WEEK 2
2/22 (Tallahassee,
FL Cow haus)
Dinner never happened tonight
at Ian's. We got there at 4:30 pm and waited around watching TV, doing
laundry, and taking showers. I should mention [or maybe I shouldn't] that
Ian has a fine collection of smut and National Geographic magazines in
his bathroom. At about 8 pm we took off for the Cow haus. We were first
tonight on a bill that featured DJ battles, break dancing, and "comedy
rap"[?] and of course the Overlords. To say we were a little out of place
would be an understatement, but I often enjoying playing to audiences
that would probably never see us otherwise. The stage was nice and large
and the sound was excellent. Unfortunately, I couldn't get fully into
the music tonight. I felt a little strange and detached. The crowd mostly
stood off in the darkness of the back corners. Afterwards I went to a
cafe down the street, sat on a couch, and ate a bowl of clam chowder by
myself. When I got back the Overlords were in the middle of their set.
The final act of the night was a solo artist named Han Solo, who to me
was some sort of combination of Beck, Vanilla Ice, and Gregg Foreman of
the Delta 72. He did what I guess you would call "comedy rap". People
seemed to enjoy it. I didn't think it was THAT funny. We decided we would
stay at Ian's house tonight. Ian had gotten word that one of his roommates
was throwing a huge party at the house when he specifically told him not
to. By the time we got back to the house the party was already broken
up by the cops. Ian, obviously pissed, yet still calm, tried to force
the few remaining passed out, wasted kids through the door. His roommate,
who had thrown the party, jumped off the couch, shouted like a little
girl, and ran off when Ian told him the party was over. One kid just would
simply not leave. They slapped him in the face, hard, over and over. Sometimes
he would get angry enough to open his eyes and try to hit back but then
would just fall over. At one point we thought he was getting his jacket
from the closet, but instead he was pissing on it! It took them an hour
to get him out of the house. Eventually someone came to pick him up. At
this point it was almost 5 am when I passed out on Ian's beer-soaked couch.
(whole
lotta breakin' goin' on)
2/23 (Mobile, AL
The Splash)
Downtown Mobile is basically
a ghetto ghost town. Tonight was the last show ever at the current location
of the Splash. As usual we were early to arrive, yet we had managed to
just miss the "boat show and chili cookoff" The only thing open were sports
bars and the gay bar on the corner with the most ridiculously loud jukebox
EVER! We split up to go off on our own ways. Jeff was carrying around
a Samuel Becker book. He told me some drunk on the street asked what he
was reading and said "you don't believe that do you!?" He proceeded to
take the book out of his hands and smack it on his forehead over and over
and then handed it back. I went back to the Splash. I had to do...uh...number
2. The mens room was so gross [as is usually the case] I opted to use
the womens room [nobody was there yet anyway] instead. Outside a homeless
man named Anthony was talking to Clayton. At first he was just asking
for change. Clayton said if we made anything decent tonight he would give
him a few dollars. This man seemed to think that since we were on tour
that we must make lots of money [ha!]. He told Clayton that he had a negative
attitude when he explained to Anthony that we don't write music to be
popular and that we never will be. Jeff offered him some crackers and
cookies but he turned them down. Eventually he wished us well and told
us to "stay positive". He called Jeff "cracker man". I felt that tonight's
performance was better overall than the past few days had been. A few
kids who saw us here last time came out and the response was positive
overall. My effects board was giving me problems throughout the set. It
would just randomly switch sounds on me, which was causing me a bit of
distress. The last band Ditch was very entertaining and not what I was
expecting. They basically just spazzed out for 45 minutes, falling all
over the place, jumping on top of each other, etc. Since we knew we'd
be passing through Biloxi Beach again we needed to find a frisbee. Linda
at the club had some left over from Mardi Gras that she gave us. I should
mention that Linda and Bob are two of the sweetest club owners I've ever
met. They seem to care about the music and treat the bands well. Bob told
us that the cajuns in Lafayette tomorrow would either "love us or kill
us". He also told us that someone had just been murdered 2 hours ago,
two blocks away, during our set.
