Some people have been asking where the final blog for the tour is? Well. Here it is.

It.

Cheers,
Luke

Long Drives and Lazy Eyes.

Back again...

In this chapter of the "... US tour of North Cornwall..." we study the persona of "the business man." At the show in Sacramento we encountered probably the most stereotypical sort of smarmy club booking agent as of yet: Jerry Perry. Let us examine the man. A tall, solidly built man (just in case shit goes DOWN) dressed in casual clothes (but not without a blazer over top of it to make things seem official) who talks very quickly (to keep you from following along to exactly what he's saying) in money jargon and name droppery (to display their importance) through the gaze of his lazy eye (solely to creep you out). Its these kind of guys that I have a very hard time trusting. Don't get me wrong, they're nice enough but I feel like they always have other motives to everything that they have to say. They're driven by money. The polar opposite of me. For example: when he found out that we (in essence) were "one band" he cut down the set and most likely cut down the pay... even though we are two acts. His smooth talking banter went right through my head at first and I agreed with "Yeah, yeah, yeah" and "Totally". After a couple minutes of thinking about it, I figured it out and kicked myself for it. I can't help it. I'm a sucker.

Needless to say, the show was awesome because we got to play with these guys:
Agent Ribbons: a fine punk/jazz duo from the Sacramento area. I was really excited to play with them because I had heard them after a couple of friends went to a show in Portland where they were opening for Cake. I got to listen to their record and I fell in love. When I was looking at the Old Ironside's calendar a couple days before I was confused/surprised by what I saw. They were really nice and put on a great show. Hopefully, we'll be able to put something together with them on the West Coast again... hopefully.

We also decided that Sacramento was really really weird hang. It kind of reminded me of Houston in its layout/architecture but they had a couple of strange areas. Apparently, it was an old mining town during the gold rush in the mid-1800's and they had a section of the city that was built like an old western town called "Old Sacramento".
We originally went there to try and find a cafe but the one we had searched out had gone "out of business" (an 19th century business doesn't hold up in a 21st century economy). I think the best part of our trip to this side of town was when I went to deposit some money/make change at a store-front marked "Wells Fargo & Co". I walked into the building to find that it was a museum... not a bank. I felt like a dick just sitting there was my deposit in hand while a tour guide sat bored waiting for someone to entertain. He didn't have change for me.

The fanciest part of town was definitely the Safe Way that went went to. They had their own water tower on top of the building and a shimmering silver stallion on the outside welcoming everyone into the grocery. Why they needed this... I'm not sure but I felt really good about buying my pint of ice cream.

A terrible pictures... but the water tower was above the Safeway sign.

The next couple of days were... kind of a blur. We left directly after the show in Sacramento and drove through the night (without incident... mostly) to Flagstaff, AZ where we met up with a fellow Mainer Owen Ludwig. We were extremely beat at this point. We were supposed to play a house show but we would have ended up playing really late that night and we had another 12 hour drive the next day and the show was already booked solid with other bands... so we decided to opt out and crash for the night. Luckily, Owen (being an amazing host) let us sleep in his bed for the night. The best part was sleeping with the 19 year old cat the came with the room he was living in. She was the most cuddly thing you could ever image (probably because she couldn't move fast enough to get away from our loving hands). In the middle of the night she curled up right between the two of us and purred really loudly. This was great but on the other hand I was extremely scared that I was going to roll over her and crush her brittle old bones underneath my 160 pound frame... that would have been tragic.

