Buffalo to Colorado..

So, Buffalo rocks out eh? After a short jaunt from Toronto we landed in Buffalo for our early evening show in Lafayette square. The show was short but sweet and had us playing to thousands of new and existing fans. Sold a ton of CD's. Very cool. We even made it on to the evening news.

After our show we headed off to a very disappointing BBQ experience. Bland, bland, bland. I won't name the restaurant just in case they were having a bad night, but geez, isn't there a Dinosaur BBQ in Buffalo? I guess not.

Early next morning it was off to Colorado, and we got nailed with some really bad turbulence. I won't get into the details, but suffice it to say that my breakfast almost made a second appearance. Dodged that bullet. After a couple of delays we arrived at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, the legendary music club known throughout North America as one of the top music venues. Soundcheck was fast and I was able to grab some sushi with my pal and Jamcruise's own, Annabel Lukins before hitting the stage. The show was great and the Boulderians tore it up with us. I think we played "Ravine", "G-nome" and "VL Tone". The rest was all improv and Dan and Jamie put together some great progressions.

This morning we woke up to an amazing Colorado morning (or afternoon) and we headed for the mountains. An extremely scenic 50 minute drive lead us to probably one of the most beautiful and distinct concert venues that we have ever played. Set right in the Colorado Rockies is the Mishawaka Amphitheatre. The stage literally hangs over rushing rapids below with an unbelievable backdrop of rock laden mountainside. It's quite hard to describe, but I think it's the first time I've needed to use a microphone to communicate to my sound man because of the volume of the rapids themselves. I have a feeling that tonight will be great...

-Darren

Memorial Day run recap..

05/24/08++ 5:42pm

Wow, so the North East still knows how to rock out.

We arrived in Boston after a small debacle at the airport: Turns out they had loaded the bags from the wrong plane into ours. I imagined myself on-stage wearing a Women's, size medium LuLu Lemon pant and tank top, fending off heckles from the audience. But alas, they remedied the situation and eventually arrived in Boston. After a very quick soundcheck before doors opened, I elected to stay behind so I could meet up with the rep from Zildjian cymbals and hear the opening DJ's who were quite great. With that decision though, I was sentenced to eating our backstage rider as dinner. Hummus ad trail mix does the trick, but is no sashimi on rice (Boston does really nice Sushi). Anyway, Our show was great. The Bostonians always know how to kick off a run with a ruckus. The first set contained only what we cojoured up, and I think we only stopped once. I like those sets.

Onto Philly. Jamie, who is probably one of the smartest and analytical people I have ever met had forgotten that it was memorial day weekend (I knew, but was like,"so what?"). Turns out that traffic is OBNOXIOUS this weekend, so after a leisurely breakfast, it was time to (as Jamie says) get the frick out of Boston. Yes, traffic. So, many episodes of Deadwood on DVD later, we made it to Philly for soundcheck. We love playing the The TLA. Great tech staff, nice PA. and the crowd is always great. It was great to sell it out before arriving too. That's always a nice welcome. The show went great. we definitely rocked and rolled in this one. It probably helped that some of the Biscuits contingent were standing side-stage, quietly and probably telepathically egging us on ("What you got New Deal?!") May I say that about 90% of what we've played on tour so far has been completely improvised. That's pretty much Jamie's doing. He gets this look in his eyes and I know to just keep going and riding the wave. I am very excited to hear the audio from these shows.

Well, I'm about to take off to the Bowery for sound check and am very much excited for the show tonight. Although the three of us don't spend massive amount of time together (Jamie and I, a lot more due to the JOIN), there is a definite comfort I feel when the three of us are together. We are coming up on our 10th year this September (Where will the anniversary show be?) and I still see us growing, mutating and further strengthening the sound that we began to develop almost a decade ago. I think that's pretty cool. Stay tuned for my review of the Bowery show (from my viewpoint at least) and we'll see you out there!

Darren

Memorial Day run A/V..

05-22-2008++ Boston, MA++ Paradise
PHOTOS: David Timmons

05-23-2008++ Philadephia, PA++ Fillmore at the TLA
PHOTOS, VIDEOS: David Timmons

^ PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE KEYS RIG BEHIND THE CURTAIN

^ ARON MAGNER!! YEAH!!!

^ JGS AND THE ONE AND ONLY JOEY FRIEDMAN

^ DAN, THE ONE AND ONLY JOEY FRIEDMAN, AND DARREN


^ IMPROV

^ DEEP SUN

05-24-2008++ New York, NY++ Bowery Ballroom
PHOTOS, VIDEO: David Timmons

^ OUR FRIENDS AT TRINIDAD


^ DURING SOUNDCHECK JAMIE STUMBLED UPON A STEEL DRUM PATCH
ON THE NORD. DARREN COULDN'T RESIST ADDING SOME EMBELLISHED
VOCALS AND RIDDIMS. THIS CLIP IS DEDICATED TO KWARLES.

^ DARREN AND KEVIN OUT FOR SUSHI IN NEW YORK

^ THANKS TO YONI FOR THE PARTY AFTER THE BOWERY SHOW.
HERE WE SEE THE SUN COMING UP FROM A BUILDING AT TRUMP PLACE