Phoenix

After years of waiting, my Halloween dreams finally came true.

We all donned fake glasses and dressed up like Mike and Rob. !

Arizona

New friend.

San Francisco

Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta. California

Portland

The Bowerbirds beat us to the punch for the Saturday night slot at the Doug Fir, hence our day off last night.  No matter.  We took the opportunity to wake up slowly and play Sunday night instead.

In the morning, we packed up and stood in line for a much anticipated breakfast at Pine State biscuits.

Ok. Now, I don't usually do closeups of food...sorta weirds me out.  And I'm not usually one to indulge in such a breakfast BUT you don't understand.  This place is amazingly delicious.  Fresh made biscuits, with a fried egg, cheese annnd fried chicken.  Also...yes, that's an extra biscuit on the side with honey that I wrapped up and saved for later.

Couldn't help myself.

Then we spent about two hours at Powell's books and, somehow, I escaped with only one!  A book of poetry by Howard Moss.

The Show was fantastic and is made us believe that we have some kind of great luck in the West.  Had a lovely time in this awesome city.

And now, for California.

a day off in Portlandia

breakfast this morning with Jesy Fortino at Skillet.  yum/fun.

drove to portland.  dropped our clothes off in the most technologically sophisticated laundromat I've ever seen (the machines text you when your clothes are done!).  Then, met up with our friend Julie in Portland. Coffee at Stumptown.  Dinner at a tasty bar.  (Yes. I know I'm doing a lot of talking about food. But when you've only eaten two meals a day for about a month, it tends to linger in your mind). Dessert at the Portland version of Spider House called The pied Cow.  

And then this:

Sometimes, on a night off, all you want is to pour microwave popcorn into your hotel ice bucket and watch Hocus Pocus on a laptop with your friends.

Seattle, WA

I love that my life is filled with friends across America who are like a deep, deep rejuvenating breath.

After setting up, sound checking annnd very comfortably eating an entire pizza all by myself (..oops..), my dear friend Ginger came by to hang out and catch up.  I hadn't seen her in months.  And I've been hangin out with these guys for weeks.  It was so good and inspiring and comforting to sit down with an old friend.  

She had to leave before the show, but I left our hangout feeling refreshed and pleased and excited about touring and the performance.

And ha, then the show made me even more excited about the show!  There was this girl in the front ro, right at my feet screaming "YEAAAAH, STRINGS!!!" hahaha.  She was so, incredibly pumped. The room was full.  The crowd was loud.  They cheered before a few of the songs were even over.  wild.  They demanded an encore. they lined up at the merch booth.  great. night.!

  

Vancouver, British Columbia

We were in some  crazy neighborhood.  I've never once seen so many people completely strung out.  We turned on the street of the venue and saw an erratic woman in the crosswalk with blood running down her neck.  Across the street, a man lay on the ground as paramedics readied a stretcher.  In the alley where we loaded in, about six very strange shifty characters walked pointedly toward corners, and fidgeted in their pockets, huddling.  All a bit boisterous.  All very interested in the contents of our van.

We hurried our things inside and triple locked the van once we were done.

Soundcheck. Vancouver, BC.

After witnessing all the er, activity, outside the venue, I was skeptical of what this show could possibly be like.  BUT, the show turned out to be amazing.  This was our first night to play in Canada, and the crowd was pretty set on letting us know they wanted us back again.  During the entire set, three super energetic guys danced and even MOSHED to our songs. HA! So funny!  They were stoked, and after the show criticized the rest of the crowd for being so mild. 

It felt so nice to play for a responsive, energetic bunch.  And thus began the pick-me-up of our slightly dampened spirits.  

We crossed over the border with ease late that night, and spent the night in a Super 8 somewhere in Washington, pleased and pumped.  Next stop: Seattle!

The West

Our drive on Wednesday solidified my notion that someday I must live amongst the mountains in the Northwest.  I can't get over it.

