Of all the holidays, Halloween is one of the ones I care about the least (but not less than Columbus Day). It honestly does nothing for me. It could be that at I'm growing increasingly mature (unlikely). It could be a defense mechanism against my innermost desire to dress up as Batman and hurl poorly-constructed cardboard Batarangs at unsuspecting children (highly probable). It could be that in middle school the girl I had an enormous crush on dressed up as a pumpkin, therefore rendering her less attractive (it was a terrible costume). Whatever the case may be, the Great Pumpkin means sweet fuckall to me.

Therefore, in this spirit, I will not only leave this entry as it is, I'll post the exact same video I posted last year. How's that for phoning it in?

Cheers,
Henry



PS Go check out Castle of the Damned in Gloucester this weekend. I haven't gone yet, but I hear you won't regret it. I also heard it scared the piss out of some drunk teenagers (which, if anything, serves to amuse me out of my ambivalence towards Halloween).

It was sort of an action-packed weekend. Friday night, we headed back to The Draft in Allston (ah, our old hood) for the second benefit show for Jules. She was able to make it to this one, and it was awesome to finally get to meet her in person. She's awesome. And I'm not just saying that because she complimented my double-fisting abilities.^*† It was pretty wild. There was a Judas Priest tribute band playing the thing.^‡ She's still got a mountain of medical bills, but y'know... when it comes to "owing $30K vs. dying", I think I'll take my chances doing the waltz with the healthcare industry. At the very least, it's great to hear that she's feeling great at least, and the leukemia's in remission. She's got one more bone marrow transplant to undergo to hopefully knock this thing on its ass— if not permanently, then for a long, long time.

Saturday night we spent in Worcester. We took a very last minute acoustic-type gig (big thanks to David H. of Little Big Wheel). It's one of those things you say "fuck it" to and just fly off the seat of your pants. Spontaneity is good, yea? We had two hours to fill and just made the setlist up a few minutes before we played (or on the spot, depending on when you caught us). Definitely a very good time. I think I needed it.

Just got back from practice not too long ago. We've been rehearsing like bastards with Tim for this projection show thing we've got coming up (I hate calling it "projection show".. what the hell else can I call it?). We're getting a look at some rough cuts by Johnathan next weekend. Me likey.

This show's going to be insane.

It's already insane.

Cheers,
Henry

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^*Why does that sound so dirty?
^†But really, I was just holding Jen's beer while she went to the bathroom.
^‡I was waiting for them to play Breaking The Law the whole time. And then they did.

Well, it's been a week since we've been back in Boston. Still not adjusting well, but at least I can't say I'm not keeping busy, that's for sure. To start, we've got that show tonight in Vermont. We're supposed to play for something like three hours (the joke: we're not really prepared for a three hour set). We're going to have a bit of fun with it, though. Bringing along an acoustic, just going to wing it for the first set and have a good time with it.

(The Sox are on the tube tonight as well, I wonder if the game will be on all the way up in Montpelier..?)

Anyway, the next big thing we're working on is our Boston show at Café 939. The place has a nice setup with a projection screen, and initially we wanted to play a show and perhaps use the projection screen for a few songs. It's now looking more and more like a full-blown multimedia production. The whole thing is a little daunting and has progressed from a typical Aloud show with a few extra bells and whistles to a whole project in itself, but we're all insanely excited about this. At any rate, it's a chance to get a little artsy fartsy and do something outside your standard club show. This sort of projection show is something we've always wanted to do, anyway (and between traveling the country and adding a piano to the stage setup this year, we're really ticking these off the old wish list here...).

The show's called "I Just Want To Witness..." (as opposed to Ross' idea of calling it The Witness Projection Program). We're working on it with filmmaker Johnathan Carr on this (who's also working with other filmmakers like Erin Bowser, Timothy Scholl, maybe a few other people..). Good times, good times.

I've been listening to the new Oasis album like mad. It's fantastic, and it's a mostly unrecognizable Oasis (save for Shock of the Lightning, but you need to throw a classic sounding tune in there). Bag It Up, Waiting For The Rapture, and To Be Where There's Life are probably my favorite tunes so far. This list will keep changing until I've ultimately rattled off every single song on the album. But yes, it's worth purchasing (even for the "Oasis has been shit since Be Here Now" crowd.. this album is for you).

That's all I got for now (things seem so much more interesting when you're on the road, even if you're just looking out a window for five hours). Off to get a coffee...

Cheers,
Henry

Waking up at the Griffiths house has been really fun for the last couple of days. Their coffee maker was pretty fascinating. It's one of those coffee machines where you load a small packet of coffee and it makes just enough for one mug. We live in the future, people!

We rolled out at 2pm; Brooklyn's not far, but we wanted to get there early. Ross was meeting some friends for dinner, and Jen and I were meeting the kids from Radio America.

Jen accidentally threw out the directions to NYC, but we more than managed with the Atlas we keep handy in the van for such occasions. Every now and then I wonder how the hell this was done before the internet, and there you have it. We were like little fuckin' Magellans, cruising around the globe.

