Saturday, August 23, 2003
31st Street Pub, Pittsburgh
As one might expect, I was the last one up this morning. It seems before I rose, the other guys managed to let two neighborhood cats into John's house. One of the cats also jumped onto the dashboard of the van when we were loading our stuff back into it. Friggin' cats. They ruin everything.
Had breakfast at Bob's Diner. For me that meant chocolate milk, pancakes and two eggs. Good stuff. Dylan drove the whole way from Philly to Pittsburgh, we made a couple of brief stops, but got to Pitt right on time to hook up with Chris's high school buddy, Matt, who's putting us up for the night. Matt's got a pretty nice house set-up in the Greenfield section of town.
Not long after arriving we set out to raid the stacks at Jerry's, a legendary local record (and I mean record store). My take: AC/DC - Highway to Hell & High Voltage, Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman, Queen II, Deep Purple - Machine Head, Black Sabbath (Ronnie James Dio-era) - Heaven and Hell, Scorpions - Love at First Sting, Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1, The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach, and Randy Newman - 12 Songs.
From there we drove into the city, found the club and hit Primanti Brothers for some Pittsburgh-style sandwiches. All of their sandwiches come with french fries, cole slaw and tomato in the sandwich. I got the Pittsburgh-style cheesesteak sandwich, which is basically a mozzarella cheeseburger on bread with the above additions. It was delicious. Even better with ketchup, and surprisingly not that obscene a meal.
Back at the club I decided to catch some winks in the van, as we arrived before the other two bands. Although I felt great last night, I woke up this morning with very little voice. I wonder if it was the air conditioning/ceiling fan combo at John's. Nonetheless, a sweaty nap in the humid van could only help. I have no idea how long I slept, but I think it was a good 90 min, if not more. Poor Dylan wasn't able to sleep for more than an hour in the van last night. I can sleep just about anywhere, and usually just about any time (except super late night/early morning, as evidenced by the fact that I'm writing this at 5:15 am and all the other guys are asleep . . . again). I woke up in time to catch the end of Kill the Messenger's set (they're the guys who got us this gig in exchange for us getting them into Siberia a couple months back). Good stuff there.
We decided to cater to the crowd by working around our more emotive and poppy material with the following set list:
Behind The Smile
Fake X
Evergreen
New Found Something
Ingrown
"Iverson"
Just Like Me
Listen
CST 3636
My voice was still in bad shape by the time we took the stage. I soldiered through it, skipping some high notes, the choruses of "Ingrown" and cutting "JLM" out of the set altogether. The guys played really well, an A for them, a C- for me (most of that being for effort and presentation), but I think the overall effect was good. There were more than four people there, but despite a nice write-up in Pulp the local alternative weekly (same size as mentions for the New Pornographers and the Pernice Brothers), none were really there to see us.
The guys from Killing the Messenger all hung out and dug the set. They also set us up with an equal take of the door and drinks for the stage. Can't say enough about those guys. After the show (we were the last of the three bands), we followed them over to a house party. With my voice already in dire condition I bolted for the van almost immediately because of the smoke. I read a portion of a magazine and dozed off. I think the guys said I spent another 90min minimum in the van, most of it sleeping. I've so wasted Dylan in the sleeping-in-the-van department.
When the guys came back we hit the Eat-And-Park on the other side of the Monongahela. There I had the worst grilled cheese with bacon ever, some gravy fries, most of a chocolate shake and a good third of a cookie sundae. Gotta start eating better tomorrow (riiiiight). Our waitress rocked. Chris had dozed off at the table and when she came with the food she said "wake his ass up, I've got food here!" She got a big tip for that.
So we're back at Matt's. Jamie's in the van, Dylan's dozed off to his Caddyshack DVD, and I once again should stop this nonsense and get some sleep myself.
Due to general exhaustion and the very late night of too much beer and food, we're skipping Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and heading straight to Milwaukee tomorrow. Hopefully my voice will come back full strength with the two days off. I have to be mindful of keeping my yammering to a minimum.
Had breakfast at Bob's Diner. For me that meant chocolate milk, pancakes and two eggs. Good stuff. Dylan drove the whole way from Philly to Pittsburgh, we made a couple of brief stops, but got to Pitt right on time to hook up with Chris's high school buddy, Matt, who's putting us up for the night. Matt's got a pretty nice house set-up in the Greenfield section of town.
