Back Home

After waking up from our Holiday Inn experience and taking much needed and appreciated showers, we headed to Columbus Ohio for a show at the Scarlet and Grey Cafe. The opening band was a cover band, so we got to sit back and enjoy hearing and singing along to some Alkaline Trio, Saves The Day, and Gin Blossoms covers. The headliner was a band called House of Cards who were super nice guys and gave us a great place to stay. After drinking too many dollar priced drafts and eating our weight in pizza we called it a night.

Our last show of tour was Sincerity Fest in Springdale PA, a two day festival consisting of all tough-guy hardcore bands and then yours truly thrown into the mix. As you can imagine, we felt pretty out of place. Two huge scary hardcore guys were playing "rock, paper, scissors" literally over Greg's head at our merch table and outside some guy who looked like he was in P.O.D yelled to me that I looked like I was going to a business meeting and not a hardcore show...this was not the typical environment that we're used to playing in. Luckily we were entertained by our friends from York PA who came out, and the Sheetz which was done the street (by the way, if you've never been to a Sheetz, get yourself there! it's becoming one of our favorite stops, besides Tim Horton's of course). Anyway, all of our worrying that we were the only band playing that you couldn't punch people to was gone by the time we played our first song. The bands and audience turned out to be really friendly and accepting of our different sound after we played, and we even got to talk to some pretty cool people.

After the show we got ourselves a room at the Sommerset Days Inn and preceded to have a pretty great end of tour hang out which consisted of me laughing way too hard at my own terrible Superbad impressions, all of us talking about the first time we met Mitch, an intense pillow fight, and finally having to keep quiet when our neighbor yelled at us at 4 am for being to loud.

Now we are back in New York recharging for our august run with "All The Day Holiday." The midwest was great to us, thanks to anyone that came out to the shows and especially to all the people that gave us a place to sleep for the night.

Make sure to check back, as we'll be updating when we're out in August.

final night of tour

ljsdflkjaoniahtiojasiodjvlasdjlhaoijdafoiaen!

July 10, 2009

After the Normal, IL show we drove up to Buckley's house in Chenoa. After some much needed showers and a few cold beers, we shacked up in his Mom's gymnastic studio for the night. Definitely one of the stranger places we've ever slept. The next morning we drove into Chicago for our Fearless Radio interview and very first Chicago show. Interview was cut short due to having to having to sound check, but it was probably for the better. Saying "Illinois" on air and pronouncing the "s" is quite embarrassing. Now we know that you don't pronounce the "s" and that Illinois isn't actually the west, despite the fact that it's west of New York. Hmm...

Later that night we played an awesome venue called the Beat Kitchen. It was full of super nice people and free pizza, which made us very happy. We even had an encore! Afterwards we hooked up with our good friend Evan Weiss and went back to his apartment for a full on roof party. It ruled on many different levels, and certainly left a good taste of Chicago in our mouths. No deep dish or doug's dogs, but the excess of love made up for it. 

Today we found ourselves in Madison, Wisconsin at a coffee shop called The Electric Earth Cafe. All I can say is that water with sliced cucumber is the bomb. Seriously refreshing! After Greg got hit on by a Cougar while unloading, we decided to bounce out early and get a head start on our drive to Columbus, Ohio. We're currently at a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Chicago. First thing we did was take a refreshing dip in the pool, then retreated back to our 9th floor penthouse suite. Frank and Mitch are passed out, and Greg and I are plugged in to the interweb. Somehow we're always the last ones up. 

July 8th 2009

Michigan has been good to us!  Despite a few tech. problems and some killer heat, The Factory show yesterday went great.  This tiny little bi-level converted garage space was packed with people on the venue's upper stage level.  The lower level was strewn with couches, magazine, and assortment of candies and Arizona teas including my favorite, "Arnold Palmer's Half Lemonade/Half Iced Tea Lite."  Arnold Palmer is certainly the beverage for champions.  Thanks to the Hudsons for the friendliness and kindness.

Tonight we've met up with our 'sugar daddy' booking agent Big BB, Brian Buck!  Here he is taking care of some business at this beautiful vegetarian restaurant/coffee shop in downtown Normal, IL.  Delicious rice and bean and veggie bean burritos with a side of salsa and sour cream for less than $5.  I highly recommend these plump hand held belly busters to anybody visiting the area.  

