Day 1 – Sunday 3/23, Trash Bar

After a weekend of resting up, rehearsing and writing, we got ready to leave New Jersey and take to the road. Unfortunately, our pilgrimage to the Millburn deli was stymied by Easter Sunday, and so we had to grab a bagel instead of infamous sandwiches. We jammed a bit more and put our gear in Charlie’s van. After another bitchin’ meal, we hit the road through the most industrial-gnarly area of Jersey, through the Lincoln tunnel, and out in the blinking afternoon sun of Manhattan. After a few wrong turns, we made our way over to Annie’s apartment in Gramercy and dropped off our personal effects. After a quick cup of coffee, we saddled up and rolled out to TRASH BAR, in a more rundown area of Brooklyn.

The Bar was super cool, with the concert space tucked into a room in the back with old hardwood floors, an open bar, and a dingy old stage that looked straight out of the late 70’s punk scene. The band before us "Fall Back Plan" ran their soundcheck and put the PA through its paces. They were real good – professional, and huge sounding (they’re in Boston today filming a TV special). We hung out with their guitarist and singer for a while before it was time for them to take the stage, a polished set – I was especially impressed by the precise lock in the rhythm section - check ’em out.

After a quick line check, we kicked off our set with a new addition "The King and The Queen," which was the beginning of what would prove a loud, energetic, but sloppy show. We had a great time, with an especially strong version of 21st century schizoid man, and the best "Sally Looks Like God" we’ve ever done. The soundman was super cool and recorded a really great-sounding mix of the show (though the bastard made me pay for it). We had an exceptionally low draw, but our buddy Lucas came out, and someone we don’t know paid to see us too – mystery audience member, we love you. After the show, we went back to Annie’s place, hung out, snacked, and played this cool bootleg classic Nintendo system for a while before watching half of Animal house and passing out.

Day 2 – Monday 3/24, Great Scott

Today begins the haul to Boston. We had to get up at 7 to put the van in a garage because of Manhattan’s parking rules (it cost $17 the fuckers). We grabbed a few more hours of sleep before grabbing some grub and hitting the road again.

Got to our bassist’s brother, Mike Freundlich, apartment around 5 or something; it was a beautiful day, like 50 degrees. We ate Indian food – not too spicy, but not bland; I’d say the lamb was a 5.3 on a scale of 0-2p. After some acoustic noodling on some of Mike’s guitars, we made our way to the venue to unload around 7. Great Scott is cool rock venue – large room with nice curtains, a solid PA and a decently priced bar.

The Pleasureboaters came on first. They showed up about two hours late and played for 20 minutes. Shirtless and pathetically out of shape, their drummer bawled eccentrically while frantically laying down some solid drums for the hardcore indie noise. The guitarist/vocalist was a screamer – but really talented, though strangely tempered. His antics were certainly questionable – muttering the name of the band and where they were from several times ("We’re the Pleasureboaters from Seattle……Washington") and once mentioning that he "fucking hates playing guitar." However, all that aside, they played a great show. People were digging on the creativity and culmination of the trio.

Next were Jungle Love and the Animal Crackers, a band made up of Berkeley students. They were tight, funky and professional in their delivery of mostly blues styles. Everyone in the band impressed me; the sound was essential and spot on throughout the show. This is one of the best bar bands I have seen. They played for about an hour and it flew.

We came on around 11 and played to about 15 or 20 people. We opened with "Sally Looks Like God" and followed by a classic Dead Jettsons set. We ended up playing a song we wrote a few days ago by our bassist, and it went over really well. This show was a lot less sloppy than our show in Brooklyn, with a few extra songs, including a cover of Aeroplane. As we always do, we got better, louder, funkier, smoother and tighter as the show went on, and when we closed with 21st century into The King and The Queen it was fucking killer. We all wished we were able to have gotten an instant live from this show because it was so tight, but I get the feeling we are getting tighter ever show we play, so we can get one in a few days and it will be alright. After the show, we sampled the local produce at Mike’s friend’s house. It was of acceptable quality… so we went to sleep peacefully shortly thereafter at Mike’s place.