after tossing cat peed laptop covers in the parking lot we got into the van and made our way to asheville, nc. this was to be our first long haul. knoxville was originally equidistant between clemmons and wherever we were going after knoxville but because of the cancellation we had quite a drive ahead of us. we loaded up the van, as did girlfriends and his the road

i think we were all pretty exhausted

i think nick or laura drove which allowed me to take a few snapshots of the scenery out the window… more mountains. for some reason when i think of the south mountains NEVER enter my mind. only swamps and deserts, and the truth is there aren’t even many deserts

we did the long drive and eventually landed in the hilly city of asheville. nick got out and posted up against the wall. i think i walked over to this leafy part of the wall and snapped this for some reason

we went outside and headed toward the venue. the only issue we were facing was there was no definite confirmation we actually had a show. the person benny had been in touch with left off with him on a “i’ll call you back” note, but had never called back. so we decided to go straight to the venue to try and sort things out. we go there and there was no one there that dealt with the bar or shows. so while we waited for girlfriends to arrive we decided to check out some of the local hippy-head shops

after finding some free red & white stripped hanker-chiefs we walked into a spot where laura found a hat that she should’ve just haggled for. they totally would’ve let it go for five bucks! it was huge and amazing

i’m not sure what this rock is trying to tell me, but i feel ya. XXX bro

the galfriends showed up a few minutes later and we decided we would just proceed as if we were playing at the bobo gallery whether we actually were on not. the people at the veggie restaurant that was connected to the space didn’t have a clue what was going on so we posted a “FREE SHOW TONIGHT!” live poster in the window and just hoped for the best. jenny designed a flyer for the show and we googled where the nearest copy shop was

we ended  up at a mom and pop copy shop which split its time between copying and dry cleaning… weird.

we all split up and hit the town handing out flyers and posting them on walls of anywhere that music likers might go. i was told not to be ageist so i literally handed them to anyone that walked by with ears. in retrospect.. i should’ve just been ageist because i knew those people weren’t coming. a few people i did hand them to i assume would be really into it and acted like they were totally didn’t come. what a bum out!

nick and i covered a lot of ground and after inspecting much of the city i have decided it’s a cool little city. not anywhere i could live, but if you had to be stuck in the hills in the south this would be a cool place to get stuck. we joined up with the rest of the hounds and friends and headed to a veggie restaurant recommended by a nice lady we passed by.

after lunch we all checked out a cool guitar shop. i have no interest in buying guitar equipment so all i did was marvel at the prices of things. we got info from the clerk that there was a pawn shop type of thing we could go to a bit outside of the city that carried drum equipment. so i went with laura, andy and pat i think to check it out. i am starting to lose memory of how the days went. andy was looking for a cymbal but found nothing but overpriced garb so we headed back to the venue

the bobo gallery had some cool artwork hanging, probably about how society uses the earth as a giant trashcan. they were large pieces, pretty cool stuff

we had quite a while to kill so we hung out for a while. eventually the folks benny spoke to showed up and confirmed that yes, we were playing. later a few folks that we had flyered to turned up and waited patiently for us to set up. on couple, who showed up right as we posted the first poster in the window, came back at 9. they were from baltimore and had originally wanted to come to the show at fan death records house but couldn’t because they were on vacation in asheville… how weird is that! they got a raincheck and saw us that night

we played a cool little set and sold a few singles. i noticed people lining up outside the windows on the streets that were afraid to come in. we should have put a GIANT sign that said “FREEEEEE SHOOOOW COOOMEEE IIINNNN!” because i guess they assumed they would have to pay a cover

girlfriends was awesome as usual. getting tighter and more into a vibe

benny wailed

there was a mr. t piece behind jenny. see? after our sets we hung out for a while at the venue until russel (?) the bartend (photographed by patrick below) told us it was closing time. jenny was trying to get a friend of a friend on the phone that offered us a place to stay. only issue was that it was around 12:30/1:00 am and the friend of a friend was at a dinner party somewhere around the corner

we drove off and headed in the direction of the dinner party counting the stacks of loot we made that night.

which was a two dollar donation split among both bands from a passerby. we eventually hooked  up with a fellow named brown who was so generously offering his place for us to sleep at, having never met us or even seen our show. we paid him in records and thank yous.

his room mate basically had a record store set up in their kitchen. i was pretty impressed

seems like a good way to store lps. i slept in a musky basement all by my lonesome, no one else would venture down there with me. i guess i slept the best though. i dozed off to the soothing sound of stephen colbert.

we said goodbye to brown’s place and boarded bessie on our way to the next location

i can’t even remember where that was but i think it was oxford, mississippi. further updates to come when i have more time

i don’t remember who first suggested it really, but the morning after we played the box in charlottesville we figured out there was a waffle house not too far away from where we were. we, along with girlfriends, boarded into our vans and headed in the direction of one of america’s finest establishments

nick and pat ordered the biggest plates of stuff, while i stayed with a buttermilk waffle and sausage. i think nick got the all star breakfast which basically consisted of one of everything on the menu

and i think pat got grits and gravy or some sort of something

this was to be the first of a couple of waffle house visits, and goddamnit do i wish they had them near us in nyc… they would make a killing

the food was heavenly and the portions and prices were just right

when we walked in scott the waiter did his best to accommodate the 7 of us together but for some stupid reason we split up. i was pretty miffed by that because here this nice fella goes and moves things around for us and we just ignore his efforts. i would’ve liked to sit with the lady friends too

