BON SAVANTS

Thom - so, here we are, as a very responsible band, making another entry, on time, here in Minneapolis, at the 400 Club. Um… we don’t know what’s going to happen tonight…
(laugh)
Dave - does anyone know where I can get a Samosa and coffee?
T - Dave, good luck, man.
Brian - You’ll never find something like that.
Craig - soft spot for girls named after flowers.
T - who knows what tonight will bring, who knows…But, uh, reflect if we can, for a moment, not on the future, which will be our show in Minneapolis tonight, but on the past. Which was *last* night, in Chicago.
B - Jam.
D - Jam.
T - So how’d Chicago go for everyone.
C - Second time at Schuba’s.
T - we love playing Schuba’s, man, it’s a really cool club, really awesome people.
C - One of my favorite places to hang out for a while before the show. Schuba’s seems to be allright for that.
T - One of the better green rooms.
B - Delicious food.
T - yeah. Although I hear the green room at the Aquarium is really good too, I’m looking forward to seeing that!
D - Though I have to say, I was a little disappointed in my cheeseburger.
B - Really?
T - What?
D - the bun was crusty.
T - wait, are we still talking about cheeseburgers?
D - the bun was really crusty, and, um, hard, and so I actually went across the street and had a taco. Which I later puked.
(laugh)
T - that’s right, yes. Cutting ahead, if we will. Uh, it was a late night. What time did everyone get to sleep last night? I think actually I got to sleep at like, 5:30.
B - six.
T - You were up later than the rest of us (to Craig). You were up talking and hanging out for a while longer.
B - nah, he fell asleep.
C - I don’t have… I definitely lost it at the practice space.
B - he fell asleep the moment we got in there.
T - no, that’s not true.
B - yeah, he fell asleep on the chair.
D - yeah, he got right to the recliner, I remember that
T - what? No, I came out and you were talking to Angela, remember?
C - does anyone else have any information I should have?
T - well, anyhow, we ended up staying with our awesome pals in Sybris (www.sybrismusic.com) with uh, Sean and his roommate Dave at their place.
B - well we have to go over the practice space.
T - well, I’m backing up to there. That’s where we slept, but then before then… I’m backing that up. I’m backing it up.
A - back that shit up.
T - Ohh, no swear words. This is a blog, this is the world wide web.
B - the internet.
A - are you serious?
C - You can’t swear online.
T - I just made that up.
B - No swearing on the internet.
T - don’t fuck up, you’ll get ambushed, zipped in.
A - You know what, fuuuuck you.
T - Oh that’s not right. Um… so yeah, we went to Sybris’ rehearsal space and… jammed. Actually, honestly I didn’t do much jamming. I wasn’t feeling the jam. But, Dave jammed a lot. Andy was jammin’
A - I got to play guitar.
T - Craig jammed, quite a bit.
B - And Brian got to do experimental DJ techniques.
T - that’s right, that was awesome..
(un-attributed burp)
T - Especially when you were, like, you were rocking the Star Wars.
C - were you using filters or reverb or something?
B - Nah, that was the Hammer Flavor.
T - there was some later on.
B - But early on that was just me. It just, it got so magical. Seemed like there was reverb.
T - so it was us, and um… all of Sybris were there?
A - Yeah, everybody showed up.
C - and some other people too.
