Friday, April 29, 2005
in case anyone is interested, like my mom for example, here's what we've done in London so far...
we've been to a couple of punk rock shows....The Mercury League and Freaks Union (both English bands), and Phinius Gage (English) and Streetlight Manifesto (USA). It was fun hanging out with Streetlight Manifesto...I could understand everything they said. We also found out that one of their band members is from Carteret, NJ.... a town that mine and Sarah's ancestors founded. That was cool.
We've been to London Bridge, The Tate Museum of Modern Art, Harrods for afternoon tea (a massive overly priced department store where we paid the equivlent of $35 for 3 pots of tea and six scones with clotted cream and jam....geez), The British Museum where we saw lots of mummies and Egyptian art. I'm a little worried about being cursed now, but then again, the 1,000s of other people at the museum would be cursed as well, Camden Market - I bought some sweet scenester shoes, a giant Mac store where again everything was overpriced and we've become experts at navigating the tube (the london underground for those not in the know) and the bus system.
we've been to a couple of punk rock shows....The Mercury League and Freaks Union (both English bands), and Phinius Gage (English) and Streetlight Manifesto (USA). It was fun hanging out with Streetlight Manifesto...I could understand everything they said. We also found out that one of their band members is from Carteret, NJ.... a town that mine and Sarah's ancestors founded. That was cool.
We've been to London Bridge, The Tate Museum of Modern Art, Harrods for afternoon tea (a massive overly priced department store where we paid the equivlent of $35 for 3 pots of tea and six scones with clotted cream and jam....geez), The British Museum where we saw lots of mummies and Egyptian art. I'm a little worried about being cursed now, but then again, the 1,000s of other people at the museum would be cursed as well, Camden Market - I bought some sweet scenester shoes, a giant Mac store where again everything was overpriced and we've become experts at navigating the tube (the london underground for those not in the know) and the bus system.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
I'm going to try and do a quick wrap-up of the tour...if we don't do it now, we never will.
april 13 was in York...we thought it was going to be a cool show...the venue was good, everyone was nice and york seems like a pretty hip town. (it was surrounded by a wall back in the day, that is still standing, although the city has now overflowed.) of course, it was raining when we got there, so we didn't get to see much of the city. big surprise...we're in england. anyway, the local band didn't show up, and the other touring band, Milk, arrived late...for a while we thought it was going to be just us. The show was OK....we had a small turnout that we were happy with, considering both bands playing were pretty much unheard of.
april 14 was in Polton. everyone here was super hospitable and the other bands were great. The Vibrators have been around since 1976...I think the singer is turning 60 this year. They've been playing english punkrock since it started and was cool to meet them. Flamingo 50 from Liverpool were also very good, and nice people. We're playing another show with them on June 17 in Liverpool. Thanks to Carl and Paul and putting on the show, giving us food and a CLEAN place to sleep!
april 15 - Lincoln, England at Bivouac. We've played here before and knew what to expect. We arrived to the venue after wandering aound Lincoln for a while and found that steve the soundguy and our driver Kucin had loaded all of our gear in for us...up the stairs to the 2nd floor! Booyah!
april 16 in Leicester was the Eastrogen show. All the bands were from the same part of England and were all girl (hence the name of the show)...Firebrand, The Smears and The Mothers - a fun band made up of women who all have kids and sing about it. These ladies were great. They let us crash at their house and the next day made us breakfast and took us to the park with all the kids. It was a very "normal" day, but really fun and relaxing. English baby accents are so cute.
april 17 in Bolton - Unfortunatly I don't have much of anything good to say about this show. Sarah and I were trying not to get sick, so we spent most of the show downstairs in the pub, drinking tea, reading and hanging with some friends who came up from Manchester (thanks Wolf!) Our set was not the best... the sound sucked and my monitor had major feedback... it was so bad that it interupted the show a couple of times and I finally got so pissed that I threw the mic when the stand broke in the middle of a song. I kinda felt like an arrogant rockstar...but everyone has their days. Sarah also had to take a break halfway thru the set which meant Christina got to play her "Kitty Song". We spent the night on the dirty pub floor and got the hell out of there at 1st light.