(Ditch)
2/24 (Lafayette,
LA Rinky Dink)
In the morning we drove to
Biloxi Beach and enjoyed the warm weather and beach. When we arrived at
the Rinky Dink, Jeff and I were greeted by a girl named Lisa who seemed
really excited we were playing tonight. Her boyfriend Steven was having
his art show at the same space. They actually ended up doing more promotion
for the show than the club did. They told us they were expecting a lot
of people. We were the only band tonight. The acoustics of the room were
surprisingly good for such a large room and no PA. Steven had done a painting
inspired by our song "body destroyed, brain intact" called "The Age of
Bush", which he gave to us after the show! Everyone there was extremely
nice, buying me beers and giving us food. Steven is also a graffiti artist
and sprayed a DYSRHYTHMIA tag in bathroom. We hung around until about
midnight, when people started emptying out. We headed towards New Orleans
with plans to stop and eat. There wasn't anything until about 2 hours
into the drive. We found a 24 hour Subway where we admired Jeff's sunburn
and then crashed in the parking lot.
(Jeff
on Biloxi Beach) (l-r
Jeff, Steven, Kevin, Lisa, Clayton)
(DYSRHYTHMIA
has made it's mark)
2/25 (New
Orleans, LA The Dixie Taverne)
I had a great day in New Orleans going
to parks, exploring the French Quarter, soaking in the sleaze of Bourbon
St., the art galleries on Royal St. and eating some excellent cajun food.
Tonight we played first. We were all feeling great before we started.
Much to my displeasure I was having technical difficulties with my gear
where i couldn't switch guitar sounds during the songs. I was so distracted
by this that I forgot to retune one of my guitars and launched into the
song completely out of key. I was waving my hands in the air for them
to stop since I noticed it right away but they kept going. The crowd was
still supportive though. I just felt really embarrassed and disappointed.
Clayton seemed to be reveling in all our equipment problems thus far on
this tour, saying "this is what it's really like to be on tour!" The drive
to Austin was gonna be a killer so we started immediately after the show.
Jeff and I tried to sleep while Clayton drove most of the way. In the
morning he held up a bottle of urine, with pride, saying he
didn't want to stop.
(French Quarter)
2/26 (Austin,
TX Emo's)
The change in weather and
temperature when we entered Austin was jolting. While yesterday was short
sleeves and sunburns, today was Arctic winds and cold breath. We rushed
to get to Austin as fast as we could so we could get our equipment problems
taken care of. Luckily, my problem was just a bad cable. We had all day
to hang around Austin. The Richmond band we played with in Orlando told
us if you stop by Veggie Heaven and hold up 3 fingers they'll bring you
out free food. We were all curious to see if this would work. When it
came time to do it they wanted me to be the one who went up to the window.
I didn't really even want to eat there and pussed out of doing it. Jeff
said he would feel wrong taking from a small business. Clayton just seemed
really annoyed I kept talking about it but didn't go through with it.
We stopped in a public library to use the internet. Next to Clayton and
across from me was a man who was watching wrestling online and wearing
headphones. He would make these sudden, random, loud outbursts like "suicide!!!",
"anything can happen!" and then sing some song or guitar riff. This stuffy
old woman next to him told him to quiet down. He'd stop for a few minutes
then start again. Jeff and Clayton later told me about horrifying, monster-like
sounds coming from a stall in the library's mens room. There was a CD
release party tonight at Emo's before our show. While loading in, a guy
at the club said someone had left something for us. It was the 'zine we
did the interview for last time in Austin. Unfortunately, it wasn't the
issue we were in. They also left the photos they took of us. By the time
11 pm rolled around the place was filling up way more than I had expected
it would for a Tuesday night. Right before we began I met Ron Jarzombek,
guitarist for the legendary "tech-metal" band Watchtower. He was there
to check us out and talk to Jeff about playing on a track for his latest
project Spastic Ink. We met a lot of really nice and enthusiastic people
after the show, including a few fans from New Mexico who came to see us.
During the night Clayton got to talking to this girl Lacy. She offered
us a place to stay. Seeing as the weather forecast was calling for record
lows, this sounded like a welcoming idea. The three of us went to Magnolia
Cafe first for dinner/breakfast and then called Lacy at about 3:30 am
for directions to her house. She had 4 cats that instantly started acting
up Clayton's allergies. The three of us all slept on a fold out couch
while her cats climbed around us and would occasionally puke on the floor.