Not long after arriving we set out to raid the stacks at Jerry's, a legendary local record (and I mean record store). My take: AC/DC - Highway to Hell & High Voltage, Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman, Queen II, Deep Purple - Machine Head, Black Sabbath (Ronnie James Dio-era) - Heaven and Hell, Scorpions - Love at First Sting, Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1, The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach, and Randy Newman - 12 Songs.
From there we drove into the city, found the club and hit Primanti Brothers for some Pittsburgh-style sandwiches. All of their sandwiches come with french fries, cole slaw and tomato in the sandwich. I got the Pittsburgh-style cheesesteak sandwich, which is basically a mozzarella cheeseburger on bread with the above additions. It was delicious. Even better with ketchup, and surprisingly not that obscene a meal.
Back at the club I decided to catch some winks in the van, as we arrived before the other two bands. Although I felt great last night, I woke up this morning with very little voice. I wonder if it was the air conditioning/ceiling fan combo at John's. Nonetheless, a sweaty nap in the humid van could only help. I have no idea how long I slept, but I think it was a good 90 min, if not more. Poor Dylan wasn't able to sleep for more than an hour in the van last night. I can sleep just about anywhere, and usually just about any time (except super late night/early morning, as evidenced by the fact that I'm writing this at 5:15 am and all the other guys are asleep . . . again). I woke up in time to catch the end of Kill the Messenger's set (they're the guys who got us this gig in exchange for us getting them into Siberia a couple months back). Good stuff there.
We decided to cater to the crowd by working around our more emotive and poppy material with the following set list:
Behind The Smile
Fake X
Evergreen
New Found Something
Ingrown
"Iverson"
Just Like Me
Listen
CST 3636
My voice was still in bad shape by the time we took the stage. I soldiered through it, skipping some high notes, the choruses of "Ingrown" and cutting "JLM" out of the set altogether. The guys played really well, an A for them, a C- for me (most of that being for effort and presentation), but I think the overall effect was good. There were more than four people there, but despite a nice write-up in Pulp the local alternative weekly (same size as mentions for the New Pornographers and the Pernice Brothers), none were really there to see us.
The guys from Killing the Messenger all hung out and dug the set. They also set us up with an equal take of the door and drinks for the stage. Can't say enough about those guys. After the show (we were the last of the three bands), we followed them over to a house party. With my voice already in dire condition I bolted for the van almost immediately because of the smoke. I read a portion of a magazine and dozed off. I think the guys said I spent another 90min minimum in the van, most of it sleeping. I've so wasted Dylan in the sleeping-in-the-van department.
When the guys came back we hit the Eat-And-Park on the other side of the Monongahela. There I had the worst grilled cheese with bacon ever, some gravy fries, most of a chocolate shake and a good third of a cookie sundae. Gotta start eating better tomorrow (riiiiight). Our waitress rocked. Chris had dozed off at the table and when she came with the food she said "wake his ass up, I've got food here!" She got a big tip for that.
So we're back at Matt's. Jamie's in the van, Dylan's dozed off to his Caddyshack DVD, and I once again should stop this nonsense and get some sleep myself.
Due to general exhaustion and the very late night of too much beer and food, we're skipping Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and heading straight to Milwaukee tomorrow. Hopefully my voice will come back full strength with the two days off. I have to be mindful of keeping my yammering to a minimum.
Friday, August 22, 2003
Grape Street Pub, (Manayunk) Philadelphia
Before I get to today’s gig I’d like to give a shout out to All-Most New Rentals in Union, NJ for the ill hookup. Good price, great service. We’re rollin’ correct in a 2003 Ford Econoline 8-passenger, silver, tinted windows, tape & CD . . . it’s pretty money.
Jamie and I picked the van up just after 3:00, hit his place in Motown where we met up with Chris, Dylan and Nokes, loaded up and hit the road. Got going about 5:00, fairly smooth sailing to Philthadelphia, got to the club just about 7:00.
[note to those less familiar with the Joanie cast of characters: our featured players for this journey are James F. Davidson (guitar), Christopher Q. Murphy (bass), Dylan P. Gadino (drums), John “Nokes” Novkovic (documentarian & crew), and of course yours truly (lead vocal)]
After unloading we picked up some cheesesteaks at Sorrentino’s deli a block from the club. I washed my down with some A&W, the guys opted for some Pabst Blue Ribbon. Tasty steaks w/ hot peppers . . . by the time we hit Philly I was dying for a good steak, a bottle of water and a frothy root beer. Sorrentino’s hit the spot.