april 18 in Newcastle - yah for newcastle! there is a couple in newcastle - marc and lynn - that put bands up when they come to town. it's awesome... you're guaranteed tea, coffee, a bed, internet and any WB series DVD you can imagine. We played with the Mercury League...who we've played with before...always nice to see familiar faces. the show was packed, and everyone seemed to like us! not to mention that a body was found outside the club the next morning. Christina suggested that maybe we rocked someone to death.
we had the day off april 19th....went to visit Revolty Towers in Leeds.... nice break.
april 20 was in Stoke On Trent. I was looking forward to this show because I like the name of the town. Apparently thats about all there is. We played with metal rock band, and a band with a digiridoo. Drank tea with soured milk, and then spent the night in the van. I guess for a 15 day tour..1 night in the van isn't that bad.
april 21 in Luton. - this show was awesome and a good way to wrap up the tour. all the kids were nice, the other bands rocked and Steve the promotor was awesome. people knew our songs, danced, and seemed happy to be there....which made us happy to be there. woo...end of tour. kucin drove us back to london...unloaded our stuff, and thats it.
april 13 was in York...we thought it was going to be a cool show...the venue was good, everyone was nice and york seems like a pretty hip town. (it was surrounded by a wall back in the day, that is still standing, although the city has now overflowed.) of course, it was raining when we got there, so we didn't get to see much of the city. big surprise...we're in england. anyway, the local band didn't show up, and the other touring band, Milk, arrived late...for a while we thought it was going to be just us. The show was OK....we had a small turnout that we were happy with, considering both bands playing were pretty much unheard of.
april 14 was in Polton. everyone here was super hospitable and the other bands were great. The Vibrators have been around since 1976...I think the singer is turning 60 this year. They've been playing english punkrock since it started and was cool to meet them. Flamingo 50 from Liverpool were also very good, and nice people. We're playing another show with them on June 17 in Liverpool. Thanks to Carl and Paul and putting on the show, giving us food and a CLEAN place to sleep!
april 15 - Lincoln, England at Bivouac. We've played here before and knew what to expect. We arrived to the venue after wandering aound Lincoln for a while and found that steve the soundguy and our driver Kucin had loaded all of our gear in for us...up the stairs to the 2nd floor! Booyah!
april 16 in Leicester was the Eastrogen show. All the bands were from the same part of England and were all girl (hence the name of the show)...Firebrand, The Smears and The Mothers - a fun band made up of women who all have kids and sing about it. These ladies were great. They let us crash at their house and the next day made us breakfast and took us to the park with all the kids. It was a very "normal" day, but really fun and relaxing. English baby accents are so cute.
april 17 in Bolton - Unfortunatly I don't have much of anything good to say about this show. Sarah and I were trying not to get sick, so we spent most of the show downstairs in the pub, drinking tea, reading and hanging with some friends who came up from Manchester (thanks Wolf!) Our set was not the best... the sound sucked and my monitor had major feedback... it was so bad that it interupted the show a couple of times and I finally got so pissed that I threw the mic when the stand broke in the middle of a song. I kinda felt like an arrogant rockstar...but everyone has their days. Sarah also had to take a break halfway thru the set which meant Christina got to play her "Kitty Song". We spent the night on the dirty pub floor and got the hell out of there at 1st light.
april 18 in Newcastle - yah for newcastle! there is a couple in newcastle - marc and lynn - that put bands up when they come to town. it's awesome... you're guaranteed tea, coffee, a bed, internet and any WB series DVD you can imagine. We played with the Mercury League...who we've played with before...always nice to see familiar faces. the show was packed, and everyone seemed to like us! not to mention that a body was found outside the club the next morning. Christina suggested that maybe we rocked someone to death.
we had the day off april 19th....went to visit Revolty Towers in Leeds.... nice break.