We left at 5:30 the next morning for OKC, OK for a show that we weren't really sure about. It seems to be a developing trend now that my uncle Josh will booking a show through the magnificent classifieds website known as Craigslist that I will have no idea whats going on with it. After the 12 hour drive, passing through the panhandle of the much missed Texas and surviving gail force winds at a gas station somewhere in New Mexico....

we made it to Oklahoma City (I was singing the theme song to the musical "Oklahoma" the whole time... except I only knew the first word "Oklahoma" and then trailed off with the rest of the melody). The show turned out to be great! The bar was full of people (most of whom were a bunch of bros and bro-ettes stumbling around in their pressed shirts and tube tops seeing who could sneak into the bathroom next) and we got a great response from the ones who were listening to our quiet folk music. The band we played with was called Olina:
They were awesome! And probably some of the most wonderful people that I have ever met in my entire life. As it turns out, the band is relocating to Portland, OR so hopefully we'll be seeing them again when we head out there in July! They had a couple of friends (Steven and Katie) who let us crash at their house for the night with on their inflatable mattress with their Labradoodle named Choco. He woke us up the next morning by jumping onto the bed and trying to cuddle with us... this has been a great tour for finding amazing animals!

We're on the home stretch now. We pampered ourselves last night and stayed at a Red Roof Inn... one last good nights sleep until Maryland. Talk to you then.

Cheers,
Luke

Comes through the door with all his chains just rattling 'round.

I would like to preface this blog with, "I'm an idiot and I lost my battery charger for my camera so I can't take anymore pictures and have to steel them from Katy but we both know that we forget about her camera constantly." That said... lets move along.

After spending two GLORIOUS days in Portland we had a really hard time leaving. The other thing that made it hard to leave was that we were dreading that night with a great passion. After the show in Eugene we had to book it out of there so that we could make it down to San Francisco the next morning. Why did we have to drive through the night to get there? Well, we had a little slip up (mostly my mistake) where we booked the Eugene show for 10PM and the San Fran show for 11AM the next morning without looking at how long it would take us to get from one point to the next (it's an 8 hour drive... just to let you know). Oops. The plan was simple: drive through the night (driving in two 4 hour shifts), get to San Fran, playing the show, crashing on a friends couch for the after and then go exploring. Simple enough right? Well, here's where another snag of poor planning came in. We decided to tour the north in the winter. As you saw from a previous post, we had done some tough traveling from Chicago to Minneapolis but that was flat and pretty easy to navigate and they treat their roads with plows and sand and salt... California, on the other hand, is mountainous and they don't do a single thing to the roads... bummer.

The story begins with Katy taking the first shift with driving and me sleeping in the passenger seat until my shift. This lasted for about... oh, an hour before Katy reached over and grabbed my leg asking, "Are you awake?". Of course, I had the smart ass response of, "I am now" but was taken aback to see that we were in the middle of a little snow squall on the highway. My initial reaction was, "Well, SHIT." Our pace when from zipping down the highway to almost a crawl as we tried to avoid sliding off of the road. We had breaks in the weather which we could speed up a little bit but the snow kept coming back... and not only that but there was some INTENSE fog where you couldn't see ten feet in front of you. What the fuck California? Pick one type of weather or the other!

After Katy's shift on driving it was my turn to take the wheel and brave the elements. At this point, it seemed to have died down and it looked like smooth sailing from there... but oh, were we wrong. It got 10X worse than before. We apparently had just missed a huge front that came through the mountains that had dropped about 8 inches of snow on the ground. Since California doesn't treat their roads the only thing that kept them clear were the tractor-trailer trucks speeding down the highway splashing powder and slug everywhere.

The only thing that California and Oregon allow you to do in this inclement wintry condition is one thing: chain up. Before and after every mountain pass they have "chain-up" zones where you're allowed to pull over and throw massive chains around your tires. Being from the Northeast, this is EXTREMELY illegal and really bad for the roads so naturally we didn't have any heavy duty chains hanging out in the back of the wagon with all of our equipment. We switched to the AM weather emergency station to hear what we were supposed to do. It said that all vehicles were required to have chains on their wheels unless they were 4-wheel/all-wheel drive sedans/trucks/etc and if you didn't you would be turned around at any chain-up check-point. This got us very worried... Katy owns a Volvo V70 which has a traction control option but no 4-wheel drive option (like the numerous amounts of V70 X-countries we have seen on the road) so we feared we would be turned around at the check-point. As we arrived at the check-point we didn't even have to stop as the guy waved us on to our almost certain death. I'm not sure what this guy was thinking... maybe: "Oh, they made it this far, I think they're worthy to pass" or "Oh, what the hell, this'll be fun"... whatever it was he was thinking he obviously had a severe lapse in judgement because our car did not pass any of the rules that were required of us....

