| retirement? what retirement? |
[12 Apr 2009|10:57pm] |
so all of you heard about the retirement tour. HA! fooled you! we never even played those shows. we're not retired. that tour never happened.
however
the band did a show at twin donuts in allston, MA on saturday morning. they debuted the new song "differences between woody allen and jen page" to an appreciative crowd.
more importantly, some sort of tour is happening this year. more updates as events warrant. do you want to book us?
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[05 Jan 2009|03:28am] |
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| Retirement Show |
[28 Jun 2008|11:53am] |
Final Show Tonight.
Meet at trail head at 10pm.
The route from Irvington train station to the trail head is below.
The walk will take about 45 minutes. If you call someone in the band, we can probably pick you up at the train.
Leaves Grand Central / Arrives in Irvington
7:20PM - 8:06PM
8:20PM - 9:06PM
Hermit's Grave (1888) - Johann W. Stolting was a native of Heligoland who lived deep in the woods of Irvington as a hermit in the 1800s. He slept in his coffin, made of local chestnut wood, in a cabin overlooking the Saw Mill River valley. Stolting made his own clothes, wore sandals for shoes, but never wore a hat. He survived by selling wooden buttons made on a homemade foot-powered lathe. He died in 1888 at the age of 78, and his grave is only a few hundred feet west of the Saw Mill Parkway – the only marked grave in Irvington. The grave is reachable by a marked trail (the blue and white blazed "HG" trail) that begins at the north end of the village reservoir. (trail head at Fieldpoint Road)
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| the retirement tour - shows announced! |
[17 Jun 2008|12:38am] |
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Assume listed time is show time unless otherwise noted.
A few of these shows could be shut down by the authorities. Please plan accordingly.
Sunday, 06/22/08
8:00pm
Beacon Theatre (outside)
2124 Broadway
New York, NY
w/YOUNG@HEART (inside)
Free, All Ages
Tuesday, 06/24/08
8:00pm
1087 Broadway (Above Goodbye Blue Monday)
Brooklyn, NY
w/Kate Ferencz, Don Lennon, alynda lee
free?, All Ages
Wednesday, 06/25/08
8:30pm
Union Pool
484 Union Ave @ Meeker Ave,
Brooklyn, New York
w/Herman Dune & Jeffrey Lewis
$10 Advance / $12 @ Door
Thursday, 06/26/08
Arrive at 8:00pm (ferry leaves at 8:30)
Staten Island Ferry
Whitehall Terminal -> St. George Ferry Terminal
New York -> Staten Island
w/NYC Commuters & NYPD
Free, All Ages
Friday, 06/27/08
1:00pm
Village Adult Day Health Center
644 Greenwich Street
New York, NY
Free, All Ages
Friday, 06/27/08
8:00pm
Sound Fix
110 Bedford Avenue @ North 11th
Brooklyn, NY
Jesse Garbacik Memorial Concert
W/ Kate Ferencz, Archipelago, Laura Stevenson, Jeffrey Lewis
Suggested Donation, All Ages
Saturday, 06/28/08
1:30pm
Retirement Home
607 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Saturday, 06/28/08
11:00pm (leave trailhead at 10:00pm - bring your flashlights)
Hermit's Grave
Village of Irvington Resevoir
Irvington, NY
Free, All Ages
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| the surprise tour: the movie. featuring the best thing ever. |
[17 Apr 2008|06:37pm] |
may 5th will be the first anniversary of the release of the bathroom tour dvd.
unfortunately, we will not be able to release the surprise tour dvd at that time.
please email jon rotberg and tell him to finish editing the movie if you want to see it. me and noah yell at him almost every day, and i think it's finally starting to work.
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www.thesurprisetour.com
also, we're working on tour plans for this summer, check back here for updates.
