I Have A Boo Boo On My Head.

Thank god for Spongebob band-aids.

Two nights ago we played in Charleston, West Virginia at a fine place called Sam's Uptown Cafe on Capitol Street. For some reason or another this seemed to be the longest period of downtime we have had on this tour, but Sam's fed us twice, and comped our drinks. We spent a majority of the day promoting online and doing other productive things... like getting Brad on Facebook. From what I can understand Sam's is an after hours bar and our friends Union Pulse, whom are playing acoustic on this tour, thought that we would connect to the later crowd. Union Pulse and Reverie alternated sets back and forth, (i.e. Reverie at 10, Union Pulse at 11, Reverie at midnight, and Union Pulse at 1 am). This was interesting and fun. The show concluded with an impromptu jam of "What I Got", featuring every musician in the room, including Dave, the bartender, on the washboard.

Outside of Sam's we met two super nice people named Karen and Ali, two Chicagoans whom happened to be traveling through Charleston and randomly came into a bar we were playing. Naturally this was a funny coincidence.

Unlike most of the shows on this tour, the crowd was a bit thin. It was a Monday night in Charleston but like always, there was an upside to this. We were able to meet everyone in the bar and perform just for them. Despite the thin crowd we translated well and sold some merchandise. To our surprise, it turned out that Ali and Karen were on their way to Annapolis, our next stop. We said our goodbyes and started loading up.

For almost two weeks we have gone without hurting ourselves, outside of the occasional hangover. I have learned now that the reason you have roadies is to protect yourself from injury, to save energy, and to set your gear up. It is exhausting when you are fully clothed in the summer heat loading out gear. After a 2 hour performance and a lot of alcohol you feel rubbery, drained and the last thing you want to do is lug the band's gear down 24 stairs... and walk back up and walk back down and back up, and back down, and back up... There were 24 stairs at Sam's.. I know because I counted.

During our load out from Sam's I whacked my head really hard on the back of the van. I was inside of the van loading gear in, pivoting from facing out of the van and back into the van. On one of my many turnarounds I must have stopped crouching and lunged back into the back of the van to put in a pedal board. In the process I managed to catch my forehead on the latch that sticks out the back of the van. I fell to my knees and began moaning every curse I know. There was barely blood, but the welt was good sized and it was throbbing. Luckily, our manager Coate knows something about hitting his head on things and after making sure I didn’t have a concussion patched me up with what first aid supplies we could find at the moment (i.e. 2 napkins, some sanitzer and a band aid). 2 days later it is still tender so we stopped and I got some Cortisone cream and some trusty Spongebob band-aids.
Ali and Karen ended up making it to Annapolis with their friends that they were meeting in the first place. It was nice of them to bring some extra people out and watch us two nights in a row. Luckily for them we played a slightly different set, filled with humor and sarcasm.

This show was similar to the night before, not only because we were playing with Union Pulse, but because the crowd was a bit thin again. This does not bother us. We are well aware that thin crowds are often a part of touring independently, but we are noticing that our performance changes when there is a big crowd compared to a smaller crowd. James from Union Pulse reminded me that it has to be enough playing with your band despite the size of the crowd... I replied by explaining that we aren't used to it and that it affects me sometimes, not because of an ego issue, but more because we are “spongey” people. I love feeding off the energy of the crowd, and sometimes when the crowd is thin it is hard to perform. For our style of music it feels rather aggressive. However the sarcasm and humor must have worked because we sold some tee shirts and cds, and signed some autographs (which is still weird to me but fun)!

It is enough playing with Brad and Kevin every night. I wouldn't be out here doing it if it was not. We have made a lot of progress as performers and entertainers on this tour. Playing 2 hours a night (sometimes 4 hours) will tighten you up and Murphy's Law will be in full effect on stage. After our show at Sam's, Brad and I nearly stabbed each other due to poor communication during the set. These things can get frustrating but we were able to figure out some signals and new rules to avoid us throwing any verbal or physical blows.

In the end I do miss Tom and Aaron. I cannot lie about that. For those of you who do not know, Tom and Aaron play in Bullet Called Life. For our Chicago shows and a few out of Chicago,Tom and Aaron play with us.