Salamé!
Well, we’ve recently returned from the East coast and are finally healed and rested from four straight days of 4 a.m. bar close and two 24 hour drives. As such, we’ve got some stories to report and a few treats to share with you all.
First off, though, a bit of news is in order before we hit the stories, as tour recaps get long and in the current age it’s hard to hold someone’s attention for more than about 2 minutes, so if you want the story, continue ahead. Otherwise, here goes some info:
First off, we’re going to be playing Mercurial Rage’s big CD Release Party June 7th at the Fineline in Minneapolis. It’s going to be a fantastic show and you all should be there (if you’re over 18).
Secondly, we just recorded eight new demos (in addition to the first six we’ve already done), so we’ve got some new tunes in the grinder. Don’t expect to hear anything too soon; just know they’re in the works and we’ve got some great new ideas going. Personally I’m very excited about all the songs, and I think the next album’s sound is starting to congeal a bit. It’s a bit darker, more ambient, more experimental, more varied – everything a good sophomore album should be. But perhaps I speak too soon . . .
As far as video blogs go, we should have a new one up by Sunday, so be on the look out for that. There is some amazing footage from NYC – consider yourselves warned.
Lastly, we’re really going to be hitting the net hard with promo as well as scrapping a Midwest tour together, so anything anyone can do to help with some promo would be great. Join the street team, tell your friends, etc. And keep watching for more dates!
Oh, we’ve got Dan’s Philly History Tour up – watch it here:
Before I start, I’d like to bring to your attention something interesting I learned today: If you’ve ever driven on Chicago’s Skyway Tollway or Indiana’s entire toll system, it turns out you’re actually paying Spanish and Japanese investors who’ve leased the roads for some 99 years, not the state governments. I found this to be obnoxious, especially considering the current economic situation, as it seems very unwise to be handing money overseas like that. If that wasn’t enough, here’s a video that outlines an interesting trans-North American highway system . . . again to be owned and controlled by overseas investors. Watch and be amazed:
Alright, on to the tour recap:
I suppose I should preface all of this by saying that, once again, our great friend RyAnhorn joined us on the trip, as well as my little brother Jimmy who you can thank for the Out of Sight and Charlatan videos. We ostensibly chauffeured him out to NYC so he could hitch a ride out to Western MA to work on an organic farm all summer . . . crazy kid. Oh, and there’s a bit of repeat in the middle as Mike already relayed the Cold War Kids story, but the rest is fresh.
Anyhow, we began the daylong trip at about 6:15 p.m. on Friday night. We gathered some supplies, hit the bank, and got on our way. We hadn’t planned on I-394 (our gateway to I-94 and thus East) being closed down, so we had to take a sketchy alternate route that put us about an hour behind schedule. We grabbed Ryan about 7:30 from St. Paul and were finally on our way. Once we hit Wisconsin we realized it was well past dinnertime so we hit up the old standby – Subway. It was not so glorious.
We continued on through Wisconsin watching Seinfeld DVDs (of note: We finally realized we can hook our laptops up to a power converter to keep them charged and then run a 1/8” jack to cassette adapter into the stereo system for a cinema experience that is very adequate. Why we didn’t come up with this sooner I couldn’t tell you, but it makes the slow times more tolerable. Sadly, the VHS kick might be on its way out). Dan and I traded about 1 a.m. and he took the nasty middle of the night shift we all dread.
After a little snack stop for overpriced beef jerky, we continued on through Chicago and Indiana, paying crazy tolls to foreign investors, and enjoying Gary, Indiana’s odor (well, most of us slept, but I’m sure Dan took that scent in deep). Some Tim and Eric Awesome Show! Great Job was a nice treat before bed as Ryan brought the Season 1 DVD, and over the course of the next five days we probably watched each episode about 13 times. That number is not an exaggeration.
Mark took over in the morning times and the rest of us continued to get some restless sleep. About 2:30 we hit up some lunch on one of Ohio’s many scenic tollway stops, and before we knew it, we were in the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside. Pennsylvania is hands down one of the prettiest states to drive through come spring, with western Massachusetts being its only real rival so far. Maybe one day we’ll remember a camera and take some pictures.
