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

Beantown and Shellfish Poo-poos.

I think I've developed a fear of a robotic kind.
What you can't tell from this picture is that these seemingly harmless toy cars are actually robotic killing machines. In the eyes of children... at least. What baffles me, is how hard it is to transform these "transformers" (aptly named) into their human like counterparts. Katy and I had a hell of a time of it. If we, as full grown adults, couldn't dissemble and reassemble these toys without breaking off parts... how could a kid (ages 8 and up) do it without frustration or even choking? I was relieved to find out that Dan had had a lot of trouble with these things also... and had already broken the parts that we thought we had broken in his attempts of trying to transform them (sorry Brian). Altogether, because of this, I now live in a state of constant paranoia fairly certain that the Volvo will turn into a robot while we're inside of it. Its not so much the fact that it would be a machine with its own thoughts and emotions that scares me... its mostly just being inside of it while the transformation process happens. Would we be crush? I don't know and I don't want to find out.

With a couple of games of cribbage under our belts and the failure of rant above... we took to the road so we could hit Boston. This promised to be quite a nostalgic experience... with both joyful memories and probably some very awkward ones. We drove into Boston and grabbed and parking spot and broke out our bikes for a little bit of a jaunt around the city. To my surprise, the idea of this scared the living daylights out of Katy (riding bikes around Boston, that is [which she now informs me made her "nervous"... so please excuse my misinformation])... her fears of falling into the Charles over took all thoughts of logic and enjoyment of such a beautiful day (1. we weren't even close to the Charles River and 2. it was frozen over so she wouldn't have been able to technically "fall into it"). Anyway...

Our first stop down memory lane was to Berklee College of Music so Katy could drop off a copy of her record to an old teacher of her's. And, true to the quintessential Berklee experience, we walked around the maze-like hallway system (see this sketch [sorry about the lack of audio... didn't have the rights to have some songs on it so they took it away]) just to make sure that it was still as retarded and confusing as it was before. It held true to me still.
We continued our adventure into Cambridge. We road from the MIT area all the way up to Harvard Square.... it was cold as hell... and I didn't have any gloves or a hat on. When we got off of out bikes Katy's hands were so cold that her finger had turned almost white. Apparently, we both have been too far south for the past year and 25 degrees freezes you to the bone at a surprisingly quick rate... pussies. I'm so ashamed.

After filling our bellies with some delicious mexican food (unfortunately, we didn't get to go to El Pelon because it burnt down [for the second time!]) we went to the All Asia (the ol' Berklee hang... a right of passage, you might say, into the playing circuit in Boston. You have to play the All Asia before you play anywhere else... in this case we couldn't get a gig anywhere else is Boston so we were forced to book the All Asia) to load in our stuff and to listen to the bands that were playing before us. This reminded me exactly why I didn't like playing the All Asia. On this particular night we were the closers... and all the bands before us were perfectly rehearsed, funky, glammed up, Berklee bands that I probably could have fallen asleep (or died) listening to because the arrangements and writing was so... boring. I won't get any further into this in hopes that I will curb my live music snobbery. So, we had a rocous crowd among us playing fooseball and pool while we played our quite folk songs... not ideal conditions but entertain/hilariouis (banter with drunken crowd members is always entertaining [Katy being asked to go home with a guy in the middle of the set and me trying to have an intelligible conversation with a supremely drunk woman about the French Revolution]) none-the-less. Also, what you have to understand, the room is tiny. Maybe you could fit 75 people in the room (fire code wise) but they still felt like they needed this:

Jumbo-TRON!

Not only is the place small but the screen was set up next to stage... so even if you were in a part of the room where you couldn't see the stage you wouldn't be able to see the screen anyway. Maybe, people like to see a low resolution version of real live to the actual thing... standing 10 feet away. I had to keep myself from laughing/staring everytime I looked over at Katy because it was right behind her and the sight was almost mesmerizing....................................

Despite the sketchyness of the gig... some great people came out: (sketch comedy/illustration greats) Tchadd Hanna, Dan Hanafin (for a second round!) and Bob Laing. (former co-worker) Emily Bickford. (former bandmate/helper) Joshua A. Russell. And Elizabeth O'Connor! Thanks guys for coming out!

We spent the night with Katy's friend Cory and wife Cynthia's floor with their cute little fat cat (whom I can't remember the name of) who liked to walk over and headbutt you in the middle of the night. I also put the bottom sleeping bag on backwards so the rolling clips were right underneath me... like sleeping on rocks.

The next morning we were off to Maine (but not after a delicious eggy concoction by Cory [thanks!] before we left) to take my hometown by storm! We were set to play at Skidompha Libary for what turned out to be an enthusiastic crowd of all ages! This was exciting...

This is my, "I'm going back to Maine" face. Very much like the, "I love meat" face.

Thanks to my Uncle for scrounging up (and running) sound equipment that night and thanks for everyone coming out... it was a lot of fun.

But what could have been even more exciting was seeing what my mom had up her sleave for Katy to eat! My mom (as many of you know) is a superb cookstress and went all out to feel Katy... even with her allergy to gluten! She made her gluten free pasta, sauce, apple pie, minestrone soup, bread... and lots of other things that I was, quite frankly, amazed about myself. She really went alllllll out. She even gave her e lesson on eating lobster and muscles!

Its all about the fingers (which is what she said) and claw crackers (she also said that).

