Since writing on here how great it is to be in Hawaii without a ticket home, it's rained constantly. Nothing but rain. The rain stopped for a few minutes yesterday, so I went outside to take a walk, and it started raining within 35 seconds. I take back everything nice I've ever said about Hawaii.
Last night, I was able to drag myself away from the 1st season of LOST (open the god damned hatch already) and we went to see the John Butler Trio in Honolulu. When the idea of seeing them was mentioned, Matt, EB, and I had all said something similar to "Hmm. I've heard of them....I think I saw them at a festival one time, but I don't remember." Well, if three different people say that, chances are high that at least one of them actually saw the band and didn't like it. You should listen to the people.
I'm assuming that the "JBT" festival performances didn't include a 25-minute drum solo, like last night's. It may be boring and unmemorable to see them at a festival, but people do not forget 25 minute drum solos. Holy cow.
I remember at least FOUR times during the drum solo when I thought "wow, that was long, but thank god it's finally ---- oh hell no."
Matt got bored during said solo, so he left the crowd, found the restroom, waited in line, urinated, waited in line at the bar, got to the front of the line, was told that that bar didn't have Coke, went to the other bar on the other side of the room, waited in line, got a Coke, walked around for a bit, then came back and found us in the crowd. The drum solo was still going on.
In the history of live music, has anyone ever left a show thinking "Fantastic show....but I wish the drum solo had been longer" ? Is John Butler honestly standing on the side of the stage thinking how great it is? By the time he's listening to the 17th drum solo of the tour somewhere in middle America on a Tuesday night, is he still digging it? I guess he uses it for his restroom/7 foot bong break.
John Butler kept saying "Respect" and pounding his chest in between songs. Matt said one of the highlights for him was when a drunk girl behind him shouted "BOOYAKASHA!!" after one of them.
I lost a bet before the show, so I had to yell "FUCK THE CONTIGUOUS!!!" at some point during the show. I finally pulled it off in between songs during the encore, as we were leaving. The Hawaiians weren't as into it as I would've hoped. Although, come to think of it, maybe John Butler fans aren't familiar with the word "contiguous".
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
"Stranded" in Hawaii
So the airline I few out on, ATA, is now bankrupt and out of business. Basically, I don't have a flight home. I used a voucher to get out here (from a cancelled flight last August), and that covered the whole ticket, except for $230. Yesterday I called my credit card company to try to get the whole thing refunded, so I can find another ticket back to Raleigh.
The guy at my credit card company told me that people had been calling really mad, because they were stranded in Hawaii (one of the few places that ATA served). We agreed that if you were going to be upset about getting stranded in Hawaii, you deserved to have worse things happen to you.
Even here in Hawaii, people get annoyed when I tell them I'm going to be out here for (at least) three more weeks.
The worst part about Hawaii is probably the cost of burritos. At the really good taco place down the street, a burrito is $7.95 (plus tax). I love burritos, but a burrito-lover needs to make a stand at some point. Maui Tacos, I'll be taking my business elsewhere! "Elsewhere" = Safeway for peanut butter and jelly.
I've finished reading Atonement. At first, I liked the movie more than the book. But by the time I finished the book, I think it had won.
I also finished Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death Of Edgar Allan Poe in about one day. Besides proposing a really fascinating conspiracy theory, the book discusses "cooping," which was a 1800's political practice where thugs would go round up innocent men on the eve of elections. The captured men would be kept over night in a "coop," where they'd be beaten, drugged, then shuttled around to vote for the same candidate in as many districts as possible. Obviously, the amazing part is that the men were so beaten and drugged that they couldn't run away, yet not so out of it as to arouse any suspicion from the numerous officials who presided at each polling place. God bless democracy.
Now I'm reading Number9Dream by David Mitchell, who's probably my favorite author. It's pretty damn weird. Cloud Atlas is probably my favorite book.
The guy at my credit card company told me that people had been calling really mad, because they were stranded in Hawaii (one of the few places that ATA served). We agreed that if you were going to be upset about getting stranded in Hawaii, you deserved to have worse things happen to you.
Even here in Hawaii, people get annoyed when I tell them I'm going to be out here for (at least) three more weeks.
The worst part about Hawaii is probably the cost of burritos. At the really good taco place down the street, a burrito is $7.95 (plus tax). I love burritos, but a burrito-lover needs to make a stand at some point. Maui Tacos, I'll be taking my business elsewhere! "Elsewhere" = Safeway for peanut butter and jelly.
I've finished reading Atonement. At first, I liked the movie more than the book. But by the time I finished the book, I think it had won.