- alex
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[10 Aug 2007|12:42pm] |
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noise addict - meet the real you |
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after the last entry, we slept for 5 hours and woke up to drive to BestCuts in cleveland. asked if they'd give all 3 of us haircuts during our final show. they only had 2 staff and one of them was busy. i chose to pay for a haircut for the first time in 10 years so we could play during it. did a lot of beautiful sad songs. "kiss the world goodbye" was really good. finished with stop waiting for death. the haircutter said "it doesn't say we can't have shows during haircuts in our training manual, so why not." good haircut. then we drove to the airport, checked bags, and filmed ourselves for an interview in the hotel elevator. then jen dropped us at the airport. "landslide" played on the radio. we hugged and then the song ended and i said "the song's over bye!" and ran inside. alex and eric followed. then jen sat in the car for a minute on her cell phone. we ran back outside and yelled surprise and flipped her off then ran back to the airport. the guy in the TSA uniform told us the film would be fine if it went through the x ray machine. we're gonna sue if he's wrong. while we were waiting we came up with bob's website. when we said goodbye we yelled "i'll 'bob's website' you." that was that.
touring was the greatest thing i've ever accomplished. it was also very draining. in the future i think we're limiting ourselves to less than 4 shows per day. we don't hate each other, though we certainly did hurt each others' feelings more than ever before. we lost a lot of money and a few objects, but as soon as i got home last night all i wanted to do was tour again. maybe one day. bye.
-noah
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[09 Aug 2007|03:47am] |
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went through the rock and roll hall of fame
the road to hell is paved with good intentions
however i did discover that i love Workingman's dead.
then we went back to the car for our stuff and came back. put up our wikipedia page on the wall in the hall of fame wing. and the surprise tour poster. and a copy of the dvd. and stood in front of them for 30 minutes without moving as people walked by and ignored us. finally jen started saying "surprise" to everyone. i had my mp3 player playing "stop waiting for death" on my arm, as an option for anyone who wanted to listen. this woman listened and said it was a good message. her kids listened. jen talked to one of them. then we went downstairs to an empty stage and played "we all need to be touched" until this guard asked us to leave and we ignored her then she got a meaner guard and we left. finished the song on a stage outside the building, that was being set up for the new bomb turks show. actually they're playing tomorrow but i'd never heard of the band playing tonight. the roadies setting it up applauded us then we drove to jen's cousin's music store and played "when i rock." he played along using his instruments.
then we went to this coffeeshop her cousin suggested "they'll love you!" and sang greeting cards, using a guitar and stage they had. the lady hated us and asked why we didn't come back with a booked show. jen said that wouldn't be a surprise. i asked the lady if she'd book us. she said no immediately, then went back and said come to the open mic. we walked outside and this teenager said he hated us and we went to jen's old english teacher's house. he wasn't home but ii sang a greeting card called thanks for being a great teacher to his mother in law and his son. it sounded beautiful.
then we went to troy meyer's to play "mambo number 5" and my song "tourette's" for him. i liked him. maybe he'll get on jeopardy. then we put on mime makeup and troy chased us with a bat while we drove off.
knocked on jen's door in our mime makeup. jen's dad opened the door. we did an entire mime set for her family. actually played "old man river" "coin operated boy" and "we all need to be touched." did not make a sound or have any physical instruments. jen's mom did commentary the whole time. then we did an encore where i played cello and jen sang and flailed. we smashed our instruments at the end. then we ate dinner.
then we left to play for jen's mom's friend. she was excited to see jen. jen waited in the car. alex and i sang the national anthem for her then left. she asked where jen was and i said "who?"
then we drove to gusto restaurant and did a beautiful set. the owner paid us $50. jen used to work there. then we met up with courtney (my ex) and a bunch of people and played outside the ampitheater where the cleveland orchestra plays. a lot of people watched. it was a good show. then we hung out with them for a bit and got interviewed. now we're in jen's, interviewing ourselves. last day.
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[08 Aug 2007|01:57pm] |
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blow - that ep |
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got to cleveland
tried to surprse jen's dad
failed
tried to surprise jen's grandparents
failed
tried to surprise jen's sister
failed
went to pick up her sister's friend Gia
surprised her by only reading the 2005 road atlas outloud to her and making her not do anything but listen to the performance
drove around with her aimlessly til we finished
then we went to jen's grandparents and played i love you so much for them
went to jen's
decided to surprse Gia's family by asking to watch austin powers
decided next tour is entirely knocking on doors and asking to watch austin powers (they supply their own dvd)
failed at getting austin powers
played "mentira" for gia's puerto rican dad
he said "i love that song. that's a mentira."
my spanish pronounciation was good.
watched the sandlot. played scrabble with jen's sister.
going to the rock and roll hall of fame today. going to ask if they want alex as a donation of memorabilia.
we're here!
