10/19/13 zoo animal tour blog

Sorry for the delay but I haven't had time to sit down on a computer and type this all out. I'll give the best recap I can. I'm currently sitting on a giant rock in Central Park. 10/16/13 @ Two Bit's Arcade. I volunteered to take us into the city as I'm somewhat familiar with playing on the lower east side. I had a feeling a member or two was nervous about taking the holland tunnel. Traffic was normal until we got out of the tunnel where we proceeded to sit at a string of two or three lights for an hour. People honked at me crazy but I said "screw it", and started the aggressive driving game myself. Not road rage but I kind of had fun honking at people. "Eyyyy I'm driving here" am I right? Finally get to Two Bits and found pretty rock star parking for Lower East Side. Alex, one of my bosses at Cause works out here part time and hooked us up with the show. The arcade was great with some classic games: Paperboy, Final Fight, Marvel vs Capcom etc etc. the space isn't friendly to noisy rock bands but the owner, Perry, treated us incredibly well. Although it was a free show they gave us bottles of wine, a comped bar tab, and were all around solid people working the place. We were sloppy from the two days of driving but managed to stay put together somehow. My childhood neighbors, Blake and Sam, came out to the show and we caught up about how are folks are doing. Blake is a rock star photographer around town and Sam hustles like crazy with a bunch of different jobs. Got to run into Grant Cutler and Allegra too! Matt hooked us up with a place to stay for the weekend with a gentleman named Lance Langston. He works at a local university and has a home on the upper east side. A truly fantastic situation. Sleep time was early (2am I guess?) 10/17/13 @ Muchmore's This day started out with us going to a place called the Plaza Diner where I dove into a bagel like whoa (shocked?). At this meal, Justin proceeded to shake the ketchup bottle for his hash browns but the cap was loose and I got dowsed in ketchup. I was fuming at the moment but looking back on it...pretty funny. I tried to wash up in the restroom but they only had air dryers! I got a doggy bag for my condiment covered hoodie. The show was at a cool little cafe/bar in Williamsburg with a handful of younger Williamsburg bands. I generally tend to think the kids here see me and noticed right away I don't belong and are snooty. Not this time as all the kids were really cool and seemed receptive to us. Couple of cool bands we played with had fun names: Shark Muffin and HayBaby. Huge thanks to Rosemary for Sam from HayBaby's contact. Holly, Matt, and Justin went to the totally gross national product showcase down the street as I hung around with Jason Sack and Jason Dorkelson. We laughed at how much of a circus the Vikibgs are and how Dorkelson is actually going to MetLife for the giants/Vikes game for Monday Night Football. I had a beverage or two during all of this but it felt good to unwind with old friends. The gang came back and they drove us (my not so sober mind) home. Hey, Budweiser cans were $3. I'm on tour and I'm responsible. 10/18/13 @ The Gutter As you can imagine, my body was aching this morning. Thankfully Maija helped me get all the medical things I would need for this. Emergen-C, allergy meds, and plenty of stuff for my break out face. The Gutter is an old school bowling alley with a killer show room in the back. Keith from Goodnight Records put us on the bill last minute, but man did we luck out. Open bar during our set time assured we played to people. Paddy Mulloy was the highlight for me. Love him so much! A crew of MPLS folks met up with us and we checked out the Is/Is show in Bushwick at a Punk House. I literally don't remember the last time I went to a basement show but man that was fun. None of us dared to take the subway home (would have been an hour) so we splurged and got cabs to our respective homes. We have one more show in Brooklyn tonight at Goodnight Blue Monday. 11:30pm and it's free as funk. Off to providence tomorrow. p.s. I've been calling Holly, "Linden", this whole trip. She must watch The Killing now to understand me.