April 19 & 20 – Madison, Milwaukee

Good morning?  Ummm yes… David woke us up with fresh pancakes and coffee this morning… oh yeah suckas.  We got to chill out a bit and just veg out for the morning.  I'm pretty sure that I scared the neighbors by clipping my toenails outside on the deck shirtless and then laying out while catching up on phone calls.  They'll recover.

We arrived at the Orpheum in Madison and unloaded.  Perry the sound fella was great to work with on everything, and I think my guitar sounded the best yet.  Madison folk were patient and nice while I went through breaking strings on BOTH of my guitars in my six song set.  It's also the first time that I played "Pass You by" on the tour.  I think both the mis-hap and the addition went fairly well. 

I will say that I was hoping to get some new writing done while on the tour, but it's been tough at best.  With the discovery of a headphone output on my pedal board, it'll hopefully be easier to play around a bit in hotel rooms and whatnot.  I'm stoked to get some stuff out.

The Milwaukee show went well at the mildly famous "Shank Hall."  Spinal tap was no where to be seen however.  Paul the sound guy was also great to work with here.  I felt like the show went okay… but just okay.  Of course I had a great time, but the energy was a bit funny there.  I can't wait to play that town again though, because the people were so kewl. 

Back to David's house where the second late night pizza session occurred;  We stayed up talking theology and then ended on discussing David's intestines…. Hmmm… well, I never said I wasn't random.  We even named his guts "Simon".  Don't ask.

Yea!  Back to homeland tomorrow -  It'll be sweet. 

Peace out Girl Scout,

JJ

11:57 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

April 17 & 18 – Cincinnatti & Chicago

So after arriving in Cincinnati, we found out that the "Southgate House" where we were playing is known to be haunted… hmm…. Walking up the stairs both Craig and Connie (CC) said that it reminded them of the haunted house at the State Fair.  The Parlor room where we played was pretty quaint, but it was a nice intimate setting.  I was excited to run into my new friend "Shiv" from WOXY at the show as well.

After we moved everything up basically 2 flights of stairs and across the huge house to the van, Craig, Scott, Matt and I loaded the trailer while the girls of the group all sang random 80's songs.  Pretty funny stuff.  We then proceeded to enjoy a nice karaoke  session where I sang House of Pain's "Jump Around", and Dan sang "Pour some sugar on me."  Scott is still threatening to put my performance on YouTube.  I still think Dan singing the lyrics "Hot, Hot, Sticky sweet from my head to my feet," cannot really be contended with.  

We woke up and made the nice quick 4 hour drive to Chicago and arrived at Schuba's.  early.  I loved the energy of this show.  It felt pretty great.  I have to confess that the energy of playing with a full band is pretty sweet, but the solo acoustic thing is going very very well. 

I got to hang with my friend Lennon Bone from Amsterband that night when they were passing through on their way to Milwaukee from their home in Missouri – I think it's St. Louis.  Either way, it was great to see him and meet the rest of the band. 

After the show we piled into the van and headed to Milwaukee where we got the infinite pleasure of being hosted by David.  We arrived at David's house to find a real or make-shift bed all laid out for everyone complete with a fresh towel and a brand new bar of soap.  In the kitchen there was a smorgasbord of snacks and cups with our names on them.  He is the greatest.

We will definitely love our time here.

Chill til the next episode…

Jeff

11:56 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

April 16 & 17 NYC, Pastrami, Flooding and Snow.

Yesterday,  after we left the flat of the folks from Kaiser Cartel and hung out with a bunch of kewl peeps at Jen Carlson's (Cloud Cult Manager) apartment, we headed to the Mercury Lounge for sold-out night numero two.  This night, while slightly more wet, was a ton of fun.  I got to shop at American Apparel, which is always a good time… although the lady that helped Matt (CC) and I was wearing a one-sie, she was still real nice and we got some comfy sweat-shop free clothing for what is relatively cheap in New York.  

In-between my set and Cloud Cult's set I went to Katz Delicatessen to grab a bite to eat because Sue the security guy (yes… GUY… thank you man in black for that one) said that it was world famous.  Turns out it was; they claim to be the place where Sally in "When Harry Met Sally" had her "uber satisfying moment" while eating.  Pretty funny.  These guys are famous for their Pastrami sandwiches so I order one – he asks me if I want pickles – I say sure… wow… what he meant was, "Do you want 7 small cucumbers dipped in vinegar to go with your 4 pounds of pastrami and massive root beer?"  I ate half and was excruciatingly full for the next 2 hours.  It was SOOO good though. 

After a great set from Cloud Cult, we loaded-out in the rain and proceeded to try and make our way out of Manhattan.  After discovering that they don't like vans with big trailers to go through the tunnels and that half of the major roads on the island were flooded, we end up making our way out via Harlem and Newark about an hour and a half later.  Whew.  Needless to say, we found a hotel in Easton, NJ at 6:30am and hit the sheets until about 2pm. 

