Tour Diary
>>TOUR DIARY: (The Kyle Sowashes Tour Aug. '06)
8.9.06…Cincinnati
Ah, our journey begins. “Livin’ the dream”, as they say. Our first show is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mike and I drove down to the Nati in my good ol’ faithful stationwagon, “Keisha”. We met Bob, Leland, and a couple other friends at this awesome burrito place called The Comet. It was there that we stuffed our bellies full of burrito goodness.
After the burritos had digested a little bit, we checked in at the Northside Tavern, which was the place we were scheduled to rock that night. We persuaded the other band (The Minor Leagues) into letting us play first….but when it was apparent that neither of us were going to play for more than 30 minutes, the Minor Leagues suggested that two of their friends play an impromptu mini-set. They were pretty alright. They called themselves “Slant”. They got the thumbs up sign from me.
My friend Todd is a manager at a Chipotle. He traded us some free burrito coupons for some Kyle Sowashes merchandise.
Mike and I drove back to Columbus at 2 AM, because we both had to work our day jobs in the morning.
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
YR BAND FLAKED OUT ON ME ORDINARY MAN
WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND WHAT’S NOT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE (WEIRD AL YANKOVIC)
Electric Grandmother kicked off the night with their heartfelt performance chock full of songs about television sitcoms.
The Cabdrivers played after EG. They were great. It is good to see them playing music again. My old band used to play with these guys when a guy named Scott Parsons fronted the band. After about a year’s hiatus, they are picking up right where he left off.
Oh, yeah, I think we played some rock songs, too.
Tim Horton’s and then bed!
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
YR BAND FLAKED OUT ON ME
ORDINARY MAN
WHAT’S IMPORTANT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE (WEIRD AL YANKOVIC)
Jettison and Pelusha are both awesome bands that you should check out right now. MySpace is a wonderful thing.
The end of the night found us at Stephen (Jettison guitarist)’s apartment, where we ate delicious pizza, drank delicious High Life, and watched a guy named Sam play baseball for 3 hrs.
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
YR BAND FLAKED OUT ON ME
ORDINARY MAN
WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND WHAT’S NOT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE (WEIRD AL YANKOVIC)
The real treat of sightseein’ (for me, anyway) was the Charlie Daniels museum. Did you know that Charlie Daniels has a museum? He sure does. Lots and lots of extravagant costumes, autographed fiddles, gold records, tour jackets, laminated passes, Nancy comic strips featuring Charlie Daniels, various pictures of Charlie Daniels posing with random people backstage at Charlie Daniels concerts. But, my favorite artifacts were the pictures of him on his recent trip to Iraq. I shit you not, there was a picture of Charlie Daniels wearing a desert camouflage uniform, sprawled out on Saddam Hussein’s throne.
Our show was okay. When we arrived at the bar, there was an early show going on, for which we had to wait to finish, in order to even bring in our equipment. So, while waiting, I asked for a water. The bartender gives me a bottled water and wants me to pay $1.25 for it. I explained that I just wanted a cup of water, and then I got a cup of piss-warm tap water with no ice. Afraid to ask for anymore water, I played our set w/ no liquid refreshments. Raspiness ensued.
We didn’t really know anyone besides the guys in HOTPIPES (I went to high school w/ a couple of them……….they are a really great band, btw), and the crowd didn’t seem very outgoing. BUT, someone in the crowd actually recognized the Tom T. Hall cover I played. We had a good time in Nashville. Then we had to drive all night to Austin.
8 TRACK RECORDER
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND WHAT’S NOT
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
I CARE (TOM T HALL)
We checked in at the record store we were playing at. Leland’s mom came to this show, and she brought us snacks and waters and stuff. She is awesome.
A couple friends of mine from Houston came to this show as well.
The Carrots also played this show. They are my new favorite band, I think. ‘60s pop.
This is also the first of three shows we would play with OMEGA MONSTER PATROL (aka Travis Nichols.) It’s kind of a puppet show w/ really poppy electronic music and a cool light show. It’s quite awesome.
Beta Valentine ripped it up too.
After the show, I went to a place called Jovita’s, because the paper said that Columbus, OH rockers TWO COW GARAGE were playing there that night. Sure enough, the Austin Chronicle cannot tell a lie. The Two Cow dudes were hanging out in the back parking lot w/ their van packed up. I had completely missed their show, but chatted with them in the parking lot for a few minutes.
Then I went to sleep.
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
8 TRACK RECORDER
WHAT’S IMPORTANT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
I was super pumped to be in Lubbock. Upon arrival, we stopped in at Ralph’s records, which is a store I used to work at when I lived in this town. Chatting w/ Ralph for 5 minutes, and I felt like I still worked there. It was kind of weird, but hey, they bought a few cds from me, so all’s well.
We went to KTXT FM for a radio interview, and that was fun. I like that station a lot.
I tried not to sound like a dummy on the air.
15 minutes later, we were eating some pizza, and we got word that summer hours were in effect at this coffeehouse we were playing at. So, in other words, we had 90 minutes for 3 bands. Somehow, we made it work. Omega Monster Patrol and Burn the Wagon rocked it to Russia. I saw a LOT of old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.
