weed hounds southern tour, pt 3 – clemmons
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