Montana, who would have thought?

I am sitting on the floor of the van right now, out side of an apartment complex where the other guys in the band are sleeping nice and warm and cozy. I got stuck with van duty last night, which simply means that I had to sleep in the van to prevent someone from stealing/towing/ticketing our vehicle. I'm not sure what my presence would do to prevent any one of those things from happening though. All I know is, my phone is dead, I have to pee really bad, and there's a bus station directly to my left preventing me from doing so into an empty Ocean Spray bottle. This blows.

The show last night in Billings Montana was spectacular. It was probably the best show we've had thus far. We've had some rough nights these past few weeks. Who would have thought that Seattle Washington on a Saturday would suck so bad? We had literally 4 people in the bar, none of which were watching us play. The door guy dug us though and bought a CD. Last night though, the room was packed, the stage was great and people bought CD's and T-shirts. Also, a girl from the bar offered a floor for us to crash on and bought us pizza. Montana rules.

LA

Our official CD release show was on Monday, in Los Angelas, CA at the infamous Viper Room. It was a weird/great show. For having not played in 10 or so days, we killed it. I was having issues with my bass rig cutting in and out though and Benji had to use their house kit which is always a bit awkward. They also had this curtain pulled across the stage while we were setting up, and right before they drew the curtain to unveil us, the sound guy got over the PA and said "The Viper Room is proud to introduce.....SIX GALLERY!" and then the curtain pulled and we were all just standing there in front of the crowd, not quite sure what to do. We jumped into our set though and all was well.

We are still in LA right now. We had a meeting at the Century Media Records headquarters yesturday, and another industry meeting early tomorrow before we head off to San Francisco and make our way up the coast. I think today we are going to be bums and head over to Venice beach for the day.

The other day I found myself in a Walmart family bathroom, wearing absolutly nothing but a pair of shoes, staring at myself in the mirror. I realized that, given my current situation, my life is pretty awesome right now.

It's been a while my friends. Updating this blog is proving to be harder than I had anticipated. Especially this past week. The last place I wrote you was in NOLA, which we left for SXSW last Wednesday. A few days prior to that, and actually the last time we played a show, we met a bartender at the bar we played in NOLA. Her name is Squirrel and she promised to give us $50 if we drove her to Austin. We agreed that this would be a good idea, being how strapped for cash we knew we would be having to drive from NOLA to Austin, and then from Austin to LA. The drive to Austin wasn't too bad. Squirrel took a sleeping aide/pain killer/muscle relaxer. I'm not sure which it was, but it knocked her out for the majority of the drive. We arrived in Austin really late on Wednesday night/Thursday morning and slept at a Walmart parking lot for a few hours before having to be at our first party. Our marketing guy, Mark Shapiro, was throwing a day party called 'Full Metal Texas'. The doors opened at noon, and we arrived a little early to a line around the block. We found Mark outside the venue and he hooked it up with some wristbands and drink tickets and walked us to the front of the line. The show was very cool. One of my favorite bands, Darkest Hour played, there was an unannounced performance by Dillenger Escape Plan which was probably the best hardcore show I've ever seen, and Mark kept feeding us drink tickets. We left that party around 5ish and headed back to the van for some snacks and a nap. Me and Austin decided we wanted something a bit more substantial than peanut butter crackers or tuna, so we walked back uptown and found a barbeque stand. While waiting in line the incredibly intoxicated guy in front of us turns around and says "Woah, killer stache dude!" He was referring to the hair I have been cultivating under my nose since we left. I told him "thanks" and hoped that he would return to his place in line. Instead, he rambled on about mustaches, and how sweet he thought mine was, and continuously hi-fived me and Austin. This was briefly interrupted by his friend from the front of the line apologizing for his drunk friend, and asking what we wanted. Austin, without skipping a beat says "Chicken plate". We were amused by the drunk guy for a little while longer until his friend brought back two heaping plates of chicken barbeque, potato salad and baked beans. He said, "Here, this is for putting up with my drunk friend, thanks!" and then him and his drunk friend walked away, oddly without any food of their own. That shit made my day. We killed the food and crashed in the van for a few hours before having to be at another party around 10:30 being thrown by the website, Purevolume. We walked up town, and it was the same deal. A line around the block, Mark Shapiro with wristbands, and drink tickets. We got in in no time. There were a bunch of bands, most notably Andrew WK (although we left at around 3am and he had still not played), an open bar and free Taco Bell. They were sponsoring the event, and there were waitresses walking around all night with platters of tacos and burritos. I shit you not(literally, for at least a few days after). I must have eaten six bean burrito's over the course of the evening. The next day, we planned on taking it easy. We had to sleep at Walmart again, and were extremely sleep deprived at this point. We had to be at a show around 4 to see our label mates, And you will know us by the Trail of Dead, and hang once again with Shapiro and the head of our record label, Thomas Waber. After the show, we hung out with Conrad from Trail of Dead in Shapiro's baller ass RV for a few drinks. We left SXSW that night around 11:30 to get a head start on the drive to LA. I'm not going to draw out the next few days, but for a quick recap, it snowed in Texas, we crashed with our friend Farrah in Tucson, I got a cold, we slept in the van some more and didn't shower for 4 or 5 days. We arrived in LA last night and headed straight to a practice space the guys in Tenacious D were kind enough to let us use. Dan went to high school with John, their current touring guitar player, and he let us in to run our set. The radness of the situation didn't quite settle in as we were all so incredibly exhausted. I did manage to snag a little keepsake from the space. My own pick of destiny.

