Tour
3/2 - Drive To Columbus
I get off work and Aaron and I grab the van. At first look, surely it will fit everything...it has to. Aaron never falters in reassuring that things will work. In his mind, they always will. It helps. We get to Aaronās and start loading. Itās gonna be tight, but we do what we can. We arrive to get Peter and heās got many items. How the hell is this gonna work.
āDid you use the stowaway yet?ā
What the hell is that? He says nothing and starts opening a hidden compartment underneath the feet of the back seats. Woah. We load that up and sure enough, weāre golden. Off to pick up Gabe. Iām in the driverās seat feeling the immense weight of a fuckload of gear and 3 people in the car and am skeptical this thing will get us around.
We get Gabe and start going to Columbus. Another humanās weight. Aaron canāt guess Grizzly Bearās Veckatimest until ā2 Weeksā comes on, which is alright. We kill about an hour as I tell them what my day job really is.
āIsnāt it crazy that for the average user, credit card companies are just capitalizing on my money YOU ALREADY OWN?ā
Itās a fucking dastardly-ass scheme.
We get 1.5 hours from Columbus and have enough gas to get home when Gabe says
āAre we gonna be stopping again?ā
āNo way! We have enough gas and itās like 1amā
āAhhhā¦.ummmm I maaaay have tooooo ahhhh Urinate-ooooā
This becomes a theme. But the goofy and pleading delivery was too funny for me to not reward.
We arrive at the Hampton inn and the check-in person was like āyājust made it. Was about to be gone for a few hours.ā Weāre tired as fuck. We get to our room and fall asleep.
3/3 - To Ithaca
Tonight is our first show in Ithaca. I slept like shit. Peter woke up an hour early to fucking work out. We get a scrappy breakfast from the lobby and Aaron hands me a tea bag that says āI Love Lemonā on it.
āItās a love letter.ā
We get going. Itās icy and Ohio-y. Aaron is driving, which Iām glad for. Right as we get on the highway, Peter says
āWould anyone care for a gorp?ā
That = grape.
We spend the ride trading the aux cable and me trying to sleep. We get to a patch of snow which makes me hella nervous but, again, Aaron doesnāt give a fuck. We stop in an upstate NY town that I forget the name of, but was classically upstate...one of those āmain streetā type towns. We get to a rest stop and this place was crazy...cracked stone floors and a grocery area in the back that had a lot of offerings, but seemingly just spilled out into the back storage/trash area, where there were relics of the distant past everywhere...cardboard cut outs, random furniture...separating the front and the back was an archway, and above it was an old āvideo rentalā sign, but like all wooden and bulky, and dusty as fuck...It was like walking into an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese, or something. Super unsettling.
We arrive in Ithaca and itās all twilighty and pale pink sky and all that. We hit Wegmanās quick for dinner and Gabe talks about how the prices have doubled since he used to work there during high school. Peter roams around trying to find something to eat, because heās on Whole 30. Perfect timing!
We get to the venue and start loading in. My keyboard stand ābreaks.ā Duct tape. (I later learn that all I needed was an allen wrench). I have a lot of history in this area - life changing concerts, day trips, hikes, food, sad escapes, past loves. I change into my Dan Deacon sweater which feels fitting. Iām dazed with a lack of sleep. My friend from Binghamton comes with a whole crew, which is much appreciated. The room fills up for the openers, which are intriguing experimental solo projects. Some college friends show up last minute before we start. The set was solid, but we ran into some sound issues and had to cut a lot of songs. I think we did alright, and people dug it. The whole crowd was intently watching, and laughing at every slight banterous comment I made. It felt like they were legit waiting to hear me all week.
I note that one of the songs I play is about someone in the room, but I had yet to see her.
I go to sell merch. My college friends who I havenāt seen in 6 months - didnāt really get to relax with them, as we need to tear down shortly after, and not to mention itās late and they gotta get to their place too. This ends up being what always happens - tour is work. There are not many free moments outside of the car.
