"God Damn Sherman!..."

O0o0oohh…

Due to lack of internet availability and a severe lack of interest in starting at a computer screen, we have not written in the blog since the 18^th and the rest of this journal was written between the 25^th and the 28th!   Word…

Here are some pictures of the first night at Airport Circle and following morning in Jersey.  Check out the earlier blog entries for details on these...

^Locked Together in Hatred

^Cavale

^Exemption

^keg santa in Paramus

^octabong

^sleepy

^arnold palmer

I believe I left off on the first entry when we were en route to Boston from New Jersey.  We had some time to kill before our show at The Midway Café in Jamaica Plain, MA so we had an enjoyable stop at a Toys R’ Us where we met lego Boba Fett & acquired a tool-of-the-trade for our merch table (pretty pink cash register).  The woman at the register told us she “hopes we graduate on time” whatever that means… 

^rockin' that shit!

traffic^

Midway show was fun.  We met Midnight Saints from Vermont, who rocked a very entertaining hardcore punk set and coincidentally played Long Island the day before.  Our set went pretty well.  With each show, we feel a little tighter and complete in our set choices…  We also enjoyed the awesomeness that is Problem With Dragons from Easthampton, MA.  They dealt out dirt naps and are very cool dudes.  Kinda doomy, really groovy and thick… just heavy and great; another band I hope to bring to our neck of the woods asap.  Their shirts (storm trooper with Japanese flag painted on mask) are so effective that someone literally offered to buy one off of Tom’s sweaty back at our next show in NJ on the 22nd.  I believe Tom traded him for a beer and a shot…  We thought we were just gonna start heading to DC that night but luckily our friend Meg helped us find a place to stay with her friends Maria, Elizabeth, & Tom in Allston.  We stayed with them on our last run through Boston. Very good people.  They really helped us out a lot.  Ray, Nick B, & I shared a futon…it was cozy. 

^ Problem With Dragons

(((“With a (noun) so (adjective)!!”)))

Woke up early for our longest drive (to DC).  Perennial Pattern of this tour:  awake in fog, hustle, hustle, sweat and sweat all day, put our brains in check long into the night, get a terrible, small amount of shitty sleep, repeat.  It’s wonderful.  The drive to DC is when the van (which Ray has recently christened “Biffilda”) started to complain.  Our speedometer started going haywire and we could feel the van pushing and pulling harshly as it was trying to get up to the higher gears.  We figured it might be overheating so we pulled over.  We still aren’t sure exactly what’s going on with it, which is unnerving.  Most signs are pointing to an electrical/computer problem but if it wound up being the transmission, we may end up in a huge pile of shit.  Anyway, we gave it a rest for an hour at some awful gas station in Elizabeth, NJ and got back en route to DC.

^ray creepin' on the velvet lounge

DC is a beautiful city from what I’ve seen so far but it is fucking disgusting with humidity in July.  We were pouring buckets before we even parked the van.  We were playing the Velvet Lounge with Voyage in Coma, Two Inch Astronaut, and a DJ named Werewolf Torso.  The Voyage in Coma guys hooked us up with the show and they were really awesome people.  They immediately helped us load in and hung out for a bit.  Two Inch Astronaut opened up the show.  They were a very cool post-rock trio.  Their guitar player had some really creative riffs and progressions, I really dug them as did the other dudes.  We went on second.  DC crowd was really cool to us, I felt that it made us play our best so far.  In the last thirty seconds of our last song (Tasted By Love) one of my cables crapped out on me and our friend who we were staying with that night, Alex Mackie, came up to free style until I got my shit together, which turned into a quick jam before launching back into the last few parts of the song.  Besides that little hiccup, it was an awesome show and so far is probably the best we’ve had, all things considered.  I didn’t get to see much of Werewolf Torso whilst loading out but from what I heard & saw he was doing some really cool stuff and had an array of enthusiastic dancers before him.  Voyage in Coma’s set was electrifying.  They really knew how to handle their dynamics and they have a serious emotional weight to their music.  Their singer Steve did a great job at getting the crowd moving and into it without inciting any ugliness.  They’ll be playing quiet as possible and slowly swell into an onslaught of ethereal noise. They fucking kicked ass and really hooked us up.  I can’t wait to play more shows with those guys.  Look ‘em up!