We pressed on bravely through the wintry mix at a terrifying 15-25 miles per hour through the night hoping that we would make it through the mountains without slipping into a gorge or being run off the road by an 18-wheeler. Eventually, we notices the time and decided that it wasn't worth it to make it to the gig... our lives are much more important (sorry, Coffee Adventures). We pulled in to a small mountain town where they were just starting to clean up the roads and parking lots of snow... so we drove around for about an hour waiting for a grocery store parking lot to free up so we could steel a couple hours of sleep.

We woke up the next morning to a little bit of sunshine and beautiful view of fog filled valleys and snow capped mountains as Katy coasted her way down the mountain to the flat lands of Redding, California... it was here that we tried to figure out what we were going to do for the night. It wouldn't be worth it to go all the way to San Fran since our next gig was in Sacramento... only a couple of hours away... so we tried to find some friends to crash with in the area. We eventually found her friend, Jenny... who lived an hour outside of San Fran. When we arrived at her house we were greeted by some warm and welcoming people we knew we had made the right choice. They fed us dinner and we talked about all music things and whatever else came up in conversation.

Jenny then took us out on the town to show us what it was like. I so turned out that her friend was hosting an open mic that night over in San Rafael. We decided that we would go there and see if we could snag a slot and advertise the show in Sacramento. There were some great acts... a lot of hip-hop guys there, a girl who sang songs a capella (changing keys every other verse) and the most adorable father/son act (by father/son... I mean the father was probably in his early-mid 60's and his sound was late 30's-early 40's) who played old country tunes. The crowd was so supportive and fun! We had a great time playing and I think we may have made a few fans... open mics... you always surprise me.

After a good rest and a shower we're now read to head up to Sacramento and play (what is looking to be) a pretty kick ass show with Agent Ribbons! And then we're off for a couple of REALLY long driving days headin' back to the east coast... I'm sure I'll have some good stories about the south-west :)

Cheers,
Luke

Road Eating: Part 2

I would like to start out this blog with saying that the Northwest is probably one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to in my entire life. The rolling hills of eastern Oregon... the winding mountains outside of Seattle (which even at night are a beautiful sight)... its all amazing. So, with that all said and done... we move on.

We continue to amuse/amaze ourselves with our ingenuity in the road eating department. After our 12 hour drive from Utah to Washington we found ourselves (yet again) without a place to stay and stomach grumbling like a water pip ready to blow. We pulled ourselves into the (what turns out to be) very convenient chain of grocery stores known as Safe Way. Now, we were getting rather bored with our dry style died so we decided to mix it up a little bit and through some protein in there. We picked up a couple of cans of tuna and a steel a few packs of mayo and went to work opening and draining the fishy deliciousness in the Safe Way parking lot... but not without a couple of confused looks.
Along with our make-shift gourmet meals, Katy has also developed another interesting procedure for brushing her teeth when there are no bathrooms to be found in the immediate area. Instruments that you will need:
1. Toothbrush (optional [a finger works just as well])
2. Toothpaste
3. A Cup
4. Some sort of liquid (be it water, cranberry juice, orange juice, coffee... etc)

Katy uses an electric toothbrush but doesn't use the electric part. She's got good form though.

After walking around the busy streets of Seattle and playing a wonderful house show with the Autumn Electric we made our way down the coast to ye ol' Portland, Oregon. I've been waiting the whole tour to see this place and I'm so glad that we have had so much time to spend here. I'm also really bummed that we left our bikes in Maine because riding around here would have been worth carrying them along for the whole trip. We spent the first day walking around the downtown area trying to find food that we could afford. We ended up stopping by a burrito place that I got a fairly decent burrito at but Katy ended up getting a tiny corn quesedilla for way too much money (she had a sad face on for the rest of the night). We burnt about 7 hours in downtown Portland waiting for my old high school homeroom buddy Alycia Canavan and her husband (who are both some of the most amazing, funny and charming people you could ever meet) to get down with their dinner so that we could crash out their house with their adorably curious cats! As we sat catching up about the 6 years we hadn't seen each other, the cats were rummaging through our stuff and slowly starting to warm up to us. They didn't sleep with us on the futon that night but they did spend the night staring at us while we slept... only mildly creepy.

