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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
This downtime between Jena Berlin and Mose Giganticus is really getting to me...aside from practice 2 hours a day with Mose, all I have been doing is sitting around, sleeping on Jon and Companys couch, and walking to the Market-Frankford line. At least I really like Philadelphia...
It's sort of bummer to be away from everyone. I know it is my fault just as much as it is everyone else's, probably moreso mine, but not hearing from people is starting to get to me. Maybe its just because I woke up today kind of sick, but, today has been borderline miserable. Aside from my 24 hours in Atlanta and the information I could take in during then, I have absolutely no idea how everyone is doing or what has been happening in Atlanta.
there is no point to any of this. I just want to get on the road again.
It's sort of bummer to be away from everyone. I know it is my fault just as much as it is everyone else's, probably moreso mine, but not hearing from people is starting to get to me. Maybe its just because I woke up today kind of sick, but, today has been borderline miserable. Aside from my 24 hours in Atlanta and the information I could take in during then, I have absolutely no idea how everyone is doing or what has been happening in Atlanta.
there is no point to any of this. I just want to get on the road again.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Nijmengen
Willem, Riekus, Erik, Pitter, Myers, Klyman and Muth all went out to a bar in Nijmengen to celebrate its 25 year anniversary, as well as it being the next to last day of tour, as well as Erik's (our driver and game face extraordinaire) last night on tour, as he wont be accompanying us to Belgium tomorrow. Jon and I stayed in...Jon is sleeping on Willems couch and I writing in a blog on Riekus' computer. Jon has legit reasons for staying in, but I just think i am bad at touring.
Ill try and write something real about this tour, but as for now a couple paragraphs will have to suffice. We have been over here since September 4th, and along that time I have become pretty comfortable with never knowing what people are saying around me. The Antillectual dudes all speak flawless English, but they do spend a lot of time conversing in Dutch, which is awesome, because it has given us time to play the "try and guess what the Dutch are saying" game, which I dont think they find the humor in. Being in Slovenia where even the Europeans had no idea what the people around us were speaking was nice, simply because we all looked like a bunch of assholes; I have mastered the art of picking out a "Coca Cola Light" and a pack of Gummy Bears, taking them to the cashier, avoid all eye contact, give them my euros and hope they arent fucking me over. I was talking to Dave about how when I was in South Philly walking around, I just felt like everyone around me KNEW I wasnt from South Philly. That feeling is amplified over here, but over 17 days, you learn to feel comfortable looking like an American Asshole. The majority of people have been so nice and helpful over here that this has easily been one of the most enjoyable, incredible experiences of my whole life. This tour never became "just another tour"; I feared that somewhere along the way the glitz of being on a whole other continent playing shows would wear off and I would eventually settle into the idea that this is just another tour and I would forget that this isnt happening on the East Coast. That never once happened, and I am incredibly happy about that. Tomorrow we play in Belgium. After the show, we'll get driven straight to the airport, where we will get on a hour and a half fight form Amsterdam to Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt from Philly, and life will be normal again.
Mad bummer.
Ill try and write something real about this tour, but as for now a couple paragraphs will have to suffice. We have been over here since September 4th, and along that time I have become pretty comfortable with never knowing what people are saying around me. The Antillectual dudes all speak flawless English, but they do spend a lot of time conversing in Dutch, which is awesome, because it has given us time to play the "try and guess what the Dutch are saying" game, which I dont think they find the humor in. Being in Slovenia where even the Europeans had no idea what the people around us were speaking was nice, simply because we all looked like a bunch of assholes; I have mastered the art of picking out a "Coca Cola Light" and a pack of Gummy Bears, taking them to the cashier, avoid all eye contact, give them my euros and hope they arent fucking me over. I was talking to Dave about how when I was in South Philly walking around, I just felt like everyone around me KNEW I wasnt from South Philly. That feeling is amplified over here, but over 17 days, you learn to feel comfortable looking like an American Asshole. The majority of people have been so nice and helpful over here that this has easily been one of the most enjoyable, incredible experiences of my whole life. This tour never became "just another tour"; I feared that somewhere along the way the glitz of being on a whole other continent playing shows would wear off and I would eventually settle into the idea that this is just another tour and I would forget that this isnt happening on the East Coast. That never once happened, and I am incredibly happy about that. Tomorrow we play in Belgium. After the show, we'll get driven straight to the airport, where we will get on a hour and a half fight form Amsterdam to Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt from Philly, and life will be normal again.
