sooo...to our followers who read at late hours in the middle of the night...here's a good one for you
Van broke down/brakes gave out in the middle of east-bumfu*k ohio. and here we are...in the closest quality inn, in their only room...the honeymoon suit. 1 king sized bed. 1 jacuzzi. 4 guys and a girl. vindell has gone off the deep end.
No CAN DO. we're piling into the nympho-factory instead.
The man in the tow-truck and the man in the hotel looked like twin brothers. Little or no teeth and the ones they had were razor sharp. like fangs and the vampires that max is so viciously afraid of.
we're done for. if there was ever an end to vindell it is now.
parents and friends dont be alarmed, we're handling this like responsible adults.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
the hills of KY are alive...with the sound of Vindell
While we didn't want to leave Chicago, time forced it upon us and we spent allllllll of Monday driving to Knoxville, TN. Each one of us drove our fair share that day and when we finally arrived in Tennessee at 1:00 am we settled into our red roof inn room and slept a few hours until an early wake up call.
We had to be at WDVX at 10:30 am with a stop at the local music store to pick up a rented trumpet for me, while mine was being over-nighted from Missouri to Lexington, KY.
We got there with time to spare, and loaded into the coffee shop/knoxville welcome center/radio station stage (people in Tennessee really know how to make efficient use of space!) Playing for live radio with a live audience was definitely a new and interesting challenge. We had to sacrifice part of the excitement we put into our live show to play/sing more accurately (and by accurately I mean..perfectly) for live radio.
We had a blast and DJ Matt Morelock was great to us. Opening band "Big Country's Empty Bottle" showed us some true country/bluegrass Tennessee music. The DJ was great and we were well received and that's all we can ask for.
After lunch in downtown Knoxville (beautiful beautiful place with beautiful people, I highly suggest it) and making some friends with locals, we headed out of town towards Lexington, KY to stay with my friend Heidi for the night.
The drive to Lexington took quite some time, but it was BEAUTIFUL, we stopped on the side of the road to take some video footage and pictures. Here's Max, me and Corey in front of some beautiful mountains:
When we finally got to Heidi's (one of my best friends from college who I haven't seen in 8 months!) she and her mother had made us an AMAZING home cooked meal.
So so so grateful. Thank you Heidi and Leanne!!!
We spent the rest of the night hanging out, taking nice walks though Lexington, KY, getting our butts kicked by Heidi in Air Hockey and playing some music.
We all slept so well and now we're just resting until our drive up to Cincinnati for tonight's show. After the show we'll be trekking back to Pittsburgh for the night to sleep in our own beds!!
We're all extremely excited.
Here's a bit of the time in Tennessee... Heads up, I've rated this PG-13 for language and sexual comments....
We had to be at WDVX at 10:30 am with a stop at the local music store to pick up a rented trumpet for me, while mine was being over-nighted from Missouri to Lexington, KY.
We got there with time to spare, and loaded into the coffee shop/knoxville welcome center/radio station stage (people in Tennessee really know how to make efficient use of space!) Playing for live radio with a live audience was definitely a new and interesting challenge. We had to sacrifice part of the excitement we put into our live show to play/sing more accurately (and by accurately I mean..perfectly) for live radio.
We had a blast and DJ Matt Morelock was great to us. Opening band "Big Country's Empty Bottle" showed us some true country/bluegrass Tennessee music. The DJ was great and we were well received and that's all we can ask for.
After lunch in downtown Knoxville (beautiful beautiful place with beautiful people, I highly suggest it) and making some friends with locals, we headed out of town towards Lexington, KY to stay with my friend Heidi for the night.
The drive to Lexington took quite some time, but it was BEAUTIFUL, we stopped on the side of the road to take some video footage and pictures. Here's Max, me and Corey in front of some beautiful mountains:
When we finally got to Heidi's (one of my best friends from college who I haven't seen in 8 months!) she and her mother had made us an AMAZING home cooked meal.So so so grateful. Thank you Heidi and Leanne!!!
