Pittsburgh: After we loaded in, the booker came in and said "Well, this is just a cursed night." The doors weren't even open yet. So, that wasn't a good sign. It turned out bands kept canceling, and some other shit was keeping Pittsburgh folks otherwise occupied. So we expected the worse. But it was far from it. We met a cool little band called Frame To The Floor who had opened the show. They're a new band. They had a real, honest feeling to them. They only played for about eight people, and yet they didn't seem to mind. They gave it everything they had, and we not only respected that, we also related to it. They sounded like an updated Cap'n Jazz. Fun to hear that kind of stuff. Nice guys, too. We played, and we had some folks turn out for the show, and also had some folks come in from the bar area. That's the two-sidedness of being in a loud band: On the one side, you tend to drive people out of the room. On the other hand, people in completely different rooms (like a separate lounge) can hear you (even though they can't usually hear the bands in there), and they might decide they like it. Well, anyways, it was a fun show. We played an encore. We sold some merch. We met some nice folks. Incredible show? No. Cursed? Hardly.

Baltimore: Sometimes you tell yourself (and anyone who listens), "Don't get your hopes up." Or, "keep your expectations in check." With the exception of Iowa City, those were very important credos this tour. Chicago has become such an immensely great place for us to play, that it's easy to think about the next show there and figure it will kick ass. That's what we were thinking this tour, and Chicago was just OK. I thought Denver was going to be like the last time if not better. It wasn't. "Keep those expectations in check." But come on, how can you keep your expectations in check when you know at the end of the tour you'll be playing the Talking Head Club (have always wanted to play there) with Rosetta, and a bunch of other bands who, from quick visits to their MySpace pages, seem to be pretty rad? This was one of those shows where we let ourselves give in and say, "Man, I think that show is going to rule." Did it rule? No. Did Rosetta rule? Yeah. Actually, all the bands did. But the crowd just didn't seem to dig us all that much. I think it was a case of us being a little too straight up rock/punk, and not enough giant walls of ambient noise, or extended cacaphonous passages. I don't know. It was fun. But I should have kept my expectations in check.

Asbury: We played Asbury Lanes. Love that place. It's Goes Cube's second time playing. We definitely want to play there again, but next time we don't want to play first, and we want to actually work with the venue on the date. In this case, we emailed them because we didn't want a night off, and they said sure we can put you first on punk night. It was a fun show, we played well, and some folks really liked us, actually. My wife was there (which was my favorite part), and so was Kenny's girlfriend (sadly, Matt's wife was out of town due to a loss in the family, though she had planned on being there, too). Seeing as how it was our first time seeing the ladies in nearly a month, we thought it would be best to get home rather than hang out at Asbury Lanes. We explained this to the bands upfront, before we played so they didn't think we were blowing them off. They were cool about it. Hope they had great shows.

Connecticut: So I wake up home for the first time in three weeks only to get right back in the van to play a show with Suicide Dolls in New London, CT. After enduring the worst traffic of the tour, we finally go up there. The Oasis is a very cool room with a very weird stage. The Suicide Dolls played a spirited set, which clearly pleased their fans (and they have a lot). They've got a very 90s alternative sound with a heavy dose of Sonic Youth to them (yes, I know SY were part of the 90s alternative scene, but they also were earlier than that). They are great people, too. Always working hard to set up a good show. We played after them, and I think it was a fairly good show. Good crowd, good set, decent sound. It was a nice strong finish to our out of town shows. But we were all eager to get back home. And we were excited for our homecoming show the next night at Union Hall in Brooklyn...

that's coming up next.