New Orleans

So we've been hanging out in New Orleans for the past 4 days. Our managers girlfriends parents own a building with two apartments, and one is uninhabited. They have been kind enough to let us crash here until we leave for Austin. As much as we all love this town, I think we are starting to get a little restless. Not playing shows for so many days in a row sucks, and I think we are all looking forward to getting to Austin to find some gigs. Some friends of ours in The Builders and the Butchers are crashing with us right now. They are on tour with the RX Bandits, and are playing at the House of Blues here in NOLA tonight. It should be a rad show! We also saw the final cut of our music video this morning. I think we are all stoked on the final product. Keep an eye out for the release of that here in the coming week or so. We had a review in the Dutch version of Revolver Magazine, and they gave us 4/5 stars! Very rad! We also have a review coming out on the AP website sometime this week so keep an eye out for that too. Things are really starting to pick up on the press side of things, and we can't wait till the album hits stores.

Paying our Dues

I suppose in starting out in any industry or field, there is a certain period of adjustment. A time when, as a newcomer, you are "paying your dues". That is about where we are at this moment in time. Let me recap the past 4 days for you. Tuesday we played a show in Johnstown, TN which upon our arrival appeared to be a rad little college town. We later came to find out that the university in that town was on spring break that week, and that is why the only people we saw anywhere were bums. Lots and lots of bums. Unfortunately for us, bums don't like to pay five bucks to hang out at local metal bars. The place we played was super rad, the Hideaway, and the band we played with was really cool, Worn in Red, but there were very few paying customers that evening. We met a dude named Travis who owns a recording studio only a block from the venue, and he was kind enough to key us in and let both bands crash for the night. We woke up early on Wednesday to get a head start on our drive to Asheville, NC, which we were all looking forward to, and arrived fairly early in the afternoon, maybe 2 or 3ish. This gave us plenty of time to walk around town more than a few times. After a few hours of that, and some serious butt chaffing, we found ourselves sitting in the van in front of the venue waiting for someone to let us in. Austin decided to call the promoter around 8 to see what time we could expect to be able to load in, and he informed us that the show had been cancelled, and he thought he had emailed all the bands. He was very apologetic, and gave us the name of a few venues in town that might let us jump on a show. After visiting 7 other bars, we finally found a hooka bar who was having an open mic night. They said we could play last, and that it probably wouldn't be too late. They also were having a $6 all you can drink PBR special which helped us bide more time. After 5 hours of endless music, a million PBR's and a huge brawl in the parking lot (we were not involved, only spectators), we were able to play 3 songs for the few remaining patrons and bartenders. We loaded up our gear, and made our way to a Walmart parking lot only a few miles away to sleep. We woke up Thursday to a fart filled, steamed up van and another serious drive to Birmingham, Alabama. We played a small DIY space, and it was fantastic. There were people there, we were able to play our full set, and we even sold some CD's! All the bands were great, and we were able to get out pretty early, around 11ish, to make another long trek to New Orleans. I drove all through the night, arrived in NO around 6:30 this morning to the sun rising. Our tour managers girlfriends parents own a two story apartment building in town, and the upstairs apartment is unoccupied at the time. They are being gracious enough to allow us to stay here as we take a break from the road for a few days before heading down to Austin for SXSW. When we got here there was beer in the fridge, chili and fresh corn bread, a washer and dryer, a shower and most importantly, a bed to sleep in. Things have been rough the past few days, and I imagine there will be plenty of hardship ahead of us, but this is the price you pay to do something you absolutely love every single day. If this is "paying our dues" I don't have a problem making the investment. It's paying for gas that might become a serious problem here sooner than later. If you feel so inclined to help, here's what you can do. Go to Hollister and buy our album. It's on their shelves as we speak. Or, go to Insound to pre-order our album, or simply help us with some gas money. Our paypal account is Sixgalleryband@gmail. Till next time.

