How'd you spend your summer vacation?
Project 27 did what punk bands are supposed
to do - they got in a van and spent the summer
driving across the country, playing basements,
backyards, crappy little clubs, and anywhere
they could get a show. Drummer Joey Mac was
nice enough to share his tour journal with
us. The photos are from all over the tour
from various sources. - Editor
Wednesday, July 9th:
After not being quite able to get to sleep
the night before because of excitement, the
day has arrived again...the day to leave home
to start another Project 27 tour! The rest
of the band arrives at my house at 9:30 a.m.
or so. The songs on my IPod have been deleted
by accident, so I frantically update it with
thousands of songs right before we leave.
We depart from our hometown of Long Beach,
New York at 11:30 in the morning after buying
some word search and crossword puzzles for
the road. Willie Nelson's, "On the Road
Again," suitably plays as we head to
our first show in Washington D.C. with smiles
on our faces. Our van, "the Blue Monster,"
has taken off.
The D.C. show is rather lame. No one's really
there, despite Dead Mechanical and Death and
the Compass rocking the place. We have to
pay to rent out the venue, called the People's
Media Center at Afishawy. That sucks. We play
downstairs in the dingy concrete-walled basement
full of old furniture and defunct computers.
Kris mentions that he pissed on them later
in the night. In the meantime, a Native American
meeting goes on upstairs. A man by the name
of Jay Nightwolf introduces himself. We have
bad Chinese food and our lovable roadie, Ian
Scum, pukes.
We don't have a place to stay for the night,
so we stay at an EconoLodge in Virginia. On
the way, we pass the Washington Monument,
the Jefferson Monument and the Pentagon.
Thursday, July 10th:
We wake up and eat at a local Waffle House.
The next drive is to Raleigh, North Carolina.
We then arrive at the Pour House Music Hall.
It's a nice venue with great sound and a friendly
"sound guy." Before unloading the
van, a street guy named Donald has an extended
conversation with us about how he's been to
jail on numerous occasions (I think he said
32 times, not bad). He explains how "Snitches
get stitches," and exactly how he and
his girlfriend get it on. "I create my
own moves!" Donald exclaims. He tells
us never to smoke crack (a good tip) and he
refers to white girls having "pimply
pale pumpkin asses."
At the show, the Aggressive Pedestrians play
first, a punk band consisting of three teenagers
who all excel (see: "shred") at
their instruments. We're impressed. Next we
play, to barely anyone, but we sound good.
Lastly, Woah…an Elipsis plays. They're
cool and have a lot of energy.
Scotty from Woah…An Elipsis brings
us to party at the Dive Bar after the show
ends. We drink and listen to our kind of music
courtesy of the punk rock bartender. Then
I notice a girl walking in the bar with her
friend, falling over, walking out of the bar
and walking back in. Later she tells me that
I'm the only reason that she came back in
the bar. Hah, this girl is trashed. She's
no fun to talk to so I walk away. Richie Roast
sits at the bar in misery as he can't drink
for a few more days, due to being in the hospital
up until the night before we left with a torn
esophagus.
Scotty and his girlfriend
put us up for the night. We have some drinks
and sing-alongs with an acoustic guitar at
their place. Some of us drunkenly play the
game Twister. It doesn't last long. Ian keeps
us awake with what seems to be a comedy routine
of babbling nonsense, and then we fall sleep
as the sun comes up.
Friday, July 11th:
We have the day off. We drive from North
Carolina to South Carolina. On the way, we
buy $100 worth of fireworks and an El Torro
poster (the name of a firework, with Mexican
bull holding dynamite on it, toting the slogan,
"So loud it's criminal), at Shelton's
Fireworks. We also stop at Bedtyme Stories
adult shop and stock up on magazines. The
band then purchases a six-person tent, a grill,
charcoal, and food supplies at a Wal-Mart
in hopes of finding a camp ground, since we
don't have a place to stay again.
Our Global Positioning System fails to find
the local campground, so we stop and ask for
directions at Buffalo Bob's Outpost, a fireworks
store in a city called Travelers Rest, South
Carolina. The folks at Buffalo Bob's tell
us to stay the night in their backyard (coincidence?!),
behind the store. Not a bad idea, except that
Mark, one of the staff who sports a rifle
on his back is telling us that hoodlums occasionally
try to rob the store. He also tells us to
put away all of our food when we're done so
that bears and mountain lions don't show up
to our tent in the middle of the night. Mark
explains, "If anyone comes and fucks
with you, I'll rain the heat on them."
