Archive Sunday #28

Fresh off our festival set at Pitchfork, we played a local club show the next night at Chicago's Empty Bottle. We got  the chance to hang with Jason Balla of NE-HI who I think at the time occasionally worked at the venue. It was our first show playing with Detroit's own Stef Chura, and kicked off a long run of shows we would tackle together. I remember our booking agent was in town, and she came out to show support. She talked up the venue's rich history and local significance, but was surprised when she came downstairs and noticed the basement green-room could barely fit both bands haha. I always put it up to those venues realizing the musicians have the potential of being their best customers, so they try to make the bar the most comfortable spot.

 It was a great night with an awesome crowd, but we tried to make it back to the house we were crashing at as early as possible cause we had an early start in the morning. The next day we got to Milwaukee before noon to perform a few songs for Radio Milwaukee. I remember we all didn't really know what to expect and were surprised that they had a seated audience to watch us play. They only had time for us to play a few songs, so it ended up being one of those early shows that we didn't start getting into until the last song haha. 

From there we made our way to Turner Hall Ballroom to load all our gear in and soundcheck again. Luckily we had some time to chill before the set. The best part was that we all got some free schwag from the radio station that morning including matching bright orange beanies. So we all started the show wearing our sweet new knit caps, though I think most of us only made it a couple songs in before getting too hot.

After that we headed to Minneapolis to play the Triple Rock Social Club. The local fans were great as always, and I remember catching up with of Will's aunt and uncle and a couple of their friends after the show. We told Stef and her band we would see them again on the West Coast in about a month before we headed back home to play a few more shows.

We had a couple of days off, then we all met back at our practice space to grab our gear and walk it over a couples blocks to the Capitol Hill Block Party just outside. Ethan had just used the money leftover after paying his bills to buy this beautiful blue Jackson guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge and whammy bar, and we all could tell by the look on his face how excited he was to play it for the home-town crowd. Things went off to a rough start when we realized our scheduled soundcheck coincided with a dj set occuring on the same stage haha. 

We tried our best to run at least run a line check and try to get some levels, but the amount of stage volume pumping dance music made it pretty useless haha. Unfortunately our misfortune didn't end there, because about three quarters through our set Ethan broke a string. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal, but with this new guitar and it's Floyd Rose bridge it meant his entire guitar went wildly out of tune and was impossible to get it back to normal without a setup. Once he noticed he was shit-out-of-luck and playing left-handed meant he couldn't find a quick replacement from a band backstage, he did the only thing that could save the rest of the performance. So as the rest of us finished out Times to Die without the lead guitar, Ethan raised his brand new guitar high over his head and slammed it into the stage. Then again and again with increasing frequency until it shattered in pieces all across the stage. The crowd loved it and went wild, with people grasping for pieces of the broken guitar and cheering him on. 

We had a couple of days to regroup and try to forget about the show, and Ethan swore he would never play a show with a Floyd Rose bridge again as he restrung his trusty SG. From Seattle we drove up to Canada then took a ferry to Vancouver island. It must have been a Canadian holiday weekend because I remember we had hours to kill at the ferry terminal before it was finally our time to board. Once we got to Victoria we set up of gear in the middle of Centennial Square. Everyone there was insanely welcoming and thanked us for making the trip out to Vancouver island. So we played our set outside on the concrete stage as we watched the sun set across the beautiful city. I remember this was the show where we only came with the leftover small and triple XL puke green How to Leave Town shirts that we had been trying to get rid of for years. Thankfully they must not get a lot of bands traveling through Victoria, because we actually sold them all haha.