We spent the rest of the night hanging out, taking nice walks though Lexington, KY, getting our butts kicked by Heidi in Air Hockey and playing some music.
We all slept so well and now we're just resting until our drive up to Cincinnati for tonight's show. After the show we'll be trekking back to Pittsburgh for the night to sleep in our own beds!!
We're all extremely excited.
Here's a bit of the time in Tennessee... Heads up, I've rated this PG-13 for language and sexual comments....
Mizzou-fail.
Missouri was awesome!!!! We LOVED our show at Mojo's bar, and we loved hanging out with our host Jordan. here are some highlights!!!!
1. After playing the show in Columbia we went to one of the other band's houses for a bit of a party, it was some of the best jamming and live music I've heard in a LONG time by both our members and theirs
2. On my way to get the van in the morning, I stepped on a small sewer drain and my leg fell through up to my shorts. Sewage, dirt, and leaves COVERED my entire leg and I went into Jordan's and scrubbed my leg to avoid MRSA and any other ridiculous disease I could get by having open wounds near dirt or flesh-eating bacteria.
and lastly...
3. when we finally arrived in Chicago after about an 8 hour drive, we realized my trumpet was still in Missouri.
Triple, Trifecta, Trebling, Triangle, FAIL.
Here's some footage of the shows and sights in Missouri....
We spent last night back in Chicago and played a neat venue called the Elbo room. The crowd was full of great friends who give us phenomenal never ending support. We were generously given 2 free hotel rooms by a wonderful wonderful friend of Avi's and we spent the night catching up on some much needed sleep. Now we're on our way to Knoxville Tennessee to perform/record an on-air radio show at WDVX fm (if you check them out online, there is a good possibility that you can hear the show online, we'll be on air tomorrow around 10:30 am central time (i think) so try to check it out!)
For those of you who we've met on the road, thanks for showing us an awesome time thus far, for our family and friends, we really miss you and think about you all the time.
See ya Illinois, Hello Tennessee.
1. After playing the show in Columbia we went to one of the other band's houses for a bit of a party, it was some of the best jamming and live music I've heard in a LONG time by both our members and theirs
2. On my way to get the van in the morning, I stepped on a small sewer drain and my leg fell through up to my shorts. Sewage, dirt, and leaves COVERED my entire leg and I went into Jordan's and scrubbed my leg to avoid MRSA and any other ridiculous disease I could get by having open wounds near dirt or flesh-eating bacteria.
and lastly...
3. when we finally arrived in Chicago after about an 8 hour drive, we realized my trumpet was still in Missouri.
Triple, Trifecta, Trebling, Triangle, FAIL.
Here's some footage of the shows and sights in Missouri....
We spent last night back in Chicago and played a neat venue called the Elbo room. The crowd was full of great friends who give us phenomenal never ending support. We were generously given 2 free hotel rooms by a wonderful wonderful friend of Avi's and we spent the night catching up on some much needed sleep. Now we're on our way to Knoxville Tennessee to perform/record an on-air radio show at WDVX fm (if you check them out online, there is a good possibility that you can hear the show online, we'll be on air tomorrow around 10:30 am central time (i think) so try to check it out!)
For those of you who we've met on the road, thanks for showing us an awesome time thus far, for our family and friends, we really miss you and think about you all the time.
See ya Illinois, Hello Tennessee.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
8 hours in st. louis
We made it to St. Louis yesterday and our first stop was a tour of the Anheuser-Busch factory.
We saw the giant Clydesdales, learned about the unique brewing process and even watched the factory bottle and label thousands upon thousands of beers (the best fact of the day was that their storage unit that holds 500,000 cases of beer is kept with only 200,000 cases. However, if they were to stock up and fill the hold to capacity it would only last......16 HOURS). Mid-westerners drink a LOT of Budweiser. More to follow on the factory tour once Avi compiles the Budweiser movie montage.
The best part of the tour was the end...FREE BEER..and pretzels for all tour attendees. It was an awesome time but we were all completely FLOORED by the fact that the whole thing was free. Free to get in. Free to drink. We just walked right in and were entertained...for FREE. amazing.
