Lookin Back Pt. 2

(one thing I learned in journalism school, people like things in small portions. So I Broke this entry up into parts. They're really not two separate entries at all! Fooled ya )

SO AS FAR AS REFLECTIONS GO...

I think I've learned a thing or two while traveling. The first being that I can stay quiet for a very..very long time. I've always felt like there are two very different sides to me, and which one you see feels like it's out of my hands. There's the quiet, reserved, "normal" version, that selectively speaks and is pretty calm. And then there's the real side that comes out around people I've known for a good while...saying ridiculous things, being silly, chatty, not afraid to say stupid things. But that side needs a little encouraging I guess, and I thought it would take over at some point, but the quiet persisted. And it felt tiring not to feel like yourself completely. Maybe that shyness, as much as I despise it, is a bigger part of who I am than I thought.. BUT after a week being home with everyone, I think the tour was kinda what I needed. The quiet's gone away some and its nice to feel free from it.

Secondly -- America is BIG. And you don't realize how huge it is until you try to drive across it. Highways are amazing. On the way home, we were discussing the newness of highways, and wondering what traveling was like before them. Alex mentioned how they were built for military reasons, but we can't even imagine getting to places without them. I wonder if the country seemed even larger before they connected us. But, they were definitely cooler before someone thought up toll roads.

Third- I really do love Texas. I've always wanted to run from this state. I thought I was tired of it. I wanted to escape to California somewhere. I wanted to get away from out flat boring landscapes and go play in the mountains, or go live in the east and escape our heat. But after weeks of shivering, of the biting cold rising from the snow and through my shoes, of running for the door to encounter some warmth, I am grateful for the Texas heat. I was so excited when I got back not to need my jacket for the first time in forever! I was glad to see green fields instead of dead iced over grass. It was good to see the sun and to spend a day walking downtown. I appreciate Texas SO much more now.

Fourth---This tour has shown me the vastness of the kindness of people. In a world where bad news is the only news on the television screen, and we're taught to be wary of strangers, its easy to forget that there are good people everywhere. People we hardy knew were quick to welcome us into their homes, cook us meals and help us out. Chris Callis of the Callis Palace made dinner for ALL the touring bands! A few bands along the road let us take over their living rooms to sleep for the night. The 11:11 tea house gave out baked goods for free and a place in Chicago throws shows and gives all the money to the musicians. A couple in Omaha gave us their house for the weekend and free reign over their pantry. People were gracious. Hospitality abounded. It was a good reminder that for all the bad things that happen every day, there's a lot of love around.

I feel like I've just been plopped back into my life in Austin, sort of right where I left off, as though time stopped here waiting for our return. I'm trying to remember what I used to do with my days. And I've got this big feeling of wondering what to do next that's resting on my shoulders. I took the semester off to do this tour and it's crazy that it's actually happened. It's done. And for all the sitting around I'm doing, for the summer classes I'm gonna have to take, I can still easily say that it was definitely worth it.

Lookin back

March 17 2008

Someone left a comment asking where my big reflection was. So to whoever wrote that, here it is! Sorry to keep you waiting.

HOME

It's almost been an entire week since I've been back from the tour and I'm still getting used to being home again. My roommate was out of town, so I knew my "home" would be empty for a while. I remember setting my bags down, standing in my apartment, completely alone for the first time in 22 days, and being swept by a feeling so bittersweet. I was back! I was finally out of the car! I was finally on familiar ground. But still, our adventure had come to an end.. Despite sitting in a car for way longer than I would've liked, sleeping in a different place every night annnnd not having seen my best gal friends for almost a month, I loved hangin' out with these guys all the time (I definitely spent more time just hanging out with them then ever before). And I loved playing together so often. I adored being in music with them all. And I say it like I'll never play with them again, which isn't true at all...but probably won't be quite like it was on the road. As tiring as it was, there's something fun and special about playing music together every day. When you're around each other all the time, every day for an extended period of time, it starts to feel even more like family. And I guess I didn't want that little sister feeling to go away with the those days.

I've spent the past hour listening to recordings I made and skimming through the 1,000 plus photos I took while on the road. And still, it only partly feels real. I was driving down lamar the other night, and thinking of how strange it is that such an eventful time would mesh in my memory into this squished stream of memories, slowly melding into one. Someone asked where I was on a certain date, when I went here or there, and I can't separate anything. And still, when people ask me how the tour went, what was the most fun, or how I felt, it's hard to spit out more than tired generalities. But there's no way to explain a 22-day adventure in a few phrases.

Day 22 - Austin - March 11

And so...

WE ARE HOME!! YAY!

BUT I'm not ready for my big reflection post just yet...

I'm too busy enjoying the comfort of my own bed, in my apartment and reminding myself that I don't have anywhere to be any time soon.

kinda nice.

-Aisha

Day 22 - Dallas - March 11

Homeward bound

I thought I'd save my real reflection entry for later, but I'm in the car and in Texas. So there's nothing out the window that I haven't seen before and reading will only make me sleepy.

So here we are. Adam is driving and Alex is reading the finishing chapters of "The Unsettling of America." We're listening to Sufjan. We are homeward bound on I-35 South and it feels so good to know that home is only a few hours away. It's sunny outside! And the fields are so green! AND, here's the best part, it's warm! Oh, you have no idea how glad I am for warmth. I have been in the winter, stood shivering in snow, glided down icy sidewalks, and now know I truly love warm weather.

It's hard to believe that I've lived in the backseat of this car for so many hours. This little nook behind the driver's seat has been my comfort space. The car is a weird kind of "safety", of familiarity, when you're always moving around. But as we were saying last night on the drive to Dallas, when you're away from a physical structure you'd normally call home, you begin to find home in other things, in places, in people.

I don't want to write my final blog about this trip while in the car (despite how fitting it seems). I wrote the very first entry in bed at my apartment and that's how I want it to end.

So don't worry. You haven't seen the last of me just yet.

-Aisha

Day 21 - Oklahoma City - March 10

Day 21 - Oklahoma City

Ok. I don't even feel like writing anymore. I'm tired of hearing the clack of this keyboard. But I'm going to try, again, to make it short.

Venue: Info Shop: It's this place some guys are trying to  fix up and turn into a community center for everyone. They've got a library, a room full of free things, a hang out space, coffee shop and room for shows. It's still a work in progress put it was nice.

First Band: Guy singing amusing songs with his acoustic guitar 

accompanied by a shadow-puppet show. Oh, but this was not your ordinary puppet show

.

 pretty elaborate puppet cut outs. Annnd um a few, shall we say, explicit puppets were used. It was funny for a while. I was also a little tired. I don't have to say anything more than the singer himself said after a song "You guys didn't know you drove all this way for a [risque] puppet show did you?"

When it looked like no one was going to show up, about 8 punk kids did, along with a dog. They looked a little rough, like those 20-30 somethings on the drag that walk in packs with their dogs. anyway, they came in and sat down. We just sat on the couches and decided to play an acoustic set switching off songs. Alex's voice was pretty much gone, so he spoke-sang some songs pretty Tom Waitsy. Started with Deep Ellum Blues. Then Sarah is Rising (with back-up vocals by everyone) The first ever chilled out Earth Mouth was performed. I know, you're thinking how can Earth Mouth be laid back. Oh, but it was. It was good. Balmorhea did Show Me for the first time in a while, Summer, Divisadero, and ended with Cabbage Town. You'd never think that kids that were probably running around at a crazy punk show the night before would be into us, but they were.

We packed up, made a stop at Denny's for one last meal together. A couple toasts were made. Too many Corwin jokes were spoken (Watch the Tim & Eric Awesome Show that the Balm guys are obsessed with, then you'll get it). And Mike made me laugh so hard, I got a late start on my coke float. These guys are hilarious. Outside, we got in a circle for a group huddle, our arms around each other. This is how we began the trip, huddling outside Rob's house before we knew anything of Manny, of crazy anarchist Co-Ops, of the chilling Mid-West Cold. It was nice to come full circle again. We gave each other good hugs, and split back up into our traveling cars. Balmorhea stayed with Mike's Dad and Alex, Adam and I stayed at the Dupree's in Dallas. Almost home.

-Aisha

More of Day 20 - Omaha - March 9

THE SHOW

Walking into the Suckau Chapel was the first time in 20 days that I walked familiar ground. There's a good feeling you get when you enter a place that held good and special memories. It just instantly feels comfortable. And from a person who has never traveled much, and definitely finds comfort in familiar territory, it was so soothing to be at this church again.

This past summer, an abridged version of the Trapdoor Band (including Alex, Nicole Kern, John Hoover and myself) took a 5 day trip to Omaha and back and played at the very same chapel. We walked through nearby neighborhoods and took lots of pictures. It was fun to pass all those places again.

Before the show, we hung out in a little "green room" area, complete with a table of snacks and sandwiches and a classroom-style dry erase board. nice. The guys picked up markers and began to write all kinds of ridiculousness. "Homework: Read Revelations 24:12. Name 5 prophecies that have come true in the last 10 years. (ex: that ten-headed beast that came out of the ocean)"

Adam started a collaborative brainstorming activity titled: Ideas for the Suckau Show list, including (but not limited to) the following:

all new unrehearsed songs, capes, strutting, top hats, sunset backdrop, nickelback pre-music, Wall of Justice (inside joke), lots of onstage crying, Creed Covers, Be Sober (Mike)

crazy. 

The show was made especially exciting for me because for the first time all trip I got to see friends from home in a place quite far from it. As random as it is, a group of 20 people from my church in Austin were on a mission trip to the church we were playing at in Omaha! I accidently ran into Heather Lods and said hello to everyone. They sat in the front row for both sets. and man, it's hard to explain how glad I was to have all of them there. For a good while I was longing for friends from home to cross paths with. Everyone else in the band had old friends in some of the different cities we went to except me (yeah, you can whip out the tiny violin and play me a sad song. haha.). So yeah, it was extremely nice to have everyone there.

I thought both sets went really well. There were

 a few tiny flubs here and there but we have learned to recover gracefully. Rob got to play on a beautiful piano, which had to have been refreshing for him, having played through his keyboard for so many nights. Besides a few issues with our abilities to hear everyone, the music was great. I made it through lament, the piano-vioiln duet without screwing it up (honestly, I always make it. That's just the only song that always makes me nervous). AND trapdoor got a mid-song energetic applause during Revolution Choir! First mid-song clap ever! haha. I don't remember the set, but maybe I can get it from Adam. He's been very faithful about writing down the set every nighti n a little book. That and Earth Mouth were my two favorite Trapdoor songs to play.

After the show, we went out to a diner (as usual) with Will and some of his friends from the chapel. I think the dinners after the shows were my second favorite part of touring (after the actual show of course). They're so fun. And everyone's in such high spirits.

Afterwards, we went back to the awesome mansion house we were so graciously allowed to stay at. Mike, Adam, Rob, Dave and I watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, till about 2am (what became our normal bed time). That house is crazy. We had surround sound, a big screen wide screen TV with a huge L shaped couch to enjoy. The house was two stories, with a huge basement that could've been a house in itself (it even had a kitchen). They gave us full reign over their pantry and whether we should've taken that to heart or not, we did...gently...kind of. Everything was high class, and completely comfortable. We even drove down a long lit curvy road to get up to the house. They had lots of land. Lots of space. lots of autographed baseballs. It was awesome. We felt like we were in a palace, especially after some of the places we'd been.

Lots of good people in the world.

