The last four shows of the eleven day December tour were pretty mondo. The Flying Monkey Art Center in Huntsville was so amazing, and so hospitable. The owner of the nearby Bandito Burrito gave us a discount for being touring musicians! We didn't get the Juan Big Deener, though. The art center was part of an old factory - we loaded our gear onto carts and got into a creaky old world elevator where you have to line up with the floor juuuuust right. There were dozens of artist booths and even a record store. A dude jumped at the chance to buy some beers for us. Abstract Artemis opened with a raunchy rock n roll set, and then we followed up. Despite being exhausted from recording until four in the morning, we gave it everything we had and got people to start dancing. The aforementioned Daikaiju closed the show out. They were amazing - very energetic stage presence, tight ass surf riffing, and true to the kabuki masks they wore, very theatrical. We chatted for a while but ultimately split for Carbondale, a mere 5 hours away.
After blaring Heavy Days and eating some Arby's, we were home. We slept a sleep of wonder.
Thursday we woke up not long before the evening's super duper special event - Southern Illinois Roller Girls playing their debut public scrimmage. There were lots of hard hits, thrills, and spills. At the end of the night, Hell's Elves creamed Santa's Slayers. Special shout outs to Muchos Bustos and The Great Gashby for nailing MVP on their respective teams! The party continued at PKs, where Secondary Modern and ourselves played loud as fuck sets to everyone pounding dollar rails. Alex and I did this thing where we stared at Danny with really big eyes while he was drumming. He saw us and missed a beat. We laughed. We are dicks. Our set was fat and lush and people sang and danced and requested more. It was actually really ideal. I'd like to play all of our shows that well. There was the requisite Lost Cross after-party. All was well in Carbondale, despite our absence.
On Friday we dragged ass towards Belleville. Illegal Tone Recordings is a studio and venue run by kind-hearted souls not afraid to dedicate themselves to the money pit that is the all-ages venue. No smoking or booze, but you can get three of those individually wrapped Twizzlers for a quarter. We missed Drizzlin' Shits :( But, we caught punks Egg Chef and sweet indie kids Fragile Farm. Dan tried to get a bunch of his friends in the area (he's from nearby East Alton) to come out... and none did. But a bunch of the kids that saw us at Poppa Dell's were there, and all was well! We played and danced and knocked things over and humiliated a bunch of high school girls. It was awesome! Afterward we shot the shit for a bit and then got amazing food at Hy-Ho, a local staple. Oh yeah, we got interviewed for some zine by Martin. More details when he reminds us exactly what that was about.
Just fyi, we noticed there are a shit-ton of bars in Belleville. So if ya wanna get drunk...
The Saturday show in Memphis was the titular bigger lion that we went out as. We had to to play first of four, which was a drag, but it just meant we could dance our asses off and flirt and drink free beers and enjoy the Beer 30 Ice we got at a gas station in Arkansas. What time is it? Beer 30! Mikey and Kyle and Gally and Maggie and the whole Memphis crew were out in full force, and we made new friends too. We played a good set, although shy of our PKs and ITR efforts, but still worthwhile, and then The Safes ripped it up, followed by Mikey and new backing dudes cranking out awesome Modern Convenience tracks. For the uninformed, we love Modern Convenience. The Angel Sluts closed out the night with a careening front man that got the whole bar surging around, a drunk wave belting out punk with full force. We hung out and made new friends, but decided ultimately to split town that night. After eleven days, five hours of driving could not separate us from home. But it's not an insult Memphis - we love the fuck out of you, and we'll be back in full force to retard your brains once more, probably inside two or three months.
Anyway, that's another tour in the books. Check back for when we get a minute to put up those pics from the Poison Lawn show last Sunday. Later!
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