Midwest

Upon arriving at The Basement in Columbus, Ohio, we loaded in, sound checked, and dispersed for dinner items. "Shiv" from Cincinnati's WOXY.com came to suprise the band with his presence. He's a long time friend of Ra Ra Riot from their many performances and interviews at the station. I've heard his voice and seen pictures many times, so it was cool to meet him.

Our next show was in Cleveland at a Case Western University Lounge/Bar attached to a dining hall. The room had a small little stage, low ceilings, ample PA, some lights. It reminded me a lot of Schine Underground actually at Syracuse University (for those of you who know it). About 200 students came, which was great given the size of the room.

We then trekked to Chicago, where we were invited to stop by the Threadless office/warehouse (Threadless.com, the t-shirt company). It was a pretty wild, extravagant, fun place with crazy murals, ping pong, deer hunter arcade game, a photo booth, and tons of people hanging out. Reminded me of an MTV Real World house. They let us raid the warehouse, free of charge. Snagged some cool hoodies and t's.

The show at Subterranean was perhaps the largest venue yet on the tour. Pepi Ginsberg joined us starting this show as support before Walter Meego (the tour's main support). I tracked Walter Meego's performance on my 8-channel firewire interface to my laptop and came up with a great mix. Here's a sample:

Walter Meego - Lost (Live @ Subterranean)

After a damn long drive up to minneapolis, we loaded into what would become our favorite venue so far on the tour: "7th Street Entry," the sister, sub-venue of the large "First Avenue" venue. The stage is intimate, clean, and interestingly shaped. The PA was well tuned and the lights were exciting. I brought a few par cans along with a mini fogger and small controller; which I've been setting up on the floor in the backline. They've been a nice compliment to the in house lighting systems; which are often limited in their control. Here's a great video someone posted of St. Peter's Day Festival:



Come the morning after the incredible show, they played a quick performance at the Univeristy of Minneapolis' radio station and did a little interview. It should be available somewhere within Radio K soon.

Two days ago we drove ALL DAY to Lawrence, KS. And here I am at a hotel. Which is very humid because the centerpiece of the facility is an indoor pool. Mat and I also had a friendly chat (which was actually just a series of veiled, sarcastic attacks from both parties) with some totally bro'd out, drunk, kansas dudes on our way into the hotel, whom embodied every stereotype demonstrated in that RV scene in the Borat movie. They "liked" our jeans, asked me if I was straight, twice, and referred to allie, becca, and elise as anything but "girls" or "females." I think you catch my drift. It was somewhat amusing. Lawrence is a cool town though. Its pretty homey. Westward!

New York Pt. 1

By the time of that third robbery attempt, it was well decided that we were bound for the US as soon as possible. So, to Niagra Falls, just inside the border. It was definitely one of those disorienting nights, where you leave the venue at 2am, fall asleep on the floor behind the 2nd bench in the van, wake up with heightened senses to a gas nozzle slamming into the metal right next to your head. You fall asleep again, and wake up outside a hotel, slug your crap inside, and go to bed... again. what?

By the next evening, we loaded into Mojo's in Jamestown, NY. Despite the fact that it was a tiny bar with a makeshift stage region, the crowd was ferocious. Crowd surfing. In a 12x12 floor space. In the heat of it all, someone managed to spill a beer all over the Alesis. That, I suppose, is a sign of a great show.

Next up was Rochester's Bug Jar. The bar had apparently had some issues with a fight and police reprimand for being over capacity a few night before, so when the bar started to fill up for the show, and people were still flooding in from the outside, they had to cut off attendance. There was a line of about 20 dedicated people who were forced to wait outside until some more people left. We were glad that the show was drawing a large crowd, but felt bad for those who couldn't make it in right away. Things seemed to work out though. The show was awesome, and threw the band some obstacles with a faulty violin amp and a broken cello string late in the set. Wes put it best: "Sorry we got so much broke-ass shit." But I don't think anyone minded. The room was was full of positive energy from start to finish.