After the brewery we went into town to find something to eat and were greeted by some hilarious St. Louis bums. After parking at a 15 minute only meter and making friends with a meter man and convincing him NOT to ticket us, wandering men kept coming to the van telling us we were going to get a ticket, that we should trade CDs with them, and that we should give them money. After entertaining the ideas for a moment and deciding they weren't in our best interest we locked up the van (and taking out ANYTHING we thought was valuable) we headed towards the restaurant and behind us this funny bum said..."ooooooh i HATE people from Pennsylvania". undeserved abuse. undeserved.
Regardless, we enjoyed dinner and then went to starbucks so Cory could re-string his guitar in the air-conditioning instead of the sweltering 105 degree st. louis weather. In starbucks we ruined their scissors, relaxed for a half an hour, and then made our way to the venue.
The venue we played was a really really cool, I might even be inclined to say...swanky, place but was not in such a great neighborhood. Everything BUT this bar and venue was either closed down, or behind bulletproof glass...EVERYTHING. The bums on this side of town must have been co-conspirators with the bums from downtown because they sucked too. We asked for a place they would recommend to eat and the guy gave us a look and said, "I'm not telling you"...nice. Very nice.
Anyways, we were a bit surprised by the other bands we played with on account of they were all classic punk rock...a bit out of our genre. Regardless, it was a great show, we were solid on stage, the bar gave us some delicious pizza, and I had some wonderful friends come to see us (thanks so much Sharol and Rob!!!).
While we weren't so thrilled with our experiences in st. louis (mainly those HARSH harassing bums) we were Pisssssssed when we couldn't get out! At around 12:45 am we ATTEMPTED to leave, but miraculously every highway we tried was closed. Our GPS freaked out, got very upset with us, and we just kept trying to follow absurdly confusing detours. Finally we stopped at a gas station for directions and were on our way. Avi sang counting crows at the top of his lungs while we all slept and when that didn't work to keep him awake John took the wheel and threw on some Reggae to get us the rest of way to Columbia.
Finally in Columbia at 3:45 am we unloaded our stuff into my friend Jordan's house and fell asleep pretty quickly after a bit of TV and bad movies.
This morning we woke up late (ranging between 1-3 pm) and went out to breakfast at an awesome place on Mizzou's campus. Tonight we'll being playing @ Mojo's with some local acts. Bigger acts like Tapes 'n Tapes, Girl Talk, Mountain Goats, and Cold War Kids have played this stage so we're pretty pumped.
We saw the giant Clydesdales, learned about the unique brewing process and even watched the factory bottle and label thousands upon thousands of beers (the best fact of the day was that their storage unit that holds 500,000 cases of beer is kept with only 200,000 cases. However, if they were to stock up and fill the hold to capacity it would only last......16 HOURS). Mid-westerners drink a LOT of Budweiser. More to follow on the factory tour once Avi compiles the Budweiser movie montage.
The best part of the tour was the end...FREE BEER..and pretzels for all tour attendees. It was an awesome time but we were all completely FLOORED by the fact that the whole thing was free. Free to get in. Free to drink. We just walked right in and were entertained...for FREE. amazing.
After the brewery we went into town to find something to eat and were greeted by some hilarious St. Louis bums. After parking at a 15 minute only meter and making friends with a meter man and convincing him NOT to ticket us, wandering men kept coming to the van telling us we were going to get a ticket, that we should trade CDs with them, and that we should give them money. After entertaining the ideas for a moment and deciding they weren't in our best interest we locked up the van (and taking out ANYTHING we thought was valuable) we headed towards the restaurant and behind us this funny bum said..."ooooooh i HATE people from Pennsylvania". undeserved abuse. undeserved.
Regardless, we enjoyed dinner and then went to starbucks so Cory could re-string his guitar in the air-conditioning instead of the sweltering 105 degree st. louis weather. In starbucks we ruined their scissors, relaxed for a half an hour, and then made our way to the venue.
