H'okay, so...


Wake up at 8, with my shit already together, but there is a branch pruning tree the state seemed to decided to put perpendicular to our driveway. Leaving us with barely a car's width of space to back out THREE cars onto our lawn. Thanks a lot, guys.

Leave for Amherst around 8:30. Take 295 to 146 to mass pike. Listen to REM "Document" and XTC's "Oranges and Lemons". No bad traffic at all. Get stuck behind a tanker on the backroads to umass. Oh well.

From there, Dan drives down I-91 to the Merrit parkway. Listen to a collage of stuff such as Television's "Marquee Moon", a Banter/3.1 compilation disc, and XTC's Drums and Wires. Listen to Drums and Wires twice as it's that mood of "HOLY SHIT WE TOOK A WRONG TURN" in the city and just can't be bothered to turn it off. Merrit parkway is just beautiful, art deco bridges and scenic forests. Definitely will take the route again.

Got in NYC. Had to make a couple more turns than I would have liked but we get there. Find a parking spot but talk about it and spring for parking, good thing too, because everyone was getting ticketed. Oh well, would rather pay money to know I'm not gonna get a ticket, and my car is safe.

Kill some time in NYC by walking down Broadway. Dan and I just kinda admire the girls. And oh boy, where there a lot of them. A lot. Eat something, get back to the club where Pete, Nick, and Hannes are waiting. Walk around some more, grab dinner and then back to the club for a soundcheck.

Then the devil's playtime, the time between soundcheck and the set. Kill time, try to network with other bands, doesn't really work that well. The main stage is a crust punk/metal show, tap room is a band that was suppose to go on at 10, but ended up going on at 8, so we had conflicting times, damn. Mac showed up, and his friend Tom, as well as Pete's Mom, sister, aunt and uncle, which was very very sweet.

Get up there, opened with Providence Public Defender. It goes well. New song, I have fun playing it, well, not really. It's weird.

Can't remember the setlist, as I've seemed to have lost it, but it WAS written on a napkin. Overall, the set was alright, B, B+. The stage setup was sorta weird, and you couldn't see the audience, like always, which is weird, I don't do well if I can't see the audience. To date, the first and only show I've done with earplugs in. Dan's new hi-hat just completely obliterated all the highs up there, and while I couldn't here Nick, I'd gladly sacrifice that instead of my high-end. It's was alright, not our best, but not our worst.

Hannes and Caroline Pook were really really good, bought his last CD. Hope he comes back to America.

Drive home, take FDR to 289 East to 95. Fine until we hit 95 north. Traffic due to some dickwads closing two of the three lines on the highway due to construction, fine, but it was like midnight on a Wednesday. What the fuck.

Smooth sailing, listening to Laurie Anderson's "Big Science", Girl Talk's "Night Ripper", Hasidic New Wave's "Truth and the Abstract Jew" and Sufjan Steven's "Illinoise". Drive through Connecticut AGAIN, only with Dan and I giving it some not-so-nice-names. Drive for a couple of hours before letting Dan take over so I can eat and we can make good time. Driving through 95 in RI is really weird, because I never have to use it except going to providence. Anything south of Warwick on 95 is just too weird for me to comprehend.

Was mildly amusement for some reason (probably because I had spent 9 hours in a car) at the fact that 95 has signs for North Kingstown and West Greenwich, but I remembered West Greenwich is just a big industrial park. Dan took some back road to NK, which I actually remember because we had to go down that way to get to 95 when we played New York the first time. Funny, going the opposite way at the opposite time of night.

Drop Dan off, take over. Drive back home, getting that weird feeling I get whenever I take a road trip. Your home is not your home, it's just a series of walls and 90 degree angles that house your shit. It's weird to think that someone might pass by my house in the same way I just pass by someone else's house, on the Merrit, for instances.

Do an internet check, bed at 2:30.

Now it's work for me all the rest of the weekend...fine by me.