We spend the next day hanging out on Portland's "East Side" where all of the cool kids hang out. Its a neighborhood filled with young kids who aren't sure what they want to do with their lives so they spend their time scattered among the many cafes and thrift shops around the area talking their philosophies and buying their used clothing and nick-nacks. As it turns out (to our surprise and maybe disdain), we fit in quite nicely with crowd of tragically hip:

These were taken immediately after we walked by a shop window and saw each other arm-in-arm marching down the street. We both simultaneously laughed at the ridiculousness of it all (I think it was the yellow glasses Katy bought at Buffalo Exchange the day before the really put it over the top or maybe me being a totally hipster prick.... either one...

After a day of walking around and taking in the sides of Portland wonderful east side we went to the venue (Mississippi Pizza) to take in the amazing event that was happening before our show: Portland's Weekly Spelling Bee! We first got there and were surrounded by 30 somethings with their small children doing adorable tricks for us (staring, rolling, running and staring some more) as we sat waiting for the spelling be to begin. We started to get really excited at this point because we thought we were in for an amazing treat of cuteness on stage (I asked Katy if she had her camera and she said, "Yes, but I think I'll take the pictures... it won't be as creepy"). Turns out, as the start time got closer, the contestants were all hyper intelligent adults reciting the spellings of words that I didn't even know the meaning of (which isn't really saying much...). I would just like to point out that I am the worst speller in the world so any attempt to spell a word turned out to be a monumental FAIL (for example: the word would be "elephant" and I would spell "aeroplane"). After the first few words I gave up.

My set that night was riddled with feedback and all the wonderful joys of running your own sound. Luckily, by the time we got to Katy's set we had it all figured out and could just sit back and get into it. We also had a special guest in the crowd. His name is James and he is the drummer for the band called Bombadil. This was pretty exciting for the both of us because their CD "Buzz, a buzz..." has been a staple of our tour listening for the past month. His girlfriend lives out in Portland (he's from Durham) and was spending his off-time hanging out with her and graciously offered us a place to stay at her house that night... which turned out to be a pleasure not just because of them being incredible human beings but also because of the animals which lay inside to greet us.

This is Sampson

Sampson (who has one of the most powerful tails I have ever felt against my leg) was the only animal that I got a picture of but I can assure you that they have two sassy cats (one of them is a drooler... mmmmmmmmm) and another dog who has the most adorable face and an immense amount of patience. I love animals.

We woke up the next morning and James made us a delicious batch of potatoes and zucchini/onion scramble to send us off with (along with a preview of the new Bombadil... no, you can't have it) and here we are... in a cafe waiting to head out to Eugene, OR dreading the all night drive we're going to have to take tonight to get to San Fran (get excited for that blog)... Oh, Portland... I'm going to miss you.

Cheers,
Luke

Kansas Kow Kakes

There are a few things that Bearkat and myself do to keep busy during the down-times when we're not driving or playing. One of our favorites is playing the game Cribbage. I think its become a ritual for us to play at least one game of cribbage before our set every night.

Katy carefully counting her 15 2's, 4's, 6's and 8's

Along with teach Katy how to play Cribbage I have also been trying to teach her how to shuffle. She's gone leaps and bounds since that first session. She's progressed from shuffling back and forth in her hands (in essence, just moving them back and forth) to being able to do quite an impressive bridge. She's a faster learner... but she still has to work on her shuffling face.

FTW

We progressed from Minneapolis to Lincoln, Nebraska (listening to Bruce's record "Nebraska" as we drove in and while we drove around) where we played a quaint show at a place called The Meadowlark Cafe. This was the first place that we didn't know anyone so we were a little worried that we weren't going to find a place to stay. Luckily, the fine baristas at the show made some space on their floor so that we could sleep. They even made us breakfast in the morning! And to think, I thought Nebraska was full of serial killers and asshole cops (thanks Bruce).

