Friday, May 20, 2005
spain rulz! today i was laying by the pool and as I reached for my water, i thought "this would be much nicer with a slice of lemon". so i got up, walked to the edge of the garden where I found the lemon tree and picked one. problem solved! (it was a good lemon too!)
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
here's a quick run down of what we've done since returning to our current homebase of London...
we've been to a few shows... the highlight being Motion City Soundtrack. We'd played with them in Chicago a few years back... before they were "big time". It's really cool to see a good band grow from playing a decent show at Fireside Bowl, to selling out 2 shows in LONDON! They were great...I don't think I have jumped at a show since never, but MCS got both Sarah and I bouncing. I think we were also a little extra excited to see friends from home, and we unexpectedly ran into a guy we know from years ago in Oklahoma. OK REPRESENT! A band called The Maple State from Manchester also played...very good, check em out. After the show we continued our London scenester lifestyle by meeting up with some locals and talking our way into The Dragon Bar...after they stopped letting people in. Got to go in thru the back door.
It turned out our friend Andy from Oklahoma is playing in a band too (Firescape), we went to see them a few nights later... and then sped off the same night to see Ariel-X, a london band that we played with at SXSW. We also caught an encore show of Chixdiggit when they came to London... they are such a good live show and they returned our makeup to us, that we left in Rotterdam. Other than shows, we've been wandering around London, checking out bars and clubs.. including one called The End that was too hip even for us...Kelly Osbourne was there.
We tried to go to Westminster Cathedral, but it was closed, we went to Shakespear's Globe Theater and saw The Tempest and we had a great night, staying in and making chicken enchiladas, homemade salsa, and Corona...aawww, a little bit of home.
Now we are in a youth hostel in Malaga, Spain....we get to be tourists, or beach bums is more like it, for a week. Then it's back to work...if you could call it that.
we've been to a few shows... the highlight being Motion City Soundtrack. We'd played with them in Chicago a few years back... before they were "big time". It's really cool to see a good band grow from playing a decent show at Fireside Bowl, to selling out 2 shows in LONDON! They were great...I don't think I have jumped at a show since never, but MCS got both Sarah and I bouncing. I think we were also a little extra excited to see friends from home, and we unexpectedly ran into a guy we know from years ago in Oklahoma. OK REPRESENT! A band called The Maple State from Manchester also played...very good, check em out. After the show we continued our London scenester lifestyle by meeting up with some locals and talking our way into The Dragon Bar...after they stopped letting people in. Got to go in thru the back door.
It turned out our friend Andy from Oklahoma is playing in a band too (Firescape), we went to see them a few nights later... and then sped off the same night to see Ariel-X, a london band that we played with at SXSW. We also caught an encore show of Chixdiggit when they came to London... they are such a good live show and they returned our makeup to us, that we left in Rotterdam. Other than shows, we've been wandering around London, checking out bars and clubs.. including one called The End that was too hip even for us...Kelly Osbourne was there.
We tried to go to Westminster Cathedral, but it was closed, we went to Shakespear's Globe Theater and saw The Tempest and we had a great night, staying in and making chicken enchiladas, homemade salsa, and Corona...aawww, a little bit of home.
Now we are in a youth hostel in Malaga, Spain....we get to be tourists, or beach bums is more like it, for a week. Then it's back to work...if you could call it that.
Monday, May 09, 2005
We made it through the Switzerland/Holland mini-tour. I was so stressed out about it beforehand, but it ended up being alot of fun, we didn't wreck the rental(good thing too...cuz we didn't pay for any extra insurance other than the mandatory stuff) and we met a lot of really cool people.
