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Archive Sunday #69

Added 2024-10-06 16:00:11 +0000 UTC

Later in March we received a last minute offer to play SXSW again to help fill out an artist showcase at Stubb's. We were pleasantly surprised to learn it actually paid something rather than just exposure, so the four of us jumped at the opportunity to return. We arrived the day before and checked out the Fender tent to kill some time. I remember grabbing a bunch of guitar cables they had laying around as freebies, and the other guys laughed for me filling my pockets with schwag. Not even a month later, Ethan said he wished he had grabbed some too. This time, we just had the one show so it should have have been a pretty chill time. But I remember we had some difficulties getting our monitors set up with all the moving pieces. Also my rented bass amp overheated during the first few songs, so I had to quickly switch to King Princess's amp as a last resort. Luckily their bass player was cool with it when I told him after the show. It was a fun sweaty night, and this time we got to come back to some air conditioning to relax.

After some much needed rest, we went back out to Colorado to play Red Rocks this time opening up for Interpol. It was a cool lineup that included Sunflower Bean and Japanese Breakfast right before. We caught up with Danny Ayala from the Lemon Twigs who was playing for Sunflower Bean at the time. Plus I learned that Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast went to school with Andrew for a bit when they were kids. The weather mostly held out but it was certainly pretty chilly with some light drizzle coming down. It was a struggle to keep our fingers warm during the show, but it was definitely a great night.

After those one-offs we were excited to meet back up with the Naked Giants again. We started back out on the East coast with a show in New Haven Connecticut. It was a typical tidy college town at a venue called College St Music Hall. It's always a bit stressful for the first show back especially far from home after a little break, but the crowd was really excited and welcoming.

Now that summer had arrived, we took the chance to hit a festival somewhere we hadn't ventured out to yet. This time it was Firefly Festival out in Delaware. I remember beating Andrew in ping pong by the artist tents after we set up at the stage. We got put on a stage right before AJR which didn't seem like it had a lot of crossover, but we had a fun time regardless. I don't remember sticking around too long after the show, but I think that's because we booked a hotel pretty far out towards our next show.

Next up, we played Buffalo, New York at this old converted church called Asbury Hall Babeville. It had a really cool vibe, and I remember sampling the piano in the basement a bunch after soundcheck. Andrew had this long-running idea to spoof the Yesterday movie he saw previews for, so he took the opportunity to futz a bad cover of Blackbird and got the crowd to boo him. I have no idea what happened to the footage, but maybe we'll find it for the stream.

The next day we drove to Cleveland to play one of the many House of Blues. I'm not a huge fan of how they all look pretty similar because they always kind of get mixed up in my head. Touring already kinda feels like groundhog day even without seeing the same paintings on the walls night after night haha. From there, I'm pretty sure we went over to Indianapolis for the first time. It was at a venue called Deluxe that kind of had this old hotel banquet hall vibe. I remember loving the spooky wandering halls around the venue, and we even film a funny horror short in the basement.

WT: The film "Yesterday" was a huge running joke in our band for a long time, despite Andrew being the only one to see it for years. He caught it on an in-flight, and tore it to shreds afterwards. It was very entertaining trying to get the plot of the movie through hearing his rendition of it. We had an idea for a parody where Andrew is the only one who remembers the Beatles, but other than knowing the song "Yesterday", he can't remember any of the other songs right. I wanted to make a full trailer for it, but the only thing we ended up filming was him playing a very limited version of "Blackbird" to an enthusaistically booing audience. If you ever want an audience to get engaged with your show, ask them to boo at you. Anyways, years later I finally caught Yesterday on an in-flight. You know what? Not that bad.