Mad bummer.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Tribewerk
to get tattooed in Venice tomorrow, but there isn't enough time. Total
bummer.
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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
We got on the road today at 8:30 in the morning and spent 14 hours getting from the far North-East of France to the Far South-east. We took the route Nationale in order to avoid 100 euros in tolls and was totally worth it. Jon and I have this theory that France is sort of like the Ergs of Europe. It's like how the Ergs had the nerve to keep writing more and more songs and putting out more records. It was sort of like "ok, the Ergs, we get it, you're really good at pop-punk." Well France is sort of like that...every city is 20 times nicer than the last and the scenery keeps getting prettier and prettier; It's like; "Ok France, we get it, you're fucking beautiful."
I am slowly mastering the Frech Keyboard. Tomorrow we play Toulouse, which begins a week of shows every night. Usually I hate off days on tour, but when you are in France, they arent that bad.
I miss my dog.
I am slowly mastering the Frech Keyboard. Tomorrow we play Toulouse, which begins a week of shows every night. Usually I hate off days on tour, but when you are in France, they arent that bad.
I miss my dog.
La Havre, France
sitting around here a couple of young girls came up and asked Jon and
I if we were in Jena Berlin. They were at the show and asked if they
could take a picture with us. Fucking, France, man.
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Saturday, September 6, 2008
Van
9 comfortably and has a TV and PS3, as well as built in navigation.
Shits nuts.
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Friday, September 5, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
It’s 3:23 on a Wednesday morning. About 787 miles south of here, my mom is about to wake up and start her day; mine is still continuing from when I woke up off this couch at 10:30 yesterday morning. Currently, I’m waiting for Jeremy from Jumpstart Records to call Dave Kylman’s cellphone to tell me that he is on the way with Jena Berlin’s new 7”. Jon Loudon called Dave at 11:55 to tell him that he had just talked to Jeremy and Jeremy said it was going to be “a couple more hours.” I am not sure what constitutes as a couple more hours, and since Jon didn’t respond to my last text message, I can only assume that this thing isn’t going to happen tonight. But I suppose getting as little sleep as possible before an 8 hour flight, followed by an hour and a half layover, topped off with an hour and a half flight isn’t necessarily a bad thing. So I guess I’ll just stay up a little while longer and hopefully sometime soon this phone will ring.
South Philadelphia is a hell of a place. Double parking is allowed, so long as if you park on the outside you leave early enough so that those parked on the inside can leave when they need to. This kind of honor system seems contradictory to me, because every person I have come across in South Philly that I don’t know or haven’t been personally introduced to is kind of a dickhead. People seems very caught off guard when you say “thank you very much” when they give you change at the 7 Eleven. People act genuinely shocked when you hold a door open for them. I feel like there is a certain sense of rudness inherent to South Philly that just wouldn’t fly in Atlanta. Sure, when I was a little kid, I swore. In fact, I thought it was so awesome to use offensive language that I would do it at every chance I had. The thing is, while I was 12 years old and swearing like a sailor, I was very careful to make sure I never swore in front of adults, and certainly not in any other situation that would advertise the fact that I was 12 years old swearing like a sailor. This is not the case in South Philly.
Last Wednesday I played my first show with Jena Berlin, in what I think can officially be called a “train wreck.” I never once got to practice with the band, could hear nothing but myself on Jeff’s drumset, with no vocals or guitars to help me follow the song. We playing on a knee high stage that was set up over three or four lanes in a bowling alley in Asbury Park, NJ., and a couple blocks away, Billy Idol was playing a show at an outdoor venue. When I was sitting outside sending a text message, I heard Billy playing “Rebel Yell,” and sadly, this was the highlight of the night.
Thursday was insanely better. Things slowly began to click and our set was less of a train wreck and more of a typical house show. Jordan and I don’t have any gear in Philadelphia, which meant we had to borrow gear from the band Scream Hello, which meant anytime Jordan, Jon, Dave or myself bumped into any other one of us, we would get the shit shocked out of us. Being that this was a house show, we got shocked. A whole hell of a lot. This would not be the only night that this would happen
Friday we loaded up the van and drove to New Brunswick, NJ. No one likes New Jersey except for the people who live there, and I feel like they are all just so miserable that they don’t know any better. People from Philly hate people from Jersey. People from New York hate people from Jersey. The only person I know that lives in New Jersey isn’t pumped about the fact that he lives in New Jersey. I don’t feel like I am being over dramatic when I say that no one likes New Jersey. Having said that, they have produced three of the best live bands I have seen in a long long time: Static Radio, Scream Hello, and the Ergs.