^Two Inch Astronaut

^Exemption

^Voyage in Coma

 ^ray & nick with steve of voyage in coma

It was nice to have friendly faces there as well.  We had a great night with our friends Adam, Jackie, Alex, & a new friend Nicole at Adam and Alex’s apartment in VA, right outside of DC.  A tournament of Guinness pong ensued and much grits & gravy consumed on the roof.  awesome night awesome people.   Woke up foggy as hell, ate a quality meal at a diner near by and headed out to Delaware.

I think this is where we got pulled over?  That cop was pretty nice.  We tried to give him a copy of “Public Cemetery Party” but he said he couldn’t take it.  He did take a sticker though and gave Nick B. (merch wrangler/blog commissioner/) an adorable warning. 

^nicky b. holdin' it down

^weird

^weird

^levitating

So… Mojo 13 is a really cool bar in Wilmington, Delaware.  They have tons of awesome circus/freak show decorations, really nice staff, awesome sound system & stage.  However, this show was our second time playing there with no local band, and thus we played to no one (minus our merch guy Nick, the staff, and the other band Spiderlord who stayed for a few songs…they were from Long Island too and rocked a heavy Soundgarden-ish set.  Nice guys too.).  As we finished our last song a few people walked in for a beer and were disappointed they missed it so we played an extra song for them… We had fun anyway, drank a lot of beers to facilitate that, met a few nice locals, rocked out anyway, and had a good night.  The sound guy informed me that he was soon to have “around 300 skinheads packed in here” for a show he was throwing next week.  All I could think was “well I wish there were people here but thank god we’re not on that fucking show right now.”  I don’t think they’d take too kindly to our music or heads. None of us know anyone in Delaware so we tried to arrange sleeping in the bar, but they weren’t having it.  They did let us leave all of our equipment (or “derps” as we’ve affectionately renamed them) and the back bench of the van in the venue so we could sleep in the van more comfortably, parked in their parking lot.  This was nice of them but it did nothing to make sleep easier in the disgustingly hot, grimy, smelly, muggy van.  We left the AC on which was great for Tom and Ray in the front, but for Nick and I in the back, only served to exponentially heat the floor we were sleeping on.  Luckily we were exhausted and floating enough to make a little bit of sleep happen. 

A local cop woke us up around 8 or 9am?  He just told us to move.  He was probably relieved to not find four tweekers dining on the corpse of a cat or something.  Didn’t matter, we wouldn’t have slept much more in that heat anyway.  DISGUSTING. That day we stopped at a mechanic who wasn’t able to help us much, but assured us Biffilda would probably be okay.  They had a beautiful pit bull chilling in there.  We killed time until the bar opened again in a state park, walking around, and enjoying the day as much as possible in a haze of recovery and dehydration.  It was a silly, sweaty afternoon.  Got back to Mojo 13 around 3 when they were opening up, re-packed the derps into the van, took some “showers” and brushed our teeth in the parking lot and headed out.

^suspended in swinging spider chair

^spiderlord

^lots of room to stretch out

^tom is psyched

^park in delaware

^made friends

^freaks

^will ya now?

We had a really short drive to Philadelphia that day so when we got into Philly we went down to South Street to check out the Magic Garden again like we had last time.  That place is amazing.  Also went to a nearby music store to replace my broken cable and to fuck around on some cool used gear.  We got some food and headed up to Girard Ave to play The Fire.  A few bands had advised me to avoid The Fire and I can kinda see why but I still like it. There are frequently dogs in there and you can drink outside...

^the creator

Six Acre Lake opened the show.  We played with them in Manhattan a few months back and they were the first band I asked to play this show in Philadelphia.  They’re a really unique instrumental, experimental duo.  Their guitar player John has an awesome rig and a really great, creative voice on the instrument & their drummer Joe tears it up.  Up next was Hey Angel, who sounded great for what I heard while getting stuff together for our set.  We came up next, I felt like we played great, we were really loud, & were having a good time.  Our new friend Amber danced like crazy on stage with us which greatly added to the fun.  Carved Up closed out the night.  Heavy as fuck, beautiful parts, an energetic, and creative force.  Another band that we are very happy to now know (and rock their sweet shirt with a manowar jellyfish on it).  Thanks to Julian from Quilty for recommending them.  They were definitely equal parts abrasive and soothing and again, super nice guys.  We had nowhere to stay in Philly and were again trying to get the venue to let us crash but when that didn’t work out, our kind new friends Kim & Amber that we met that night let us crash on their floor and couches.  They hooked us up with a place to chill and some good conversation.  They were both equally interesting and lovely to be around.  We had some beers but it was a very chill night, which we all needed.  Kim would request Bob Dylan songs and Tom would play them on acoustic and we’d all do our best to remember the words.  I enjoyz Philadelphia.  There’s beautiful sculptures and murals everywhere and almost everyone we met was enthusiastically nice to talk to.  Thanks so much to Kim & Amber for helping us out, we hope to see y’all again very soon.

^Six Acre Lake

^Carved Up

^chompy

The next day (the 22^nd), we were heading back to Jersey, this time to play at Dingbatz in Clifton with Locked Together in Hatred, The Ciem Show, Dispute To Flames, and Demonboy.  Before heading out we spent some time in the freezer of a beer distributor because we thought we were going to die. Picked up some Lord Chesterfields (oldest beer in America and tastes like it!).  The Ciem Show opened up.  Incredibly heavy and talented band doing something very unique and odd.   We will definitely be doing more with those guys.  We followed them and had a great set.  My only issue was that my strings were starting to grow rusty hair and mold from how disgusting they were becoming, this being their 6^th horribly sweaty show in a row, so I was losing a lot of sustain and tone which was making me nuts.  I tried to make up for it by being a psycho, spinning around, chewing on my guitar, and whatnot.  I definitely have a scale in my brain when it comes to shows that weighs sounding good against going as crazy as possible. If I move around as much as I can for every song I’m bound to fuck some parts up, but if I can’t get my tone where I want it anyway then fuck it! Everyone at Dingbatz was really cool, couldn’t believe how many CDs and shirts we sold, it was a great night.  Demonboy was just… amazing.   Dude had retractable demon wings, straight up and down, big papier-mâché skull helmet-people holding torsos...  Locked Together In Hatred totally killed it, the tightest I’ve seen them, and their extended family hooked us up with so much food and hospitality, a place to swim while drunk, a dog named Axl to swim with, lots of laughs; we really owe them big time.  Some of the most hospitable people we’ve met on tour.  Dispute To Flames closed out with a good-ass thrash set, including a pretty spot on rendition of Metallica’s “Leper Messiah.” 

^axl

^The Ciem Show

^DemonBoy

^Tom & Chris of the Ciem Show

^Locked Together in Hatred

^structure made entirely of ltih discs

Spent another night at Jay from LTIH’s sweet garage/rehearsal space, had a good time with those guys.  Watched him draw various phalluses on his very inebriated friend’s face and body with a silver sharpie (cuz he fell asleep with his shoes on), and squeeze the air out of a very dank accordion into his face.  That thing apparently smelled like death and old people farts.  I never got a whiff, I asked for one but Ray told me “it’s kicked.”  We were very much retarded this night.  Sleep felt amazing.  Fell asleep to Earth’s “Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull” for the 3^rd or 4^th time.  That album is like a heavy lullaby, perfect coma music. 

^ray made an ipod holder out of duct tape and a small box of apple jacks

^Labyrinth Press Company. Jamestown, NY.

