Over spring break, The Gaskets and I went on tour.  More happened than I could ever explain, but I figure I will try to give you the basic idea on a day to day basis.

Friday March 12^th:  Raleigh , NC – Slim’s

This was the first night of the tour.  We left Richmond around 6 pm .  We were pretty excited about this show because we were actually getting paid a couple hundred bucks and because it was my friend Matt’s going away party and most of his friends would be there.  When we got there, Matt was no where to be found, but the owner, Mikey was really cool and paid us upfront and showed us where all the restaurants were so we could eat.  On our way back from eating from the dollar menu at Mc Donald’s we over heard someone playing our CD.  Fantastic.  A bunch of people showed up, but I don’t think the bar was really ready for what they were about to see.  The Gaskets played a short set because people didn’t really seem all that interested.  They all clapped and everything, but they weren’t really into it.  However, immediately after the show was over everyone came up to us asking them to play longer, trying to buy stuff, join the high five club etc.  There were a bunch of people there from the music industry, all seeming like they really loved it and wanted to help us out.  I mostly talked to Matt and his stripper girlfriend, but there was also this girl who kept talking to me.  She was talking latterly inches from my face the entire time, talking to me about photography and all these big name photographers she worked with.  She then started rubbing my leg and demanding I call her because she was “a really cool person and had a place for me to spend the night.” Unfortunately she was not hot; fortunately she left.  So the Gaskets did another set and again people just sat there, but they really seemed to love it strangely enough.  I talked to Matt and Mikey after the show and they both said that NC had nothing like the Gaskets and no one really knew what to do or something.  We hung out in the bar till last call because we were staying with Matt and he seemed to have some business in the bar.  See, every time I went into the bathroom there were people buying or doing coke.  No one even seemed to notice or care about my presence there.  Very sketch shit, but so be it.  We went to Matt’s with a bunch of people, we were all exhausted and had to drive 7 hours to Atlanta the next morning, but they were all on coke, so we didn’t get much sleep.  It was defiantly an interesting first day. 

Saturday March 13^th – Atlanta , GA - ?????

Atlanta was the one date that I wasn’t 100% on.  See the guy I was talking to about booking was never very informative.  I sent out about 25 emails to bars in Atlanta , he was the only one who wrote back, but he never really said what club he booked.  I emailed him a few times asking for directions and stuff, but all he responded with was “You are confirmed for the 13^th.”  I assumed however that he was from a bar called the Somber Reptile, because I had emailed them, and because his name was Ron Somber.  I figured it made sense.  So we went there.  When we got to the Somber Reptile, no one had heard of us or Ron Somber, so we were fucked.  We figured we would just drive to Birmingham and stay with this girl named Janet.  We called her several times with no answer.  We had no place to play and no place to stay and we were stuck in the middle of Atlanta .  That’s when Teddy picked up a local paper.  He started out calling places that had open mic nights, but they were all 21+.  He then started calling bars, begging them to let us play a short set.  He called probably 25 places and all of them said no.  We had one bar left, but they didn’t open till 830, so we just drove there.  We figured we could just go to the show even if they wouldn’t let us play.  Then we got lost.  We drove all over Atlanta looking for a club called Lenny’s.  At this point we didn’t really know where we were, but it was 8:45 , so we called Lenny’s.  We talked to a guy named Bean, and he said that he already had 3 bands and couldn’t let us play.  We didn’t know what to do, so we just kinda drove around.  As if it were an omen we passed Lenny’s, so we pulled in to their parking lot.  Not knowing what to do we just sort of stood around.  Bean came outside and asked us if we were the people who just called him.  We told him we were and he said we could play right then if we wanted, but that no one was there.  He also told us we should check out this art house/ bar across the street.  So we did.  This place was perfect; it was an art exhibit, with all these video installations and weird sculptures.  What looked to be synth bands were setting up.  This was it, perfect.  So we asked the guy in charge if we could play.  The guy acted so offended that we could possibly want to play that night.  He was so stuck up and pretentious.  Pissed off we drove back to Lenny’s.  Bean said we could check out the show for free since we were on the road, so we went inside.  There were about 10 people inside.  A few skinheads, to insanely drunk Hispanic pool players, and what resembled a rock band.  The first band to play was a group of skin heads.  They were about the worst band I have ever heard.  The lead singer just stood there reading off a sheet of paper.  We really wanted to leave, but we had no where to go, so we just kinda stood there.  Bean asked to hear our demo.  30 seconds into it, he asked us if we could set up.  By the time the Gaskets started their set there was probably 20-30 people there all kinda clinging to the bar.  Teddy began to rock the shit out of them and these punk rockers and skinheads had no idea what they were seeing.   It was really bizarre, and they only did 4 songs, but everyone loved it.  A bunch of kids invited us to play an after party, and Bean told us he could stay at his house.  It fucking ruled.  At the after party all the punk kids were really into the music and they wanted them to play the songs they did at the earlier show.  They were all singing along and jumping around.  It was pretty amazing actually.  Bean showed up after he closed Lenny’s and we went to his house.  Bean and Ross went to an after party for the Jet show that was on the same night, but Teddy and I were pretty fucking exhausted so we stayed in.  Teddy went to sleep and I played Bubble Bobble with Bean’s roommate, kicking ass through level 71.  I owned that shit. 

Sunday March 14^th – Birmingham , AL – The Nick

The next morning we got up and drove to some little store to get Ross some food.  I almost went to Birmingham without stopping for him, but luckily we stopped.  Ross went in, and immediately tried haggling with the guy over the price of chicken or something.  It was taking a while, so I got out and took a picture of this giant chicken in the parking lot.  As I was returning to the car I noticed that the front right tire was popped and the back one was in bad shape.  Ross had hit a curb last night and shit got fucked.  Less than a block away was a used tire place and with in 30 min we had two brand new, used tires on the car for $64 dollars.  When we got to Birmingham, Janet was busy so we just had to entertain ourselves.  Let me tell you something right now, Birmingham fucking sucks.  We did nothing.  We just walked around waiting for Janet to call us.  When she did, we went for pizza with the rest of her band, Teen Getaway.  On our way to the club Ross joked about how it was this burned down building, however it turned out it was right BEHIND the burned down building.  The place looked like a shack on the outside, and like a redneck bar on the inside.  All it was missing was the chicken wire.  The place actually turned out to be pretty cool, and we met two bands heading to SXSW with us:  Ambulance and Blue Epic.  The Gaskets show went pretty well and we met some cool people.  Teen Getaway rocked serious ass, we got paid $50 bucks, and then we went to sleep.  All in all, cool people, shitty town.  Word.

So yeah, more very soon...  3 more cities left.... I just couldn't keep writing this anymore. I think part two will be more exciting. 

Oh man, I just realized DBB turned 3 last week.  Happy birthday. Crazy shit.  I wish I had something better to celebrate with. I have been doing this WAY too long.