Calloused

I noticed yesturday that my right hand is developing a new set of callouses from carrying heavy ass equipment day in and day out. It also occured to me that if I continue to only use my right arm to carry equipment, I will develop a set of weird muscles not found on the left side of my body. I need to switch some shit up, otherwise I'm going to look really weird.

On a lighter note, we played in Bloomington on Saturday night at one of our favorite venues, the S.P.A.Z.M (the society for the protection against the zombie menace) House. We played there once last October at a Halloween show (see our first webisode). It's always relieving when you can play a show, leave your equipment and sleep all at the same place. We met some rippin dudes, and I want to give a huge *love* to Jules, Josh from Pessoa and all of Opponents. It was a night I will not soon forget. You'll be able to see some of the antics in a webisode we'll release here in a week or two. I'll keep you posted. Tomorrow we head south to warmer pastures. Time to dust off the jean shorts and Pippin jersey!

Home Sweet Home

I recieved a phone call from home a few days ago. My mother informed me that she has been keeping up on the blog, and wants me to know that she thinks we are all drinking too much.

Mom,

I ain't gonna lie, we have been throwing a few back, but you will be happy to know that our drinking has slowed down dramatically, and we are all trying to eat as much fiber as possible. I'm not too sure what one has to do with the other, but you can rest assured that all is well at both ends.

-Alex

Oh Chicago

Last night was a night off in the great city of Chicago, Il. We got the invite to an "industry" party in the basement of a venue called the Double Door. We didn't really know what to expect, as far as who would be there or what would be going down, but we knew there would be free beer and food, so if anything this would be our meal ticket for the night. We were all pretty exhausted from driving the day before, and not sleeping much, so we all agreed that it would be an early night. The party started at 7 and we arrived on the dot with empty stomachs. I'm not sure what "industry" this was a party for, but I met a gentleman who works in video, and a guy who told us he was arrested back in the 80's for purchasing 50 hits of acid from an undercover cop. They were serving Goose Island's winter seasonal on the house, and 7 dollar shots of watered down whisky. After 4 or 5 brews and a shot of Beam we headed across the street to a club who was hosting "the greatest indie dance party in the country". This was according to our buddy Mike we met who works for Century Media records. Being an industry 'insider' he was able to get us to the front of the line at the bar and free shots of whisky. We left after finishing a double fist of complementary PBR cans, and headed back to Wills sisters place for the night. Somewhere along the way, we bought a $28 pizza, and I blacked out. Gotta love free booze.

And so it begins

Today is day 3 of tour. We played a show in Columbus on Friday at one of our favorite bars in town, The Ravari Room. It was pretty epic. The crowd was full of our closest friends, the pizza was free and we blew through our $50 bar tab in record time. It was a fitting farewell for the town we call home (although we'll be back on Friday to hang out for a night before we head to Indiana and then the south). Saturday we had a show in Kent at a venue called Professor Pub. It was a very small bar, and it reached capacity during our set. They have lots of great beers on tap, and hooked it up with three free ones per member and a veggie/hummos tray that turned my breath into farts. My girlfriend came to the show that night, and she was not stoked. We party'd hearty in Kent that night with Wills brother and all of his friends, and hit the road Chicago bound late in the afternoon. We got in last night, have a day off today, and are playing Madison, WI tomorrow. Here's a picture of the couch Wills sister has in her family room......