The next day it felt good to head north.  Upstate NY is one of my favorite places to drive through.  Next show was in Jamestown, NY which is a town none of us had been to.  We were playing a café called Labyrinth Press Company.  It’s an awesome coffee shop, wifi lounge, restaurant, venue, but I was a little worried when we pulled up that we had been booked by mistake because it didn’t seem like it was set up for loud shows.  The staff, however, assured me that I was wrong.  Unfortunately though, AGAIN, the local band dropped off last minute and failed to be replaced (sup local doods!?).   We were fortunately not alone on the show though.  We met Johnny Unicorn, who was on tour from Seattle, by himself.  He had an awesome one-man-show.  His music was a lot like They Might Be Giants and had hints of Zappa and more experimental influences.  It was catchy, tasty, and funny all at once, guitar, keys, saxophone. We all really dug it and him as a person.  It must be hard to tour for so long, so far, by yourself.  I’m sure at times it’s really great to be doing it independently but it must get lonely.  Lot of respect for Johnny Unicorn; check him out.  Our set was fun.  Our friends Kayla & Kirsch actually drove up from Indiana, PA for this show which was vey awesome of them.  We played Kayla’s birthday party in PA like two years ago and haven’t seen her since so we gave her a request which became “Chunderpuss.”  I’m sure it wasn’t the best rendition ever but it was fun to try to get through that bitch.  Hopefully they enjoyed it.   We got free drinks (coffee and espresso), and half off their awesome food.  I got a “Surrealist Sausage” which consisted of a veggie burger, fried egg, cheese, sweet peppers, and various vegetation on a garlic bun.  Baller.  We got invited to a prom-themed dance party at a bar/restaurant down the street which wound up being a lot of fun.  We met some cool people and danced like big idiots with total strangers.  At one point it started pouring outside and half of the party waltzed into the street to dance in the rain.  It was fun to watch cops drive by and not even stop.  Jamestown seems like a fun city.  Can’t wait to go back.

^Johnny Unicorn

^enjoying Johnny Unicorn

w/ Kayla

Woke up on a couch in Lab Press Co. to fresh coffee and an amazing breakfast burrito.  Go eat there a.s.a.p.  I read this article in a Vice lying around about Hasidic LSD Communes in Williamsburg, and how there are whole homes of Hassid who feel the only way to talk to God is to do massive amounts of hallucinogens together.  It was very weird and interesting and in parts sad, because many succumb to drug induced voids. 

Anyway, discussing that article inspired this awful little bit of insanity in Binghamton later that day:

Member #1:  “Did you hear about the Hasidic boy that got abducted in Williamsburg last week?”

Member #2:  “Yeah!  I heard he actually cut him in half!”

Member #3 “Wait…with what?”

Member #1 &# 2: !!#!#!^%#&!^%#*!&^$(!$

At this point in the tour anything the four of us talk about with one another seems frighteningly insane to passers-by. 

Our buddy Steve, who used to play in Voice of Dissension hooked us up with a show at Fitzie’s Pub in Bing with his band Skooma.  Voice of Dissension are all our old friends.  We played with them constantly back in the day.  Our merch guy at the moment Nick B. was on bass, Steve played guitar along with Tim from The World We Knew, and of course Ray’s partner in crime at Killingsworth Recording Co. Big Nate/Anthony “The Bear” Lopardo on drums.  Skooma was bad ass, kind of a similar sound to us except instrumental and with two guitars.  Lots of great riffs and harmonies.  They had some cool friends too, and we had a pretty good show.  I love when people dance, even if they don’t pick up a CD or even like us at all, it makes all the difference in the world to get that little bit of energy returned to you.  Some people have told me you can’t dance to Exemption’s music but I call bullshit on that.  It was a pretty good night but unfortunately when we were packing up… tragedy struck.