-Mitchell

July 7th 2009

Ahh, Wifi! So our daily blog turned into a routinely/moderately updated blog when we realized wifi was harder to find in some parts of the country. But long behold, we find ourselves in a coffee house in Rochester, MI with about 15 connections. Feels good. Anyways, much has happened since being in Lemoyne. We met a crew of awesome people in PA which helped persuade our preconceived notions about the state of Pennsylvania. Very cool people, and looking forward to coming through again. After spending the night, we channeled our way to Youngstown, Ohio for a BBQ/4th of July party/show. To say the least, it was...absorbing. Actually to be honest, it was really weird. We played a lot of corn hole (which has become a favorite pass-time of the bands), and ate hot dogs and veggie burgers marinated in lighter fluid. Luckily for me, my body's decision to discharge the contents that remained unsettled in my stomach, was rather untimely - as I puked only seconds before our set. But yeah, whatever. We still played through the set, and I felt a hell of a lot better. Lots of illegal fireworks, there.

From there we went to Indiana (where we spent the majority of our down time.) It's a beautiful state, for sure. Insanely desolate in parts. I think we crossed a street called "Coonhunter" at one point. In any case, much respected - as it was the soil to which Mitchell's family was founded. Ironic for us, as we were unaware he spent his childhood harvesting crops and shooting shotguns. I'm only half kidding. Anyways, his family took good care of us, and we met a lot of interesting people along the way. We got to celebrate 4th of July on the 5th with the rest of the town of Milan. Amazing up-close fireworks. 

Michigan was super rad. Very surprised with the amount of people who came to see us. Made us feel very welcomed. That's the one great thing about the west - is that people actually drive out to see shows. Unlike the east, where kids are either too lazy, too over stimulated, or have too many shows to choose from and can't spend the money. Kids out here drive far distances just to see us play a 30 minute set, and talk with us. It's really neat. We also got to meet this band All The Day Holiday, who were amazing live. We're supposedly playing a few dates with them in August, so it was reassuring to see they were kickass, and nice dudes. From there we went and stayed with my family up in Grand Rapids, who took wonderful care of us. There's nothing  like being comforted by that type of unconditional generosity. We visited Lake Michigan, which is so cool. The water is freezing, but the site is amazing. The weather, too. Our whole experience here in Michigan has been very pleasant. (knock on wood).

Also, I met this cat who was sitting in the window seat of a women's clothing store. It wouldn't leave me alone after I woke it up. 

Tonight should be cool. I've heard a lot of about this place, and we're all looking forward to it. Also, I have tons and tons of video I plan on uploading at the end of the tour into a video update. 

July 3rd, 2009

Lemoyne Pennsylvania. Home to houses without driveways and lots of one way roads. We did spend some time at Susquehanna River in Harrisburg before the show (few minutes outside of Lemoyne. Very beautiful. I met two really cool individuals there, Swimmer and Ashton. They were the friendliest beings I've met thus far. Swimmer jumped into the river several times chasing a log his master threw. Pretty damn impressive for a German Sheppard. Ashton, although massive in size as most Great Danes are, was more timid and humble in his awesomeness, and opted not to get soggy and damp in the river. We retrieved Mitchell today, and I stole the entire container of Honey packets at the in-store McDonalds in the airport. Figured the band would benefit from Peanut butter & Honey sandwiches on the road. As of now, we're at the venue, which appears to be an old loading dock, but has a wonderful DIY, local scene atmosphere to it. Although I'm worried our lack of tattoos, and stories of fighting will make us look like wimps. Although maybe I should come to grips with the sad reality that my band are a bunch of white, malnourished wimps.

much love,

July 2nd, 2009

Hi everyone,

First night on the road, with just Nicholas, myself and Frankie. Mitchell's in Indiana, and will be flying into Harrisburg to meet us tomorrow morning. It's been exciting, yet strangely unusual. Pennsylvania, although beautiful, still smells like dirty baby diapers. We've also opted out to utilize our trailer to save on gas money, and to prevent further damage to our van. It's really convenient, but with all of our gear, and luggage - we're left with 1 available row of seat, a driver seat, and passenger seat. Although we prefer it, as it provides for more intimate, and heated arguments involving hypothetical situations. We also decided to tint our windows last night using $13 dollar Walmart sheets and a rusted razor blade. Looks bad - but works wonderful. That's all the matters, right?

As of now we're situated in lovely Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in a Super 8 Motel which shares a parking lot with Taco Bell. (Relative to that of heaven). This room and motel is a mix between No Country For Old Men and Lady In The Water. We're watching HBO drinking Sangria. I can't tell if it's boiling hot in here, or if the sugar is spiking my glucose levels to unimaginable proportions. But that's the price you pay for drinking Sangria. There was a child at the Taco Bell next door that had a "rat tail" hair cut that must have measured 24 inches in length. Mind you, the rest of his head was shaved completely. It was magnificant, and gave me hope in life. The rain hasn't stopped, which worries me. I hope we don't drag New York's weather throughout the midwest.

Tomorrow we're playing in Lemoyne. We're all excited. According to Facebook we have 7 attending guests. 4 of them are us. We'll still rock out. I'm into it. Word.

edit: Nick found smeared human shit on the side of his mattress.