Mike’s Tour Blog: Vol. III Issue I

NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!

Well, not yet.

About 2 years ago (1 year 323 days 4 hours 22 minutes… thank you gmail) Alex from the Damnwells wrote me a message about possibly openning a show for them in New York City.  The Damnwells we’re my new band to root for, I drove around listening to Bastards of the Beat and was burning copies of Air Stereo for all my friends (Sorry/You’re Welcome Alex).

Anyways in a word, I’d say: stoked.

That show fell through though, I was in Ireland when I found out checking my email at a 5 star hotel in Kilkearny (or Kilarney or Kilkilanearyny… I don’t know).  The next night we stayed at a 1/2 star hostel in Galway and I drank pints with a toothless fisherman and discovered the wonders of a Black Velvet.

Still, in a word I’d say: bummed.

I stayed in touch with my kinda sorta musical friend bud Alex Dezen over the months and was glad to see shows started to pop up once again on his website.  A show popped up for the Mercury Lounge in New York, I had to ask.

“Well we could probably only get you an openning spot”
“Yes, that’s cool, let’s do it”
“You know that’s like a 20 hour drive for one show?”
“Yeah man, let’s do it”
“I can’t get you much money”
“It’s cool man, lets do it”

We’re in, let’s do it.

The show was on a Saturday, here’s a brief sketch of the plan: leave Wednesday afternoon, get into Atlanta by 8pm, invite our buds to get dinner at the Vortex, drinks at El Myr afterwards, back to Nathan’s (Guitaring King) house to crash, wake up, quick practice, drive till we’re tired, get a cheap joint, watch LOST on my laptop, go to bed, wake up early, drive into NYC, get to the Living Room, play a show, go party, crash at Rob’s place in Brooklyn (Bassing King 2007 Tour), do whatever Rob and Shannon want to do, load in to the Mercury Lounge, find some food and a Duane Reed, rocknroll, sell merch, chat up girls, chat up dudes who want to talk about Big Star and the Replacements instead, don’t get a parking ticket, go back to Rob’s, crash, make sure Daniel (Drumming King) and Nathan fly out and get back safe, drive 26 hours with Jacob (Bass Bud), listen to the Promise Ring, drink crazy energy drinks, get home Monday afternoon, get to work by 5pm Monday evening.

Anyways, in a word: success.

But let’s go back.

WEDNESDAY

Daniel and Jacob met at my place to load up the van, I’ve made a fine practice space out of my garage including a two tier “Fun Machine” organ that I plan on gutting to make the coolest looking keyboard stand ever.  We still don’t have a trailer, I kind of like it that way.  If you sit in the back seat you usually have a kick drum to rest your feet on I like to think of it as another way to get closer to your instrument.  Merch goes inbetween the two captain chairs, try not to spill chickfila in there.  Daniel usually only brings the essentials.  During our 2007 tour he showed up with a big box labeled “Pirate Dice”, it was tied in with the Pirates of the Carribean movies.  Daniel doesn’t just bring a bag of dice, he brings a box of pirate themed dice.  This time he brought sour patch kids, about 5 pounds worth.  If you know Daniel you will know this isn’t an odd occurance, it’s just our buddy Daniel.  If you don’t know Daniel, meet Daniel…

We had our easiest trip to Atlanta yet due to our new best friend TomTom.

“In 2.. hundred yards… stay left… and… continue… on highway”

We got there in time to join some friends for our go to burger joint in Little Five, the Vortex… I’m sure many Atlanta people kinda see it as a touristy place, it’s got a big skull on the front door and funny “rules” on the menu, we just find it tasty.  Ask me about the coronary bypass burger.  We caught up with our “second home” friends and headed down to El Myr this mexican place down the street for some Margaritas.  The Drive By Truckers were playing at the Variety Playhouse next door.  We got a booth by a window and watched their demographic (as far as I can tell, Alman Brother lookalikes, southern waitresses, guys who don’t like to wear shirts, dangly necklace enthusiasts, and cool girls that kinda dress like pirates) made their way to their vehicles.  I crashed on the couch at Nathan’s parents house, it felt like a home but not mine.

Going to plan: check.

*Stay tuned for issue II tomorrow!