Alot has happened since the last post, so its going to be a big one!
We departed Kirby's and headed to the Muse which was located on the outskirts of Nashville. Its actually located right next door to the World's largest adult bookstore haha. We got there and immediately felt out of place because it was a total metal venue, and the last time I checked we are not a metal band. But this other band called the Woolly Mamas played before us, and they totally rocked, so our faith was restored. One cool thing about the venue was that it had a webcam, so you could watch the whole show live on the internet. Thanks to everyone who tuned in!
The next day we headed to the Sonic drive in. We've all seen the commercials on TV but have never actually seen one in person, so we were all pretty stoked to see what the deal was. We wolfed down our burgers, and a strenous workout routine soon followed in the Sonic parking lot. After Sonic, we played a game of mini golf. G Scott won, by a landslide. We tried to sneak in and play another round on the Castle course (we had just finished the Lighthouse course), when we were stopped by some tall southern dude in a Nike hat, with a walkie talkie in one hand, and a putter in the other. Heres basically how the dialogue went:
Man: "What you boys doing?"
Band: "Were playing another game..."
Man: "Did you pay for it?"
Band: "No..."
Man:"Well if you didn't pay, finish the eighteenth hole and leave"
Dave: (Angry)"Do you really care?"
Man: (Taken aback) "Yes I do, now finish up and leave."
Dave proceeded to finish the 18th hole and got a hole in one, which meant that he got a free popcorn. Who's laughing now?
After the mini golf we headed over to the go-carts, and the Nike hat guy kept a watchful eye on our every move. Once the race began we took no prisoners on the go cart course, and it was every man for himself. I was swerving around a turn when all of sudden I feel Kirby coming up from behind me, smashing into my cart, sparks flying every where. Switchblade Sam kept getting into accidents, and his cart would be totally turned in the opposite direction, staring at oncoming traffic. The 16 year old kid running the track, kept having to risk his life running out on the course to turn Sam around. At one point G Scott ran head on into Sam. Lets just say we took Go-Carting to the next level. When we finished with the go-carts we headed to a carnival, but after about 10 minutes we left, because we didn't feel like wasting our money.
The next day we set out to Indianapolis,Indiana. The venue was called the Vollrath Tavern, and it was located in one of the sketchiest neighborhoods I have ever seen. Behind the tavern was the Vollrath apartment complex, which seemed like the perfect setting for a meth lab. We were all pretty sketched out, thinking that it would be a bust. But we watched the opening bands play and, people began to filter in. We were the headlining band, and people seemed to have alot of respect for us, due to the fact that we were on tour, and from New York haha. It was like we were kind of a big deal.
Our merch girl Dora rejoined us, which was a great surprise. She actually sold $100 worth of merch which has been uheard of for us so far. We also got half of the money made at the door, which was $200, so we ended up leaving that night with our pockets full of cash, just enough to get us back to Tennessee. The show was great and people really seemed to enjoy our set. One lesson I've learned on this tour is, we never can really expect what each show will be like. We could be playing at the nicest venue, and no one will show up, or just a bar in a strange part of town and people will love us, its totally up in the air. When the show had finished we ended up staying at Dora's friend Charlotte's house, which was a beautiful home with big screen TV's and an in ground swimming pool. When we woke up Dora and Charlotte had made us breakfast, and we took a dip in the pool afterwards. We said our goodbyes to Charlotte and headed back to Tennessee. Thanks Charlotte for everything!
Driving away from Indiana, we experienced some trouble with the van, it apparently wasn't going out of 1st gear, so we pulled off into a gas station to check it out. Amazingly the gas station we stopped at was located right across the street from a Goodwill Outlet store. Now I've been to plenty of Goodwill's in my day, but never an outlet store, so I was extremely excited to check it out. What separated it from the average Goodwill was that the entire store was basically full of giant blue bins, filled with clothes and furniture, that you had to fish around in, no racks or hangers anywhere. It was basically every man for himself. I ended up finding a sick goofy sweatshirt, a sombrero, a vintage Iron Maiden bandana, and a lone ranger mask. I made out like a bandit! Another cool thing about the store was they weighed your purchase and it was a dollar a pound so I ended up only spending three bucks. We all found some cool stuff, but the van was still broken.
It was a Sunday, so no mechanics were open.G Scott and Jon, being the manly men that are went to work, to figure out the problem. While Dave,Sam, and I were sitting in the grass waiting for them to fix it, we found a metal rod, and made a game. The game is called Ultra Safe Fun Game, and basically what the rules are, is you have to throw the rod spinning in the air a couple hundred feet, and try to stick it in the ground. Thats it, and its tons of fun.
The problem ended up just being the oil needed to be changed, so we got back on the road.
We stopped at a steak n shake for dinner. We'd been seeing steak n shake billboards all along the highway advertising full meals for under $4, so we were itching to eat there. The meal was pretty good, and after we finished we blasted Motley Crue in the parking lot, and I did my 101 push ups, while Dave did his 101 sit ups. We got alot of strange looks as people passed through the drive-thru haha.
We hit the road back to Tennessee, and about 3/4's of the way there our van started making some noises, and as soon as we arrived in Nashville the warning light on the dash started blinking. Luckily we made it back safely to Kirby's house.
We woke up early the next morning at 10 (well early for us at least), and started helping Kirby build the studio. I got to do some painting, and lay down some flooring. It made me feel like a real man, like one of those dudes who hangs out at home depot on the weekend. I felt pretty proud. For dinner the guy who owns the studio bought us 6 or 7 boxes of Little Cesar's pizza. Now let me just say that I thought Little Cesar's had dropped off the face of the earth 10 years ago, but apparently they are still alive and well in the south, so I was real shocked/excited to eat that pizza. All the people from the studio were like "big deal it just little cesars," but to us east coasters it was a big deal.
After dinner it was back to work. One of the cool things about building stuff is you also get to destroy stuff, and I was given the opportunity to punch a hole in the wall, and I gladly took it. (Yeah it was as fun as it looks in the photo.) I also ended up punching a nail when I was installing some fiberglass insulation, which was not fun at all. (Don't worry mom I'm ok!) Let me just say that Fiberglass insulation sucks! I feel bad for the people who have to work with that stuff on a regular basis, I can still feel it all over my skin, after two showers.
Today we've been helping Kirby, me not so much, (I'm slacking trying to get this post up), and tonight we going to Martin's barbecue restaurant for some real Tennessee ribs!
We've got a show coming up in Kentucky, but we don't know if our van will be fixed in time to get us there, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
I leave you with some Motley Crue, enjoy!