Chris: I woke up early today and did some admin work for the band. It's been a nice, peaceful morning, and everybody's waking up bit by bit now. We're in Philadelphia, camped out in the home of Bert, one of Johnny Hats's friends from way, way back. Bert and his gracious roommates have put us up the last two nights, and as usual we're unable to express how grateful we are for such hospitality.
So this is it! The big east-coast tour we've been looking forward to. We started with our third visit to Terre Haute, a favorite stop of ours. Stef, Brendan and I did a performance on Live at 5 (NBC news) on Friday, where we got to perform in the kitchen set while the studio redesigned much of their set. I was pushing for Brendan to be demonstrating a nice Bolognese sauce while Stef and I played, but they didn't have the ingredients on hand. And studio lights make for nice photos:
So we've got something of a routine in Terre Haute, and we love it: do an appearance on WTWO (Hi, Patrick & Elysse!), eat a giant pizza at the Verve, play a show with
Cuba, party with Johnny Hats's friends and family at the show, crash at Jeff Edwards' house (Jeff, your hosting is excellent), wake up to some square donuts, and then hit George's Cafe for lunch before leaving town. So yeah, we can pretty much copy & paste that whole process from past tour blogs, but we found a groove and we love it.
That's right, square donuts. We can't help but call 'em Squonuts.
Then, onward! East! We had a long day of driving - about 11 hours to get to Philadelphia, where we've been camped out for 2 days. We walked around Philly yesterday for a bit, and did a lot of sitting around:
Last night we played at Puck, a hot little venue in the middle of Doylestown, PA. Doylestown ain't a huge place, and Puck isn't geographically very big, but it's a top-notch venue. Mike, our sound engineer for the night, was A+, and halfway through the soundcheck he asked us something no sound guy has ever asked us: "What do you want it to sound like? Old school? New school? etc etc" I mean - YES!! and mike had the gear and the know-how to really shape the sound for us. Before I could even get off the stage, he handed us a super-sweet recording of the show..which may turn up somewhere sooner or later.
We played well, even though there weren't many people there. It was another one of those nights where we won over most of the folks there, I think, but we sure hope there's a bigger audience next time we come back. We shared the stage with
Jackson Hightower, a funk/soul band from around these parts. The band was good, and their singer Danielle puts out some serious grit in a very, very good way. Afterward, we headed to the bassist, Michael's house for a late-night jam (not too late; both bands were done playing by 10:30!). Michael and his pup were great hosts.
Yeah, and it was Mothers' Day. Stef actually made little mention of the fact that this was her first Mothers' Day as an actual mom, but we dedicated "Before I Know Your Name" to all the mamas in the house.
At the moment, we're waking up, making coffee and breakfast, and getting ready to head to Williamsport for tonight's show. So.....more later!