October 28, 2013

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.

October 19, 2013

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.

October 16, 2013

Zoo Animal east coast tour day 1

I haven't slept much in the last couple of days. The night before I left I was tossing and turning all night. Everything was ready to go but still couldn't muster up a good night of sleeping. I don't have much to say since we spent 14 hours driving to Youngstown, OH for a hotel. We're driving through beautiful PA at the moment and got a few hours until we hit NYC. Justin has a mobile office with 4G in the back! Matt and I played hours of "ditch/date/marry" that got elaborate with things like "11am, 2am, 6am". Hey, east coast has Snapple Pink Lemonade. Minnesota has to get back on that. I'm typing this first update from an iPhone, so apologies if it makes no sense. I'll try to update this page as much as possible. Holly is a driving champion and Matt drove us through a storm last night. How did I sleep at the hotel after being on the road for 14 hours? Like a baby? Nope :( Thank Jesus I packed sleeping pills though and will for sure take one after our set in NYC tonight. Also, there's no radio here so there's been plenty of bad singing to ourselves. Tourettes city.