Day 2 Saturday - I woke up first. I did the standard "go pee"
thing in the morning, and then looked around the house. I found that
Carl's dad wasn't home, and everyone was still asleep. So I went back
and got in the sleeping bag, and started to read a star trek techinal
manual that I'd found near me. Eventually, everyone in the band woke up,
although Carl was still asleep. We thought we'd let Carl sleep. He woke
up in a bit, and we all decided to go to Bob Evans.
Day 1- FridayMay 12th, 11:30 am. Our van is packed with a
drumkit, a very large bass amp, a sorta large guitar amp, two bass guitars,
two regular guitars, 24 t-shirts the equivalent of three leftover pizzas, a
milking stool, four backpacks, four sleeping bags, six pillows and a bunch of
tapes. We had never played an out of town show before. Disaster always
striked before we had a chance to play. But after a quick stop at Matt S's
bank, we (fiddlepoke, matt c.,
matt s. and kate the roadie) hit I-70 East
with Chillocothe, Ohio as our destination.
Our first stop was at a gas station, to fill up my van's tank. We got
our first taste of convienence store food, which would become most of our
diet on this outing. Then we hit the road again. We took I-70 to state
road 68 in Ohio, and 68 to 35. 35 goes directly into Chillocothe. We
arrived at the Blue Monk coffeehouse about five o'clock, and proceeded
to unload all of our gear.
At this time Carl Hirsch, show booker and cafe runner, had run to the
school to check his e-mail. So us four went to a close by grocery store
to get some eats. I forget the name of the grocery, but it was not a
chain store. That meant that it was full of oddities and off brands. I
found these sickeningly sweet soda that was practically undrinkable, and
matt and matt found some chocolate cookies that turned out to be vegan.
We then returned to the cafe, met Carl, ate TV dinners and old pizza, drank
shakes, and played space invaders. Carl was so nice; he basically let us
roam free in the cafe. We still had to pay for stuff, since it was a
punk rock, low profit joint, but we really were kind of turned loose in
there. To kill the time before the show we hung out, played video games,
looked through Carl's record collection, and just hung out with people.
The other band arrived at about seven thirty. The other band was a
straight forward punk with a dash of pop group called Non Point
Union. They had an odd facination with military armaments.
A cool thing about this club is that we were not rushed or hurried.
Granted, there were maybe fifteen people there, and they were all just
hanging out anyway, but taking it at a calm pace was kind of a nice feeling
anyway. We then proceded to play. Boy, did we ever play good. Right
when we started to play, a group of about six people started to rotate at
the pool table. That was a wierd feeling, looking out and seeing people
play pool to you. Hey, it's cooler than "moshing" (as MTV would put
it).
As I did look into the crowd, there were maybe four people who I could
tell were really enjoying us. The drummer for Non Point Union,
either the guitarist or bassist for Non Point Union, Carl, and
this young guy named Dan. Dan videotaped the whole set, so hopefully we
will get a copy soon. He was going to the Recording Workshop, the
recording studio school in town. I think we are going to record there on
July 1st at the recording workshop, which is the day after or next show
in Chillocothe, June 30th opening for the Hairy Patt Band.
After we played, we packed up our van with help from Dan and the guys
in Non Point Union. Carl had to stay open for a bit, so we hung
out, and listened to more records.
After we locked up Carl's cafe we went to his house. All of us were
completely starving by that point. Once we got to Carl's house, he
imeadeatly started making us pasta. While he did this, we explored his
house. Carl and his dad, Carl, both live in this house. It was build
circa 1810, and is a really neat-o, old, house. It is large, has wooden
floors everywhere, and three floors.
Another fun thing about Carl's house was the cockroach infestation.
There were lots of dead roaches lying on the steps, and a few could be
found in each room. We set up our sleeping bags on a hide-a-bed and the
floor (me getting the floor) and did a quick job of falling asleep.
This was a very odd Bob Evans. In Indiana, they are all red, and look
like an old building. Well, this Bob Evans was built just a couple of
years ago, and it looked really modern. Actually, it kind of resembeled
a mexican resturant. We got seated, and ordered. I don't remember what
Matt, Matt, or Kate ordered, but Carl ordered fried mush. Even though
our entorage was from Indiana, we'd never had, or even seen, fried mush
before.
The mush came in patties. They looked like the fish part of a fillet of
fish sandwich; they were tan, crispy, and square. I just got french
toast and some hash browns.
We left Bob Evans and went back to Carl's house. Right after we got
there, my mother called. It turns out that Greg (the guy who is doing
our show that night) wants us to be there two hours earlier than
previously planned. So we do an "oh shit", and quickly pack up and get
outta there.
The drive from Ohio to Indiana is pretty uneventful. It, however, picked
up when we got to Indiana. The roads became more scenic and hilly. We
stopped at a Wendys somewhere off of I-74. We passed through a town
called Knaw Bone in southern Indiana!?!?
When we got to bloomington it took us a bit to find the place. But we
got directions, and then we were there in a snap. There weren't many
people there when we arrived, but that was two hours before the show.
They start doing sound checks, and the guitarist for Velkro Fish asks if
he can use our guitar amp. We agree 'cause we're nice fellas. We plug
it in and it doesn't sound right. The power in the amp is fading. So I
look at the back, and one of the power tubes is completely orange. If
you don't know about tube amps, this means it's overheating, and there is
a large risk that it could do severe damage. I yell, "ahhhh, turn it
off!" but a fuse blew just before we got the chance.
Luckily, the band En-Dive was playing and Tony Reitz loaned us his brand
spanking new marshall head! We got set up after the first band, Velkro
Fish, played. After getting everything miked and in tune, we played. We
did pretty okay, but there were only like 15 people tops in the crowd.
Susan Thunderpussy drove from indianapolis to see us, which was way
cool. She has been declared fan of the year or something.
We packed up the van, saw Ice-9 play, and hit the road home. The drive
was neat, because there was all sorts of wild lightening, but no rain.
Then right as we got to I-465. Rain started to DUMP down. I couldn't
see more than 20 feet in front of me. So our speed slowed to 15 mph. It
remained this speed until we got to Matt C's house. 8 miles from the
start of the rainstorm took 45 minutes. So we all stayed the night at
Matt Chandler's house. Yay, slumber party:). Actually, it was more
like we just passed out, which ended our little two day fiasco on the road.
