Sunday, July 13, 2008

Byron Fest

Saturday we got to play at ByronFest in Byron Illinois. It had been nearly 5 months since our last show at the Annex, but it was a great show to come back to. Being that our practice space has been flooding randomly with the crazy storms we have been getting we started the day off with our first practice in a week or so.

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It feels great to get back into playing together after recording for so long. There is nothing quite like feeding off of each others energy in a live setting. After running through the set and packing up the van, we all went to a new cigar bar not far from our rehearsal space called Drakenbergs. Rather nice place, not to big, nice furniture, and most importantly... good beer.

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After a few pints we hit the road. It is about 1 1/2 hours to Byron from Madison.... that is... if you don't get lost. We.... got lost. We ended up taking a wrong turn getting off the highway and ended up in the ghetto of Rockford. It's just like that Elvis song... you know... in the ghetto.



After stopping at a duel gas station/ police station for about 20 minutes, we get our barrings and know the way to go.... but that doesn't mean we go on it. For all the roads in this town are either dead ends, miss labeled, or one ways. So about another 10 minutes of driving in squiggles, and passing two walking ice cream vendors we are back on the highway going the right way. Then after 15 minutes of driving along side a lake that once was a river we find Byron. We go on in about an hour after arriving, which gives us enough time to unpack and get ready for the rocking.

The show went off pretty well. It felt a little weird for the first few songs, but after watching Boat flail around on stage like crazy I decided to join in and it all came together. (Once again we were privileged to have Dauber from coach come out to the show. He and his family are on the road for a summer trip and planned the stop to catch the show. A hell of a guy he is. We will have to get a band photo with him next time he comes to a show.) At the end of 77 M.P.H. Glass (our closer) I cut my hand open again on my guitar. This time though it was worse than usual, but luckily most of the blood ended up on my shirt rather than my guitar. Now let it be known that I don't cut myself for attention.... I do it to make the voices stop.

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Good thing for me that Boats parents were there. Mrs. Boats Mom had a liquid band aid type of thing with her that smelled like red bull.

After us was Enter.
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It was their cd release and they sounded better than ever. They got quite a good turn out being that it is their home town. When we get our record together we will be setting up a show with them in Rockford... (not the ghetto part.)

After they are done we chat em up a bit about things, grab a cd and hit the road back to home.

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We were all pleased to be able to be getting home before 3 a.m. with this show. But it was still to late for most eateries to be open. We found (after about 15 minutes of hard searching) an Arby's that had the drive through open.

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Unlucky for the people behind us though was the 15 minutes it took to get our food ordered and cooked. But that is ok, our trailer we rented had a Texas license plate. Plus, we were hungry. I ended up choosing poorly with the 2 roast beef and cheddar for 4 bucks.... and they didn't get Marc any "Fucking Mustard!". But all and all, thats about the best a single girl working could do at 1 in the morning to appease 5 musicians. We just hope she didn't spit in any of the food.

With grub in our bellies we spent the rest of the trip listening to Lewis Black laughing our asses off. This show will be a great catalyst for getting our asses in gear with finishing the record. We need merch too. We are hoping to get some stickers and shirts too by the time we get around to a Record Release show. Which hopefully isn't to far off....

We have another show at the High Noon in August. Come on out, it should be a good one.

Until then take care and keep and ear out... we should be getting in high gear soon.

~Scott

Monday, July 7, 2008

Break from the Studio

We'd like to say a big thank you to Mr. Victor Johnson Jr. for composing and recording a reprise on the record. He has taken one of our songs and reintepreted it and we couldn't be happier.

The next steps aren't easy as far as recording goes. We've still got guitars to do but even more difficult will be the strings and horns. It doesn't help that our studio continues to flood even after the insanity of last month. We promise to get back to it soon but to keep us from going insane we've booked a few shows in the midwest:

Sat. July 12th
Byronfest 2008
w/ Case in Point, Enter, and The Felix Culpa
$6.00 in advance
$8.00 at the Gate
8:00 PM / All Ages
http://www.byronfest.org/schedule.html

Sun. August 10
High Noon Saloon - Madison, WI
ACT VI 300 Miles Later Party
w/Saber Tooth Man, Nuggernaut, and Revolving Doors
7:00 PM / $5 cover 21 AND UP, Free for ACT Ride Participants
http://www.high-noon.com/