Pictures from the Road!!!

California is beautiful. End of story... I'll blog about stuff later, but for now, here are some random pictures with corny captions just so you know we're still alive...

Day 1 - The Van

Day 2 - Mobile

Day 3 - Blogging!!

Day 4 - Some Pictures from Nicholls State



Day 5 - Mike (sporting pumpkin costume) and Andrew (sporting giant blow-up tour penis)


Our new friend Joy and me!
Day 6 - Andrew Does Dallas
Day 7 - Austin!!

These are pretty random. I'll be better about posting them when I blog... and about posting better pictures haha.

Tour Days 7 - 8

Alright, so if we've had a bad show so far, that show would be Austin. We go there really early only to find that the night life (although it's electric on Sunday) doesn't come out until much later. So we didn't have much luck passing out fliers. No big deal though. We walked up and down 6th and 7th street taking in the sites until we found a burger and BBQ joint that looked pretty good. I think the place was called "Daddy's." Andrew and I aren't 100% sure though. Everyone got burgers accept for me. I was determined to get BBQ while in Texas, so I got pork drums, and they were awesome. While there, Roark found some people from New York City so he was pretty pumped about that. They turned on the Yankees game and started talking about baseball which I know nothing about... well I take that back... I understand it enough to follow it if I want to... but I don't... so I didn't much... haha!

Anyways, after dinner we went back to the venue and started to load in. While we were doing this a bum came up to me and was looking like he might be into making a go at some of our equipment. I grabbed Roark's keyboard stand and had a staring contest with him for a while (which I won). It was a little awkward, but with four guys watching the stuff, plus the guys working at the club holding the door, we really didn't worry about it.

It was an eclectic mix of artists that night... There were two stages, one inside and one outside in this courtyard. We were inside and our lineup went something like this... First a guy singing vulgar songs over caffeinated ukulele strumming, then a metal band with a girl singer, then us, then Roark. I can honestly say that there were probably 5 people in the place. There was a CD release party outside in the courtyard so I think that attracted most of the people. We got a lot of people walking through and that kind of stuff, so I guess it was alright. Afterwards, we loaded in and got paid by the venue. I wanted to check out "The Beauty Bar" which is kind of a hipster club chain that they have in this area. I think there's like 3 or 4 of them in all... from Austin to Los Angeles. It looked pretty sweet... Everyone in there looked like someone out of an Austin Powers movie and they had the indie pop cranked.

We almost went in... or at least... I almost went in. We were tired though... so we headed back to the apartment we were staying at and hit it. Roark's girlfriend's other cousin, Anne, was nice enough to put us up for that night and the next so the night turned out alright.

When we got to her house in San Antonio, we wasted no time in turning her living room into our new bedroom. I set my cot up in the corner and hit it.

The next day we woke up around 12:30 PM, and were greeted by Anne's friend Heather. We made fliers for the San Antonio show for that night, and it was Heather's job to show us around town. After everyone was ready, we hopped in the stinky van (it's getting worse) and set out for the University of Texas in San Antonio. We talked to a few people, but I'm not sure many came out for the show. We ate lunch and then before long it was time to head back to Anne's for dinner. She made us spaghetti and it was amazing!!! After dinner we hopped in the even stinkier van and then headed into DTSA for the show. Rock Bottom is a pretty cool club.
The people there were really nice and there were a lot of kids there.... more people shouting for "Hello Denver." I felt pretty good afterwards. For our first tour, and it being like 100% DIY, I feel like we've been having pretty good luck with these shows... besides Austin... but you gotta have the bad ones in order for the good ones to feel good.

After we played the venue ordered some pizzas for us on the house, and we were pretty pumped about them. I think I ate whole one. Once we got back to Anne's, we had told ourselves we were going to head right to bed, but being on the road for this long has started to make us go kind of crazy I think... because I could NOT go to sleep. I stayed up an extra hour or so giggling and making fun of Roark. It was all in good fun, though. He said mine is coming... and I don't think he lies. So we'll see about that later.

We got up around 7:30 AM today for the long drive to El Paso. Mapquest says it's 8 hours... but the people in San Antonio say its closer to 11. We'll see. Andrew is driving right now, and I'm riding shotty. I'll catch you up on things tomorrow. El Paso tonight, Flagstaff tomorrow, then we have 4 days off. I think we're gunna spend most of it in LA... but we are also going to take a detour to the Grand Canyon before we get there. Should be a good time. I've never been there! Have a good one!

Tour - Days 5-6

We woke up in Lafayette after some much needed rest and started heading towards Dallas around noon I think. The drive was good but long. I think we finally got there after 6 or 7 hours. We thought we were going to be an hour late, but the venue had pushed everything back an hour so we were right on time. The show found us in a very eclectic mix of artists. We took the stage around 8:30 or 9:00 after a local Christian Hardcore band. Nothing against them, but I'm just too chill for that stuff.