With threats like that, we start to think
that he wants someone to come attack us.
A drunken Buffalo Bob and friends continue
to spoil us with a free fireworks show, lighting
off at least $500 worth of their inventory.
We show Buffalo Bob our fireworks collection
and he tells us that he's putting some of
it in his fireworks "Hall of Shame."
We laugh. This was another very fun night,
and we start to declare this tour to be the
"Best tour ever!"
Saturday, July 12th:
Well, we live through the night. The band
travels from South Carolina to Dalton, Georgia.
We think we have the day off, so we go to
the library and make flyers to pass out. The
band gives flyers out at the local mall and
then puts some in Mason's Music. In the music
store, we meet a band called Endive from New
York who is playing the Venue tonight. We're
scheduled to play there tomorrow, but we call
the promoter, Susie, from the Venue and she
okay's us to play tonight as well. Cool!
The first band seems like rednecks doing
parodies of current pop songs, which is blah.
We play well, I think people enjoy us. Next,
the Yellow Team from Manchester, New Hampshire,
plays. These guys are cool and know our friends,
the Asthmatics, from the same area. Endive
play, they are real tight and their punk/ska
combo is fun to watch. Finally, 50/50 from
Dalton headline the show.
We light off some sky lanterns that were
given to us by the Buffalo Bob crew. You light
the fuse near the bottom of the sky lantern,
and as it heats up the balloon, it rises into
the sky until it can't be seen.
We're allowed to stay at the Venue, which
we're told is haunted. We party and at 3 a.m.,
we hunt for ghosts. RP, who is obsessed with
the television show, Ghost Hunters, yells
for the ghost to come and get him! I still
think I may have seen a ghost that night.
Dutch gets wacky and starts dancing around
us as we're trying to fall asleep on the concrete
floors. Goodnight.
Sunday, July 13th:
Susie brings us Bojangle's for breakfast.
We hand out flyers for tonight's show at the
mall again in Dalton. Back at the Venue, we
have a baseball catch.
After our downtime, it's time to play a show
at the Venue again. A street-punk band called
the Autopsy Outlaws play their set which includes
a few old punk and hardcore covers. Our Ghostbusters
theme plays through the speakers which is
our right of passage to get on stage. We open
with the Ramones' "Rockaway Beach."
The Gullibles play after us. They're tight!
They had a very enjoyable set of catchy pop-punk
tunes. Some of the people who are at the show
meet us at the Waffle House and we eat. A
few of us party after at the Venue, where
we are allowed to sleep for a second night.
Monday, July 14th:
We have another day off today. We leave the
Venue in Dalton, Georgia around 10 a.m. and
we're on the road again for 12 hours, heading
south to West Palm Beach, Florida. We stop
at Wendy's for lunch.
In West Palm Beach, we meet up with our pal
Matt Parker of the Ridicules. We party at
his girlfriend, Christen's house. Richie Roast
lights a sky lantern which rises and quickly
drops into the neighbor's backyard that is
full of trees and other plants. He jumps over
the fence to get it before the neighbor's
house could become on fire. He trips over
the fence and we laugh. That's about it for
today.
Tuesday,
July 15th:
I wake up in a sweat, before everyone else,
in the Blue Monster because I decide to sleep
in it with the window cracked. I take a walk
around; it's a nice sunny day in the neighborhood
with palm trees standing tall and small lizards
crawling around. At Walgreen's, I buy a couple
of disposable cameras. When people wake up,
we eat at a tasty sandwich joint named Jon
Smith Subs nearby. The band then heads to
the beach in Jupiter. RP fishes while me,
Kris and Richie Roast enjoy the southern ocean,
which easily could be mistaken for bathwater.
The Ugly Harts play first at the show. Then
the Ridicules play, who are definitely one
of my favorite bands who we play with on this
tour (myspace.com/theridicules). Eric Stank
of the Come Ons joins them on lead vocals
for a song. We play next. Most of the crowd
leaves after the Ridicules and we don't sound
great because half of us are drunk, so I'm
not in the best mood. I'm anxious to leave
the club as the Ruins close the show with
some original songs and a hearty amount of
old punk covers.
On the way back to Christen's place, we have
one of the many drunken sing-alongs on the
trip, to the 90's tunes of Smash Mouth and
Lit.
Back at Christen's house, we party. Ian Scum
and I are disappointed in the limited late
night menu at McDonald's. Kris decorates Richie's
face with nail polish while he's sleeping.