The gig itself was a great success. Once again turnout exceeded my expectations as we had a strong and enthusiastic crowd. We’ve played Philly twice before (once at the Pontiac Grille, once at The Fire), but tonight blew the others away. I was a little unsure about the stage, which is in the corner of a seemingly small room with the bar to stage left and an open room (around an L-curve from the bar) to stage right, but once we got up there I really liked the feel of the place. I’m also proud to say I think we put on a hell of a show tonight. I had one of my best nights vocally in a long time, strong throughout, in complete control. Aside from some minor technical glitches early on with one of Chris’s patch cords the set was pretty much flawless. A strong A to be sure. Here’s our setlist:
Evergreen
Behind The Smile
Ingrown
“Moody”
New Found Something
Waiting For The Weekend
“Iverson”
Constellations
Listen
CST 3636
I felt particularly good about my performance of “Moody” tonight, which is nice as I’m a big fan of that song, having written the lyric and melody lines. It was also nice to get “Ingrown” back in there, which came at Nokes’ suggestion.
I’d be happy if we played every gig the way we played tonight. Good stuff. It feels great to have two gigs exceed expectations to begin the tour. We could play to 4 people in Pittsburgh at this point and I’d consider the first leg to be a success.
Both Dylan’s and Jamie’s girlfriends made it down from NJ and Chris had some peeps out, so everybody hung out after the set. In an effort to avoid blowing my voice out by trying to talk over the next band, I eventually camped outside by the van and read a magazine. After a while I noticed the guys trying to help a resident of the neighboring apartment building get into her place. It seems someone had broken off a key in her lock and she was locked out. Jamie got on the dumpster that was out front (hey, nothing but classy joints here, right?) thinking he could boost someone else onto the second floor balcony, but the dumpster top was that soft plastic and the balcony had a wooden railing I didn’t trust much. Nokes, however, noticed an iron gate next to the building, which I then scaled (it was divided into three parts, making it three simple steps up), at that point the balcony was about eye level. I tested the wood, some give, but fairly strong. There was a telephone wire in the way, but I managed to pull myself up on the balcony and walk down the stairs to let the girl in. Was actually no big deal, but I got a lot of Spiderman and Jackie Chan comments afterwards.
After we got the van packed back up Chris headed over to his friend John’s to hang with his peeps, while the rest of us with Dylan’s girlfriend Jen and her friend Chad found a local bar and got one round of drinks before squeezing (and I do mean squeezing) into Jen’s car and heading over to John’s. John, who was actually at our last Philly gig at The Fire (before which we also had cheesesteaks), is putting us up for the night, quality gent that he is. Dylan’s out in the van ready to frighten would-be thieves. The rest are asleep, as I should be. We’re up at 9am tomorrow and straight off to Pittsburgh . . .
Jamie and I picked the van up just after 3:00, hit his place in Motown where we met up with Chris, Dylan and Nokes, loaded up and hit the road. Got going about 5:00, fairly smooth sailing to Philthadelphia, got to the club just about 7:00.
[note to those less familiar with the Joanie cast of characters: our featured players for this journey are James F. Davidson (guitar), Christopher Q. Murphy (bass), Dylan P. Gadino (drums), John “Nokes” Novkovic (documentarian & crew), and of course yours truly (lead vocal)]
After unloading we picked up some cheesesteaks at Sorrentino’s deli a block from the club. I washed my down with some A&W, the guys opted for some Pabst Blue Ribbon. Tasty steaks w/ hot peppers . . . by the time we hit Philly I was dying for a good steak, a bottle of water and a frothy root beer. Sorrentino’s hit the spot.
The gig itself was a great success. Once again turnout exceeded my expectations as we had a strong and enthusiastic crowd. We’ve played Philly twice before (once at the Pontiac Grille, once at The Fire), but tonight blew the others away. I was a little unsure about the stage, which is in the corner of a seemingly small room with the bar to stage left and an open room (around an L-curve from the bar) to stage right, but once we got up there I really liked the feel of the place. I’m also proud to say I think we put on a hell of a show tonight. I had one of my best nights vocally in a long time, strong throughout, in complete control. Aside from some minor technical glitches early on with one of Chris’s patch cords the set was pretty much flawless. A strong A to be sure. Here’s our setlist:
Evergreen
Behind The Smile
Ingrown
“Moody”
New Found Something
Waiting For The Weekend
“Iverson”
Constellations
Listen
CST 3636
I felt particularly good about my performance of “Moody” tonight, which is nice as I’m a big fan of that song, having written the lyric and melody lines. It was also nice to get “Ingrown” back in there, which came at Nokes’ suggestion.