Day 20 - Omaha - March 9

(Here are some posts I didn't get to put up right after I wrote them. enjoy)

we're on our way to the church where our show is at. we just passed a billboard that says "Keep using my name in vain and I'll make rush hour longer." -God

lol We're driving around trying to find the highway that'll take us to said church. We're supposed to be there at 4:30. It's 4:29.

Mike is probably freaking out.

Day 19 - ??

So on this day, the day of Adam's birth, we drove. And we drove some more. Chicago is really far from Omaha, 10 hours far.

We had a pretty silent car ride, but we did meet this interesting guy at this little diner called the 5th street cafe in Rock Island, Illinois. He was really interested in the fact that we were a touring band, and chatted with Alex for a while. They have live music a few times a week and was encouraging us to come play there. 9myyi87tjiisjsdjfdslafkjdf (<---that was Dave right there. HE just had to leave his mark.)

ANYWAY, so then the guy asked us a question we've never been asked before, "How much do you guys charge." we laughed. quite a bit. Adam went back in to go the bathroom before we left, and the guy was coming out with a guitar in his hand. He wanted Alex to play a little bit. Looks like we won a new fan. We even got a business card.

Then we got in the car and drove some more.

Annnnd some more.

Finally we got to Omaha and entered the nicest house I've ever stayed in in my entire life.
But that's for another blog friends, another blog.

Day 18 - Chicago

Hey friends. Dave, cello extraordinaire, is awesome and is making a guest appearance on the blog today. Enjoy.

We came into the windy city and went straight to the museum district (note: Dave is traveling in the Balmorhea car with Mike and Rob). Found a great parking garage right across from the art museum that said $5 PARKING! Awesome. Only thing is right next to that, in small letters, it said "first 20 minutes". So we pulled into the garage only to realize that we were about to have to drop around 30 dollars to hang out in this particular part of town. No thanks... next we found a parking meter that took twenty four quarters to park for two hours. Who carries 24 quarters? Maybe you could put them in a sock and carry them around with you, I don't know. The windy city is aptly named; you'll walk down a street with the wind coming head on, in your face. Next you'll turn a corner, 90 degrees, and surprise! The wind is still magically coming from straight on, hitting you in the face. The physics of the thing is baffling.

So we went to a great bookstore and hung out for a bit, then to the venue, a great loft/warehouse convert called the Aviary, which houses a great sound system and some real nice art. It was warm, clean, and full of friendly people. CJ Boyd and his Sexxxet played after us, and put on a great show. Next the Tomorrow Music Orchestra, a 20-something piece group put on an amazing post-classical show that blew everyone's mind. CJ put us up at his place, and it was our last show of four or five nights with him, and we were sad to say goodbye the next morning. All in all a great day. The cold and confusing day was put out of our minds by a great night of music, art, and friends.

Visit Chicago, bring a coat.

-Dave

Day 17 - Bloomington - March 6

Tonight's venue was called Art Hospital. We were greeted by CJ Boyd standing outside his car, waving his arms to and fro. We got out of the car and he showed us where the entrance was. "It's that big door with the red cross on it. Do you get it? Do you get it Alex? It's an Art Hospital. They're gonna HEAL you with art!"

I have a weird knack for remembering random quotes.

So anyway, that place was cool.  IT was a small gallery space that they open up for shows. And like almost everywhere we've played, someone lives there. 

This guy pulled out these crazy stilts and we tried to walk on them.  I tried, balanced on it for a whole 2 seconds annd then jumped off.

 There are some funny pictures of our attempts.

  

Both the trapdoor and balmorhea sets went well.  Things were all acoustic on the Trapdoor side and we played an awesome version of All is Full of Love, featuring CJ Boyd and an extra little jam at the end. So fun.

Next up was the CJ Boyd Sexxxtet. If you don't know anything about them and you're modest, well, be glad I'm debriefing you before you see them. Tonight it was CJ on bass, then cello, violin, and clairinette. So they all took of their shoes. Then picked up their instruments. Then took off their clothes. Yes, they played naked, and then they turned off the lights. The entire show was played in absolute darkness. It's crazy because you can't see any body language, or people preparing to play a line. You're just continually surprised by different sounds. As another surprise, dave and I, who were posing as audience members, crept up to our instruments once it was dark, and joined in. I'm not sure how many people noticed. But the entire set is completely improvised with singing, playing, whatever you feel. It was awesome. There's something really freeing abot just making things up as you go while you're in the dark, and hidden from the audience. And because i know you were wondering, no, dave and i were not nude.

After the show, we ate at a Waffle House (which did NOT have a yellow and black sign. crazy) and had a lot of fun just hangin out. Afterwards, we got a cheap hotel ($30 a room) and slept (only after watching 2 episodes of the office of course). good times.

Day 16 - March 6 - Cleveland

Hello hello. This will be the shortest blog. Ready?

I don't even remember where we played this day, but I do remember that it was fun...I think. I also can't remember quite where we stayed...Or what we did.

This was a let down of a blog, I know. But I'm writing this on March 7 and I can barely remember all that happened yesterday.

oh, wait. It's commin back. We played this house show. I think the place was called The Tower? After driving around for a good while and finally finding a pizza place for some dinner, we came back, set up and played to a small gathering of people. It was pretty darn cold. That's the thing about the north, it's cold allll the time.

I don't really remember anything individually about each set, but I remember that I felt good about them. Afterwards, a local band called To Be a High Powered Executive played and they were great. They even had a smoke machine! haha. Those guys were nice enough to let us stay at their apartment with their awesome orange cat named Jack.

In the morning we went out for coffee and breakfast and then hopped in the car for Bloomington.

Sometimes, the days feel a little bit the same.

Day 15 - March 4 - Columbus

(note: I'm ridiculously behind...I know. The days are crazy. crizazy.)

