Bloghorn Leghorn

JUNE 21ST | Mike N’ Molly’s w/ Sangamon, Curb Service, Todd Kessler | Champaign, IL

We did the ol’ rise and shine and took a trip down the road to our Dekalb favorite, the Hillside Café. With full bellies and a full tank of gas, we set out for our home-away-from-home, Champaign, IL.

After the short trip to CU, we bummed around our favorite establishments before making our way over to Mike N’ Molly’s, where we had only been once before – to see Jumbling Towers play.



We met the guys in Sangamon outside the gate of the outdoor patio, where we would be playing in a few hours. We loaded our gear to the side of the stage and enjoyed the beautiful weather while Sangamon set up and soundchecked.



The patio filled up quickly as the night went on, and the bands seemed to enjoy playing to the abundant yet attentive show-goers. Larry Gates (formerly of Lorenzo Goetz) put on an especially entertaining show with his one-man-band project, Curb Service, which brought to mind early Beck and Soul Coughing.

The audience was exuberantly receptive to our set, as every song garnered loud applause, and many audience members expressed their excitement after the show. Thanks Champaign, you consistently treat us so well.

Throughout the night, Stephen had been perfecting a sunglasses-wearing, hair-backslicking (coined?), sleazeball character that constantly offered to order people drinks. After we loaded up our gear, he unloaded the poses…



Afterwards we shacked up with our favorite newlyweds, Ryan and Jody. You guys rule.

Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Wade Bloggs

JUNE 20TH | The House Café w/ Joie De Vivre, Dragonfire Parade, You | Dekalb, IL

We made good time on the drive to Dekalb, so we had a little time to relax and hang out when we got there.


We had been to the House Café before, when we stayed in Dekalb back in March, but this was our first time playing the venue.





Since there were four bands playing, real estate for gear was limited, so we used the kitchen.



The drums got set up in the server station.




After the show, we headed back to our friend (and booking agent) Bojan’s house, where we got to meet his new dog, Ines, who was sporting the cutest/most hilarious cast on her leg.


We hung out and played some "Pain" on PS3 for a bit, before calling it quits and giving in to our fatigue.

And from "Pain"...

Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


Plaid O' The Day®:


Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Bloggy Bottom Boys

JUNE 19TH | High Five w/ Ruvane | Columbus, OH

After we caught up on sleep, we emerged from Ahmed's house and headed down by the OSU campus.




We hit up a cool little restaurant called The Blue Danube (aka The Dube), where a few of us really enjoyed the "Cobb" sandwich. Highly recommended. Then we headed over to a great record shop called Used Kids, where I think all of us bought at least something.

On the way to the record shop, I noticed a sandwich board advertising some falafel. Now, I love me some falafel (and I think I've eaten it at least five times so far this month), but this looked like a horror movie about falafel...


Kiley, Mike and I headed over to Shi Sha Lounge (Columbus's first hookah lounge & espresso bar!) to drink some iced chai (delicious) and use the wifi. The rest of the boys headed down the street to the local pub to shoot some pool. Hours later, it was time to get to the club for load-in. On the way there, we were driving beside this lady. We would get to a red light, and a few moments later, she would start to go - as if she was going to run the light - and then stop sharply. This happened at a few different stoplights. Maybe whoever she was talking to on her phone kept saying "Green light" or "You can go!" just to mess with her. Or, it was her Jaguar acting up...


The show was at a venue called The High Five, a pretty snazzy venue that actually had big floor-to-ceiling windows along the front of the room (a nice change of pace compared to the standard: no windows).







The show was sparsely attended, but still a lot of fun. You can read about our set over at Don't Just Do Something, Stand There.

Afterwards we followed my friend's brother-in-law Mike (who we stayed with on our last trip to Columbus - thanks Mike & Elise!) over to his new house, where we were welcomed by their two dogs, and then called it a night due to exhaustion and a long drive the next day.

Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


The Plaid O' The Day®:


Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Highly Il-Blogical, Captain

Ewww, two Star Trek title references? Really?

JUNE 18TH | Day Off | Drive from Philadelphia, PA to Columbus, OH

We awoke and got chased out of the HoJo by the housekeeping staff – they wanted to clean! We headed over to Franklin Trailers to pick up our trailer.


Though it cost us a pretty penny, the guys at Franklin really did a number on our battered box trailer. They fixed us up with a new axle…


A new fender (we only had one, on the other side)…


New wheel hubs and lug bolts on both wheels…


New leafsprings and ubolts…


A new lock for the latch on the back…


And they welded on entirely new beams for the front of the hitch. Essentially the only thing that isn’t new is the box itself – everything else, with the exception of wheels themselves, is brand new. Thanks Franklin Trailers!

So, we hit the road, headed to Columbus for our show the following night. Somewhere in Ohio, we stopped at a gas station where the attendants feed the local raccoon population and have been doing so for a little while. Apparently it keeps them out of the garbage.


