the “yeah country: an american idiodyssey” tour is underway, and as we sat in traffic on the BQE on our way up to boston on thursday, we were just thinking, “we’re on tour…yes!” we started it all off for the abbey lounge portion of the nemo festival, and we used every second of our 40 minutes of alloted time. plenty of family and friends came out to the show, and we got a nice write-up from “hip 2 be square“.
we were able to stick around for the next band, appomattox, and they recently relocated to brooklyn from boston. these guys brought a ton of energy to the night and were amazingly tight. we’ll be going to another appomattox show very soon.
after the van was packed and we shoved off, we realized we were basically heading right back through new york and on to pittsburgh. the boston show was like a sling shot; pulled us back and shot us into the country. we drove through the night with the plan to find a diner in pittsburgh with never-ending pours of coffee and a lumberjack special.
i woke up around 6am on friday to the sound of neil young, and brett slapping his own face to stay awake. brett had spent the last hour or so driving solo (ie he was the only one awake in the car), and neil had been the resurrection. brett took it to the next rest area, and i got behind the wheel at twilight. the set list that morning included the allman brothers, the neptunes, nirvana, clinic, liars, and lightning bolt. the bolt roused the remaining mugs from their slumber.
after we found garfield artworks, it was time to find a place to eat. penn ave turns into a main drag of restaurants, bars, etc etc etc. we found de luca’s, and it was the perfect spot for some breakfast. highly recommended if you’re travelling through pittsburgh.
based on a recommendation from the staff at de luca’s, we headed over to the other side of the river and found a perfect resting spot in the beehive. again, highly recommended. there’s a guitar shop a half block away, as well as two great book stores.
after some resting, some supreme nachos, and some $2.75 guinesses across the street, we headed over to the garfield artworks. manny met us at the door, and we unloaded all of the gear. definitely take a look at the pictures we put on flickr to see what the garfield artworks space looks like. manny has got a great thing going, and i can only hope that more and more people know about it.
dean cercone started the night off, and dean was a complete explosion. of emotion. of energy. just him and an acoustic guitar. he and his dad drove probably an hour each way from where they live so dean could play 6 songs. looking forward to hearing more from dean. samoan cats and the still life made us feel welcome in their hometown of pittsburgh.
drove through the night again to chicago (thank you jeremy for taking the midnight to 5am shift through the rain), and now we are resting at ron’s place (plainville, il) before we hit chicago for our show at the hide out. for those of you in chicago, we’ll see you tonight. good times ahead.
we’ll keep updating the site to let everyone know how things are going, and be sure to check the slideshow for more photos.
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