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[07 Aug 2007|01:00pm] |
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little brazil |
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amish was the weirdest show we've ever done. first we went to some lame New Order Amish restaurant. they use electricity and sell every product ever. i filmed the amish flourescent lighting. then we went down the st and found an amish picnic. asked if we could play them a show. "we're about to eat so wait a few minutes." they had a silent prayer and then started eating and we played them "i love you so much." figured it would be nice for them. one little kid was staring at my guitar the whole time. i figured he was staring at us for looking so weird. so then we finished and no one clapped. we thanked them and they ate. they weren't that attentive. got in the car and read amish wikipedia. turns out they don't play instruments in public(!) so that's why that kid was staring at me. they also don't have ethical problems with anything, just choose to do it to preserve their lifestyle. they are true communists really. with god. anyway, we left and drove to ann arbor. walked around for a while. i went into a gift shop by myself. played slide whistle the entire time. left without saying a word. then we went into this awesome comic book store called the vault or something. i wanted to buy everything. i talked to the lady who owned it and her kids. they said they liked all kinds of music except country. "new country anyway." we played our new fullband version of "i'm lying right here" and "katie." then i traded her a dvd for a book. and bought another one. really cool place. she said they're making a lot of money too, oddly enough. then we ate at the fleetwood diner which is a neat place. and then we went to a bar called nick's that advertised live band karaoke. the live band was out of town that night so we asked if we could play instead. they agreed to let us do a real song and we played "can't stop the music" which was awesome then "michael jordan" which was terrible. then we went to ryan's house and played a really quiet slow version of "i don't feel anything" for his mom. then we played "blues run the game" and made up a song about the civil war. it sounded okay. then we talked to her til 2 a.m.. now we're driving to cleveland. it's our last day of inter-state driving. weird. last night i had a dream that townes van zandt and i were hanging out and he couldn't remember any of his songs but i played "if i needed you" and when i woke up it was the right chords. i had no idea how to play that song before i dreamt it. i'm gonna play it at my show on saturday in boston now.
i've been feeling like we haven't been pushing ourselves enough on this tour. the problem is riding the line between not pissing off the nice people who help us and playing a show that's worth our time. i gotta quit caring about the first one or i'll go crazy. our movie's gonna be better than last time. when it comes out we're gonna quit selling the bathroom tour, so you better order it before then ($4).
the tours gonna be over in 48 hours. sad about that but also psyched for my life to start again. things like getting mail and paying my credit card bill have been sticking in my head. oh yeah so it turns out verizon charges you roaming rates. no idea how mnuch it'll be for this month but last month was twice as much as the previous one.
my voice is still kinda weak from two days ago.
when i saw don't look back the bob dylan movie. and no direction home. i was shocked how little love dylan showed when he played those amazing songs. "i'll never do that" i thought. and the reason it happens is he had played those songs too many times for them to mean anything anymore. that has happened on this tour. i have not been feeling the love, practically ever. the only times i've felt anything during our sets are when i'm destroying the crowd with intensity. like in omaha at the bar. or athens at the party. the rest of the time, all of the emotion comes from the lyrics. and that's because they were there already.
last night, i asked everyone what job they would do if they could do anything. their answers were:
muppet maker
astronaut
owner of a specialty store
it doesn't matter
movie-maker
and i of course said "this"
and they said "eating a tempeh reuben?"
obviously
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[06 Aug 2007|12:52pm] |
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theodore - songs for the weary |
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last night when we got into chicago we dropped off stuff at nell's house and started planning. i wanted to play at the hideout because kelly hogan bartends there. i also wanted to find jon thomas who is currently the editor of playboy.com but previously played guitar in the chowder shouters, bill taft's first band in atlanta. i'd never spoken to him. did a quick google search to find his phone number, address, and resume. was certain it is the same john thomas. so we had a plan.
but first we drove to a train station to take the subway into lollapalooza. found a couple crust punks playing against me songs on the street. invited them along. they agreed. we got to the sidewalk at lollapalooza. hundreds of people walking by (pearl jam had just started and they were the last band of the whole festival. i bet they made enough money at this one show to live for a year). started our set:
"thank you for coming to The LolBestlapThingoozaEver. Surprise! All the same bands as Lollapalooza, but it's right now, on the sidewalk, for free!"