T - yeah, and then another group of folks came in. They were the late crowd. The were actually the 4 am, Continental just shut down, like they came in then.
D - I don’t remember those people.
C - I remember this girl, she was a really great bass player
D - Oh yeah, that’s right.
T- The 2nd round, yeah.
D - she was awesome.
C - I don’t know who she is at all though
T - it’s funny, cause I was playing bass at the time, and just starting to have fun, and then she walked in and someone was like, “Oh you should play!”. And she’s like , “Oh, no, I play stand up bass, I couldn’t… okay gimme, gimme the bass.” I was like, allright, I’ll give you the bass.
B - yeah, I don’t think she put it down after that.
T - Yeah, I never got it back again, so…
C - I tried to play drums for like 2 minutes.
T - But that was a lot of fun. We were at the club earlier, and Shawn was just like “Oh, we should totally go back to our rehearsal place and have a jam”. I haven’t done that in years, so it was really, it was really a lot of fun. Um, the show. How’d the show go? We played with, um, Love of Diagrams, really awesome folks, just got signed to Matador.
C - yup
T - … doing cool things.
B - what was the other band?
T - um, Submarine Races. Actually, honestly I was downstairs warming up, I didn’t catch them, did anybody catch any of the set?
C - Yeah, I really liked them.
T - well I guess one of the guys was in, what band? The Ponys. I wanted to see them but didn’t.
C - he had a cool thing going on with his guitar, or am I confusing shit?
B - Oh I remember them, yeah they were, they were good, they were a good band.
T - Yeah it was a good night at Schuba’s, and um, always fun to play there.
C - I like that place quite a bit.
T - yeah, they take good care of their…
C - ‘Cause we spent hours hanging out, and I frankly wasn’t bored.
T - Yeah, we got there early.
C - watched Chapelle show for a bit
B - yeah that was great
D - (in voice of Chapelle show intro) “Chapelle Show, oww.”
T - Moving forward again to the next morning, it was a rough morning. A good time was had by all the night before, but yeah, it was a, it was kindof a tough one. We had to get back… left our stuff at the club, were supposed to get there by 10:30. Which Andy did, the rest of us were like, an hour late. Kindof put us late here, to Minneapolis.
C - Yeah, and Dave scored that sweet headband.
T - Oh yeah.
B - Jesus headband.
T - Yeah, and if you wear the headband we realized in the van that you immediately, uh, evangelize, the wearer of the band.
B - and tacks appear.
D - Yeah, the thumbtacks.
T - there is a rogue thumbtack in the Bon SaVan right now, and so if at some point later we’re talking about somebody having a terrible infection that resulted from a thumbtack injury…
C - it’s Dave Wessel’s fault.
T - .. it all comes back from today. Alright, so anything more to say? It was a great night. Hanging out with Sybris.
C - It was a good night.
B - couldn’t have been better.
T - Um, any parting word?
D - Parting, what, words?
T - Yeah. The word.
B - that was it.
D - word. Yeah, I dunno. Partying words?
T - Partying, alright. Andy.
A - drunk.
B - Sloppy drunken mess of fools.
C - Monica.
B - I have a feeling I know what Craig’s parting word is going to be. New, female, every single night.
C - Yeah.
D - We’ll see what happens tomorrow….
T - and I’ll call it, Challenging.
D - …in Minneapolis
T - alright. Bon Savants. Out.

