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.