On the road from Montana we pulled over a couple of times to take it all in.

I love starting a drive and seeing snowy mountain tops, and then reaching the peaks and realizing you're right in the middle of them.  At he heights of the range in the most northern part of Idaho, a powdery white covered the grounds.  I put on my gloves and scooped it up, giddy as a child.  I stood at the edge of the overlook and tossed tiny snowballs into the air, just to see how far they'd go. 

 After a mild snowball fight and some photos, we shook the snow off our jackets and continued on through the tiny sliver of the Idaho pan handle and into Washington.

We pulled over again near the Columbia river at The Wild Horses Monument. All my words will be extraneous when you could just see it for yourself.  lovely.

October 24

The last two days have been filled with driving and beautiful things.  

I forfeited books and writing and all other things for staring out the window.  18 hours of driving and I've read exactly three pages.

Look at this beautiful America.

Wyoming.

Casper, WY

I had the kind of sleep that feels like it happens during the blink of an eye.  We went to bed at 3am and I slept until the very last possible moment.  At 8:50a, I sat up, got dressed and sleepily hopped into the van.  

Lots of caffeine, day dreams of food, and five hours of driving led us to Casper, Wyoming!

We held a free Balmorhea workshop for music students.  About 50 Middle school through college aged students, mostly string players, showed up.  It was the first time we'd ever done such a thing, but it was so fun!  We sat in a line on stage around all our instruments and talked about what we do, what touring is like, and told our stories of the wayward way we became members of this band.  We talked, they laughed at our jokes, it was great.  

In the second half of the session, the kids who brought or borrowed instruments to play came up to the stage and we taught them pieces of "Masollan," a track from our new record "Stranger".

..The story I told the kids was about how some of the most fulfilling musical experiences I've ever had were completely unexpected.  

I can very surely say that I never expected to be leading 20 violinists through a violin part I'd written in a house by a river a year ago!

I've taught a hand full of lessons in my life, but never a large group--it was so fun!  And the kids were so excited.  They picked it up fast.  And then, with Dylan leading the cellos, Travis leading the basses, and Mike working with an electric bassist, we all played along with Rob on guitar.  So thrilling for us, and definitely a day I'll never forget.

After a dinner break, we played a show open to the public and had a lovely time.  Bunches of the kids came back and brought their parents and it was pretty sweet to talk with older adults about the same music that 20 somethings and teenagers get excited about.

Music.  I'm completely and forever enthralled with this language. 

Wyoming

Denver

After staying in what was likely the smallest, most American middle o' nowhere town, leaving Kansas and entering Colorado was a very welcome, gorgeous change of pace.  Goodland, Kansas, good riddance!  Eastern Colorado, flat, golden, beautiful.  I love this state.

The show at The Hi-Dive was a fantastic morale booster.  A crowd that was quite alive!  Pumped and determined to let us know it.  Easily the best show all week.

also...welcome to the best greenroom ever.  Thoroughly entertained for hours.

Colorado

Eastern Colorado.

Although I loved the eastern fall, I am still in love with the west.

Colorado flatlands caught my eye.

Breakfast

Goodland, Kansas.

Woke up at 10a and walked to El Reynaldo's for a breakfast burrito.  No patrons.  No one walking about.  This place feels like a living ghost town.

Just eatin breakfast beside our trailer, sititn on the curb, watchin out for curious ants.

Goodland, Kansas

It is 1:09am in Goodland, Kansas.  Our bodies think it is 2:09am, and still I feel wide awake somehow.  I woke up in Topeka in a Super 8 motel roll away bed to the sounds of a little girl laughing down the hall and slapping each door she passed.  annoying.  In those foggy moments of sleep, I was certain she knew we'd gone to bed at nearly 3am and that she was laughing beyond the control of her mother just to spite me!  She'd slept forever and was thrilled!  And I was waking up tired, yet again.