I’d be happy if we played every gig the way we played tonight. Good stuff. It feels great to have two gigs exceed expectations to begin the tour. We could play to 4 people in Pittsburgh at this point and I’d consider the first leg to be a success.
Both Dylan’s and Jamie’s girlfriends made it down from NJ and Chris had some peeps out, so everybody hung out after the set. In an effort to avoid blowing my voice out by trying to talk over the next band, I eventually camped outside by the van and read a magazine. After a while I noticed the guys trying to help a resident of the neighboring apartment building get into her place. It seems someone had broken off a key in her lock and she was locked out. Jamie got on the dumpster that was out front (hey, nothing but classy joints here, right?) thinking he could boost someone else onto the second floor balcony, but the dumpster top was that soft plastic and the balcony had a wooden railing I didn’t trust much. Nokes, however, noticed an iron gate next to the building, which I then scaled (it was divided into three parts, making it three simple steps up), at that point the balcony was about eye level. I tested the wood, some give, but fairly strong. There was a telephone wire in the way, but I managed to pull myself up on the balcony and walk down the stairs to let the girl in. Was actually no big deal, but I got a lot of Spiderman and Jackie Chan comments afterwards.
After we got the van packed back up Chris headed over to his friend John’s to hang with his peeps, while the rest of us with Dylan’s girlfriend Jen and her friend Chad found a local bar and got one round of drinks before squeezing (and I do mean squeezing) into Jen’s car and heading over to John’s. John, who was actually at our last Philly gig at The Fire (before which we also had cheesesteaks), is putting us up for the night, quality gent that he is. Dylan’s out in the van ready to frighten would-be thieves. The rest are asleep, as I should be. We’re up at 9am tomorrow and straight off to Pittsburgh . . .
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Merc addendum
I realized I forgot to mention last night's post-gig activities. Chris split back to Brooklyn and Jamie, Dylan, Jen, Becky and I worked our way out to the Tick-Tock Diner on Rt. 3, again proving that we'll drive a good 30+ minutes out of our way at 1am just to get some diner food after a gig. I rocked the pancakes and hot chocolate (as I often do). Our waitress reminded me of the blond girl from "Scrubs." She was also acting like she was trying to get fired, but she completely mis-tallied our bill in our favor, so she got a decent tip anyway.
About halfway through our food four loud women with bad tans and worse teeth sat down at the next table with two quiet bruiser-type guys. Dylan instantly determined that they were strippers. Apparently the Tick-Tock is the hot spot for strippers after the bars/clubs close at 2am. Becky confirmed his suspicions by reporting outside that she had seen them flashing each other at the table. Just goes to prove that strippers are not necessarily attractive as much as they are willing to disrobe for money.
Anyway, this tour blog now mentions strippers and beer, so hopefully the rock gods will smile on the rest of our tour.
About halfway through our food four loud women with bad tans and worse teeth sat down at the next table with two quiet bruiser-type guys. Dylan instantly determined that they were strippers. Apparently the Tick-Tock is the hot spot for strippers after the bars/clubs close at 2am. Becky confirmed his suspicions by reporting outside that she had seen them flashing each other at the table. Just goes to prove that strippers are not necessarily attractive as much as they are willing to disrobe for money.
Anyway, this tour blog now mentions strippers and beer, so hopefully the rock gods will smile on the rest of our tour.
Mercury Lounge, NYC
This may have been our "hometown" gig and tour launch, but it definitely felt like a part of tour to me, having only been back in the area for 24 hours when we hit the stage.
When I got to the club the guys left to get some cheap beer around the corner. I minded the merch and read the Onion in print (since I haven't been in front of a computer enough this week to read it on-line like I usually do). When they returned I got a slice of ziti pizza and some garlic knots at Ray's a block west of the Merc (a solid pizza stop for those in the area).
Did a good job of not talking and warming up tonight, though I didn't think I had my best gig vocally, little flat early on, little balky at the end of Constellations. Nonetheless, good stuff.
For me the best part of tonight's gig--aside from the fact that we finally got to play the Mercury Lounge, which I'm sure Chris will write at length about in his tour blog--was the turnout. You guys really came through, and at 11pm on a Wednesday night too! Totally made my night, if not the first half of the whole tour. Saw a bunch of peeps I didn't instantly recognize, a good number of Joanie die-hards, and many in between. Thank you all, you guys rock . . . hard!