i ordered a “nice glass of water” and scott made a note of it on our check

the girlsfriends

after breakfast i made it clear i wanted to take a group photo in front of the magnificent restaurant, making use of the tripod i lugged down from nyc. of course my self timer tricked me into thinking it hadn’t taken to the shutter release so i sat still between nick and laura for a second but then turned back to check it and “click” i was mid walk behind nick. kind of looks like i’m hiding or much worse

after a while on the road the gfs called us to tell us that they spoke to the kid who set up the show and in order for us to not get lost we should put “clemmons” into our gps, not winston-salem… which is where we were told the show was. unfortunately it was in a suburb of the city. i really wanted to spend some time in winston-salem because a lot of the good folks i work for on clothing photo shoots reside there and describe how beautiful the city is. we eventually arrived to what looked like a normal apartment building. the venue’s name was “incognito-dojo”

aaron and his wife invited us into their air conditioned, smoke filled living room where we met their cat and rested for a minute. the space was tight… incredibly tight. we learned it was basically a two-bedroom apartment where the bands play in one room… as many people as possible squeeze in with the band and the rest overflow into the living room and kitchen. we all then walked over to starbucks and walgreens with our spirits slightly down. the staff at walgreens didn’t much prefer our hijinks and asked us to stop playing football in the aisles.

we got into starbucks and the friends made use of the free wifi while the other hounds took advantage of the board games. at this point for some reason i decided to walk back to the dojo. don’t ask me why because i have no idea. it might’ve been because i wanted to get food from the van the dojo was closer than starbucks was. i got back into the apartment and started conversating with aaron about hip-hop. this turned into a wu-tang dvd marathon where i schooled him on everything there is to know about wu. let me say that he lifted his shirt to reveal a wu-W on his chest… then told me 36 chambers was his favorite record. flash forward only three minutes and he contradicts himself saying he couldn’t listen to about 4 of the songs at all on the album. he then tells me he can’t even listen to forever, the w, iron flag, etc. why did he have this tattoo on his chest?? his friend, and my fellow performer p.t. bernum then showed up and started talking to us. i took my leave shortly after to find the hounds. aaron advised us to check out a used record store in winston-salem called edward mckay.

this place was great. i got a grand master melle mel and the furious five lp that i’ve never seen before, a live mamas and the papas record, and a copy of the traveling wilburys volume one (for only five bucks!) there was a ton more stuff i coulda got but i was trying to conserve cash. this place was amazing though, and they didn’t really seem to know what they had or what it was worth. they also sold books, vhs, dvds, vintage video games and a bunch more crap.

after edward mckay we stopped off at a best buy so laura could pick up a guitar strap. pat found the music section was stocked with a healthy looked 3-string guitar that fed into a tiny little pice of shit pink amp. he cranked the volume to max and started wailing until the manager asked him to stop

the most annoying part about this experience was laura picked up a damaged fender distortion pedal that didn’t have a price and had the tightest security thing strapped to us that it took us about 40 minutes to leave with the pedal in hand. they had to first look up what it was worth and then devise a way to get the security device off. pat slipped under with a set of keys and we were on our way back to hell the incognitio dojo

there really wasn’t much to clemmons. a one horse town in you will. i still regret not spending more time in w-s.

we played a rushed-to-start set to about 6 people. it sucked the big one. more people (including aaron) were standing outside of the apartment building listening in apparently, but you wouldn’t have known it from the inside. the best part about the experience was probably when i met josh. josh was one of the most genuinely nice dudes ever. he loved metal, and loved nyc. “no homo man, but i got something to show you” he lifted his shirt and showed me a kiss tattoo on one shoulder blade and a motley crue tattoo on the other. in the 12th grade he was assigned a report on something he loves so he chose to do it on l’amours in brooklyn. this guy was fucking awesome. a shitty sketch of his exists in the tour journal. “aw hell yeah”

girlfriends played after us to about 12 people and really killed it. i think the bum-outness of the show boosted them to try harder maybe.

i really like how these photos turned out of them though

i admit i’m being a bit hard to aaron and his crew at the incognito dojo. they tried their best to hook us two touring bands up with a show and all. you gotta be thankful for that. oh, but  the part i failed to mention is that SIX bands were slotted on the bedroom bill. ALL touring bands. the gig didn’t end until at least 2:30. then… every band slept on the floor like sardines.

again… i appreciate the fact he tried to help us out, but man that was a low point on the tour and in my life. he was telling me that he has a new space on the way for shows so if you’re ever in clemmons maybe you should check out a show at incognito dojo 2.0 and let me know how it went

EDIT: so originally i forgot to add a section. after we both played our sets we wound up jumping in the gfs van in search of food. we ended up at wendy’s. after eating some mediocre food we wanted to waste some time. benny had bought some smoke bombs and we decided to try and find creative ways to light them off.

the real goal was to get one in the road before a car drove by so that when it ignited it would smoke as they drove through it

this was the best thing we could come up with at first

eventually though we successfully lit one while a car drove through

but the highlight of the night was when we put one in a newspaper box and opened it up shortly there after. the way the smoke poured out was almost mesmerizing. we then headed back into the show which was still going on for a few more hours, only now there were even weirder characters… one who made lots of joke references to being raped, or raping… FUN! when the show ended i went to sleep in a room alone. i woke up with about 5 people surrounding me feeling like i was trapped in a sardine tin. /EDIT

after we woke up tired and smokey (and me cold/sweaty) we discovered the kitty had peed on pat’s laptop case. dude was probably annoyed their were so many people on the floor. still doesn’t make it ok for him to pee on pat’s laptop case. oh well, at least the computer wasn’t in it. we collected our handsome pay and got the fuck outta dodge. on our way to asheville because we heard from the folks at the birdcage in knoxville and the show had been cancelled due to a police raid of the venue or something. blergh. more to come