"Hi we're Modest Mouse. This song is called 'Bankrupt on Selling.' Uggggh Bankrupt on selling Uggghhhh Ahhhh. Thanks. This song is called 'Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset.' Ugggggh Talking Shit about a Pretty Sunset Uggghhh Ahhhh. Thank you... Thanks to Modest Mouse. We're Pearl Jam. This song is called 'Jeremy.' Ugggh Jeremy Ugggghh Ahhh. Thank you we're Pearl Jam. Up next, a special set by Against Me!" then the crust punks actually played "pints of guinness will make you strong." then "thanks to against me, we're iggy and the stooges. this song is called no fun. ugggggh no fun no fun uggggh ahhhh." etc.
then later "we're kings of leon. this song is called kings of leon aren't very good. uggggh kings of leon aren't very good uggghh." and later "hi we're Dax Riggs. This song is called 'kings of leon aren't very good,' it's a kings of leon cover."
later, "next up, a group from liverpool england, the legendary echo and the bunnymen!" and then "thanks and now another set by against me!" and the two crusty kids played "baby i'm an anarchist." it was a great time. we could hear pearl jam from where we were, but halfway through a bunch of fireworks went off. we figured pearl jam exploded. i completely threw out my voice from growling. oh and after the beatles played, lee marshall closed out the night. then we went to potbellies (a restaurant) where the others had eaten earlier, to play a set on their stage with their mic. joe merkin and his friend met up with us. turned out their mic didn't work, but we played on their stage anyway. they were about to close. the stage was almost at the ceiling, so, for the first time on the tour, i played sitting down. the people working gave us cucumber slices and cookies for free. then we went to find john thomas. joe and his friend followed us. he lives in a high-rise so we had to buzz him. no one answered so we left a message (apparently his buzzer goes straight to his answering machine). the message was us covered the song "weather report" by the chowder shouters. then i called right back and he answered and asked who the hell we were. he was sleeping. i told him i know bill and we drove halfway across the country to play a set for him. he said call in the morning. he didn't seem surprised, just confused. as anyone would if a total stranger came to their door and played a song they hadn't played in 20 years. then we went to the hideout. andrew bird's new music video was scheduled to play, but he wasn't listed. i asked if kelly hogan was bartending tonight and the owner said no. then i said we were here to play a song. she said there's a video showing and they're leaving afterwards. the videos were up and down, then we jumped onstage and played "michael jordan." i was yelling and threw out my voice further. everyone loved it except andrew bird. i guess andrew bird had had a bad night since about 10 people came to the show. then the manager lady told us another bad that would love to have us play, and these guys from this marching band called (whatever mad cow translates to in italian) said they loved us and would be playing at tt the bear's on saturday. i'm playing there on sunday, so they said come to the show for free. cool guys. then one of the dudes biked over to Charleston to watch us. no one was there but the staff. they set up a mic for me. we played "wesley willis song" and "brian galderisi," both of which pissed them off. then we left. my throat was/still is shot. yelling is so fun but i absolutely cannot do it ever. it's probably like football players with knee injuries. can't do it, can't stay away. alex thinks yesterday was the most shows we've done in one day. the ones in chicago were all excellent. oh yeah the manager lady from the hideout gave us $20 and told us kelly hogan doesn't work there anymore. i called john thomas this morning but he didn't answer or call back. i bet he's working. and now we're driving to ann arbor, via amish country. not sure what we're gonna play for the amish but i bet they won't throw us out. tomorrow is our last day of driving. weird.
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[05 Aug 2007|04:45pm] |
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pavement - wowee zowee |
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since yesterday, we drove through the wisconsin dells. i was in love. rode a rollercoaster 3 times because it was raining so they let people ride for free as often as they wanted. got into a swearing contest with some little kids. the kids lost. every time the coaster started i said "thank you to the dells we're the best thing ever. surprise!" and then i sang "can we start again" by bane. i actually messed up my voice because of yelling so much. then we played the same version of "marie" that we did at the subway station in nyc at a subway sandwich shop. "We're subway musicians" jen told them. then we went to alex's friend jason's house and watched some footage of the tour. looks beautiful. whatever we do with it will be even better than the bathroom tour. then we went to Laundry 101, the only laundromat in the country that sells beer. played 2 songs then got asked to do an encore by one of the 4 people there. first laundromat we played so far. then we played a full set at jason's apt for a bunch of people then went to a college party in madison, WI. first college party we'd been to in a while. they're the same all over. danced a LOT. jen and i invented shadow-box-dancing. then we slept at jason's. jason and his friends were very cool, thanks. then we drove to eat lunch with leslie, who none of us had seen in a year. it was good. then we went to the wisconsin state fair, her suggestion. parking was $9 and it was theoretically $8 each to get in but jen did the brilliant move of saying to the lady at the gate, "we're the best thing ever, which way is the stage?" and she pointed us to it and we didn't have to pay admission. that made it almost worth it. looking at the internet info, i knew it wouldn't have anything cool happening. the others were too into it to say no, so we went in. tried to sneak onto 3 different stages, got asked to leave immediately every time. finally played "when i point, you yell michael jordan" for this lady running a basketball prize game. she liked it. people stopped to watch. then we left. i felt correct in thinking it would suck and not be worth it, the others felt correct in thinking it was fun and worth it. we could've done exactly the same thing if we played at a fast food place, but it wouldn't have cost $9 of our band money. it's not the money, i'm just very against paying to play. then we passed a stand handing out free energy drinks and jen drank one then i played slide whistle while she sang a song about the stand. that was fun. the other 3 are mad at me for saying the fair would suck and holding this position afterwards. i just wanted to go to chicago sooner because we have a lot to do there. we're on our way now. i hope kelly hogan is bartending tonight so we can surprise her.
i hope our band outlasts this tour. i keep pissing people off by getting annoyed at stuff. and only being into certain shows. it's tough for me to process stuff quickly enough so i get irritable when life moves this fast. but things are pretty good. i need to do a good show for a real audience. last night we had a good audience but chose a completely absurd setlist. still fun tho.
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[04 Aug 2007|12:30pm] |
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antony snd the johnsons |
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played at the two story outhouse in belle plaine minnesota yesterday. it was locked so we played right outside. this lady was there and we told her to watch the show but she left. we covered the bathroom tour summary that we made up on day 11 of the bathroom tour. then as we were leaving we were talking about how we needed to play happy birthday at some point soon. immediately afterwards, the lady who left asked if we knew happy birthday because it was this girl's birthday. we went over and sang it and drove to the mall of america. played about 10 shows inside for a total of 45 minutes and never got thrown out. everyone just loved us. we played for a coffee shop that was closed (it had the metal gate pulled down but it was one of those gates that isn't solid, looks more like a jail cell) so we played "happy in the prison" for them. they came and watched and smiled and then went back to work and then the song ended and they applauded. pretty cool.
by the end of our trip to the mall we had snuck on a stage that was blocked off and performed a new version of "come to the mall" (which is a song we made up at the great mall in kansas city). i was yelling "throw us out! throw us out!" and no one did. this guy (who looked like a security guard but i don't know) on the floor above us followed us the whole time and never said anything. pretty cool place. they have an amusement park in the middle. i figured it would be the pinnacle of douchy american materialism but it really is just a huge funland with some regular stores around it. a bunch of the shows were jen reading dramatically from Hamlet while i played slide whistle and alex played guitar. my slide whistle playing has gotten good although it is a pretty weak instrument in terms of volume. it's impossible to get mad at someone playing slide whistle. got thrown out of bed bath and beyond tho.
as we were leaving, the guys who work in the lost children/guest relations room came over and asked if the show we did for them would be on youtube. eric filmed them giving permission.
oh also, the Eskalators did their first show ever. that's the band with alex jen and eric, playing ska songs eric does lyrics for. they performed on the escalators. it was really funny and great.
i was kind of disappointed that we didn't push the envelope even more when we didn't get thrown out. so as we were walking out i sang "we all need to be touched" (it has some swearing) and as soon as i opened the door to leave i stopped, mid-sentence. also, that mall has the largest shark display in the country. we did not see the sharks tho. then anna dibley's family hosted us and were very nice. i can't believe how nice everyone has been so far.
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[03 Aug 2007|07:23pm] |
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driving to minnesota from south dakota. played at the rosebud casino last night. every single person won money by gambling and came out ahead (except jen who didn't gamble). show was really terrible. for once not my fault. we need to practice more beforehand. saw jen's school and trailer. wouldn't work there if you paid me. woke up and got in the car.
