Many things have happened since we left Florida.

Day 1, July 2: Tallahassee, FL
A nice short drive for the first day.  It really made the kick off much easier to prepare for knowing we only had 150 miles to drive.  Despite the short distance, we traveled through one of the worst storms ever.  At one point, the rain, wind, and debris were flying sideways across the highway.  Fortunately, the clouds parted as we pulled into town and didn’t return all night long.  We met up with our good buddy Steve and ate some Tex Mex (which Chris has now dubbed Texas-Mexas Food).  The venue was in the hipster part of town and was featuring a free beer/pizza special, so we knew the potential for a large crowd was good.  Sure enough, the people came out in droves and the place was packed.  Working the door was this Dwight Schrute personality who wasn’t standing at any of the entrances, but rather chasing people around the room who entered in order to charge them the cover and give them wristbands.  The smoke in the room was so thick you could bottle it up and sell it to the bums outside. 

While the first band was playing, we realized that the sound system was probably one of the worst things we’ve ever heard.  It sounded like the PA system at a bowling alley.  Between their set and ours, Jesse from the Soft Targets graciously ran home to get his own PA.  So, in order to get it set up, we had to wait about 45 minutes between the last band and the beginning of our set.  Once everything was ready, however, the DJ wouldn’t stop playing songs.  We were told he was going to play one more and then we could start, but once that song ended, he just kept going, playing two more songs.  We prepared to start our first song the split second one of his stopped because it seemed like he was just going to play forever.  So, as soon as one of his hard core songs came to an end, we kicked into the set.  It was one of the most rock and roll things we’ve ever done.  “You’re not going to stop the house music so we can play?  Fuck you, we’re starting anyway.”  The set went off quite well as did the setup/breakdown which is quite pleasing for the first night out there.  When I plugged my pedals in, sparks shot out of one of my footswitches, but it still worked and seems OK.  I did forget to tune back up to standard tuning after our song in drop D (Good Morning, I’m Here) so I was forced to play the next song, which is really fast, in drop D tuning.  It worked out well, surprisingly.

So, now we’re on our way to New Orleans.  Looking forward to the rest!

July 3, 2009 : New Orleans, LA

Nearly 400 miles to New Orleans, but the ride was pleasant and went by quickly.  We drove across Lake Pontchartrain on a 5.8 mile bridge.  The other bridge that crosses the river is nearly 27 miles long.   We were quite relieved to not have to drive across that one.  Pulling into town with plenty of time to spare, we found great parking next to the venue and hit the streets of the French Quarter.  There was a flea/farmer’s market going on that we walked through on our way to the Mississippi River, which was 100 yards south of the venue.  After checking out the river, we headed to Bourbon Street and stumbled upon the allegedly oldest bar in the USA.  It had AC and cold beer, so we stopped in. 

Did I mention that it’s f’ing hot these days? 

The weather in New Orleans was particularly stiflingly hot and humid and it really brought out the natural smell of urine and puke.  New Orleans is pretty much like Key West, St Augustine, Panama City Beach, etc etc but the buildings have legitimate history and beauty/uniqueness.  We saw a tiny little diner that looked really bad ass and authentic, so we went in to take some pictures and figured we’d get a milkshake or something.  After about 10 minutes with no one acknowledging our existence (there were 8 stools and 3 tables in the whole place and at least 3 people working) we just left.  Chris phoned a friend to find a good restaurant and we ended up at a place called Fiorella’s which was Italian/Cajun.  We got some gumbo and crawfish etouffee, which was overpriced and oversalted.  Our waitress who was at least the 3rd service person we encountered thus far who appeared to be high off her ass didn’t even notice that I underpaid by 10 dollars and when I caught my own error 10 minutes after giving her the money, she hadn’t even noticed yet and seemed not to care. 

The venue building was half brick and half dilapidated wooden shanty.  While we were waiting on the patio, the waitress came and lit several tiki torches, which I predicted to be a bad idea.  Chris immediately dismissed my concern as typical Eric paranoia and we all shrugged the whole thing off.  Not more than two minutes later, the torch at the table next to us (and closest to the actual building) became engulfed in flames.  Somehow, the wick burned down into the oil canister and the whole thing was flaring quite uncontrollably.  The waitress came back and blew the wick out, but since the whole oil can was on fire, the blaze didn’t stop.  She didn’t notice and went back to working.  We summonsed her yet again, which was clearly an inconvenience, and she somehow managed to knock the whole thing onto the ground, causing the flaming oil can to roll up close to the wall of the building.  As if it were some sort of fire safety PSA, there was one lone, extremely large glass of water on the table closest to the problem torch.  For a brief second, we could see her contemplating using the water to douse the fire.  Fortunately, something in my head went “WATER PLUS OIL FIRE BAD!”  So, after I yelled some crude variation of these words, she grabbed a wooden stick and inexplicably tried to poke at the fire.  Eventually, she dropped the wooden stick on the fire (wood plus oil fire bad!) and said to the cook who, at this point, was outside as well, “I don’t have time for this.”  She then proceeded to walk back into the building that now had an uncontrollable, yet still currently small oil fire blazing unchecked right outside.  The cook grabbed some salt and threw it on the flame, but to no avail.  He then returned with a wet rag and despite some initial resistance by the flames, eventually squelched the fire.  It was just a comedic situation that could have gone horribly wrong. 

The room we played in was up a treacherous flight of ancient wooden stairs that made a hairpin 90 degree turn half way up, making the gear load in/out a bit of a hazard as well.  The atmostphere/decor was reminiscent of some antiquated sex show club a la the Godfather II scene where Fredo takes everyone to such a club.  For the 2nd night in a row, the venue didn’t have a proper PA or sound guy, but we made do and played our set as best as we could.  

As an unexpected treat, we connected with our old friend Brandt who currently lives in Mississippi and he made it out to the show despite traffic and sitting in the wrong venue for a portion of our set.  Brandt was one of our old friends from the Miami days and he used to play various percussion instruments at our shows, most notably the vibraslap.  Not wanting to disappoint, he brought a whole bag-o-percussion and old band memorabilia to entertain us with.  After the show, he brought us to some famous café, Cafe du Monde, where we ate these local deep fried biscuit treats called beignets, that were basically funnel cakes made by people yet to discover funnel technology.  The vibe in town was kinda weird and the streets were pretty deserted, which was strange since it was a Friday.  There was a huge R&B festival going on in the Superdome all weekend, so people were either at that, or left town to avoid the crowd.  We got a good night sleep and geared up for the longest drive of the tour!  Next stop, Memphis.

July 4-5, 2009 : Memphis, TN

This tour has a savior and it’s name is Memphis.  Who knew?  We got into town early and went straight for a BBQ joint (upon Chris’ insistence) rated as one of the best in town.  It was right across from Graceland and it had two pink Cadillac stretch limos out front.  The place was bedecked with Elvis memorabilia and came complete with a live, performing Elvis impersonator.  After filling our bellies with Barbecued meats (Stacie even found a veggie burger on the menu), pork and beans, turnip greens, fried okra, and homemade apple pie a la mode, we lazily sauntered our way to the venue. 

Immediately upon arrival, we knew we were in for a treat.  This place was the diviest of dives, but felt extremely welcoming.  We were greeted by the people putting the show on, who were some of the nicest people we’ve encountered yet.  They offered us free food and pitchers of beer!  Relishing the recognition and special treatment as the touring band, we helped ourselves to a pitcher of beer and settled into one of the charmingly seedy booths.  There were 5 bands playing tonight and last call was at 3 AM.  We had some serious waiting to do.  A DJ was spinning between acts and, as Travis said, we’ve never wanted to applaud a DJ before.  The people of Memphis all appeared to have a full appreciation of the music of the region, especially soul, and this guy was a prime example.  There were some minor technical glitches, such as one strobe light not working, but overall, we felt it was a good set.  The crowd cheered loudly after the songs and really was into the music.  What a night!    We also learned that Jerry “The King” Lawler (of wrestling fame) was across the street with his local-based wrestling show.  This was truly an unexpected treat and tomorrow would provide us with enough free time to explore the city.

Since we didn’t get to bed until well after 3 AM, we slept in till about 11:00.  Memphis had surprisingly many places of interest and first on the list was the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.  As we pulled up to the legendary building, we sadly noticed that it was closed.  Deciding to take some pictures before heading on, we were standing out front when the door opened.  They weren’t closed after all and in fact, they were due to open at that very minute.  We shared the museum with an African American family reunion of nearly 50 people which made it all the better.  The museum was pretty amazing and had a recreated version of the original studio complete with legendary instruments such as Booker T’s Hammond M-3 that he used to record Green Onions.  The two guys working the desk were very friendly and we spoke with them about local music, good places to eat around town, and touring in general.  Again, really friendly people. 

Next stop, Sun Studios.  For some reason, the GPS keeps taking us on these industrial back roads instead of major thoroughfares.  After leaving Stax, we ran into a train crossing with a freight train at a complete stop, blocking the roadway.  Without the help of the GPS we decided to drive parallel to the tracks and were able to find a bridge only 3 blocks away.  Everything kept turning up Morningbell in Memphis!  Sun Studios was an amazingly tiny place and the original studio is fortuitously in tact after all these years.  Even though it lay vacant or intermittently rented by various businesses for decades, every tile, wall panel, and light fixture was still there.  They had the drum kit used by Larry Mullen Jr. from the Rattle and Hum sessions as well as ancient microphones used by everyone from Elvis to Johnny Cash to Carl Perkins to Jerry Lee Lewis to Bono.  It was a very powerful room to be standing in. 

Memphis was a great surprise.  The people were extremely friendly and welcoming and had a real sense of respect and appreciation for quality music created in their very own city.    

July 5, 2009 : Carbondale, IL

Driving out of Memphis, we crossed the Mississippi twice today.  I enjoyed this as I was fearing a sense of defeat at being so close to the river for the past 3 days and not getting to the other side.  Today’s drive took us through 4 states (Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois).  Not much to speak of in the little highway sampling we got of this region, but it did get quite scenic once we reached southern Illinois. 

Carbondale is a college town that most people have never heard of.  It is home to the University of Southern Illinois and has a similar reputation to Austin, Athens, Gainesville, etc in that it’s the lone beacon of open mindedness and liberal thought amidst heartland American sentiment.  We met up with some new friends in a band called The Black Fortys who were helping with the show and putting us up for the night.  As our road fortunes typically have it, these previously complete strangers turned out to be amazing people and treated us better than we could have expected.  The venue was a sandwich shop with a pretty sweet porch (the beer garden).  They gave us free dinner, offered us 5 free pitchers of PBR (not sure who they think they’re dealing with), and ended up paying us 100 bucks on the Sunday after the fourth of July!  Much of the credit for this treatment is largely due to Josh and crew of the Black Fortys who seemed to rule the local music scene with an iron fist.  We couldn’t do the light show because of the venue’s electrical system flaws, so it was not the typical vibe, but the show still went off well.