homeward
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
after Indianapolis we played Milwaukee’s Bradley Center Saturday night. Tim’s gonna email me some photos from the show and I’ll put them up when I get them. I DID however pull my camera out to document a visit to U.S.A Pancakes in Calumet City, Illinois. We were hungry for breakfast and had the Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Athens, GA. trip staring us in the face. We decided the ultimate breakfast fuel for a drive through America was U.S.A Pancakes.
I REALLY liked there being the option of “Our Own German pancakes” under the U.S.A’s OWN PANCAKES heading. Did we forget Germany isn’t in the U.S or are we just taking there pancake from them and making it our own? Either way, it looked good.
Equally intriguing is the Idaho Potato Pancake placement underneath Pancake Internationale!!!! Man that e on the end is foreign!!!!!!!! Also foreign to my digestive system is the Apple Sauce and Sour Cream combination in any form. In the form of a pancake, it is simply a risky order. Julian and I got the #3 (pictured below) an Tim got an asparagus and swiss omelet.
Surprise!!!!! You are playing some massive shows this weekend
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Yo!!!! So we’ve been home writing songs for the last few weeks. We were sitting on the couch in Athens a couple days ago when Kings of Leon asked us to play a couple last minute shows in Indianapolis and Milwaukee. WE ARE LUCKY. The first concert I ever saw was Pearl Jam at Lakewood Ampitheatre in Atlanta when I was 15. It was THRILLING to play a venue so similar to that one. Here’s the memory lane stroll I took around Verizon Wireless ampitheatre before the show. GOT TO LOVE THE LAWN.
Edmonton, AB.
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
We played Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta last night. Playing a massive hockey arena could have been the most fun I’ve had onstage ever. So fun. The Kings Of Leon fellows are taking fantastic care of us and showing us much love. It’s not easy to pack out arenas and consistently rock a crowd like they do every night. Very impressive and equally entertaining / educational for us.
In other important news, I stumbled across a vending machine boasting Five Alive in a can. My treasure is pictured below…
I thought we had left but apparently we had now arrived in oil country…
A few hours before showtime I climbed to the top row / dead center of the arena for a photo of the stage. Apparently someone else had thought of this already and “X” appropriately marked the spot of such a seat…
This, is the view from such a seat…
Red Rocks
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
So… we are back on the road. Played Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Morrison, Colorado Sunday night with Kings Of Leon and now we find ourselves at the Super 8 Motel in Great Falls Montana on our way to Edmonton.
Sunrise in my room before we hit the road….
Before the Kings of Leon tour began we were PUMPED to play the Shoals Theater in Florence, AL. with the Drive By Truckers. ROCK…..
Pictured below is BROKEN ROCK. I asked the clerk about the damage and was presented with the following sequence of events:
1. Woman wants to get a snack
2. Convenient store is closed because it is 2:05 AM (store closes at 2:00)
3. Woman begins yelling at clerk through glass door.
4. Woman gets in her car and drives it as fast as she can into the convenient store.
5. Woman drives her messed up car away from newly christened crime scene.
6. Police arrest crazy woman a few miles from convenient store.
OK. Before Red Rocks, we played shows in Tulsa, OK., Omaha and Kearney, NE., and Lawrence, KS. Between that stretch we ripped John Daly’s Bar and Grill outside of Memphis, TN.
What better way to start a round at John Daly’s than to rip a basket of range balls?
AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I can think of a more appropriate start! An ice cold Coors Light!!!!
“Range balls” come in the appropriate golf ball bucket FYI….
Matt and the man catch up….
Apparently John Daly rips more than golf balls. Here he can be seen in the oddest jam session photo I’ve seen in quite some time as he partakes in a shred off with NBA basketball player Shane Battier. DAMN I would have liked to have seen that show.
I’m messing up the order of this pre-Red Rocks recap so I beg your forgiveness. A few weeks ago, we played ROCKFEST in Cadott, WI. Cadott and the nearby towns are quite small. Lots of Amish country. Pictured below is the new Ford Horseman we were surprised to see coming at us from the other side of the highway….it’s not everyday where you can legitimately say you feel out of place driving your car on the road…..
Speaking of feeling out of place, we played the festival’s main stage before the likes of Journey and Judas Priest….
STOP! I said STOP!!!!! Now….
Take a minute to figure out if 1) are (or) 2) are not in the band Journey.
If you are, follow these STOP signs.
If not, please do not stop at the myriad of STOP signs.
Apparently, Cadott (among other things) is located halfway between the North Pole and the Equator. Actually, if you read the fine print, the midway point is 2 miles north of Cadott. Hmmmmmm……
SO ANYWAY……
We are back on tour with Kings of Leon. Out of our headlining shows, Omaha and Kearney were highlights with Omaha’s show being extra cool do to our sharing the stage with Band of Skulls. They are awesome. Check them out.
The first show of the Kings tour was at the famed Red Rocks Ampitheatre. This is without a doubt the coolest place I’ve ever played music. We played the following set while a violent lightening storm jammed along with us on the horizon:
LIKE A VIBRATION
HOT BED
IN THE DARK
I AM FOR REAL
SOMEONE’S DAUGHTER
HALF THE WORLD AWAY
O.K, ALRIGHT
ALREADY YOUNG
RIGHT HAND ON MY HEART
NEED YOU NEED YOU
Holy crap this place rules:
