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bombstagg tour 2007

11/10/07 Mitzi's SIster Toronto Ontario
We were beat today.  We only had about 2 hours sleep on Tony's cold floor.  First we went to pick up Lucas' car.  200 dollars to fix-sucks to be him.  Then I followed his car back to Toronto.  He drove like an asshole so it was hard to keep up with him.  The day was rather uneventful.   We slept, cooked, then went to the show.  Apparently the part of Queen St. that Mitzi's is in the 'bad' part of Toronto.  It seemed OK to me.  Mitzi's is a restaurant/bar/venue so there were many people there for the show.  I don't know.  I'm tired of writing about all of these shows.  I want to go to sleep for about a week.  Then me and Vicki drove back to NYC at midnight.  We were back home at 10 AM.  I had to stop and sleep for about an hour on the side of the road.  The cold woke me up though and we got going again.  We made it for the wedding .  Congrats Miwa and James.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Jimmy Jazz

11/9/07 Jimmy Jazz Guelph Ontario
It was nice to have Vicki along for these last couple of shows because i knew that they were going to be good ones and I didn't want her thinking that I only play crappy shows.  Jimmy Jazz is a great spot in Guelph.  We spent most of the day in that city before the show.  The weather was crappy though.  We hung out at the phony Notra Dame again, and then at a record store.  The guy that worked there was gay and snobby.  Vicki bought a Queen record.  That still wasn't good enough for him.  Then we hung out in a coffee shop.  Then we hung out at the mall.  It was like we were teenagers again.  Later we had to drive back to Kitchener because Lucas' car broke down.  He's thinking about buying another one even though he has no money.  That's a lot of dick sucking that he's going to have to do.  The show went well.  I opened for Lucas' trio.  They killed it that night.  Later we stayed at Tony's place.  Outside there was a dude fist fighting a transvestite.  Vicki dropped the window on her hand trying to watch.  There were tons of drunk loud people roaming the streets.  Then we watched a Springsteen DVD at full blast till 6AM.  It was so loud.  I thought Tony was on drugs or going insane over his love for Springsteen.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Groove Kitchen

11/8/07 Groove Kitchen Cambridge Ontario
This was an interesting show.  The Groove Kitchen is a 'groovy' little place.  They have good food there and good Canadian beer.  Lucas' sister's boyfriend (Matt) runs the place.  I recruited Matt and his drummer Mark, and another fella  -I don't remember his name- to join my band for the evening.  There was a really old couple there to see the music.  I think that they were expecting someone else because when they found out that I was playing they didn't seem interested.  There were only about 15 people there so I tried out some new material with the band.  Nobody knew the difference.  It all sounded bad and unrehearsed to me.  Vicki got there before the show and surprised me.  She tapped me on the shoulder and said hey babe.   ?!#  How, what?  It was a nice surprise.  (We got a motel room after the show)  There were a couple of guys there that were acting over friendly and kept insisting that we stay with them.  I think that they wanted some three way action with us.  This is understandable, though, we are a good looking couple.  EZ on the eyes I would say.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

The Lionshead

11/7/07 The Lionshead Hamilton Ontario
This was a cool small punk rock bar in Hamilton.  The gig was sort of weird.  It started late-11 because that's when people started getting there.  About 20 dudes from a rugby team were sitting right in front of me when I played and were really loud and didn't give a shit about the music.  I didn't give a shit either so I guess we were on the same page.  A couple of folks bought discs.  Darlene the bartender loved the rock and roll.  A drunk guy named Gary bought a disc too.  He claimed to be the guy that lights the flame at the top of the refinery tower in hamilton.  He said that he uses flares to do it.  That seems like a cool job to me.  FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!!
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