He wakes up and applies nail polish remover
to his face to clean it off.
Wednesday, July 16th:
The band leaves Christen's house after a
two-night stay. We enjoy fried chicken from
the supermarket for lunch. The next drive
is from West Palm Beach to Gainesville, Florida.
In Gainesville, Tony from the Atlantic is
cool enough to let us watch the Ergs! and
Hunchback show for free since we were supposed
to play originally but it got overbooked.
We arrive in the town at 7 p.m. and hang out
until the Ergs! play at around 11. The Ergs!
are tight as always and call us out for being
the loud guys in the crowd from Long Island.
They play ZZ Top's "Tush," upon
Richie's request (The Ergs! are breaking up
soon, but they'll always be remembered by
us for raising the standards of the pop-punk
scene…myspace.com/theergs). Afterwards,
there is a mo-town dance party where everyone
seems wasted. We make the short trip to the
Gainesville Lodge and stay there for the night.
Thursday, July 17th:
Heading out of Gainesville, we pass by the
No Idea headquarters on accident. We make
the drive to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, located
on the panhandle. Me, Richie, Kris and Ian
write songs in the car in the five cent notebooks
that I bought for everyone at a Wal-Mart a
few days before. We pass a place called, "Niceville."
We stop at a Sonic's in Fort Walton Beach
and make a tour flyer for the show tomorrow.
I call the promoter, Chris, to see if we can
hop on a show because we've arrived in town
a day early. He's excited to put us on the
Ergs! and Hunchback show in Pensacola, which
is about 45 minutes east of Fort Walton Beach.
We are as excited to play and hop in the car
to drive there.
Then, our van breaks down.
…We can't make it to the show now,
which bums everyone out. Even more discouragingly,
our van is screwed. After two hours on the
phone with AAA, a plan is finally worked out
where we will be towed to a local Ford dealership.
As we're stranded on the side of the road,
a nice married couple named Jenny and Dan
notice our distress and asks us to come in
for a drink. We take them up on the offer
and after a few minutes of talking with them,
Dan tells us we have the invite to stay the
night. Awesome! This saves us.
The band learns that Dan used to be in a
ska band so he knows how it is to be on the
road. We also meet Cody, their roommate, who
tells us he was married and divorced by age
22.
We play Rock Band and party at their house.
Ian makes funny but seemingly unintentional
poses while playing drums and we make fun
of him. Domino's is ordered before bed.
Friday,
July 18th:
I wake up in a sweat at 5:30 a.m. because
it's not unlike a sauna in the house. The
others wake up shortly after. They mention
that fleas were jumping on them during the
night from the multiple cats (one being a
lynx) and a dog in the house. Dutch wakes
up in a puddle of urine from the animals.
They ruin his and Kris's sleeping bags, which
have to be discarded.
The band walks to the Gary Smith Ford to
see the status of the Blue Monster. A few
more hours are needed to finish fixing the
van, so we go back to Jenny and Dan's and
swim in their pool. Then we play more Rock
Band. We pick up the van around 5 p.m. and
it's fixed! Best of all, the dealership covers
the costs. Phew.
We play Coaster's in Fort Walton Beach. This
is our first of many upcoming shows with the
Tattle Tales on this tour.
The Tattle Tales play. We play next and sound
alright but people are really into it. We
sell a lot of merch, and make pretty good
door money. We even have to sign a few autographs,
haha. This show was definitely a pleasant
surprise for us.
A guy named Patrick at the show says he'll
put us up for the night. He lives in Pensacola
so we drive there. As we arrive at Patrick's
place, the Tattle Tales call me and say their
van broke down seven miles back so I go and
get some of them. The other half of the Tattle
Tales stay with their van so they can bring
it to a Tire-Plus car repair shop across the
street from where they get stranded at 6 a.m.
RP vomits outside, while Dutch falls asleep
with his eyes open. I fall asleep at 4:30
a.m. in a big comfortable bed upstairs.
Saturday, July 19th:
Project 27 and the Tattle Tales leave Patrick's
at 1 p.m. Some of us eat at Whataburger, which
is just okay, and some eat at the Waffle House.
Project 27 drives from Pensacola, Florida
to New Orleans, Louisiana, while the Tattle
Tales drive to their show in Gulfport, Mississippi.
We enter New Orleans listening to "City
of New Orleans," covered by Willie Nelson.