We got to Philadelphia about 5:30, loaded in, wandered, and watched Dan expertly park Betty and the Bullet into quite a tight space. Ryan admitted he’d never really been east of Illinois before, so he checked off his third new state of the day. We played a fun set at Dr. Watson’s and took in some pool and Jukebox action (which hilariously came over the main stage PA while the band after us was playing . . . awkward but it all worked out in the end) afterward with our friends Theresa and Heather who were also nice enough to let us party at their place until all hours of the morning. We drove into Jersey for that, so Ryan got state four, and between Bacardi, Guitar Hero, and some bizarre existential discussion, a great night was had. Cheers you two for the place!
Next day we had some greasy breakfast at Cracker Barrell, said good-bye to our Jersey friends, and headed up to NYC. Check off Ryan’s fifth state and our easiest entrance into Manhattan ever (some 35 minutes compared to the 95 last time), and we were in our favorite city. Faced with a free day on Monday and a 4 a.m. bar close, we knew Sunday night would be fantastic.
Jimmy met up with his friends after we settled into Mike’s friend Veda’s place in Brooklyn, so us 21+ers sipped some Carlo Rossi and hit the city. We found a great little blues bar somewhere in the East Village after taking Ryan to Times Square and Central Park (tourists), and watched some tunes and drank some PBR (why people in NYC think PBR is kitschy and awesome is beyond us all). I headed to the next-door bar for some $3 rail deals and discovered what might be the only bar in Manhattan that encourages beer pong playing. Go figure. We made some friends, drank til their 3 a.m. close, and headed back next door for some sketchy dancing and more PBR. I obliviously began dancing with some girl who was there with her boyfriend, but I’ll just say it all worked out in the end. Again, we stayed til the regular 4 a.m. close, and somehow found our way back to the subway to Brooklyn. It was the second of the 5 a.m. bedtime nights, but it didn’t quite take the cake.
Next day we got going (slowly) and called our buddy Ari Herstand who was staying somewhere in Manhattan. Before meeting him we hit up an “all you can eat all you can drink for $30” sushi place, and the night began (this was after we finished up that jug of Carlo. Absolutely delicious . . . right . . .). After some three and a half hours we finally got booted (it was apparently only supposed to last for two hours), and we started handing out fliers and CDs to everyone who walked by to promote our show the next day. We visited our friend Michael to see some GTA4 action then met up with Ari and his friends. Thankfully, the video camera was brought out, Tim and Eric quotes flew and swarmed from our mouths, and everyone else was thoroughly confused. We wandered a few blocks to a Karaoke bar and commandeered the place, singing Minnesota hits like Semisonic’s “Closing Time,” Mark tried to sing the Strokes (he was maybe a little toasty by this point . . . video is coming), and we sang our hearts out for a few hours. After trying to find another bar (like it was necessary) and getting booted from some late night eatery, we miraculously got home again and were ready for some sleep.
Tuesday afternoon was fairly quiet. We got up in time to get ready, watch some Seinfeld, and make the surprisingly long drive from Brooklyn to the Annex in Manhattan. We got some skanky Cantonese food, hung out with our publicist Dayna and the band Mayfield from Australia (super nice guys with very decent tunes to boot), and got ready to rock. The show was a blast and we met some new folks, and though the club was cool it was a bit out of our price range. As such, we headed to a club our friend Zach told us about that served free Newcastle. Naturally, we headed in that direction as free is our price range.
After a bizarre encounter with Kirstin Dunst (our friend Michael lit her cigarette and we all failed to realize it was her until we’d walked a distance too awkward to retrace), we got the last of the Newcastles. The club was a bit trendy/crowded for us, so we headed to Rebel Rebel at Lit Lounge to party with our old pal Joey Nova. Between more drinks, go-go dancers, and some more new friends, we had a great time at Rebel Rebel. The rest of the boys headed back early for some White Castle and High Life, but I stayed out into the wee hours. After making some friends from Taipei in the subway station and getting my head caught in the subway doors, I managed to get back to Brooklyn, only to realize I’d gotten off at the wrong station. I knew where I was, and it wasn’t exactly near my final destination. I had no money and no more rides on my Metro Card, so it was a nice long walk home in Brooklyn at 5 a.m. At some point it turned into an early morning jog (I got impatient), so at least I got some exercise out of the ordeal. Go figure.
