At Home in Bummer City

It's not as bad as I'm making it out to be. After being home for a few weeks now, we're starting to all ground ourselves and think productivly about the future. It's still difficult to determine when we will be able to play again, or rather all live in the same city. Will has been forced to relocate to Cleveland so he can stay with his parents. He left me a voicemail yesturday, and I have yet to call him back, but according to Schreiber, he's working at a restaurant a few miles down the street from his parents house as a line cook, rides his bike to work everyday and has been furiously writing new material. I am now proudly employed by a local body art studio called Evolved. Everyone who works there is super rad, and it's a very comfortable environment for me. I will have to find something else as I currently only have 18 hours on the schedule, but I'm happy there. Schreiber has a line on a Starbucks gig slingin caffeen to the masses. He also had an interview for a job yesturday, and when I asked him what it was or what he would be doing he said, "It's some company that does stuff, they sell things like auctioning or something. I have no idea." So I don't really know what that's all about. I haven't talked to Miller for a while, but I'm assuming he is really busy at the studio. They are closing up shop for a while this month and are trying to finish up a bunch of projects. In other news, my friend Adam and I started a hardcore/metal project last summer (not this past summer, but the summer before) and wrote 3 1/2 songs. Even though I am a bit biased, I must admit, they are super brutal and sick. We are going to get that going again and I think Schreiber is going to hop in on bass. Once we come up with a name, I'll post some tracks online somewhere. Any suggestions?

Something else I've been thinking about posting recently are some old SG tracks. Being that we won't be releasing any new material anytime soon, I though it would be appropriate to release some classic tracks from the old EP's, or even put up some unreleased material. I'm not sure if a lot of our fans are aware we were an instrumental band for 3 years and released 2 EP's. It's music that we are very proud of, and are more than willing to share with the world. I'll let you know when that shit goes up.

All in all, since our tour was abruptly de-railed, we all have a positive outlook on the future. We have all decided that making music in Six Gallery is too important to us. Our label is still behind us, our booking agent is still behind us. I just hope that when we emerge, stronger than ever, you all will still be behind us.

The Shire

Nile Carpenter rules. We had a benefit show for him last Thursday in Columbus, and it was great. I believe everyone involved was able to raise somewhere around $400 for our good friend, which is a small chunk in comparison to his medical bill totals, but it is much appreciated on his behalf. After the Columbus show we drove over to one of our favorite venues in Indianapolis, the Tibbs house for a show. The last time we played there it was only our second show with Dan, and was tons of fun. This time around......I don't even know where to begin. Nile decided to come with us to hang for the night, which is always a good time. We arrived around 7ish to a bunch of familiar faces and a cold thirty pack of PBR. We were slated to play last out of 4 bands, which is always a little concerning. The problem with playing last when out of town is that everyone who came to see the local bands they are friends with will leave before we take the stage, and this has happened to us numerous times in the past. Fortunately this was not the case at the Tibbs house. The room was packed, everyone sang along to every word of every song, and went completely nuts. I've never played a show like this before in Six Gallery, and I must say, it was one of the most fun shows I've ever played. Ben, Dan and myself closed out the set with a cover of Say it Ain't So by Weezer. It was the perfect cap to a near perfect show. We'll be posting some footage Nile took of us playing 'A Live Nativity Scene' here soon. Every time I watch it I can't help but smile.

After Indy, we took a few days off to spend some time with family. On Sunday we drove up to Michigan to spend a few days at Benji's parents place to write. We spent a grueling 4 hours working on about 45 seconds of a song, and consumed our weight in pork, sausage sandwiches, PBR, whisky and coney dogs. As I sit here writing this I can't stop farting. The guy at the merch table next to me is giving me a dirty look right now. We're playing a venue in Pontiac, Michigan called the Crofoot. It's a rad place, but once again we are slated to play last after 3 local bands. There are a decent amount of people here now, but if my butt keeps up our chances of playing in front of a conscious audience are pretty slim.

Check the pic. That is pretty much the view of Benji's parents backyard from the room we were writing in. Not pictured is the hot tub. Boom.

