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