I also finished Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death Of Edgar Allan Poe in about one day. Besides proposing a really fascinating conspiracy theory, the book discusses "cooping," which was a 1800's political practice where thugs would go round up innocent men on the eve of elections. The captured men would be kept over night in a "coop," where they'd be beaten, drugged, then shuttled around to vote for the same candidate in as many districts as possible. Obviously, the amazing part is that the men were so beaten and drugged that they couldn't run away, yet not so out of it as to arouse any suspicion from the numerous officials who presided at each polling place. God bless democracy.
Now I'm reading Number9Dream by David Mitchell, who's probably my favorite author. It's pretty damn weird. Cloud Atlas is probably my favorite book.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Things I've Learned
Some things I learned throughout the 9+ weeks on the road through the southern and eastern United States with Kristy Kruger and Dylan Sneed:
- Chik-Fil-A and In-N-Out have similar punctuation and similar awesomeness
- Many talented artists/writers/musicians live outside of New York City and LA. The difference is that they can pay their rent
- It is hard to find a person in the South who is not nice, polite, and courteous
- People in the South are proud of where they're from and are happy where they live
- Taking two cars on a tour delays the inevitable band on band physical violence
- William Faulkner and Edgar Allan Poe were not debilitating drunks. Neither of them thought they needed to drink in order to write.
- Dylan is more patient than me
- I smell better than Dylan
- Wynn Walent snores worse than my Dad (never thought possible)
- No one likes Los Angeles. People who live there hate it. People who used to live there hated it. People who have visited it hated it. And people who haven't visited it, don't want to.
- I miss these things from Los Angeles: My friends; the Hollywood Bowl; the Greek Theatre; Dodger Stadium
- Breakfast At Tiffany's rules
- Abraham Lincoln said this: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
- Chik-Fil-A and In-N-Out have similar punctuation and similar awesomeness
- Many talented artists/writers/musicians live outside of New York City and LA. The difference is that they can pay their rent
- It is hard to find a person in the South who is not nice, polite, and courteous
- People in the South are proud of where they're from and are happy where they live
- Taking two cars on a tour delays the inevitable band on band physical violence
- William Faulkner and Edgar Allan Poe were not debilitating drunks. Neither of them thought they needed to drink in order to write.
- Dylan is more patient than me
- I smell better than Dylan
- Wynn Walent snores worse than my Dad (never thought possible)
- No one likes Los Angeles. People who live there hate it. People who used to live there hated it. People who have visited it hated it. And people who haven't visited it, don't want to.
- I miss these things from Los Angeles: My friends; the Hollywood Bowl; the Greek Theatre; Dodger Stadium
- Breakfast At Tiffany's rules
- Abraham Lincoln said this: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ... I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Another Time Zone
I'm rather embarrassed to tell people that now I'm in Hawaii. Don't know if I should be or not. I'm spending the month with Matt Hime at his place in Kailua, Hawaii.
One of the major damn points of having this damn blog was to put pictures up, at which I've failed miserably. I'm trying to get a lot of tour pictures from Kristy and I'll put those up.
Hawaii is pretty darn amazing. This beach is about a mile away. Matt's girlfriend is letting me use her bicycle all month. Sporting events come on at 1pm. It's 80 degrees every day. And they serve taro pie at McDonald's.
One of the major damn points of having this damn blog was to put pictures up, at which I've failed miserably. I'm trying to get a lot of tour pictures from Kristy and I'll put those up.
Hawaii is pretty darn amazing. This beach is about a mile away. Matt's girlfriend is letting me use her bicycle all month. Sporting events come on at 1pm. It's 80 degrees every day. And they serve taro pie at McDonald's.
Friday, March 21, 2008
SXSW
Nine weeks of exciting madness ended at South By Southwest last weekend in Austin. I got to Austin on Monday, and decided to kick off the festival by sleeping as much as possible and watching Breakfast At Tiffany's with my sister.
I got to see a few good bands - I ran into the guys from Dead Confederate, a band from Athens GA, who we opened for in Oxford MS. After their show, we talked for a few minutes, then I asked them when they'd be playing again during the festival. The drummer laughed and said "we're actually opening for REM tonight." Not bad.
Later that day, I ended up talking to another band from Athens called The Modern Skirts. They also informed me that later this summer, they'll be opening up for REM. In Amsterdam. Intimidating.
But honestly, no one's ever really listened to REM anyway.
We had the chance to play two shows - one at an event called Love On The Lawn and the next day at the Cactus Cafe. "Love" is a boutique store in south Austin, and (unbeknownst to me) is a pretty big-time lesbian hangout. Many people were there to see Patrice Pike, an Austin artist who made it really far on some reality singing show that's not American Idol. I think it was the one where the winner got to sing for INXS.
The Cactus Cafe is famous for having all kinds of cool acoustic artists from Texas. We only had about 25 minutes, but it was a fun way to end the tour.
