11/09/2001: Day 1. Naperville, IL. Drive from Denver to Chicago. 16 hours. Pretty good day. Left Denver at about 8am and got here around 1am. Good to know we’re not going to work for the next 2 weeks. Years of paid dues finally paid off . . . or something like that. Ate at a Steak N’ Shake in Iowa. Good stuff. Stayed with Shaye, who works at a college radio station. Lots of college students live with her. They took good care of us and are making us breakfast. Tonight, we drive to Buffalo to stay with Eric from the Pavers, who we have never met.
(Click here for pictures from Naperville)
11/11/01: Buffalo, NY. Played our first show of the tour last night at Mohawk Place in Buffalo. Played a good set. A few bugs to work out, but we’ve got 12 more shows to do. The Pavers were amazing. They should be one of the biggest bands in the world. Scott remembered my old band from Tacoma, the Rhino Humpers. Tonight we stay at his house, so we’ll probably share some T-Town stories.
Been staying with Eric from the Pavers and his wife Stacy, who booked about half the tour. They have been incredibly cool to us. They even made us some Reno Divorce buttons. Everyone in the Pavers crew is really cool. They helped us load our gear, and so we helped them, too. I’ve never seen or met a band that was as friendly and supportive as these guys. They just met us, and they treat us like old friends. No hate from these guys at all. It’s given me a new outlook that I’ll take with me from here on out.
We’d been playing AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds” during the day at Eric and Stacy’s, so the Pavers played it as the last song of their set and dedicated it to us. Seth got up and sang with Scott about halfway through the first chorus. It was a great time for all.
(Click here for pictures from Buffalo)
11/13/01: Youngstown, OH. At a truck stop. Last night’s show in Pittsburgh was cancelled by the promoter. Basically, he didn’t want to do the show on a Monday. We loaded our gear in, but the Pavers were about an hour behind us. By the time they got there, things were looking barren. So, we loaded the gear back up and hit a restaurant in a real shady part of town. After that, we drove to a truck stop just over the Ohio border and crashed out in the van. All in all, a bum night and a waste of money and time.
The night before in Fredonia, NY was cool. We played a club called BJs, and it was really full for a Sunday night. There was no cover and it was just us and the Pavers. The club had no carpet on stage, so Josh and I were really worried about our gear sliding. We agreed to help eachother if anything went down. We started the first song of our set, and my hi-hat stand took off sliding. We had a small rug for the kick, but nothing else would fit on it. So Josh jumped on stage and just held my hi-hat stand down, ‘cause there wasn’t much else he could do. After the song, I handed him a roll of duct tape and he taped it down. No more problems. We played a bad-ass set after that, better than the night before.
When the Pavers went on, things looked fine at first. Then Josh signaled me that his kick was moving. I jumped on stage and held it for the entire song “Joan’s Neighbor.” Then I stuck my wooden crate in front of it. The stage was really small, so it got in Scott’s way a bit. That didn’t work. I tried everything: cinder block chunks, tool boxes, duct tape. Finally, I just kept pushing his kick back after every song. It was really quite comical. Scott kept heckling me:
“There’s a hippie on stage.”
“That’s not gonna’ work, hippie.”
“Hey, that hippie just grabbed my ass.”
Then the PA went out. The club didn’t have their own PA, so we were using the Pavers’. We were all on stage trying to fix something. The Pavers guys appreciated it, and I guess that’s all that matters. Well, and the fact that we did finally get things working again for them to finish their set.
After the show, we stayed at Scott’s. His wife Melissa is an old friend of Brian Coloff’s (Rhino Humpers, Valentine Killers, Midnight Thunder Express, Torpedo T-Shirts), so we shared Coloff stories well into the AM. Met Scott’s girls, too. Meghan is 11 and Molly is 3. We left pretty late for the Pittsburgh show because the Pavers had some last minute stuff to take care of.
Now we’re just hanging out at this truck stop. We’re about 90 minutes from tonight’s show in Cleveland. Might go to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame if there’s time. Touring bands supposedly get a discount on admission. |
