the next stop on the weed hounds tour was new orleans, louisiana. this was definitely one of the places i was most excited to visit just based on it’s history. i was also somewhat eager to see what state it was in after katrina. the first thing i noticed on the trip in was the gps was showing us on a highway and there was nothing but blue in each direction

for miles traveling into new orleans you were basically driving over water

beautiful marshy swamps and rivers flowing right under us

this all seems like the same shot but its miles apart

and the weirdest thing was there were houses with like boats in the “driveway” on the sides of this road

so the first thing we experience when new orleans comes into view is the sight of the hugest, darkest, blackest cloud i have ever seen. lightning was dropping from the cloud tearing through the sky. it was centralized right over the city we were about to visit. i’d say that from our point of view maybe 290 degrees was still completely blue but ONLY in front of us, over NOLA, was a giant storm cloud.

the rain was so intense and heavy that i didn’t even think to take a picture of it. i was definitely thinking to myself “are we about to walk into another nightmare situation for this city? is this what it looked like before the levees broke?” kind of nerve wracking. traffic was slowed but we did make it into the city and over to the circle bar, which was where we would be playing. it was still pouring and they were technically closed but they let us in and we watched some world cup.

the rain began to clear a bit and i felt a little more comfortable. plus i was happy i wouldn’t be viewing the city under shitty conditions.

we still had maybe 7 or 8 hours before the show started so we wanted to make good use of it

we left the venue (which was basically a two story house converted) and headed over to meet logan and sam, laura’s friends.

they offered to direct us to some legit cajun food spot but getting there proved to be quite a task. every road we ventured over to was completely flooded… and this was only after like two hours of rain. i cannot imagine the nightmare this city faced

you may not be able to see it straight off but that blue sign is an evacuation route marker and the road was basically flooded. we pulled into a gas station and decided it would be best to head to a joint called coop’s which was over in the more touristy part of the neighborhood

the rain damage was a lot less over here and was starting to dry out. we went into coop’s and ate a heaping load of meaty food. i got some of the best fried chicken i’ve ever had and with some red beans and rice.. i later found out that the red beans and rice may have had rabbit meat in it. so that was weird

we were then headed over to one of these take out daiquiri places. i forgot that new orleans has like no drinking laws. you can drive with alcohol, you can drink it on the street, whatever the fuck you feel like.

some more of the beautiful, but shabby looking homes

all the streets were lined with two or three story buildings that didn’t feel american. i’m no architecture expert so i can’t say what feeling or time period they gave off but it was not like any city i’m used to. and also the trees are so enormous and ivy covered, it felt like the city was dropped right on top of a swamp.

so here is the daiquiri place.. it had a number of varieties to offer. for example laura got a “booty call” and pat’s was called like “thug’s dream” i think. for fifty cents extra you got a bonus shot or something.

oh and at some point logan and sam’s friend met up with us… forgive me but i forget his name. he was from georgia i think. nice dude.

this dude on the street was singing, he wasn’t that bad honestly. nick chimed in with the mouth trumpet and he was like “we need to get you a bucket too because you’re pretty good!”

i saw a junk store and went in to look for junk to bring home. turns out it wasn’t really a junk store but a over priced, old-grandma-looking furniture thrift store. nick got some beads

and pat got some “1957 pegasus” medallion. i don’t understand it either. none of us did.

we then walked over to the mississippi to hang for a bit. this group of chumps had t-shirts on that said “christian outfitters” and left behind some bullshit pamphlets and illogical bracelets on the bench we sat down on. GET DA FUCK OUTTA HERE

another river boat thing. logan was chatting with, schooling me to a lot of what went down around the time of katrina. that one was full of knowledge. he recommended some documentaries and stuff which may be too depressing to watch.

at this point my determination kicked back in…

i headed down and put my hands into the mighty river. it felt good. i have now touched the mississippi.

before heading back to the venue we stopped at a bar for a bit to wet our whistles. this guy was in the back. ohai plz

we then checked out the nightmare that was bourbon street. it was just as bad as it sounds. people on the over hangs shouting shit, bad stones cover bands, voodoo shops, sleezy strips joints… even black country rappers (with matching cowboy hats!) we bounced and headed back to the venue after greeting everyone we saw on the street with an “‘ey dare”

got back to the venue pretty tired at this point. had a few colas to put some pep in my step. the dives played and were pretty cool but because i was so tired i couldn’t even stand to watch them. the noise wasn’t suiting my head at the moment

this is the only shot of girlfriends i took i think. but they rocked that shit.

in the bathroom – “completely in their element?” explain plz. we went back to logan and sam’s to crash out but logan was not done. he ended up taking nick, pat, benny and i think laura out to another bar afterwards. they missed out because me, jenny and andy got to sleep in the air-conditioned room with a tv! that was marvelous.

i got to sleep on this couch. we were all kinda tired and not looking forward to what lied ahead a little later… a long, long drive

this is the chairman meow. what a cute name for a really cute cat! he was a big fella!