Just like every other time I have been in New York, we got lost trying to find our way to ABC No Rio. After the Google Maps on my phone told us to turn left onto a road that we couldn’t turn left onto, we eventually found our way to the venue and played to a very sizeable crowd. There is no way to say this without sounding sexist so I am just going to say it…the fact that Tia and Rachael from Bridge and Tunnel are both worlds better than me at playing bass and guitar (respectively) really really really bums me out.
We woke up at 8:30 Sunday morning and drove from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Syracuse, NY. Barrie showed us to some vegan milkshakes and I ate 3 veggies burgers and a veggie dog for free. We also played really really well to a bunch of kids that new the words to Jena Berlin songs and were mad stoked to see us play. So all and all, great fucking day.
Yesterday and Today, I slept.
Tomrrow we fly into Frankfurt, before finally ending up in Amsterdam. After that, who knows what the fuck is going to happen.
Its almost 4:00 in the morning. Jeremy isn’t calling, I’m going to bed.
South Philadelphia is a hell of a place. Double parking is allowed, so long as if you park on the outside you leave early enough so that those parked on the inside can leave when they need to. This kind of honor system seems contradictory to me, because every person I have come across in South Philly that I don’t know or haven’t been personally introduced to is kind of a dickhead. People seems very caught off guard when you say “thank you very much” when they give you change at the 7 Eleven. People act genuinely shocked when you hold a door open for them. I feel like there is a certain sense of rudness inherent to South Philly that just wouldn’t fly in Atlanta. Sure, when I was a little kid, I swore. In fact, I thought it was so awesome to use offensive language that I would do it at every chance I had. The thing is, while I was 12 years old and swearing like a sailor, I was very careful to make sure I never swore in front of adults, and certainly not in any other situation that would advertise the fact that I was 12 years old swearing like a sailor. This is not the case in South Philly.
Last Wednesday I played my first show with Jena Berlin, in what I think can officially be called a “train wreck.” I never once got to practice with the band, could hear nothing but myself on Jeff’s drumset, with no vocals or guitars to help me follow the song. We playing on a knee high stage that was set up over three or four lanes in a bowling alley in Asbury Park, NJ., and a couple blocks away, Billy Idol was playing a show at an outdoor venue. When I was sitting outside sending a text message, I heard Billy playing “Rebel Yell,” and sadly, this was the highlight of the night.
Thursday was insanely better. Things slowly began to click and our set was less of a train wreck and more of a typical house show. Jordan and I don’t have any gear in Philadelphia, which meant we had to borrow gear from the band Scream Hello, which meant anytime Jordan, Jon, Dave or myself bumped into any other one of us, we would get the shit shocked out of us. Being that this was a house show, we got shocked. A whole hell of a lot. This would not be the only night that this would happen
Friday we loaded up the van and drove to New Brunswick, NJ. No one likes New Jersey except for the people who live there, and I feel like they are all just so miserable that they don’t know any better. People from Philly hate people from Jersey. People from New York hate people from Jersey. The only person I know that lives in New Jersey isn’t pumped about the fact that he lives in New Jersey. I don’t feel like I am being over dramatic when I say that no one likes New Jersey. Having said that, they have produced three of the best live bands I have seen in a long long time: Static Radio, Scream Hello, and the Ergs.
Just like every other time I have been in New York, we got lost trying to find our way to ABC No Rio. After the Google Maps on my phone told us to turn left onto a road that we couldn’t turn left onto, we eventually found our way to the venue and played to a very sizeable crowd. There is no way to say this without sounding sexist so I am just going to say it…the fact that Tia and Rachael from Bridge and Tunnel are both worlds better than me at playing bass and guitar (respectively) really really really bums me out.
We woke up at 8:30 Sunday morning and drove from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Syracuse, NY. Barrie showed us to some vegan milkshakes and I ate 3 veggies burgers and a veggie dog for free. We also played really really well to a bunch of kids that new the words to Jena Berlin songs and were mad stoked to see us play. So all and all, great fucking day.
Yesterday and Today, I slept.
Tomrrow we fly into Frankfurt, before finally ending up in Amsterdam. After that, who knows what the fuck is going to happen.
Its almost 4:00 in the morning. Jeremy isn’t calling, I’m going to bed.
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