^Chenango River right behind Fitzie's

^juke box had some good dips

^Skooma

^i think we were still sound checking when that dude started wylin' out

The handle for the trunk of Ray’s van (Chevy Astro) was starting to “go” before we left.  It felt locked even when it wasn’t and you had to kind of snap your wrist and pull it really hard so it would pop open every time.   I guess doing this over and over everyday for the last two weeks started to wear the aluminum handle out and while we were trying to load out at the end of the night the handle just completely snapped off with the door still closed, basically making the trunk doors completely obsolete for the rest of the tour.  So now what we’ve had to do is take out the back bench seat and bring all of the equipment in and out through the side door.  Not the end of the world by any means but now when we pack up at the end of the night, we basically play Tetris in reverse and have to make sure to leave enough room to put the back seat in when we’re done, kind of a pain in the ass and a waste of time.  Biffilda has been taking a beating this tour…poor gal.  I’m sure Ray Ray (Rain Man) will take good care of her when we gets homes. 

Anyway, Steve from Skooma put us up for the night at his huge nice house in Binghamton that used to be a funeral home.  We pretty much went right to sleep after some brains this night, we was beat. Thanks Steve!

The next morning the four of us plus our new friend Kate had some good breakfast at a local bagel place.  We got a thunderstorm out of nowhere that for whatever reason cleared the van up for a bit as far as it’s lagging and warning lights coming on.  It didn’t last long though.  We had a very nice ride up to Rochester for the 9^th show of the tour at Bug Jar.

Bug Jar is probably my personal favorite venue that we’ve played on tour (possibly ever).  It’s in a great place between weird dive & quality rock bar.  I got some great pictures of the ceiling this time which is decorated to look like the floor (tables, oven, refrigerator, bathtub, etc.. nailed upside down to the ceiling to give the impression that you are in fact on the ceiling and staring “up” at the floor…like a bug would).  Bob, one of the owners, told us some cool stories about Mogwai, White Stripes, & Lethargy (Bill & Brann from Mastodon’s old band) playing there.  

^this is the ceiling!

^big ol' bugs

^still the ceiling

The first band was The Results from Rochester who were great.  Really fun blend of punk and classic rock and they put on a good show.  Their bassist told me that he had heard us online and wanted to jump on the show when he saw we were playing Rochester so I was psyched for that, and glad that it worked out. They also made some sweet flyers and their friends stayed for the whole show and watched everyone.  Again, really nice people.  Second was our buds in Psychopath from Oswego who we played with last time we were at Bug Jar back in November.  They’re an awesome death metal band, really fucking tight, and their bassist/singer has got some awesome alternating high and low growls.  I dunno how old they are but I feel like in a short amount of time they’ll have a name for themselves in that whole scene, they deserve it anyway. 

We got such a great response from the crowd in Rochester.  Last time it was good too, but this time we literally knew no one (besides our friend Alexandra who was visiting and stopped into the show with her aunt) and the kids there danced and jumped around with us.  It was one of the best feeling shows of the tour for that reason.  Kids were coming up to high five us and dance right up against the stage and just genuinely seemed to be having a good time with  no regard for “looking cool” or any of that bullshit.  The only downside was this one drunk wife-beater dude who couldn’t help but tell us to “PLAY SOMETHING METAL! PLAY SOMETHING HEAVY!” between every song.  Ray and I appeased him with a few seconds of improvised grindcore, but he was too drunk and stupid to take a hint.  I told him to leave if he didn’t like it and his friend told me to “lighten up” which I thought was funny as I had just been dancing on one foot and crossing my eyes at people only a few seconds before.  Anyway, he was annoying but in a way he kind of added to the show because everyone else in the audience was getting sick of him too so it seemed to add to their energy.  At one point a really enthusiastic kid in a suit plowed right into the guy tomahawk-style which turned into a small ruckus momentarily.  I hate fights at shows. I stepped down during whatever song we were playing and made crazy faces at the kid who was freaking out until he started rocking again and seemed less livid.  Good for him for trying to take out the asshole but it’s not worth it when the whole show all of a sudden becomes a backyard wrestling DVD because no body can settle down… Tom broke not one but two glasses at this show.  One right out of a kids hand on accident, but he bought him a new one.