The next show was one that we were both kind of dreading: Hays, Kansas. We had no idea what to expect, considering every time we mentioned the name to anyone they would either groan or say, "Really?". So, as you could imagine, this set the bar pretty low. We pulled up to the venue and immediately noticed that the entire town smelt like cow pies and that the place was equip with the appropriate precautions.

Needless to say, they wouldn't let me in with my AK but they let me in with my R/C rocket launcher... RATS!

The place was completely empty (I'd assume from the banishment of firearms in the establishment) but we made ourselves at home and played a game of cribbage, had some coffee and thought about how much power these guys actually produced for the town:

Amazing (Don Quixote would have had a fit!)

As it turned out, as soon as the show started people came piling in to hear some sweet sweet indie-folk-rock. The only problem with the show was that I kept getting freaked out when I looked to the back of the room and saw that there was (or what I thought was) a very attentive Italian chef staring straight at me.
I made a few attempts to create banter with this stone faced listener but eventually figured out that he wasn't actually breathing... the paramedics showed up minutes later. I hear he is in critical condition but he has a good chance of coming out of it. God's Speed.

Probably the best part of the night we found in the tip jar. I'm going to say, hands down, this is the best tip we've gotten from the whole tour.

Katy called dibbs on it (Rats, AGAIN!)

After the show resulted in our first through the night drive to Boulder, CO, a good 6 hours away. Katy manned up and took the wheel for, what turned out to be, the brutal drive because I obviously was not in a fair enough state to do it.
Top: Me trying to be some sort of Star Wars character.

Bottom: Katy double-fisting mysterious liquids to stay awake.

A few creepy rest stops and me crushing a loaf of Gluten Free bread later, (I'm so so sorry, Katy!) we made it to Boulder where we slept in a Safe Way (western grocery) parking lot and waited to see what the day had for us. It turned out to be a beautiful day. We walked around Boulder, laid around the many parks that they have and took in the great scenery of the Rocky Mountain Foot Hills.

Beautiful.

After our relaxing day we made our way to the show where we met up with some old friends. First on the guest list was Kyle Butz (former Bearkatian) and he brought along with him his charm and his freshly printed counterfeit money to buy CD's with.

Yes, that is a check book style, rip away, wallet of $1 bills... only in Missouri.

Next we had Kyle James Hauser who was actually playing with us that night. Honestly, he ripped it up on the banjo so hard that it made me not want to even play my set... I'm definitely an inferior musician. He was also a gracious enough to let us stay in his amazing house (a communal living mansion... you might say) that night... which had such things as:

An indoor pool (not operational)
Some fancy cooking apparatus (before).
After
and a rock climbing wall (Kyle, as I found it, is a master).

The next morning we went our separate ways and we set out on our long drive up to SLC, UT. This was another place that we were kind of leery about going to because of its reputation as the capital for the Mormon faith. Don't get me wrong... to each his own... but they are a little bit crazy. The thing that really gets my goat was their campaign funding for the repeal of the gay marriage law in California... how the fuck is it legal for a source from another state?! Either way... we sported equality with pride.

What you can't see is that we were right outside of the Tabernacle when we took this picture (Suck it, Mormons!).

But, to our surprise (again), the town was full of tattoo parlors, coffee shops, bars, adult book stores and amazing guys like this:
This is David and Glade. Both AMAZING musicians. Glade's songwriting and smooth voice had me wide eyed and jaw dropped and David's David Rawlings like guitar playing (again) made me want to stop playing my guitar. Its hard playing after people like this because I don't actually play half of the instruments that I end up playing... I just sort of fuck around for a while until something decent comes out... either way, I am humbled by guys like Glade, David and Kyle... thanks for letting me play on the same stage as you, truly.