We notice some beat up houses on the way…
At Checkpoint Charlie's, the Worried Minds
play for about two hours to a few barflies
as we hang out in town. We meet up with Dan
and his friends. Dan is my friend from New
York, but he goes to Loyola College so he
knows New Orleans too. We dine at the Praline
Connection where I order fried alligator sausage
and gumbo (Everyone keeps asking me what alligator
tastes like and I'm still not sure…maybe
sausage…).
We load into Checkpoint Charlie's and I drink
a hurricane at the bar. There we meet George,
one of the only people that come to see us,
and who later is our tour guide around Bourbon
Street.
We play after the Saltines play a rather
boring set of unexciting punk rock tunes.
We sound pretty good, but only about 15 people
are there to witness it. A crew of unimpressed
pirates walks out during our second song.
Argh (Sorry, I had to). We make less than
30 bucks from the door. Yee-ha. But we can't
let that get us down, afterall, it's not everyday
that we're in New Orleans. Although we had
ventured onto Bourbon Street before we played
the show, it's now Saturday night, almost
12 a.m., and things are really picking up!
George guides us and suggests we get hand
grenades, a local drink that comes in a hand
grenade shaped bottle with a long spout. I
doublefist mine as we all start to get a buzz…
Some lady with her…err..."parts"
out walks by. We talk to her and her boyfriend,
who sports a skimpy leather outfit. A sloppy
girl claims it's her birthday and calls Kris
cute, and he proceeds to get some lip action
right on the street! We make it to the end
of the excitement on Bourbon Street and turn
around. Everyone around seems wasted and having
a good time. I knock over a barricade in a
drunken stupor. A few of us make a stop at
a strip club. At around 3:30 a.m., George
hints that he's had enough and we go back
to his place and crash on the floors and sleep.
What a fun day…Today's show wasn't great,
but I think this was my favorite day of tour,
at least so far.
Sunday, July 20th:
Day 12. The band wakes up early, at 8:30
a.m., because we have to make a long drive
to Nashville, Tennessee for the next show
tonight. I wake up with what feels like a
brick in my brain, after a fun night and sleeping
on a tile floor. We get McDonald's for breakfast.
The drive from New Orleans, Louisiana to
Nashville, Tennessee is a lengthy one. We
arrive at Windows off the Cumberland live
music venue in "Music City" at around
6:30 p.m. We get fried chicken for dinner
at a gas stop. The Tattle Tales have more
van problems and show up a little late. Ian
pukes again. "Chicken!" is all he
says after we hear the splatter on the ground.
He blames his misfortune again on food, and
not the Bud heavy that he drinks non-stop.
The show has good monitors and overall sound.
We play well. Wyatt, the lead singer and songwriter
of Second Saturday joins us to sing the third
part harmony on our Teen Idols cover of "Midnight
Picture Show," and it sounds awesome.
Second Saturday play next and they blow us
away. They play power-pop with some straight
some riffs. Their songs are great, I suggest
you check them out (myspace.com/secondsaturday).
Then the Tattle Tales play and they sound
great as well! Not many people are at this
show but we have a blast anyway because the
venue is cool, the sound is good, and the
bands were great.
At a local supermarket after the show, we
buy beers and food and head back to Wyatt's
place. I drink a local beer called "Don
Perros," which was real good. I don't
drink Bud heavy tonight, and RP legitimately
gets kind of upset with me, claiming that
it's the choice drink for this tour and we're
all supposed to chip in so we can get the
most beers possible... Phht. Anyway, we party
at Wyatt's until 5 o'clock in the morning
and have a sing-along, with him and Christian
Tattle Tale switching off on guitar. We notice
the sun rising as we fall asleep. Fun day,
goodnight.
Monday, July 21st:
Another day off. We wake up, shower and play
videogames. Wyatt shaves Richie Roast a Mohawk.
Project 27 and the Tattle Tales go to Barbecutie's
for lunch for some Tennessee barbequed food.
We get an oil change for the van at Wal-Mart
and Dutch gets a haircut there. Kris and Dutch
get new sleeping bags, free of pet piss.
Back at Wyatt's, we thoroughly clean the
Blue Monster and decide to see the new Batman
movie, "The Dark Knight," at an
IMAX theater. The Opry Mills Theater is near
the famous music venue, the Grand Ole Opry,
so a few of us check that out. "The Dark
Knight," is entertaining as well. Wyatt
graciously puts our band and the Tattle Tales
up for another night.
