Tour blog #1
Day 1 : Gainesvlile to Athens
We left town right on schedule and had a pleasant drive up to Athens. Evidently, Macon is the erotic massage capital of the USA. There were billboards for at least 6 different "friendly massage" parlours. Some advertised the fact that their staff was friendly and asian. Others, advertised that you could get your massage from an Asian, an American, or a Latin. Also, the pictures on all the billboards were of these Asian women with slightly orgasmic looking faces on them. I mean, how blatant can you be? There must be some sort of loophole in the Macon municipal statutes where these "parlours" can exist legally.
45 minutes later, we got back on the road and headed north to Athens.
Upon arrival, we walked to our fav Athens eatery, The Grit, and had some delish veg cuisine. Then, back to Tasty World for load in/set up. After getting all set up, I turned my amp on and played 2 notes to adjust the volume while Jake hit his snare lightly 2 times to tune it up. Immediately, the bartender came up to us and asked us to stop and wait till the sound guy got there. There wasn't one other person in the bar besides us and him! Ridiculous!
The most remarkable thing happened during our stay in Georgia. I managed to break my theremin the night before our tour. Desparately trying to figure out how to get a replacement, I managed to track down the guy who built my original one. Lo and behold, he lives in Georgia!!! A few emails later, he offered to have a brand new one delivered to me at the venue in Athens. In fact, his own wife was the one who made the delivery, and she drove all the way from Atlanta. How about some generosity to kick off our tour!
The show went well and we got a veg-dog from JB, Athens famous Polish Sausage Man. He makes a special "come back sauce" to go on his dogs and it was pretty delish. He said it's called "come back sauce" because it makes you come back for more. It was so damn spicy this time, though, we were worried that it might in fact come back later on. But it didn't.
We spent the night with 3 of the guys from King of Prussia (the band we played with). This was our first experience crashing at another band's place after a show. At first, we were a bit apprehensive, as they didn't leave the venue till well after 2, but once we got there, their place was pretty kickass and very hospitable. It evidently was an old chapel that the owners bought and MOVED from somewhere else to this hill in the middle of a new development neighborhood. It was a cool place.
Day 2:
Athens to Chapel Hill
Air mattresses really don't do much in the comfort department. I (Eric) managed to get the only couch since my back is so screwy. Poor Jake had the bare floor with only a sleeping bag. He ended up grabbing cushions off the band's porch couch to sleep on. A hot shower and bagel later, we were on the road to Chapel Hill.
Just 10 miles out of Athens, we got stopped by the Georgia Highway Patrol for doing 60 in a 45. We didn't see that the speed limit had changed. I can say that this was the only time in my life when I could identify with Sammy Hagar. Without more than a few yes sirs and other nervous pleasantries, the officer gave us a warning and sent us on our way. Generosity number 2!
After a second jaunt of 300+ miles, we arrived in Chapel Hill, a charming little college town area. We loaded into the venue (The Cave), which had a roof overhead height of 5.5 feet. The bar had all sorts of plaster and crap on the roof to make it look like it was really inside of a cave. Kinda cool. They also had a bunch of good local brews. It was a really intimate venue and the show was good fun. We also ate at an amazing mediterranean restaurant down the way.
So far, a common theme of this trip (and apparently of this country in general) is that you have to drive through alot of crap to get to anything worthwhile.
Another common theme is that each state has it's own bizarre laws when it comes to alcohol. For example, North Carolina bars have to be registered as "private clubs" in order to sell alcohol. This requires all patrons to be members in order to gain access. However, every single bar is a private club, and everyone can become a member, thus kinda negating the whole privacy element. At the door, when you pay the cover, they have membership applications that you have to fill out unless you already have a membership card. Weird. Also, South Carolina has to serve alcohol from the mini single serve bottles at bars/clubs. Stupid redneck blue laws.
Later on in the evening, we were standing out on the sidewalk on the main drag and some dude came up to us and offered us 35 cents for a cigarette. The transaction went like this:
Dude: Can I offer you 35 cents for a cigarette that you may or may not smoke.
Us: Ummm.
Dude: Come on, that's 150% of the market value of a single cigarette.