We got to Trash Bar a little after 5pm and unloaded our things. I talked to the bartender a little, who turns out is my age and was also born in Miami (though she grew up in Hollywood, up in Broward). Small world. Jen and I spoke to Tom from Radio America and made plans to meet up with him and Gabe (the other guitar slinger in the group) later on to watch the VP debates. We were starving, though, so Jen and I went for some Thai food— I think the place was called Tai Thai. At any rate, it was really good and really cheap.

The mood was very somnambulant. New York does that to me, not really sure why. Maybe it's just too fucking crowded for me. Or maybe it's the last night of the tour, and then it'd be right back to the grindstone. I had an epiphany that I'm really, really good at being in a band and not much else. It's one of the very few things in my life that can hold my undivided interest. It's a lot of hard work, but most of the time it doesn't feel like it (and when it does, you just go through it without even thinking about it). I had a pretty tough time readjusting to life back home the last time around, and I suspect this time will be no different.

We met up with Tom and Gabe, who were also accompanied by a few other friends (which included the one and only Mr. Photog) to watch the VP debates at Hope Lounge down the street. In some ways it reminded me of watching the 2000 debates between Bush and Gore at Gracie's Grill, only less serious (which was super, super cereal). That was something. At the time, some woman got really drunk and started yelling at Jen that Bush would destroy us all (which was odd, because Jen certainly didn't support Gov. Bush, but I guess proximity is nine tenths of the law... or something). The VP debates were entertaining compared to the presidential one. Joe Biden did well I thought. The guy was probably as clear and forthright as any politician will allow themselves to be. Sarah Palin is a joke; you want to talk about descending into self-parody, she's your poster child (wink). Which isn't to say I think she's a stupid woman— she's just in over her head. Way over her head. I'd be surprised if a Sarah Palin Bingo Card didn't show up on the internet within the week.

We headed back to Trash Bar afterward. We were supposed to go on at midnight (they call this "headlining" to make bands feel better... and we went on closer to 1am anyway). The show went alright (I'd give it a B+), but by this point we were extremely tired and ready to head back home (ideally for a couple of days, then back on the road, but 'tis not to be). I slept through most of the trip back home, so there's not much to report on that front. What I will say is that the entire day I was looking forward to that 2am Wendy's off exit 40, and when I get there, no burgers. Just "chicken product". Goddamnit.

A hungry stomach knows no loyalty, though, so I settled for a chicken sandwich before passing out in the car again. The rest is a blur. It was cold and the sky was a navy blue. Tuned in to FNX for a bit of familiarity. Unloaded our gear at the space. Got back to our apartment around 6am. Talked to Beca and Martin, who were crashing at our place, and compressed 2 weeks into 10 minutes of conversation. Where does the time go...

Bed.

Zzzzz.

Somewhere between consciousness and the dreamworld, it occurred to me that I'm pretty goddamned lucky to be able to do this at all. Much like the last time, I can't wait to start this all over again.

Cheers,
Henry

Currently listening: Dig Out Your Soul By Oasis Release date: 2008-10-07

Labels: tourdiary

The rain finally caught up with us in the morning. Again, our attempts to get an early start were thwarted and we woke up 20 minutes before checkout. The drive to Philly is one of the longer ones of the trip, a little over five hours. Five hours of looking at Pennsylvania mountains. When it comes to food, this last part of the tour has been a complete disaster. I cracked again and succumbed to Roy Rogers. It was as gross as it was satisfying (very), but at least it's one notch higher than McDonald's due to the Fixin's Bar.

Once we got into Philly we had the strange compulsion to turn off the music and listen to NPR. Figured we should keep up with the news and such. We didn't miss a hell of a lot; economy's still shit, Bush still doesn't know his ass from his elbow, and wackos are still getting airtime. There was an interview with Bill Maher later in the evening about his new movie Religilous, which coincides nicely with the Christopher Hitchens book I'm reading God Is Not Great. Some people might balk at the thought of reading it, but I'm a history buff and that book is chock full of it. If you think the book may offend you, I'd recommend you challenge yourself.

Anyway...

We're staying with our friend Jaime (who interviewed us for WDBK... but you'd know that if you saw our tour movie). She had pizza and everything waiting for us (take THAT Roy Rogers!). Had an interesting conversation with her mom and stepdad about the unfortunate decline of MTV. Yes, they do play music videos; no, I don't want to have to stay up till 5:00am to watch 20 minutes of videos— and shitty ones, at that.

Once again, the club was subject to the reverse Murphy's Law theory. Dr. Watson's has three levels, with the top two dedicated to bands. We didn't get a soundcheck and the line check was pretty quick. The soundguy totally knew what he was doing, though. None of us could really hear ourselves onstage, save for Ross' drums and bass; normally, that sort of thing makes for a bad show, but for some reason it felt really good. There was a pretty good crowd out there that was really digging us. I really like Philly.

We spent the rest of the evening having a good time at the club with Jaime and her friend Brian. We got out of there around 1am and headed back to Jersey to crash. A few of us were pretty hungry, so we decided on Taco Hell (ah, the food choices get worse and worse). When we pulled up to the window after Jaime's car, the dude handed us the food and just said "She paid for you ass. Something about love." We were laughing about that one for a few hours. Days. We bullshit for a couple of hours back at Casa de Jaime before crashing. I was hoping to play some Wii, but I was too tired.

Yea, we had fun.

Next: A day in the studio at WTSR.

Cheers,
Henry

Labels: tourdiary