Tuesday, July 22nd:
After finishing laundry at Wyatt's, we say
our goodbyes and head north to Evansville,
Indiana. I realize we have tomorrow off again.
I call Pat from the Halloween House in Indianapolis
and ask if we can play a show there tomorrow
night. He says that we can hop on the bill
with Shot Baker and others! Excellent.
We play at night at the Mesker Shelter House
17 in Evansville, which is a place in the
woods that families can rent out to stay in
on vacations. People who had seen us the year
before in Henderson, Kentucky as well as new
people are in the crowd, so that's nice. After
us and another band, the Tattle Tales play.
P.A. problems cut their set a bit short. The
audience ends up singing the Tattle Tales'
"So Wanna Kiss You," as loud as
they can over the music. Be my Doppelganger
is able to fix the problem, and they play
a rockin' set.
After cleaning up our empty beer cans and
lighting off some fireworks, we head to Bradley
Anxiety's place in Henderson, Kentucky to
stay. We get settled in Be My Doppelganger's
practice space as we eat some Dodge's fried
chicken. Bradley tells us that he's related
to Patrick Henry, the man who once said, "Give
me liberty or give me death." Bold statement.
Wednesday, July 23rd:
I wake up at 12 p.m., shower and eat more
Dodge's food. We leave Henderson, Kentucky
at 2 o'clock for Indianapolis, Indiana. The
Tattle Tales have even more van problems and
are towed there from an Indiana corn field
to another repair shop.
We get to the Halloween House and play the
show. We sound very good and so do the Tattle
Tales. Bulletwolf and another band play, who
I forget the name of now. Shot Baker closes
the show and dedicates the Vindictives' "Glad
to be," to us. They sound great! The
band gets trashed and Ian Scum and Richie
sleep in the van.
Thursday, July 24th:
We wake up at the Halloween House at 11 a.m.
to find out that Mike and Zak Tattle Tale
have been at the Firestone car repair shop
since 7. The firestone refuses to fix their
van and tells them that it is unsafe to drive.
We decide to help them out and take them with
us.
The Tattle Tales leave their van behind,
but keep their trailer. They buy a trailer
hitch and attach the trailer to our van. The
seats from their van are put into our van,
and our equipment goes in the trailer with
their equipment. Now we have a new set up.
As the trailer hitch is put on, we eat at
a Steak'n'Shake, which is pretty delicious.
Tim and the Tattle Tales buy us our first
round of gas, which is appreciated. We drive
to Chicago, Illinois to play our show tonight
with the Hollywood Nightmares, the Hypnic
Jerks, and the Tattle Tales.
The Hollywood Nightmares and the Hypnic Jerks
both play impressive sets and are friendly
guys. The other band, whose name I forget,
was okay. We play next, but it's not up to
par with the other nights on this tour so
far. The crowd seems to dig us anyway. The
Tattle Tales play especially well on this
night!
Neither Project 27 nor the Tattle Tales make
any door money from this show. The original
promoter was fired before he was able to actually
run the show. The newer promoter treats us
rather poorly, refusing to pay us even a few
bucks for playing and says, "You gotta
promote the show more, this isn't a rehearsal
space." Ouch.
The band is in somewhat of a sour mood as
we head to Adam Alive's hotel room (Adam Alive
co-runs It's Alive Records, based in California).
The drive there is pretty horrible, between
getting lost for over two hours and getting
a ticket for running a red light. Ian gets
the ticket (He burns it up soon after with
his lighter). We pass a White Castle District
Office, and we later get their wonderful "slyders"
before we get to the hotel.
Adam Alive is in town for the weekend and
is nice enough to let us stay with him in
his Chicago hotel room. Jon Weiner of the
Dopamines and his friend Nick also stay the
night there.
I do a computer update from Adam's computer,
while Kris and Rich stay up watching television
and drinking until 5 a.m.
Friday, July 25th:
We're in Chicago for my 22nd birthday. Our
show tonight is at the Bottom Lounge with
the Methadones, the Copyrights, the Chinese
Telephones and the Tattle Tales!
Shortly after waking up, me, Dutch and Mike
Tattle Tale decide to try to find tickets
to buy for the Chicago Cubs day game, even
though we're aware that it's sold out. The
others check out the city.
We drive for a while in traffic and finally
make it to Chi-Town. We can't find scalped
tickets in our price range so we do the next
best thing and watch the game at a local bar
and pizzeria called Slugger's. We drink Old
style beers and Jell-O shots, and we eat famous
Chicago deep-dish pizza. It's cool to see
the Cubs fans in their own environment, not
to mention all the good-looking girls who
are around! The mood of Slugger's becomes
sour as the Cubs lose to the Marlins.