Someone asks me to sign their CD, a friend reveals sheās been listening to my EP on repeat, and someone nervously compliments me and mentions the music video. Woah.
Itās time to tear down so we have to go down these narrow stairs with everything and load our van which is in an alley and has the neighboring bar employees yelling at us to leave. We canāt get the damn van packed, though. Itās being a bitch. We finally get it after much stress.
Peter and I split off to get to the place weāre staying, which is the house of someone I know who is not there. Thusly, we donāt know his roommates. We park semi far away and lug heavy shit to the door. Knock. Nothing. Call my friend. Nothing. I knock on the door of the lower apartment and get a helpful young dude, who says I should just go right in. So I do. There is a dude standing atop the stairs looking confused.
āHey, Iām Jesse - Does Remanu live here?ā
āUhā¦.ā
Someone else comes by.
āHey, um, hi, what the hell is this? Why are you knocking at 11 and just coming right into our house? We donāt know you? What are you doing?ā
Tired as fuck, nervous, and already shaken up, I just start stumbling to explain myself before he cuts me off-
āOH IāM JUST KIDDING WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE GET ON UP HERE! MI CASA ES SU CASAā
Wow.
We get upstairs and start unloading when a tenant starts enthusiastically talking to me.
āI was at the show! It was so cool!! It seems like you have a great following!ā
Nope - just had an alright crowd that Ithaca Underground is good at catering to. But I learn that the narrative spawned by things like this is as good as your image, whether or not the storyās there.
The house is classically Ithacan. āFree condomsā jar in the bathroom. Plants everywhere. Tribal woodworking on the walls. āCapitalism is a pyramid schemeā poster on the wall. Welcoming attitude.
As Peter and I lay on the air mattress, I say
āIām glad this is your first experience here, because this house is literally an Ithaca museum.ā
3/4 - Ithaca -> Syracuse
I wake up to the view of snow lightly falling, and it was unusual how fearful I became of it as it took new meaning for this trip where I am underprepared and need to travel hundreds of miles. This is obviously at odds with my initial delight and feelings of home - Tennessee certainly has weakened my capacity for snow and the cold - making me a creature I swore Iād never become.
Iām off to meet an old friend for brunch -
āHi so I am house sitting as well as dog sitting and the heat is broken and the dog is shivering, so I canāt leave him here. But also itās not really comfortable to be at this house because itās cold. So why donāt I take the dog to my house and we can make breakfast? But I donāt have eggs. So how about you get eggs on the way? But also I donāt really have coffee. So maybe you should also get coffee on the way?ā
This is exactly what happens.
I set out in my fucking boat shoes (glorified socks) in inches of snow and am slipping all the way down the front stairs of the mysterious house. I finally get my bearings and am greeted to the classic Ithaca - the same open minded and welcoming place that it never fails to be. A man snow blowing says good morning. Students mill about. I stop in the Green Star which is a fair trade sort of grocery store. I help a delivery man get his stock cart into the store. āThank ye much, sir.ā I get my coffee and local eggs. I arrive at my friendās house. She pulls up in a car and leads out a tiny dog wrapped in a red sweater. Holy fuck.
We go upstairs and after undressing the dog he immediately curls up in the sunlight of the window.
āHis name is Peabody.ā
WHAT
We go to the kitchen to make pancakes and eggs and get to talking about basically what happened over the past 6 years and how weāve both felt a lot of damage and successes and how different we are now.
āWhy werenāt you at the show? I played a song about you.ā
āWell. I was curled up with Peabody because it was so cold last night, and we were watching TV, andā¦I fell asleep. And then I woke up at 9pm being like āfuck, thereās no way I can make it now.ā
The song is called āAsleep.ā
āYou can hold this over me for like 1.5 years, itās warranted.ā
The thing is I wrote a whole album about this person in 2012 and I spent that last 5 years trying to get her to listen to it, and she wouldnāt.
Breakfast is delish, and we reminisce a lot about what it was like dating each other long ago. Itās really something how unprepared and ignorant I was at the time, but this is something I already have severely grappled with. Itās really quite good to have such an uninhibited conversation with someone so key to your life/past. Itās like being able to revisit era-specific weaknesses and moments in a tactile way.
