Hello, friends! Rob here.
Sorry I haven’t been able to update for the last few days. The first leg of this tour has been unexpectedly intense. Even yesterday, which was apparently a day off, involved a ton of walking and riding, a respectable amount of drinking, a nail-biting Saints victory, and, for me, a brief but emotional (assuming “awesome” counts as an emotion) reunion with my schoolyard chum and former bandmate, Brooklyn-based rock queen Briana Layon. Time flies when spent with old friends, and I didn’t get home til 2:45. So, curled up on a pull-out couch in the luxurious Van Dusen residence (thanks, Bruce and Susan!), I tried to write this entry at 3 in the morning while wondering if I would be able to stay awake and attentive long enough to finish it*.
Oh well. That’s this tour so far. No sleep and mostly lots of things happening.
Wednesday, we piled in the van bright and early (actually early, not I’m-in-a-band-so-anything-before-2-PM-is-early early) to drive for a long time and be in Nashville in time to play music notes. It was a relatively quiet evening at the storied Exit Inn as we shedded a few Thanksgiving pounds. We shared the bill with some cool band dudes called Goodbye June (me liking the music that other bands play will be a persistent motif throughout this entry) and things were cool.
I’d like to tell you that we spent the night at the home of our favorite Nashvillian, Jonathan Pears, but in truth it was more like we came over to his house and four in the morning for a quick nap before starting the 1700-hour drive to Falls Church (1701 hours if you count the change to Eastern time). We hit town just in time to sneak into Andrew’s parents’ house while they were out and raid the fridge (which I hope left them very confused) before returning to Dogwood tavern to set up.
Dogwood Tavern is exactly the kind of place I know I’m going to miss playing if we ever get “big” (whatever that means). A room that’s big enough to fit at least a hundred people, but small enough that ten is all it needs to feel crowded. A show where you’re personally acquainted with half the audience before you even start playing, and you get to know the other half over he course of the two or three hours’ worth of up-close-and-personal performance. No barricades, no security, hell, not even an elevated stage. Nothing but a mic stand between you and the drunk guy up front, and if you’re lucky he won’t take it down with him when he slips in the puddle of drink he has been spilling for the last half hour.
So after a few hours of that, we packed up and got a good night’s sleep- NOPE! MORE DRIVING!
It was the sensible choice, really. The DC-Connecticut drive is about four hours in raw mileage, but usually closer to seven or eight with daytime traffic. It’ll be better for the overall economy of sleep if we tough it out for a few more hours and then rest once we’re on the other side of New York City-NOPE! BRAKES FELL OFF!
In case you are wondering what the worst sound in the world is, I can tell you. It is not the sound of war. It is not yowling cats or crying babies or people saying racist words or whatever sound leukemia makes. Those are all good guesses, but none are correct.
The worst sound in the world is a sudden clunking noise coming from the undercarriage of a moving van that you are in, followed by the person who is driving that van saying “I don’t have any brakes.”
It turned out we had enough brakes to get to a gas station, pour like four bottles of brake fluid into the van’s brake fluid area (I am a car expert), and then drive much more slowly the rest of the way, but that setback turned what was already slated to be a twenty-four-hour day into a day that was even longer and suddenly much more expensive.
So once again we left, this time for Milford, CT, without getting as much sleep as we deserved. Milford is George’s hometown, and so in a way it is a very similar experience to the Falls Church show described above. Which is to say that it is most enjoyable.
But finally, after so many sleepless nights, we were only a two-hour drive from our next show. Finally, we can just catch up on sleep and-NOPE! EARLY AFTERNOON PHOTOSHOOT IN BROOKLYN! Not that I would ever complain about once again having the pleasure of working with our dear friend Alysse Gafkjen, whose work you have likely seen if you have ever looked at a photograph of this band that isn’t this really old one that last.fm won’t change no matter how many times we email them.
So we had to wake up early (okay, this time it was I’m-in-a-band-so-anything-before-2-PM-is-early early) and drive to Brooklyn, which was fine, because the shoot was a lot of fun, and driving from New Haven to New York is really easy and uncomplicated-NOPE! OUR GIANT TRAILER IS TOO WIDE FOR CERTAIN TOLLBOOTHS!
Yep, it turns out that what the “no trucks” sign that I guess we had never encountered before Saturday afternoon meant was “this lane is quite narrow, please use a different one so you don’t have to get two police officers (who, impressively, will manage to provide even more condescension than you rightfully deserve) to come out and block three lanes of highway traffic while you back up and cut across to get to a booth that can accommodate your overly-wide vehicle.” Who knew?
I’m not going to tell you who was driving during the aforementioned fiasco, because really, it was an understandable mistake that could have happened to any one of us and so there’s no need to drag anyone through the mud over what really wasn’t a big deal. But suffice it to say it was the most physically attractive member of the band, and the one who gives the best hugs, and perhaps the only band member who okay whatever it was me.
The actual show in Brooklyn went quite well. The first two bands, Derek James and OTiS were fantastic, and we were joined onstage by a fantastic trumpet-wielding gentleman named Maurice Brown for a few songs.
Maurice Brown is awesome.
Speaking of awesome, we’re back in Ohio! We love Ohio! Let’s do some Ohio stuff! I think we’re going to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to pick up a bit of inspiration before our show at Beachland Ballroom. So that should be cool. For now, I’m going to shove these words onto the internet and go to bed. I like you!
PS If you haven’t already, please vote for us (The Revivalists) for Best Rock Band in Offbeat Magazine’s 2011 “Best of the Beat” Awards, and while you’re at it also vote for our very own David Shaw for Best Male Vocalist! Tell your friends, especially if they are our friends.
*: NOPE! WROTE THE REST OF IT IN A SUPER 8 OUTSIDE OF CLEVELAND!
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