tour: boston to baltimore

typed this intermittently in the van, without internets to connect to.

monday afternoon, after we thought we had jason's amp fixed, we finally took off for providence, following sean and tina in their car, with dan in his van trailing us. we got to the venue, called the grant, and were greeted by pete cardoso and paul gordon and others, who helped load us into the space. the grant is a building bought by a dude in the decrepit downtown of pawtucket. he fixed the building up and made it a sort of mall of artist spaces, a screenprint shop, a bmx shop, architect's office, and a skateboard ramp. we were the third show to happen in the space. we walked over to get some beers and some chinese food, and the first two bands played. helms went on and killed it; we felt like they should have headlined. we played fine. jason used tina's head again. i met shea'la from tiny showcase, and had a hard time staying off the halfpipe.

after the show, dan took off for cape cod, and we followed sean & tina back to their place, where we crashed very quickly.

tuesday, we got up and tried to get out as soon as possible. we got coffee with sean and dwight the dog, then rolled out of town. we headed south to NY, and wound our way onto the BQE and eventually stopped at a small recording studio for an "at home anywhere" session - just like he "daytrotter" session we did with andrew back in the fall, this is a one-take quickie on the studio's gear. we were a bit short on time, so we did three songs, including a handsome family cover: "stalled".

after this, we went to the club, a small place on the corner. we pulled up right at the same time as the austerity program, and we all loaded into the tiny union pool. met the headliner, made out of babies, who were really nice, bu not our particular taste, musically. fucking gorgeous guitars, though: custom 'electrical'-brand "mosrite" body style guitar and bass.

we walked over a block or two to get some pizzas, came back for our soundcheck, and people started to show up. austerity program was brutally loud, and played excellently; we believe that more people came to see them than he other two bands. we did fine, with one or two minor technical issues. made out of babies played, but we were mostly out on the patio, visiting with scott zionic, pari, tanya and claudia from u of i, some folks from the electrical boards, and various other people. justin punched the 'seatbelt' button on my chrome-brand backpack, leaving my laptop to drop to the concrete, where the case split. thankfully, it still works, but i'm just a bit pissed.

we loaded out, and drove back to astoria, where we stayed with justin at his house. i bathed and went to bed.

in the morning, i walked to get coffee with kip, then visited with justin's dog, camacho. we piled into justin's car and drove to guitar canter, where jason bough a new amplifier for an absurd amount of money. thanks to guitar center's generous 30-day return policy, we will keep the head in immaculate condition and return it to GC when we get back to chicago.

loaded this heavy heavy head into the van, and we rolled over to et sandwiches from 'il bambino', on our way out of astoria and queens. across the triborough and george washington bridges, we rolled south through new jersey and into baltimore, where we GPSed ourselves to the ottobar, for what was probably the least appropriate show of the tour. we played with harvey milk and storm of light (both loud as hell metal) and dactyl, the local opener. met a dude with a left arm full of egon schiele tattoos; he was drinking.

after we played ( as quickly as possible) and loaded directly back out to the van (while storm of light was setting up), we heard a male voice on the other side of the fence we were parked against: he was sobbing, crying "it just doesn't matter! we missed it! bwahhhh!". this was followed by various slamming and slapping noises. kip and i looked at each other, unsure of what was going on. i peered over the fence to make sure no one was getting beaten, but only saw a young man crying, hitting his car, and his girlfriend trying to comfort him. we continued loading the van, trying self-consciously to be as quiet as possible, without being, you know, *too* quiet.

moments later, a young woman shows up at our van, explaining how her boyfriend was upset as they had missed our set, and had driven an hour. meanwhile, he came and peered over the fence, red-faced. she talked about him as if he weren't there.

we drove to a motel half way between balt and DC, and kip arranged for a room, using alcohol to enhance his hotel-booking skills. after getting the room, we drove across town o the denny's, where we ate too much of terrible foods.

back to the hotel, asleep.