Jake: I have one, but the pack was 6.50
Dude: We're in NORTH CAROLINA, there's no way it could cost that much.
Jake: They're organic.
Dude: Ok, how about 60 cents.
Jake: I'll take 50.
Maybe it was funnier to be there. I wish I had the camera running.
We stayed with the guy we played with at his house in Carborro. His name was Vince and he was the 3rd blessing of generosity on the tour. He let us use his master bedroom and king size bed, cooked us breakfast, and was all around great company. It's really amazing how we keep finding these great people along our route.
Day 3
Chapel Hill to Raleigh
After a great breakfast, we left Chapel Hill for a very brief drive to Raleigh. We stopped off at Stacie's cousin Shannon's place and laid low for a while. Then, it was on to Jake's friend Lamar's place in Raleigh for dinner. We were going to cook, so we stopped off at the NC Grocery chain, Harris Teeter. For some reason, I decided to keep calling it Dick Tiddy (after the Inuit Jargon song). Lamar's house was literally down the road from NC State, which was also really close to the downtown area and the venue. It had a great southern porch complete with rocking chairs (which is where I am sitting as I type this).
So, on to the venue. The Pour House was a bit of a dive, but they seemed to be the city's major live music venue. They had all sorts of great shows coming thru there. The way they run their Sunday-Tuesday shows is by having the bands bring their own PA, doing their own sound, and doing all their own promotion. Sounds like a winner of a night, right? So, as the night went on, we realized that there was absolutely no one in downtown Raleigh on this Sunday night except for some bums. Whatever. We're on tour, right? But still, I know I was a bit weirded out by the fact that we might play to no one.
Miraculously, a good amount of people came in, and it ended up being our best show yet. We sold a crap load of merch and the bar hooked us up with free beer from their 30 taps all night long. Youngs Double Chocolate Stout on draft??? Amazing.
The place had this grizzled sound guy who was breaking down the house gear when we got there. He was a bit gruff, but as he hung out and had a few beers, he became the funniest, nicest guy. He was even singing backing vocals for Vince's band (who went on before us) at the top of his lungs from the back bar.
Good times.
More to come in 3 days.
We left town right on schedule and had a pleasant drive up to Athens. Evidently, Macon is the erotic massage capital of the USA. There were billboards for at least 6 different "friendly massage" parlours. Some advertised the fact that their staff was friendly and asian. Others, advertised that you could get your massage from an Asian, an American, or a Latin. Also, the pictures on all the billboards were of these Asian women with slightly orgasmic looking faces on them. I mean, how blatant can you be? There must be some sort of loophole in the Macon municipal statutes where these "parlours" can exist legally.
45 minutes later, we got back on the road and headed north to Athens.
Upon arrival, we walked to our fav Athens eatery, The Grit, and had some delish veg cuisine. Then, back to Tasty World for load in/set up. After getting all set up, I turned my amp on and played 2 notes to adjust the volume while Jake hit his snare lightly 2 times to tune it up. Immediately, the bartender came up to us and asked us to stop and wait till the sound guy got there. There wasn't one other person in the bar besides us and him! Ridiculous!
The most remarkable thing happened during our stay in Georgia. I managed to break my theremin the night before our tour. Desparately trying to figure out how to get a replacement, I managed to track down the guy who built my original one. Lo and behold, he lives in Georgia!!! A few emails later, he offered to have a brand new one delivered to me at the venue in Athens. In fact, his own wife was the one who made the delivery, and she drove all the way from Atlanta. How about some generosity to kick off our tour!
The show went well and we got a veg-dog from JB, Athens famous Polish Sausage Man. He makes a special "come back sauce" to go on his dogs and it was pretty delish. He said it's called "come back sauce" because it makes you come back for more. It was so damn spicy this time, though, we were worried that it might in fact come back later on. But it didn't.
We spent the night with 3 of the guys from King of Prussia (the band we played with). This was our first experience crashing at another band's place after a show. At first, we were a bit apprehensive, as they didn't leave the venue till well after 2, but once we got there, their place was pretty kickass and very hospitable. It evidently was an old chapel that the owners bought and MOVED from somewhere else to this hill in the middle of a new development neighborhood. It was a cool place.
