Tour diary (pt. 4)
(written 7/15/06)
I think yesterday was the craziest day yet. We went from being tourists in Kennebunk, ME, to shopping looking to fix my bass drum pedal in Portland, ME, to playing a show in stifling heat, to taking a 3 1/2 hour drive to CT. to stay at Ben from NRL's house only to wind up in the worst traffic jam I've ever been in only like 5 exits on I-95 from where we needed to be. We were in a friggin' parking lot for almost 2 hours. When we finally got out of that mess, we had a helluva time finding Ben's house on the winding country roads. They had to talk us thru on the phone and when we finally get there, they're all skateboarding on the 1/2 pipe in Ben's backyard at like 2 in the morning. The kids stayed there while Andy and I drove back with Shane Problem to his new empty apartment in West Haven, CT where I spent another night sleeping on the floor.
Our morning started off great at the motel in Kennebunk. We even got to watch the original Godzilla on AMC. From there we wanted to drive into town to get K her special food (she can't have sugar or white flour). We wound up in a little bistro where we had an excellent lunch. K was in 7th heaven at the place, a whole menu of hippy food she could actually eat. From there we decided to drive on to Portland which was like 20 minutes away. We had time to kill so we went to a drum shop to get my pedal fixed. Wound up getting it fixed at a hardware store instead. So at least that was taken care of. We spent the rest of our time at the same strip mall which had so many cool shops. There was a music store where Andy got to try out the pink Hello Kitty guitar that will be his oneday. We did a little grocery and thrift shop shopping. Penny got to check out a tattoo palor across the street. We killed about 2 hours and headed over to the hall where we had another hour to kill before the doors opened.
Thankfully there was shade up by the door. Figures we picked the one week the locals say is the hottest of the Summer, it was like 95 in Portland. I got to take off my shoes and rest awhile. K was picking wild rasberries like the hippy she truely is. A lady showed up to open the place and we got the gear in. The Leftovers showed up about a 1/2 hour later. This was their latest CD release party show. They had to take off to get a PA so Penny and I set up the drums. We met the Rydells who are the Ramones reincarnated. The guitarist Denny has his Johnny Ramone down to a T, even with the same puddin' bowl haircut. We settled on a coin flip who would go on 1st. We won and got to play 2nd.
The hall got hot quick. It was a 120 year old town meeting hall or something. I expected more people, there was like 30 or so milling around. I think everyone just stood around 'coz of the heat. The Rydells played a great set. We hit it off so much with those guys that we got them a spot on our 8/26 Legion show. We were up next and I thought played a killer set. I was so into it I even told Andy to play the megafast "Jen's House". Penny did us proud and rocked the leather jacket for the whole set in that heat. Only problem I found out later is Andy hurt his neck head banging on the 3rd song in. I never even noticed! So I was proud of him toughing it out like that while being in extreme pain. I think the crowd was into it, but were just too hot to move. We did get good applause the few times we stopped playing. It really wasn't too bad behind the drums. I was surrounded by an army of electric fans. But as soon as I got done playing I noticed how oppressive it was back by the merch tables. Luckily I was in front of of a window and a breeze was blowing in.
A dude with a mohawk played a short accoustic set next. The Guts followed and played a tight set. From there it got kinda fuzzy as I had to get out of that heat. At least an ice cream truck was out in the parking lot where I had my 1st bomb pop in about 30 years. We all made the decision to drive to Ben's house. It would be a 3 1/2 hour drive, but better than a 7 hour straight drive to Reading. We really felt bad leaving early and couldn't apologize enough to The Leftovers. Those guys are great and were cool about it.
Andy was making great time on the drive to Ben's. He was driving at J Prozac speed. Everything was great until we got to that fucking traffic jam. As I said earlier, I've never seen a traffic jam so bad. We were all getting delirious by this point. Penny almost choked on a cracker after laughing at my "huh"'s? Instant karma I say. I was singing John Valby songs to pass the time. After almost 2 hours later we make our way out only to get lost on the road to Ben's. We finally made it there blah, blah, blah.
Set list
1) Girls With Boyfriends
2) Penny's A Pill Popper
3) Puke On Yourself
4) Jen's House
5) Stoopid Movie
6) Radio Off
7) Knucklehead
8) Do You Wanna Give Up?
