing something about every city is taking longer than I thought].

Lawrence -- Actual birthday show. Replay Lounge. We got a very good response after we established that we were, indeed, playing that loud on purpose. ("I'm sorry, when I said 'we're from Carbondale, IL' I figured we all understood that was code for 'we're going to play very loud now' ").

oh God...okay, done-ish.

TONIGHT: HANGAR 9
w/ Black Fortys and State Champion
10 pm

we are opening and we will be playing very loud.

I wonder how many people read this whole thing? I'm not even going to spell check it.

-David