Charlotte

This was the 40th anniversary show for The Milestone. Rock clubs tend to age in dog years and it's extremely rare for one to make it this far. Add in the fact that The Milestone is essentially a pressboard chicken coop in a particularly nasty section of Charlotte and you've got a miracle on your hands. That being said, the sound was excellent, the staff was friendly and the crowd was on fire. The opening band was an amazing instrumental trio from Charlotte called Hexagons and the headliner was a krautish post rock outfit from Athens GA called Maserati, also amazing, also instrumental. Check them out. Extra thanks to Scott's Mom for putting us up and making the best breakfast I've had in months.

UPDATE - RIP MAserati drummer, Jerry Fuchs. He was one of the most talented drummers I have ever witnessed.

DC

Second to last night of tour was in the nations capital. Specifically in a pizza/ping ping parlor in the nations capitol. Show was fun because we had lots of friends there and a nice crowd and they fed us lots of premium pie. Late night was back at Gianna's as per usual in DC and we rounded out things with a little bang and sizzle. Know what I mean? I don't either.

The next day Paul backed into a sign in the parking lot of the DC Children's Hospital. Take that sick kids!

NYC 3 days off

We had a couple days off in NYC, our first real break in weeks. Activities included but not limited to:

Kandinsky at The Guggenheim
Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
Dumplings from Vanessa's
Walking, walking
Tuesday night at Freddy's
Blue potatoes with Leeks
scotch bonnet marinated onions and carrots
shopping for digs
more walking
more dumplings
happy hour at holiday cocktail lounge (though with friends, not waiting on them)
happy hour at Winnie's in Chinatown
happy hour at The Library
ginger carrot and kale juice for hangover
walking across Manhattan bridge
dinner at Bia
cemitas from Rico's in sunset park
probably some more walking in there somewhere

Pittsburgh

This show was at the Thunderbird Cafe, which is technically in Lawrenceville but who cares. When we showed up the vibe therein was decidely Grateful- they were pumping Terrapin Station through the mains. I, for one, was grateful for this welcome departure from typical sounddude rock. I was even more grateful there was a coin op laundrymat right next to the club as my laundry situation was getting kinda hectic. Extra special thanks to our friends Paul and Leah for putting us up and for taking us to Primanti bros after the show for a traditional P-burg sammie featuring your choice of meat/ fish, cole slaw, and fries- all on the sandwich, Soooo good.

Detroit Oct 18

In honor of it being one month later I plan to catch up on the posts I've been slacking on. I know all 6 of you readers have been chomping at the bit so lets get to it shall we?

We played at the Majestic Theatre Cafe which sounds way cooler then it actually is because it's the cafe part, not the theatre part which is truly majestic. I know this because David and I snuck in there and got a peak. It's friggin' sweet. I imagine a White Stripes show there back in the day was pretty fun. The place feeds you which ain't too shabby so there was that. Upstairs was the dude from TV on the Radio's other band and rumor had it that they were not very awesome. Rumor was carried by some dude who came down to see us and got hype. Can't remember his name but his enthusiasm was appreciated. We were supposed to play with Fidrych but Fidrych never showed so we did it solo style. NEXT!

Troika fest this weekend...

This Friday at Duke Coffee Shop- We'll go on around 12. Neill will be mixing live video projections during our set. Details on the Troika blog here




The full lineup for this show-

12:00 Birds of Avalon
11:00 I Was Totally Destroying It
10:15 The Pneurotics
9:30 The Ringing Cedars

Full Troika schedule here




More about Neill and Juxtapongo

Chicago, Bottom Lounge

Despite having been there at least 10 or 15 times, Chicago is still a mystery to me. I can't ever figure out where anything is, or how different parts of the city fit together. This was our first show at Bottom Lounge, a large concrete room in a seemingly bombed out area, but for all I know it might have been right next to the hippest/ swankiest district in all the land. I never even saw the front door. We stayed with our friend Doug McCombs who plays bass in Tortoise. I've been listening to their new record, Beacons of Ancestorship, quite a bit the past week. It's spectacular. Doug also gave us a copy of his recent album with David Daniel, Sycamore. Sprawling, richly textured ambiance that hovers like a thunderhead- great driving music.

Madison - Real Jaguar's B-Day Bash!

Oh man, Madison. Well this was a good one. We started out meeting up with our buddy and local Madison gadabout, Gabe. Gabe is a DJ (real jaguar) for the local college station and knows more about music than most. He also lives in a fantastic place with three porches and a rooftop patio which overlooks the downtown area. What up, playa? The show was at a place which escapes me right now but it had a killer downstairs greenroom and the bartenders were super friendly. The great bands we played with this night were Trin Tran (my favorite, personally), Spires that in the Sunset Rise and Peaking Lights. Also did I mention yet that there was a magician performing in between sets. Why can't every show be like this? At one point the magician, James Grainger (who also made the pizza we ate for dinner!...not magically he actually works at a pizza joint. Fuck that would be cool though.) made a dollar bill, Craig's dollar to be exact, appear inside of a lemon that he cut open. He ripped of a quarter of it, ate it with his teeth, then somehow made that shit end up inside a lemon!!! Got that? No? Ask Craig to demonstrate when you see him because it was some otherworldly shit.

Back to Gabe...he also (in addition to the pizza) went and got us some killer pre-show thai food and keep us libated All. Night. Long. All night! It was his birthday party too btw. At his house was an after- party and it got ugly. Hot tubs, boobies, driving a Mazerati 90mph the wrong way down a one way street...you don't want to know (nod to Fat Bobby).