BILLINGS TO FARGO - This is about the length of the drive from Quincy to Billings
without the day off in between. Brush with death #133: It's storming and we just
drove by a tornado. I drove a lopsided majority of the trip without any sleep.
We got in at 10 am.
FARGO - I'm delrious and still without sleep. My sentences come out slow and
stupid. I wonder if it came across like that when I played. We played first
today. Midwest ain't our thang. Less dust than Billings, but I didn't eat a
meal today.
FARGO TO MILWAUKEE - First there was nothing. Then, Eisenhower said "Let
there be roads." And there were. It's times like this that you get thankful
for the interstate system. It gets you out of places like that and to places
like this. It was noticable how much better the roads even got the closer we
were to the place where beer, dairy, and all other things that increase your
pants size come from.
MILWAUKEE - People here know about Fueled By Ramen. We sold out of the new FBR
sampler at this show. It's cool that we could sell so many, but now we're out
of one of our best sellers. That means less gas money for us. We'll survive
as always. There was a decent gathering of people for our set which, as many
times as it's happened, is always a nice surprise to us. One of the people there
was Nick Chipman who interviewed us for an issue of his zine "Road to Acceptance."
Nick was awesome and it was cool to meet him in person. This whole journal will
actually be published in a future issue of the zine and it will be funny to
read this blatant ass-kissing in there.
He also took me to a local pizzeria called Pizza Shuttle, where I got food for
the band and brought it back and introduced me to something I had never had
before, frozen custard. That stuff tastes amazing. Definitely try some if you
can find it.
Most of the days are getting short becuase I spend so much of it asleep becuase
I'm exhausted from driving all night.
MILWAUKEE TO INDIANAPOLIS - Stupid.
INDIANAPOLIS - Nothing memorable about this show except the one gutter punk
out of his luck sitting on the ground with a cardboard sign that read "Spit
in my face. 50 cents." I read the sign and looked at the gutter punk. He
shook his head up and down to signal that he meant it. I think Indianapolis
could boost their tourism revenue if they had a cool slogan like "Indianapolis...
sweet, bro!" or "More fun than a goggle-wearing running back."
Do you know what point I am trying to make?
CLEVELAND - This show was awesome for a couple of reasons. First off, we were
next to a mall. The mall was a much needed escape from this touring carnival.
So many choices to eat and real people to blend in with. At least I hope I blended
in. It was so nice (and so air conditioned).
It started raining so I got a jacket from the "stop racism" tent
run by the Positive Youth Foundation. In doing so, I hung up my laptop on their
clothes rack and left it there. It took me 20 minutes to realize that and I
when I did, I ran as fast and hard as I could. I plowed through hordes of small
children watching whatever pop punk band was slinging their shit at the time.
Luckily, it was there.
The barbeque today had boca burgers. First time the barbeque has had anything
vegetarian in a while. Right behind where we played that day, there were the
Cleveland Cavaliers and Indians' stadiums and a ton of fireworks. We ate burgers,
drank soda and watched some fireworks. Not too shabby.
CHICAGO - Hellllllll yes. This is what we've been waiting for. There was a pre-built
stage on site just waiting for us. Not only a stage, but loaders on the venue
staff. Wow, the royal treatment. We had our biggest crowd of the tour and also
played our best. Scott from Punknews.org gave us an interview after our set
in which I said a couple things that were funny, but I hope I don't regret later.
Told some more people about the free show at Reckless with Ozma. It should be
really fun. Those guys are super nice.
Joe is with us now. He's our manager but strangely, we had never met him in
person. He's done a lot for us already and he's the reason we're here on this
tour. We're having a lot of fun and he's just as cool in person.
There is no to/from preceding this journal but... brush with death #304 - blew
out a tire on the way to Chicago. No need to panic. We're okay.
MINNEAPOLIS - This started out as one of the hottest days of the tour. What
it turned into was a severe storm that had the rain blowing sideways and people
running for cover. I saw Trent and James from Cadillac Blindside at the show
and it was good to see them. It was also The Start's last show on the tour and
they played awesome. They even had an all-girl mosh pit going. It was also the
last day we got to hang with Park. I don't think spirits were up with the guys
unfortunately because of Justin's Marshall Head being stolen in Chicago. They're
really good and I hope you get to check them out.
Anyhow, the storm destroyed our tent. Now we have to share with Punkrocks.net
or face the threat of skin cancer. That's going to be crowded since there are
a lot of bands in their tent to start with. The security at the show were dickheads.
They refused to let us leave at the end of the night. Why? Beats me. We finally
got to leave after 25 minutes of bickering. Stupid pricks. It's one thing if
there's a reason but when you give someone a little power and they start pulling
this "you'll leave when I say so" shit, I ain't havin it.
From the venue we actually went and met up with Jamie of The Stereo for some
dinner. He took us to a local italian restaurant that was pretty good. I ate
veggie chicken parm. We got to head back up to his place and check our email
and then we were off. Back to Chicago for our show at Reckless.
CHICAGO - Our show at Reckless was awesome. The store is awesome. Ozma was awesome.
The kids who showed up were awesome and also the ones that worked at the store.
Our friends Doug and Jason who put on the show were awesome. The pizza they
ordered us was awesome. Ozma's set was awesome. Our set was lots of fun. The
conversations we had afterwards were awesome and the people we met were awesome.
The area of town we were in was awesome. Joe went back home after the night
was done. He seemed pretty pleased with everything over the 3 days he was with
us and it was good to hang with him. Actually, something interesting is that
There was something in Joe's windshield wiper and we all thought it was a ticket
but it was a police report and the back of his truck had been hit. The damage
was minimal but it was there nevertheless. This is one city I'd like to come
back and spend some time in. Oh yeah, we saw something in the sky that night
too. Steve and I were the only ones to see. It was really far away. Too high
to be fireworks. Too bright to be a shooting star. No following explosion to
make it a missile. It was a brief greenish streak.