Mayor of New York announces “All construction finally done”
June 18, 2008 : Dayton, OH
Not knowing a thing about Dayton, I had somewhat low expectations about this show. Surprisingly, however, the area where the venue was located was a really quaint historic district with cool record shops, nice restaurants, and the like. We got an article in their weekly paper with a photo and all, so when we were walking around the area and mentioning the show to people, most of them actually knew who we were because of the article. It was really nice to actually get recognized in a totally new town. I had some beers from the Great Lakes Brewing company, which were pretty darn good too.
The show went really well and we sold a bunch of stuff. Who knew!?
June 19th, 2008 : Pittsburgh, PA
Travis and I haven't been to pittsburgh in 16 years. Our Mom's family is from there and we used to visit when we were kids. It really was quite amazing to return after so many years. We stopped at our cousin Brandon's house on the way in, Brandon was basically our summertime brother when we were growing up. The whole family lives on the same street up in a small mining town suburb of Pittsburgh called Irwin. Our great grandmother owned the house at the bottom of the hill and many of her children bought houses up the road. We also visited our Great Aunts, one of which is a crazy cat lady and owns over 40 cats. Pittsburgh and its suburbs is another locale where the town just looks tired. It's very blue collar, but with tons of character.
We drove into Southside Pittsburgh, which is the hip area to be, and miraculously found parking right in front of the venue. The place was really cool and small and looked like a cave inside. They had some great beers from a brewery in mid-pennsylvania and they were quite delicious. My mom managed to contact much of the family who all came out to see us play. It was really great to be playing to a packed room of people who were there specifically to see us.
While we were at the venue, Ben Roethlisberger and his entourage of about 40 people, including other Steelers, went into the venue. I know this sounds completely fabricated, but it was totally true. Wanting to sample something original to Pittsburgh, we went to a local sandwich shop. These, however, were no ordinary sandwiches. Each slice of bread was an inch thick, they piled it high with meats and cheeses, added a handful of french fries, a scoop of cole slaw, a half dozen tomatoes, a fried egg, and sent you on your way to the heart attack ward of Carnegie Mellon. It was actually friggin delicious.
June 20, 2008 : Doylestown, PA
The next morning, we went into downtown Irwin, which is straight out of a movie. It's this ancient tiny downtown area with weather worn buildings. Our great aunt (not the cat lady) has owned a boutique down there for 35 years and we stopped in to say hello to her. She's always giving our family free clothes, whicih is really sweet, but they're tacky old lady clothes. So, she was pulling out all these aweful dresses for Stacie to try on. It was really hilarious, but I felt bad for Stacie. She managed to find one that wasn't too objectionable and we moved on.
We had to drive the width of Pennsylvania to hit our next destination today. We returned to Doylestown, which is a charming artist community suburb of Philly. Tonight, our good friends in Mike Pfeiffer and the Associates set us up at the premier venue in town. They had backstage food for us and everything. The venue was weird because they had seating only, like a comedy club. So, it was a little awkward to rock out to a bunch of people sitting dinner theater sytle. The show went really well and we sold a record breaking amount of merch. People in Doylestown LOVE new live music and have money to spend. Our favorite types of fans!
We stayed with my old college friend, Mike Wexler and his fiance Jen. It was great to see yet another old friend on the road.
June 21, 2008 : New York, NY
We hit the road with plenty of time to spare, in case the traffic was bad into the city. It actually wasn't bad at all, and we cruised in at 3:30. One of our goals on this tour is to shoot a spoof music video, so we had to hit a few locations in NYC that we didn't really want to go to, like Times Square. It was really insane. We did get up to Central Park, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and everywhere in between, which was really amazing.
We ate dinner with our friends Jason, Beth, Robin, and Munya at a Tibetan restaurant, which was really awesome. Show time! Guess what? For the 2nd time in New York at this venue, all of the other bands didn't show up. So, we had a private show in a sweet club in the East Village. Luckily, we have plenty of friends up here, so we weren't playing to an empty house.
Afterward, we hung around the East Village for a few hours and eventually headed back to Brooklyn to stay with Beth and Jason. Their cat was insane! He loved the stimuli of new people and air mattresses and spent much of the night tearing around the living room, running all over our beds and bodies.
Jason and Beth live in a very Italian neighborhood (read: Mafia) and as we were walking up to the house, Travis accidentally walked up to the wrong door, to which some goomba in the shadows said "you lookin for sumthin?" Travis almost got shot being mistaken for an assasin.
June 22, 2008 : Brooklyn/New York, NY (DAY OFF!)
Today, we decided to take a day off in our nation's most intense city. We woke up really late, but still managed to eat Italian Brunch, ride the subway to downtown NYC and see an art exhibit, walk to our friend Munya's apartment on Wall street and go to his 52nd floor solarium with a 360 view of the city, take the subway up to 137th street, then back down to 110th, see Tom's Diner (the facade of the Seinfeld diner), eat Thai Food in the upper west side, see the Dakota and John Lennon's Memorial in Central Park, take the subway back to Brooklyn, eat ice cream, get some Brooklyn Brown ale, and get back to the apartment by 10:00 to start writing this.
The Art Exhibit was called "Playing the Building," and installation by David Byrne. It was in the Manhattan Maritime Building next to Battery Park which was a dilapidated old buildilng that appeared to be all but abandoned. It basically consisted of an organ hooked up to an air pump, which was connected to dozens of tubes hanging throughout the main room of the building. Each key on the organ would do one of three things. Some would blow air through old water pipes, creating a whistling sound, others would bang on various pillars, radiators, pipes, or metal creating a banging sound, and the third set would run unseen engines/motors in other wings of the building that would make loud groans and moans. It really was phenomenal.
