The rest of the Zoo Animal Northeastern 2013 Fall Tour

10/19/13 The last time I posted, I wrote the entire blog on "notes" on my iPhone in Central Park. I was sitting on one of those massive rocks for about an hour and my behind killed me when I got up. Little kids were looking at me funny as I had my running shorts over my thermal pants on and I couldn't keep balance. Anyways, it was Saturday in Central Park and all forms of life were out and about: freshly minted married couples, street dancers, giant bubble making guys, jazz musicians, etc. I'm not really a super big emotional guy but seeing all of those things and the combination of Blur's live version of "The Universal" hit me hard. Imagine a wedding going on by the water in Central Park, to the left you have a crew of kids break dancing, and tourists from all over the world experiencing this place for the first time. Something was striking an emotional cord with me. Perhaps because I was in the city of infinite opportunity and I was humbled this town was hosting my band for four days? I really don't know. I'm rambling now. I went to this little cafe by a lake on Central Park for a bit, then went to get gifts to bring home. I wasn't really prepared to play this show at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn. It looked like an odd spot as you basically just email the booking person and say "I want that TBA slot on your website", and they give it to you immediately. Goodbye Blue Monday is a little punk rock bar in the Bushwick neighborhood and it isn't exactly totally welcoming. The neighborhood is pretty sketchy, and the house gear was kind of busted up. I did approach the sound guy, who was awesome, and asked if we could use our own gear since we we're 2nd to last and an acoustic duo was closing. He agreed, and all was well. This show ended up being one of the coolest shows on tour. We had a surprising amount of MN friends come out to see us, and the neighborhood transplant kids were awesome and hung out with us afterwards. We played probably our best set of the entire tour at this show. Before our set, Holly came up to us and basically said "chill out". We played to the room and the feeling couldn't have been better. The real highlight? Meeting a guy named, "shirt", who for sure played along with us on the "Forget About It" Tourrettes. He is from Detroit, and I still don't know his real name. On the van ride back to Lance's, Matt started improvising some song about "Hot Bread" for about ten minutes that had us dying. We all crashed hard at a reasonable NYC hour at about 2:30AM. 10/20/13 We had to get rolling to Providence to play at the Columbus Theatre. Lance forced us to walk a few blocks to some hyped up Bagel joint that had lines out the door. We got there at a good time and only had to wait about ten minutes for what was maybe one of the best egg, bacon, and cheese bagel sandwiches I have ever had. We scarfed down our food on the Rockefeller University campus and then made our way to Providence. If you haven't had the chance to road trip in New England...I say do it. This is why I have a throwback New England Patriots hat. I love Tom Brady and think he's the man, sue me, but the region of New England is way cooler. We rolled up to Columbus Theatre in Providence around 4:30PM and I was in full on geek mode when I saw the inside. I love old and historic theatres, and Tom Weyman was nice enough to host us there and his home. Our set was good and we called it an early night back to Tom's as we weren't feeling like staying up late for the 5th night in a row. For what it's worth, Tom runs a cool little label called "Supply and Demand". Highly recommend checking it out. 10/21/13 Matt I shared a bed in a guest bedroom and woke up to find everyone gone, except for a sleep talking Justin. We walked for about a mile and stumbled upon a cafe that Holly and Tom were Holly were eating at. Providence is a small town huh? This was a major laundry, recharge, and watch the most embarrassing Monday Night Football outing ever kind of day. I thought since we had the day off I'd find a bar to watch the game solo, but the gang wanted to tag along. I am so sorry for putting you through 3 hours of Josh Freeman of over throwing WRs by 20 yards. 10/22/13 Philadelphia. A town I have had zero luck in. Both times I have been scheduled to play here the shows have been canceled. We arrived to the venue after a long six hour drive and hit up a Gastro Pub down the street. I had an incredible burger with bacon and egg on it. Holy cow. Girard Gastro Pub I think is the name. Go go go. Justin's friend, Michael, came up from Baltimore to watch the show. He was one of maybe four people who weren't in bands to see us play. Before our set, Justin noticed some car was about to get towed and that it was Michael's. Michael had parked in a no parking zone that wasn't marked very clearly so Justin stood in front of the tow truck driver and waiting for Michael to come running out. Thankfully he came out in time but had to pay $200 to have to the tow truck guy release the car. Felt bad for the guy. I had a weird gag reflex and puked before our set. Literally as we were about to load on stage I had to ralph. Talk about timing? Set was actually fun and we dipped out to a hotel in western PA for a quick night's rest. 10/23/13 This day was absolutely awful. Had a ten hour drive to Bloomington, IN and for a chunk of it...it was hailing. It also got extremely cold entering the midwest. We arrived to the venue and it looked like they did nothing to promote the show. The kids we played with were all really cool and got us gas money but nobody was there. We decided to experiment and play as quiet as possible with our electric instruments. Oddly enough, kind of a cool set. We got a motel 6 and ate late night at the Denny's across the street. Real big time living. 10/24/13 Chicago. One of my favorite cities but this day was rough. It was about 30 degrees and the wind was ripping. Eddie, the cat who set up our show was awesome. The locals did us and themselves no favors as they maybe brought up 5 people total. I don't blame them as much as I blame my luck with playing Chicago. They were talented bands and good people, but I just can't seem to find people there who want to come see me play. The Subterranean is a great sounding place though with a killer stage. Sound guy couldn't have been more killer too. Decided to skip big city partying and got a hotel in Dekalb. 10/25/13 Daytrotter and Milwaukee. I've always wanted to do something with Daytrotter as tons of cool underground bands have gone through and done a session there. Matt hooked this up and we did new versions of old songs, and one new song. Keep your eyes peeled. We recharged with some decent Mexican food and started driving towards Milwaukee. We arrived to the venue and the owner told us we should just go across the street to grab beer so we don't have to pay bar prices. Ok? I bought Strongbow and since nobody ever likes it...I had it all to myself. The bands we played with were great but we were just too exhausted and did not play well. I felt tired, broken, homesick, and it felt like those four awesome NYC shows were years ago. 10/26/13 Arrived to 331 at 3:00pm and were greeted by loved ones, family, and friends. I didn't expect anyone to be at our last minute show at 4pm on a Saturday but it was probably one of the coolest shows I've played in town for awhile. Solidifies we have people who like our music, or just truly care about us. Overall, I had a great trip and learned a lot about myself and my band mates. Strengths and weaknesses were exposed but that's what tour is for and that's why you practice. Thank you everyone.