9) Mexican Midget
10) Not Gonna Miss You
11) My Life's Crumbling
12) I Wish Sheena Was A Punk Rocker
13) Donna
(written 7/15/06)
I think yesterday was the craziest day yet. We went from being tourists in Kennebunk, ME, to shopping looking to fix my bass drum pedal in Portland, ME, to playing a show in stifling heat, to taking a 3 1/2 hour drive to CT. to stay at Ben from NRL's house only to wind up in the worst traffic jam I've ever been in only like 5 exits on I-95 from where we needed to be. We were in a friggin' parking lot for almost 2 hours. When we finally got out of that mess, we had a helluva time finding Ben's house on the winding country roads. They had to talk us thru on the phone and when we finally get there, they're all skateboarding on the 1/2 pipe in Ben's backyard at like 2 in the morning. The kids stayed there while Andy and I drove back with Shane Problem to his new empty apartment in West Haven, CT where I spent another night sleeping on the floor.
Our morning started off great at the motel in Kennebunk. We even got to watch the original Godzilla on AMC. From there we wanted to drive into town to get K her special food (she can't have sugar or white flour). We wound up in a little bistro where we had an excellent lunch. K was in 7th heaven at the place, a whole menu of hippy food she could actually eat. From there we decided to drive on to Portland which was like 20 minutes away. We had time to kill so we went to a drum shop to get my pedal fixed. Wound up getting it fixed at a hardware store instead. So at least that was taken care of. We spent the rest of our time at the same strip mall which had so many cool shops. There was a music store where Andy got to try out the pink Hello Kitty guitar that will be his oneday. We did a little grocery and thrift shop shopping. Penny got to check out a tattoo palor across the street. We killed about 2 hours and headed over to the hall where we had another hour to kill before the doors opened.
Thankfully there was shade up by the door. Figures we picked the one week the locals say is the hottest of the Summer, it was like 95 in Portland. I got to take off my shoes and rest awhile. K was picking wild rasberries like the hippy she truely is. A lady showed up to open the place and we got the gear in. The Leftovers showed up about a 1/2 hour later. This was their latest CD release party show. They had to take off to get a PA so Penny and I set up the drums. We met the Rydells who are the Ramones reincarnated. The guitarist Denny has his Johnny Ramone down to a T, even with the same puddin' bowl haircut. We settled on a coin flip who would go on 1st. We won and got to play 2nd.
The hall got hot quick. It was a 120 year old town meeting hall or something. I expected more people, there was like 30 or so milling around. I think everyone just stood around 'coz of the heat. The Rydells played a great set. We hit it off so much with those guys that we got them a spot on our 8/26 Legion show. We were up next and I thought played a killer set. I was so into it I even told Andy to play the megafast "Jen's House". Penny did us proud and rocked the leather jacket for the whole set in that heat. Only problem I found out later is Andy hurt his neck head banging on the 3rd song in. I never even noticed! So I was proud of him toughing it out like that while being in extreme pain. I think the crowd was into it, but were just too hot to move. We did get good applause the few times we stopped playing. It really wasn't too bad behind the drums. I was surrounded by an army of electric fans. But as soon as I got done playing I noticed how oppressive it was back by the merch tables. Luckily I was in front of of a window and a breeze was blowing in.
A dude with a mohawk played a short accoustic set next. The Guts followed and played a tight set. From there it got kinda fuzzy as I had to get out of that heat. At least an ice cream truck was out in the parking lot where I had my 1st bomb pop in about 30 years. We all made the decision to drive to Ben's house. It would be a 3 1/2 hour drive, but better than a 7 hour straight drive to Reading. We really felt bad leaving early and couldn't apologize enough to The Leftovers. Those guys are great and were cool about it.
Andy was making great time on the drive to Ben's. He was driving at J Prozac speed. Everything was great until we got to that fucking traffic jam. As I said earlier, I've never seen a traffic jam so bad. We were all getting delirious by this point. Penny almost choked on a cracker after laughing at my "huh"'s? Instant karma I say. I was singing John Valby songs to pass the time. After almost 2 hours later we make our way out only to get lost on the road to Ben's. We finally made it there blah, blah, blah.
Set list
1) Girls With Boyfriends
2) Penny's A Pill Popper
3) Puke On Yourself
4) Jen's House
5) Stoopid Movie
6) Radio Off
7) Knucklehead
8) Do You Wanna Give Up?
9) Mexican Midget
10) Not Gonna Miss You
11) My Life's Crumbling
12) I Wish Sheena Was A Punk Rocker
13) Donna