I've got a good technique to consuming this bug of the sea but there are some old skool ways of doing things... as my mom's boyfriend Buzz clearly illustrates.
Left: Me (somewhat schooled), Katy (n00b/pwned)
Right: Buzz (FTW)

And all the while we had an onlooker who provided us with the most unlimited amount of sass that you could have at one sitting.... Miss Murphy.

Look at that sass... so much.

So, the past couple of days have been spent watching the History Channel, doing taxes and eating food....... but now its back on the road to Portland! Check back soon ya'll.

Cheers,
Luke

The best thing about driving into New York was driving out of it. What happened inside was kind of a blur for me. I had never driven in Manhattan before. I had always driven in the outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens….) because I feared the overall congestion of the monster that they call Manhattan. I think I was really scared about switching into my old bike messenger ways and trying to squeeze between cars and run red lights… but luckily that didn’t happen… for Katy’s sake (and her car’s [Big Black Betty]).

Now, my plan was simple: drive in, unload, park, play, re-load and get the fuck out. The plan worked pretty well, with a couple of quite delightful hick-ups. When we got to the Living Room we were greeted by two old school friends (more Katy's than mine) Zach and Sydney. We proceeded to take a quick stroll around the block to find some sweet sweet burgers and fries (I'm not the biggest fan of Manhattan food... but when you're hungry, your hungry). We returned to the venue soon after to be greeted by our good Austin friend (I'd say Katy's soul-mate and my nemesis) Miss Catherine Grooms and to my surprise she had finished a shirt I had asked her to make when we was in Austin for the holidays! It is the most well fitting shirt that I have... and it has embroidered pterodactyls on it (I'll have a picture up soon). And the final surprise came minutes later when fellow Mainers (yeah, they're everywhere) Jamie and Andrew (who I was band mates with way back when in the band "the Anit-Fascist Protection Wall" [which, I strangely found the master of our 8th grade demo in the back of Katy's car the other day and we listened to a classic version of "Fight for your Right" that we had recorded where I have a monumental FAIL of a voice crack in the middle of {Katy almost drove off the road when we listened to it the first time and had me rewind it a couple of times for re-listens (when she laughs randomly now I know that's what she's thinking of)}]). Apparently, I was so distracted about getting in and out of the city that I forgot to take any pictures... except this one.

Awwww... friends (Catherine and Kathryn).

After the show, unfortunately, we had to head right out of the city to get to our place of sleep in Ansonia, CT. We said our goodbyes and assured each other that we would see each other soon (which, unlike most times, I'm sure will happen very soon). With that Katy and I drove the hour and a half drive into Connecticut to her friend Tim's house where we busted in at 2:30 am and crashed on their living room (how appropriate) floor and fought for control of the sleeping bag and worked together to keep their cat, Doc, at bay from attacking our feet.

The next morning we were Providence bound! The night was to be one of the most exciting we have had for the entire tour! This was our first day that had changed venues... originally, it was supposed to be at a place called "Jake's" in Providence but the venue had been closed for city zoning. Our friend Jeff (excellent sound guy, by the by) then helped us jump on a bill at a place called Cat's (mostly known for its metal shows... this is what got me so excited! [technically, it's called K.C.'s lounge... a sports bar) in Pawtucket, RI. T Upon arrival we met up with my GREAT friend Dan and his roommate Tony so that we could go out and get some dinner at a fine mexican restaurant... or what I thought it was a fine establishment until I saw this...

Bimbo (which I'm now assured is a bear)!

I now had my reservations about this place... apparently, they are starting to expand into the unit that is next door to their establishment. And guess what used to be in that store? I pornographic video store. A straight up den of inequity. This just concretes my thoughts/accusations that Bimbo is really more like its name-sake than it is a delicious pastries/bread company. More on this later...

The show was pretty awesome! We had a fair amount of people out and we had a lot of fun playing! We were both surprised at how nice the club was. When we heard that it was usually host to metal bands we were thinking that it would be all torn up on the inside... just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover (or title). It was actually really posh on the inside.


We also had local celebrity Liam McCormack (of Fly Upright Kite) in the crowd giving us our support for the entire night. We had plans for him to come up on stage and bust out a phat (notice the PH) bass solo in the middle or our sets but it didn't quite happen (he forgot his rig at home). None-the-less... it was awesome seeing him.... along with a bunch of other people I hadn't seen in a while:

Dan, Tony, Kiera (and boyfriend) and Brian (washed-out on purpose)

Best of all we had photographer extraordinaire Dan Hanafin in the crowd taking some amazing (and artsy) pictures. Here's what he captured from this wonderful night!

Katy and I preparing for our set (Photo by Dan Hanafin)
Dan was starting to get into his groove. me picking my nose (Photo by Dan Hanafin)

This is Dan's specialty. Its kind of like magic eye but with photography. Cross your eyes and you might see me mooning the crowd. (Photo by Dan Hanafin)

And the final installation of Dan's photography of the show. He says it was an interpretation of his feelings about the show... but I'm pretty sure its just a blurry picture of the carpet that he took while confused on how to work the flash. (Photo by Dan Hanafin)

Thanks again to the Whippits (great washboard player) and the Propellors for letting us jump on the show! It was a great time!

Alright. We're in Boston right now waiting to load in to the show... I'd leave you with a video Jeff's daughter June (the most energetic child I've ever met) crushing ice with a hockey stick in the driveway (to probably ward off excess energy) as we left for dinner but... blogger is being a bitch... I'll try later!

Cheers,
Luke