During the hardcore band, a couple kids came up and bought t-shirts before we played. We played a good show, and were well received by the people there. Afterwards the same two kids came up and said that they were upset I didn't sing "Hello Denver" (we didn't have enough time). So I grabbed my acoustic guitar and lead them outside the room for an acoustic performance. They sang every word even louder than me, and after that I hung out with them for an hour and talked about anything and everything. They were fans, and for a skinny, 20-year-old from Medina, Ohio, on his first trip to Texas, that was a VERY BIG deal. I love those kids, they made my whole week.

After the show, Roark and I headed into the main office at the venue to settle up. We made friends with the girl at the desk, and she ended up hanging out with us for a while outside the venue before we left. Her name was Joy, and she's actually probably going to end up as the touring stylist for a band called Gym Class Heros (who are now on tour with Gwen Stefani in Australia). After hearing that, we ended up talking her into giving Andrew a haircut. We'd just have to wait till the next day to do it. That was fine, we had a day off in Dallas... so it would give us something to do.

After saying our good-byes, we left the venue in search for a La Quinta outside of Dallas. When we finally reached the one that we knew about, the Denny's in the parking lot looked too good to pass up, so we decided to grab some dinner/breakfast before we checked in.... BAD move. By the time we finished, the hotel was completely full, and it took another hour before we found another La Quinta with a room. During this time we did happen to acquire a small treasure, though. The lady at the desk gave us a book with the name, number, and location of every single La Quinta in the country. SCORE!!!! That baby is definitely getting some use this month! Haha! Andrew and I passed out on the way to the final hotel, and Roark and Mike did most of the loading. I barely remember hobbling up to the room and passing out... they said I was snoring all night. I woke up with a sore throat... so I don't think they were lying.

The next day (Saturday) was our day off, so we treated ourselves to a lazy morning. After checking out of the hotel and eating breakfast, we headed over to Walmart to do some shopping. Roark needed a pair of cargo shorts, and we got some sandwiches from the deli. After lunch we headed over to Staples to make some more fliers for the shows in Austin and San Antonio. I think we made 400 in all. By then it was haircut time for Andrew, so after we got organized we hurried over to Fort Worth to meet back up with Joy. She made Andrew look like a pimp. After his haircut, we said more goodbyes and then made our way over to Roark's girlfriend's cousin's house. They barbecued for us and were nice enough to put us all up for the night. After dinner we talked for a while, took turns on the computer, and I took a couple phone calls. Their neighborhood was beautiful and it was like 75 degrees after dark. It reminded me a lot of west Akron so I felt very at home. We slept good, and in the morning, woke up to the smell of warm, fresh bagels, and the sound of their dog prancing around us. Now we're in the van again on our way to Austin to promote with our fliers and then play. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Tour - Day 4

After Panera yesterday, Roark and I headed over to a local Walmart to buy a spare tire for the trailer. We don't want to get stuck in the middle of the desert without one, so yesterday was the time to buy! After that we were on our way to New Orleans. The drive was actually really awesome... it's pretty dark in Mississippi at night... lots of stars. Haha at one point of the drive we hit a patch of highway that was set up more like a dirt bike track. We were chilling out, listening to some David Grey, and then all of the sudden the entire van was bouncing up and down and up and down for a couple hundred feet. It was like a rodeo or something... not that I would know what that was like or anything.

We ended up stopping for gas in New Orleans and checking out some of the Katrina damage. That place is still messed up, and it's pretty humbling seeing what some people are still having to deal with down here. We ended up staying at a La Quinta in last night. The hotel was really nice, but with a little help from AAA we got a $100 double room for $60. It was sweet.

I woke up pretty early today to take a phone call and then took a little nap before everyone else got up at 11. We left the La Quinta around 1 PM, and after doing a little digging on the interweb, we found that Houma was pretty close to a university called Nicholls State. We took the fliers we made the previous day, and headed out there to do a little promoting before load in. Everyone at the college was really nice, and we actually were able to score a visitor pass from the college which made us immune to parking tickets. We went to every semi-populated building on campus and did the best we could to get the word out. I'm starting to feel like I'm in high school again because way back in the day I could just walk up and talk to anybody without caring... I feel like something happened to me over the past year where I just got really quiet for no reason, but it's gone now. So we're back in business. We even ended up getting into the Arts Building and sitting in on a class. They must have all thought we were crazy... but it was awesome.

