12:54pm - So, I got the pics from near home on the site... Here's a brief summary of the happenings on our June '02 Tour. I wanted to give relatively detailed accounts because I know many people know us personally, or feel like they do...so i figured it's a nice idea to give alot of detail and allow everyone to feel like they're right there with us. here goes...
June

1: Indianapolis - the show was put off until 9 to wait for someone to show up...noone did. So we and violet skies said "hey, we drove, let's just play for each other and the people who helped put on the show, etc". and we did. lost money to play. But, we made friends and stayed w/ them that night (on a floor/couches), the dude was really good at metal-maniac guitar, it was fun to watch. he could shred.
2: off
3: Danville, IL - show in chad's basement w/ violet skies and scatter the ashes (who we became friends with that night...good dudes, check em out, they're from nashville, TN)
4: Cincinnati - the void. with violet skies. we've always loved cincy, this time around it could have been better. Low turnout cuz we were competing w/ a dashboard confessional show across town that night. We had a kicking party w/ the guys in the "metal mansion" that night to make up for it. (metal is becoming a common theme here...huh??)
5: hung in cincy again, the mansion boys let us crash on their floor for a second night, rainy boring day put us all in bad moods. violet skies go home...got to see cohead and cambria at the void. fell asleep early.
6: columbus, oh - show @ midgard comics. Great venue, nice owner. noone came... we weren't in high spirits at this point. got to see scatter the ashes again, solidifying our friendship. rock. again, didn't get any money. 6 hour drive home.
7: our friends got us on a show in champaign at the last minute. God did we need this show... just for morale. We played infront of like 60 great kids. good times.
8: 19 hours of straight driving to RI. spent over $36 on tolls on the penn. turnpike. crossed over 7 different states...took turns sleeping and driving.
9: arrived in newport, RI where the show will be, at 11am. Nick (from the band "an empty memory") offers us to come and sleep on his couches until the show starts. So we shower and watched a hellfest video...Great, the day's off to a good start! Show is at 2. We play like complete ass, serge breaks one string on 2 guitars, chad breaks 4 (get this, 4!) on one guitar. But we play with our usual energy...But the 60-70 kids were amazing, we actually sold enough merch to cover gas money for the 19 hour drive. the show was over at 5, which is strange, cuz usually our load in time is right about then. So, we went and actually spent money on seafood for dinner (we've been eating pbj's, ramen, chips and salsa, turkey, etc out of the back of the van previously). We then went to "skater island" which some of you may recognize from tony hawk 3...yep, same place. kyle jumped into a bowl and sprained his ankle badly.
10: woke up late in beautiful newport, RI. nice, clean, pretty house to sleep in for a change, it's rare on tour. kyle went and had his ankle looked at, then we all went to the beach. minus justin who was a grump and slept 3/4 of the day away...our friend and 2nd roadie/merch/friend guy adam was an "ocean virgin" as he said. so we got to deflower him this trip...the water was like 40-50 (because it only ever gets up to 75-80 deg in RI) degrees, but we all hopped the heck in anyway. Good times, we all got sunburnt. Drove to somewhere in CT and snuck people into a hotel room for the night...for we were to go to NewYorkCity tomorrow. The hotel was 74 damn dollars, and there was puke on the floor, bugs in the bathtub...but night of the living dead was on the sci-fi network...the one with the new added scenes and music...and also yep you guessed it...free playboy tv...there is a God.
11: Visit NYC - got a hotel again, this time in NJ (argh...money) so that we would have a safe place to park the van/trailer and could take the bus into NYC. The hotel was only 80 bucks for a room at the ramada. That was cheap and it had a pool, steakhouse, etc...thank you coupons. kyle and adam opted not to visit NYC, kyle couldn't walk and adam was scared of getting robbed...actually they just wanted to make-out and hung at the hotel. The rest of us (sergio, chad, justin--the fill-in drummer--, and luke--the roadie/merch guy) hopped onto the bus and grudgingly spent money to take the bus into the city, but it was worth it. We basically just walked up and down broadway st. through times square where we saw johnny knoxville in the mtv studios window (yes, where they film TRL, etc). he waved, justin gave him the "dual goat" (2 hands showing the metal sign w/ index and pinky fingers extended). Took the subway to the WTC remains, couldn't see much, but saw all of the cards, etc left on the fences...touching. crashed on beds, clean beds....mmmmmmm.
12: We started the day off by visiting Red Bank, NJ...home of jay and silent bob's secret stash...good stuff...then it was onto New brunswick, NJ a day early -- great folks, let us stay on their floor, delia made us pasta, rock n roll.
13: New brunswick, NJ -- show in basement at 86 louis st., where brian and pj from outsmarting simon (friends of ours) live. 30-40 kids, nice and tightly packed, we had fun playing. very loud. our new friend "ken" took us to eat "fat sandwiches" in the evening...strange, but good... here's the deal: 8-inch hoagies stuffed with various types of food. chad had a "fat darrel": chicken fingers, mozzerela sticks, fries, and marinara over all of it...all in between 2 pieces of bread. serge and adam had "fat bitch"es philly cheese steak, moz. sticks, fries, ketchup, lettuce. they're alot of food...but if you eat 3 in one sitting you can have a sandwich of your own design added to the menu, hence the "fat fellatio, fat fucking drunk, and the fat randy"
14: west chester, PA -- show at fennario's. got there way early despite the short cut we tried to take that took us 4 fun-filled unexpected hours, played pinball, etc, ate out of the back of the van until our load-in time. the show was a total blast, 30-50 kids tightly packed into a cofee shop. really fun show. A few folks invited us to go out to diner w/ them, we ate a warm meal for a change, fully intending to pay and they offered to foot the bill. that was huge. we drove through the night, for tomorrow, we have fun.
15: cedar point amusement park -- sandusky, OH. Drove into the park at 10:10a, they open at 10am. We are basically without sleep. Great fun, we are all now completely broke. We splurged and bought a couple of the "oh my god i'm on a rollercoaster!" pictures to commemorate the week, hopefully i'll get those scanned in. Justin gets shit on by a seagull, threatens to kill us all if we don't go home. We're all tired and grumpy too, but don't want to go yet. Oh yeah, someone suggests to us that we get a "handicapped pass" so that we don't have to wait in line. kyle has been walking on a cane since rhode island... the pass makes it so you don't have to wait in line. and your allowed up to 4 people to accompany you, leaving one of us out each time, but who cares, right? we leave at around 5pm drive home to danville, IL... we run out of gas near indy, first car disaster of the trip...we're lucky.
16: arrive at chad's house at 6am...very tired. we all thoroughly enjoy sleeeping in a real bed. trailer is returned the following day, and we don't get nailed for nicking it up...rock!
alright, so that was very long... don't ever say that i dont' update this page enough. THis should keep you busy for a long time. good night.

6-29-02