Dutch buys a Cubs hat in the team store.
Again, we're stuck in traffic as we drive
to our show. The Methadones, the Copyrights
and us perform a sound check. This was the
only show of the tour with a backstage, so
we hang out in our room with the supply of
free drinks.
The night was a success as all the bands
play well. First we play, then the Tattle
Tales, next is the Chinese Telephones, followed
by the Copyrights, with the Methadones closing.
We pack up after talking a little with the
other bands.
After a thorough debate, we decide to drive
through the night to Washburn, Wisconsin,
which is about eight hours away.
T'was a fun birthday.
Saturday, July 26th:
The drive from Chicago, Illinois to Washburn,
Wisconsin is rather unpleasant. Some people
attempt to sleep in the cramped van, while
others yell at their drunk significant other
over the phone. I get about two hours of sleep.
However, the soothing scenery of Wisconsin
relaxes me. At 5:30 a.m., we stop for gas
and it's actually chilly outside.
We arrive a few hours early and hang out
at Kjell's dad's work (Kjell plays guitar
and sings in the Side Project).
We play the Civic Center with Periphery,
Paulson's Glove, the Tattle Tales and the
Side Project. The crowd's response to us is
energetic and amazing, unlike any show on
the tour so far. They even raise RP to crowd
surf during our set.
The Tattle Tales also get a great reception
and the kids continue to go nuts for the Side
Project. Between bands, we light fireworks
outside (Soon after, the cops come by and
frisk us).
The show ends around 10 p.m. As we're hanging
out outside the Civic Center, the locals remind
us that beer is only sold until 10:30 at night.
Kris and I race to a gas station to get three
18 packs of Budweiser just in the knick of
time. The other band members are excited by
this purchase when we return.
We go to Ben Sargent's family's house (of
the Side Project) and feast on pulled-pork
sandwiches, sausage, potato salad, chips and
cookies that his family made and bought for
us. Mmm.
The bands take a ride to Ashland, Wisconsin,
for a party at a guy named Steve's house.
We light off most of our fireworks and sky
lanterns to present our most impressive fireworks
show to date on this tour. Steve begs us to
stop after a while. RP and Kris get messed
up on the throat spray they're using to soothe
their voices. The rest of the crew gets drunk.
Our nightly Misfits sing-along occurs. We
screw around with the stuff at Steve's house,
including the collection of antlers that are
stashed in a box. Ben entertains us with his
impressions of characters from the movie,
"Jurassic Park."
Steve brings us down the road to go cow-tipping,
but we can't get past the electric fences.
Someone lights a firework and we're all forced
to scatter away.
After making a shabby log cabin back inside
Steve's house, Richie Roast sleep in the bed
with Steve's crush. This prompts Steve to
leave his house. He says, "Do whatever
you want," and leaves at 4 a.m. People
try to start the tractor and ATVs but the
attempts are unsuccessful. Dutch and I sleep
in the van after yet another crazy and wacky
night.
Sunday, July 27th:
I wake up in a sweat in the van, yet again.
The band is anxious to leave because Steve's
mom has arrived home, and Steve isn't home
yet. She's ticked off, and barks, "I
don't know who you guys are, but you better
clean up and get the hell out of here!"
Well, that's the censored version of what
she said. We leave after lighting one last
firework and throwing it on the lawn on the
way out. Bye Steve's mom.
We play baseball in Washburn with the Side
Project guys and others. People aren't into
the game as much as last year, so it ends
rather quickly. Kris, Richie Roast and Ian
take a bath in the lake.
The bands stop for lunch at McDonald's and
Culver's, where I enjoy a butter burger and
cheese curds. We drive from Washburn, Wisconsin
to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
We open up the show at the 7th Street Entry.
We played well and the sound is good too.
We even get drink tickets! The Tattle Tales
and the Side Project have good and fun sets
as well. The Strait A's close the show with
their great pop-punk songs rich with three
part harmonies. They were awesome; even though
I hear they're breaking up too, check them
out (myspace.com/smartasawhip)!
Back at Kjell's house in Minneapolis, we
drink beers and Sailor Jerry's liquor and
make prank phone calls to a handful of our
friends back home for a laugh.