I wound up getting inebriated at a Fox and Hound after the show, and fell asleep at Denny’s. What a night.
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
IN THE MAIL
8 TRACK RECORDER
WHAT’S IMPORTANT
HIGH LIFE
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
We had a delightful lunch at Rosa’s Tortilla Factory, and off we went into New Mexico.
We had to pass through a smelly small town called Clovis, NM. I lived in this town from 1997-2000. It’s in the middle of nowhere. We drove by my old house. It’s still there, in case you were wondering.
We got to Albuquerque at about 6 pm, got some beers, played a rock show in my friend Scott’s living room.
This was the best show of our tour. Lots of old friends. Lots of new friends.
Everyone was awesome except for the drunk guy who tried to pick a fight w/ Bob, and the people who kept stealing our beer.
Around 1 AM, I realized that we needed to be on the road in 5 hrs. I went to sleep and told the Sowashes that they would be getting their wake up call at 5 am.
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
YR BAND FLAKED OUT ON ME
8 TRACK RECORDER
ORDINARY MAN
WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND WHAT’S NOT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…..(C + C MUSIC FACTORY)
Morning came, and I finally got Bob up and moving (kind of) on the 3rd try. Have you ever tried to wake up a drunken grizzly bear and tell him that he needs to break his drums down at 5 am so that you could put them in a station wagon and be on the road by 6 am? It ain’t easy. Bob, still asleep, stumbled into the garage and attempted to break his drums down. Then he passed out again. I awoke him with a “Bob, what the hell are you doing? Wake up!”. He angrily took his drums apart. I put them in the station wagon, woke up Leland, and off we went.
I have no idea how many Diet Cokes I drank on this drive. 6? 7? All I know is that I had to keep pulling over for bathroom breaks… a lot. When I got off the highway in Santa Rosa, Bob ordered me to pull the car over immediately so he could hurl.
We got to Amarillo, and surprisingly, Bob was up for eating the steak. We got a table, and he ordered the steak. The waitress kind of rolled her eyes at him.
About 20 minutes later, Bob was summoned to the Steak-eating stage. There was a huge clock behind him with 60 minutes on it. A man got on the microphone and introduced everyone to Bob and told them what he was about to attempt to do.
Bob had a strategy. His plan was to down the shrimp cocktail, have some salad, eat the steak from the inside out, taking bites of the roll periodically, and finishing with the salad and baked potato. Much to his dismay, the steak was too thick and rubbery to choke 72 oz down. It started to gag him after about 33 oz, so he decided to stop.
He said he had room in his belly for more, but it was surprisingly tough for his jaw muscles to handle.
Being hungover probably didn’t help either.
We drove on to Oklahoma. The other Sowashes visited a friend in Norman, OK, and I visited some family in Oklahoma City.
We celebrated at the Tulsa Spaghetti Warehouse. MMMM-mmmm, is that good spaghetti!
We got to St. Louis a little late, but we were fine, because we were told to be there way early.
Some of our friends came to this show. It was nice to see them.
Mike Postalakis felt adventurous and drove from Columbus to play this show w/ us as a Sowash. As a treat, I took him across the street to marvel at the Simpsons toy collection located inside of Blueberry Hill.
We played with a couple bands; The Paper Rockets and the In. These were very nice people. I believe it was the Paper Rockets’ first show, too. It was quite an honor to be a part of that.
We played some rock songs and stuff. The club treated us fairly well. They gave us cold cut sandwiches. Mmmmmmm…..AND $45.
During our set, I think someone might have referred to us loudly as an emo band? Haven’t heard that one in awhile.
We stayed with my friend Jason. I had not seen this man in nearly ten years. It was nice to catch up on old times. I think his dog wanted to rip my face off, though.
Set
YR HOSTAGE
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
IN THE MAIL
YR BAND FLAKED OUT ON ME
WHAT’S IMPORTANT AND WHAT’S NOT
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE (WEIRD AL YANKOVIC)
Leland really wanted to go to the top, but when we found out that it was 10 bucks and took an hour, we decided to skip it, instead opting to get our pictures taken with Lewis and/or Clarke, and hit the road.
I got a couple flat tires in Illinois, and spent all of the profits from the tour on new tires. In Indianapolis, we finally found a Chipotle at which we could use our free burrito coupons. Them burritos was good.
We got back to Columbus at 11:00 pm. Bob and Leland left for Cincinnati, and I went to bed.
I’d always wanted to play a show at Gem City Records. Tonight was my night.
Not a huge turnout, but big enough.
Bob Miller aka Jr. Supertiger played some songs first. He is a good songwriter.
Then I played some songs.
My mom was in the crowd. This was the first time she’d ever seen me perform music unrelated to the Northmont High School Marching Band.
She said she liked it.
I’m no Phil Collins or nothin’, but…..
But, yeah, this was the end of the tour.
It was a lot of fun; I met lots of nice new people, and got to hang out with some nice old people too. I think I’ll do it again sometime…
8 TRACK RECORDER
ADHESIVES
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
SHADOWS OF MY STEVENS
THE FLU
ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (BEE GEES)