april 20 was in Stoke On Trent. I was looking forward to this show because I like the name of the town. Apparently thats about all there is. We played with metal rock band, and a band with a digiridoo. Drank tea with soured milk, and then spent the night in the van. I guess for a 15 day tour..1 night in the van isn't that bad.
april 21 in Luton. - this show was awesome and a good way to wrap up the tour. all the kids were nice, the other bands rocked and Steve the promotor was awesome. people knew our songs, danced, and seemed happy to be there....which made us happy to be there. woo...end of tour. kucin drove us back to london...unloaded our stuff, and thats it.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Well, i didn't expect to be back on the blog this soon...but we've made it to Leeds and we're doing a bit of hanging out before we head to £ a pint night at The Dry Dock. Even though I've been to England enough times to be used to it, I still think its weird that I'm repeating things I've done in a faraway country. Anyway, since I've got alittle bit of time, and Paul is out of town and I can use his computer, I'll write about a few shows.
I think I left off right before we went to play The Underworld in London. This show was soooo much fun....even though I got really pissed off for alittle while before we played. Sometime I think we're just too nice, and we let ourselves get taken advantage of....but the bad part is, i know it's happening and I end up getting mad...but by then it's too late to do anything about it. Maybe someday being nice will come back to me in a good way.
Anyway, back to the show. All of our London friends came...and more importantly made it on time...so that was cool. We ended up playing first, but it didn't matter because the club was already full of kids. Jeff from NHOI let me use his wireless, which was awesome. I didn't have to worry about tripping over cords. I've always been kinda against wireless, but I think he's converted me. The kids totally rocked out for the whole show....Christina had a whole section headbanging right along with her. I even saw a few girls singing along, which was really cool since I seriously doubt they were at the last show we played in London.
After we played Vanilla Pod was up...I really liked these guys. They reminded me a lot of Face to Face. They put on a good show....and they let me borrow their guitar head, so thanks for that. Never Heard of It went on last. Absolute craziness...one girl even passed out...I think it was a combination of heat exhaustion and good kick to the head by a crowd surfer. She ended up being ok though...and as far as I can tell had a great time at the show. Maggie and Christina took her backstage so she could chill out and watch the show without getting squashed.
After the show, The Underworld turned into a rock club....so we danced the night away and Christina managed to spend £20 on two drinks....ask her for the story! It was a fun night...and amazingly enough everyone felt fine the next day..haha.
The next night was Bristol at The Junction. We played there last year on the Minotour...so we kind of knew what to expect. The club had changed owners which was a good thing, since we all remember the dude from last year was not very nice. Anyway, it was a decent show...although the sound wasn't too great. Even so, all the people were really nice and we met some guys who put us up for the night, fed us, gave us drinks and played lots of music for us.
Plymouth was next. We actually got there early enough to walk around and check out the city alittle. Saw where the Mayflower set sail for the new world. woohoo!! There's not much to say about the show except thanks to the guys who drove all the way from Exeter. The other bands we played with were good too....it was unfortunate hardly anyone came out. We had a good time after the show though....stayed with some English surfers who gave up their beds so we could sleep in comfort. Christina stole one guys bed, and left him sleeping curled up on the floor with a towel for a blanket, while her sleeping bag went unused in the next room. Nice guys, and they drank tea in pint glasses.
After Plymouth we drove to Southampton. We got there, loaded in, did a good soundcheck, then settled in for some awesome pasta...more vegetable than noodles...which is a good thing. See mom...we're getting our vitamins. I think I ate about a pot of it. Both band that supported us were really good...Beyond the Shadow and Kristtina. I've been impressed with all the bands that have played on the tour. Our set went well...lots of people taking pictures....including a guy in a Terrible One t-shirt, which made me feel right at home. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I hope we get to play Southampton again.
