New Tour. New Crew. NEW DRUMS!

There’s something about having a camera around that just changes things. Is it rolling? What should I say? Do we need to talk at all? Is me reading The Dark Tower by Stephen King interesting enough to put on film, or should I look up from the book and make a face? Is this something that I want to have posted on the internet for all pre-robot-apocalyptic eternity? Should I censor myself, or should I be comfortable and confident enough to assume that everyone out there will appreciate my inane sense of humor and aggressive sarcasm? When Jonathan Chanin (aka – Jono, aka –(the) Chandog), one of my best and most-longtime friends, suggested joining us for our spring tour to be our videographer, none of those questions occurred to me. I only thought, “FUCK YEAH!” and brought the idea to the band and our manager and got consistently more excited to finally bring a tangible and important piece of home with me on the road.

Our initial drive from New York to our first show in Bellingham, WA has been filled with four days of adjustment and anticipation. Adjustment to the camera, anticipation of our first web-short post this weekend (coming via Spinner!). Adjustment to 12-hour drive days, anticipation of finally playing a show. Adjustment to a new member of our crew, and anticipation of meeting up with Doris out in Bellingham. And, for me, the nearly intolerable excitement and anticipation of having a spanking new C & C Custom drum kit waiting for me at the Wild Buffalo House of Music in Bellingham that I have yet to adjust to, let alone set eyes on. It’s just sitting there, in a box, in some damp dark music venue manager’s office, waiting to be tuned and summarily thumped.

We’ve never had a tour start like this…the furthest west we’ve had to drive was to Chicago to begin our first-ever tour with Fanfarlo in November of 2009. Right now this just feels like a thinly veiled road trip…an excuse to drive thousands of miles to eat at the glorious Bozeman Montana Community Food Co-op. But tomorrow the veil will be lifted and we’ll be meeting our tourmates, Foals, in one of the northwesternmost American cities, before heading into British Columbia to pick up The Naked and Famous. I sure do hope that they live up to the former part of their name.

3 Weeks Down, 1 To Go

In this episode, Doris celebrates being homeward bound and Kevin joins Tokyo Police Club. For the stat-keepers out there, it was only our third time in Portland because our performance on the tour with Cymbals Eat Guitars and Bear in Heaven there was canceled.

And here’s a bonus photo of us (minus Doris the photographer) doing a radio recording in Seattle on the deck at 107.7 The End. Pretty scenic, eh?

Guilt Will Keep Us In Touch

In Doris’ defense, it was far too hot in the van to do anything but sweat until we got into the cooler air of the Rockies. And, not to jinx it, but now that the A/C is fixed and the van’s running smoothly, we’re going to have to find something new to talk about in all of these tour journals…