Monday, July 28th:
We leave Kjell's house at 3:30 p.m. after
a Quizno's lunch. We drive from Minneapolis,
Minnesota to Steven's Point, Wisconsin. Enjoying
the beautiful green scenery of Wisconsin again,
complete with cattle, silos, fields, bales
of hay and farmhouses, I realize the obvious
differences with New York, a place that it
seems like we haven't been in forever. The
road ends without warning so we take a detour.
We arrive at the After Dark Coffee House
just before 8 o'clock. Sullen Riot (a.k.a.
Putrid Fucking Homer) plays. They're good
for a chuckle. The Tattle Tales sound great
again, and we play well too I think. We get
some gas money and sell some of our stuff.
No one at the show is willing to house us
for the night, so we check into the Blue Top
Hotel a few blocks away. They are cool with
the idea of touring bands staying the night.
While the others drink in the hotel, me, RP
and Tim Tattle Tale go to the local bar and
eat a pizza and drink beers and Jaeger bombs.
I chat with Troy Reed, a friendly older guy
who's in town to give demos of his own soaps
and detergents. He explains that his brother
Lance is a drummer in a touring band so he
knows what it's like seeing, "starving
artists," in action as he put it. That
being said, he is supportive of our musical
ventures and buys us a round of beers. Thanks,
Troy.
We get back to the hotel and I'm a little
tipsy. RP and Kris get in a little wrestling
match and fall off the bed while Christian
orders Domino's. Then we sleep.
Tuesday, July 29th:
The bands wake up to a bike in our hotel
room –Tim took a bike from somewhere
in the middle of the night, ha ha. We check
out of the Blue Top Hotel. Our trailer isn't
connected right, and Sheriff Schweers comes
to the rescue with his tool kit and fixes
the problem. H asks us if we've ever heard
of the Bo Deans, and starts singing one of
their songs.
We travel from Steven's Point, Wisconsin
back to Indianapolis, Indiana for the second
night on tour at the Halloween House. We forget
about the time zone change so we end up at
the show at 9:30 p.m. Highway Magic and the
Tattle Tales play, then us. It was another
fun show, as the kids in the basement seemed
to like it. The Halloween House supplies us
with free beers again. We have a music session
late at night where we attempt to cover songs
electrically, but it stinks. Some 17 year-old
girl is wasted and pukes outside. There is
a huge knife in the draw and someone mumbles
that we stab him with it and put him out of
his misery. Go to sleep, ya dummy.
Wednesday, July 30th:
Day 22. We wake up around 11:30 a.m., pack
the van and hang out. We drive from Indianapolis,
Indiana to Cincinnati, Ohio. I eat at another
unsatisfying White Castle with Tim and Zak
Tattle Tale. The bands go to check our a cool
record shop called Shake It Records, where
I end up buying a Lagwagon CD, a Blue Angel
CD, and a John Cage DVD. Project 27 drinks
near the van before the show.
We open the show. I don't think we sound
our usual. I'm not really focused on the show
for some reason. I'm actually thinking of
sleeping in my own bed as we're playing. I
feel mucas dripping down my nose as I'm singing,
guhh. I'm a little under the weather today,
I guess. Despite all this, we have a pretty
good crowd. The Tattle Tales play after us,
followed by SS-20, who toured with the Dead
Kennedys back in 1985. They break a bass string
on the first song and continue to play their
entire set without a bassist. Team Stray and
the Dopamines play, and they're both great!
Almost everyone at the show is energetic but
wasted at this point.
After the show, we go to the Glendora House
to hang out and sleep. We have a rough time
backing the trailer into the driveway, and
people proceed to argue with each other over
how it should be done. While I choose to fall
asleep, RP, Kris, Richie Roast and Ian Scum
party till the early morning hours. Ian tries
to fall asleep after not sleeping well for
a couple of days, but someone apparently bothers
him by talking too loud, and Ian threatens
to attack the person. Eesh. People break bottles,
and RP defecates into a bucket and puts it
in an empty Red Bull fridge. During his delusional
experience, Ian claims, "The dragon told
me to kill everyone and it would be fine."
Thursday, July 31st:
We have the day off. We wake up around 1
o'clock at the Glendora House on this last
day of July. People shower. We eat lunch at
Hooter's in Newport, Kentucky with Jon Weiner
and friends. The waitresses there are not
too attractive.
As the rest of the group goes to see the
movie, "Stepbrother," after lunch,
Mike Tattle Tale and I hang out in the van,
enjoying the sunny summer day, and then watch
RP and Ian fish on the Ohio River. Across
the river, we can see the Great American Ball
Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds. Next, we
go to the Newport on the Levee mall to hang
out and get refreshments at Smoothie King.