Wednesday (our last day) was all about more recovery, more Tim and Eric, and an arduous journey into midtown Manhattan carrying our guitars/pedal boards/and Mark’s cymbals (we carried them all through the subway system and down many blocks . . . it gets tiring lugging all that gear around . . . but again, it was good exercise . . .?). We played a four song set for Fearless TV which should air in the next few months (we’ll let you know where and when for each city later on), met some nice folks, and headed home. The journey home was basically the same as the way out there, but in reverse. The only plus was a stop at our favorite Illinois oasis, Belvidere, and some delicious Taco Bell.
I’ve got to start doing these blogs as they occur so they don’t get so long. Cheers and congratulations if you made it through the whole thing – more power to you!
Until later,
Joe
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Feelin' Good Lost
Hey all,
So, it's been a couple three weeks since our last post, and, in accordance with my promise of writing more blogs, I'm going to do a little recap of January and update you all on our plans for the near future.
January has been pretty home-oriented and we haven't ventured forth too far, for the most part. It's given us some time to catch up with friends and ruminate on the "Master Plan" with all parties involved, but we're missing the road and are looking forward to February where we have plenty more dates. We started the year off by playing at MacPhail to welcome in their new building and new performance center. It was an opportunity to play in front of the high school crowd, something we don't get to do enough. High school kids are often the most devoted fans, so we definitely look forward to playing some more all ages shows in the future. The following week, we braved some bitter temperatures (-12 air temperature with a -45 windchill) and rocked up at Concordia College in Moorhead. Mike and I got yelled at by a basketball practice for apparently interrupting their practice (who knew walking by on the other end of the court during a huddle counted as interfering with the scrimmage?), which was kind of annoying, but otherwise the show was a blast. We stayed warm in our free hotel room with plenty of Captain Morgan, which seems to be the WLR booze of choice for the past six months. There's some choice footage of the night that may or may not end up in a Vlog . . . we shall see . . .
After that show we headed down to Madison to play with our buddies The Box Social at Cafe Monmarte. It was possibly the tiniest stage we've played yet, but the sound was very decent and we had a good time. Our good friend Natasha put us up for the night and we had a pretty wild party that ended at 8:00 a.m. in typical WLR fashion. Apparently we're bad at going to bed. My brother Jimmy accompanied us and shot some footage, along with our traveling buddy/"tour manager" (though he does no actual duties) Ryan Anhorn, who is always good for about a thousand laughs. After about four hours of sleep we got up, drank a bunch of water, got on the road home, ate some greasy burgers, downed more water (and vitamin waters), and finally got to St. Paul by about 5:30. We had a demo appointment with Mr. Paul Marino at Fuzzy Slippers studio, and got to work tracking about 6:30.
We whipped through six new ideas, getting drums, bass, guitars, down and even laid some piano and mellotron tracks into the mix. We might go do some vocal work in the next couple weeks, but don't get too excited because we won't be posting any of this material . . . It's just a bit of tease to let you all know we haven't gotten lazy with our time off. We have plenty more ideas to work up, and we plan to demo once every couple months for the next ten months or so before heading back to the studio to work on album 2.
Last week we had some meetings to discuss new photos and videos, and we're planning on getting to work on those soon. We've got a pretty funny Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job! style one worked up for Out of Sight, and we're hoping to shoot that this weekend if possible. The other video ideas should coalesce in the coming months, so keep your eyes open for those.
This last weekend we went down to Schaumberg in Illinois to play a show with Eve 6, which was definitely an experience. They ended up being really nice, down-to-earth guys, and even got us some free pizza. The crowd was responsive, the room was packed, we had free booze and the whole experience was pretty awesome. It was great to see how humble the Eve 6 guys were, and made us all the more intent to keep our own egos in check. We headed out of town to one of our favorite Super 8's in Elgin, IL, and headed out early the next day to get to Lutsen, MN to play Papa Charlie's on the ski mountain there.
