We’ve been on the road with Bad Friends for a few days now,
and, like, I don’t want to jinx it, but we’re 4 for 4 with people moshing at
our shows. Our tour kickoff show at
Valentines in Albany on Friday was rad; lots of friends came to see us and buy
our brand-new merch, because we have merch now.
I’ll try to get some pictures of our tapes and t-shirts up soon; they were
designed by Jimmy from Bad Friends (who also did the awesome art on the cover
of the new Monster Movie album) and feature Theda Bara (I got Ben into her
recently, because he saw a photo I had of her and was all, “Who is this chick
lounging with a skeleton? That rules.”)
(Recommended reading: Annie Helen Peterson’s piece on Theda Bara in
her always-exceptional Scandals of Classic Hollywood series. Bara apparently once said that she had “the
face of a vampire, but the heart of a feminist,” which I hope is true because
it sounds too good to be true.)
We’d been added at the last minute to a metal show at The
Funeral Home in Buffalo on Saturday night, which, as it turned out, ruled (Thanks
Britt!). We got to play with black metal bands, Bad Friends were the best I’ve
ever seen them, and the crowd was great. The Funeral Home is an old actual
funeral home that was bought by some kids and turned into a DIY venue, and it’s
definitely one of the coolest places we’ve played. The walls are lined with photos of every band
that’s ever played there, and I hope I get the chance to go back there and see
our photo.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast at vegan-friendly
diner Amy’s Place, we headed to Cleveland for our show at Now That’s Class! We
arrived several hours early, which meant several hours of wandering around
Cleveland, using the McDonald's bathroom, and eventually giving in and hanging out at Now
That’s Class! for a really long time before the show (not that we could
complain about free Saranac root beers and the guy who entertained us and the
bartenders with his relentless salsa dancing).
Jake from Bad Friends, in classic Jake form.
The show started really late (? I don’t know, maybe I’m just old) and
there were probably about a dozen people in attendance, including the other
band. It was our first show with Jimmy
playing bass and Will playing guitar (Mike had to leave after our Buffalo show
because he has a big boy job now and can’t take time off work), so the small
turnout meant that it felt more like practice, except in a punk bar nine hours
from home. We stayed with local celebrity Mr. California, who has a very amazing
VHS collection and a very hard wood floor. My hips and back are sore already
from attempting to share a sleeping bag with Ben (which can only be achieved by
some intense and painful configuration of spooning), so I’m thinking we should invest
in a couple of yoga mats or a foam mattress pad (and, you know, another
sleeping bag).
Unfortunately, Will has been sick since before we left, and
by Monday morning, he was feeling pretty awful. We drove him to an urgent care
clinic, where he was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and prescribed some
antibiotics. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon, because it is a real
bummer to see his face leaking all over our stuff.
Will feeling shitty at The Funeral Home.
I’ll recap our show in Muskegon later because even though I've barely said anything, much less anything insightful, this is
already getting really long and not very exciting (and seriously lacking in
photos of us doing tour stuff, like playing MadLibs in the van, playing
Exquisite Corpse in the van, and posing in dimly-lit graffiti-covered bathrooms). We’re
going to try to head to our show in Fort Wayne, Indiana early enough to beat
the impending snowstorm of doom that’s been predicted. Our tour dates are up in the “Shows” section,
but we’re still missing a lot of information because punx is mysterious. I'll try to update as soon as I know what's going on. We’re also still hoping to pick up some shows in Texas
(around Dallas/Denton on March 5 and Houston on March 7) and New Orleans/Knoxville/Nashville (March 9-10), so if anyone out
there can help us, we’d be eternally grateful.
Also, vegans: give us your recommendations for cheap vegan
eats in the Midwest and South (Will and Jimmy are vegan, and I’m trying to
avoid dairy in an effort to save my voice, which will probably be futile
because I wake up every morning feeling like my throat is filled with tennis balls).
WAFFLE HOUSE BREAKFAST TALLY: 0
:(
-Bridgette
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