logan took us to a place that offers some of the best pee-cawn pie in new orleans. another tibbit of knowledge he dropped on me was that it was the first place in the city to hire, on their own accord, black people as workers.

how many band members does it take to work a muni-meter? no seriously, it was hard

the wait sucked, but i had some delicious hash browns and a HUGE slice of chocolate cream pie. that was really amazing. the waitstaff wore white shirts with giant black bow ties. the one fella kept cracking wise and shouting lots of “who dat” stuff. i still don’t understand what the shit it means but i guess i’m a yankee and never will. we hit the road and braced ourselves for the long haul to tejas.

alright so after we woke up in jackson we went to this place called beagle bagel, a place jenny used to go to when she lived in the south. the bagels were not n.y. qualified to be called bagels, but it was ok to fill our stumaches. we sat and discussed the real house wives of various cities and while watching some housewives on big flat screens. after eating and filling our water jugs we hit the road on our way to memphis, tennesee.

we hit some southern rain that slowed the pace a bit but made good time to get there and spend some good hanging time.

the first thing on our list of things to do was check out the legendary sun studios which is where pretty much all of american rock and roll was created. well, that’s not true but it is sort of.

brought out the old tri-pod for this one.

inside there wasn’t much history to be found aside from over priced souvenirs. i tried to snap this photo of a roy orbison single because when i was a youngster my mom loved some orbison. we glanced around a bit, got some moonpies (no pennywhistles) and headed out. it was a cool place to stop in and get a postcard (did you ever get it charlotte?) but not really worth spending much time in unless you are a souvenir collector. if i had more cash i mighta bought some singles maybe

our next mission was to lay our eyes on the mississippi river. i was stoked about this because the mississippi is responsible for a lot of history in the united states and i’ve never seen it in person

that’s a bridge and another one of those cleopatra looking thingys. i should do some research i guess but why are they everywhere?

we got out at this park and met a lady selling delicious snow cones of many varieties. she was also selling pre-packaged pickles. say that ten times fast! quick!

this was like a steamboat or something i dunno

charlotte sent me a “wish you were here” picture from the beach in new york at this second, so i responded with my own from memphis

we ate our ices in the blazing sun and enjoyed the serenity of the river. it was here when i first got a severe urge to touch the water of the mississippi river. the other hounds talked me out of it because the footing of the river’s edge didn’t look too solid

i just kept thinking “how could i come this far and not touch that damn water!”

we got back in the van and headed over to goner records. i found a ton of cool shit and bought 1/4 of it. das oath 9 inch on 10 inch (what?), infest no man’s slave lp and a jam “going underground” single. it was priced right, too. good shit. oh and that’s a overpass for a train above. it looks like a town. cool

at goner we saw a flier for our show in the window. again cool to see people are involved and into your shows when you get to town

we were hungry and wanted to get some memphis barbecue so us and girlfriends talked to the workers at goner i think and they suggested this place for us to go to. girlfriends got their before us. that’s their van

the place was just called “the bar-b-q shop.” seems simple enough to me. i had the best baked beans i’ve ever eaten in my life at this joint. i think laura ordered the tic tacs from her purse because this place put meat in everything

i don’t know what this is a photo of

after we were really stuffed we decided to get some groceries (beer) before going over to the house show

they have grocery stores that are ACTUALLY called “piggly wiggly” and they aren’t joking about it either. seriously. the inside of this place was more like what i imagined all of the south to be like. people with no shoes, crazy hair, obese, stained shirts and shorts and no shirts, etc.

this was hanging in the beer section “hey guys great barbecue! pass me one of those burgers please! oh you want a b-HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT FLYING PIG HEAD”

so pat took this photo of laura holding a case of steel reserve, posted it on tumblr and in approximately 41 second 10 people had commented on the image. which proves my theory: people like beer. when we got back to the show we hung out with the folks that lived in the house, played some lawn soccer with andy, benny and some locals and prepped to play.

local band all howlers opened up and blew my fucking mind. (jenny took these two photos) this band is so good! they started posting some recordings online too. i wish the recordings sounded more like they did when they played live because i don’t think it’s the best representation. they had so much more energy! like holy shit! there was a feeling in the air almost (cheesy yes, but true). i felt like these kids in memphis just grew up with rock and roll in their blood or some shit

we played a good set next (maybe my most sweaty set) and then girlfriends took the floor. this set was like another holy shit moment. and it’s funny, both laura and i had the same feeling. we both said we felt like we were at a house party in 1950 or something. people were getting down dancing and shit, shouting during songs and all that craziness! i felt so good for girlfriends, it must’ve been a really rewarding performance! after discarding sweaty clothes and packing up our van we followed the howlers back to their gigantic, beautiful house where pat played his aerosmith genesis game. the howlers offered us showers and even inflated a queen size air mattress for nick, plus both laura and pat both got couches! unfortunately we had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn the following day because we wanted to spend some quality time at our next destination – new orleans, louisiana.