We had to play three 50 minute sets, and since our usual set is 45 minutes, we had to learn a bunch of covers and play all of our old material to cover the allotted time. We ended up doing some New Order tunes, some Clash, Beatles, Stones, Bowie, etc., and it was fun to throw some other songs into our repertoire. We got money to spend at the bar, free hotel rooms, and free lift tickets for the next day, so we were hell bent on having a great time up there. The weather was fantastic, too, which only added to our enjoyment. We managed to find a pretty kickin party and again were up until about 8 a.m., playing Catchphrase, Guitar Hero, hot-tubbing, and drinking. We dragged our asses out of bed after about four hours of sleep to avoid the check-out brigade, and to ensure that we had some snowboarding time. After some really crusty fish and chips, Mike, Mark and I hit the mountain hard, and Dan slept in the van (he doesn't have a snowboard or proper attire, so sad day for Dan). We had a great time bombing down the hills and going down runs a little past our means (Mike and I used to ride a lot back in high school, but it's been a few years). It was exhilarating and way too much fun, especially because it was free. Awesome perks!
This week, we're going to be shooting some new photos at the Kitty Cab Klub on Wednesday with Darren Back, an awesome photographer who has shot for Spin and many others, so this new batch of photos should be amazing. We're really looking forward to working with him and we'll let you know how it all goes after it happens!
Our next batch of shows will be out and about the Midwest with VAST and the Effects, so check our MySpace page for dates, times, and locations. We hope to see everyone out rocking with us!
Best,
Joe
So, it's been a couple three weeks since our last post, and, in accordance with my promise of writing more blogs, I'm going to do a little recap of January and update you all on our plans for the near future.
January has been pretty home-oriented and we haven't ventured forth too far, for the most part. It's given us some time to catch up with friends and ruminate on the "Master Plan" with all parties involved, but we're missing the road and are looking forward to February where we have plenty more dates. We started the year off by playing at MacPhail to welcome in their new building and new performance center. It was an opportunity to play in front of the high school crowd, something we don't get to do enough. High school kids are often the most devoted fans, so we definitely look forward to playing some more all ages shows in the future. The following week, we braved some bitter temperatures (-12 air temperature with a -45 windchill) and rocked up at Concordia College in Moorhead. Mike and I got yelled at by a basketball practice for apparently interrupting their practice (who knew walking by on the other end of the court during a huddle counted as interfering with the scrimmage?), which was kind of annoying, but otherwise the show was a blast. We stayed warm in our free hotel room with plenty of Captain Morgan, which seems to be the WLR booze of choice for the past six months. There's some choice footage of the night that may or may not end up in a Vlog . . . we shall see . . .
After that show we headed down to Madison to play with our buddies The Box Social at Cafe Monmarte. It was possibly the tiniest stage we've played yet, but the sound was very decent and we had a good time. Our good friend Natasha put us up for the night and we had a pretty wild party that ended at 8:00 a.m. in typical WLR fashion. Apparently we're bad at going to bed. My brother Jimmy accompanied us and shot some footage, along with our traveling buddy/"tour manager" (though he does no actual duties) Ryan Anhorn, who is always good for about a thousand laughs. After about four hours of sleep we got up, drank a bunch of water, got on the road home, ate some greasy burgers, downed more water (and vitamin waters), and finally got to St. Paul by about 5:30. We had a demo appointment with Mr. Paul Marino at Fuzzy Slippers studio, and got to work tracking about 6:30.
We whipped through six new ideas, getting drums, bass, guitars, down and even laid some piano and mellotron tracks into the mix. We might go do some vocal work in the next couple weeks, but don't get too excited because we won't be posting any of this material . . . It's just a bit of tease to let you all know we haven't gotten lazy with our time off. We have plenty more ideas to work up, and we plan to demo once every couple months for the next ten months or so before heading back to the studio to work on album 2.
Last week we had some meetings to discuss new photos and videos, and we're planning on getting to work on those soon. We've got a pretty funny Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job! style one worked up for Out of Sight, and we're hoping to shoot that this weekend if possible. The other video ideas should coalesce in the coming months, so keep your eyes open for those.
This last weekend we went down to Schaumberg in Illinois to play a show with Eve 6, which was definitely an experience. They ended up being really nice, down-to-earth guys, and even got us some free pizza. The crowd was responsive, the room was packed, we had free booze and the whole experience was pretty awesome. It was great to see how humble the Eve 6 guys were, and made us all the more intent to keep our own egos in check. We headed out of town to one of our favorite Super 8's in Elgin, IL, and headed out early the next day to get to Lutsen, MN to play Papa Charlie's on the ski mountain there.
We had to play three 50 minute sets, and since our usual set is 45 minutes, we had to learn a bunch of covers and play all of our old material to cover the allotted time. We ended up doing some New Order tunes, some Clash, Beatles, Stones, Bowie, etc., and it was fun to throw some other songs into our repertoire. We got money to spend at the bar, free hotel rooms, and free lift tickets for the next day, so we were hell bent on having a great time up there. The weather was fantastic, too, which only added to our enjoyment. We managed to find a pretty kickin party and again were up until about 8 a.m., playing Catchphrase, Guitar Hero, hot-tubbing, and drinking. We dragged our asses out of bed after about four hours of sleep to avoid the check-out brigade, and to ensure that we had some snowboarding time. After some really crusty fish and chips, Mike, Mark and I hit the mountain hard, and Dan slept in the van (he doesn't have a snowboard or proper attire, so sad day for Dan). We had a great time bombing down the hills and going down runs a little past our means (Mike and I used to ride a lot back in high school, but it's been a few years). It was exhilarating and way too much fun, especially because it was free. Awesome perks!
This week, we're going to be shooting some new photos at the Kitty Cab Klub on Wednesday with Darren Back, an awesome photographer who has shot for Spin and many others, so this new batch of photos should be amazing. We're really looking forward to working with him and we'll let you know how it all goes after it happens!
Our next batch of shows will be out and about the Midwest with VAST and the Effects, so check our MySpace page for dates, times, and locations. We hope to see everyone out rocking with us!
Best,
Joe
Monday, December 3, 2007
Worst "Tour" Ever
Hey everyone! Just thought we’d share with you the nightmare that has been the past 48 hours for us . . . It’s a pretty good story and we’re looking to get some mileage out of it. In my honest opinion, it reads something like an overwrought black comedy about the throes and consequences of journeying in blizzards with terrible luck as a near constant companion. We felt sort of postmodern, talking about how this “tour” felt like someone writing a really bad movie script, trying to think of more ways to screw up everything for the protagonists. At some point, though, the line was crossed and the script became a bit tasteless, and thus stale in its repetition and uninspired plot devices. Anyway, enough metaphysical meandering: on with the story (be mindful it was freezing cold during this whole ordeal, just to add to the general discomfort).
So, we leave for Cleveland last Friday, feeling good and looking forward to seeing the east coast. Even better, we’d just made sure our van was in top condition, paying $1400 for a thorough tune-up. As per ourselves, we’d forgotten our merch display in Madison, but John Paul from We the Living was nice enough to take care of that for us and had it waiting for us at his place mid-way through Wisconsin. Our first stop, then, was to pick up our merch display. After driving for about 2 hours and nearing JP’s house, our speedometer started freaking out. It was kind of like when folks talk about seeing a UFO and instruments start going crazy because of mysterious electromagnetic forces . . . so we got our hopes up thinking maybe we’d meet some aliens. Of course, that was irrational, and not the explanation, considering the speedometer didn’t settle back down. After about five minutes, we decided it couldn’t be aliens because we couldn’t possibly be that interesting to any extraterrestrial beings. Then, out of nowhere, it righted itself for a while. It was then that we noticed a strange sort of burning smell, so we decided to call a mechanic friend. He told us that when you have a new tail pipe installed a strange smell often accompanies, and thought maybe it was a computer error causing the problems with the speedometer. The explanation was simple enough and accounted for our van’s issues, so we figured he was right and decided to just get as far east as possible and get the van looked at in the morning.