Today we went through some really crappy weather for a whopping 5 hours until the ABS on the van went out and snow was flowing UP mountains around us.  A little freaky, so we park it for the night in Somerset, PA.  After a Subway dance party and a snowball fight, we get to have a nice nights rest and start the 6 hour trek to Cinci to hit up the WOXY show.  It'll be good times. 

Until then,
Jeff

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April 14 & 15, 2007 - New York City
Current mood: content
Category: Music

Finally, the day has arrived where I get to meet up with Cloud Cult to start the tour at the Mercury Lounge in the lower east side of Manhattan. I started the day at about 5am after going to bed at 2:30. My fantastic parental units stayed up and woke up with me to take me to the airport. No fun waking up that early, but I was on the plane with the West Tonka Choir on their choir tour to NYC. My new friends chatted it up with me before I passed out for the remainder of the flight listening to Kelly Joe Phelps. I woke to a nice rendition of "Loch Lomand (sp?)" being sung while we taxied to our gate. They were so nice.

Though it's my fourth or fifth time in New York city, I am always amazed by how many people there are from so many different backgrounds. I'm sort of glad that we are only staying for Saturday and Sunday's shows – I had pizza for lunch and a Philly Cheese steak sandwich for dinner. Of course, when asked whether I wanted some cheesecake, there was no way I could refuse. I want to be able to wear the 3 pair of pants I brought on tour for more than 2 weeks, so I made Adrian (Cloud Cult) promise me that I couldn't use the excuse "Hey we are in **INSERT CITY HERE** so we can eat this right?" more than in New York. The food here is amazing.

We stayed in the loft of friends Courtney and Benjamin from Kaiser Cartel last night – arriving at about 4am and finding some nice floor real estate. Their place in Red Hook is amazing, as it is a old furniture factory converted into apartments. Also, their dog, "Ivan" woke me up this morning nice and late to snuggle… gotta love K9 cuddle time. I'm so grateful for peeps like them.

We went outside to put all of our crap in the van, only to discover that there was a small lake surrounding the rig due to the massive storm that is hitting us right now. For a guy who forgot to bring a good coat, this is definitely no fun. After literally throwing my stuff into the van at a distance of about 6 feet from the driver's entrance with Matt (Cloud Cult), we piled 8 of us into Courtney's (Kaiser Cartel) Toyota Prius and went to a very vibalicious corner café. After two eggs, toast, home-style potatoes, a side of bacon, OJ, water and the best coffee yet, we piled back in and are now killing time before heading to a dinner date with the peeps from Brooklyn Vegan. After that it's show time!

Last night's show went well. I'm definitely excited to play tonight after a full night's rest. After tonight it's on to Cincinnati for a WOXY show. Hope my new friend Shiv is there that I met at SXSW while watching Lilly Allen. That's a fun sentence to type J.

Hit ya back soon,
Peace,
Jeff

11:37 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

old, dead guys are smart...
Current mood: thankful

"...I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronisisng nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

-Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Book I, Chapter 4, The Perfect Penitent

2:26 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Do you care? Why? Good.
Current mood: thinky

"Here's my next show!  I have a new disk coming out!  Sign up for my mailing list!  Aren't you excited for me?!?!?!?" 

I always thought it a bit pompus to assume that people were interested in what you had to say as a musician, but after a while I think you just can't think about it that way, or ignore your instinct to not speak about your new songs, or a gig out of humility or whatever because how can anyone know about it if you don't speak up a bit?  And better yet, how can anyone like it?  That's, I guess, if you care about whether people like your music / art or not.  There is a weird balance, I think, between the desire to make art for the sake of art ( in otherwords, if people don't approve, you don't care... not in a "F*$k you" kind of way, but more in a indifferent way)  and the desire to use it as a way to meet some social need (money, girls / guys, friends, general approval, etc.)  If you lean too far one way, you are a sellout, if you lean too far to the other, you are pretty freakin' alienated as a human.  There are so many combinations of the two, and it's not an inverse relationship between the two, but yeah...  it's quite the little balance. that's my random thought.

3:39 PM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

hmmmm... well, here we are...
Current mood: just chillin' post work

I remember seeing this old technology show way back in the day that said we would be living our lives through our computers... shopping, having real experiences, communicating, dating, "going" to concerts, meeting new people, and yes, making friends.  I remember laughing it off and thinking about how pathetic that would be.  Well, it seems real life and technology are in a happy matrimony when you can use it to enhance real life instead of replace it eh?  I can't say that I've dwelved in all those areas, but so far, it's been a sweet ride.  Yeah, so this techy stuff is fun. 

Is there a rule on how long blogs need to be?  Good...

3:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment