"Whats brown and rhymes with snoop? Dr. Dre."

5.14- Pittsburgh, PA/ Cleveland, OH

Thursday was our first day of tour and we left Philly around 2 for our trip to Pittsburgh. We had a nice "going away" party Wednesday night that got pretty rowdy and ended with broken lawn furniture and Metallica. Needless to say Dave and Jon got pretty rowdy. I miss them already....So we got to Pittsburgh around 6 and Eric, Joe, and I took a walk to probably the cheapest bar in the entire world. I got 10 perogies for $1.50 and beers for $1.00. Cant complain. The show was at our good buddy Franks house in the Polish Hill section of town. The crowd was great as it always is in Pittsburgh and I'm always overwhelmed with how nice everyone is there.
We played pretty good from what I remember and American Armada ruled as usual. After their set we said our goodbyes to them, Dan Rock (Lock and Key Collective), and the Incommunicado dudes and took off for Cleveland. We decided to break up the drive a bit and stay with our buddy Matt from The Sidekicks. If you've ever met Matt you'd know that he is hands down one of the nicest dudes on the planet and is totally cool with 6 dudes rolling in at 3:30 on a Thursday. Everyone at this point passed out while Matt and I stayed up till around 5am drinking awful beer and talking about music. The punx were clearly upped that night.

5.15 Chicago, IL

So I forgot to mention that my friend from Lake Ariel is working at a golf course all summer in Wisconsin and came out with us for the first 3 dates. I've been riding shotgun in his new $700 Ford Ranger and while I'm currently hundreds of miles away from home, there's something so familiar about sitting in the front seat and attempting to listen to every song The Mountain Goats ever recorded. Not to mention arguing about what kind of fish were in every lake we passed. See I've tought Carly a few things in my day about ranglin largemouths and tacklin rainbow trout in my time spent in Lake Ariel.... Anyways we left Cleveland fairly early and got to Chicago around 6. We met up with Toby and had a few beers at his girlfriends bar before heading over to our show at Ronnies. The show went really well and we had a great crowd despite it being our first time in Chicago. Also Brendan Kelly made it a point to get us wasted before, during, and after our set so we were all at a solid party level. After party ensued till the early morning and I somehow managed to get the futon. Sick. The next day Carly and I bought scalped Cubs tickets while everyone else went downtown to some art musems. The seats were incredible and of course we managed to sit right in front of the rowdy drunk bad dad who was ready to jump on the field when Kevin Gregg gave away 4 runs in the 9th. Cubs won and after we celebrated with the rest of Chicago.

5.16
After hanging out with Toby all day we took off for Rockford, IL with absolutely no clue what we would be getting into. Heres the deal..... Basically every show on this tour was easy to book except for Milwaukee. We had no contacts whatsoever so we met an awesome band who helped us get on this show in Rockford. We played at a bar called Marys Place for a girls birthday. Half of the bar were old regulars and the rest could care less about us. We opened up with "Sunday Morning" and I couldnt stop laughing during the set about how completely unpredictable touring can be. During the song an old drunk mexican was dancing in circles while spinning his cowboy hat. He later tried to get us to cover "La Bamba" and play his daughters birthday party the next time we're in Rockford. You got it buddy. After the show we found a cheap motel and got some much needed sleep.

5.17 Nowhere
I'm sitting in the motel watching the most disgusting/amazing show ever: Daisey of Love. We've got 5 days to make it to Spokane, WA and 20 hrs till Yellowstone National Park. I'm pretty sure we'll be camping in South Dakota tonight which should be a trip. Eric just got punxed hard by thinking we needed to check out of the motel. Silly Eric, my computer never switched time zones. Thats all I got today.

5.14- Pittsburgh, PA
5.15- Chicago, IL
5.16- Rockford, IL
5.21- Spokane, WA
5.22- Richland, WA
5.23- Tacoma, WA
5.24- Tacoma, WA
5.25- Olympia, WA
5.26- Portland, OR
5.27- Eugene, OR
5.28- Redding, CA
5.29- Reno, NV
5.30- Berkeley, CA
5.31- Watsonville, CA
6.2- Fresno, CA
6.3- Hollywood, CA
6.4- Riverside, CA
6.5- Las Vegas, NV
6.6- Phoenix, AZ
6.7- Flagstaff, AZ
6.8- Albuquerque, NM
6.9- Denver, CO
6.11- Austin, TX
6.12- Houston, TX
6.13- Houma, LA
6.14- Tallahassee, FL
6.15- Atlanta, GA
6.16- Knoxville, TN
6.17- Johnson City, TN
6.18- Wilmington, NC
6.19- Richmond, VA
6.20- Wilkes Barre, PA
6.21- Philadelphia, PA

This is our longest tour ever. Tom and I made a pact that we wouldn't shave till we got back to Philly. You can see in exhibit A that Tom's tour beard gets pretty gnarly. We'll see what happens. We leave for tour this Thursday and while we've been planning for this since February, all of us have waited till last minute to do everything. Tony is currently in New York City selling comedy tickets in Times Square to make rent for the month. He used to work at a cool little Indian restaurant but a new boss came around and completely screwed him over. Needless to say Tony told him off and is now in this position. Tom and Eric brought their amps to a repair shop last week and the guy said he'll "try" to get everything fixed before we leave. Great answer.. I found out last week that my car needs a shit ton of work done and Larry the transmission guy said he'll "try" and get it fixed before we leave. Another great answer... This happens before every tour and somehow everything always works out.
Now none of us have ever been to the west coast before so I'm assuming we're all gonna be snobby tourists and take pictures of buildings that have absolutely no significance. Oh America.. Heres what I'm beyond excited for (besides the obvious of playing the shows) on this tour in no particular order:
1. Yellowstone National Park- Erics parents let us borrow a 12 person tent so we'll be camping for a few days before we meet up with Broadway Calls. I got a new pocketknife and got my sights on a grizzly.
2. Chicago- Never been there before but heard great things. Plus my best friend is driving from Lake Ariel, PA to Wisconsin for a summer internship so I'll be riding shotgun in his truck for that part of the trip. Also we get to hang out with Toby from Red Scare who we only drunkenly met at Fest 7 last year and somehow ended up on his label. Figure that one out...
3. Driving through the desert- It better be like the movies.
4. Las Vegas- We're playing 2 shows here (all ages and a 21+) and I convinced everyone to take the money from one of the shows and blow it all on red. Plus the promoter from the 21+ show is giving us free booze and hotel rooms so we'll see where that night takes us.
5. 924 Gliman- I dont think I have to explain this one.
6. Talahassee, FL- Our buddy PRS is driving up with Spanish Gamble from Ganiesville for this show. PRS's nickname means Punk Rock Steve and if you've ever met him you'd understand why hes aquired that nickname.
7. Richmond, VA- We've played Richmond more times then I can remember but every time we roll through its great. Chris and (soon to be!) Lisa Moran are without a doubt 2 of the greatest people we've had the pleasure to meet while doing this crazy band thing and its really awesome at how close of friends we've all become over the years.
8. Hollywood, CA- Our buddy Scott from Philly moved out there last year to further his film career. Hes definitely the best person to show us a night on the town.
9. Portland, OR- a group of our friends from Scranton just bought a mini-bus and are driving across the country to move to Portland. Unforunately we'll be there a week too early but they're putting us in good hands. Plus our good friends Colin and Nicole live there so it'll be a great to see them again.
10. Eating chocolately foods all the time.

I've run out of ideas but I'm more than stoked on everything. We're gonna try to keep this blog going while we're on tour to the best of our ability. See you soon!

-Greg