After following some botched Mapquest directions we finally found JP’s place, got our merch display, and got back on the road. At this point we were close to Madison, Dan was pretty tired from driving, and it was getting late (not to mention the overdrive in our transmission turned off and the check engine light was on), so we pulled over and checked into a Super 8 (our hotel chain of choice . . . it’s cheap and has free wi-fi). Dan and I took “find a repair shop and get the damn van fixed” duty, as Mark was planning on driving the next day (Mike I have no excuse for, but it’s not like you need three people to find a repair shop). After trying to sleep for four hours, Dan and I got out of bed, sleepless, and, in the freezing cold (something weird with our heater), got dressed and went to the front lobby. We learned Evel Knievel died, ate a breakfast of toasted wonder bread and English muffins, and started calling repair shops. There was one about 200 yards away at a gas station, and since we couldn’t get them on the phone, we walked over to see when they opened. It was bitter cold (like 10 degrees maybe, with a wicked wind chill), and it was a brutal walk. After learning we were 20 minutes early (the shop opened at 7), we resigned ourselves to passing some time in the lobby, eating more free “breakfast,” and watching Sports Center. At 7, we went to the repair shop, only to learn that the shop is by appointment on Saturdays, and the mechanic had no appointments, so he wouldn’t be coming. Disappointed, we went back and confirmed an appointment at another shop, but it was a few miles away. Since we couldn’t leave the van there and walk back to the hotel, we had to get everyone going early (like 7:45) and get over to the other shop.
Once there, they told us that they weren’t sure when they’d be able to look at it, but it would be $87 an hour. This was also disappointing. It hadn’t gotten warmer, despite the recent appearance of the sun, and though we were hungry, we couldn’t bear walking a couple miles in the cold for the marginal reward of a BK breakfast (though this may be debatable). Thus, we read to pass the time, and after a reasonable wait, they got to checking our van. To sum it up, the first words out of the mechanics mouth were “Bad news, guys.” Fantastic. Apparently, when the last shop put the new tail pipe on, he didn’t quite connect the pipe to the exhaust or something, and it overheated the back half underneath the van and incinerated the speedometer sensor and a transmission sensor. It had started to snow, and there were reports of a huge storm blowing our way from the west, and with a van in need of repair, we figured we should make a decision quickly. It would be two days before this particular shop could fix us up, and expensive, so the mechanic told us it would be best to get home as quickly as possible. The snow was coming down pretty quickly by this point, but the van still worked, and we decided to go for it.
After a BK breakfast (I suppose it had to happen), we got going. However, the storm created an evil Lord of the Rings style mist around us, and we couldn’t really see more than maybe 30 feet in each direction. It was like driving through the mountain pass in the Misty Mountains, and we kept expecting an Abominable Snowman or a Yeti to come screaming out of the haze to kill us. Or a semi-truck. Needless to say, it was a somewhat terrifying experience, driving through that blizzard, and I’m amazed Mark wasn’t more fazed than he was. A hundred miles later, the transmission decided it had had enough, and that’s not the sort of thing you want to push too hard, because it is spiteful creature. The jolts were unnerving, and the exit could not have come any sooner. We got down the exit ramp, got the van far enough to coast it into a gas station, and as soon as we pulled in, the van died. This was the best luck we’d had all day. After waiting on the phone with AAA forever, they told us a tow truck was on its way to take us back to the Twin Cities. This was exciting.
Ten minutes later, AAA called back to inform us that 17 cars crashed into each other and all tow trucks would be busy “cleaning that up.” This was depressing on many levels. We found a guy to take us back the next day (Sunday), so after hanging out in the van and the gas station for a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do, we learned there was an old motel within walking distance, and the guy who was towing us was going to stop by and get our van to the motel. This might be the best thing that happened the whole trip (not having to freeze to death, that is), if that puts things perspective.
The hotel was reminiscent of the Bate’s motel, Psycho-style, and the sign out front actually read “closed” (we have footage of this, it will be in a vlog). We were scared for our lives. At any point we were ready for an axe-murdering psychopath to burst into the room and end all this, but luckily it didn’t happen. Instead, we visited the bar and found happiness for a little while (though this came at the price of trudging through snow, and a hangover for some today). We had to be up fairly early today (Sunday) to make sure we caught the tow-truck driver’s call, and because Dan’s very generous friends Jeremy and Stacey were coming to haul our trailer back home (tow truck companies don’t really take vans and trailers . . . we would have needed two and we can’t afford that). I woke up early, the others slept, so I passed the time at the bar watching Final Destination 2 (not recommended). Around 1 or so everyone showed up and we got on the road. We assumed we’d be home in a couple hours, which was exciting, and it seemed that our misadventure would soon be over. Not so.
Our tow truck driver had to stop at a weigh station, and since he was following us, we didn’t catch this and pulled up to the next exit to wait. A few minutes later we get a call, from a police officer, saying our tow truck driver had some legal issues that would take 45 minutes to resolve. We found this mildly annoying, but all things considered (and what we’d already been through), we figured we could put up with it. We explored a Wal-Mart to pass the time.