Peter comes to pick me up in the van. I ask if he wants to meet Peabody. He says yeah, but doesnāt like small dogs. Whateverā¦
She hugs me bye. Peter and I go to pick up Gabe.
āWhatās the best way to Syracuse?ā
āThrough Cortland. Itās like a place where everybodyās aggressively trying to mate with each other.ā
Me: āAnd theyāre all judges.ā
Peter: āAnd they all love tennis.ā
āYeah. Itās a city of court judges courting each other on tennis courts.ā
We get to Syracuse and my college friends await me. We go to armory square and snack/drink. Our waitress is a girl I TAād 3 years ago. Insane.
We go back to my friend Jayās apartment, which is where I stayed during that whole Utica deal last september. It feels similar, which is awesome. Weāre drinking beer and eating burritos and laughing really hard. Itās time to load in down the street, so we get going.
The room is small, but works, and the crowd is paying a lot of attention. Show goes really great, especially with Jay on back-up vocals. I step outside to hang with my college friends. My one friend whoās helped direct the art of most of my past albums all of a sudden realizes that I just played next door to The Westcott theater, where he and I saw Reptar, Rubblebucket, and most importantly - Dirty Projectors.
āShit, this is the Westcott? Itās been here the whole time?ā
He gets wrecked realizing that weāve literally been sharing a wall with one of the most important spots of our friendship and artistic development. All of those concerts rocked our worlds.
Peter and Gabe split off to Jayās, Aaron and I split off to his house. On the way over, we talk about how touring is a real test of teamwork, and every bullshit ātrainingā and āseminarā in school and jobs has never offered a real application of those skills such as it has been.
3/5 - Sunday in Binghamton
Wake up to a good olā family breakfast at Aaronās. Peter and Gabe join shortly after. We eat and decompress before heading down to Binghamton. Snowy and sunny, it feels Hella Home-y. We arrive in Binghamton and hell is it dreary/sad. Everything is dulled, everything is grey, and it feels like nobody's around. We catch up with Eddie, who is hosting the show at his house, which is actually a commune that holds classes, dinners, and is a general stayover for nomadic types that need it. He leads us to the loft above ihs garage where we will play...itās really nice. Wall outlets all over the place, nice carpeting. We load in early so all we have to do is set up, night of.
I drop off Peter and Aaron at Cyber West to get work done - Gabe and I drive to Target to get a āQuickie Blank Blank?ā and pizza at Marioās, listening to rap on the way obviously. I ran into a family friend in Target. Talk to the new owner of Marioās while eating real pizza...Nashville pizza...just no.
We grab some beer and the Cyber boys and get to Eddieās and set up.
āHey, if no one shows up, we can just chill with some wine.ā
But people DO show up. 35 to be exact. 35 people came to this weird garage hippie loft to see us play on a depressing as icy Binghamton Sunday night while the DORMS ARE CLOSED. It felt like a weird judgment day, where various people from pockets of my past all congregated in agreement. I knew everyone, but most didnāt know each other. I actually made a ton of money on merch that night. I spent like 40 minutes talking to everyone before they cut away. Shortly after, a member of the collective (the house) comes up to the now empty room, and says
āGentlemen.ā
He procures a small white rod.
āThe band spliff.ā
We all look at each other. None of us, at this point, have been keeping up with smoking in our lives.
āIām sorry dude, weāre all too nerdy and responsible to partake.ā
āSeriously? Really? Even for the road?ā
āAh...I canāt keep it in the van, itās a rental. I feel terrible man. Weāre all too lame and nerdy. But I realize this is considered GOLD to many a band. Thank you so much.ā
We were too fucking responsible to smoke weed on tour.
After the show Eddie shows us his surprisingly sophisticated mushroom farm, which is essentially falling apart as he explains it to us. But, nothing he canāt control, nothing he hasnāt seen before, and nothing he canāt patch up.