We took the ferry from england to holland...about a 5-hour boat ride. Pretty boring after the first 15 minutes, but there was a cinema on board, so we paid £5 each to watch Robots. When we finally got to Rotterdam, we caved in and paid for a cab ride to the Hertz rental car place. We weren't exactly sure where it was, plus we had guitars, cymbals, merch and bags...which got pretty heavy after awhile. We rented the car...they tried to give us a Ford Ka(tiny vehicle that we would not have fit in), but after they saw how much stuff we had, we got the Ford Fiesta(a party of a car)..which is what we'd reserved in the first place. We fit everything in, and took off...not able to read the street signs, but at least red still means stop and green means go
We drove to Koln, Germany, where it turned out a friend of some friends lives. We tried our hardest to get ahold of him so we'd have a free place to stay...even met a nice German man who let us use his phone(ours is out of minutes...must top-off soon)...but couldn't and since it was getting late, we drove out of the city and found a cool, very efficient hotel to sleep at. Everything was automated..we never spoke to anyone. We all got a bed, watched some German tv and got clean showers for €42.
The next morning we got up and continued the drive to Switzerland. The autobahn was pretty rad...we were going about 100 mph(I think the Fiesta maxed out at about 110), and we still had cars zooming by. At one point a Ferarri came out of nowhere, felt like a jet when it passed us, then disappeared. It was crazy.
Finally after being stuck in traffic forever, we made it to Winterthur, Switzerland for the first show. Speedbuggy(from the states) and The Lulabelles(Holland) were already there and loading in. The show ended up being alot of fun, even though there weren't a ton of people. The Lulabelles are really great, and everyone should check them out. That night we stayed in some Swiss Army barracks...it was this big empty building full of beds and gun racks. Apparently the army hardly ever stays there(just there 2 weeks a year for reserves or something)...so it's mostly used to house bands. It was creepy and we all managed to scare ourselves in the bathroom.
Next morning we got up and continued on to Oberageri....a tiny little village outside Zurich. After driving around the Swiss Alps for awhile, we found it....but not without making a few U-turns and trying to remember our highschool German to read the street signs. We made it to the club, loaded in, and then were treated to a traditional Swiss dinner of potatoes and sausage...it was awesome!! We also had this really good soup...I can't remember what it's called, but it was green and our hosts had gone out that morning for a hike and picked the herbs fresh in the forest....maggie and i think it may have been moss out of a creek. regardless it was yummy. The show was fun...we played two sets...can't remember the last time we did that. Christina broke some hearts with "Kitty" and got to try absynthe, Maggie broke some hearts by telling some boys "du kinder" when they tried to get her digits, and swear to god, Andre the Giant was our soundguy. He somehow managed to make the little practice amp i was playing through sound decent.
Our last show in Switzerland was Basel. Another great show....although navigating through Basel completely sucked. Christina almost exploded from the stress. We played with The Lulabelles again and slept in the club...which I'm pretty sure was haunted. It was over 700 years old. Everyone was really nice and we got to use some more of our bad German. Christina got smashed, and had to stagger up 3 flights of steep stairs carrying her bass...she got two hours of sleep, and the next morning when it was time to leave, she was still drunk. Normally this would have been ok...other than the scent of whiskey filling the car...except that she and I were the drivers(maggie's not great at a stick shift, and wasn't on the rental). This meant i had to drive the entire way back to rotterdam on my own! Ahhhh...the life of a rockstar!
The last show of the tour was Squash Fest in Rotterdam, Holland. It was great. The club was really big, with 3 different rooms and a ton of bands playing. We got to see Chixdiggit, Hot Hot Heat, The Fever and lots more. To be honest, I was more interested in watching the other bands than playing. It was a cool time, and I was super-stoked to see Chixdiggit. I've liked them for a long time, but had never seen them live. The drunken Dutch boys got a little out of control during their set and we left the show with bruised knees from being shoved into the stage.
All in all, it was a great tour....and we even got to see Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on the ferry ride home.