03/03/07 - Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Club
03/04/07 - Fargo, SD @ The Aquarium

(recorded in the band room at the Aquarium nightclub, Fargo ND)

Thom - So, um…
Brian - Bushmills is going to get it’s money’s worth from advertising with Bon Savants”
T - “Well, if we keep talking about it
Craig - we should come up with a code word
T - The B-mill?
C - the bush kills
B - “BM”, Bon Savants, only…
T - BM?
(laughing)
B - … Bon Savants only drink BM.
(laugh)
B - After a good show, only one thing touches the lips of the Bon Savants.
T - A good BM. Allright, we’re off to a great start.
B - Minneapolis.
T - Alright. Alright. So here we are in Fargo, and um, it’s about an hour before our set here, but let’s reflect, if we can, for a moment on the past, say 24 hours. Played Minneapolis last night at the 400 Bar…
B - Home of Prince.
T - Home of Prince. Eh, who else is Minneapolis home of?
C - Bob Dylan is from Minnesota
Dave - Duluth
C - Yeah, he’s a Duluther.
T - Oh really…we haven’t been there have we, we didn’t pass it on the way?
C - Nah…
T - A Duluther?
B - A Dulutheran
T - Dulutheran…
(laugh)
T - Home of the Delorean, oddly enough.
C - Eh, what else does Minnesota have?
B - Husker Du.
C - I was born there.
T - Yeah, Craig was born in Minnesota. Minnesoter.
B - Black Francis!
T - What? Really?
D - Isn’t he from… he’s from around here?
T - Charles Thompson.
B - No, we call him Black Francis.
T - Well, yeah, in Boston…
B - And Minneapolis.
C - Oh… Lily. I was in love with her.
D - Oh yeah, Lily.
T - Who’s Lily?
D - The door gal.
T - Oh. Hi Lily. You were nice… to Craig.
(laugh)
T - Alright, so we played the 400 Bar last night, and how’d that go?
C - It was good.
T - I think we had a great performance last night.
B - Last night, finally felt like…
D - As I heard someone say, the best version of, Between the Moon
T - … and the Ocean. Yeah, it was a really good one. Although, we say this kindof at our peril, ‘cause once I read somebody else’s blog, it was after the Paradise show last year, and somebody was like, I dunno randomly came across it, and they were like (in voice of anonymous blogger), “Yeah, Bon Savants played last night, it was good, and of course they said it was their best show ever, but they *always* say that.” Which is totally not true! You know, like when we have good shows we acknowledge it, when they suck, you know we…
C - that guy should just feel lucky that he’s seen all the best shows of the Bon Savants.
T - Yeah, right.
B - He says it like it’s a bad thing.
T - He’s on a fucking roll.
B - yeah.
T - right. “Bon Savants always say that.” Which pisses me off because it’s obviously someone I know.
D - Current mood: Filthy.
(laugh)
T - yeah, the dressing room here, dressing room band room here at um… what’s the name of the place?
B - The Aquarium.
T - Right, the aquarium here in Fargo. Super nice folks though.
D - For sure.
T - they ordered us a pizza, they hooked us up with beer.
D - I like this club. What is it… Dempsey’s upstairs.
T - Yeah. But back to last night, it was a good show.
B - what was the name of the bartender? John? John was amazing to us…
T - Yeah, John and Nick.
D - it was just an awesome club.
T - yeah, good people there. Steve Seel, from uh, the Current came out, and so it was cool to see Steve. Um, talked about South By (SXSW),
C - I didn’t see him there.
T - Oh, didn’t you? Yeah, I think he just talked to Andy and me for a while.
Andy - it was really funny, ‘cause we had the exact same conversation with Steve. He was like, “So what you been up to?”. Uhh… drinking Black Bush, doin’ this and that ….
T - BM.
C - Pounding BM.
(laugh)
A - And then he found Thom, and I’m like, oh, let’s go talk to Thom. And like, Thom starts up with the exact same thing that I talked about.
T - Well…
D - Who was this?
T - Steve Seel, the guy who um… when we did, uh, the Current.
B - He really thinks we’re…
T - Uh, let’s see. So last night was the first night we stayed in a Motel. Super 8?
A/B - Super 8.
T - I dunno, actually,
B - and it got a little hot in there, I must say.
T - don’t you think the “Super” is a bit of, uh, an exaggeration? It’s like, uh…
D - there was nothing Super about it.
T - It’s like a “Modest 8”.
B - I don’t even think there’s any 8
T - like a Barely 8.
B - what makes an 8?
D - the only thing super about it was the…
A - Denny’s
D - the super carbs in the breakfast
T - yeah, there were lots of carbs
B - and the super heat. I was sweating my ass off.
T - Yeah, I never get up at night, but I got up like 6 times for water
D - we’ll leave the light on for you
C - I also was in love with the housekeeper
D - what’s the girl from Bottle Rocket, what’s her name?
B - we should mention, we should mention that Craig is in love with someone in every town
C - I am so easy to win over.
B - See
C - I am working on falling in love everywhere we go.
B - even as we blog.
C - hey baby, you want some BM?
D - I got a fresh bottle of BM.
(laugh)
T - uh, it’s worth at least mentioning that today, the Bon Savants, we had our first like tour “discussion time”. You know, and I think the result is that, you know, we’re all, a little bit of a release.
B - Oh, you mean argument?
T - well yeah, but…
B - explosion
T - no, happy fun discussion time.
B - where everyone freaked out. It was amazing.
C - a veritable “explosion”
T - but, uh, you know, as usual, everything’s better than… better than ever with the old BS.
B - I think what happened was it spilled over into the other truck driver, and everything…
T - Oh yeah
B - it kindof left us and seeped into them
T - there was a lot of um, aggression in the parking lot today.

