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Back from the "tour" and it was a great time. I'll go into details about the trip as a whole, but first thing's first. Setlist:
Intro/A Series of False Starts
Histrionics
The Yellow Light
Fall Behind
The Provincial
Like Clockwork
Doctorate
Yeah, the same order as our new cd.
Okay, so back to the start. Friday, I got asked to man another Algebra I pullout session in the morning. Same students, at least there were fewer present, it being a Friday and all. After work it was straight back home to meet the dudes to get ready for our trip! Jacques arrived with the rented van almost right after I got home. There was the inevitable packing and loading fun. Also, I'll add that the minivan we rented was the absolute perfect size to fit the stuff we were bringing and ourselves. When we got the van loaded we went to pick up Ryan. He was still working on a paper so we waited a while before we got started off. Then when we were finally ready to head out, I realized I'd left my ear plugs at home, so back to my place then back out to the road. The drive up was alright. Just the typical road trip juveline jokes. We had something of a late start but we made good time. We stopped off at a motel around midnight about an hour and a half from Chicago. I was the first to fall asleep, but sleep was a little rough due to one of the guys' snoring issues (okay, it was Paul!). I didn't feel too bad when I woke up in the morning though.
We got into Chicago a little after noon. We went over to Maigin from Whales' place to drop our stuff off before we hit the town (oh, and her place is frickin' awesome). Randall from Whales met us there and was our guide and all for the rest of the day. That's a nice and awesome guy! We went and met some people at Irazu, a Costa Rican restauran! Never had Costa Rican food and it was completely badass. The best part was my appetizer: chifrijo. The empenadas were awesome as well, though mine and Jacques's got mixed up so I didn't get to try all the ones I'd ordered (no zucchini!). Brad hooked us up with an impromptu tour of Electrical Audio. No one was recording at the time so we got to see about everything (except for studio A's control room which was being used for mixdown or something). There was a Wasp sitting on a shelf in studio B. There was also a Mellotron and tympani in studio A. I enjoyed looking at those things. The highlight was being taken down into the basement to see the giant encasing for the plate reverb. The best part was in the library, seeing the master tape of the Dee Dee King record! (Next to the master tape of "Pet Semetary," I guess Steve collects Ramones-related master tapes, cool).
Next in line was a trip to Reckless. I got the following cds: Antipop Consortium: Arrhythmia, Ghana Soundz, Anthology of Duth Electronic Music 1999-2010, Keith Fullerton Whitman: Multiples, Sonora (some compilation featuring contemporary Mexican electronic/experimental music!), Merzbow: Collapse 12 Floors, The Dead C: Eusa Kills, Popol Vuh: In den Gärten Pharaos, Tangerine Dream: Ultima Thule, and Zombi: Spirit Animal. I'd also found this Tony Allen 2-disc thing with Afrika 70, but the discs were missing when I went to buy it. That made me sad 'cuz it was one of the things I was most excited about. I was also a little sad 'cuz after I'd bought stuff I saw a whole bunch of used Criterion dvds. Oh well. Then to Myopic to retrieve Ryan, we were low on time and I'd already spent a lot on cds so I didn't browse the books. We got all our shit ready and headed to the venue.
Setup went pretty well. The sound guy seemed confused by the electronic setup. We were pretty on top of it and it was just everything going through our own mixer though. Jimmy Twohands was first with his banjo pickin' and his set was good. Then we were on. There were some volume issues, especially at first, as we were going through Whales' amps. For the most part the show went well. We fucking blew "Histrionics" to hell (batting 0/2 on that one). We couldn't hear a fucking thing coming out of the pa. When we got a little loud on that song the drum machine completely disappeared. I got totally off. It was a little slow to begin with so at this point, trying to salvage it, Paul sped up the drum machine and that made it even worse for a bit. We recovered, but that made us feel a little awkward. They had big monitors, but they weren't being used. All the electronics and vocals were just through the speakers pointed at the audience. And it wasn't just on stage, listening back to the recording of the show, the synths generally can't really be heard. Pretty lame that I went through the effort of dragging 'em all up there and setting them all up for nothing to not much. Oh oh well. Whales were really good live. We got free pizza (one was a tater tot pizza) which was consumed during their set. After we broke down, Ryan took a cab to meet his friend Ben who had moved to Chicago and the rest of us sat around Quenchers for a bit more. After a while we went back, I dropped the dudes and gear off and retrieved Ryan (driving breakdown: Jacques: open road, me: city drivin'). It turns out that Maigin's boyfriend, who was there after the show and was also super-nice, is fuckin' Mark Shippy, the guitarist from U. S. Maple.