I haven't felt like writing too much lately. It kind of feels a little burdensome to try and encompass everything that happens all day. But I'll give you the most important parts. We stayed with a couple of that Mike's friends with in Columbus. It was fun to be in another awesome house again. They had this gorgeous dog that, unlike the first dog I encountered on the trip, actually seemed to like me. She was this really pretty greyish blue color, pretty energetic, and loved sleeping on and or next to people on the couch. All night I could hear her breathing a little too close to my ear. A little weird, I'll admit. But she was fun company. She's also the only dog I've encountered that is on an all-fish diet. She's allergic to everything and the kept chewing on this sting-ray tail bone thing. Also a little weird. But VERY smelly. I dont know why I'm telling you about this dog. You don't care. Lets move on.

So the show was okay...It was pretty empty in that bar. And when a crowd of people finally showed up, they had just come from another show and were pretty drunk. And drunk in a bar = loud. Having a huge crowd of inattentive people is never fun to play against. Balmorhea missed most of it. CJ's set started in the quiet and then the bar murmur turned into annoying bar rustling, to plain bar noise. Some crazy guy started shouting in the middle of Alex playing "The Holy Mountain" so he stopped and shouted back at him in perfect mimmickry (yeah, just made up that word) and then casually continued the verse.

Needless to say, that guy stopped shouting.

I love that we're all playing in each other's bands. CJ played a couple of Trapdoor songs, and Rob made a guest appearance on one of CJ's songs. That was pretty awesome. Who knew accordion and bass could mesh so well together. Before CJ, who knew that bass could be so captivating as a solo instrument. I love getting lost in the interplay between all the layers he creates. It's kind of a trance thing for me.

So after putting up with the severely annoying bar crowd, weee pretty much got paid zero dollars. BUT when we walked out of the club, we got to see our cars covered in snow and were welcomed back to Lonie and Kate's house with tacos. Scrumptious and much anticipated 3 am dinner. Awesome.

Day 14- Pittsburgh

Day 14 - Pittsburgh- March 3

Pittsburgh is weird. It definitely has not won me over. We got here around 4:30, and by 5pm almost everything on this huge stretch of road lined with shops was closed. We found a local cozy coffee shop called Quiet Storm and made it our home for a few hours. There's a really awesome poem painted on one of it's walls outside. I wanna go take a picture of it and put it up here, cause I like it a lot. After a heavenly chocolate milkshake, we sat around reading and catching up on internet happenings until the Balmorhea crew showed up.

Then, we got REALLY exciting and rock and roll and sat around for ANOTHER hour and a half. We played a little game where we tried to guess which adjectives would get used in these new Balmorhea CD reviews that were posted. "Nostalgic" comes up a lot. "Rustic" was paired with my violin. Alex guessed "lilting" and it was used twice! haha. fun times. We met this guy who's a painter and is helping paint the set of a new film called The Road (based on the book). He talked with us for a bit, and told us about some Pittsburgh lingo. We were struck by the fact that he used "ya'll" in common conversation and is not from Texas. However, in Pittsburgh, their version of ya'll is "yens". weird. At least ya'll makes sense.

We played at this place called Garfield Artworks. Strange place. I'm very hesitant to say anything not nice about people we encounter while on the road. Just because I'm afraid it will bite me in the butt later. So I'll just say that someone we met there was a little abrasive and kind of rude and then randomly a transparent kind of nice. And freakin nuts. And this person didn't even know it, which made it absurdly hilarious. I don't think I've laughed so hard on stage in my entire life. Rob was trying to start "Cabbage Town", and I was hiding, literally hiding, behind my violin trying to stop laughing. The guy said he couldn't book 3 touring bands in one night, so we combined and truely became Trapdoorea. We made a set list where we exchanged songs between bands, and everyone was free to play on anything. Set: Cabbage Town, Light, Show Me, Song for Hooch and the Priest, The Summer, Ship of Death, All is Full of Love


THE SHOW
Everything was goin great. I think Show Me was my favorite to play. It's that new Balmorhea song that we wrote while in a Missouri basement. It sounds really blusey, folky, sly and sneaky. Actually, if you go to the Balmorhea myspace (www.myspace.com/balmorhea) and click on the blog called "Show Me-Live recording" you can download it for free. It's so fun to play. So, all was well until Ship of Death. During the first stomp-filled "Have you built your ship of death" (the chorus) we heard these weeeird popping sounds coming through the system. We all kind of looked around, confused, but kept playing. By about the third time, when we were all really into it and playing loud and stomping, this audio ambush of piercing crazy crackling popping sounds burst through the system. It sounded like the ship of death furiously exploded. People were holding their ears and we all froze. I didn't even take my bow off the string, just frozen in place like a Trapdoor statue in a wax museum. I think we were are smiling in nervous laughter and sheer amazement at the mysterious deafening pops.

We thought we blew the system. We're still not sure what happened, but the guy turned the PA off. So we just kept playing acoustic. The sound came back and so did the pops. It was nuts. People kinda got up and ventured to the front of the venue, fleeing the speakers. We played "All is Full of Love," and sung out which brought back a little warmth, then afterwards packed our things and hung out for the last band. We had dinner at this place called Eatin' Park that was really obsessed with smiles. If I'd thought of it, I would've taken a pictures. All the cookies had smily faces frosted on them. They were all over the menu. Alex and CJ Boyd even ordered the Breakfast Smile. AND no one laughed! I got laughed at for getting "The Big Boy Breakfast" in Springfield. Two guys, in tired voices asking for "the breakfast smile" at 1am was hilarious to me. Oh well. OH man, I didn't even talk about CJ! He played tonight & he's so talented. it's just him on bass guitar, but he creates all of these layers with his loop petal. You just get this beautifully layered sound that you didn't even know could be made with a bass. I'll write more about his next set, I promise. He'll be playing with us this week till Friday.