Also, playing that night was this guys:

The Pinball Machine

He accompanied us on most of the songs. Providing flourishes of revving engines and bells that I know I've always wanted on my tunes (especially "Screen Door", it was a nice touch). Thank you Pinball. You are truly a fine player.

We were going to do another night drive but were lucky enough to stay with some people who were at the show who living, literally, right down the block in one of the coolest lofts that I've ever seen. Its always been a dream of mine to live in a place like this: Downtown, above a local business and wide open spaces inside.










Thanks again Chelsea and Vanessa for letting us stay at your sweet place.

For all of the fears that we had of this place... we turned out to meet some pretty amazing people.... and plus, the Mormons aren't all that bad. I think they've got the right idea about somethings.
Until next time (more road eating and the west coast!),
Cheers,
Luke

Road Eating.

Ok,

I would like to point out the importance of eating on the road. So far, we have been very lucky with all of the people we've stayed with and the meals that we have gotten (friends, families (mostly), venues that comp your food and very generous strangers). But sometimes you don't get so lucky....

Like last night at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis, MN we had the pleasure of playing with a girl named Sarah Winters but we had the unfortunate circumstance that we had to pay for our food. Now, we didn't get paid for the gig and we were told that we could have our food comped for us since we were a touring band but apparently this didn't get passed down through the line of booking to actual workers. I mean, its not that bad... but when you have a menu item like "Bottomless Rice and Beans" you can run into a bit of trouble. Especially, when you're on the road and your not too sure when the next time you'll be having a meal... so you tend to stuff yourself will reckless abandon and feel terrible for about 20 minutes after wards... here's the aftermath.

Sarah Winters and her lovely band playing a wonderful set!

Katy and myself suffering from the "rice and bean gut" (a common symptom after purchasing the "Bottomless Rice and Beans") which has less to do with your actual stomach and more about the faces made once stuff full.

20 minutes later... trooping it through the set(s).

The other part of eating on the road is literally... eating on the road. This mostly consists of the passenger making the meal while the driver sits back and enjoys the sufferings of the other as they climb into the back of the station wagon while barreling down the highway at 80 mph and possibly getting a little motion sickness while you're at it (it happens for both people... that is, if you take turns driving [which Katy and I do]).

Today's lunchtime snack consisted of crackers, peanut butter and pumpkin butter... now, I had my doubts about the combination when Katy mentioned it but it turned out to be quite delicious. The only problem was assembling such a concoction. For Christmas this year my friend Jeremy gave me a handy little tool called the "Hobo-Tool", which is pretty much a Swiss Army Knife that you can take apart and has a spoon and fork on it... this has come in handy for these mid-day "gourmet" snacks that we prepare on our "kitchen counter" (which, surprisingly enough, isn't the dashboard... it's your lap). But even with these ideal conditions you tend to make a mess.


Top Picture: the work surface (notice crotch as cap holder)




Bottom Picture: the "Hobo-tool" (spoon side w/corkscrew and scissors [I was using the knife side but Katy thought it was too dangerous because its a pretty sharp blade and mid-western highways are very unpredictable in their potholes]) and Nebraska.



As you can see, it is a process. One that takes years to perfect.

Now we're here in Lincoln, NE... home of the Kum and Go. No, really, there is such a thing.

Seriously? Nobody thought about this before they started building a chain of gas stations?

Until next time... be safe.

Cheers,
Luke

Leaving the NE... into the Mid-West.

Hey all....

Here's your newest Loblolly Boy/Bearkat Tour update. Brought to you by: Caribou Coffee of Chicago (where you can use their wireless and restroom for free!).