I wish I could say that other highlights of the festival included seeing a million douche bag hipster bands from Brooklyn and Los Angeles, but there are numerous other places to read about that, and I didn't see many of them. The true highlights for me included seeing Wynn Walent play with Matt Singer. (Full disclosure/pre-emptive apology: they are from Brooklyn, but are not douche bags.)
Matt sang one of the funnier songs I've heard - some serious-sounding song about how he wished he was a better "orator, so I could do more chicks." Or something similar. Bless him.
Every time I've seen Wynn play, it's been superb.
Just solid dudes.
Golden Bear continues to rule.
All of them were certainly more enjoyable than just about everything else I saw. I think I could present the rest of the festival in Mad-Lib form:
Hello Austin, we're from [Los Angeles/Brooklyn/Austin]. We are a mixed-gender band consisting of [2-6] members. It's pretty rad that one of our members plays a [xylophone/trombone/turntable/computer]. The reason it's pretty rad is because this member of our band is [not very good/terrible/unconscionably bad] at that instrument. But you don't really care, because it's just neat to see that person playing it while jumping around. Besides, you're too busy [drinking free whiskey/trying to hit on some girl who works for MTV/eating free tacos] to listen to the music anyway. See you all soon!
I also had the pleasure of sharing my sister's floor with Wynn throughout the week, and competing in Snore-Off 2k8, which I'm pretty sure Wynn dominated. Rebecca Hewett is a saint.
Besides putting up with the snoring, she made me a birthday cake. Which was delicious.
After driving 19 hours in two days, from Austin to Charleston SC, this week has been spent at the beach with my parents. Next week, I fly to Hawaii to stay with Matt Hime. It's kind of embarrassing to tell people that, but exciting nonetheless.
I got to see a few good bands - I ran into the guys from Dead Confederate, a band from Athens GA, who we opened for in Oxford MS. After their show, we talked for a few minutes, then I asked them when they'd be playing again during the festival. The drummer laughed and said "we're actually opening for REM tonight." Not bad.
Later that day, I ended up talking to another band from Athens called The Modern Skirts. They also informed me that later this summer, they'll be opening up for REM. In Amsterdam. Intimidating.
But honestly, no one's ever really listened to REM anyway.
We had the chance to play two shows - one at an event called Love On The Lawn and the next day at the Cactus Cafe. "Love" is a boutique store in south Austin, and (unbeknownst to me) is a pretty big-time lesbian hangout. Many people were there to see Patrice Pike, an Austin artist who made it really far on some reality singing show that's not American Idol. I think it was the one where the winner got to sing for INXS.
The Cactus Cafe is famous for having all kinds of cool acoustic artists from Texas. We only had about 25 minutes, but it was a fun way to end the tour.
I wish I could say that other highlights of the festival included seeing a million douche bag hipster bands from Brooklyn and Los Angeles, but there are numerous other places to read about that, and I didn't see many of them. The true highlights for me included seeing Wynn Walent play with Matt Singer. (Full disclosure/pre-emptive apology: they are from Brooklyn, but are not douche bags.)
Matt sang one of the funnier songs I've heard - some serious-sounding song about how he wished he was a better "orator, so I could do more chicks." Or something similar. Bless him.
Every time I've seen Wynn play, it's been superb.
Just solid dudes.
Golden Bear continues to rule.
All of them were certainly more enjoyable than just about everything else I saw. I think I could present the rest of the festival in Mad-Lib form:
Hello Austin, we're from [Los Angeles/Brooklyn/Austin]. We are a mixed-gender band consisting of [2-6] members. It's pretty rad that one of our members plays a [xylophone/trombone/turntable/computer]. The reason it's pretty rad is because this member of our band is [not very good/terrible/unconscionably bad] at that instrument. But you don't really care, because it's just neat to see that person playing it while jumping around. Besides, you're too busy [drinking free whiskey/trying to hit on some girl who works for MTV/eating free tacos] to listen to the music anyway. See you all soon!
I also had the pleasure of sharing my sister's floor with Wynn throughout the week, and competing in Snore-Off 2k8, which I'm pretty sure Wynn dominated. Rebecca Hewett is a saint.
Besides putting up with the snoring, she made me a birthday cake. Which was delicious.
After driving 19 hours in two days, from Austin to Charleston SC, this week has been spent at the beach with my parents. Next week, I fly to Hawaii to stay with Matt Hime. It's kind of embarrassing to tell people that, but exciting nonetheless.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Louisiana
I wish it was easier to put pictures up on here. It's not that hard, I guess I mean I wish I had the camera, because it's not too difficult to put them on here once the camera is around. It's much more fun to point things out in photos.
We're at Birdman Coffee/Books in St. Francisville, LA. It's a very tiny town, about 30 minutes north of Baton Rouge. It's not even on the map in our car (which is a great map). We played tonight in front of a packed room of 25 or so people who were incredibly attentive and very excited. It was another un-mic'd show - those are usually the most fun, because you can hear everything well. And there's no soundboard for the soundman to not be running when he doesn't show up.
