Welcome to part two of Screamin Cyn Cyn and Pons Tour 2008: turned out way better than I expected, aka this broad has issues. For this edition, Shane will be adding his thoughts at the end of each city. I call this desperate bid for increased ad revenue "Constant Comment by Shane O'Neill" Enjoy! And support our sponsors.


Richmond/DC
Steve drove for a million years to Richmond. We went to the club to load in. We were listed as "The Screaming Cyn Cyns and the Ponds" with no other band in sight. It was looking a little grim, but such are Sunday nights. Nigel (the GPS man) led us to a shady hooker motel, so we snobbishly went elsewhere. We checked in and enjoyed TV and the pool and the shower and the treadmill. Shane watched Gossip Girl while he jogged. We went back to the club and were pumped to see another band loading in. Hooray! I told them we were really happy to see them, and was embarrassed when the guy I told it to took that to mean that we had heard of them and were excited to watch their performance. Oh well. Shane's sister and brother-in-law, Erin and Sonny, came. They currently live in Norfolk and are really nice and very supportive. We had a lovely salmon cake salad, and drank Red Stripe upon Red Stripe. The first band, Arms and Sleepers, set up and played. They were atmospheric and neat. They had a video projector and several computers, as well as not one but two melodicas. The runner of the show was unable to get more than one microphone to work, so we finally just told him it was fine and got started. It was a very Sunday night crowd. The other band, the employees of the club, Sonny and Erin, and maybe five other assorted people watched. Shane wore a lovely red outfit, with lots of silk and a Po (from the Teletubbies) costume headband. I dared him to go out to the bus stop during the tap-dance interlude in Fun. He one-upped my dare and ended up going outside and writing the word "fun" with his nipples on the outside glass. He looked like a Mardis Gras college girl gone wild, pressing his chest up against the glass. Sonny and Erin got up and danced and I got a little misty, thinking about how family support you even if maybe what you're doing is not always their cup of tea. Awwww. We met some really friendly college kids who bought CDs and told us a little about Richmond. As they pulled away, we could hear the first track off our album blaring, and it made me happy. We finished our final Red Stripes and went back to the hotel. We used some frighteningly rickety luggage racks to load into our room, then settled in to Die Hard and popcorn and beer. The next day, we drove to Williamsburg to meet my and Christian's aunt and uncle, whom we hadn't seen in some time. We met them at Ruby Tuesdays, and it's a comment on the touring life that the salad bar seemed like the best lunch ever. We also ate mini-hamburgers. Christian and I caught up with our relatives, showing each other pictures of grandchildren (them) and children (Christian's new baby boy, Bjorn). We said goodbye and headed up towards DC.

CONSTANT COMMENT by Shane O'Neill
The only thing more comforting and delicious than a warm mug of Lipton Tea is enjoying said cup with your sister and brother-in-law (who happen to be the best in the whole wide world. The rest of the world's sisters and brothers-in-laws: SUCK IT). Celebrate the moments of your life.

DC
This was a show set up by Guy, someone Shane and I went to Macalester with. He had the brilliant idea to pair our show with another house show just around the corner, rather than compete with it. He had just moved in and was still in the process of getting settled in. We loaded in and set off to find some food. It became clear that our choices included wings, pizza, wings, or getting a weave. We opted for pizza. After eating, we went over the part one of the show. It was a coop-type anarchist house. The show was a benefit for an organization that want to rid our society of prisons and police officers. There were delicious frosted brownies in the shape of dinosaurs. The band, Dirty Fist, was two girls from Gainesville named Chelsea. One played accordian, the other played the banjo and sang. Banjo Chelsea had a wonderful voice, distinctive and loud and impassioned. Everyone was crowded into the living room to watch them. I played "find that one poster where they talk about girls and boys," a sure find in any lefty-leaning coop-type house in America, from my experience. It was in the hall on the way upstairs. After the show, we went back to Guy's house to change and drink as much as possible in a few short minutes, since the first house was straight-edge. We were all set for people to trickle in, so we could start the show. Instead, nearly every single person showed up in a very nearly single-file fashion all at once, and took their places in the basement. A local band, Oreopo, played first. Nearly every person in the crowd was a girl, which was neat (in my opinion) and unusual (in fact). The crowd was incredibly responsive and good at following directions. Shane told them to stand up, and they did. Shane suggested that they might dance, and they did. The show was tons of fun. Me and Shane's college buddy, Lizz, showed up with her boyfriend Ilya. It was wonderful to see her, and we opened a bottle of champagne. They offered their house for sleeping, and we went over there. It was a huge house, in a fancy part of town, with lots of people living there. Jack the Ripper was on the TV when we got there, which was very creepy. Lizz showed us up to the roof, which was amazing. The fire-escape stairs were scary, but on top we could see a huge amount of DC and, to top it all off, there was a meteor shower occurring. I went to sleep in a vacant room. In the morning, we attempted to find 12th street and failed after about a half hour of walking. The neighborhood was fascinating to see. There were lots of nannies and gardeners and fancy cars parked here and there, and we got the distinct impression that very few of the actual residents were present, just those taking care of various aspects of their life while they worked. Nigel, our GPS voice, apparently doesn't care for DC because he failed to make much of an appearance when we called on him. We found a diner with the best music selection we've ever heard in a diner, and had some wonderful breakfast. Then we decided to be good tourists and go see DC stuff. We saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House (from afar-but close enough to see the snipers on top), and the Capitol. My verdict: Washington Monument is a bit shabby up close, but neat from afar. That big pool that connects the monument with the Lincoln Memorial that Jenny runs across in Forrest Gump: pretty nasty and green, and full of geese, one of my least favorite and most feared animals. Lincoln Memorial: awesome. Vietnam Memorial: not grand or over-the-top, but very affecting and a big spot for bikers. Capitol: stupid. Looks just like Madison's, but you have to wait in a long line to get a ticket to go in, which we didn't do. Also, landscaping outside makes it look like a slightly upscale Miami hotel. Cheesy. Seeing so many uniformed people with huge guns always puts me on edge. After whining like little children about how we were hot and thirsty and our legs hurt, and then realizing that complaining to each other was not going to result in a piggyback ride home, we walked back to Union Station to retrieve the van. We loaded up at Guy's house, said an inwardly-tearful goodbye, and set off for Baltimore.

CONSTANT COMMENT by Shane
I second Cynthia's observation: Crimethinc must be putting some anarchist through vegan freight-hopping not-college with all the money they must have raked in by selling that "For every girl tired of pretending to be weak there is a boy tired of acting strong when he feels vulnerable" poster to every single co-op and lefty collective in the nation. It's exciting and kind of comforting: seeing said poster is like a little alarm bell that reminds you not to talk about how much you love beef and shopping at Target and a good time to start quoting Noam Chomsky. I can't stress enough how wonderful this crowd in DC was: attentive, sweet, fun, and sexy. Acura: step into a legend.


I promise I will blog Baltimore and Philly soon. In the meantime, check out our pictures right here on our myspace page, under the album "Tour 2008." Captions by Shane O'Neill.