Look, we’re in Delaware! | THE VITAL MIGHT

03/12/07 - Look, we’re in Delaware!

Look, we’re in Delaware!

We didn’t actually play a show in Delaware, but it factors into this tour bloggity update. Since last we spoke, we played in Asbury Park (home of the Boss!) and Philly, with some interesting stops in between.

Let’s start with Thursday night at Asbury Lanes. If this place was in my neighborhood, I’d go at LEAST once a week. Five bucks and you bowl for free all night and watch bands. You don’t get the fancy electronic scoring and super animatronic video feeds like at Lucky Strike in Boston, you have to keep score yourself. It’s sort of like how Google and Wikipedia has made it so we don’t have to remember shit anymore, the same with the electronic scoring. Cracker and I had a round-table debate on how to score a spare and strike. The result had Cracker beating me by 10,000 points, so I THINK we might have messed up.

Our past drivings in and out of NYC were very smooth, so we got cocky and paid for it this time around. It took us an hour to get about a mile to the Lincoln Tunnel so we could get the F out of NYC. Since it was -10 the time we were there, we stayed inside most of the time and it felt very claustrophobic, so it was nice to move on. It took us another couple hours to get from Hoboken onto the NJ turnpike and onto the parkway and down to the shore. Btw, almost all of the NJ turnpike rest areas are named after presidents, except for the Vince Lombardi one. Holla Vince!

Asbury Lanes was super cool, as mentioned above. We met up with Michael, Young Deez, and the other guys from Thunder Kids, who set-up this show. A local band, Chemtrail went on first. They were fantastic. Three guitars, no vocals, very moody and sometimes heavy orchestrated rock. Kinda like Oceansize with no vocals, Mogwai, maybe even Isis. Great stuff. The sound there was SWEET as well and the sound guy was very cool and personable (note to other unfriendly soundpersons, you can be nice and STILL do your job well.) We played 2^nd and had a blast. People were bowling on either side of us (Mike tried to get some shots of people in action as we played as you’ll see in the photos). I made a comment during one of our songs as a gentleman on the lane next to us fell as he shot and slid onto the lane…that got some laughs. Thunder Kids played their very vibe-driven atmospheric rock after us. They said it wasn’t one of their best performances, but we were impressed. Some crazy effects on most of the instruments really thicken up their sound and keep you guessing. Meets West, the local favorite, rocked it like a cracked-out Talking Heads to end up the night. The bassist took a dive off his amp, and landed sideways on his bass…we didn’t think he was getting up, but apparently this was de rigueur for him, and he trotted off-stage without a scratch.

We bowled a few frames after we played and then packed up and barreled back across NJ to Highland Park, right next door to New Brunswick to stay at Casa de Liska. We didn’t have a show on Friday, so we checked out “300″ and were duly impressed. Love the visuals and the violence. Who needs a plot when Leonitis has that bad-ass beard and gives speeches that make us feel like we’re his men? That night, Mike invited over a bunch of guys from “the family” and we sat around the kitchen table, most everyone puffing on cigarettes, and rapped about a million things and played “flip the id card on top of 3 beers” game. Correct me if I’m way off, but this felt very New Jersey to me and I loved it. Afterwards we put together a big jam session, which might be the highlight of the tour for me thus far. About 8-10 people jammed at any given time…acoustic guitars, basses, accordions, congas, tambourines, etc. Richie’s wife Sandra started it off with some Flamenco guitar playing and singing, which was beautiful. Throughout the night, I kept harmonizing on Sandra’s singing and we determined that our voices sound killer together. We might be the next Sonny and Cher, minus the marriage, divorce, and subsequent decapitation. I played accordion for the first time and it was TRICKY as hell. But within 20 minutes, I was rockin it and singing at the same time and proclaiming, “I’m fucking playing the accordion and singing at the same time!”

The sun came out on Saturday and we dusted off the cobwebs and ran around outside. Going for a run down by the river was the best thing for us. It was like a super happy energy pill and I intend to do it as many days on tour as possible. We rearranged the mess in the trailer and hit the road en route to Philly. A quick stop at Best Buy netted us a new video camera (video blogs coming soon!) and got $200 off it since it was the floor model. Jenga!

Wow, this blog is getting long, sorry dudes and dudettes. We met up with Thad at his place in Philly and also met his dog. I apologize but I forget the dog’s name, but he/she really loved/hated us and barked in our faces. This doesn’t bother me at all and I tried to make friends over and over, to really no avail. So, that’s when the “Spirit Destroyer” came out. Thad put a little thing on the dog’s mouth that hindered barking. It wasn’t a muzzle, but the moniker proved perfect. Instead of standing in our faces and barking incessantly, the dog went and hung out in his “place”, a wicker bed near the TV. I think “Spirit Destroyer” may be the title of our next album.

s="MsoNormal">Grape Street in Philly was sick. Huge stage, great sound, big room, upper area with tables & chairs, a dance club attached to it…really loved this place. We loaded in and watched Stones Thrown play. They reminded me of Muse and really sounded tight. The Flood was on next and they had a little Finger Eleven but with the Arcade Fire guy singing. Good dudes with matching black shirt/tie outfits. Nice touch. We decided to change up our set from the last several shows and threw in Palillo, Awkward Wings, and rocked a couple different covers, My Prerogative and Take on Me. Our set got the most ass-shaking as has happened on tour, which was very nice. A 22-person bachelor party, which Ben knew was in the hood showed up and got rowdy. Later, one very friendly onlooker told me after the set that she “saw how badly I fucked up on that Cure song.” Hey, I admit my mistakes. I DID really botch one part of Take on Me, but THE CURE?!? It’s Aha bitches!

This is when the night got fun/weird. After hanging at Grape Street and watching Jealousy Curve KILL it, we followed a friend o’ JC to her house near Wilmington, DE (to cut our drive to DC but an hour for the next day). Her kids weren’t home for the night so we got to sleep on their bunkbeds! Yes! Check out the pictures for us playing with their toys.

Whew, ok, that about covers it. We drove to DC yesterday and here we are. We’re off in a few minutes to go see all the big national monuments and pledge our allegiance.

Got DC tonight, Baltimore tomorrow, and VA Beach on Wednesday so we’ll probably post after that little run.

THE VITAL MIGHT

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03/12/07 - Look, we’re in Delaware!

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