As I begin writing this, it’s 5:30am on Monday and I just got home in time to shower and start my workday.
That’s right, even insane rock n rollers have to work on bank holidays… Needless to say I’m exhausted and the fact that it’s raining, isn’t helping my motivation to do work or even be conscious at this point. Damn.
Well, we were touring this weekend and I know some people liked to read our blogs from when we were on tour in 2006, so I thought I’d give yall a little recap of some of the events that took place on this little jaunt.
Our first destination was Essex, a suburb outside of Baltimore. It took us about 8 and a half hours to get down there. We actually made it 2 minute before we were scheduled to load our gear in, so that was nice. Oh, I should mention we had a few guests with us for some of the trip, the one and only Sophia Bliss and a hitchhiker named Ana. Ana has an obsession for fresh fruit, and wasn’t carrying an axe or Bud Light. I also learned that Sophia is infatuated with Whoopie Pies for what its worth. Anyway, I hate the fucking NJ Turnpike.
I should mention we were without Matt for the first two dates of the weekend, which was a bummer. He was missed. Essex was interesting. I have to say that I’ve grown to appreciate non-smoking venues more and more each day. The venue (Macs) was huge. Ginormous stage, big bright lights and $2 Miller Genuine Drafts. Rock on. The sound was great, but our playing was ass-tastical. Yes that’s right, even The Motion Sick can crank up the suck on occasion. We just had an off night; I’m blaming it on the NJ Turnpike. I did get to see a good friend from High School, who made the trip from Washington D.C. Thanks to Karen, Stacey and Heather for making the jaunt to support our band.
The headlining band dropped off the bill, so oddly enough there was a hard rock Christian music show going on in a church behind the venue. Mike and Patrick made their way over to the church and were able to recruit a band called Morningside to open the evening at Macs. They had a ton of energy, even after rockin out at the church. Thanks to those guys for playing a double, it was cool. Piano Black ) closed the show and they were cool too.
We went to a diner for some late night eating action and had quite possibly the coolest waiter EVER! I don’t remember his name, but he was one funny guy. We stayed somewhere near Baltimore that night and slept on some crazy comfortable beds. I got up early to drop off Ana in Baltimore, her destination of choice. We hope she found more fresh fruit to consume and that there weren’t any crazy parasites or anything in the Baltimore water…
Saturday morning we made our way to Philadelphia to hang out for the afternoon. Hung out downtown for a bit and walked the streets to find some eats. Mike and Miss Bliss went to a joint https://continentalmidtown.com/ with Vegan Big Macs and swinging chairs to sit in. They expressed that it’s cooler than it sounds. Patrick and I went to a brewery/restaurant called Noddinghead Brewery ). They had an AMAZING beer called the “wet” Chinook Double IPA. It was smooth as silk, great beer, great bartender and good food. We tasted a bunch of their other beers and they were all tasty as well. Good find.
Next, we headed to NJ for the rock show. We arrived in Morristown and headed to the venue, which is a cafe/hookah bar. There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the venue, as we had been told there were supposed to be 2 other bands playing that night. It turned out to just be us. We set up and played a semi-acoustic set that included the debut of playing the new record in its entirety. We played about 17 songs that night and had a whole lot of fun trying new things. I think Mike will post the set list somewhere, so look for that. It was an early show, so we met up with Mike’s sister Rachel (you owe me some booty shaking) and her friend John. We “hit the town” for a bit and ended up at a pub with a fucking incredibly bad funk/R&B cover band. Nothing puts you in a worse mood than hearing a 4-minute finger tapping bass solo… I’m glad Matt wasn’t there to hear it, because he probably would have punched the guy in the face.
We left the pub and hit the diner. I scarfed down a killer Patty Melt (the one thing I should never eat late at night) and called it a night. We drove to John’s father’s house in Morristown, who was gracious enough to allow us to crash there. On the way we spotted a buck on the side of the road just chillin out… Pretty cool, and despite John’s attempts to convince me it was an 8 point deer, it was really only 2 points. John’s father Gary is a great funny guy and we’re so very thankful for his endless hospitality!! His daughter Emily, is an up and coming musician whose music video for the song “Little Boxes” can be seen on the ShowTime TV. Check out Emily’s website (http://www.emilyeddey.com/), she’s a great young talent with an amazing voice!
We hung around the Eddey household for most of the day, chatting, eating bagels and listening to crazy stories, but mostly Patrick and I slept. We left in the late afternoon to head to NYC to load our gear into The Knitting Factory. We got there an hour early, so we dropped off the gear and searched for grub. We went to a Mexican restaurant down the street and nothing says “I Love New York” more than $6 beers at a restaurant. After we ate, Patrick and I sent out on an adventure to track down some Duct Tape. Why you ask? Well, the reason is simple; Patrick has frequent meltdowns on stage and most recently “fractured” his guitars ability to keep a strap attached to it. Patrick being the craftsman that he is, can duct tape a strap to a guitar like no other human being alive. Simply awesome. We found the Duc-a-tape (red tape to be exact to match the guitar), and proceeded to head back to the venue.
The Knitting Factory staff rocks, they’re wicked friendly and accommodating. The first band to play last night was Massey ). He’s a one-man band, pretty cool. After Massey was The Newspeak Ensemble. I can’t describe them very well, so maybe Mike will insert a little blurb here about them. Mike says check them out at: http://newspeakmusic.org It was then our turn to rock out NYC. It was great to have Matt back, I missed the bass. We rocked that shit so hard; I think we may have knocked Tribecca on its ass. Let me tell ya, that’s hard to do in a town that’s owned by Robert Deniro… We played a great set and then set off into the night knowing that NYC had just been annihilated by The Motion Sick. After stopping for pizza and vegan whoopie pies, we headed home, into the dark of night and under the radar of the NY State Police cruisers.
So, there you have it. I’m sure I’m missing some key moments that happened that were funny or whimsical, but I’m honestly too brain dead at the moment to remember them all. I hope this shit isn’t too boring, I really can’t tell. In any case, continue to check out our website, myspace, and facebook for updates on us. The new record is going to be done soon and we’re really excited for that, and for our new video, “30 Lives”. Be well my friends, and be excellent to each other.
Ciao,
Travis