Syracuse started as an early morning, loading into the large-scale, outdoor-field show at 11:00 and immediate sound check. The event, "Juice Jam," is Syracuse University's beginning of the year kick-off concert; This year featuring Ra Ra Riot, Talib Kweli, and Bloc Party. Attendance was reported as the best in history for the event. All acts were great, and Bloc Party came out for their encore wearing makeshift towel-togas. I think they were slightly amused by the fact that they were playing for a mass of rowdy American college students. But not in a bad way. At least not in a way so as to deter the lead guitarist from coming to the after show house party. He was there. Girls flocking him and all.

Ohio stuff to come. 'Till then.

Canada - Shows and Thieves!

Our first leg of Canada entailed the tour kickoff show at Club Lambi in Montreal, followed by a double header day in Toronto: Performing an MTV Canada broadcast in a "concert" studio/hall in the afternoon and a wild show at the Horseshoe Tavern at night. 

The MTV performance was a live broadcast of "Ghost Under Rocks", followed by the taping of "Can You Tell" and "Dying Is Fine" for later airing. The stage was massive and elaborate, and on screen it looked like an awards show set with a large audience.

The show that night was absolutely packed and crazy. Dave Monks, Graham Wright, and Greg Alsop of Tokyo Police Club came out for the night to see their buddies play, and stuck around after for a few drinks. All-in-all, the Canadaian performances were fantastic. But we had some bumps along the way.

After the first show, we realized that our Tom Tom GPS unit was stolen from the van along with Gabe's video camera and Milo's dopp kit. God knows there are thousands who long to own Milo Bonacci's contacts, shaving cream, and toothbrush. Our travels to Toronto also welcomed us with an attempted prying and opening of the passenger door keyhole during the 10 minutes spent inside the venue for load in... most likely by the twice-confirmed crack den occupants next door. It was a pleasant sequel to the band's robbery of 5 laptops last tour in Montreal. Without any offense to Canada's peaceful reputation or their amazing fans at the shows, we are unfortunately not feeling the love from the nation at large. Maybe next time; The show must go on. We somehow justified the death of Tom Tom with the birth of a new Garmin GPS unit, which is now customized to display a pizza slice, chipotle burrito, or flying eagle as the vehicle icon, installed from http://garmin.com by Alexandra Lawn herself. What a techie.

Our next blog-trip will take you to Jamestown, Rochester, and Syracuse. Keep in touch.

Also check out our remix of Tokyo Police Club's "Juno" that spilled its way into the internet this weekend:

http://theremixcompany.co.uk/?p=237

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

After some brief gawking at the 30 Rock building and mild hallucinating, in which Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy roamed the halls, I picked up my guest pass and scanned-in via barcode to the elevators. The 6th floor houses the entire Conan O'Brien production; Makeup rooms, green rooms, control rooms, and studio. The crew is a well oiled machine, and had the the band's gear perfectly pieced together and mic'd on a rolling platform in minutes. Every single stagehand there is a full fledged, middle aged new yoaka'.

The green room was nicely furnished with a large leather couch, homey textured wallpaper, coffee, sandwich platters, and most importantly, the band's self-installed N64 with Goldeneye. Mat and Wes tag teamed facility on 00 Agent with great success just after sound check... so thats all taken care of. In the interim between load in and sound check, Becca, Milo and I went to a music store nearby to buy some miscellaneous stuff for the tour and ran into the drummer for Vampire Weekend who was looking at a new drum set. Pretty cool.

It was entirely surreal watching the TV monitors during sound check in the live audience seating, and seeing people that you know in the "Conan" environment. Its also weird to see the studio with your own two eyes; The geography you've interpreted all these years from watching the show feels quite different in person. I met briefly with the sound mixer to hear what it was that would go to broadcast, gave a few thoughts and suggestions, told him how to do his job (just kidding), etc.

Come time to shoot the show at 5:30, we were all quite nervous. Even me, and I wasn't even doing anything. Family, friends, publicists, manager, and band mates watching the show in the green room, we all found ourselves laughing at every one of Conan's jokes... which, let's be frank, really aren't that funny. Finally, Gabe (drummer) utters through his teeth after one of these forced swells of laughter "Hahaha ha ha... its so much funnier because I'm terrified...!" That actually earned a bigger laugh than anything Conan said. Although I did enjoy the guest zoologist's baby tiger accident on Conan's tie during the interview.

Alas, they performed "Ghost Under Rocks" with great intensity and charm. Embedded on the page are pictures, the performance, and some video work I captured throughout the day. Enjoy.