(about 1 minute of bland conversation about a fight that almost happened between a plow operator and a truck driver in the parking lot… it turned out fine and anticlimactic)

T - alright, we’re reaching our 5 minute limit I think, so um, I need a sort of… so Minneapolis was cool. It was great, I mean, uh, the club was fun, cool people, Super 8. Big drive up here today, lot’s of flat, snowy land, just exactly how you might imagine Minnesota being in the winter.
C - Yeah.
T - good weather though. Sunny. Bon Savants, god continues to shine a little sunshine our way (note: god does not shine sunshine Bon Savants way)
D - For dinner I had a samosa and a cup of coffee
T - oh yesterday?
D -yeah.
C - A mimosa?
T - Alright, so…
D - a samosa
T - Everyone gets one parting word to describe Minneapolis last night. Starting with you, Craig.
C - not starting with me, clearly we have to go counter-clockwise. I’m just panicking now.
T - Okay, starting with Dave. One word.
D - Purple.
T - Okay.
A - Denny’s.
B - Elegance
C - Lily.
(pause)
B - took too long.
T - I know, uh…
C - Cut!
T - I will describe last night as being….
B - futuristic
T - A….
B - bysmal
T - Azimuth. That’s my word for last night. Azimuth.
B - Bismuth.
T - It doesn’t mean anything.
B - you’re going to have fun transcribing
T - yeah…

03/06/07 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
03/07/07 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge

March 8, 2007
Frigid Plains, Twisty Slides, and Bon Savants Live at Mount Rushmore

Have you every transcribed a conversation? Probably not, unless you’ve been a journalism intern, or a Nixon enthusiast. It’s a pain in the ass. Or rather ears. It takes about 10 minutes of transcribing per minute of talking to get it right. We’ll do more of it later though.

One of the best parts of traveling is the diverse scenery. We drove from Denver to Salt Lake City through the heart of the Rockies yesterday, which was easily the most scenic drive of this tour. The only thing that compared on the last tour was the trip up the Pacific coast through the Redwoods. The only problem is that when you drive for 11+ hours, even the most stunning mountains lose some luster. Craig put it well, comparing it to an all-day Discover Channel show about big rocks. Too much of a good thing. Though I’ll certainly take the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada’s that are out the window right now vs. that drive from Fargo to Denver.

Denver was great. Does thin air make people friendlier? Some sort of hypoxic euphoria, maybe. Best food of the tour as well. Sputnik, next to Hi-Dive, serves up some seriously delicious foods, vegetarian and otherwise. We’re new enough that it’s still surprising to see people singing along during the set, especially our first time in town, so that was nice too. Craig fell in love again, but we had to split the city kindof early to stay with a friend of mine that night. Sorry buddy.

Back it up.

We stayed in Rapid City, SD on an off-night on Tuesday. The hotel had a 3-story water slide. You know how fun water slides are usually? Ride in a van for 13 hours first, then ride the slide, and you’ll know why we were frolicking like king penguins for about 2 hours. Note: the rule about going down a twisty slide feet-first might just be for your own good.

The next day, on the trip to Denver (are you with me on the time flow here? Back and forth) we left early so we’d have time to see Mount Rushmore. Everyone says it’s smaller than they expected. It was smaller than I expected. But still pretty big.

The park has a decent sized performance stage, with lights and a soundsystem right at the base of the mountain below the faces. As it came into view we joked that we should record a live DVD there. I shortly gave in to my natural affinity for such things and stepped over a yellow chain to walk down to the stage area. It took about 44 seconds for a Park Ranger to take notice and come have a talk with me. I found out later that when the others saw him coming, Brian joked that he must be the booking agent for the stage. Well, he was, and he and I talked about our respective occupations and he extended an invitation for us to come perform at Mt. Rushmore, perhaps for the big July 3 celebration.

wtf

So we exchanged information, I told him I’d have our booking agent contact him, and the band continued to Denver, completely amazed and bemused that a ridiculous joke took a turn towards reality. I really can’t even imagine what it would be like to play for a crowd of families and bikers (Sturgis is nearby) for Independence day, but I hope to report on it sometime this summer.

Salt Lake was… odd.

We had to kill some time before the staff let us in to the Urban Lounge, so we did what came naturally for a touring band… headed to a bar on the corner. We played some pool, Dave watched the Pacers get beat by the Jazz, and Craig bummed a smoke to a guy who claimed he used to play in Fugazi. Once in the club the bartender had something of an ornery streak, though only towards Andy.

Andy - “Do bands get any drink specials?”
Ornery Bartender - “Huh? No, we don’t give away alcohol.”
A - “Okay. Do you give any discounts?”
OB - “Hmph. You get 2 Coors Lights and half-price drafts or well drinks.”
A - “So Coors Light is free?”
OB - “Yep.”