There was a blinding light shining on me throughout the entire show, giving me a terrible headache. I also was pre-occupied with thoughts of the peach cobbler that the owner (Lynn) made that afternoon. I told her I'd have some after the show, which was a huge mistake, because it's all I could think about. Boy did it live up to expectations. I have a wicked stomach ache at the moment.
One of the men at the show talked to me about how he worked in Baton Rouge as a drafter for about 20 years, hated it, then bought a piece of land "about 30 minutes east of here in the country," built a house on it by himself ("No, I had no idea what I was doing. But I kinda know what a house is like, so I just kinda built one."). He now bakes his own bread, bringing the number of self-sufficient breadmakers that I've met on this trip up to two. He also rides a scooter everywhere, so as to save money on gas. He totally rules. Here's his website, I haven't been to it yet, but I imagine it's zany.
Mobile, Alabama is really cool. Celebrating Mardi Gras originated there. Neat. "It's like a little New Orleans." I think we've heard that about 15 times in the last month, but it seems kinda true for Mobile.
We stayed with Dylan's friend Lance in Hammond, LA. Lance is an upstanding country gentleman from the Louisiana countryside who refers to everyone (regardless of gender) as "love" or "babe." His family owns a 9-hole golf course. About six years ago, he turned on the television and happened upon a soccer game. He had never seen much soccer, but fell in love with it, and now is the head coach of the high school soccer team. Somewhere down the line, he plans on moving to Liverpool, England, so he can marry a wonderful pale-faced British woman and go see the Liverpool soccer team as much as he wants. Lance is marvelous.
Tomorrow we drive to Austin for South By Southwest.
Tonight I will sleep in a bed, for the first time in a long time. I can't even figure out when the last time was that I slept in a bed. I'm too tired to calculate. However, after tonight, I don't think I'll be sleeping in a bed for the next 6-7 nights. Boom.
We're at Birdman Coffee/Books in St. Francisville, LA. It's a very tiny town, about 30 minutes north of Baton Rouge. It's not even on the map in our car (which is a great map). We played tonight in front of a packed room of 25 or so people who were incredibly attentive and very excited. It was another un-mic'd show - those are usually the most fun, because you can hear everything well. And there's no soundboard for the soundman to not be running when he doesn't show up.
There was a blinding light shining on me throughout the entire show, giving me a terrible headache. I also was pre-occupied with thoughts of the peach cobbler that the owner (Lynn) made that afternoon. I told her I'd have some after the show, which was a huge mistake, because it's all I could think about. Boy did it live up to expectations. I have a wicked stomach ache at the moment.
One of the men at the show talked to me about how he worked in Baton Rouge as a drafter for about 20 years, hated it, then bought a piece of land "about 30 minutes east of here in the country," built a house on it by himself ("No, I had no idea what I was doing. But I kinda know what a house is like, so I just kinda built one."). He now bakes his own bread, bringing the number of self-sufficient breadmakers that I've met on this trip up to two. He also rides a scooter everywhere, so as to save money on gas. He totally rules. Here's his website, I haven't been to it yet, but I imagine it's zany.
Mobile, Alabama is really cool. Celebrating Mardi Gras originated there. Neat. "It's like a little New Orleans." I think we've heard that about 15 times in the last month, but it seems kinda true for Mobile.
We stayed with Dylan's friend Lance in Hammond, LA. Lance is an upstanding country gentleman from the Louisiana countryside who refers to everyone (regardless of gender) as "love" or "babe." His family owns a 9-hole golf course. About six years ago, he turned on the television and happened upon a soccer game. He had never seen much soccer, but fell in love with it, and now is the head coach of the high school soccer team. Somewhere down the line, he plans on moving to Liverpool, England, so he can marry a wonderful pale-faced British woman and go see the Liverpool soccer team as much as he wants. Lance is marvelous.
Tomorrow we drive to Austin for South By Southwest.
Tonight I will sleep in a bed, for the first time in a long time. I can't even figure out when the last time was that I slept in a bed. I'm too tired to calculate. However, after tonight, I don't think I'll be sleeping in a bed for the next 6-7 nights. Boom.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Back In H-Ville
After some schedule juggling, we are back in Huntsville, AL. To be honest, it feels like we're coming back to an old home of ours. The people here we know are all fantastic. We'll be here for a couple more days before our show in Mobile, then off west to go play another show before South By Southwest.
We're playing at SXSW on Friday 3/14 here - http://www.loveaustintexas.com/shows.html
I need to put up some pictures, but I'm too tired to even do that. Sheesh.
We're playing at SXSW on Friday 3/14 here - http://www.loveaustintexas.com/shows.html
I need to put up some pictures, but I'm too tired to even do that. Sheesh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)