^The Results

^Psychopath

This was an enjoyably rowdy show but with a positive energy for the most part.  At this point our set was…

Hyperspiral

Blood Heaven

Mutating Skulls

Cold Bodies

Birds

Godzilla

Hounds of Sound

Rapids

Tasted By Love

The last few we switch around, but for the most part that’s the set we’ve played most this tour…

We met an awesome guy named Lawrence who actually downloaded “Public Cemetery Party” off a stoner rock blog it was posted on and actually came out specifically to see us which made my night honestly.  He told me a lot of stories about hanging out with Bill from Mastodon when he’s home from tour and some tips about what to watch out for when you’re really starting to tour a lot.  He had a lot of interesting shit to share.  I smoked him and the owner out in the Basement and we shot the shit for awhile.  They bought us a couple drinks, smoked in the basement, and there was free pizza at some point…starting to make sense why this was my favorite venue?

Our good amiga Kristin, who took our most recent promo pics, hooked us up with her roommates to crash with, Katie & Sam, in Rochester that night.  They’re both very sweet.  They had a beautiful Irish setter named Maya, an adorable kitten with FIV, good conversation, and a fucking trampoline which we idiotically jumped on at 3:30am after some beers and gin(sorry!).  Oh yeah…gin.  We discovered that drinking gin is much more conducive to a light, happy, kinda goofy drunk.  Maybe that was just because of our circumstance.  Especially in the ridiculous heat wave, we were all getting a little sick of cheap beer and all slowly acquired a taste for G&T’s, G&G’s, and other G combos.   I used to hate it but now I hate it…less. 

^trampoline/chilling in rachacha

On the morning of the 26^th we met up with Alexandra and drove from Rochester down to Kingston.  This was my favorite drive of the tour.  I volunteered to do the whole thing just because it was so nice out.  Cumuli-Nimbus clouds like the top of nuclear explosions stared down at us, huge fields and lakes, and finally the temperature was moderate if not just straight-up chilly at night, which was an incredible relief for all of us.  The drive took about six hours, with a stop for food.  We listened to all of Earth’s Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull again, all of Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass’s Passages, most of Jesu’s Conqueror and most of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.  All were very fitting to the surroundings.  I kinda wish I could do that drive everyday…

We got to The Basement in Kingston around 7:30pm.  I was particularly psyched for this show because I was really happy with the bands that I was able to find for this one.  One band I didn’t find opened up the show, Black Tie Operation from Albany.  They played a pretty furious set of heavy punk/thrash and were cool guys.  Up next our friend Rob, who we’ve played plenty of shows together with his previous band The Rhodes, played with his current project The Robots.  They were awesome, can’t wait to check out their album more thoroughly.  Rob played bass lines on a synth and their singer Colin had an intense voice and presence which made for an exciting set.  I’m glad we got to jam with Rob again.  I wish them lots of luck.  Up next was It’s Not Night: It’s Space from New Paltz.  Really awesome guys, great spacey, jammy, psych-metal.  Definitely look them up, their set inspired some sweet dance moves from the crowd who until then had been pretty dormant.  Another band I’d like to bring down to our area. 

We went up next and had a pretty rocking show, minus maybe some tone lost in the room.  Our ol’ friend Samantha came down with Shannon and Matt, which was so cool of them.  We had a great time, and they looked like they were too.  Yeah Yeah Yeah Dance Dance Dance wooO@r09wegaweg!!!!)$(*$!   Dead Empires closed and they fucking killed it.  John, their guitarist’s tone was br0000tal and their drummer Phil beats the absolute shit out of his drums.  Another great instrumental band that we got to enjoy on this run.  To cement them in my heart as one of my favorite bands of the tour, they ended their set with an instrumental Melvins’ “Honey Bucket’ that fucking stomped on my skull.  Everybody at the Basement was really nice and some of ‘em bought CDs and shirts.  After we awkwardly packed up the van through the side door, we went back to Samantha’s in New Paltz for some drinks and watched  a movie. 