/irrelevant boring stuff
had two nosebleeds in the last couple days. nose has not stopped running since we got to texas, basically. thought i might need more iron but my vitamin has all i need in it. went to the corn palace in sd. played a fantastic show thanks to jen singing greeting cards. got on stage in front of everyone. performed the greeting card "texas" which just has the name and a picture of some buff guys on it. jen said "this is called 'texas.' texas texas texas" it was really fun. on our way to the mall of america. kinda don't feel like playing there. can't believe we're 6 days from tour being over. been thinking about life outside of touring. it seems so weird and terrible. probably healthy though.
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[02 Aug 2007|06:00pm] |
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m ward - story of an artist |
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in jen's boyfriend (Pud)'s house right now. got to south dakota yesterday. practiced outside Pud's baseball game. Went to Valentine, NE to play at this bar. Worst idea yet. Jen fucked up this time.
"I have fun at this bar so figured I'd have fun playing. Sorry"
no more un-mic'ed bars. Ever.
Like the Drunken Unicorn, we had them for a while, then lost them. During this set, I passed the point of caring how people feel at all. I never cared in an insecure way during this tour, but was trying to put on a nice show for these people. No more of that. Kept playing though. Literally one guy was watching, and ten ignoring us. Made up a song for the bartender. it was okay. alex and i left, walked down the street, and realized there's no excuse to live there. it also has more bugs than i've ever seen. i'd gotten angry in a self-destructive way, so i did 25 pushups. felt good. then we hung out with jen's friends til 3 a.m. laughing. it was what i wanted to do anyway, today. need to remember not to play shows when we're not in the mood. they're ALWAYS bad. woke up feeling better. rode a horse. swam with lakota children. had fun playing with them. one of them, probably 13 years old, kept calling me "white bitch." i laughed every time.
"you ever heard 'cracker'?" i asked
"crackerjack motherfucker" he replied
his friend said, simultaneously, "paper!"
i just kept laughing. i asked how old he is and he said "old enough to be your daddy." and i said "i didn't know people could have kids at negative 8."
then he said something like "you're still suckin on yo' mama's titties."
i said "why wouldn't i, they're delicious." his friends cracked up. then i left. first time i can remember being the target of racism. i don't get what the big deal is, it's hilarious. people said, "don't laugh, you'll only encourage him" but fuck that. lots of white people fucked over that kid and his family. that sort of confidence will help him stay strong. plus, we all know that telling a kid no is the worst response possible. i'm so fucking glad i'm not a teacher anymore.
then we filmed a HILARIOUS special feature for the movie, starring Dan Klein, one of the funniest actors ever. then we played "mooove this" for some cows. feeling good. maybe i'll tell the eskalators to play tonight instead of me. i need to remember to have fun.
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[01 Aug 2007|12:47pm] |
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siouxsie and the banshees - hong kong garden |
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best 24 hours of the tour. drove to lincoln, NE to play at a rollerskating museum and found it closed. ate then played at maggie's vegetarian wraps. debuted our new song whose name changes every time we play it. it was called "maggie's vegetarian wraps" at this show. then played "move this" for a couple on a date.
drove to jen's friend's house in omaha to see 30 people yelling surprise and requesting a show. played every style of music for them. they liked it so i went outside afterwards to flee from the social setting with strangers. then we went downtown where a guy was playing a hick parody of "hey ya." he made me really angry but jen suggested a "hey ya" off. we played right after him. we sounded terrible because we always do on the street, but we still won. then the fun started.
we wanted ice cream so we went to ted and wally's ice cream, instruments in hand.
lady working there: "oh, is there a show here tonight?"
jen: "yes!"
lady: oh god, sorry, we're not ready, lemme set up"
eric almost gave away the truth, but the staff didn't hear him. they said the show couldn't start til after they close (which of course meant no one would come.
guy working there (his name is Landon): "who booked this show? none of us knew about it"
jen: "carlos did"
Landon: "he did a terrible job promoting."
then i left to round up some audience members. one of them asked if we'd play cotton-eyed joe. i sang a few bars, then he walked off. found no audience members. went back to the ice cream store. jen pulled me aside and whispered that the staff had nowdecided that our promoter, carlos, had forgotten to flyer (for those who don't keep up with us, carlos is the name we always claim booked the show, but he doesn't actually exist) and so no one would come to the show. Landon called his friend who works sound at a bar downtown, to see if we could get added to the bill.