A girl named Alex invites us to swim in the
pool at her parent's house with her friends,
Lauren and Nick. Afterwards, she invites us
to her apartment. We eat a crave case from
White Castle. Nick shits off a roof because
of a dare, attempting to have it land in a
neighbor's pool below. It was unsuccessful,
but still an impressive endeavor. I fall asleep
at 2 a.m. I'm told that Ian apologizes for
last night's antics. A select few stay up
till 5 o'clock. drinking wine until they all
fall asleep at Alex's apartment.
Friday, August 1st:
We shower and leave Cincinnati for Bellevue,
Pennsylvania. I miss my chance again to get
Cincy-style chili, although I'm told it's
not very good. I enjoy a juicy pork chop at
a Waffle House for lunch. We pass the Motorcycle
Hall of Fame Museum in Ohio. We also see a
field full of Christmas trees. So that's where
they come from…
The bands arrive at the venue, a large art
space called the Creative Treehouse, in Bellevue
Pennsylvania at 7:15 p.m. The Tattle Tales
play and sound good, despite their claims
that they can't hear themselves at all. Next
we play and it sounded good. The Shut Outs
close the show, to a few odd-looking girls
dancing along. After having a hard time finding
a hotel nearby, we get McDonald's and rest
at a local Motel 6.
Saturday, August 2nd:
The bands depart from the motel at 12 noon.
Panera Bread is consumed for lunch…finally
a halfway healthful meal. We drive from Bellevue
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We get to the
run-down neighborhood in Philly at 6:30 p.m.
Tim Tattle Tale and I indulge in a Vietnamese
hoagie, which we're both eager to try. We
like the sandwich comprised of roast pork,
cucumbers and carrots a lot! A side project
band consisting of members of What
Happened? play first. The Tattle Tales
play and then we play. You can see a video
of part of our set here, thanks to Chris (video
here!) ! Everyone Everywhere closes the
show. A few of us buy 40's with Drew and Sarah
Peabottom, and drink them in the small backyard
of the house we're playing, known as Brendan's
Basement. People seem to be happy we played.
We physically push someone's car out of the
way so we can successfully back our van and
trailer out. Christian Tattle Tale drives
us to Tim Tattle Tale's house in suburban
New Jersey, while we all drunkenly yell and
sing loudly to the music blasting in the van
on the way. We break at a rest stop and enjoy
Roy Roger's. We crash at Tim's house for the
night.
Sunday, August 3rd:
Day 26; our last day of the tour. We wake
up for the first time on the tour where we
don't have to rush out of where we slept.
We are made a nice breakfast of eggs, bagels,
sausage, bacon and orange juice, courtesy
of Tim's parents. The movie, "The Pick
of Destiny," with Jack Black and Kyle
Gass is on television, so we watch it. Some
of us swim in his pool backyard.
We drive to Zak Tattle Tale's house and separate
the Project 27 equipment from the Tattle Tales'
stuff. No more trailer for us! We drive to
the Bread Box in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
It takes me almost two hours to go on a beer
run because New Brunswick doesn't sell it
at many places.
Back at the show, Troublemaker, a hardcore
punk band, plays first. They sound cool. We
play in front of New Jerseyans plus a small
crowd of New Yorkers from our hometown of
Long Beach since it really isn't that far.
There is energy in the crowded basement. The
Tattle Tales close the show. RP burns his
white Mets shirt on a tree, only to sort of
regret it minutes later. As a finally, we
throw fireworks on the property as we leave
(of course).
Our shows on tour are done. On the way home,
we drop Anya and Christian off at Anya's mom's
house, in Englewood, near Yankee Stadium.
We arrive back at my house in Long Beach,
NY at about 1:30 in the morning on Monday,
August 4th. I'm home. We've made it in one
piece! We hug each other, realizing our accomplishments
on the road…
THE TOUR WAS A SUCCESS!!!
…Well, if you're reading this then
you survived my lengthy tour journal. I left
out some entertaining stories because they
probably embarrassed us or others. If you
were at the shows and the after-parties, you
know mostly everything.
In short, make sure to see us next time we
haul ourselves across the United States of
America and elsewhere! Thank you and we'll
see you soon.
Sincerely,
Joey Mac and the rest of Project 27 (RP, Kris,
Dutch and Richie Roast)
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