Thirty minutes later we get a call saying that our tow truck driver isn’t legally allowed to take us into Minnesota, his license is temporarily suspended (for ten hours . . . go figure), and that we should come back to the weigh station. Awesome. And ridiculous. We head back, learn that we have to find a company “legally” allowed to take us home. This proves difficult. And takes a long time. After a few hours, we find one, but it has to come from Minneapolis, and will cost us $380 or so (this is on top of the $500 we paid the first guy . . . this will all be rectified in our favor, or so we hope). At this point, we just want to go home, so we bite the bullet and get on our way.
Anyway, we’re hoping to get our truck fixed early tomorrow and get back on the road (we’ve already missed something like three shows, all of which we were looking forward to, and want to miss as few as possible in the coming week). Wish us luck, and hopefully we’ll be back out rocking soon. What’s kind of ridiculous is that we ostensibly drove to Madison to sleep in a hotel, and then got towed home, and it cost us a lot of money. And we still haven’t played a show. Thanks for reading this novel of a blog!
- Joe
So, we leave for Cleveland last Friday, feeling good and looking forward to seeing the east coast. Even better, we’d just made sure our van was in top condition, paying $1400 for a thorough tune-up. As per ourselves, we’d forgotten our merch display in Madison, but John Paul from We the Living was nice enough to take care of that for us and had it waiting for us at his place mid-way through Wisconsin. Our first stop, then, was to pick up our merch display. After driving for about 2 hours and nearing JP’s house, our speedometer started freaking out. It was kind of like when folks talk about seeing a UFO and instruments start going crazy because of mysterious electromagnetic forces . . . so we got our hopes up thinking maybe we’d meet some aliens. Of course, that was irrational, and not the explanation, considering the speedometer didn’t settle back down. After about five minutes, we decided it couldn’t be aliens because we couldn’t possibly be that interesting to any extraterrestrial beings. Then, out of nowhere, it righted itself for a while. It was then that we noticed a strange sort of burning smell, so we decided to call a mechanic friend. He told us that when you have a new tail pipe installed a strange smell often accompanies, and thought maybe it was a computer error causing the problems with the speedometer. The explanation was simple enough and accounted for our van’s issues, so we figured he was right and decided to just get as far east as possible and get the van looked at in the morning.
After following some botched Mapquest directions we finally found JP’s place, got our merch display, and got back on the road. At this point we were close to Madison, Dan was pretty tired from driving, and it was getting late (not to mention the overdrive in our transmission turned off and the check engine light was on), so we pulled over and checked into a Super 8 (our hotel chain of choice . . . it’s cheap and has free wi-fi). Dan and I took “find a repair shop and get the damn van fixed” duty, as Mark was planning on driving the next day (Mike I have no excuse for, but it’s not like you need three people to find a repair shop). After trying to sleep for four hours, Dan and I got out of bed, sleepless, and, in the freezing cold (something weird with our heater), got dressed and went to the front lobby. We learned Evel Knievel died, ate a breakfast of toasted wonder bread and English muffins, and started calling repair shops. There was one about 200 yards away at a gas station, and since we couldn’t get them on the phone, we walked over to see when they opened. It was bitter cold (like 10 degrees maybe, with a wicked wind chill), and it was a brutal walk. After learning we were 20 minutes early (the shop opened at 7), we resigned ourselves to passing some time in the lobby, eating more free “breakfast,” and watching Sports Center. At 7, we went to the repair shop, only to learn that the shop is by appointment on Saturdays, and the mechanic had no appointments, so he wouldn’t be coming. Disappointed, we went back and confirmed an appointment at another shop, but it was a few miles away. Since we couldn’t leave the van there and walk back to the hotel, we had to get everyone going early (like 7:45) and get over to the other shop.
