Aberdeen City tours behind The Freezing Atlantic, released August 8, 2006.
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Sep 13 - Lansing, MI - Temple Club
It is only fitting that we begin and end this tour in Michigan. Electric Six is from Michigan and they seem proud of that fact. We are from Boston. We hope they are proud of that too. Here is how we can be sure that this will be a good tour: During the end of Electric Six's set the people started dancing. And OH how they danced. The Temple Club was, in fact, a temple of some sort in the past. It's floor has seen many years of rites, prayers, and
sacrifices. When the dancing started, the floor sagged in response as it is tired and elastic. The funny thing about music and an old floor is that when hundreds of people bounce on it at the same time (known as 'dancing'), the weight on the floor at the precise moment of their landing (probably in time with the kick drum) is intensely
magnified. It started with swaying mic stands onstage followed by glasses and bottles smashing on the floor all over the club. By the end of the tune, the bouncers were wrestling with the loudspeakers by the stage, trying to keep them from falling off of their stands into the crowd. The floor was about to go and no one seemed to notice.
Conclusion: This tour, we're going to rock to the brink of tragedy.
--posted by Brad
Sep 14 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
Sep 15 - Buffalo, NY - Showplace Theater
Sep 16 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
This was a good one. The show was so sold out that they wouldn't even let the guy from Wolfmother in even though he and brad are kinda dating... and the crowd was badly behaved in a good way. We played a brand new song and the crowd cheered for it so loudly we thought about playing it again and then ending the set- instead we played our slowest song followed by some medium tempo numbers. The moral is that we are excited to keep figuring out how to write while on tour without writing songs about being on tour... or songs about any sort of travel. Also, last night may have started a trend of having members of Electric Six join us for "Mercy." That is until Dick Valentine ends up getting injured by a drumstick, tambourine, or electric guitar. Let's see them pushups now, Dick.
--posted by Ryan
Sep 17 - Northampton, MA - Pearl St
Sep 18 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell’s
Sep 19 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East Club
We woke up in NYC today for the second time this week and headed back to Boston in the morning to try to achieve a few tasks before the show.
THINGS TO DO IN BOSTON BEFORE THE SHOW:
+ drop Jim at the orange line
+ go to rehearsal space to pay 2 months of rent.
+ pick up Chris' non-working AC-30 at rehearsal space and bring it to
repair shop on Mass Ave.
+ Stop by the Virgin Megastore's closing sale to buy whorishly cheap
DVD's
+ go to Guitar Center to buy a clip and a D4 for the "floor tom of
doom" and a new guitar rack
+ find somewhere to shower
+ do a t shirt/merch count
THINGS TO DO IN BOSTON ON 2 DAYS OFF BEFORE LEAVING FOR 7 WEEKS
+ prepay 2 months of bills
+ laundry
+ repair/rewire pedalboard
+ buy vitamin C, duct tape, velcro, socks
+ cash a couple old checks
+ sleep
+ find my copy of Arrested Development Season 1
+ watch season premier of the office
+ find new health insurance provider
+ go to Cingular and find out why my phone doesn't work between 3PM and
5 PM every day
+ return borrowed DVD's to Nathan
+ service and clean the van
The show was great by the way. And it feels good to be home for a sec.
--posted by Ryan (photo by Beatrice Evangelista)
Sep 22 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
Aggro in Baltimore:
Who knew that the City of Baltimore is a big frat? Too many fist pumping white males in white hats. The show tonight was populated by a more-heavy-than-usual concentration of gorillas in Polo shirts waiting to hear Electric Six's 'Gay Bar.' Ironic? Don't misunderstand us, we LOVE 'Gay Bar.' It is a great song. But then again, none of us would throw a lit cigarette at the opening band.
Fuckers.
--posted by Brad
Sep 23 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
Last time we played at the Black Cat we were 6 hours late. This time we managed to show up for our sound check, which helps. The show was high energy and lots of people seemed to know our band. After the show, I spent some time trying to find the famous Ben's Chili Bowl (worth the wait) and then we all went to the afterparty at a place called the Rock & Roll Hotel which- ready for this- is not a hotel at all, but some sort of club. Wild! We eventually found it as it was closing- and after some confusion we were taken to the "presidential suite" which, again, was more like a room in a club than any sort of luxury hotel room- but I guess it stays open late and that was good news. Rob kept drinking the guy from VHS or BETA's whisky as the rest of us fought over a bottle of vodka. We dropped John and Chris from Electric Six off at a gas station that was supposedly near their hotel- but then we passed their hotel several miles later. We went to retrieve them on the side of the road, as day was breaking. Chris was wearing a Quiznos sign on his back. This morning at our hotel, we got harassed every few minutes by people trying to clean our room. "Please leave is alone! It's our day off!"