We slept at the house of a guy who's friends with CJ and is the cellist in the band that played after us. It was nice of him to open up his place to 7 people.

Things I learned: (which i won't attribute to anyone in particular. Sometimes, people need anonymity )

1) After you have clearly plugged your instrument in, and are very certain of that, if you play and the sound guy doesn't hear anything, it is not that he hasn't adjusted the right channel, or has forgotten to un-mute it. It definitely means "nope. it's not plugged in. it's not working. nope"

2) Ridiculous popping sounds are often caused by having cords run along the floor.

3) Balmorhea and Trapdoor can not close a show in Pittsburgh, because you can't end with "that unknown shit."

That's all for now folks. Next up, Columbus.

-Aisha

Day 13 -- New York City--The Sequel

Day 13 - New York City --(again)- March 2

Arriving in New York for the second time was just as striking as the first. After circling around several times (you thought parking in downtown Austin was bad...hah), we found a spot and walked over to the Bowery Poetry Club on Bowery street. Chris Schreck parted ways with us to take a subway down to a train that would take him to Newark to catch his flight. After a short trip to get some guitar strings with Alex, I was back at the venue and set up to play with Balmorhea. The set was short, and we did all guitar songs. Started with Summer, which moved seamlessly into Soft Rustling to Divisadero, to Cabbage Town, to Windansea to We Will Rebuild. Everything sounded really well. Our playing's gotten really tight. I remember Alex saying that he thought we picked the perfect set for this venue (I say we meaning Rob and Mike. I am not quite the set list maker).



After that, Trapdoor was up. I think this was an especially fun show for Alex because he had a good size group of friends from high school and college there. It's always fun to see your friends from home in other places. Anyway, Things went well. Set (as I remember if): Light, Sarah is Rising, Shekinah, Revolution Choir, What is Born in the Winter, Elizabet, Bottle Bell, and Ship of Death. Light has been a little different lately, a little more laid back and open sounding. It's got that horse gallop feel. So does Revolution choir, which is sounding pretty open these days too. i think the piano usually fills that space I'm feeling. Ship of Death was my favorite. I'm trying to come up with interesting bluesy lines for that song. It's funny how I couldn't write down my part for that if you asked me to, but I'm still really comfortable playing it. I try to improv a little each night and make new variations on old ideas. So far so good.

After the show, we walked a while to put up our things, then marked down to this pizza place in a party of 12. It was pretty fancy pizza with fancy pizza names like "The Angelina." I sat between Mike and a girl named Meredith, who went to high school with Alex. She was really cool. She just graduated from the communication school at UT so we talked about the craziness that is Bob Jensen, comm. jobs, living in NY. Whenever there are girls around, I tend to flock to them. I love hanging with guy friends but it's nice to have another girl to talk to. Not because i want to talk about celebrities, make up, and clothes, Lord no. It's just different kind of conversation. The female readers understand. And I always feel more free to be my weird quirky self with girls. With guys, I feel like I've got some image to obtain, lol which is ridiculous and makes no sense. But it's how my brain operates. Anyway, I digress. Dinner was really fun. We talked and laughed together and conversation hopped. Then Balmorhea and Trapdoor separated for the night. We decided we'd be less of a burden on whoever we stayed with if they only had to harbor half of us. So Alex, Adam and I began what would turn out to be a 30 minute walk. Yes, a 30 minute walk with all our bags in the New York City cold. We didn't realize we'd parked so far from our destination. But the time went by quickly and we stayed with Liza (friend of Alex and company) and Meredith in their apartment near NYU and Washington Square Park.

Their place was nice! Lots of space. We were all thankful that they were willing to take us in. We stood around drinking water out of goblet-looking glasses that Liza got from somewhere, before setting up our sleeping bags and calling it a night.



New York City is loud. I remember hearing sirens outside the window soon after I closed my eyes. I got used to the sirens. But the garbage trucks, the honking, the sound of cars flying by, it's all so loud. I guess they don't call it the city that never sleeps for no reason.



Tomorrow we meet up with CJ Boyd.

-Aisha

Day 13 - Morning

Day 13. Crizazy. Spencer is so awesome. We got up and he made us eggs and crumpets and gave us some fruit. So nice! People are so nice. Crumpets are pretty good too. People need to eat those in the south. We loaded up and hit the road en route back to New York City. We stayed up too late to go sight-seeing as we'd planned. I'm writing you from some highway somewhere. We're listening to Bob Dylan, waiting for New York. Toinght's show is early so maybe we'll get some time afterwards to do something New Yorky. But I'm tired of writing now. So off I go.

-Aisha

Day 12- Boston

Day 12- Boston- March 1

OH man. Boston is pretty cool, but so confusing to drive through. We went through this intersection that had six different streets branch off of it. Strangeness. The houses were tall and pretty with neat little porches. If you ever watched All in the Family, imagine their house, except most of these seemed to be at least duplex's, with multiple doors. We stayed in an area called Springfield, which is just outside downtown Boston I guess. We drove past Harvard and looked at all the fancy Harvard kids, looking through their notes, waiting for a bus. Man, getting back to college world with tests and studying is gonna be hard. Going back to regular life where I'm not in a different city every day and playing music every night with these guys is gonna be weird. BUT I will revel in this while it lasts. There's still so much time left.

Anyway, we stayed with Spencer, boyfriend of Mercy, who is good friends with these guys. He was really nice. Showed us a fantabulous place for dinner. Anna's Taqueria. Greatness. So much food for so cheap! We scarfed it down, then got our things and headed out to PA's Lounge, where we would get ripped off. The Trapdoor set went well. I think Chris got to make some set list requests as this was his last show with us for the tour. We opened with Guaranteed Wintertime Blues, into an electrified version (Alex ditched the acoustic) of elizabeth, Galvestonage, Earth Mouth, Sarah is Rising annd something I can't remember. It felt really good.