Mama, Mama I'm Coming Home

And we're back......home. 10 days into the tour and we decided to just say 'Fuck it' and quit. Nah, just playin. We in this shit for life. Actually we just had a weekend with no shows booked so we drove home to relax and eat food and take showers and not drink beer for a few days. The last few shows were not great, but there were some definate highlights amongst the past week. In Orlando we pulled up to the front of the venue about an hour before load in, and the bar appeared to be empty. We decided to go for a walk and maybe find a 7-11 or gas station or something. There were three dudes sitting on the curb right in front of our van, and not being familiar with that part of town or the location of anything, we decided to ask them in which direction we might find a convenience store. "We're not from around here, we drove in from Tampa. Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to be in Six Gallery would you?" Slightly astonished we replied, "Yea". "We love you guys! We drove all the way out to see you play!" That was a pretty rad conversation, and made my day. We kicked it with those guys for most of the night. They play in a band and gave us a two song demo, and I must say they rip. Flora Yield. Check them out.

We're heading back on the road again on Wednesday to play in Nashville, then we'll be back Thursday to play a benefit show in Columbus for our friend Nile who was involved in a car accident and shattered bones in both arms and had to have elbow replacement surgery. The bad news is he has about a million dollars in medical bills he has to pay, the good news is he now has bionic arms and somewhat resembles Jax from Mortal Combat. Come out and support our good friend!

And so it begins

Finally the day has come. Tour has started. We kicked the excursion off with a show in Columbus at Kobo with our good friends from NY, Aficionado. They were coming through on tour and needed help with a gig. Being the kind gentlemen that we are, we set something up for them, and the band they were touring with, Summer People. What was supposed to be a bill consisting of just these three bands somehow turned into a bill with 5 bands, the other two also being friends of Aficionado who just so happened to be at the show. Usually this type of situation is a nightmare. On a Sunday night, a bill with 5 bands, we were destined to play at like 1:30 in the morning. It wasn't so bad though, all the bands were great, and we didn't have to play too late. We woke up early on Monday morning to drive to Nashville to crash with some of Millers family. Let me just put it like this; the drummer for Paramore lives down the street from their home. It was nice. We left their place late the next morning to make our way down to Hot Springs, Arkansas, home of Hot Springs water, the venue we played at........and not much else. I think I might have seen a Subway down the street but I could have been mistaken.

The place we played was awesome. It's called Maxine's. They give you free pizza when you play at the club. #1 in my book. Unfortunately, because it was a Tuesday night, the show was free which meant we played for free. Not to worry though because we somehow swindled our way into selling 9 CD's, only 3 of which were sold to patrons who actually saw us play. The rest were total randoms; some drunk dudes who stumbled in the door 20 or so minutes after our set asking me if there was a cover to get in. I simply replied 'No, it's a free show tonight guys' to which they replied 'oh awesome! Did you guys play in one of the bands? Wait, is this your CD right here, man I love music, I'll take two'. And then we proceeded to autograph the shit out of some posters for them. Also, Ben introduced himself to some random grandma/grandpa types and one of them is running for some type of state political office. They bought 2 CD's and 2 t-shirts and gave us $110. An added bonus to the night, 2 of my co-workers from my previous job came out. They both live in Arkansas, one three hours away, and read about the show on a previous blog post (Hi Katie!). It's really nice to see some familiar faces on the road, especially when you're that far away from home. The rest of the night was a blast; we were able to find a hotel for $60 and crashed for a few hours before making the drive to Austin. Now, I haven't spent much time in the south this time of year. All I have to say is, holy shit never go to Texas in August. It sucks. I'm not saying that playing in Austin, Texas sucks, no, that is awesome. I'm saying the state of Texas sucks, and when it's 543254325342 degree's out, things get really shitty real fast. We pulled up to Stubbs, the venue we were playing in Austin, and it appeared that a huge outdoor show was going on. Huge as in like thousands of people huge. After talking to about 7 different security guards, I located the stage manager and figured out what the hell was going on. Hasidic rapper Matisyahu was playing an early concert at their 3,000 capacity outdoor venues, and we were playing a late show in their 150 person capacity room. So we loaded in, keep in mind it was 254354324325 degree's out, and basically waited. The sound guy told us that as soon as the big show was over, we had to start playing immediately but he couldn't sound check us during the other show because it was happening about 10 feet from our stage. So we just had to linger around the stage waiting for the big show to end. The upside to this whole situation; anyone who was at the large show had the option to stick around for our show. So we started playing right when it ended, and before I knew it, the room was relatively packed. We played really well, got paid really well and sold what was remaining of our CD's. That brings me to where I am right this very second. Sitting on a bed at a Ho Jo in Austin. I've already seen a few dead/almost dead cockroaches and the shower only spew's steaming hot water. Not too bad for thirty bucks a night.

