Archive Sunday #31

SD: We met back up with John and the van at the St. Louis airport once we flew in from Philly. From there we jumped over to the Ready Room the next day to have our first ever show in St. Louis. It was this cute old venue with a small yet devoted crowd that was welcome since we were coming straight from a large, diverse festival a couple days before. After that, we made our way to some more uncharted territory when we visited the college town of Oxford, Mississippi. There we played a restaurant/bar/venue called Proud Larry's. It was definitely what we expected in a small town in Mississippi, with our soundcheck coinciding with their dinner rush over some CCR house music. But everyone there was super friendly and did their best to accommodate us even when it was obvious that they were more used to more singer/songwriter and cover band setups. The show itself was super fun and kinda reminded me of the sweaty rowdy shows I would play at restaurants when I was younger.

The next day we headed north up to Nashville, TN to a familiar venue complex called Cannery Row. The last time there we played the smallest room, but this time we graduated up to the medium-sized room Mercy Lounge. Thankfully, we were all healthy this time around and we got the chance to catch up with the Lemon Twigs who were supporting the show. I also remember running into my good friend from high school Kenny who I used to play music with. He had just recently moved down to Nashville and just started working production at the Mercy Lounge a couple weeks before. The show was packed and we all had a great night.

Our next stop was at Terminal West in Atlanta. We were pleasantly surprised when we loaded in with how nice the venue was. John our sound guy was so impressed on how they acoustically treated both the ceiling and back wall which is so often overlooked in venues that size. I remember when we were hanging out in the greenroom before the show the house manager came in to let us know they guest-listed a few actors in town for a movie. I didn't think much of it at the time but it turned out Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Craig were all just looking for something to do after filming all day. The show went super well, mostly due to the fact the room sounded so good. Unfortunately it was my turn to sell merch afterwards, but the rest of the guys had the opportunity to meet the actors right after we got off stage. They told me everyone was pretty smashed from a long night of drinking, especially Daniel Craig haha.

Next up we drove up to North Carolina to play the Hopscotch festival in Raleigh. It was one of those super big spread out festivals in which they made use of several venues around town over multiple weekends. We were slotted to play this large warehouse space in the afternoon right after Beach Slang. It must have been awful for John to mix in this large concrete box, but we had a great time playing a short energetic set right before Twin Peaks hit the stage. We stayed in North Carolina for the next show, but headed into the mountains to Asheville to play the Grey Eagle. I loved this venue, but it didn't really have AC so by the time the encore hit we all decided to go shirtless to avoid passing out from the heat haha.

From there we went north to my home town Richmond, Virginia. It was super cool to play this venue after going countless there times as an audience member when I was younger. It's always great to catch up with friends and family, but we never really have more than an hour or so to hang out. 

WT: What later would become the source of some infamous clips started out, apparently, with some boredom on the set of Logan Lucky, which was filming at the time in Atlanta. Daniel Craig had someone scout out any musical acts coming through the city for a potential night out, and we happened to be on the roster, so he brought cast and crew with him to a private balcony area. We were told who was in attendance; Andrew was sure we’d never actually see them, but I suspected that they might be more of the meet-and-greet type. Sure enough, after the show (I always feel I play better when I’m being watched by someone famous) we were ushered back to their balcony, and I was shunted off into a corner with Adam Driver, where it quickly became clear that neither of us were good at or interested in small talk. Andrew, meanwhile, was having his own experience with Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig, which he can tell you about. Eventually everyone gathered for a million blurry phone shots, and the entourage zoomed off to a party that I don’t believe we were invited to. Legendary.

In Richmond I injured my leg onstage a bit. I used to do a bit on "Vincent" where after saying "Half the time, I'm like this!" I left the stage and only came back at the last second before the vocals came in on the final chorus. This time I came back so late that I was running at top speed to the mic, only to slip and sing the final chorus from the floor, clutching the mic. The show must go on.

AK: So we just play a great show and see a bunch of movie stars dancing on the balcony while we play. We're hyped. Seth and I are running merch after the show and some secret service agent looking MF'er walks up to me and whispers in my ear, "Mr. Craig would like to see you in the VIP section." Someone had to watch the merch, so thankfully Seth agreed to hang at the booth while I was escorted upstairs to the balcony. I see all these movie stars and their entourage. I'm first accosted by Daniel Craig who is drenched head to toe in sweat from dancing. He is HAMMERED. He grabs me by the cheeks and yells right in my face, "GREAT FUCKIN BAND. GREAT FUCKIN BAND." I was hyped. We shot the shit for a minute and then I bumped into Tatum. I don't know where I came up with the idea, but I thought it would be really funny if Tatum took my phone and recorded himself saying, "Andrew Katz is a piece of shit." In hindsight I think it would have been more funny if he just ranted about me being a "bad guy" but it's all in the same vein. Either way, Channing was NOT comfortable with this and clearly hadn't been so bluntly asked to do something like that. He got incredibly flustered and made up some excuse about how he doesn't like to act without a script or some bs. Really he just should have said no because, obviously, it's an insane ask. But you know how movie stars are. Can't give it to ya straight! Eventually Craig ran over and demanded a picture where he proceeded to hold my chest like a baby. He was so drunk. I thought it was hilarious. Driver, on the other hand, was clearly peeved at how belligerent he was as I heard him mumble, "Fuckin Craig" at one point. After we chatted for a bit and took our pics, Craig was clearly over it. We had only been there for about 10 or 15 minutes, but when the big guy wants to leave, it's time to leave. He basically tapped a secret service agent on the shoulder and let him know what was up. The agents then rounded everyone up and people began to file out. Craig grabbed me again and asked if we were coming to "the villa," as if I knew what the fuck that meant or that it was even an option. We still had to pack up our stuff, so I politely declined. He couldn't have cared less as he was already one foot out the door and into an unmarked black SUV.