The venue we played was a really really cool, I might even be inclined to say...swanky, place but was not in such a great neighborhood. Everything BUT this bar and venue was either closed down, or behind bulletproof glass...EVERYTHING. The bums on this side of town must have been co-conspirators with the bums from downtown because they sucked too. We asked for a place they would recommend to eat and the guy gave us a look and said, "I'm not telling you"...nice. Very nice.
Anyways, we were a bit surprised by the other bands we played with on account of they were all classic punk rock...a bit out of our genre. Regardless, it was a great show, we were solid on stage, the bar gave us some delicious pizza, and I had some wonderful friends come to see us (thanks so much Sharol and Rob!!!).
While we weren't so thrilled with our experiences in st. louis (mainly those HARSH harassing bums) we were Pisssssssed when we couldn't get out! At around 12:45 am we ATTEMPTED to leave, but miraculously every highway we tried was closed. Our GPS freaked out, got very upset with us, and we just kept trying to follow absurdly confusing detours. Finally we stopped at a gas station for directions and were on our way. Avi sang counting crows at the top of his lungs while we all slept and when that didn't work to keep him awake John took the wheel and threw on some Reggae to get us the rest of way to Columbia.
Finally in Columbia at 3:45 am we unloaded our stuff into my friend Jordan's house and fell asleep pretty quickly after a bit of TV and bad movies.
This morning we woke up late (ranging between 1-3 pm) and went out to breakfast at an awesome place on Mizzou's campus. Tonight we'll being playing @ Mojo's with some local acts. Bigger acts like Tapes 'n Tapes, Girl Talk, Mountain Goats, and Cold War Kids have played this stage so we're pretty pumped.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
We did not make it to Millennium park as we promised readers. We spent our day in Chicago around Andersonville. Started with a highly recommended diner for breakfast called the Golden House...Delishhh. Lots of eggs and french toast and waffles and coffee. After we set up an impromptu practice space in Mike's living room to tighten up some of the set.
We left for the venue pretty early and when we finally loaded out realized there were 3 flights of stairs we had to carry our gear up. Needless to say, all of our muscles are HUGE....huge. We played the Subterranean (think club Laga combined with Mr. Smalls). It was an AWESOME show with some awesome bands, check out my favorite of the night...fatbook.
we played a really great set, this is chicago....in chicago...epic. It was a great night and while I went back to the apartment we were staying at and passed out John and Cory took an adventure to the beach.
Today was a sad day because we had to leave our favorite place so far. We went to another breakfast at Golden House and got locked out of the apartment building. Avi and I took a walk to the beach while John, Cory and Max broke into the building using their excellent lock picking/paperclip maneuvering skills. When we got back we packed our things and headed out of town (but not before sitting in about 2 hours of rush hour/plain old Chicago traffic).
Now we're staying somewhere in the middle of Illinois relaxing for a night off with some cartoons and a bottle of wine. Tomorrow we'll head into St. Louis for a big Friday night show, then onto Columbia, MO. Forecast is saying high nineties for the middle of the country....we hope there's air conditioning.....
We left for the venue pretty early and when we finally loaded out realized there were 3 flights of stairs we had to carry our gear up. Needless to say, all of our muscles are HUGE....huge. We played the Subterranean (think club Laga combined with Mr. Smalls). It was an AWESOME show with some awesome bands, check out my favorite of the night...fatbook.
we played a really great set, this is chicago....in chicago...epic. It was a great night and while I went back to the apartment we were staying at and passed out John and Cory took an adventure to the beach.
Today was a sad day because we had to leave our favorite place so far. We went to another breakfast at Golden House and got locked out of the apartment building. Avi and I took a walk to the beach while John, Cory and Max broke into the building using their excellent lock picking/paperclip maneuvering skills. When we got back we packed our things and headed out of town (but not before sitting in about 2 hours of rush hour/plain old Chicago traffic).
Now we're staying somewhere in the middle of Illinois relaxing for a night off with some cartoons and a bottle of wine. Tomorrow we'll head into St. Louis for a big Friday night show, then onto Columbia, MO. Forecast is saying high nineties for the middle of the country....we hope there's air conditioning.....