When we were setting up before our set (the only show of the tour where we didn’t get a sound check), a girl walked up to the stage, stuck a straw in my beer, and sucked down about a third of it.

Thom - “Um, that’s my beer.”
Straw Girl - “But it’s my straw.”
T - “Oh.”

Other observations:

Gas station market sign in Provo, Utah:
“Pop - Treats - Worms”
Sounds like music therapy treatment for a malady picked up in the Amazon. “I’m afraid this is a very bad case of ringworm, young man. You’ll have to listen to Erasure for at least 8 hours to see if that doesn’t clear things up.”

Grand Junction, Colorado has a lot of culture for a small town. Dozens of interesting decent sculptures downtown, and a Russian Impressionism exhibit at the town museum. Go figure. We had lunch there yesterday.

8 hours is a really short drive.

03/09/07 - San Francisco, CA @ Café du Nord

California. Lovely. Our incredible fortune with the weather kept up and we rolled into San Francisco on a sunny, 72 degree day. The rest of the band spent the day in the city, lounging in parks and visiting friends. I was in Sacramento spending time with family from my mother’s side. I only see them every 3 years or so, but we get along great and it’s always emotionally invigorating to make the connection.

Café du Nord is a really fine club. Menomena were late coming down from Portland which meant we had decent time to sound check and get used to the stage. The Panda Band opened up the night, one of the best acts we’ve shared a stage with on this tour and also not afraid to swig some whiskey with us before and after their set. The show sold out a while back, and it was full by the time we played a pretty solid set. We all dig Menomena, and as a former Oregonian I have some friends-of-friends connections with them.

Is this interesting?

We had to park the van on the street in the city, and as we pulled up to our destination a couple friendly ladies approached the van and asked what we were all up to. Then a police car drove by and firmly asked the girls to move along. That convinced me it would be a good night to sleep in the loft in the back of the van to keep an eye on our livelihood. Not that I would know what to do if anyone tried to break in or steal the trailer. I suppose I’d just come busting out of the van and hope that the surprise of seeing a skinny disheveled guy with geeky glasses would stun them long enough to give me time to plan my next move.

Right before I fell asleep I found out that Brad Delp of the band Boston died that day. Bummer.

03/10/07 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

Improbably, everyone woke up and regrouped by 8 am for the drive to LA. Delicious breakfast at a friendly café got things off to a positive start. The last 20 hours in San Francisco were of superb quality, the kind of experience that motivates a conversation among the band about moving there if we could afford such a thing.

The drive down I-5 from Sacramento to LA is among the most boring stretches of road in the country. There are a few fruit stands and some orchards, but other than that it’s all eternal power lines and fields that roll like they don’t really mean it. The cows seem happy though.

Our friend Laura offered the use of her home for showering and food before heading to the club. Thanks Laura!

There was a line around the block in both directions at the Echo, which was kindof surprising considering how much great music was happening in LA that night. Menomena has a lot of, well…. Shouldn’t there be a word better than “buzz” to describe what happens to a band as a broad fanbase begins to take notice? I hate that word. But they have it, and good for them. They’ve been making great music for a few years now and deserve to benefit.

As is often that case for the main support slot, we didn’t have a sound check this night. Which, dear reader, really really sucks junk, but it’s just how the pre-show prep time works out. We have no clue what it’s going to sound like to the audience or ourselves when we hit those first notes. This doesn’t matter so much for bands that crank it to 10 all the time, but that’s not our deal. We all felt like we performed well, but some audience reports from those who’ve seen us before said it sounded odd, which is very frustrating for us.

Someone said the actress from Felicity was there, but I wouldn’t have known.

Los Angeles - Spaceland - Sunday, March 11

Weird Bon Savants coincidence of the day.

I met up with our friend and licensing agent Marcy Bulkeley at Amoeba Music around 2 pm. We went around the corner to get some coffee until about 3. I didn’t have a car, and didn’t even know where the rest of the band was at that point, so I called Craig. Turns out he and Andy just got to Amoeba. And as I was talking to him, Dave walked in the door too.

None of this was planned. We all just ended up at the same place in Los Angeles at the same time. Not mind blowing, but pretty weird.

The Spaceland show was early, 9pm sharp. Everyone was pretty fatigued from the past couple nights, but as usual once the set started everyone’s energy level spiked and we had a great time.

