2007 archives
8/10/2007 – Charlotte to Columbia Columbia on my birthday. We have been fearing this for weeks. To give you an idea of what happens to us in Columbia, I will include an excerpt from my last Columbia tour log: —————— [5/20/2007] All of the friends we made at our first Columbia show were back to [...]
8/9/2007 – Wilmington to Charlotte I wake up in a mysterious female’s bed (mysterious female being gone, obviously) with a giiiiiaaaant headache. I wander out into the living room to find a bunch of greasy homeless looking people who happen to be my tour mates. After a good bathe and a trip to Bojangles, we [...]
8/8/2007 – Raleigh to Wilmington We are looking forward to our second leg of the summer tour. We’ve already played more than 25 states, driven through 39… so this is more of a replay for us, with bigger crowds, larger $$ guarantees, and a couple of new cities in the mix. All of us are [...]
6/10/07 – Chicago to Raleigh We wake up in time to go explore the city a bit. We basically tried to see and experience all of the cliché Chicago things we could.. Wrigley Stadium, beer, deep-dish pizza, the “train” (NOT the subway apparently). On the way back towards the venue, we accidentally took the wrong [...]
6/9/07 – Wichita to Chicago We arrived in Chicago early in the afternoon. Amos and Zack were still mostly nonfunctional, but BJ was absolutely giddy by this point. Chicago is one of his favorite cities, and we landed this gig last-minute (on the phone at Burger King somewhere in Idaho if I recall correctly), so [...]
6/8/2007 – Denver to Wichita I can’t say we were TOO excited about playing in Kansas. Nothing against the state, but we just weren’t expecting much of a show compared to the bigger cities/more populated states we had played in. On the plus side, we had heard that our venue, Kirby’s, was the premier venue [...]
6/7/2007 – Salt Lake City to Denver We woke up 3 hours later than intended. No surprise there. We packed up our stuff in a hurry and headed east. Another long drive ahead. We were originally going to take the slightly longer scenic route through the Rockies, but had to cut it short (down to [...]
6/6/2007 – Boise to Salt Lake City We woke up after a short late-night nap in the hotel, and soon set out to find a bite to eat. We immediately realized that we truly were in the middle of nowhere. Besides this hotel, a Subway, an Arby’s, and a gas station, there was absolutely nothing [...]
6/5/2007 – Seattle to Boise The drive from Seattle to Boise was one of the most beautiful and bizarre routes I have ever witnessed. Our route extended eastward through Washington toward Spokane, then south, back through Oregon for a second, then into Idaho. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Washington terrain – western [...]
6/4/2007 – Portland to Seattle So it felt great arriving in the northwest, but I had forgotten how much Seattle dominates any part of this region. Or.. well, I actually didn’t know for sure, since I had never really been anywhere besides Seattle, but I had a feeling it was the case. The city was [...]
Hey people. You thought the emails were no more? You are sadly mistaken. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but I’m writing from a coffee shop in downtown Portland, Oregon. I flew in from Raleigh today. I spent about five days at home, and I wanted to make sure that everyone is [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/25/2007 – Little Rock We had a photoshoot scheduled in LR at 2:00 this afternoon. Thank god we came up the night before, because we still came close to oversleeping. Much better than oversleeping and waking up 6 hours away. [...]
5/29/2007 – From Austin. Hey people. At this point I would usually have a new batch of stories for you but I’m a bit behind on my writing. I have since been to Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, and now Austin. All have been absolutely great. This morning, both BJ’s dad AND my dad had [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/24/2007 – Knoxville to Starkville to Little Rock We all had agreed to wake up at 10am to get a head start to Starkville. Once again, we completely disregard the alarms we set and sleep in until 12. I steal [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/23/2007 – Asheville to Knoxville Tour has been successful thus far, but there is one little problem we collectively have (besides alcoholism) – sleeping in. Every night we plan our moderately early wake-up time, then immediately disregard it and sleep [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/22/2007 – FREE DAY at Lake Norman/Asheville We all woke up rested for once! This is a rarity.. we usually get away with 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I think I slept in later than anyone, because I woke [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/21/2007 – Columbia to Raleigh to Charlotte to Lake Norman So, you remember that van exchange that was supposed to have happened right about now? It ended up falling through. To complicate matters further, we had to give back the [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/20/2007 – Birmingham to Columbia The 20th was supposed to be our day off, but Columbia loved us so much that Due East put together a show for us at The Whig, the downtown bar we went to after our [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/19/2007 – Tallahassee to Birmingham For the first time ever, mapquest treats us well! We make it to Birmingham with no problem. Our ride was lovely. We stopped in a Wal-Mart in rural Alabama, so I could pick up some [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/18/2007 – Atlanta to Tallahassee I wake up aching on the fratter loveseat the morning after the Atlanta show. We say goodbyes to our hosts, and head to Florida. Mapquest messes up AGAIN. After a few small delays we [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/17/2007 – Columbia to Atlanta So we wake up a bit stiff and tingly after a night sleeping on hardwood. Bill thought he had lost an arm at one point. We get our junk together, I say my goodbyes [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] 5/16/2007 – Wilmington to Columbia We eventually hit the road to Columbia. Bella Festa recorded the entire Wilmington show, so we listened to that on the ride. As predicted, set 1 sounded collected, set 2 was a bit messy. It [...]
[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the current views of Helena.] Greetings from Tallahassee! I’m sitting here in a coffee shop called “Fat Sandwich” with BJ and Chris. The others went to find a bar to loosen up after the drive, I suppose. After blogging every detail of my travels, I’ve [...]
Hello people! For those of you that are unfamiliar with my habit of excessive writing when I travel, this is the first of many, many emails you will be receiving for the next month. If you missed the memo, I am traveling with American Aquarium, an alt-country band out of Raleigh (very Wilco/Whiskeytown/Counting Crows/Cash/Springsteenesque, if [...]
