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Archive Sunday #70

Added 2024-10-13 16:00:13 +0000 UTC

Picking back up in Indianapolis, we set our sights on finishing off the later part of the tour. So we drove south through Kentucky towards Nashville the next day. We must have listened to some podcast or something about the Kentucky blue people, because I remember discussing our chances of encountering any on our long drive through the state. In the end we mostly saw just endless corn fields with the occasional gas station and fast food joint.

About five hours or so later, we made it into Nashville and loaded-in to the familiar venue, the Cannery Ballroom. This time we graduated to its biggest room out of the three, which turned out great because I don't think the seven of us would fit on the smaller stage haha. I remember grabbing some hot chicken or something with my aunt and uncle that live nearby before the show, and after the show they told us they really enjoyed expanded lineup and the new light show.

Next up we headed back up essentially the same way we came to play a venue called Bogarts in Cincinnati. This must have been when we decided to try a new intro for Bodys because I remember programming my sequencer for Gianni during soundcheck. It kinda turned into this LCD Soundsystem-like part with him messing with a bunch of synth parameters while it played a steady rhythm we all built on till the chorus. It turned out to be a really great night!

I might have got this next one mixed up in my head with the previous year's, but this was when we played the early evening show at Millenium Park in Chicago. We were kinda worried people wouldn't show up in time for the early set, but right before we got on it really started filling out. I think the tickets were free for this event which was super cool because it meant a bunch of people who never heard of us came out. Hopefully we won some of them over even without our normal light show and haze due to the early set. I remember we did the new version of Bodys again, but this time Will used the massive stage to run a couple laps while the rest of us jammed out haha.

The following day we made our way to Des Moines, Iowa to play this neat spot called Wooly's. It was a small room compared to the previous nights, but in my opinion kinda the perfect size to play. It even had those old incandescent theater can lights that act as heaters right on stage. Andrew freakin hates them probably because he's always right next to them during sweaty shows, but I kinda find them comforting in a way. Must remind me of the old venues I played growing up haha. Pretty sure Andrew was banned from driving in the state of Iowa for a a few months due to his previous speeding ticket, but he sorted everything out just in time for this trip.

For the last show of the run, we headed to Omaha. We were slotted to play at this cool venue called the Waiting Room, and I remember checking out all the old concert posters around the venue while we were setting up merch. We couldn't have asked for a better night to end the tour, and we threw in Stop Smoking at the end of the encore because someone requested it. Around this time we were taking turns driving the van back to the west coast. Pretty sure Will volunteered this time and spent an extra couple days on the road, while most of us flew out from there.

We had about a week of rest before we went back out to Winnipeg for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I think this was our first time playing the city because it tends to be pretty snowed-in for the months we usually tour around there. The weather in summer however was beautiful, and it seemed like the whole town came out to the woods for this festival. I remember playing the stage at the very far edge of this giant field and chatting with Alvvays about last minute stage details. The show was super fun and despite feeling rushed to set everything up in time, it went super well.

This festival tried to differentiate themselves from others by including artist workshops from pretty much everyone that played. I remember asking around to see what they expected, but no one really knew the format. Will decided to stay the next day on his own for the workshop and let the rest of us catch the early flight home, but looking back he probably could have used some backup. I think it was mostly chalked up to mixed expectations, but part the crowd wanted an additional show while others wanted a more in depth look into the writing process. He made it through though, and avoided the mishap where we almost lost all our gear because the van driver brought it back to the festival instead of the airport haha.

We had a few weeks off after that, so I took the van out into the woods to build out a better partition for the back. There was a makeshift one for the past couple tours, but it was falling over and crushing the backseat when we hit bumpy roads. So I met up with my friend Brian who used to work at Showbox with me, and who had recently finished building out an old school bus. We spent a day or two cutting out the pieces and securing everything to the frame so we could stack gear all the way up to the ceiling. I must have inhaled so much glue when we put in the carpeting, because the next day I felt so terrible haha. But for a low budget job, it's held up pretty well!

In August we had an opportunity to play one of those bucket list venues in Los Angeles. Seattle's hometown heros Death Cab for Cutie invited us out to open for them at the Hollywood Bowl. They were super nice and welcoming, and playing that scenic venue was a dream come true. I remember talking to a couple people at the merch tent who had actually never heard of Death Cab, and I told them they were in for a treat!