-- posted By Ryan
Sep 25 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Sitting at the merch booth it was hard NOT to notice a severed unicorn-donkey head staring out from the corner. Turns out it was actually saying "MURDER BY DEATH". Amazing. Now, why that wasn't the first group to come to mind is anyone's guess, as we have never encountered a group of people so taken by donkeys, unicorns, and severed heads simultaneously. They are a great band and great people as well. We were lucky enough to do a
handful of shows with them earlier this summer, but it feels as though it was years ago.
It is a reminder of how strange and fleeting touring can be. When you are on tour with another band, you see them every night for hours. You become each others' social network. Share strange, irreplaceable experiences. Watch each other get more and more tired looking. And then it ends.
Sometimes your paths never cross again. It is enough to make one feel like an alien and a slut.
--posted by Brad
Sep 26 - Atlanta, GA - The EARL
Sep 27 - St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre
Sep 28 - Miami, FL - Studio A
Sep 29 - Orlando, FL - The Social
Sep 30 - Tallahassee, FL - Beta Bar
As we descended into the deep south, The Swan shaved his hairy face into a handlebar mustachio which connects to his gorgeous mutton chops. We have long called this civil war era facial hair a lariat, though upon doing some research we feel this may be a misnomer. Please let us know if you have an appropriate term for this beard which circumvents the chin. Anyways, much in the same way as when you buy a really cool pair of shoes only to notice lots of people have them and maybe you're not as cool and original as you thought you were, we found other lariats at the last three shows (miami, orlando and tallahassee, FL). We hope to continue the streak tonight in Nashville. Texas also seems promising. We'll send photos soon, though we were so flustered in
Tallahassee we forgot to document. Hugs and Kisses. Feel free to send your own lariat (or whatever it's called) photos to band@aberdeenmusic.com.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 02 - Nashville, TN - Exit / IN
Oct 03 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
Oct 04 - New Orleans, LA - Parish @ HOB
Oct 05 - Houston, TX - Walter’s on Washington
Every day feels the same right now, but here are some things I learned
this week:
1. avoid Cracker Barrel miday on Sundays
2. Aberdeen City are clearly Cracker Barrel novices
3. Ruby Tuesdays has a very good salad bar
4. it's annoying to drive around Texas
5. Howard Johnson hotels are wildly inconsistent
6. New Orleans is still hurting
7. the 3rd season of The Office might be better than the 2nd
8. IHOP and Denny's menus are composed entirely of 2 eggs and pancakes
for $5.99.
9. Birmingham, AL loves itself some melancholy indie rock.
10. Sprint sounds better than Cingular but not as good as Verizon.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 06 - Denton, TX - Hailey’s
Oct 07 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
23 shows down, 23 to go. It sure was nice to be in Austin, TX last night. Unlike so many indistinguishable rock clubs, Emo's is one of those venues that actually feels like where it is; an indoor/outdoor venue with porto
potties, a barbecue stand in the back and tequila for the bands. Welcome to Austin. I think we played a good show last night, though it's getting harder to tell. Chris has whooping cough and an ear infection that disrupted his equilibrium, causing him to take a spill onto his guitar during the gig last night, bruising a few ribs in the process. Now when he coughs it hurts badly. I saw Nick Zinner walking down 6th Street before the show. He is a very slight man. Apparently the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were playing at Stubbs last night. I wonder what it would be like to be in the Yeah Yeah Yeah's? Probably a lot like being in Aberdeen City but with more comfort and less bass. By the way- you know how Priceline.com guarantees you a room but not the type of room? They're serious about
that.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
Oct 11 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah
We left San Diego early this morning for LA to do an acoustic session at
Sony before driving to Santa Ana for tonight's gig. It was the first of a
few early mornings we have this week, but completely worth it. We came up
with acoustic arrangements for a few songs and had a lot of fun tracking
them. I'm looking forward to hearing them. We'll let you know where they end
up.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 12 - Santa Ana, CA - Galaxy Theatre
Oct 13 - Los Angeles, CA - Key Club
Friday the 13th. LA is a very strange place to me. The weather never really
changes, the coffee shops have parking garages and there's traffic at noon.
The Key Club is like a stripper friendly version of the Bowery Ballroom on
Sunset Blvd. See above. The Blue Van kicked the lifeless LA crowd in their
pretty faces and had them in pieces by the end of their set. What a hard
band to follow. Our show went over as well. It sounded crystal clear on
stage for the first time since Orlando. It's really nice to play a whole
show and never think about how things sound. Apparently it rains so
infrequently in LA, the club's storage area for cases and extra gear is in
the alley behind the club. Unfortunately it rained last night for the first
time in months. After loading our wet gear into the van, I was looking
forward to kicking back in our greenroom and catching up with a few old
friends who were at the show that I hadn't seen yet. However, our
greenroom/trailer was locked/closed after the set, which meant our beer
was... well, locked. I fought through the hyped up crowd for a couple
minutes, looking for my friends to no avail. Eventually I gave up, paid full
price for a couple of whiskeys and watched Electric Six blow the roof off
the sold out room.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 14 - San Fran, CA - The Independent
We scattered last night after the show in San Francisco to hang with
friends. Late nights for all. We met at the van at 10 AM this
morning- all of us looking like we had been punched in both eyes- to
get ourselves to Portland to see our pals The Dresden Dolls play.