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Chi-town
We left Lafayettte early yesterday morning with the hopes of beating Chicago traffic. We LOVED the drive into Chicago around lake-shore drive and you'll probably see some video of it (we taped the whole thing we loved it so much).
Once in Chicago we found our host's place in Andersonville, a neighborhood of Chicago in the North side of town. While waiting for our host to get off work we parked the van and explored a bit of the North Side for lunch. As I'm sure it is where all of you are right now, Chicago is HOT, really HOT so after about 2 hours of meandering around the North Side we sat in the shade by the van and tried to cool off for a bit.
We met our host Mike, a good friend of Avi's from high school and bassist in the band Cobalt and the Hired Guns (check them out on myspace and come see us play with them at our hometown show @ Club Cafe July 10). He's got a really cool place with some nice friends and we enjoyed the cool air for a while until we went to dinner in Wrigleyville for my birthday.
After dinner Mike took us to Cobalt's practice space, the Guitarists REALLY REALLY cool house, they treated us to a few songs and gave us directions to get down town by way of the "L" and we were on our way.
Once down town we headed to the Hancock center observatory to ride the 96 floors up to the top and check out the scenes of Chicago. It was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking, while I'm a little afraid of heights (and John is a LOT afraid of heights) it was an awesome experience. We tried without success to barter with the woman who was selling tourist photos and get her down from $22 to $6 for a picture that was already printed that she would end up throwing away. After a while we saw that she was NOT going to budge and took a picture of the picture to capture the moment of the 5 of us (plus one asian tourist friend we picked up) on the top of the Hancock center.
Exhausted, we headed back to Andersonville by train, but not before the BEST TOUR GUIDE EVER stopped us on the streets and gave us a tour to our "L" stop. This bum was probably one of the best salesmen I have ever met. He gave us each a postcard, gave us facts and stories about the sights we were seeing and then when we arrived at our destination DEMANDED money for the "homeless fund", we gave him a few dollars, took the postcards and were on our way.
Today we'll go check out Millennium park, and prep for what should be an awesome show tonight.
Once in Chicago we found our host's place in Andersonville, a neighborhood of Chicago in the North side of town. While waiting for our host to get off work we parked the van and explored a bit of the North Side for lunch. As I'm sure it is where all of you are right now, Chicago is HOT, really HOT so after about 2 hours of meandering around the North Side we sat in the shade by the van and tried to cool off for a bit.
We met our host Mike, a good friend of Avi's from high school and bassist in the band Cobalt and the Hired Guns (check them out on myspace and come see us play with them at our hometown show @ Club Cafe July 10). He's got a really cool place with some nice friends and we enjoyed the cool air for a while until we went to dinner in Wrigleyville for my birthday.
After dinner Mike took us to Cobalt's practice space, the Guitarists REALLY REALLY cool house, they treated us to a few songs and gave us directions to get down town by way of the "L" and we were on our way.
Once down town we headed to the Hancock center observatory to ride the 96 floors up to the top and check out the scenes of Chicago. It was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking, while I'm a little afraid of heights (and John is a LOT afraid of heights) it was an awesome experience. We tried without success to barter with the woman who was selling tourist photos and get her down from $22 to $6 for a picture that was already printed that she would end up throwing away. After a while we saw that she was NOT going to budge and took a picture of the picture to capture the moment of the 5 of us (plus one asian tourist friend we picked up) on the top of the Hancock center.
Exhausted, we headed back to Andersonville by train, but not before the BEST TOUR GUIDE EVER stopped us on the streets and gave us a tour to our "L" stop. This bum was probably one of the best salesmen I have ever met. He gave us each a postcard, gave us facts and stories about the sights we were seeing and then when we arrived at our destination DEMANDED money for the "homeless fund", we gave him a few dollars, took the postcards and were on our way.
Today we'll go check out Millennium park, and prep for what should be an awesome show tonight.
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