This was a great opportunity for…

Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


And, The Plaid O’ The Day®:


We rolled into Columbus at 2:30am, welcomed by Ahmed from Sinkane, our Emergency Umbrella labelmate and host for the night. Moments later we were all asleep, and some of us were snoring.

Cheers,
Steve | GAH

"I'll Never Forgive Myself If We Don't Go All The Way Tonight"

So while I formulate some bloggage for the last couple days of the tour, I felt compelled to break up all the GAH-centric content with a little bit of universally mind-blowing video.

My coworker Bobby and I stumbled onto something today that shook us both to the core. Bobby had sent his friend a video of Celine Dion covering ACDC (which is pretty hard to watch, by the way), and she had replied telling him about another Celine Dion video that she had just happened to watch earlier that day - the video for "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" - which, she noted, reminded her of "the video where Meat Loaf looks like a Klingon". This would, of course, be the video for "I Would Do Anything For Love".

So we loaded up both videos on You Tube, and just out of sheer curiosity, we decided to play them simultaneously, with the Celine song muted. Whoa. We then watched them again, this time with Meat Loaf muted. Whoa again. We also managed to track down a version of the video with a running length of 7:39, (only two seconds longer than Meat Loaf's video), but we think there might actually be more crazy coinciding moments with the 6:00 version. I'm still posting the long version, though, for those of you who want to see them end at the same time.

Enjoy! I'd recommend muting Celine and listening to Meat Loaf for the full "whoa" factor. Also, notice the sweet Mark Wahlberg cameo in the police getup.

Meat Loaf

Celine

Celine's long version:


Now, I'm sure you're busy gathering all your brains that are inevitably strewn around your computer, but wait just a second, because it's about to get messier.

Check this shizz out.

Now feel free to mop up.

Cheers,
Steve | GAH

[EDIT: After a little research, I found out a couple things: 1. Though the two videos were done by different directors, both songs were actually written by Meat Loaf collaborator Jim Steinman. In fact, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" was originally supposed to be on Bat Out Of Hell II, but was left off in favor of "Anything For Love" with the intention of including it on BOOH III, which was released in 2006 - when the song got the Meat Loaf video redux. 2. In an even more bizarre twist, check out the random similarities (i.e. a huge house with arched doorways and windows, moonlight shining in through billowing white silk curtains, candles everywhere, etc.) in the video for "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", which also happens to be a Steinman penned song. I wonder what his house looks like...]

Ain't Too Proud To Blog

JUNE 17TH | M-Room w/ Seymore Saves The World, The Weather Underground, Padre Pio | Philadelphia, PA

We arrived in Philadelphia after an overnight drive from Boston, looking for somewhere to get some breakfast and take an early morning nap, but when we parked the van, we noticed something that kinda made us lose our appetites…




[NOTE: I’ll try to explain this as best I can without really knowing that much about it…] The bearings in the wheel hub had apparently stopped spinning, fused, and melted until the collar that they normally sit inside had fallen out altogether. At that point the wheel was just spinning loose on the axle, grinding away at all the working parts.

We decided to jack the trailer up to take the weight off of the wheel so we could determine how bad it was. Once it was elevated, we could literally pull the wheel right off the axle. Somehow by the grace of God it hadn’t fallen off on the highway, which would have been awful.

Mike, Stephen, and Ryan walked down the street to the Gulf service station, where the nice guys there helped us find the closest place to have the trailer serviced.


We found a place 30 miles away in Jersey that could repair the trailer in 24 hrs., but we needed to get it there, and there was no way we could risk pulling it in the condition it was in. So, we had to resort to our second tow of the tour…




With our trailer in someone else’s hands, and load-in still hours away, we had the day to kill. Priority: Cheesesteaks. Red Face Robot tagged along.



Afterwards we went second-hand shopping…



And then got some gelato…







It was a nice day to sit outside and enjoy the weather...





Finally it came time to head to the M-Room for load-in.



I especially liked the way they painted the hand dryers in the bathroom the same color as the walls. Nice.


Somehow Stephen still had plenty of energy. I was delirious. Oh, to be young again…


Over the last few shows I’ve found myself getting more and more into taking photos of the other bands. I’ve always been into photography, but of the mind that the world needs another photographer like it needs another world war, so I keep it strictly hobbyish. Anyway, I’ve been having fun with Kiley’s little point-and-click, and on this night in particular, I kind of got carried away…

Padre Pio






The Weather Underground







Seymore Saves The World (with Shawn, the bassist! Back from the Carson taping with Cloud Cult!)











Since we didn’t really know anyone in Philly, we hopped over the river to a Howard Johnson to stay the night, since it was closer to the trailer repair place. Stephen was finally tired, but still dedicated to his text conversations.


The Plaid O’ The Day®:


Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


Cheers,
Steve | GAH