Alright....thats enough for this blogging session. I finished with the south....i'll tell you about the north the next time i've got time at a computer. People that i know keep filing into the house, and i want to go visit. i need to talk to someone other than maggie, christina and kucin(our driver)
I think I left off right before we went to play The Underworld in London. This show was soooo much fun....even though I got really pissed off for alittle while before we played. Sometime I think we're just too nice, and we let ourselves get taken advantage of....but the bad part is, i know it's happening and I end up getting mad...but by then it's too late to do anything about it. Maybe someday being nice will come back to me in a good way.
Anyway, back to the show. All of our London friends came...and more importantly made it on time...so that was cool. We ended up playing first, but it didn't matter because the club was already full of kids. Jeff from NHOI let me use his wireless, which was awesome. I didn't have to worry about tripping over cords. I've always been kinda against wireless, but I think he's converted me. The kids totally rocked out for the whole show....Christina had a whole section headbanging right along with her. I even saw a few girls singing along, which was really cool since I seriously doubt they were at the last show we played in London.
After we played Vanilla Pod was up...I really liked these guys. They reminded me a lot of Face to Face. They put on a good show....and they let me borrow their guitar head, so thanks for that. Never Heard of It went on last. Absolute craziness...one girl even passed out...I think it was a combination of heat exhaustion and good kick to the head by a crowd surfer. She ended up being ok though...and as far as I can tell had a great time at the show. Maggie and Christina took her backstage so she could chill out and watch the show without getting squashed.
After the show, The Underworld turned into a rock club....so we danced the night away and Christina managed to spend £20 on two drinks....ask her for the story! It was a fun night...and amazingly enough everyone felt fine the next day..haha.
The next night was Bristol at The Junction. We played there last year on the Minotour...so we kind of knew what to expect. The club had changed owners which was a good thing, since we all remember the dude from last year was not very nice. Anyway, it was a decent show...although the sound wasn't too great. Even so, all the people were really nice and we met some guys who put us up for the night, fed us, gave us drinks and played lots of music for us.
Plymouth was next. We actually got there early enough to walk around and check out the city alittle. Saw where the Mayflower set sail for the new world. woohoo!! There's not much to say about the show except thanks to the guys who drove all the way from Exeter. The other bands we played with were good too....it was unfortunate hardly anyone came out. We had a good time after the show though....stayed with some English surfers who gave up their beds so we could sleep in comfort. Christina stole one guys bed, and left him sleeping curled up on the floor with a towel for a blanket, while her sleeping bag went unused in the next room. Nice guys, and they drank tea in pint glasses.
After Plymouth we drove to Southampton. We got there, loaded in, did a good soundcheck, then settled in for some awesome pasta...more vegetable than noodles...which is a good thing. See mom...we're getting our vitamins. I think I ate about a pot of it. Both band that supported us were really good...Beyond the Shadow and Kristtina. I've been impressed with all the bands that have played on the tour. Our set went well...lots of people taking pictures....including a guy in a Terrible One t-shirt, which made me feel right at home. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I hope we get to play Southampton again.
Alright....thats enough for this blogging session. I finished with the south....i'll tell you about the north the next time i've got time at a computer. People that i know keep filing into the house, and i want to go visit. i need to talk to someone other than maggie, christina and kucin(our driver)
Don't really have time to write the novel that will be my tour journal...but i wanted to at least write a note saying we're still alive. The shows have been cool, we've met some awesome people, and i'll write all the details in a few days when we're back in london.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
The British invasion has begun, and it's been awesome. Before I tell details...i have to write about the most exciting thing that has happened so far. Alittle background first....last year when we were on tour in the UK with Shotgun Democracy(from leeds), we(SDS) realized that most boys other than Americans have foreskin...we found this out through some story-telling about the banjo string(american boys...you'll have to ask around to find out what it is). As it turns out, none of us girls had ever seen foreskin. We tried to get one of the SGD boys to show us...purely scientific, mind you...but they were all too bashful. So, for the last year, whenever we meet English boys, we've asked, but no one was ever comfortable enough to show us.