Day 2:
Athens to Chapel Hill
Air mattresses really don't do much in the comfort department. I (Eric) managed to get the only couch since my back is so screwy. Poor Jake had the bare floor with only a sleeping bag. He ended up grabbing cushions off the band's porch couch to sleep on. A hot shower and bagel later, we were on the road to Chapel Hill.
Just 10 miles out of Athens, we got stopped by the Georgia Highway Patrol for doing 60 in a 45. We didn't see that the speed limit had changed. I can say that this was the only time in my life when I could identify with Sammy Hagar. Without more than a few yes sirs and other nervous pleasantries, the officer gave us a warning and sent us on our way. Generosity number 2!
After a second jaunt of 300+ miles, we arrived in Chapel Hill, a charming little college town area. We loaded into the venue (The Cave), which had a roof overhead height of 5.5 feet. The bar had all sorts of plaster and crap on the roof to make it look like it was really inside of a cave. Kinda cool. They also had a bunch of good local brews. It was a really intimate venue and the show was good fun. We also ate at an amazing mediterranean restaurant down the way.
So far, a common theme of this trip (and apparently of this country in general) is that you have to drive through alot of crap to get to anything worthwhile.
Another common theme is that each state has it's own bizarre laws when it comes to alcohol. For example, North Carolina bars have to be registered as "private clubs" in order to sell alcohol. This requires all patrons to be members in order to gain access. However, every single bar is a private club, and everyone can become a member, thus kinda negating the whole privacy element. At the door, when you pay the cover, they have membership applications that you have to fill out unless you already have a membership card. Weird. Also, South Carolina has to serve alcohol from the mini single serve bottles at bars/clubs. Stupid redneck blue laws.
Later on in the evening, we were standing out on the sidewalk on the main drag and some dude came up to us and offered us 35 cents for a cigarette. The transaction went like this:
Dude: Can I offer you 35 cents for a cigarette that you may or may not smoke.
Us: Ummm.
Dude: Come on, that's 150% of the market value of a single cigarette.
Jake: I have one, but the pack was 6.50
Dude: We're in NORTH CAROLINA, there's no way it could cost that much.
Jake: They're organic.
Dude: Ok, how about 60 cents.
Jake: I'll take 50.
Maybe it was funnier to be there. I wish I had the camera running.
We stayed with the guy we played with at his house in Carborro. His name was Vince and he was the 3rd blessing of generosity on the tour. He let us use his master bedroom and king size bed, cooked us breakfast, and was all around great company. It's really amazing how we keep finding these great people along our route.
Day 3
Chapel Hill to Raleigh
After a great breakfast, we left Chapel Hill for a very brief drive to Raleigh. We stopped off at Stacie's cousin Shannon's place and laid low for a while. Then, it was on to Jake's friend Lamar's place in Raleigh for dinner. We were going to cook, so we stopped off at the NC Grocery chain, Harris Teeter. For some reason, I decided to keep calling it Dick Tiddy (after the Inuit Jargon song). Lamar's house was literally down the road from NC State, which was also really close to the downtown area and the venue. It had a great southern porch complete with rocking chairs (which is where I am sitting as I type this).
So, on to the venue. The Pour House was a bit of a dive, but they seemed to be the city's major live music venue. They had all sorts of great shows coming thru there. The way they run their Sunday-Tuesday shows is by having the bands bring their own PA, doing their own sound, and doing all their own promotion. Sounds like a winner of a night, right? So, as the night went on, we realized that there was absolutely no one in downtown Raleigh on this Sunday night except for some bums. Whatever. We're on tour, right? But still, I know I was a bit weirded out by the fact that we might play to no one.
Miraculously, a good amount of people came in, and it ended up being our best show yet. We sold a crap load of merch and the bar hooked us up with free beer from their 30 taps all night long. Youngs Double Chocolate Stout on draft??? Amazing.
The place had this grizzled sound guy who was breaking down the house gear when we got there. He was a bit gruff, but as he hung out and had a few beers, he became the funniest, nicest guy. He was even singing backing vocals for Vince's band (who went on before us) at the top of his lungs from the back bar.
Good times.
More to come in 3 days.
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Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas By Chuck Klosterman Release date: By 23 August, 2006 
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