Torour

I haven't worked on this tour journal thing as efficiently as I should have. Not that many people really care, but I try to follow through with the goals that I set for myself. However, events have a way of exaggerating, blurring, or just disappearing altogether after it becomes two-week-old news. Plus, moods surely effect how these events are currently remembered and I am in a horrible mood at the moment. So all apologies for my portrayal of the remainder of the tour.

08/12/2010 - Minneapolis, MN


The trip through Minneapolis in June left a strange taste in my mouth. Not literally, but there was a dark, dark cloud over the city I suspect is built on a foundation of pessimism and angst. We passed a bar called "Grumpy's" on the way to a restaurant called "Hard Times".

This time around the city felt slightly different. Probably because we just went to the venue and then left, but it was still a pleasant trip. Not only was there a full buffet of catered goodness, but we had a huge dressing room, a lot of beer, and the venue provided merch table workers so I had a night off from explaining to people that I wasn't Phoenix's merch guy so they would have to buy the shirt they want from the other end of the table. Phoenix had to "Hard Days Night" it out of the venue, and it was very pleasant being able to walk past the cougar groupies and giant tour buses to our rental minivan that was bursting at the seams with equipment.



Council Bluffs, IA - 08/13/2010


This tour was a trip of firsts for me. I went to my first strip club (and now have proof to my hypothesis that I do not care for them). I had also never been to a real casino. I do not have money, but for some reason gambling seems like a lot of fun. Windish treated us to a room at Harrah's, so I spent the entire week way too excited about this show.

The show itself was awful from where I was sitting. The merch table was between the portapotties and the scorching Iowa sun. There was a parking garage beside us that loudly echoed the live music, so the whole show sounded like shitty noise bands. Or maybe what a lot of people consider remixes these days - taking a track and then adding an obnoxious delay on it. Whatever. After our goodbyes with Phoenix (they were off to Denver, we were off to Kansas City), we noticed a stack of room keys that had been given to them in case they needed to stay. We went from splitting two beds four ways to having a room a piece (with a few rooms to spare - you are welcome nice girl living in her van). After clearing out the food and beverage in their green room and meeting up with former-Columbian Nate Welker, I purchased $20 worth of chips at the $3-minimum black jack table. My chip-stack fluctuated for about an hour, then I was down to five bucks. So I cashed it in and headed to the penny slots. Before I knew it, I had spent my $20 and decided that was enough gambling for one night... you win this time casino...


Kansas City, MO - 08/14/2010


Back to reality. The venue had double booked the show with a private party. Despite our contract clearly reading "5 pm load in," they acted like we were crazy for getting there on time. We feared not because our friend Leandra provided us with awesome company until it was time to go back to the mess of a venue. The show went well, but it was ridiculous having to answer questions from a promoter such as: "How are we supposed to pay the opening band?" and "Those presale tickets just went to your account, right?" and "What does G.B.O.R. mean?" (Gross Box Office Receipts). Rule #1 for promoters: Don't ask tour managers to do your job.

Leandra and her roommate took us to a really fun party after the show, and we all stayed up way past our bedtime for the 9 hour drive we had to make in the morning.


Indianapolis, IN - 08/15/2010

Hip blogs are a powerhouse. I felt at ease knowing that the kind people at My Old Kentucky Blog were taking care of us. Unfortunately, it was not their club and I ended up having to pay for my beers (which seemed ridiculous at the time, but complaining about it out loud makes me feel like a bitch). This was definitely the first night I was excited to be away from the rock star treatment. Everyone there was so excited that Toro Y Moi was playing in there town. People traveled for the show, and provided us with endless great conversation. Indianapolis seemed like such a nice town.

After the show, we drove to Bloomington to stay with our friend Christy. She lives in an awesome little house where we ate midnight Steak-N-Shake, and listened to some early morning Paul Simon.

Knoxville, TN - 08/16/2010

Knoxville is so close to home that it feels like home. Everyone is very friendly there, and the Pilot Light is an operation I am very enthused about. I fully support bars with good music and cheap beer, but it is an added bonus when it is connected to a record/music/vintage store. As usual, a good time was had.

After the show, we piled in the van and pulled an all nighter. Everyone was returned to their parents houses, including myself (who crawled into bed around 7 AM).

This concludes tour number two, and my recollection of the events that occurred. Some photos haven't been developed yet, but I will paste those in later. Next tour recap will be action packed: photos, video, and holographic projections of the dudez playing instruments made of human skeletons (all sci-fi and shit).

Love,

Jordan