Well last night, we lucked out! We were hanging out on the bus with Never Heard of It(our friends from CA that we played with), as well as Will, the guy that took care of us in Yeovil, and once again the topic of foreskin came up. Will could hardly believe that americans get"1/2 their willies snipped off at birth" or that we had never seen the "shield"..as he put it. He didn't seem to be very shy, so we started trying to convince him to let us have a look. It took about an hour of talking about it, the NHOI boys asking lots of questions about it, and about 4 shots of rum...but finally right before he left, Will decided to pull it out. Even though I'm sure they were curious, the NHOI guys all covered their eyes(too weird to sit there and study another boys stuff)...but we all got a good look. The first words out of my mouth were "OHHHH...that's what it looks like".... So now we are no longer ignorant about the foreskin...thanks to Will...he'll have the honor of always being SDS's first!
Now the ever popular list of cool tour moments:
-stayed awake for almost 30 hours traveling from Dallas to London. Had to trek across London...train, tube, and bus with our bags and guitars and cymbals and snare drum. Thanks so much to Ross for helping...especially since he had stitches in his groin. youch.
-hung in london for a couple days before Koochin, our driver picked us up for our first show. Found out the Kooch was driving his first tour (oh jesus) so we quickly learned how to navigate the London map.
-drove to Exeter with no time to spare...great venue (the cavern), great people, and a great show to kick off the tour with. thanks to Pippa for the food, David for the muscles and Jake for putting up with our myspace addiction! A famous English comedian named Richard Herring was at the show...we don't know who he is, but we have friends that are jealous that he was there.
-made our way to Yeovil...we've played here before, and were pretty sure it would be a good show. And it was...all the bands were cool, and we got to hang out with our friends from California, Never Heard Of It...again everyone was awesome...we had a mosh pit, and Sarah got her faced licked by a cute little English boy during First Kiss. Ha.
-Drove back to London...MORE NAVIGATING...ARRRGH. No sleep and weird cheese sandwiches. Now we're off to our show at Underworld with NHOI again. Should be fun!!!
Well last night, we lucked out! We were hanging out on the bus with Never Heard of It(our friends from CA that we played with), as well as Will, the guy that took care of us in Yeovil, and once again the topic of foreskin came up. Will could hardly believe that americans get"1/2 their willies snipped off at birth" or that we had never seen the "shield"..as he put it. He didn't seem to be very shy, so we started trying to convince him to let us have a look. It took about an hour of talking about it, the NHOI boys asking lots of questions about it, and about 4 shots of rum...but finally right before he left, Will decided to pull it out. Even though I'm sure they were curious, the NHOI guys all covered their eyes(too weird to sit there and study another boys stuff)...but we all got a good look. The first words out of my mouth were "OHHHH...that's what it looks like".... So now we are no longer ignorant about the foreskin...thanks to Will...he'll have the honor of always being SDS's first!
Now the ever popular list of cool tour moments:
-stayed awake for almost 30 hours traveling from Dallas to London. Had to trek across London...train, tube, and bus with our bags and guitars and cymbals and snare drum. Thanks so much to Ross for helping...especially since he had stitches in his groin. youch.
-hung in london for a couple days before Koochin, our driver picked us up for our first show. Found out the Kooch was driving his first tour (oh jesus) so we quickly learned how to navigate the London map.
-drove to Exeter with no time to spare...great venue (the cavern), great people, and a great show to kick off the tour with. thanks to Pippa for the food, David for the muscles and Jake for putting up with our myspace addiction! A famous English comedian named Richard Herring was at the show...we don't know who he is, but we have friends that are jealous that he was there.
-made our way to Yeovil...we've played here before, and were pretty sure it would be a good show. And it was...all the bands were cool, and we got to hang out with our friends from California, Never Heard Of It...again everyone was awesome...we had a mosh pit, and Sarah got her faced licked by a cute little English boy during First Kiss. Ha.
-Drove back to London...MORE NAVIGATING...ARRRGH. No sleep and weird cheese sandwiches. Now we're off to our show at Underworld with NHOI again. Should be fun!!!
