Sunday, August 31, 2003
Catching Up
So due to a lack of internet connectivity we've been unable to post any blog entries this past week. I did however write an entry the morning after our Minneapolis gig. I've posted that below. The rest of tour went smoothly, all of which you can read about in brief on our official tour diary page, which has a great selection of photos, or in more detail here in a couple days.
Right now I'm back in NJ. We got back about 11am on Friday after an all-night drive. Cleaned out the van and ate some tasty breakfast at the Morristown Diner (that'd be the #9 for me: pancakes, two eggs over-easy, bacon, hot chocolate), then Jamie and I returned the van. No extra charges . . . good thing I vacuumed it out, as there was a sign saying there was a $100 fee for excessive garbage. I think we would have qualified. Among the reasons why were peanut shells. Becky did a terrific thing by giving us a milk crate full of food and entertainment for the trip, but the peanuts in the shells . . . odd choice.
After I got home I more or less went straight to bed. Slept from about 1pm until 6:30/7ish. Watched the Yanks get trounced by the Red Sox (Jose Contreras earning his pay yet again) while unpacking, made a quick run for milk & bread, grabbed some take-out from Pop's (pulled pork, smashed taters, corn on the cob, biscuit) and went back to sleep a little after midnight.
Today I woke up 11ish and went into work. I got an extra day's pay for accompanying Dan Okrent while he signed about 100 copies of his new book Great Fortune, a history of Rockefeller Center. Good deal as I was only there for about 3 hours. The part I didn't figure in was that I gave my monthly train pass to Becky in my absence so it cost me $10 in transportation and with the less frequent weekend trains, it wound up being a 7-hour day anyway.
Took the train home to my mom's, who fed me a tasty steak dinner (jealous of C-mom? Oh, I haven't posted about that yet . . . soon) with corn on the cob & nice salad. Then she took me home where I showed her all 500+ tour pics.
Tomorrow Jamie's driving Dylan and I to Boston where we'll meet up with Chris, Nokes and Melissa coming from Brooklyn and assorted other girlfriends and Boston peeps for our show with Moonshot at the Skybar. This is a gig we've been looking forward to for a looooong time.
Next post will likely be on Monday.
Right now I'm back in NJ. We got back about 11am on Friday after an all-night drive. Cleaned out the van and ate some tasty breakfast at the Morristown Diner (that'd be the #9 for me: pancakes, two eggs over-easy, bacon, hot chocolate), then Jamie and I returned the van. No extra charges . . . good thing I vacuumed it out, as there was a sign saying there was a $100 fee for excessive garbage. I think we would have qualified. Among the reasons why were peanut shells. Becky did a terrific thing by giving us a milk crate full of food and entertainment for the trip, but the peanuts in the shells . . . odd choice.
After I got home I more or less went straight to bed. Slept from about 1pm until 6:30/7ish. Watched the Yanks get trounced by the Red Sox (Jose Contreras earning his pay yet again) while unpacking, made a quick run for milk & bread, grabbed some take-out from Pop's (pulled pork, smashed taters, corn on the cob, biscuit) and went back to sleep a little after midnight.
Today I woke up 11ish and went into work. I got an extra day's pay for accompanying Dan Okrent while he signed about 100 copies of his new book Great Fortune, a history of Rockefeller Center. Good deal as I was only there for about 3 hours. The part I didn't figure in was that I gave my monthly train pass to Becky in my absence so it cost me $10 in transportation and with the less frequent weekend trains, it wound up being a 7-hour day anyway.
Took the train home to my mom's, who fed me a tasty steak dinner (jealous of C-mom? Oh, I haven't posted about that yet . . . soon) with corn on the cob & nice salad. Then she took me home where I showed her all 500+ tour pics.
Tomorrow Jamie's driving Dylan and I to Boston where we'll meet up with Chris, Nokes and Melissa coming from Brooklyn and assorted other girlfriends and Boston peeps for our show with Moonshot at the Skybar. This is a gig we've been looking forward to for a looooong time.
Next post will likely be on Monday.
Red Sea Bar, Minneapolis
The ride from Oak Creek, WI to Minneapolis was swift and unadventurous. Cereal at Amy & Dan’s made for breakfast, Burger King made for lunch (never have a whopper without cheese . . . you don’t want to be able to taste the meat, trust me). Nokes did the driving, I did my fair share of sleeping.