After we'd hit up everyone we could on campus, we took a tip from one of the students and headed over to a nice mall in Houma to hand out the rest of them. Things went well again, and after we'd gotten rid of all the fliers, we hung out in the parking lot tossing a Nerf Ball, relaxing and passing time before the show. At around 8 PM I took the wheel and drove us into town. What this trip is about for me more than anything is just experiencing everything I can each day... we were exhausted after passing out fliers in the sun all day, but I still had some business to take care of... and that business was craw fish. They are a Louisiana delicacy, and let me tell you, they do them up right in Houma. After some deliberation we decided to go to the venue and ask for some advice... but we got more than just advice. The guys in charge escorted us to a beautiful, clean, green room with comfy couches and whatever we wanted to drink. Then, after hearing we'd never had craw fish before (except for me when I was really little) they ordered a few hundred of them for us and taught us how to eat them. Basically, you twist the tail off, pinch the meat out, and suck the juice out of the head. It sounds awful but once you have them, you're never the same. Best part of all of this was that it was all on the house.

So then it came time to play the show, we got everything set up and started around 11:15. The crowd was awesome and they were really digging the music. We were also able to sell a lot of merch. Then Roark took the stage and blew them away. I felt like we earned our craw fish, and the staff was awesome. We left the venue around 3 AM after getting paid and Andrew and I split the 2 hour drive to Lafayette where we found another La Quinta to stay at... love that place.

I just want to say that if anyone reading this ever has a chance to check out Houma, Louisiana, make sure you go to The Brickhouse. Some of the best people you'll ever meet are right there.

Off to Dallas tomorrow.

Nessy and Lil' John

I almost forgot to tell everyone about Nessy and Lil' John. Nessy is our van and Lil' John is our trailer. We can't take credit for the trailer's name because it's owners gave it that, but "Nessy" is all us. Why Nessy? Well for starters... it's big, it's green, and it's a pimp, but also because it smells like sea monster inside. Roark bought the van the week before we left and it's in excellent condition. As an added bonus, though, the dealership that sold it to him thought it would be a good idea to hose her out before he picked the thing up. They neglected to check if the vinyl floor was waterproof, and they neglected to tell us they did this. When Roark got to Akron to pick us up, we noticed while loading that the floor was emitting "juices," but there was no odor. Now, after three days, it's safe to say that if you step on a few key wrong areas of the floor, you can get that thing smelling like the backside of a sea monster within minutes. It's great when you're running into a store to get something and everyone else is waiting in their seats!!!

Pete

TOUR!!!!!! Days 1-3

Hey guys! I'm currently writing from a Panera just outside of sunny Mobile, Alabama. This is actually day three of our trip ( I would've started this sooner except that I was having trouble remembering my blogger password). I guess I should start by getting everybody all caught up...

Day one was spent driving from Akron to Mike's cousin's house just south of Nashville. We got a little lost on the way, but ended up driving right through Elizabethtown, Kentucky. "Elizabethtown" is one of my favorite movies so that was sweet. We got in at 2 in the morning, but his cousin was extremely hospitable and everyone really appreciated not having to stay in a hotel. On Tuesday we got up around 8 or 9 and after a couple biscuits topped with Jimmy Dean's Pure Pork Sausage, we were on our way to Mobile. I had heard a number of different things about the city before I got there, but honestly I loved it. It was a pretty quiet Tuesday night, so I kind of felt like we had the place to our selves for a while. We spent the few hours we had before load-in walking around and checking out the local park and restaraunts. I love big trees, and the south has plenty of them. So, I was pumped. We ate at a cool brewery on Dauphin Street that was having "dollar taco night." These were premium tacos at Taco Bell(hell) prices. You can't beat that. Later, we played at a club on Dauphin Street called The Cellblock. We were nervous at first about how many people were going to be there, but as soon as we started playing the place filled up and people were dancing and screaming and going nuts. It was a good time. A blues rock band called "Radio Moscow" closed the show after Roark, and they were pimped out.


After the show we made friends with a girl who lived nearby named Stephanie who offered up her floor/couch/spare bed for us to sleep in. We were more than happy to spend another night in another nice place. Her neighborhood was awesome... lots of big old house and lots of big old trees. The trees were sweet. Haha! Once everyone got settled in, we all headed out onto a balcony Stephanie had that overlooked her street. The balcony had a low railing that guarded it from an almost flat roof. So we ended up sitting on the roof. I was the last one to come in because I spent a while talking to my friend Nicky on the phone catching her up on everything that had happened during the night.

So that brings us to today. We've got a day off today before we have to be in Houma tomorrow for our next show. Before we left Mobile we drove into town and found a Radisson Hotel that looked pretty fancy... We hung out on these big green leather chairs they had in a lounge for a while and Roark, Andrew, and I designed a postcard to hand out to people from now on before and during the rest of the shows we play. Then we got on the internet and found a Staples and made like 400 copies of it. After that we went to a Starbucks and then Panera... which is where I'm at now. I've been going crazy these past few days getting adjusted to things... but from now on I'll be writing in this thing everyday... So keep checking back!

Pete