The Balmorhea set was good, but it just felt weird to me. First off, I asked for more electric guitar in the monitors, cause I couldn't hear, which turned out to be a dooming request. From the beginning, crazy feedback surfaced, and ripped a hole through "Winter." So frustrating that the sound guy let it go through the entire song, didn't fix a thing. That song is so gorgeous and powerful for me. It's definitely one I like to get lost in and the feedback kind of ruined it for me. Everything else went pretty well (minus that the sound guy also forgot to un-mute the channel with our backing track on it for Divisadero). Set: Winter, Divisadero, Cabbage town, Process, Summer, Limmat.

One guy came from downtown boston to come see Balmorhea. We talked with him a while before the show. Initially, he seemed a little surprised that we were the band. Surprised but excited. He wasn't too shy at all, and talked a lot about the music. He says we're big in South Korea, where he's from, and that we could easily have a full show there. haha. crazy. The internet is magical.

Anyway, I hope he got a better feeling from our set than I did. It left me feeling weird for a good while. After packing things up and realizing that Rob's jacket had been stolen and only receiving $20 per band (after nearly 200 bucks had been made at the door), we went back to Spencer's house. THAT was easily the best part of the night for me. He is so hilarious. He knows every airport code in practically every major city in the US. Seriously. We tested him. lol he knows them! He also knows the capital of every country in the freakin world. Turns out that Mike is also good at capitals so they had a capital duel till like 3am. haha. it was ridiculously awesome to watch. How people learn these things, I will never know. We were so entertained by that, Spencer's Boston accent and general hilarity. So funny. I hadn't laughed that hard for so long in a really long time.

Then Dave went upstairs to go take one of his epic showers. It's kind of become a bit of a joke now. But for the rest of us, it was sleep time.

-Aisha

Day 11- New York City

Day 11 - New York City- Calvary church-Feb. 29

Alright, lets get to New York before I decide to put it off any longer. I'm going to attempt to be concise, but, as you've probably noticed, that's not one of my stronger qualities.
As we creeped up the east coast, I was afraid to fall asleep, worrying I'd miss the first glances of New York City. But my sleepiness trumped fear and pulled me in. I woke up to Adam yelling from the front seat "Aisha, we're here! Look! Well, if you want to." And there it was, New York, outside my window. I saw the statue of liberty back in the distance and the cluster of enormously tall buildings stretching up to the clouds. We drove through China town and through the city amongst the taxi's and parked right in front of the church that would surpass all my expectations.

The Calvary church is the most beautiful structure I've ever seen. Imagine the fancy Roman Cathedrals you might study in an art class, with vaulted ceilings, stain glass images of the Biblical cast, dark wooden pews, and a stone sculpture of Christ at the nave. My words won't do it justice. You'll have to see the pictures.

I stood around for a bit while Slow Six sound checked and wow, those guys are so good. They're comprised of drums, electric guitar, keyboards/(synth's maybe?), and two violinists, and of course you know where my attention went. Their violinists were amazing. They ran them through all sorts of effects pedals that transformed the tone, but their melodies were so cool. I felt like a star struck kid standing in amazement. Had I been invisible I probably would've jumped around in freak out mode, jaw dropped. I love watching people play who inspire me to dash away and practice for hours. They made me want to be better.
I decided they probably didn't want some girl mind gawking at them while they practiced, so I ran off somewhere. Later, the Trapdoor-

Balmorhea crew went for dinner at a sandwich shop around the corner. New York is cold! But the food was good. I was disappointed however that I didn't hear one New York accent the whole time. oh well. When we got back, we got to sound checking. The grand piano in there was so clear and gorgeous. Its tones just danced beauty into your ears and all around the room. It lingered, but in the best way possible. After spending a bunch of time trying to get a mysterious hum from Mike's guitar to dissipate, Dave saved the day and Trapdoor set up.

We opened with Shekinah. I'd missed hearing that song with piano in it and oh man, Nicole, we thought the First Baptist chapel was amazing--this was like that chapel times 10. I'll have to get the rest of the set from Adam (he's been keeping a book with all our set lists in it). But I remember Elizabeth sounding really good. Rob was tearing it up on piano, though after the show, he didn't even remember what he played. I don't know how to describe it other than this fast cascading descension of a melody, sparkling from high to low. It sounded so big. It was great. Song of Hooch and the Priest was spot on and the second half with all the singing replays in my mind. Especially when all the instruments dropped out and our voices took over. They echoed and blended so well, each of us tangling into one. It was the perfect place. That's what Trapdoor should sound like.

It was also the perfect place for Balmorhea. In Rivers Arms fashion, we started with San Solomon, the first of about seven piano songs. We had to capitalize on that grand. I don't even know the words to convey what it sounded like. That piano made every song sound all the more expressive, infinitely more delicate and all the more graceful. Winter was thunderous and dramatic, especially the second half. Lament, the piano-violin duet that usually makes me nervous, went off pretty much without a hitch. I don't think I play that song sad enough though. I'm going for tears, people. Real tears. In the middle of the set, at some point when I wasn't playing, I remember staring off, zoning out in the sound, stuck in a smile. That setting was perfect, room was perfect. I realized I was sitting in the middle of New York City, before a fairly large audience, playing music that I believe in, inside an epic cathedral with amazing musicians and I was so happy. What more could I ask for?

Afterwards, a guy came up and asked for our autographs. He was really excited about the music and so happy that he saw us. crazy. I sat at the merch booth and felt important for a while, on my post-show high. That's a fun place to be. I always feel like I've done something worthwhile. Next, Slow Six played and blew my mind. Again, jaw dropping. They turned down all the lights and had a projection of morphing lights and colors. Somehow, they became a group of moving silhouettes. It was so good! The drums sounded so big in there, and their violin lines were awesome. Again, words fail me. Go buy a cd.