So, our story left off in Maine where Katy was mastering the art of eating a lobster and I (subsequently) developing a terrible case of the squirts from said creatures. Or was it the muscles? I don't rightly know. We returned to the road that night to hit up the good ol' North Star Music Cafe in good ol' Portland, ME. We were in for a treat this fine Monday eve for we were playing with a band called Morning Cloud.
Fantastic peoples. They brought one of the best shows that I've seen all year... they are both part of a band called Tree by Leaf but apparently this is a new duo project that they are working on right now and it sounds AMAZING. They also brought their little girl who was running around giving people stickers (she apparently gets really excited when they have their "date night" and bring her along to work the crowd [pity tips, really]). The crowd was very receptive (except for the dude who was sitting in the front row... deadpan and not clapping after any songs [who sits in the front row and does that?! Its so nerve wracking!]) and there were a lot of people who we didn't even know... which very nice. Katy got a piece of paper with the Passamaquati word for Bearkat on it and I got a dagger up the strap from my uncle.... the dagger being a video interview with the both us outside of the North Star in the cold and the strap being a cat sitting precariously on the edge of a window (at one point it actually started to try and climb downward and I questioned whether cats actually always land on all fours...).














Oh, you guys.



My Mom and Buzz were so gracious enough to get us a room at the Eastland Hotel that night... which as very nice... a king-sized bed... more towelette than you could eat and late night Skin-a-Max. There was a time in my life when I would have trashed the room and thrown a TV out the window but I think I'm past that... now I just leave the bed unmade.

Left the comforter off... BITCHES.

We then took the long ride out to Syracuse, New York, where we were booked to play a show in my good friend Ben Mason's attic with his band (the) Tyger, Tyger (in your head show). Turns out that Syracuse is kind of a cool little city. They also have extremely strange parking rules. As we pulled up to Ben's house we encountered these signs:
"... and let it be known that on the third day of the fifth month of the eighteenth year in Gemini that this street be reserved for the parade of the local zoo animals (for fresh air).

After much deduction we figured out what side we were supposed to park on but it did consist of many scratching of heads and furrowing of brows.

Ben's attic was quite an amazing hang! There were holes in the floor, drawings on the walls, a space heater and two crazy cats to keep us all warm as we played our little hippy hearts out through the night.

Space heaters and deadbeaters (the new record)

Anywho... after a wonderful sleep we made the trek out to western PA for our night off. The driving was smooth until we got to Pittsburgh... were, apparently, they don't have any idea how to map out a highway system! As we were admiring the skyline (which we were both surprised by) traffic came to a sudden halt as two major highways converged as a STOP-LIGHT! Now... if you were planning a city wouldn't you just make one of the highways go over the other one with an overpass or something like that? Well, someone put the job of highway design in the hands of a man/woman who played a lot of Sim City in their younger days... because they had way too much fun making people suffer because of their urban planning (there are also one way streets with dead ends in the actual city... so bizarre).

We made it through and showed up at a restaurant owned by some extended family called, "The Back Porch" where we were greeted by my sassy as hell third cousin, Sally. I honestly didn't know what to expect because I couldn't remember what any member of this side of the family looked like (which made me very nervous and extremely awkward feeling) but we sat down for a 3 course meal (which was soooo delicious, I still don't know what to do) and talked about life. She then proceeded to make us "sing for our supper" which consisted of us listening to both of our records while we ate... which was pretty embarrassing and I sat there listened to all the things that I could have done better on "The Selfish Years" instead of actually talking to anyone.

After dinner we went back to her place where we went to bed (I know, we're such rockstars). Thanks Sally for the place to stay and Joe for the delicious breakfast and for being overall incredible and sassy people!

The gig the next night was in the wonderful little town of Bloomington, Indiana at a place called the Cinemat, which is combination venue/movie rental joint (could you guess that it is a college town?). We got there early and met up with my friend Caitlin (our first Texas connection on this tour!) who took us to a cafe so we could do some computer work and chat for a little bit. She couldn't stay long to chat because she had to go to a board meeting for IU so she could do some last minute organizing for the next day (she was hosting a little show with Ben Kweller and the Watson Twins and had to find stuff for them to do while they hung out with her in town... no big deal) so we just went off and explored by ourselves until we could load in. The show was small but we got to meet some amazing people/musicians... one of whom was named Josh and is probably one of the BEST drummers I have ever seen play in my life. It was like watching that robot that could keep its balance on ice that is all over the internet... except if it were playing drums. It was AMAZING.

The next day we were in Chicago. I had never been to Chicago before so I was pretty excited to get to drive into the city but was double excited because we got to meet this lovely little lady.

Lydia Berg-Hammond (face cover because she wouldn't sign a release form for the blog [not because I take terrible pictures]).

Now, I had heard lots about this lady from Katy and was expecting a lot but she far surpassed any expectations that I had for her. She is possibly one of the most lovely people that I have ever met and I am so thankful that she and her parents put us up in the classy house placed in the quaint neighborhood known as Oak Park (which, from my observation, has the slogan "Drive 25. Keep Children Alive"... a good one I'd say). Immediately upon entering the house we were bombarded with hugs and much affection and then were thrown into the tumultuous argument that was happening the kitchen trying to decide whether or not the beetles Lydia's mom had gotten that day should be put into a glass jar or a Tupperware container (the decision was to use the Tupperware because if you drop that in the classroom and break it then you just have to catch the beetles... as opposed to catch the beetles AND cutting yourself and small children on glass). I also got to pee in the closet (don't worry... it had been converted to a bathroom but really, would you put it past me?) This pretty much summed up our stay with the Berg-Hammonds.

The show that night went really well. We got a parking spot right outside of the venue! But we had to pear down the setup because the space we played in was about as small as the closet in which I had urinated in earlier. The people in the room were so receptive and quiet and amazing. I'm not sure how we've gotten so lucky with the gigs on this tour but I'm glad we gotten to have such great audiences!

The next day was harrowing to say the least. We woke up the next morning to about four inches of snow on the ground and probably a couple more inches to come as we drove straight into the storm that was coming from Minnesota (where we were headed). Katy ended up driving (she's such a trooper) down the highways that were littered with cars and tractor-trailers that had spun off the road (for no apparent reason... it was when it wasn't snowing that hard!). It wasn't so much the other CARS that were on the road that were terrifying so much as the PLOWS that were on the road. Instead of clearing the roads with their mandible like plows (they are on either side of the trucks here and can be lifted by a hydraulic mechanism) the ended up throwing the snow 20 feet into the air where the winds were gusting at about 30-40 miles per hour. This creates a wonderful little white out where you can't see 10 feet in front of you... and what made things even worse was people in Wisconsin don't put on their headlights during storms (not that it would have really helped in this situation much) and they all like to drive white cars...

But Katy pushed through and eventually got us to our destination, the Mangan household, where they were so gracious enough to set up a house show for us. By far... the best show we have had! There is nothing better than a living room full of drunk middle-aged doctors listening attentively to every lyric that you sing. They really dug "Rot in New England"... instead of the token laugh from the first verse they reacted to every other verse with as much gusto as the one before... no matter how sad the lyrics got. We were called on for a couple of encore songs and then Michaelene Mangan led a rousing chorus of "hoorahs" (not to be confused with whooooooowa [whore in the Jersey accent]) with the rest of the guests.... which looked like this:









Left picture: Michaelene (at the bottom of the stairs) leading the choir (she is also the queen of outbursts [she likes to let people know when she likes things {we played the new arrangement of "Call the Doctor" and as soon as Katy started singing she screamed, "I LOVE THIS ONE!"... sooo good (its hard to play when you're laughing)}]).

Right picture: Tom Mangan checking out the setup.

After "shooting the shit" with some of our new found friends/fans we sat for a couple of hours "shooting more shit" (I might almost consider it skeet-shooting at this point) with Tom... listening to some deep cut Dylan tracks over the turntable while drinking wine until the room started to spin. Even as we dropped into bed we could still hear the Dylan blaring through the floorboards as Tom jammed out for... who knows how long (I fell asleep to the muffled sounds). Needless to say, these people are wonderful wonderful people and I don't do them justice with any of my words......................................... yeah.

Welp... there's another one of my haphazard blog entries (as you can tell the beginning don't line up with the end at all... and if you didn't notice... you can go back and check it again... if you even know what I'm talking about right now. I barely even know). Please send your complaints to:

Luke Kalloch
38 Carolane Acres
Round Pond, ME 04564

I expect letter in April. Until next time.

Cheers,
Luke