We crossed the Mississippi and rolled into Minneapolis at about 5:00 and hooked up with Tooey. Dinner was at the Bullwinkle Pub. I had a barbecue chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon. It was freaking delicious. Chris and I played a game of classic bubble hockey (USA v. CCCP), which I won 3-0. Tooey bought us dinner, which was far too nice of him, but he’s some big-wig NASDAQ trader, so I suppose he could afford it.
The Red Sea Par is in the Ethiopian neighborhood in Minneapolis. Yeah, there’s actually a large, ethnically isolated Ethiopian part of Minneapolis, supposedly the largest in the nation. Who woulda thunk it.
Monday’s are punk nights at the Red Sea bar. So the other bands were much younger and much more spastic than us, but I think we held our own nicely. My voice was not 100%, but the day of not speaking paid off big time, as I actually got more control as the set went on and was able to pull of “Constellations” late in the order. Here’s our set list:
Evergreen
Fake X
Waiting for the Weekend
Ingrown
Owned & Operated
“Iverson”
Constellations
Listen
CST 3636
The place was split into two rooms, the bar in one the stage in the other. For touring bands they make it all ages, so you can only drink in the room with the bar. When we were setting up on stage there was nobody in the room and we got kind of worried, but once we started everyone filtered back in and we had a decent and enthusiastic crowd. Yet another successful gig.
The band that followed us, the Bourbon Outfitters, was a lot of fun, I assume Chris will say more about them, so I’ll not do so here.
Afterwards Jamie, Dylan, Nokes and Tooey went down the road to the Triple Rock (another club/bar), while Chris and I watched the van/gear, hanging out in the front seats listening to the Bourbon Outfitters, the Magnetic Fields and the CD we had made of our set. We hope to post an MP3 of “CST 3636” from last night’s set soon.
We then rolled over to Tooey’s place. He lives in a corner apartment on the 16th floor of a building in the heart of downtown. You know, nothing special. After ordering some pizza (actually pretty good!), which we ate while watching the 1980 World Series on Classic ESPN, I retired to the van.
We’re taking it easy this morning, watching TV at Tooeys (he’s at work, we’ve got rule of the place). There’s a store across the street that sells “rock stuff” so we’ll be going there when it opens at 11:00. Hopefully we’ll also get to catch some Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. Then on to Lacrosse for volleyball night at 324 Live. Rock on!
We crossed the Mississippi and rolled into Minneapolis at about 5:00 and hooked up with Tooey. Dinner was at the Bullwinkle Pub. I had a barbecue chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon. It was freaking delicious. Chris and I played a game of classic bubble hockey (USA v. CCCP), which I won 3-0. Tooey bought us dinner, which was far too nice of him, but he’s some big-wig NASDAQ trader, so I suppose he could afford it.
The Red Sea Par is in the Ethiopian neighborhood in Minneapolis. Yeah, there’s actually a large, ethnically isolated Ethiopian part of Minneapolis, supposedly the largest in the nation. Who woulda thunk it.
Monday’s are punk nights at the Red Sea bar. So the other bands were much younger and much more spastic than us, but I think we held our own nicely. My voice was not 100%, but the day of not speaking paid off big time, as I actually got more control as the set went on and was able to pull of “Constellations” late in the order. Here’s our set list:
Evergreen
Fake X
Waiting for the Weekend
Ingrown
Owned & Operated
“Iverson”
Constellations
Listen
CST 3636
The place was split into two rooms, the bar in one the stage in the other. For touring bands they make it all ages, so you can only drink in the room with the bar. When we were setting up on stage there was nobody in the room and we got kind of worried, but once we started everyone filtered back in and we had a decent and enthusiastic crowd. Yet another successful gig.
The band that followed us, the Bourbon Outfitters, was a lot of fun, I assume Chris will say more about them, so I’ll not do so here.
Afterwards Jamie, Dylan, Nokes and Tooey went down the road to the Triple Rock (another club/bar), while Chris and I watched the van/gear, hanging out in the front seats listening to the Bourbon Outfitters, the Magnetic Fields and the CD we had made of our set. We hope to post an MP3 of “CST 3636” from last night’s set soon.
We then rolled over to Tooey’s place. He lives in a corner apartment on the 16th floor of a building in the heart of downtown. You know, nothing special. After ordering some pizza (actually pretty good!), which we ate while watching the 1980 World Series on Classic ESPN, I retired to the van.
We’re taking it easy this morning, watching TV at Tooeys (he’s at work, we’ve got rule of the place). There’s a store across the street that sells “rock stuff” so we’ll be going there when it opens at 11:00. Hopefully we’ll also get to catch some Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. Then on to Lacrosse for volleyball night at 324 Live. Rock on!
