October 6th, 2008
the last show of our week-long tour with cake was at colby college in waterville, me. it was our longest drive of the tour, but somehow we made it through the nyc area quickly, and had a totally bearable drive. we stopped for lunch at rein’s deli in vernon, ct, near the town where i grew up, and arrived at colby just in time to load in and sound check. the key to our dressing room said “visiting hockey,” and was connected to the ice rink. at 8:15 pm, we started our set in front of a sold-out crowd in an enormous gymnasium. afterward, we sat in cake’s tour bus and talked talked talked about all kinds of crazy topics and flipped through movies on their tv, noticing a pattern of certain actresses (whom i now forget), and eventually we said goodbye to the cake gang and got in the van. in the end, it was a wonderful experience; we played some great shows in some amazing venues, and really enjoyed meeting and playing with cake. they’re off to finish up their new album, which by what we’ve heard so far is going to sound great. we winterpills are back at home now, getting ready for the release of our new cd. thanks to all who came to the shows, and thanks especially to everyone from cake.
October 5th, 2008
this is the ceiling of the Pier 6 Pavilion in Baltimore, during CAKE’s set. they had a single mirrorball they used in every show — that was the entire light show. we liked that. our show here was, as all of them were, varied and, as rated by us, really good. we had a long set here (an hour) and got to really stretch out, and the crowd seemed very into what we were doing (i think at most of the shows there was a sense at the beginning of each show of… what is this wispy sweet-sounding band? why are they opening for the joyously ironic and funked-up CAKE? but by the end we had won some hearts.). there was a melancholy to the evening that we couldn’t place until we realized it was coming off the staff — this was the last night of the season and people were saying goodbye right and left. anyway, as usual, we were treated like princes and princesses by CAKE and everyone else, and the water sparkled right next to the stage and the big Domino Sugar sign reflected in the water and the brisk autumn air came in as we played and then we had to drive 12 hours to Maine.
October 2nd, 2008
last night we played at a venue that i expected to be some kind of majestic, shimmering ballroom, but was instead a nondescript brick building adjacent to an enormous junkyard. inside, it was a very rock-clubby rock club, with multiple bars and all the stereotypes you might think of, including the fact that guitar god/ultra-turd yngwie malmsteen is playing there soon… still, everyone was nice and helpful, the food was good (with a few vegan options for me), and once again there was a huge, energetic crowd. we played well, and the night was pretty normal… after the show, we hung around just talking for a while, and then went to a bar nearby (think ye old watering hole in northampton) to watch the rest of the red sox game, where xan from cake and our man brian (aka “jiggs”) took one game each in the otherwise empty billiard room. this morning, we have a little time to kill before heading off to baltimore to play at pier six, which looks like an amazing place.
October 1st, 2008
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dennis
last night we played our second show of this week-long tour opening for CAKE. as you can sort of see in the photo above, the palace theater in albany is a large, incredibly ornate old theater. the hospitality was great and the staff was incredibly accessible. a bunch of friends came to the show, we had a great time playing, and CAKE was awesome once again. no real incidents to report, really, though i’ll ask for any strange anecdotes in the van today… no celebrity look-alike scandals like in rochester… anyway, today it’s off to new jersey, where we’ll stay in the same hotel for 2 nights in a row (nj show, baltimore show), which is kind of a luxury. wish us luck….