2/27 (Dallas,
TX Galaxy Club)
Last week Clayton got an email
from an old friend of his named Buffy. They lost contact for awhile but
she noticed our poster hanging up in town and contacted him. We called
her when we got into Dallas and met up for dinner. Unfortunately, she
wasn't gonna be able to see tonight's show due to prior commitments. The
club seemed to be running on a tight schedule, rushing all the bands.
The first band started 30 minutes behind schedule and only got 15 minutes
to play. The crowd was sparse and made up mostly of the other bands or
their friends that came with them. We played a short set. I was feeling
fatigued. The lack of closeness to audience and energy in the room wasn't
helping. A few people seemed into though and bought CDs. Most of them
seemed really baffled by the fact we didn't [nor did we want] a singer.
But the type of crowd tonight was more your "modern rock radio" audience.
At the end of the night Clayton went to get our pay. It turns out that
tonight was "audition night", so none of the bands were getting paid,
even though they charged a cover. This was something the promoter neglected
to tell us when booking the show. After explaining to the bartender that
we were on tour, he gave us some gas money. As we were loading the van,
this cocky, hot-shot guy starts talking to Clayton about different clubs
around the country and if we played this place or that. Clayton just kind
of stared at him like he was an idiot. He suggested we play the Shim Sham
in New Orleans on "punk and porn night". Clayton, in a deadpan voice,
says "I don't think I wanna do that." The guy seemed really confused and
walked away. We called Buffy after the show and spent the night at her
apartment. The weather was still bitter cold so I was thankful to have
a warm place to stay again. Before we all went to sleep she played us
an animated video of the "Star Wars Rap", one of the funniest things I'd
seen in awhile. [On a side note: this song was sung daily for the rest
of tour]
(Buffy
and Clayton)
2/28 (North Little
Rock, AR Jay's House)
Jeff had just crossed into
Arkansas when a state trooper singled us to pull over. The sun was shining
brightly in the rear view mirror so Jeff didn't notice. The officer put
on his siren. Jeff still didn't notice and kept driving. This combined
with the van's natural swerving motion due to the steering probably had
him even more agitated. Finally, he commanded us to pull over. Jeff wasn't
wearing his shoes or socks. He quickly put them on and steeped out of
the van. Clayton and I were both sleeping during this time. I woke up
and knew that we had been pulled over so I steeped out of the van to see
what was going on. The officer shouted at me, "Sir, did I tell you to
get out of the van!?" I sort of shrugged my shoulders in a half-daze and
walked back. He thought our vehicle looked suspicious and that we might
be smuggling drugs. I'm sure my stoner-like appearance and long hair didn't
help manners. He asked for our IDs, etc. I told him we were in a band
on tour. He asked me what band. After repeating the name several times,
he shouted in a militarian voice "I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with
your music!" He eventually let us go. We got into Little Rock and sat
in a Chinese restaurant for 2 hours and then went to Jay's House. Jay's
House was basically a vacant, decaying house with no heat or running water.
The only thing keeping us warm was a tiny space heater. The turnout tonight
was amazing and the crowd ruled. I had my doubts at first but was proven
wrong. We probably played everything too fast and sloppy tonight but the
energy was fantastic and we got called for an encore. Before I could even
start breaking down my gear, I was mobbed by people wanting CDs. One guy
wanted to buy my solo tape. He asked me if it was "good music to drink
cough syrup too". I said "sure." Another dude was complimenting me while
spilling his beer all over my effects footboard. I quickly grabbed a towel
and wiped it down. He gave me $40 and said he was sorry. After the show
we went with Jay, and some others from the show, to a local diner. The
food was awesome. Huge, down-home southern style servings for little money.
I never thought I'd see Clayton eating biscuits and gravy, but it was
vegan gravy so it was OK. Though the waitress did seem to recoil in disgust
at Clayton's soy milk on the table. "I'll stick to my 2%" she said. We
said goodnight to our new friends and headed towards Nashville, eventually
stopping at a TA Travel Center in West Memphis.
(Jay's
House crowd)