After a scenic 10 hour drive, we checked into the Jupiter Hotel, which
is attached to the venue we're playing at tomorrow night. It appears
to be an old motel that got a chic makeover, complete with art deco
fire-pits in the courtyard and fully loaded rooms with iPod speakers
and chalkboards. Thumbs up. The Dolls' show was stellar as always and
Amanda even plugged our show from the stage. She never misses on that
stuff. We had a great hang with them after the show and even caught up
with our friend Zoe Keating (see Rasputina, Imogen Heap, and amazing
solo material), whose sister works with the Dolls. We ate breakfast at
the restaurant downstairs and now is it 4:30am and time for bed.
Looking forward to exploring this city tomorrow before the gig.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 16 - Portland, OR - Douglas Fir Lounge
Last night was my/our first time in Vancouver and I'm already looking
forward to going back. This show was a highlight of the tour for me. The
crowd was great. Not in a rowdy, tear-the-speakers-down kind of a way,
but in a we-came-to-hear-music-so-let's-really-check-out-this-opening-band
kind of way. In these new cities where barely anyone's heard of us, we
need that kind of a crowd. Overall the shows on this tour have been
really good, but in certain places there's little interest in what we're
putting out there. On those nights we make a few fans, sell some merch
and that's that. I can't really say I blame the crowd either- people who
line up to see the Electric Six's quirky and unique brand of self aware
rock didn't necessarily sign up for our introverted variety. Last night
was one of those where the crowd was willing to suspend disbelief enough
to really let us in. We're sad to hear that Richard's on Richards will be
closing next year- it's one of the cooler rooms we've played. It's the
perfect size, the sound is pristine and the staff was great. Tough
business. We had a late night out with new friends, grabbed a few hours
of sleep and shipped off after finding the second misplaced passport in as
many days.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 17 - Vancouver, BC - Richard’s on Richards
Oct 18 - Seattle, WA - Neumo’s
Oct 20 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
Oct 21 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
Oct 23 - Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground
Oct 24 - Columbia, MO - Mojo’s
ALL SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY ALL SHOWS AND
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ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY ALL SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY
A DULL BOY ALL SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY ALL
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ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY ALL SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY
A DULL BOY ALL SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY ALL
SHOWS AND NO TIME OFF MAKES ABERDEEN CITY A DULL BOY
Oct 25 - Kansas City, MO - Record Bar
This is the point of the tour where we start to not remember where we were
last night. It's been 30-something shows and every night is great in it's
own way, but completely isolated. What will stand out about this show? The
Swan smashed through his kick drum during the second song of the set and
somehow it did not really affect the gig. The song came to a halt (never
a good thing) and I looked back to see him triumpahtly holding his drum
above his head. Also there was a guy in the front wearing biking shorts
and a tank top with the most amazing haircut you've ever seen who was
performing a spastic dance during the entire show. If we had gotten
footage of him doing this to one of our songs and posted it on YouTube I'm
certain we'd be the new Ok Go in a few short days.
--posted by Ryan
Oct 26 - Madison, WI - The Annex
Oct 27 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
Oct 28 - Milwaukee, WI - Mad Planet
Oct 29 - Louisville, KY - Headliners
Oct 31 - Chicago, IL - Double Door
Great place to spend Halloween - Highlights of the show:
*Swan's Michael Meyers costume
*Dick Valentine asking the crowd "How many of you thought Electrix Six
would be artier? Yeah Electric Six is pretty fucking mainstream."
* Allan from The Blue Van being mistaken for Brad by a couple of Brad's
friends.
* Singing Germans In Mexico with the E6.
* The naked guy
Nov 1 - Newport, KY - Southgate House
Nov 2 - Columbus, OH - Little Brother’s
Nov 3 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
Nov 4 - Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
The tour was officially 3 days/3 shows too long. Not to be dramatic, but
we were starting to come apart at the seams. "Nothing left in the tank,"
as Tyler would say, and we were all already home mentally. But this was a
great night. Once the enormous room filled with people and all three bands
made it into the green room, we realized how much we were going to miss
this tour. The shows were mostly really good - some much better than
others - but the people on this tour were just phenomenal. The goodbye's
were the hardest yet.
All three bands had a great show. The stage sounded amazing - like the
sound guys actually gave a shit- and the energy between the bands
translated into the gig. Steffen sang Pretty Pet with us, Tate played
Disco Dancer with us and everyone from all the bands was on stage during
Mercy. We returned the favor for Electric Six during Germans in Mexico.
And now we drive 12 hours towards our own beds and a couple weeks off.
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