O'Reilly's

11/6/07 O'Reilly's Perth Ontario
Perth is about an hour west of Ottowa.  We took route 7 for about 100 miles.  It is a one lane highway through desolate Canadian terrain.  Scary.  It was like driving through that arcade game, Big Buck Hunter, except you tried not to kill the deer on the road.  It was wing night at O'Reilly's.  Unfortunately, the wings were chinsy, but beggars can't be choosers.  There was a good turnout that night.  Half of them were there to watch the hockey game, though.  (Ottowa kicked Toronto's ass for anyone keeping score.)  Lucas and I played for about an hour each and then did a few songs together.  SOmetimes I get grumpy when I have to play songs that I don't know how to play.  I should lighten up a little.  John Lee told me that once.  I met a french Canadian dude named Gil.  He played the uke and wanted to play with us but we blew him off because there was a good chance that he sucked, but who knows.  People enjoyed our sets.  A dude that looked like Garth from Wayne's World told me that I need to dress better.  He said that I need to improve my image.  I wanted to stick my foot up his ass, but I didn't say anything.  Lucky for him.  After the show we drove the Ottowa to stay at Lucas' aunt's house.  We caught last call at the bar first, of course.  Apparently there is little crime in Ottowa-Canada's capital.  This is different than in the States.  Washington DC once had a mayor that was busted for smoking crack.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Moonshine Cafe

11/5/07  Moonshine Cafe Oakville Ontario
This venue would probably be better off in another town.  Apparently, Oakville sucks, especially on a Monday night.  Not too much happening there.  I liked the venue, though.  John, the owner, was good to us.  He warmed up to me after awhile.  The sound was really great.  There were only a handful of people there, but we managed to sell some discs anyway.  People in Canada support musicians so much more than they do in the States.  We drove back to Toronto after the show and caught last call at the Dakota.  This is a killer  bar where I would very much love to play next time I'm in town.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Jane Bond

11/4/07 Jane Bond Waterloo Ontario
The Jane Bond is a great little venue in Waterloo.  I highly recommend it.  They are normally closed on Sunday's but this Sunday they were open for our show.  I was worried about attendance, but it all worked out in the end.  There was a nice crowd there.  The promotion must have worked, because there were many strangers there too.  Everyone was loud and rowdy in a good way.  Later we went to Faltia to watch Johnny play.  It was crowded and everyone was drunk.  I don't remember what else happened that night.  Booze booze booze I'm sure.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

The Cornerstone

11/3/07  The Cornerstone Guelph Ontario
This was an average show.  We got a free vegan meal out of it.  A black bean burger kind of tastes like eating a pile of mud on a roll.  The salad had a nice dressing on it-its flavor resembled that of salt water.  But anyway, there were 25 people there.  They listened to the music so carefully that they forgot to enjoy it.  I should learn to appreciate the respectful claps that I received.  Earlier in the day we went to the Guelph Ontario version of Notra Dame.  Lucas's phone rang in the middle of the mass that was going on there.  Then we met a spastic little dog named Knuckles that belonged to a rockabilly dude named Tony.  Oh yeah and earlier in the day we hung out with John Mars.  He told us all about his lady problems.  It is truly hysterical to listen too.  It was all very Seinfeld.  John's next door neighbor left some printouts from the internet at his back door.  We read them aloud.  They were about how aliens would be arriving this November to remove George Bush from power.  John Mars also had little boxes filled with pictures, flyers, ticket stubs and other random keep sakes.  Each one has a ten minute story which John loves to share with anyone who will listen.  Truly entertaining-this is not sarcasm-really.  Everyone should meet John Mars at least once in their life.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Lightning Jack's

11/2/07 Lightning Jacks Port Dover Ontario
Friday night traffic in Toronto is a bitch to get through.  It took over an hour to get out of the city.  We had to drive another hour and a half to get to Port Dover.  We brought Tonya, Lucas's girlfriend, to play the gig with us.  She say's, "Holy Tomato".  I could not hear my guitar when I played because of the room acoustics.  It sounded like I was trapped in John Bonhams bass drum-good if you are a drummer, bad if you are a guitarist.  So I was getting all pissed off at things and did not have a good time there.  After the show we drove to the John Mars Museum.  The John Mars Museum is actually his house, but it seems like a museum of old rock and pop culture.  I should have paid to stay there, but I got to sleep on the couch for free because I know John Mars through Lucas.  There was a dude at the show that Lucas knew who is quiet sure that he is better at guitar than me and I can tell that he thought about that even though I barely know him.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Faultia

11/1/07  Faltia Waterloo Ontario
This was another one of Lucas and Craig's money gigs.  They have a good catalogue of covers that they play.  Their shtick is the vocal harmonies that they pull off excellently.  Faultia is a rowdy Irish pub in Waterlou ON.  I did a half hour set at the ass end of the night.  A drunken asshole started shouting a bunch of bullshit to me during my set, but I had the microphone and he got a mouthful from me before he got kicked out.  I don't take shit like that anymore..  There were about 35 people there while I played.  I sold a few discs.  Earlier that day I woke up with a brutal Canadian beer hangover.  Lucas woke me up early so we could retrieve our vehicles from another location.  Then we went to the market and bought pork chops.  People working at the market looked Amish.  Then we went to a diner.  I could not even eat half a bagel there because I was so hung over from the Canadian beer.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

The Boathouse

10/31/07 The Boathouse Kitchener Ontario
It was rumored that this was going to be the last show at the Boathouse but I would later find out that they are somehow staying open.  It was nice to see Kevin and Erin again I had fun with them the last time I was in town.  I opened for Lucas's other rock combo called The Spider Dogs.  That is an unusual name for a band, I think.  Lucas's Mom was at the show.  She was a lot like him.  She made me dance with her.  I was embarrassed.  There were about 25-30 people there when I played, I sold a disc too.  Later that night we partied back at the house.  Lucas pissed in the hallway he was so drunk.  Johnny was real nice about it and didn't kick his stinkin' ass.  Oh I forgot about the weird/nice dude named Richard who recorded my show.  He wore a hat that had mircophones in it.  He said he did that because he wanted to record the show how people hear it.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Wilf's

10/30/07 Wilfs Waterloo Ontario
We arrived in Waterloo at 9 AM in the morning and slept at Craig's house 'till 4 or 5 in the afternoon.  The last two hours of the drive were brutal.  We both stayed awake to keep eachother up.  By the end of a drive like that, you don't neccessarily want to close your eyes.  You can keep them open, but you start to see double.  Lucas and Ikept making loud noises and yelling to stay awake for the last half hour.  We were so close and coudn't stop.  About a block away from the house we almost hit a poll.  We didn't though, and that's all that counts.  We went over to the Boathouse for a drink later in the evening. There were lots of rumors about it shutting down because Kevin ran out of money to run the club.  Later that night we played at the college at a bar called Wilf's.  I started calling it Milf's even though there were not any women there over the age of 22. This is one of Lucas and Craig's money gigs.  There were about 60 people there.  The venue is really big so 60 people didn't look like a lot of people.  I sold a disc to someone and made some money even though nobody seemed to care about original music there.

10/29/07  Cummels Cafe Saint Louis MO
WASTE OF TIME.  NO MONEY, NO CD'S SOLD, NO FREE FOOD, THEN WE BEGAN OUR 13 HOUR DIRVE TO CANADA.  NOTHING TO SAY HERE.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Saint Louis Day Off

10/28/07 Saint Louis MO Day OFF
We could not find an open mic in this town, but we ate at a place called Ciccero's.  It was the 'cool' venue on Delmar St in the University City section on Saint Louis.  Delmar runs straight through the center of the city.  A couple of miles down this street becomes a war zone.  There are some places in America that are comparable to a third world country.  This part of Saint Louis is one of them.  We stayed with Shawn Jaymze.  He has four kids that are home schooled in a town called Troy which is one hour south of Saint Louis.  He works odd jobs to make ends meet.  His oldest son is 17 and is writing a musical for a fella named Steinman.  Steinman was the creator of Meatloaf's character.  Nobody goes to sleep in that house until 6 or 7 in the morning.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

The Buccaneer

10/27/07 The Buccaneer Memphis TN
My love affair with Waffle House is officially over.  Though Americans give creedance to luxury, that in no way absolves them from not cooking eggs properly.  So I projectile vomited in the Waffle House parking lot.  We hung out in Memphis for much of the day.  We checked out Sun Studios and ate some pork ribs.  The show started really late--11:30ish.  We played with Seth and the Sentimentals.  Branden played a weird home made drum kit. Tom played the guitar and Kevin played the bass.  Seth reminded me of Paul Westerberg.   He was drunk and rockin'.   I played for about 20 people.  We drank for free again.  We stayed at Branden and Kevin's house.  Branden was in the band The Clap the last time I came through town.  I might be wrong but I though that he was the guy that tried to piss in his own mouth on the stage last spring.  I didn't ask him about that though.  There are a bunch fun cool people in Memphis.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Jack Rabbit Lounge

10/26/07 Jackrabbit Lounge Shreveport LA
The car transmition was really fucking up again today.  We stalled out after getting gas.  Once we got it going we had to keep it up at 75 mph to keep it from coughing.  This went on for the last 60 miles of the drive.  Somehow we managed to get the car into town.  It was a weird night.  We opened for the hip hop night.  There wasn't really a hip hop audience there.  Everybody enjoyed what we were doing.  There were about 35 people there.  We sold some cd's to some dudes that were part of a film crew in town.  Apparently there are a lot of movies filmed there because of the tax breaks.  We stayed at Jen's house.  Jen runs the venue.  Her and her roomates are really into Halloween decorations.  Lucas kept pretending to fuck a fake human skeleton.  It was probably one of the funniest thing that I have ever seen.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Checkpoint Charlie's

10/25/07 Checkpoint Charlies New Orleans LA
The drive from Austin to New Orleans took 10 hours and sucked much.  We played the early show at the venue.  There was hardly anyone there.  People started showing up by about 9 though.  We quickly assembled a band by recruiting a fella named Tony to play the drums.  We played a Dylan song, a Johnny Cash song, a Tom Waits song, and another that I did not recognize.  This is when we made our money.  People started tipping us and bought a couple of cd's too.  It kind of sucked that we had to start playing as soon as we got there.  We didn't  get a chance to hang out in N.O. at all.  We did not have a place to stay there, so after the gig we drove back to Baton Rouge which is about an hour and 15 minutes down the road.  We stayed at Kim's house again.  She kept telling us about how her house is haunted.  I was too tired to be freaked out about it.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Hole In The Wall

10/24/07 Hole in the Wall Austin TX
We had really high hopes for this show.  Rich from The Lonesome Heroes set up a singer songwriter night for us at the Hole in the Wall.  The venue was great.  There were about 35-40 people there at the beginning of the night.  By the end there were only 10 or 12.  We made a little money, though.  Earlier in the day we went to Waterloo records on Lamar and 6th.  That was a great record store.  We heard some on the new Neil Young record.  It sounded rockin'.  "I'm a dirty old man...." is how one of the songs went.  We also went into the capital building.  It felt like we were sneaking into the death star.  Gary and Beth took us for some Tex Mex at a place called Chuey's.  They bought us t-shirts from there too.  Bush's daughter got busted for drinking at Chuey's a few years ago.  She is a big girl now.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Trophy's

10/23/07 Trophy's  Austin TX
We played at Trophy's singer songwriter show case.  Bill Davis and Sonny run it every Tuesday.  There was a good crowd there.  Maybe about 35 people were there.  Next time I come around I will get a feature spot.  After the show we went to Beth and Gary's house in Budda.  The directions seemed complicated and I was worried that we wouldn't find it.  They live in a gated community called the Coves of Cimeron.  I didn't have the address and I couldn't remember which house was theirs.  I tried walking into the wrong house at first.  Luckily it was locked.  Once we got there we drank their beer.  Their sons Jim and John got me really high.  I couldn't feel my legs.  I haven't smoked pot in quite some time so it really knocked me on my ass.  Then we watched VH1 classics.  We also saw our names in the show listings on television.  "Welcome to Texas".
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Baton Rouge No Show

10/22/07 Baton Rouge LA NO SHOW
We had a day off today, but still had to make it out to Baton Rouge so that we would be within striking distance of Austin.  It rained for the entire day.  When we got into the southern part of Mississippi Lucas was driving.  We could not see more than ten feet in front of us.  We didn't want to stop because we were going to get stranded in a swamp town.  Part of the highway was flooded over.  A truck drove through it and spread it out in front of us so we followed.  We were lucky the engine didn't get flooded.  We stayed with my friend Kim in Baton Rouge.  It was nice of her to have us.  She had to work the next day so we didn't hang out too much.  Her dog, Bubba slept with me.  I smelled like a dog in the morning.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Springwater Supper Club