On the way out, everyone in the living room is warm. Eddie and I chat about his future plans and current evaluation of self as we lock the door to the loft. The band and I head to my former neighborās house to have a v comfy night of sleep.
3/6 - New Yolk
We get up and cut down to Manniās, which is in the square of the neighborhood I grew up in. Fresh made donuts, EVERY day. We get a half dozen of all sorts of flavors and Gabe and Aaron and I split them all, savoring every detail as Peter drove and probably gritted his teeth knowing Whole 30 would keep him from this hometown DELIGHT.
We have a long conversation about respect, friendships, dating, and these 3 boys really bolster my self confidence and self-respect.
As we get closer to the city:
Peter: āAlright man. Start playing like, New York songs.ā
??
Peter: āLike Empire State of Mind and Billy Joel and stuff.ā
Peter: āSomeone honked!! *HONKS* Hey fuck you!! ...I love this city.ā
We get a perfect spot for load in. We all split off to see respective people. I eat edamame/avocado toast in an assuming brooklyn cafe, and drink an americano.
Jay, from Syracuse earlier, comes to meet me. We post up in one of his favorite taprooms in Bushwick. We catch up on lots of things, musical and life-wise. An old mutual friend and continued collaborator shows up-heās been engineering the Modern Instincts songs. Revelry continues.
We make our way to a vegan diner and the conversations continue.
āYeah, well really spot mic-ing a quartet, itās more there for body and leveling purposes, but the overheads dominate that tone, reallyā
Jayās gonna sing tonight again.
We start loading in and MUAH this venue is everything I dream of playing. The front bar is golden, ornate. The stage is fairly elevated, and the wall behind is plastered in clippings of ANY kind - news, or softcore porn. When the wall stops, an industrious black guard railing protects the open end of the stage. Skeeball machines, photo booth. The sound guy is so easy to work with, and so good.
The place starts packing, and soon enough Iām looking out to a huge room of people - we fucking DESTROYED that place. We play our last song - Thinking In English (an old one,) which is easily the peak of the set. Enormous cheer. The mains start playing change-over music, when we start to hear āBA-SIC PRIN-TER *clap, clap, clapclapclapā, and the sound guy lowers the main. A fucking encore. On our first tour.
We donāt have another song, and we need to give the time to Quail Turret. But damn, that was the best.
I spend the rest of the night loving all of my friends, selling merch. I settle up with everyone - the booker is nice as hell. The sound guy said we were of the top tier bands heās seen in his 1.5 years working there. The door girl asks if we need a place to stay. Man, what a success.
Peter and I head to my friendās house and we settle in to sleep on his floor. I count the money from the past 4 days and look through the pictures so far. Never felt so cozy on a couch before.
3/7 - Philly
Rainy in Brooklyn. Peter and I solve a puzzle of getting the van, going up and down 4 flights with different heavy things, and making sure the auto-locking door doesnāt fuck up our whole charade while loading.
We get the other boys and get a ways out of the city before stopping in one of those āall in oneā rest stops. Coffee and chapstick. We congregate at the front doors on our way out.
Peter: āThis would be a good place to buy a watch.ā
I turn my eyes to see a tiny glass case with your typical array of luxury brand watches. Armani, Rolex. I look at Peter. His face is totally normal.
Aaron and I have always done this thing, but it got exacerbated on this tour, where we would misread signs with liberal exaggeration on the syllables.
Mcdonalds, Subway, Sbarro.
āLook, this stop has MOME-DONSON, a SRABAWOONI, and a SUH-BARRR AR AR ARHHH AH...:ā
We drive to Philly. I put on Swing Lo Magellan because itās warming up. We talk about musicianship. We talk about musicianship every car ride, and itās amazing how much it evolves day to day for me, because I learn so much every day.
We drop Aaron and Peter off to do work/meet up with family, while Gabe and I go to get Cheesesteaks. Gabe does NOT pull his pants down. We wander into a bar that I realize I tried to book to pee. We get cash, and cheesesteaks, and laugh. Then we get blindsided by an ice cream craving. So we go near Fishtown and get icecream.
And then we go to this record store which is hella sad. I go to the back, and itās all dusty and yellow. Though, I do find a Kyle Fisher record which I thought was super weird. It was like, new, amidst all of the standard used-record leftovers you always find. It kinda made me sadder.
Some pretty good music is on, like this really tasteful blend of 70ās psych americana stuff, like that smoky Doors stuff or the more stoic Beatles moments like Norwegian Wood. I talked to guy at the desk, and he told me who it was, but I already forgot. But he had a lot of real things to say about it, and clearly cared a ton, which lightened it up for me.
Gabe and I step outside and I ask him if he was bummed out at all? Tour downtime felt really stale to me. You get to this city you barely know and feel incredibly small all of a sudden, and then I guess the massive drop in relative energy it causes can put the lowlights on display.
Gabe: āNot really, I dunno dude. Youāre depressing me!ā
Paraphrased, and he says it with a flimsiness - heās perfect for keeping the tour light and funny.
We get to the venue and start to load in. Up some narrow ass stairs...get to the venue. Tiny, all wooden. Wooden everything. The sound guy is a BAID-ACE (badass). Extremely positive, efficient, helpful, quick. Thereās nowhere to store gear in this place. Weāre basically shoving all of this shit in this 1 x12 foot (no joke) space behind the DJ booth. Which is literally the worst case scenario for gear storage.
One artist is Skeleton Lipstick - a delirious electro boy. I talk to him and ask him if he likes Tobacco, whilst in my Tobacco shirt. He does love Tobacco. We reference interviews weāve read.
Stage is tiny, but we fit alright, and I kinda liked the feel of it.
Sound guy - āIāll letcha know when youāve got two left!ā
Oh yeah, the person weāre staying with - sheās the inspiration for one of my songs. She shows up as we play our first tune. We get to this part where we do a transition between two songs. After the second, sound guy lets us know we have just one left. I play the song about her to close it. The songs ends in a fully distorted 1 minute synth solo, then just cuts off.
āI wanted to let you know you had two, but you jumped right into your next one!ā Itās okay, sound guy. You were awesome.
We load out, which sucks. I meet up with namesake girl, and our mutual friend. She doesnāt appear to know what to say, which is fair. If someone showed up to my town to blast a dramatic orchestral synth-ballad with my name as the chorus in my face, I wouldnāt know what to do, especially in front of my friends who might not know the whole story. Weāre sleeping at her place later.
The final band plays, and Gabe and I drink our discounted PBRs. I get barely tipsy and he asks if Iām drunk. For the tour, probably the drunkest Iād been, which is ānot that.ā
The really dickish door guy comes up to settle with me. Gives me this nicely written breakdown, and the payout, which is honestly not so bad. But the production fee was mega high, mostly to include the āpromoter.ā Promoter? The guy that made the FB event page? Iām thinking so. Hella side eye.
We get outta there and get to the place weāre staying. Namesake girl comes out to help us in. She lives above like, an ethnic gift shop, I believe. Maybe it was a tattoo parlor. I forget, but it was a kitschy place of business. And in a way, you had to like enter the business to get to the stairs that lead to her place.
We get up there and weāre all sitting around and visiting for a moment, which is nice. It hadnāt happened too often at our overnights yet, so it was cool to actually have a moment of hanging out. We tell stories. No one talks about the show.
The girls turn in upstairs, and the band and I are all laying down for bed now. At this point we started doing this thing. Thereās this band we played with a long while back called Noelle Tannen and the Filthy No-Nos. At the time, I kept forgetting the latter half of the name, so I picked a random filler. Like Noelle Tannen and the Green Tigers, or something. So I brought it up, and we started doing it again, for like an hour. It devolved into this super weird place.
Noelle Tannen and the stupid idiot morons.
Noelle Tannen and a couple of chairs.
