Thursday, May 7, 2009

I'm sick of packing up my sleeping bag

The last time we met we had just finished playing what possibly was the worst show of our careers. I don’t want to get into it just like you don’t want to tell me why your last girlfriend/boyfriend broke your heart and hates you, so let’s just all move on.

The day after the debacle we drove to Chicago to play a house show at our friend Sabrina’s house. We played at her apartment last year and it was a lot of fun so we were all pretty psyched about it. I drove the whole way and only listened to Pavement B-sides so at this point I really only have one friend left in the band. That’s Zack, and that’s because he had his headphones on the whole time. When we got to Chicago we had some time to kill. I needed some drumsticks so we went to a Guitar Center. There’s only one good thing about Guitar Center and that’s the ridiculous amount of electronic drum sets they have set up. It took me 45 minutes to make my way through the maze of sounds over to the drumstick section. I played every single electronic kit in the building (22) and don’t think I don’t know how ridiculous it looks/sounds when someone is beating the crap out of a piece of plastic with headphones on. If you were hearing what I was hearing though…let’s just say Rodeo is going to be hard pressed to find a replacement for this guy right here.

The show went really well. We played in Spider Basement 1.0, and my favorite part of the night was when we were waiting for the show to start. This hipster was listening to this awesome spoken word music that was simultaneously blowing my mind and making me hate everything about speech. I recorded my own song, and I’m sure we’ll put it up on this blog at some point. After the show, Zack tried to get the money and was confronted by a gang called the 77’s (not to be confused with the band). Between him and our friend Ellen, they beat the hair grease right out of them. At least that’s what he told me. I imagine it went something more like this:

Gang: hey bro
Zack: hello there
G: why don’t you get the fuck out of our way
Z: did you know that 9/11…
G: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gang runs away. Zack saves the day once again.

The next morning Sabrina made us an incredible breakfast complete with fruit-filled pancakes, veggie bacon, coffee, and danishes. I saw a spider and Alex decided not to kill it, but to knock it onto the ground. It’s impossible to eat in peace when you know a spider could be on you at any moment. I helped to calm my fears by playing with the two cats as much as possible. When we left, one of the cats was just chillin on the roof. It didn’t really make any sense.

On our way to the next show in Mt. Pleasant, MI we stopped at a KFC to get our free meals (thanks Oprah!). Our nuggets were filled with so much joy when it worked. My joy-level dropped a bit when I saw the size of Zack’s piece of chicken compared to mine. Think about the size difference between my bicep and Kyle’s bicep and you’re getting close. I felt like I was eating a grilled chicken nugget, and I hate chicken nuggets.

When we got to Mt. Pleasant we had arrived early, so what else to do but play some boxball? This time around we set a current tour record by getting four (4) random people to join in, and three (3) people we knew. At one point there were nine (9) people playing a single game of boxball, the great equalizer. I was happy that there was such a cluster of people, but sad that every time I got out I had to actually wait in line for longer than 30 seconds. I’ll never be happy.

The show was awesome, and it took place in Spider Basement 2.0. At one point I realized my popcorn hair was resting in a spider web and I got goosebumps so big they looked like flesh colored peas had been glued to my arm. As usual, I had a favorite part of the night. This time, my favorite part was when my bass drum scooted an inch away from me every time I kicked it. By the end of each song it would have been easier for Alex to play it than me. I was using someone else’s drum set, and it seems like every time I do that I get burned. It’s just too tempting to not have to set up drums that I always blindly agree, and always will.

Tonight we’re playing in Bowling Green, OH. I’ve only been there once and it was on my bike trip last year. I spent probably 5 minutes in the town and all I remember seeing were 2 golf courses. I hope everyone tonight is wearing khakis and tucked in polo’s.

Cool Steve, out.

3 comments:

  1. "Gang: hey bro
    Zack: hello there
    G: why don’t you get the fuck out of our way
    Z: did you know that 9/11…
    G: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

    Cool Steve should just die after this, because Cool Steve will never make me laugh this hard ever again

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh i doubt that, it will happen again, and soon...i can promise that.

    ReplyDelete