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.
"... 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]).
I expect letter in April. Until next time.
Cheers,
Luke
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:
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
38 Carolane Acres
Round Pond, ME 04564
I expect letter in April. Until next time.
Cheers,
Luke
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