Noelle Tannen and that 5th pocket they advertise on jeans, that youāre like, where the hell is it? And then you realize itās the little pocket made for keys or whatever INSIDE of the main right pocket
So like itās Noelle Tannen but, you walk in and thereās a huge draft and you realize you forgot to wear socks, so you put some on and itās a bit better.
3/8 D-Ceptive
We wake up. More Noelle Tannen for like an hour. We gather our shit, and shower. I neaten up the blankets and put a note on it
āThanks so much for letting 4 weird boys stay. Let us know if we can ever help in Nashville. Good luck with flipping cigarettes and jet lag.ā
Texts,
āI hope it was more good than weird to hear a song about you.ā
āDefinitely a first. But goodā
We stop at this cafe which is surprisingly good. I feel my throat starting to get scratchy. We talk about Aldi. Also, prior, we went into an Aldi and were like what the fuck, EVERYTHING is a knock off...and the graphic design is SO close to the original.
We get the hell outta Philly. We get 30 minutes from DC when Gabe has to pee. We pull off. First gas station we go to has no bathroom. We got to the 7/11. No bathroom. Where the hell does anyone URINATE on this street, then? We go to the McDonaldās up the street. Gabe gets a full big mac combo. Heās also been driving. Aaron makes a joke so funny that I drop my keys in the McDonalds.
We go to a suburb north of DC, and itās amazing how robust and corporate even this suburb feels. Still plenty of tall buildings. We catch up with one of Gabeās best friends, whoās now living here. When he has to go, Gabe and I explore a bit while Peter and Aaron do work. Metallic silver ball installation art. We come across this brewery and get a pseudo dinner and beers. Spice Girls comes on...Gabe and I have our longest heart to heart yet.
Additionally, 3/8/2017 will be forever known as Ass Wednesday.
My throat is still scratchy and Iām getting mucusy. Fuck. I have 3 more days to sing.
We reconvene, Iām feeling like Philly again, except this oneās weirder. DCās vibe is so strange. Philly felt like, at least dingy and like you could grab hold of some of it. DC just felt like, immovable. Impossible to influence.
We get to the venue which is this teensy cramped slab inside of this bustling strip. Thereās a neon sign they donāt light at any point. More narrow ass stairs. We get to the top and it is tiny - stage is an alright size, though...itās dirty as fuck, thereās stickers everywhere. And itās DARK as hell. Itās hard to make out anything a few feet in front of you - like the merch for example. Not that anyoneās buying. The sound guy - I can barely understand what heās saying. I get none of the information I need without my deliberate asking. Weird to me.
The opening band plays and they were dope as hell! And they liked us a lot too. At least we got them out of this night. I hope to stay in touch with them.
Itās clear no oneās really gonna show. I ended up drawing 6 people though, which is honestly a lot! And originally it was going to be 8, but two couldnāt make it. Thatās a lot more than my Philly draw. Itās a shame that the night had to be such a dud, because I felt I pulled my weight.
Peterās amp light wouldnāt turn on, my keyboard died towards the end of the set, and my throat was scratchy. We did all right. Tear down is a bitch because we canāt see anything.
The sound guy has to ask me to tell the sound guy heās ready to cash out. Lotta self efficacy, here. I go up and heās legitimately laying down on his back...for real, no one could be bothered.
$10!
We get to my friendās where weāre staying...parking is a major bitch. Crowded as hale. Itās nice to see my friend again, and we talk about Dirty Projectors and Delicate Steve.
3/9 - Long Drive To Sanctuary
We get up early because my friend has to catch a bus. We gather our shit and are all carrying respective piles of that shit down a block and a half to the van...7 hour drive ahead of us. My only stipulation is that we listen to Bitte Orca, because itās sunnier than when I put on Swing Lo Magellan. To me thatās obviously how it goes.
As we exit DC, I see it in this totally different light...Regal. Robust. Shining, golden! Ornate. Itās all cramped, and thereās all this architecture, and all these embassies all lined up and neighboring each other, flags everywhere...as we leave, we cross an enormous white bridge, passing elegant statues. It was quite the changeup.