I don't know how people do this for months at a time!   5 weeks is nothing in the grand scheme of touring life, but it every time it feels like I get slipped into some alternate reality.  With different rules. different norms. different needs. different habits.

It's a strange beast, and I love turning it over in mind and trying to figure out what its made of.

This has to be the tiniest and strangest of all the tiny, strange towns we've stayed in.  We are hours and hours from Topeka and haven't encountered another big town.

There is nothing here.

Empty grasslands, and a wide open sky stretch on to the horizon.  It is the beginnings of the west. And though it is sparse, and though the drive was pretty uneventful, I'm excited.  Western America has a piece of my heart.  

Kansas sunset.

There's nothing to do here, so we pulled into our hotel and took a little drive to scout out a dinner local.  The restaurant that got a 4.5 star yelp rating donned slightly unsettling white metal siding and an un-illuminated sign.  We stared through the windows and decided we'd rather not try our luck.  We would stick out like the sorest of thumbs.  And I don't think any of us had the patience or energy to be the unintended main event.  

So we drove past the grain silos to our only other options: Subway, Mc Donald's, and Dairy Queen.

(ashamed).

Somehow this has all been entertaining though.  We shared a bottle of Bullet Rye in our little motel room and talked and laughed and DJed, and discussed until we couldn't anymore.   

Boys.

If you were hoping for glamor, we aint got it.  Just some songs and whiskey and motel room nights to kill the time.  Denver tomorrow.  Pumped for another show.

Minneapolis

Day off. Fancy hotel.  I'm sleepy, so to sum it up quickly I'll say: Room service dinner. watched the presidential debate. hot tubbin.  sleeeeepin IN (!). big breakfast. veggin' out. played a show. slept good. breakfast in St. Paul.  On to the next!.

Michael.  On the road.

Performing "Artifact". 7th Street Entry.

Breakfast at the Colossal Cafe. St. Paul, MN.

Milwaukee

Well...Sometimes, you play to a really small crowd.

But if you're lucky, as we were, at least they're all super stoked to see you play some songs!  Here are some photos from Milwaukee.

heading downtown.

the art museum(!)

Andrew. Lake Michigan.

 

sculpture outside of The House of Pancakes.  (..?)

Chicago

Chicago, IL. Schubas.

NY, IN, IL

We're on the road to Chicago.  Though we've been in this region of the country for a while now, I still can't get over how beautiful fall is here.  Forest after forest of glowing leaves.  I stare at their tall, skinny trunks.  I imagine myself running though.

We've had an interesting stretch of shows.  It's felt strange to play to such varying crowd sizes.  The dynamic between the audience and the performer is so symbiotic.  You stand on the stage, and you're playing your songs, but so much of the experience relies on that crowd.  And sometimes its difficult to remember that even within the sheepish audience, standing 10 feet away from us, there is someone who's driven hours to come hear us play.  Dylan is good at reminding us to keep on our toes always for that guy, the one who's gone out of his way.

Some weird stuff has happened in the last few days. A drum circle of 30+ people played for over two and half hours in a back room during a whole night of shows.  I signed a kid's neck brace.  Someone helplessly unaware intoxicated guy came up to the stage after the show and asked me if I was fake singing during the set. 

....

"Your vocals were mixed pretty low or else you're just really good at blending your voice with theirs.  I mean, were you even actually singing?"

uh, wow.

I defended myself, smiling, and insisted that yes, Andrew our sound engineer is in fact a pro.  And yes, of course I was singing.  "I'll sing you something right now!  Anything. Pick a song! I'll sing it." 

"What songs do you know?"

"All of em," I said.

I think we're all looking forward to tonight's show.  Back in a big city.  We've got a few hours of unbelievably rare free time and we're hoping to spend it in a coffee shop, drinkin' some Intelligentsia, reading our books and things until the show at Schubas. Ah, a Sunday night in ol' Chicago.  

Photos from our Cambridge show.

Thanks to Alexandre da Veiga for taking and sharing these!