Once there, they told us that they weren’t sure when they’d be able to look at it, but it would be $87 an hour. This was also disappointing. It hadn’t gotten warmer, despite the recent appearance of the sun, and though we were hungry, we couldn’t bear walking a couple miles in the cold for the marginal reward of a BK breakfast (though this may be debatable). Thus, we read to pass the time, and after a reasonable wait, they got to checking our van. To sum it up, the first words out of the mechanics mouth were “Bad news, guys.” Fantastic. Apparently, when the last shop put the new tail pipe on, he didn’t quite connect the pipe to the exhaust or something, and it overheated the back half underneath the van and incinerated the speedometer sensor and a transmission sensor. It had started to snow, and there were reports of a huge storm blowing our way from the west, and with a van in need of repair, we figured we should make a decision quickly. It would be two days before this particular shop could fix us up, and expensive, so the mechanic told us it would be best to get home as quickly as possible. The snow was coming down pretty quickly by this point, but the van still worked, and we decided to go for it.
After a BK breakfast (I suppose it had to happen), we got going. However, the storm created an evil Lord of the Rings style mist around us, and we couldn’t really see more than maybe 30 feet in each direction. It was like driving through the mountain pass in the Misty Mountains, and we kept expecting an Abominable Snowman or a Yeti to come screaming out of the haze to kill us. Or a semi-truck. Needless to say, it was a somewhat terrifying experience, driving through that blizzard, and I’m amazed Mark wasn’t more fazed than he was. A hundred miles later, the transmission decided it had had enough, and that’s not the sort of thing you want to push too hard, because it is spiteful creature. The jolts were unnerving, and the exit could not have come any sooner. We got down the exit ramp, got the van far enough to coast it into a gas station, and as soon as we pulled in, the van died. This was the best luck we’d had all day. After waiting on the phone with AAA forever, they told us a tow truck was on its way to take us back to the Twin Cities. This was exciting.
Ten minutes later, AAA called back to inform us that 17 cars crashed into each other and all tow trucks would be busy “cleaning that up.” This was depressing on many levels. We found a guy to take us back the next day (Sunday), so after hanging out in the van and the gas station for a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do, we learned there was an old motel within walking distance, and the guy who was towing us was going to stop by and get our van to the motel. This might be the best thing that happened the whole trip (not having to freeze to death, that is), if that puts things perspective.
The hotel was reminiscent of the Bate’s motel, Psycho-style, and the sign out front actually read “closed” (we have footage of this, it will be in a vlog). We were scared for our lives. At any point we were ready for an axe-murdering psychopath to burst into the room and end all this, but luckily it didn’t happen. Instead, we visited the bar and found happiness for a little while (though this came at the price of trudging through snow, and a hangover for some today). We had to be up fairly early today (Sunday) to make sure we caught the tow-truck driver’s call, and because Dan’s very generous friends Jeremy and Stacey were coming to haul our trailer back home (tow truck companies don’t really take vans and trailers . . . we would have needed two and we can’t afford that). I woke up early, the others slept, so I passed the time at the bar watching Final Destination 2 (not recommended). Around 1 or so everyone showed up and we got on the road. We assumed we’d be home in a couple hours, which was exciting, and it seemed that our misadventure would soon be over. Not so.
Our tow truck driver had to stop at a weigh station, and since he was following us, we didn’t catch this and pulled up to the next exit to wait. A few minutes later we get a call, from a police officer, saying our tow truck driver had some legal issues that would take 45 minutes to resolve. We found this mildly annoying, but all things considered (and what we’d already been through), we figured we could put up with it. We explored a Wal-Mart to pass the time.
Thirty minutes later we get a call saying that our tow truck driver isn’t legally allowed to take us into Minnesota, his license is temporarily suspended (for ten hours . . . go figure), and that we should come back to the weigh station. Awesome. And ridiculous. We head back, learn that we have to find a company “legally” allowed to take us home. This proves difficult. And takes a long time. After a few hours, we find one, but it has to come from Minneapolis, and will cost us $380 or so (this is on top of the $500 we paid the first guy . . . this will all be rectified in our favor, or so we hope). At this point, we just want to go home, so we bite the bullet and get on our way.
Anyway, we’re hoping to get our truck fixed early tomorrow and get back on the road (we’ve already missed something like three shows, all of which we were looking forward to, and want to miss as few as possible in the coming week). Wish us luck, and hopefully we’ll be back out rocking soon. What’s kind of ridiculous is that we ostensibly drove to Madison to sleep in a hotel, and then got towed home, and it cost us a lot of money. And we still haven’t played a show. Thanks for reading this novel of a blog!
- Joe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)