The third band looked really familiar to me, and when we talked for a while after their set I realized we’d met in Boston about a month ago at Great Scott. They’re called Asteroid 4, from Philly, and they rock the spacey jams like early Dandy Warhols or Teenage Fanclub. Great stuff. Check ‘em out soon.

None of us are ready to leave the West Coast yet, but SXSW beckons, with Tucson on the way. We’ll be back out here very soon.

03/14/07 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/15/07 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/16/07 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/17/07 - Austin, TX @ SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival, March 14 - 18

There’s too much to write about these four days, here’s a few highlights:
- This was the best 4 days of music-fun that any of us have had
- If you dig rock and haven’t been, go. Even if you don’t drop all the dime for a festival pass there are so many open access shows you’ll still have a great time and see a ton of bands you love. It’s like Mardi Gras for music fans.
- Last Day of SXSW + St. Patrick’s Day = hazy memories
- We played a showcase for our booking agent and most excellent friend Kevin French of Big Shot (www.bigshottouring.com) on Friday 3/16 at midnight. Great turnout, well received, lots of contact information traded hands afterwards. A very good night for us.
- Our accommodations were also top-notch. Ask any of the Savants for a personal recommendation.
- Our base of operations turned out to be the Fader Lounge put on by our friends at Fader Magazine / Cornerstone / Tripwire. Thanks for putting on a great party, y’all. Free drinks and shows by The Good the Bad and the Queen, Sloan, Redman… and about 30 more I can’t remember. Damn all those free drinks.
- Somehow we ended up at the Purevolume Party at the end of pretty much every night. Probably had something to do with the free drinks there too.
- Bouncers and other club employees are much more friendly in Austin than pretty much anywhere else we’ve been. A bouncer at the Purevolume party even let Craig finish a drink before he asked him to leave for hopping a fence to get in. Craig then went around to the front door and got in like a gentleman.

Favorite SXSW Shows:

Craig: Annuals, Sybris, Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos, Junior Senior, The Good the Bad & The Queen

Brian: Blonde Redhead

Andy: Sybris, Peter Bjorn & John, The Besnard Lakes

Dave: Junior Senior, Lil’ Cap’n Travis, The Ponys

Thom: Junior Senior, Richard Swift

Typical Bon Savants’ moment on a long drive.

Setting: A gas station / buffet restaurant in the town of Iowa, LA

Brian, grinning: “Hey Thom, smell that alligator head.”

03/21/07 - Washington, DC @ The Red and the Black

On the road from DC to Pittsburgh…

Birthdays. I’ve always been suspicious of bands that announce a member’s birthday on stage. Is it true, or a cheap ploy to fish for applause? Say you have 5 members in a band, and that the birthdays are randomly distributed through the year.* This means that the likelihood that on any given day it’s one member’s birthday is 5 divided by 365. So the odds are 1 in 73 that one band has a birthday on a given night, and if there are 3 bands, you’re looking at about 1 in 25 odds that someone on stage has a birthday the night that you go watch them. If you go to 25 shows a year, a couple per month, one of those 75 bands is likely to have one birthday.

Yet last night there were 2 birthdays on stage, and one was mine. So happy birthday to me.

We had a day off in DC, which we used to sleep in, see some museums, do laundry, watch baseball on TV, etc. It was good to play music again after 4 days off - we hadn’t played since Friday in Austin.

With the excuse of my birthday last night turned pretty rowdy, first at the Red and the Black where we played, then across town to the strip of bars near our gracious hosts (thanks Pat & Beckah!). Things got a bit weird when a bartender we met offered her home as a place to continue the party, let us in and gave us beer, and then promptly left us alone in her apartment only to have her roommate wake up to find us poring over his record collection, wearing his crazy clothes that were hanging in the hall, wrestling in the living room, and trying to figure out how to run their sewing machines.

So we got kicked out of there (the girl never returned), got some huge slices of grease disguised as pizza, and called it a night. You meet a lot of interesting people on tour, most of whom you never see again.

The “only on tour” moment of the day happened at a gas stop in southern Pennsylvania where one good idea led to another and everyone in the band was spontaneously standing around a park bench flossing their teeth as locals tried not to look too quizzical on their way in and out of the quick mart. Mmm, clean teeth.

Short drive to Pittsburgh today, less than 6 hours. Nice.

-Thom