Blog Day Afternoon

JUNE 16TH | The Middle East Upstairs w/ Seymore Saves The World, Hospital Bombers, and Daniel Oulette | Cambridge, MA

We rolled out of bed early to eat some breakfast and say goodbye to our lovely hostess, the Tomkos’ Aunt Donna (Uncle Chris had already headed off to work for the day).


It didn’t take us too long to get to Boston and make our way over to Cambridge, where I managed to catch a glimpse of the elusive Cosmic Moose…


The Middle East is a restaurant/bar/venue with an large downstairs stage and a more intimate (read: smaller) stage upstairs. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the enormous mural on the outside of the building…





We had to ask a cop who pulled up behind us outside whether or not we were okay to park in our spot since the signs were kind of confusing. He told us he was from a different department, but that “these guys are dicks, and they’ll probably ticket my cruiser if I leave it here too long.” Needless to say, we moved.


Kiley, Stephen and I wandered across the street to a little quirky collectibles boutique, where Stephen found another gem of a robot for his ever-growing collection. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Red Face Robot:






Red Face Robot wasn't sure if the Middle East was a robot-friendly venue...


RED FACE ROBOT: "Do you know if they serve robots here?"
SCOTT FROM SEYMORE SAVES THE WORLD: "Well, if they serve Minnesotans, my guess is they'll serve anybody..."




They were keeping it pretty frigid in the venue, so Stephen had to bundle up in one of our merch-tablecloths…


Daniel Oulette opened the show with a very unique set that I can try to describe as a baritone-voiced Morrisey singing to goth-midi-techno tracks in front of video projector art.


You know, why try to describe it when I can just show you…


Up next was a Dutch band called the Hospital Bombers whose sound landed somewhere between the throwback guitar pop of the Shout Out Louds to the classic roots rock of Tom Petty. Funny side note: They were headed to play Piano’s in NY the next night.





Speaking of the next night, this was the first of two nights that we would be playing with Seymore Saves The World. Tonight, however, they were without their bassist Shawn, who was in LA taping a performance for Carson Daly with his other band, Cloud Cult. His bandmates Scott and Nate picked up the slack quite well.









Our set went well, thanks in part to the Middle East’s awesome soundguy, Jeff. If only every soundguy out there was as cool…


After the show we decided that since we didn’t have anywhere to stay, we would just drive overnight to Philadelphia. I guess since I’m writing this, it’s obvious that we made it alive, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t come really close to having things go horribly wrong….

Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Blogging Footage

Here's a couple video omissions from last week...

Herbst sadly evokes a drunken Waits...


Some sweet dancing courtesies of the soccer players in Sweetwater's "Swing Time" virtual sports room...


Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Blog Eat Blog

JUNE 15TH | Piano’s w/ Le Rug, Scott Alexander | New York, NY

Kiley, Eric E., and I took the 9:00am train into Penn Station to meet up with some friends and see the city. Kiley and I wandered around Times Square for what seemed like hours until we met up with some friends in Soho (I think) for lunch.










Apparently you can buy crystal meth on the streets for $5 in NY.


They’re getting pretty creative with the makeup names nowadays.


Here’s a weird wall sculpture thingy of John McEnroe that we saw in the ESPN zone. It moved and everything. Eww.


We got to Piano’s at 5:00 for load-in.




The show got pushed back an hour and we didn’t play until midnight. Here’s what happens when we hang out with our friends at a bar for seven hours…


Good news is that they’re apparently pretty strict with their employees’ hygiene.


We played with a band called Le Rug…





You can read a review of our set at Venus Magazine’s website.

After an exhaustingly long day we headed back to Jersey for our last night at the Tomko’s aunt & uncle’s.

No 7 things. No Plaid O’ The Day®. And I’m retiring MVP Of The Day by awarding the Tomko’s Aunt Donna the award for the last three days. The woman did not rest until we had everything we could possibly need or want – you couldn’t ask for better hospitality at a five-star hotel. Aunt Donna... pssht, more like Saint Donna! Thanks Aunt Donna!


Cheers,
Steve | GAH