Tomorrow, we gear back up and hit the road again!
Not knowing a thing about Dayton, I had somewhat low expectations about this show. Surprisingly, however, the area where the venue was located was a really quaint historic district with cool record shops, nice restaurants, and the like. We got an article in their weekly paper with a photo and all, so when we were walking around the area and mentioning the show to people, most of them actually knew who we were because of the article. It was really nice to actually get recognized in a totally new town. I had some beers from the Great Lakes Brewing company, which were pretty darn good too.
The show went really well and we sold a bunch of stuff. Who knew!?
June 19th, 2008 : Pittsburgh, PA
Travis and I haven't been to pittsburgh in 16 years. Our Mom's family is from there and we used to visit when we were kids. It really was quite amazing to return after so many years. We stopped at our cousin Brandon's house on the way in, Brandon was basically our summertime brother when we were growing up. The whole family lives on the same street up in a small mining town suburb of Pittsburgh called Irwin. Our great grandmother owned the house at the bottom of the hill and many of her children bought houses up the road. We also visited our Great Aunts, one of which is a crazy cat lady and owns over 40 cats. Pittsburgh and its suburbs is another locale where the town just looks tired. It's very blue collar, but with tons of character.
We drove into Southside Pittsburgh, which is the hip area to be, and miraculously found parking right in front of the venue. The place was really cool and small and looked like a cave inside. They had some great beers from a brewery in mid-pennsylvania and they were quite delicious. My mom managed to contact much of the family who all came out to see us play. It was really great to be playing to a packed room of people who were there specifically to see us.
While we were at the venue, Ben Roethlisberger and his entourage of about 40 people, including other Steelers, went into the venue. I know this sounds completely fabricated, but it was totally true. Wanting to sample something original to Pittsburgh, we went to a local sandwich shop. These, however, were no ordinary sandwiches. Each slice of bread was an inch thick, they piled it high with meats and cheeses, added a handful of french fries, a scoop of cole slaw, a half dozen tomatoes, a fried egg, and sent you on your way to the heart attack ward of Carnegie Mellon. It was actually friggin delicious.
June 20, 2008 : Doylestown, PA
The next morning, we went into downtown Irwin, which is straight out of a movie. It's this ancient tiny downtown area with weather worn buildings. Our great aunt (not the cat lady) has owned a boutique down there for 35 years and we stopped in to say hello to her. She's always giving our family free clothes, whicih is really sweet, but they're tacky old lady clothes. So, she was pulling out all these aweful dresses for Stacie to try on. It was really hilarious, but I felt bad for Stacie. She managed to find one that wasn't too objectionable and we moved on.
We had to drive the width of Pennsylvania to hit our next destination today. We returned to Doylestown, which is a charming artist community suburb of Philly. Tonight, our good friends in Mike Pfeiffer and the Associates set us up at the premier venue in town. They had backstage food for us and everything. The venue was weird because they had seating only, like a comedy club. So, it was a little awkward to rock out to a bunch of people sitting dinner theater sytle. The show went really well and we sold a record breaking amount of merch. People in Doylestown LOVE new live music and have money to spend. Our favorite types of fans!
We stayed with my old college friend, Mike Wexler and his fiance Jen. It was great to see yet another old friend on the road.
June 21, 2008 : New York, NY
We hit the road with plenty of time to spare, in case the traffic was bad into the city. It actually wasn't bad at all, and we cruised in at 3:30. One of our goals on this tour is to shoot a spoof music video, so we had to hit a few locations in NYC that we didn't really want to go to, like Times Square. It was really insane. We did get up to Central Park, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and everywhere in between, which was really amazing.
We ate dinner with our friends Jason, Beth, Robin, and Munya at a Tibetan restaurant, which was really awesome. Show time! Guess what? For the 2nd time in New York at this venue, all of the other bands didn't show up. So, we had a private show in a sweet club in the East Village. Luckily, we have plenty of friends up here, so we weren't playing to an empty house.
Afterward, we hung around the East Village for a few hours and eventually headed back to Brooklyn to stay with Beth and Jason. Their cat was insane! He loved the stimuli of new people and air mattresses and spent much of the night tearing around the living room, running all over our beds and bodies.
Jason and Beth live in a very Italian neighborhood (read: Mafia) and as we were walking up to the house, Travis accidentally walked up to the wrong door, to which some goomba in the shadows said "you lookin for sumthin?" Travis almost got shot being mistaken for an assasin.
June 22, 2008 : Brooklyn/New York, NY (DAY OFF!)
Today, we decided to take a day off in our nation's most intense city. We woke up really late, but still managed to eat Italian Brunch, ride the subway to downtown NYC and see an art exhibit, walk to our friend Munya's apartment on Wall street and go to his 52nd floor solarium with a 360 view of the city, take the subway up to 137th street, then back down to 110th, see Tom's Diner (the facade of the Seinfeld diner), eat Thai Food in the upper west side, see the Dakota and John Lennon's Memorial in Central Park, take the subway back to Brooklyn, eat ice cream, get some Brooklyn Brown ale, and get back to the apartment by 10:00 to start writing this.
The Art Exhibit was called "Playing the Building," and installation by David Byrne. It was in the Manhattan Maritime Building next to Battery Park which was a dilapidated old buildilng that appeared to be all but abandoned. It basically consisted of an organ hooked up to an air pump, which was connected to dozens of tubes hanging throughout the main room of the building. Each key on the organ would do one of three things. Some would blow air through old water pipes, creating a whistling sound, others would bang on various pillars, radiators, pipes, or metal creating a banging sound, and the third set would run unseen engines/motors in other wings of the building that would make loud groans and moans. It really was phenomenal.
Tomorrow, we gear back up and hit the road again!