We stop at a Wegmanās in Woodbrige, which is contained in this shopping center, which felt so odd...sterile...like the buildings were just a little too big, and too clean - too separated from humanity. And the way the sun shone on everything, it was like a page from one of those I Spy books. This is something I think about all the fucking time and severely colors my mind, so the I Spy thing makes a ton of sense to me. Would love to know if you get what I mean, here.
We get going to Charlotte, and yes, put on Bitte Orca - we also listen to a ton of Flying Lotus, the new Thundercat, and Hiatus Coyote.
We arrive at my parentās town house, which is in a development. We sit on the couches as a golden sunlight peers through the main window, and I think we all felt pretty tranquil.
We FEAST at Marioās.
We get to the venue, which is definitely the diviest one yet. Itās just a scant bar with some rugs in the corner and a PA. Hella broken tiles outside the bathroom.
The opener cancels 15 minutes after he was supposed to show. Yeah. Quail Turretās filling in.
The second band plays, I booked them because I was really diggin their album. They brought a handful of people that stood right around the perimeter of their setup and lightly head-nodded, which I thought was neat. They were good too.
We played to a bunch of my family, which is always weird. I cut the song Ironface out because I thought it would be too slow/emotional for them. E-Slow-Tional.
Door girl pays out really well! And the sound guy takes a new excitement when he says āHey guys, definitely hit us up if you want to do it again!ā
...we probs wonāt
3/10 - End
We stir awake. Dad makes huge breakfast...so good. We hang out with my fam a bit, and I feel like Iām too listless to connect. Itās been a theme lately, but I guess Iāve always kind of been like that, too.
We hit Marioās before we head to Hendersonville to get like, 3 pizzas, a salad, espressos and San Pellegrinos to go. Yeah. My dad gives us all a tour of the massive kitchen. I step out of the back door for a sec while the other guys are checking it out. Iām in like the trash room outside basically, which has an open ceiling...sun is leaking in over the edges. Thing about driving and sleeping in close quarters with 3 dudes all the time is that you donāt realize that youāve literally had no alone time for days and days.
We get going to Hendersonville.
āWhat kind of heavy shit do you like?ā
I put on Treats by Sleigh Bells.
We get to Hendersonville, and itās this adorable little one road mountain town. We stop in this music store, which Peter gets willingly stuck in as he talks guitars with the old dudes. Aaron and Gabe and I come across a timbale which was hilarious to us for reasons too stupid and long to explain.
We find the coffee place weāre playing in, and itās really cool. The point person let us know the deal and pretty much said it was gonna be dead tonight, but we could do whatever we want and call it a night an hour early.
We set up, which takes a while
āWoah...you guys have a lot of gear.ā
The thing about this show is that I told the booker we were like a full out band, and he was all -yeah yeah, do you want this show or not?
We set up and it is EMPTY. I drink a free white russian and eventually a high end wine. We end up just chilling and drinking fancy teas/coffees/alcohol as per show payment. We play all of the BP songs either like half as loud or half as fast...it was pretty trippy to try out.
āMan, Iām sorry we didnāt bring anyone out. What did you guys agree on for payment over the email?ā
I tell him.
āOhā¦.ā
āWhat, is that way too high?ā
āNo, way too lowā¦ā
He pays us extra, and buys a tank top. We end up making more than philly and DC combined. How ironic that this little coffee shop in the middle of nowhere is the place that believes itās up to THEM to bring out people...any other venue proper is pretty dickishly strict about saying āthe only reason people come is if you bring people out, so all promotion is on you.ā Lot of merit to the ideology, and also a lot of bullshit...if you own a venue, itās also up to you to make sure you get some business, if you want to stay open.
We have a long drive through the night to get to Nashville, and Peter asks me whatās next for BP. So we talk about it for like 1.5 hours and itās super energizing, and amazing how new my perspective has become on music in the past week.
I donāt think an illustrious ending is needed here. Tired and agitated, we rush the fuck home and drop everyone off.
Thanks for reading, please feel free to reach out to me.

