We took the ferry from england to holland...about a 5-hour boat ride. Pretty boring after the first 15 minutes, but there was a cinema on board, so we paid £5 each to watch Robots. When we finally got to Rotterdam, we caved in and paid for a cab ride to the Hertz rental car place. We weren't exactly sure where it was, plus we had guitars, cymbals, merch and bags...which got pretty heavy after awhile. We rented the car...they tried to give us a Ford Ka(tiny vehicle that we would not have fit in), but after they saw how much stuff we had, we got the Ford Fiesta(a party of a car)..which is what we'd reserved in the first place. We fit everything in, and took off...not able to read the street signs, but at least red still means stop and green means go
We drove to Koln, Germany, where it turned out a friend of some friends lives. We tried our hardest to get ahold of him so we'd have a free place to stay...even met a nice German man who let us use his phone(ours is out of minutes...must top-off soon)...but couldn't and since it was getting late, we drove out of the city and found a cool, very efficient hotel to sleep at. Everything was automated..we never spoke to anyone. We all got a bed, watched some German tv and got clean showers for €42.
The next morning we got up and continued the drive to Switzerland. The autobahn was pretty rad...we were going about 100 mph(I think the Fiesta maxed out at about 110), and we still had cars zooming by. At one point a Ferarri came out of nowhere, felt like a jet when it passed us, then disappeared. It was crazy.
Finally after being stuck in traffic forever, we made it to Winterthur, Switzerland for the first show. Speedbuggy(from the states) and The Lulabelles(Holland) were already there and loading in. The show ended up being alot of fun, even though there weren't a ton of people. The Lulabelles are really great, and everyone should check them out. That night we stayed in some Swiss Army barracks...it was this big empty building full of beds and gun racks. Apparently the army hardly ever stays there(just there 2 weeks a year for reserves or something)...so it's mostly used to house bands. It was creepy and we all managed to scare ourselves in the bathroom.
Next morning we got up and continued on to Oberageri....a tiny little village outside Zurich. After driving around the Swiss Alps for awhile, we found it....but not without making a few U-turns and trying to remember our highschool German to read the street signs. We made it to the club, loaded in, and then were treated to a traditional Swiss dinner of potatoes and sausage...it was awesome!! We also had this really good soup...I can't remember what it's called, but it was green and our hosts had gone out that morning for a hike and picked the herbs fresh in the forest....maggie and i think it may have been moss out of a creek. regardless it was yummy. The show was fun...we played two sets...can't remember the last time we did that. Christina broke some hearts with "Kitty" and got to try absynthe, Maggie broke some hearts by telling some boys "du kinder" when they tried to get her digits, and swear to god, Andre the Giant was our soundguy. He somehow managed to make the little practice amp i was playing through sound decent.
Our last show in Switzerland was Basel. Another great show....although navigating through Basel completely sucked. Christina almost exploded from the stress. We played with The Lulabelles again and slept in the club...which I'm pretty sure was haunted. It was over 700 years old. Everyone was really nice and we got to use some more of our bad German. Christina got smashed, and had to stagger up 3 flights of steep stairs carrying her bass...she got two hours of sleep, and the next morning when it was time to leave, she was still drunk. Normally this would have been ok...other than the scent of whiskey filling the car...except that she and I were the drivers(maggie's not great at a stick shift, and wasn't on the rental). This meant i had to drive the entire way back to rotterdam on my own! Ahhhh...the life of a rockstar!
The last show of the tour was Squash Fest in Rotterdam, Holland. It was great. The club was really big, with 3 different rooms and a ton of bands playing. We got to see Chixdiggit, Hot Hot Heat, The Fever and lots more. To be honest, I was more interested in watching the other bands than playing. It was a cool time, and I was super-stoked to see Chixdiggit. I've liked them for a long time, but had never seen them live. The drunken Dutch boys got a little out of control during their set and we left the show with bruised knees from being shoved into the stage.
All in all, it was a great tour....and we even got to see Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on the ferry ride home.
Friday, May 06, 2005
we've been driving ourselves around germany and switzerland for the past few days...it's very surreal. the shows have been fun...we'll write more when we're back home in london.