Another nice surprise was to see Nelson George at the show. Those of you who watch VH-1 would probably recognize Nelson, who I've come to know through my job. He pops up regularly as a talking head in their documentaries. He's one of the top pop culture critics in the land, and one of my role models as a rock scribe (though I've done him little justice in that department). Turns out he's also an all-around quality human being. He stayed through the whole show and left with an extra CD to pass on to a friend of his at a leading rock mag. Can't knock that!
Here's our set list (working titles . . . as we tend not to name our songs until we have to . . . in quotes):
Evergreen
Behind The Smile
New Found Something
"I Don't Believe In 1979"
Waiting For The Weekend
Owned & Operated
"Iverson"
Constellations
I Melt With You
Listen
CST 3636
We decided to throw in the cover ("I Melt With You") because we worked it and another up to give us another way to mix it up on the road and we wanted to present a set that we thought would be representative of what we'd be playing on tour. Thus the oldie (O&O) and the cover. We've only played a cover on stage once before. That was also "I Melt With You" as an encore at the CD release show for Stop Having Fun last July. This is the first time we've stuck one in the set. It actually seemed like one of the least effective songs of the night, which is a good sign, actually.
Overall I'd give our performance a B+, but the show gets a strong A thanks to it opening the doors of the Merc, launching our tour, and first and foremost because of the great crowd!
I should turn in. I offered to drive to Philly tomorrow and it would probably be helpful to do so with my eyes open. Gotta finish packing and do one last load of wash before Jamie comes to pick up the van with me at 2:30.
When I got to the club the guys left to get some cheap beer around the corner. I minded the merch and read the Onion in print (since I haven't been in front of a computer enough this week to read it on-line like I usually do). When they returned I got a slice of ziti pizza and some garlic knots at Ray's a block west of the Merc (a solid pizza stop for those in the area).
Did a good job of not talking and warming up tonight, though I didn't think I had my best gig vocally, little flat early on, little balky at the end of Constellations. Nonetheless, good stuff.
For me the best part of tonight's gig--aside from the fact that we finally got to play the Mercury Lounge, which I'm sure Chris will write at length about in his tour blog--was the turnout. You guys really came through, and at 11pm on a Wednesday night too! Totally made my night, if not the first half of the whole tour. Saw a bunch of peeps I didn't instantly recognize, a good number of Joanie die-hards, and many in between. Thank you all, you guys rock . . . hard!
Another nice surprise was to see Nelson George at the show. Those of you who watch VH-1 would probably recognize Nelson, who I've come to know through my job. He pops up regularly as a talking head in their documentaries. He's one of the top pop culture critics in the land, and one of my role models as a rock scribe (though I've done him little justice in that department). Turns out he's also an all-around quality human being. He stayed through the whole show and left with an extra CD to pass on to a friend of his at a leading rock mag. Can't knock that!
Here's our set list (working titles . . . as we tend not to name our songs until we have to . . . in quotes):
Evergreen
Behind The Smile
New Found Something
"I Don't Believe In 1979"
Waiting For The Weekend
Owned & Operated
"Iverson"
Constellations
I Melt With You
Listen
CST 3636
We decided to throw in the cover ("I Melt With You") because we worked it and another up to give us another way to mix it up on the road and we wanted to present a set that we thought would be representative of what we'd be playing on tour. Thus the oldie (O&O) and the cover. We've only played a cover on stage once before. That was also "I Melt With You" as an encore at the CD release show for Stop Having Fun last July. This is the first time we've stuck one in the set. It actually seemed like one of the least effective songs of the night, which is a good sign, actually.
Overall I'd give our performance a B+, but the show gets a strong A thanks to it opening the doors of the Merc, launching our tour, and first and foremost because of the great crowd!
I should turn in. I offered to drive to Philly tomorrow and it would probably be helpful to do so with my eyes open. Gotta finish packing and do one last load of wash before Jamie comes to pick up the van with me at 2:30.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Here we go!
Got back from Chicago (an unrelated trip to see two college friends get married after some ten years together) about 11pm last night. Spent all day doing wash, packing, getting various things ready and catching up from being away. Just wrapping up a bonus hour of catch-up/blackout damage control at work right now. Now it's time to walk 'cross town to the Merc. The other guys are there already. We were supposed to sound check at 3:00 (!), but that wasn't really possible. Load in was 6:30 (I'm usually very good about being there for load-in, doing my share of the heavy lifting, today is a rare instance of pulling the lead-singer routine, but I have good reason). We should hit the stage at 11:00 tonight, hope to see you there, it should be a blast! I plan to post a gig-wrap late tonight.