We stood around afterwards, excited about all that had just happened. I watched the slow six guys from afar. One of the violinists came up to me after the Trapdoor set and said in a very suave manner, "Good playing kiddo," and talked with me for a while. I felt star-struck again when I remembered that the same guy just played and blew us all away, and he complimented me. Too nice of him.

So my efforts at being concise have failed. So I'll go faster. Afterwards we ate at Lyric's Diner a few blocks away and laughed a lot. Our waiters were funny without knowing it, and Mike's storytelling is always hilarious. He's so great at re-telling things. His voices, facial expressions and gestures are comic gold. After a late dinner, we went back to the church and stayed with Alex's friend Ben. Mike did some Chin ups on a bar. Then Dave hopped up. Then I shocked them all and did some with ease. haha. Seven years of gymnastics shows itself randomly in my life. I swear, they train you to be soldiers. After that, it was sleep time. Such a good night.

-Aisha

Hello hellooo. We're eating breakfast at Ben's apartment above the Calvary Church in New York city. The show last night was amazing. I had so much fun. And Slow Six was awesome. But I'm hungry, so I'm gonna eat some more. I'll post about yesterday the next time we get internet.

until then my friends,
-Aisha

THE SHOW - Day 10

This is another show I'm not going to want to write a lot about. Few people came, except for Dave Stout's friend Janna who brought her friends. That was nice of her. Then we had an audience who wasn't a part of the show, so we started. Trapdoor was up first. Things went pretty well, but it's so weird playing to a huge room with only 9 people scattered in it. Not to mention, it was really hard for the strings to hear themselves, and you guys know how that goes.

The Balmorhea set was the same. All I heard was the guitar amp near my ear. It was no one's fault, just what happens when you have to use a random PA for your sound that doesn't have enough inputs. I think we all felt that that set was kind of off. So, the bad news was that hardly anyone was there. But the good news, was that hardly anyone heard the off night. Ok, this is entirely too long. Human Bell played and was awesome. That warehouse was crazy cold, so we gathered by the clacking heating pipes for warmth. Aftewards, we walked all our stuff down 5 flights of stairs. The elevator decided to break. After loading up the cars, I jumped in the Trapdoor car and we stayed the night with Dave's friends who had our beds all ready for us when we walked in. So nice. We slept well, ate breakfast in the morn, and then left for New York City. I'm currently writing you from some highway, maybe in Jersey. Who knows. Anyway, New York! I'm excited!

-Aisha

More of Day 10 - Baltimore

Dave's phone with Google-map abilities is amazing. The Balmorhea car can navigate any foreign city like we own the place. We used that to find a gas station to make the gas light go away, to find a laundromat to remember what clean clothes smelt like, and to meet up with The Trapdoor car. After hanging out in the laundromat, watching the news and chatting, Dave and I met up with Rob and Mike and we shivered our way to a restaurant for dinner. I swear, everywhere we go, it just gets colder. Downtown Baltimore was deserted at 7pm. Hardly anyone was out, probably because they didn't want their faces to freeze as ours were. At least we haven't encountered any sub zero temperatures. This lady from the Northwest Territories told our class once that if you wear mascara in the cold up there, your eye lashes can literally freeze and break off.
scary.
After an hour wait, we sat down and some of us ate. The "Wimpie Burgers" (actual menu title) were a popular choice, Four little 2 oz. burgers. Think White Castle/Krystal burger size a.k.a almost non-existant. After thaat we drove down a bunch of shady looking roads and alleys, places where suspicious business deals of various sorts were probably taking place, and later landed at our destination. This creepy looking warehouse. We stood outside until these nice girls saw the cold in our faces and let us in the lobby where we would wait. and wait.
and wait.

We soon took to exploring. I found the creepiest looking stairwell I've ever seen in my life. My roommate Mon and I love to watch those Ghost Hunters shows. Its a guilty pleasure. and I don't know what I believe. I don't think there's a Biblical explanation for ghosts. But anyway, that was a total ghost hunter location stairwell. An old metal gate had

rusted to an irony faded brown. The beige wall paint had worn away in scattered spots, exposing red bricks. The stairs were stained, and a weird large blacks

mudge sat on the right wall. One florescent light flickered in rhythmic bursts over everything, and lit the way for the hint of a mysterious path.

creepy.

Dave was first to barge through some doors and find the rest of the strange open warehouse. I followed grinning and laughing in a weird "I like to be scared" kind of way. haha. (even though Alison knows I'm the biggest fake haunted house wuss of all time. But maybe I'll tell that story later). When Dave rounded a corner and Michael turned back, I decided I didn't want to be alone in there and went back too. We stood around for about 20 minutes waiting for someone to let us up until we met our guy, went up to the 5th floor to an apartment they like to call The Penthouse for some unknown reason.

It was this huge room! If I were a kid, it would've been a cartwheel, gymnastics tumbling haven for me. The guy that lived there rode by on a scooter a few times, which is totally what I would do if I lived there. This really sassy curious cat was prancing around everywhere sniffing us out. I don't feel like describing the whole room so hopefully I'll get a picture up here. But I will say there was a tire swing hanging on a 11 foot rope from the metal rafters.

-Aisha

Day 10 - Echoes Radio Recording

Day 10- Echoes

So after the Trapdoor-Balmorhea split for the evening, Balmorhea tried to find a hotel that was closer to our next early morning adventure. After driving around for a while and encountering crazy Frank who worked at some hotel that shall remain nameless, we found a hotel for the night and slept well. We woke up slowly...and early and drove a while over to the Echo's studio. We had a radio show taping there. The neighborhood was pretty cool, very old looking. We drove past lots of woodsy areas, filled with thin, tall-standing trees. It was a gorgeous day. The sun misled us into the chilling cold. Weird pockets of snow clumps rested against curbsides and walkways.