I slept pretty well Saturday night. Even though not terribly long. I was on a couch that was too short but it didn't matter, I just passed out with my legs in the air and they variously moved around, sometimes hanging on the floor to the side. I made use of my earplugs this night and slept like a log. I did wake up earlier than everyone else. It gave me the opportunity to shower and finish the changes to my masters paper and make my final final submission. Then we got our shit and were off! We met Ben and another friend of Ryan's for breakfast at this place called Feed that was awesome and reminded me a bit of Asheville (and some places home too). It was along the lines of mildly fancy southern. I had fried green tomato benedict with apple smoked bacon. Then we had a bit of pie from Hosier Mama (apple rhubarb!). Mary Beth enjoyed my constant texts about the food I was eating. Then back on the road. The drive back was even more uneventful with Paul and Ryan periodically sleeping much of the way. To make up for the awesome food we had in the city, we had a pretty terrible country buffet at a gas station (yeah, does not sound like a good choice, but I assure you, choice was not in the equation, there was nothing else around). It was edible, although the desserts I attempted were assuredly inedible. Also, Jacques had been in a terrible mood about the show, but listening back to the recording let us all agree that it was mostly good and "Histrionics" wasn't AS bad as it seemed at the time (though, I mean, we still fucking blew it). Go back in town about 11:30 and then I got to lesson plan, yay!
So back to work today. My last little thing for my technology class's grade came back and not only did I get the 100% I needed to nail a 93 (and an A), but I got an extra point which clenched the deal! So I SHOULD be getting all As for my graduate studies! Still have my 4.0! Woohoo! The grade hasn't shown up, but all my points are there on view. Also, still haven't technically passed my masters project yet. I'm not worried a bit, but I still dislike speaking prematurely. Came home and took a nap I much needed and now I should do some work and shit.
Intro/A Series of False Starts
Histrionics
The Yellow Light
Fall Behind
The Provincial
Like Clockwork
Doctorate
Yeah, the same order as our new cd.
Okay, so back to the start. Friday, I got asked to man another Algebra I pullout session in the morning. Same students, at least there were fewer present, it being a Friday and all. After work it was straight back home to meet the dudes to get ready for our trip! Jacques arrived with the rented van almost right after I got home. There was the inevitable packing and loading fun. Also, I'll add that the minivan we rented was the absolute perfect size to fit the stuff we were bringing and ourselves. When we got the van loaded we went to pick up Ryan. He was still working on a paper so we waited a while before we got started off. Then when we were finally ready to head out, I realized I'd left my ear plugs at home, so back to my place then back out to the road. The drive up was alright. Just the typical road trip juveline jokes. We had something of a late start but we made good time. We stopped off at a motel around midnight about an hour and a half from Chicago. I was the first to fall asleep, but sleep was a little rough due to one of the guys' snoring issues (okay, it was Paul!). I didn't feel too bad when I woke up in the morning though.
We got into Chicago a little after noon. We went over to Maigin from Whales' place to drop our stuff off before we hit the town (oh, and her place is frickin' awesome). Randall from Whales met us there and was our guide and all for the rest of the day. That's a nice and awesome guy! We went and met some people at Irazu, a Costa Rican restauran! Never had Costa Rican food and it was completely badass. The best part was my appetizer: chifrijo. The empenadas were awesome as well, though mine and Jacques's got mixed up so I didn't get to try all the ones I'd ordered (no zucchini!). Brad hooked us up with an impromptu tour of Electrical Audio. No one was recording at the time so we got to see about everything (except for studio A's control room which was being used for mixdown or something). There was a Wasp sitting on a shelf in studio B. There was also a Mellotron and tympani in studio A. I enjoyed looking at those things. The highlight was being taken down into the basement to see the giant encasing for the plate reverb. The best part was in the library, seeing the master tape of the Dee Dee King record! (Next to the master tape of "Pet Semetary," I guess Steve collects Ramones-related master tapes, cool).