We played some shows, gonna play some more

This past weekend we did our first string of shows with our new singer, Daniel, who is not to be confused with our old singer, Daniel. I must say, I was a little nervous getting back into the saddle. Our first show was in Dayton, OH at one of our favorite venue's, Blind Bob's. It was a familiar stage and a familiar crowd which was comforting, and I must say, we slayed. After the show we spent the night at our friend Chip's place and awoke to the smell of bacon, eggs and stale beer. It was a rough night, you'll see some of it in a fourth coming Webisode to be released in a week or so. The next night was at a house in Indianapolis on Tibbs ave. Upon our arrival I spoke to my dad on the phone. 'Tibbs ave?' he said, 'That's not a very good part of town is it?' 'Probably not,' I said after glancing down the block at the boarded up houses and trash covering the sidewalks. After loading in me and Ben decided to walk down to the corner liquor store to purchase some drinks for the evening. Given our current location, we decided to buy a 40 for everyone in the band. '6 king cobra's please' Ben said through a hole in the partition separating us from the booze. 'Honey, if you buy 8 you'll get a discount,' the kind woman behind the impenetrable fortress of bullet proof glass replied. 'How much for 8?' I ask. 'That'll be ohhhhhhh $5.62'. Me and Ben exchange a glance of astonishment. 'Alright, we'll take em' Ben replied. To our disappointment, the woman brought back 8 16oz cans of King Cobra. Bummer. 'Well shit, I mean these are still really cheap, why don't we just get 16, it'll be like ten bucks,' I said to Ben. 'Well if you get an entire case, it's only $13.82' the woman said. 'OK!' The next thing I know, I'm walking down the block carrying 24 16oz cans of King Cobra getting honked at by every car that drives by. 'Oh man, you guys are partying tonight' someone yelled from a passing vehicle. I even had a cute girl in a convertible give me a honk and wave. We arrive back at the house at the exact same time Dan and Will walk in carrying a 30 pack of PBR. Lack of communication can lead to way too much beer. Needless to say, the show was fun, we brought our friend from Dayton, Brandon Hawk, with us. That dude rules. We played well, there were kids singing along to the songs, I even had a cute girl kiss me on the lips! All around successful night. The next night we played in our hometown for our best friends. I don't need to go into details on this one, it's a no brainer. Shit ruled. So, I think we've all realized once again why we're doing this. Why we've put our lives on hold for the time being. We've been cooped up in Columbus for the past 3 months waiting. And now the time has come to dust off the old van, pack our bags, and blow this popsicle stand. See you on the road!

8/17 - Hot Springs, AK @ Maxine's
8/18 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's
8/19 - Dallas, TX @ Prophet Bar
8/20 - Lafayette, LA @ Sadie's
8/21 - New Orleans, LA @ the Den at the Howlin Wolf
8/22 - Birmingham, AL @ TBA
8/24 - Orlando, FL @ Will's Pub
8/26 - Atlanta, GA @ the Drunken Unicorn
8/27 - Asheville, NC @ Lexington Ave. Brewery
9/1 - Louisville, KY @ TBA
9/2 - Columbus, Oh @ the Basement
9/3 - Indianapolis, IN @ 1132 n. Tibbs Ave (House)
9/7 - Pontiac, MI @ Vernors room at the Crofoot
9/8 - Bloomington, IN @ SPAZM House
9/9 - Muncie, IN @ Doc's Music Hall
9/10 - Dayton, OH @ Blind Bob's
9/11 - Athens, Oh @ TBA

More to come!

Making of the Video

I realize our music video came out months ago, but we filmed and edited a little "behind the scene's" video for your viewing pleasure and I thought it appropriate to post on here. A little disclaimer, there is a bit of alcohol consumption involved, and I promise you, no animals were harmed during the filming of this. Enjoy!

Webisode 5 MUSIC VIDEO TIME! from Six Gallery on Vimeo.

In the mean time

Once again, it has been a while since I wrote my last post. Quite a bit has happened in the mean time. I'm going to keep this brief, but here's the skinny on SG happenings:

1. We have a new singer. His name is Daniel Erb, and I can't wait to introduce him to the world.

2. Me and Ben S. have been doing P90X just about everyday. Expect us to be ripped on the next tour.

3. Will got his job back at the UDF gas station. Not much else to say about that.

4. Benji's been logging in some serious time at his studio Central City Recordings.

5. The band Smash Mouth used our gear to practice before a show in Columbus. Srsly.

6. We will soon have our t-shirts for sale on our myspace page. If you couldn't come see us on the road to pick one up, this will be your chance to buy one.

7. We will be back on the road touring again very soon. Details to be released shortly.

That's about it. I'm going to continue to update this while we're home. I promise.