Landon: "I know how shitty it is to play a show and have no one show up."
so we went to the bar, O'Leaver's. Talked to Brady the doorman and Brendan the sound guy. He asked Jen about Carlos several times. First Jen said Carlos booked our whole tour. Then she said she didn't know him. The band playing, Theodore, were a really great country punk band. Jen Alex and I discussed possible set lists for over an hour. as usual, all preparation was useless. The club closes at 1 and Brendan said we could go on LAST! the bartender gave us a free pitcher of beer. I gave up on getting to actually play, so I drank. The headlining band was very good. Apparently the best band in Omaha. Didn't catch their name.
Man I've really successfully adopted this southern charm thing (it's incredibly useful when trying to get things from strangers). I would never say "didn't catch their name" two weeks ago.
Anyway, the last band said "we've got some entertainment straight from Ted and Wally's up next." at this point, two things could have happened. we could have been less than the best thing ever and played one my less-than-perfect songs, which would have absolutely lost the audience, or we could have slam-dunked it and brought the house down. luckily we can do the second one.
At 12:54 a.m. we got to play "stop waiting for death." i was ON FIRE. this set is why i live for shows. the build-up was perfect because the "openers" were so good. the 30+ people in the club were all really into it. they clamored for more, even though the bar was officially closed by that point. brendan the soundman looked at the bartender, who shrugged, so Brendan pointed "one more" to us. then we played "hey ya." being completely unpretensious, the crowd loved it, and wanted even more, but the set was over. i say unpretensious because they could have said "that song is so overplayed" or something.
THEN, Joe, one of the owners of ted and wally's, told everyone to come to his house to see us play an after-hours set, immediately. we went and talked to some omaha people, and it turns out the band landon alluded to being in earlier was desaparecidos. very cool of him to never mention that. then about 10 people made the 5 block journey to the house. we did a decent set. i fucked up our new song. lost my voice and alex broke my maraca. but we made about $25 in donations. i was psyched til i realized we needed to replace my maraca, guitar tuner, and alex's stool. oh well. then they gave us a bag of dog food to replace the maraca, and had us sign the trashcan jen had sat on during the set. jen drew me with my "st" tattoo. i drew alex as a huge rectangle with limbs and "the be" tattoooed on his chest. then we drove to jen's friend juliet's house to sleep, after brendan, landon, and kerry told us we could play o'leaver's anytime we're in town. they kept talking about how carlos fucked up the tour. Surprise, guys! thanks for the shows!
now we're driving to south dakota to surprise people.
oh that rash on my arm is long gone and my calcium's been good til today.
last night reminded me of the purpose of this tour/band.
"that was good, but we always need to do better."
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[31 Jul 2007|11:56am] |
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feeling great. left janelle's to drive to western KS. went to the wilson tourist center and played vincent by don mclean. one customer left. the lady behind the counter loved it tho.
then we went to the russell county fair to see it hadn't started yet. got on the stage and played country for 4 teen girls and their mom. they took a picture of us by the Cam. they were so psyched because jen said we're a very famous band.
then we went to the barbed wire museum in la crosse to play for the only employee.
"you're playing music? wait, i'll get the other ladies" and 2 more women came to see. they are the staff of the post rock museum and the rush county historical museum. Played "walter's regrets" and "i love you so much." they wanted to put us in the newspaper. alex bought a very cool hat. drove to my cousin bill's in lewis. had a fantastic time and were welcomed with open arms. met new family members.
then we went to greensburg. it's totally destroyed from a tornado. terrible. FEMA decided to level everything they could, including $1000s worth of furniture and appliances. bill said someone put red slippers under the edge of a house that landed in the street. then we checked out my dad's land, then played a show for bill's family. biggest attentive audience yet. played some classic hits. decided to play "monster mash" and "last kiss." have played that for every britton we've met. the reason they go together is they're exactly the same chords. everyone liked the set. sold some dvds. woke up to see my family grave plot in lewis. did not play there as planned. too many mosquitoes.
went back to barbed wire museum to get jen's sister a hat. driving to omaha.
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