I enjoyed a bit of the awesome upstate-sky from her roof for a bit.  They gotsalotsa more stars you can see up here, I’m glad I got a chance to enjoy that for awhile.  I’m reading Freedom From the Known by Krishnamurti right now and he stresses the importance of enjoying nature “without images” or preconceptions.  I’m not gonna pretend like I totally understand or could explain that to anyone just yet, but I did my best last night to just stare at the stars and not try to compare them to anything or let them remind me of anything or anyone.  It put me in a good place.  Thank you Sam, Alex, Shannon, & Matt for coming out to the show, it meant a lot to have you there.

^The Robots

^It's Not Night: It's Space

^Dead Empires

^Shannon, Sam, & Matt

^this was like this when we got there...

So that brings me to today…last day of the tour.  We just got some breakfast and are about to head out to Ralph’s Diner in Worcester, MA for our 11^th and last show of this run with Problem With Dragons again and Fang Noir who are from Worcester.  I don’t  wanna go home!  I got a lot of pictures (places, other bands, us being stupid), hopefully I’ll get them all up online as soon as I get home tomorrow.  Luckily Nick B. has a lot on his phone to start that off.  Having Nick here has been a HUGE help.  We wouldn’t have sold nearly as many CDs or shirts or laughed as much.  He helped us make more friends, and it’s been awesome to have him here.  Even if he just came with us and didn’t help out, I would be okay with just chilling everyday, but he really did make this a more constructive and smooth process.  Having that extra set of hands is an invaluable asset for the amount of work that’s gone into the last two weeks.  Mad love.  Give him a hug when you see him.

and now for some faces...

yep...

Show at Ralph’s Diner was a great time.  They have this great old school diner downstairs with the biggest burgers I’ve ever seen.  Lots of weird shit all over the walls; they even had a merch-pterodactyl over their tables.  Got to chill more with Problem With Dragons who played a kick ass set.  Fang Noir opened up.  Awesome power-pop rock.  Reminded me of our friends in Bonus Eventus from home.  Look ‘em up!  I broke my A string during our second song “Blood Heaven” and had to compensate which was a pain-in-the-ass but I managed to not totally butcher it.  Rob from PWD let me use his SG for the next song which was awesome of him and fun to play.  The sound guy actually changed my string during he next song and I got to go right back to my Les Paul on the following song.  Most helpful sound guy ever? It wasn’t a very well attended show but the people who were chilling were all really nice and supportive.  I can’t wait to go back and explore more of what Massachusetts has to offer.  We met a lot of really cool people.  Oh yeah!  The dude running the door helped us finagle the trunk of the van into “working” condition for the last night which was very, very cool of him.  Thank you Brandon!  Said our goodbyes and headed back to NY and here we are…

^Ralph's Diner

^Fang Noir

^w/ Rob of PWD. favorite picture of the tour i think.

^borrowed these

^Problem With Dragons

^prime real estate

^MERCH

the following were taken by Robert from Problem With Dragons:

^SG!

I dunno if anyone will make it through this whole thing (and if you did then GOD DAMN SHERMAN!) but I like the idea of keeping these details to look back on later.  This was definitely our best touring experience we’ve had and we’ve all learned an invaluable amount of hands-on knowledge that’s only gonna make us smarter and stronger for our next run.  I’ve been home for 12 hours and I’m already figuring out when we’re going out again, now with cooler people and bands to connect with on the next time around.  Look up some of the bands I mentioned, I’m bringing ‘em our way as soon as I find the right show(s). 

Thank you to all the awesome bands, venues, promoters, and human beings that we’ve met and that made this tour possible and amazing!  Exemption loves you.  Hopefully more stories from the other guys coming soon.

<3

-Nick Lee