The radio show went well. The Echoes show has recorded a bunch of people, and our show will be broadcast over a hundred stations through the US. Pretty cool. Radio shows always get me flustered. We had to play through headphones in order to hear the mix and Rob's piano. I really hate playing through headphones. After hearing the natural acoustic sound of my violin without any modification, without plugging in EVER for 9 years, anything else sounds foreign.



So I'll admit, when we began, I wasn't very jazzed about it...But after the first couple of songs, I got used to hearing the mix in the headphones (which was pretty good) annnd it won me over. We played Lament, Summer, winter, the new song (which we thought we named Cabbagetown, after an area of Atlanta, but now we're thinking of re-naming it), and closed with Baleen Morning.

Then we sat around and had a little interview which went pretty well. I got to speak this time! haha, which was cool I suppose. I consider myself a pretty awkward speaker sometimes. Things usually sound about 10 times better, and make at least twice as much since in my head before my lips start moving. BUT I think this time, all went well.

He asked a lot about the names of the songs, and which came first, the title or the music. He was continually shocked that the names came after the songs. I'd say he was almost in disbelief that the guys didn't write San Solomon with San Solomon springs in mind and the title in the bag. He also asked a bit about how we, as a group of twenty-somethings ended up playing delicate instrumental music. If I'd been doing the interview, I would've explored that angle a little bit. BUT then again, it could be because I'm always more interested in the people and minds behind creative things perhaps, more than the creations themselves.

As a journalist, it was weird to be on the other side of the questions. But as we get more and more experiences with press and reviews, the more I begin to understand why musicians and artists get frustrated with the press. Someone posted our album title as "Rivers to Amrs" and said that Balmorhea was Rob's hometown. That's really wrong. They've butchered our names. People over analyze, jump to conclusions, and are annoyingly lazy with fact checking. Then, you get asked questions that you've answered repeatedly, questions that a google search could probably answer. Being on this side of things either makes me want to keep doing music writing to do it the right way or it nudges me further away from it (not that I needed help).

The studio was located in this pre-civil war neighborhood. All the houses were quaint and old looking. Supposedly the one next to us was one where George washington slept at. The place where we played used to be an infirmary for orphans. The guy that interviewed us said people that lived in the house before casually asked if he had seen the ghosts. He spoke with a comic skepticism about the existence of ghosts, but said that if any place was going to he haunted this would be the place. The setting is so perfect.

After some pictures and a lengthy goodbye, we had lunch and then were on our way to Baltimore, the land of cold wind, no internet and creepy warehouses.

Day 9

Guys I'm so sorry! Internet has been so hard to find, oddly enough. In an age where Dave, our cellist, has google maps on his freakin cell phone, no coffee shop in Baltimore had internet. ridiculous. Here are entries as I wrote them from the past few days.

Day 9 - ATM House

hey hey.

So today we just finished playing a show at the ATM house. No, it is not a place that has anything to with money, or retrieving money. But Don't ask me what it means...please.

Yeah, that house was crazy. I should've taken more pictures around there. But before I explain that, lets rewind to this morning. Alex, Adam, and I got up early and the left what I'll call the quintessential male college apartment. BUT they had extra space and were wiling to let us invade the entire downstairs of their apartment, so that was nice. Anyway, we left around 10am to get to the Philadelphia International Airport to pick up Chris Schreck, one of the, we'll say, vintage Trapdoor Band members who'll be joining us for the next few days. He plays a mean guitar. Even if you don't know him, you may recognize his face from the back of the self-titled Trapdoor Band album. Go take a look.

Anyway, we stopped at Marshal's Diner. Alex has this love for diners. This sweet old lady was our waitress. And once another elderly couple left, it was just the waitress, the cook, us, and the ladies from the View--on TV of course. We had an interesting conversation about that show, and I wondered what weight it carries with the women who watch it daily. Simulacra. That's what I think.

After a much needed breakfast, we continued to Philadelphia. We picked up Chris, dropped off our things at the ATM house and then went for a stroll through the University of Pennsylvania campus. It's kinda cool down there. All the campus buildings look like a little village. And the squirrels there are so cool! (sidenote: Everyone who knows me well knows I have a strange, unexplainable love for squirrles. I laugh all the way to class just watching them run by. IT's weird I know). Anyway, they were fat! and grey. No one cares about that except me and my mom. we tried to get into the U. Penn library, but you had to swipe a campus ID card to get it. lame. They won't even share their books. Thanks U. Penn.

On the walk back, it started snowing pretty hard. Snowflakes are fun till they land in your eyes continually. Philly gets cold! A biting cold. The kind that makes your hands hurt.

Back at the ATM house, we hung around for awhile before Balmorhea played. Adam got some cool pics and hopefully blogger will let me show you them. We opened with "Soft Rustling" and closed with the new song, newly named Cabbage Town. We forgot the melodica, buuut we're cool so it worked out anyway. Rob and Mike sang over my solo violin thing and it was golden.

Trapdoor played a pretty fun set. We threw in the favs: a stomp-filled version of Earth Mouth, Guaranteed Winter Time Blues, All is Full of Love Cover, Elizabeth. There were more. I don't remember. But people were pretty into it. This one girl who lived there kept asking for more, so we did "Ship of Death," and called it a night.

Then Balmorhea and Trapdoor said our goodbyes went our separate ways for the evening.

Noteable interesting moments of the night:

-the basement--so dusty, you could taste it
-the cat, so cute and cuddly one second, barfing under the coffee table the next
-no one from the ATM house cleaning that up
-during the show, the crowd strangely and suddenly yelling "FACT, West Philly!!! COUNTER FACT, West Philly!!"