Next in line was a trip to Reckless. I got the following cds: Antipop Consortium: Arrhythmia, Ghana Soundz, Anthology of Duth Electronic Music 1999-2010, Keith Fullerton Whitman: Multiples, Sonora (some compilation featuring contemporary Mexican electronic/experimental music!), Merzbow: Collapse 12 Floors, The Dead C: Eusa Kills, Popol Vuh: In den Gärten Pharaos, Tangerine Dream: Ultima Thule, and Zombi: Spirit Animal. I'd also found this Tony Allen 2-disc thing with Afrika 70, but the discs were missing when I went to buy it. That made me sad 'cuz it was one of the things I was most excited about. I was also a little sad 'cuz after I'd bought stuff I saw a whole bunch of used Criterion dvds. Oh well. Then to Myopic to retrieve Ryan, we were low on time and I'd already spent a lot on cds so I didn't browse the books. We got all our shit ready and headed to the venue.
Setup went pretty well. The sound guy seemed confused by the electronic setup. We were pretty on top of it and it was just everything going through our own mixer though. Jimmy Twohands was first with his banjo pickin' and his set was good. Then we were on. There were some volume issues, especially at first, as we were going through Whales' amps. For the most part the show went well. We fucking blew "Histrionics" to hell (batting 0/2 on that one). We couldn't hear a fucking thing coming out of the pa. When we got a little loud on that song the drum machine completely disappeared. I got totally off. It was a little slow to begin with so at this point, trying to salvage it, Paul sped up the drum machine and that made it even worse for a bit. We recovered, but that made us feel a little awkward. They had big monitors, but they weren't being used. All the electronics and vocals were just through the speakers pointed at the audience. And it wasn't just on stage, listening back to the recording of the show, the synths generally can't really be heard. Pretty lame that I went through the effort of dragging 'em all up there and setting them all up for nothing to not much. Oh oh well. Whales were really good live. We got free pizza (one was a tater tot pizza) which was consumed during their set. After we broke down, Ryan took a cab to meet his friend Ben who had moved to Chicago and the rest of us sat around Quenchers for a bit more. After a while we went back, I dropped the dudes and gear off and retrieved Ryan (driving breakdown: Jacques: open road, me: city drivin'). It turns out that Maigin's boyfriend, who was there after the show and was also super-nice, is fuckin' Mark Shippy, the guitarist from U. S. Maple.
I slept pretty well Saturday night. Even though not terribly long. I was on a couch that was too short but it didn't matter, I just passed out with my legs in the air and they variously moved around, sometimes hanging on the floor to the side. I made use of my earplugs this night and slept like a log. I did wake up earlier than everyone else. It gave me the opportunity to shower and finish the changes to my masters paper and make my final final submission. Then we got our shit and were off! We met Ben and another friend of Ryan's for breakfast at this place called Feed that was awesome and reminded me a bit of Asheville (and some places home too). It was along the lines of mildly fancy southern. I had fried green tomato benedict with apple smoked bacon. Then we had a bit of pie from Hosier Mama (apple rhubarb!). Mary Beth enjoyed my constant texts about the food I was eating. Then back on the road. The drive back was even more uneventful with Paul and Ryan periodically sleeping much of the way. To make up for the awesome food we had in the city, we had a pretty terrible country buffet at a gas station (yeah, does not sound like a good choice, but I assure you, choice was not in the equation, there was nothing else around). It was edible, although the desserts I attempted were assuredly inedible. Also, Jacques had been in a terrible mood about the show, but listening back to the recording let us all agree that it was mostly good and "Histrionics" wasn't AS bad as it seemed at the time (though, I mean, we still fucking blew it). Go back in town about 11:30 and then I got to lesson plan, yay!
So back to work today. My last little thing for my technology class's grade came back and not only did I get the 100% I needed to nail a 93 (and an A), but I got an extra point which clenched the deal! So I SHOULD be getting all As for my graduate studies! Still have my 4.0! Woohoo! The grade hasn't shown up, but all my points are there on view. Also, still haven't technically passed my masters project yet. I'm not worried a bit, but I still dislike speaking prematurely. Came home and took a nap I much needed and now I should do some work and shit.
