The City Veins

In my roundup of last weekend I forgot to mention this World War II poster that Spencer and I saw in Norfolk at a vintage store. It seemed oddly ominous.

So, the “stupidest weekend” ended up not being all that bad.

Spencer and I left the District around 11:30. For most of the drive down, Spencer was obessed with finding an Arby’s. Unfortunately, every exit seemed to have a Hardee’s instead, which was odd considering that I was fairly sure that Hardee’s didn’t exist anymore. I just saw in Spencer’s facebook that he finally made it to one on the way home. Look how happy he is.

Spencer and I got down to Norfolk around 3:00 or so. We unloaded his drums, and then went walking around the area surrounding the club. We went to some old vintage stores,a coffee shop, and a metal/punk record store owned by a very nice older guy that looks like he could snap an kill you at any moment. He spent a lot of time badmouthing the club we were playing. Spencer and I went back to the venue, which is a nice white tablecloth restaurant by day and rock venue at night, and spent the next hour or so waiting for Aaron and Adam to show up, and trying not to get drunk. Aaron and Adam were stuck in traffic due to an accident/lost. When Aaron and Adam arrived the venue fed us a delicious meal of pasta and a fresh tomato sauce. Dinner was spent alternating between quoting Flight of the Conchords, and making fun of me because I am lactose intolerant. As a side note, I am in a band with a bunch of jerks.

The actual concert went really well. The venue was all ages, so there were a bunch of high-school kids there who stood up close to the stage and danced and had fun. It was pretty great, I almost jumped down and started dancing with the tambourine with them, but for some reason decided not to. Actually, mostly because I felt a little old, and didn’t want to be the creepy 27 year-old dancing with the high-school girls. Anyway, there was a really good energy in the room and I think that everyone in the band had a good time. Such a good time that we didn’t mind driving back to the District that night. Fortunately we left Norfolk at around 11:30 and got home around 2:40, which really isn’t that bad.

We left for New York at about 10:30 the next morning. Let me give you a tip for driving from the District to New York City. Avoid 95 altogether and take 270 to 15 north to 81 north to 78 east. It took us about 4.5-5 hours driving time to get into Manhattan. There were a couple of other bands from the District playing at Arlene’s that night, and they went up 95 and it took them at least 6.5 hours. Also, NO TOLLS!

So we got to New York and hung out for a bit. I bought a hat! It is pretty great and only cost me $15. Hopefully we will have pictures later. I can’t decide if it is a hat I should play in; maybe we will have an online poll later. I do know that my sister thinks that the hat is stupid.

The show in New York went well. The club sounded great, and there were a good amount of people there for 8:00 on a Saturday in New York. Our friend Matt from Lights Resolve joined us for “Don’t See It Coming.” The sound guy gave us a recording of the show, so hopefully a few of the songs might make their way here at some point. Arlene’s is a great venue, and we can’t wait to play it again.

After the show, we hung out at the club for a while, and met some cool people. Actually, there was a good feeling at the club. All the bands were talking with each other, and every seemed to be in a good mood. It was nice. Later, we left to go sleep at Matt’s house. We figured that after being forced to sing with us (I don’t think he was actually in the room when Aaron first called him to the stage), the least he could do was house us.

Aaron, Adam, and I woke up fairly early on Sunday and hit the road. The drive home was surprisingly uneventful. We got home around 3:30, unloaded the equipment, and went our separate ways. It was a long tiring weekend, but the gigs were good enough that I think everyone feels like the trip was worth it.

Also, Aaron bought a cheap digital camcorder for the trip, so hopefully we will have some really stupid footage from the road for you all later. The highlights are probably: “Charles buying a hat,” “Charles using profanity to explain how to pronounce Norfolk,” and “Aaron filming the road because he is an idiot.”

Alright, it looks like the free cd form is up and running again. If you requested a cd between August 22nd and August 28th we did not get your information, so please submit it again.

Tomorrow we start our first real road trip. In a particularly hilarious bit of scheduling we are playing in Norfolk at the Boot on Friday, and then on to New York and Arlene’s Grocery! I think this map I made illustrates the situation perfectly.

What actually happened was that we scheduled the Norfolk gig first, and then the opportunity in New York presented itself. Unfortunately for us, both gigs are good, quality gigs, so we couldn’t say no…

I just realized that Spencer has already written a post about this. Well, I am still going to post this one because I have superior visual aids! I win!

After this weekend, we will either all hate each other or be a stronger band (and maybe a bit of both). We’re heading a few hours south to play The Boot in Norfolk, VA on Friday and then up to New York City to play the venerable Arlene’s Grocery on Saturday, then back to DC on Sunday. For those without a map or globe handy, that’s a lot of freakin driving in just 3 days. We’ve done gigs a few hours away before, but not on consecutive nights with several hours in between. Let’s see how well we get along on Monday…