10/21/07 Springwater Supper Club Nashville TN
The car had a bit of trouble getting through the mountains today.  The transmition faltered a bit, but not enough to make us stop.  It was cool playing with Jeb's band the Betty Rats.  They were a lot better than I though they were going to be.  They were a weird sort of comedy version of the Talking Heads.  Mother's Best bailed out of the show at the last minute.  Attendance for this show was lacking.  It was a Sunday at the best dive bar in the country(according to maxim magazine).  We met a local celebrity at the bar.  His name was Dave Cloud.  I'm not sure how he is a celebrity, but that's what everybody kept saying.  He was shit faced and gave us lots of advice on life and love.  "If you are about to get a blowjob", Dave says, "make sure that the girl does not have a bloody laceration on the inside of her mouth."  Thanks for those words of wisdom Dave.  Lucas showed me Bobby's Idle Hour on 16th near music row.  It is famous, I guess.  We didn't get paid much, but the bar gave us a six pack of Shiner Bock.  I had the Shiner shits the next morning.  Dave Cloud stayed at Jeb's house with us because he was too drunk to drive.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

511 House

10/20/07 511 House Florence SC
The car started to really fuck up on the way out of Chapel Hill today.  It felt like it was coughing.  I think that it was the transmission.  It felt like it didn't know which gear to stay in.  Anyway we made it and it  was another good, small show at the 511 house.  Tony, Carmen, Kelly, and Dave were awesome to us as usual.  There were not a whole lot of people there but everybody seemed to enjoy the music.  I got some more pepper jelly from Kelly's grandfather.  I'm going to wait until I get back to Brooklyn to eat it the right way, with some cream cheese on a bagel.  There was a girl there named Alysse (pronounced a-leese).  She said that she didn't sign a lease at her last apartment and that, in fact, she never signs a lease.  Kelly said that Alysse was wrong and that she signs a lease everyday because that is her name.  Before the show Lucas and I went to the Piggly Wiggly(this is the name of a supermarket chain in the south) to get beer.  In the meat section they had pig feet and and chicken feet.  There were stickers on them that said 'Family Pack'.  Lucas told Alysse that he did not think that she was a lesbian.  It was really awkward and funny because she never even claimed to be one in the first place.  Lucas managed to piss off more people again and then talked his way out of it.  He has a special talent for that.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

The Cave

10/19/07 The Cave Chapel Hill NC
We pulled into Chapel Hill at 2 PM and started drinking.  By 5 PM we were hammered.  The show didn't start 'till 10 so I decided to stop drinking for a while.  By 7pm I had a brutal hangover and Lucas was on his 10th beer.  I started nursing my early hangover at 9 and was drunk again by 10.  I told Lucas that his set sounded a bit 'free-er' than usual.  Mr Mouse gave me a dvd of my performance.  There were about 50 people there, and we got paid good and we drank for free.  Brandon was great to us as usual.  He didn't even get pissed off at Lucas for trying to explain why Hitler was not such a bad guy.  I met a guy named Cody that used to live in Greenpoint Brooklyn.  Cody helped me carry Lucas up the stairs.  Mimi from the Neurotics was very nice.  Her husband was a pretty good guitar player.  The Puritan Rodeo show was good.  The singer wanted me to play a shorter set, so I ignored him and played the usual.  Dan the Bullet came out and wanted to play a song on Lucas's guitar.  I told him that Lucas was a lefty.  This diffused a possible situation.
Nov 20, 2007 | 0 comments

21:11 Beer and Wine

10/18/07 21:11 Beer and Wine Greenville NC
This was a great fun show in a beer store.  Jeff booked the show and got us completely sloshed.  He made sure at the end of the night that we didn't have to pay for any of our beer.  The beer store essentially became a bar once the show started.  They had a new brand of beer that Ralph Steadman did the artwork for on the bottle.  We played with a dude named Dan "the bullet".  He banged on his guitar and yelled at us about Bush and anarchy.  "Fuck the government!" he would yell.  And then in between songs he would ask his girlfriend, "Honey, how much time do I have, how many minutes do I have left?"  It was funny and he didn't even know why.   We also played with a band from Roanoke VA called The Young Sinclairs.  These guys kicked a lot of ass.  They were a psyched out version of the Byrds.  They were all very tight and talented as well.  We stayed at a punk house across the street from the venue, but first we went to a party around the block.  Lucas was shit faced and insisted on telling his version of the Aristocrats.  A lesbian kept telling him that she had heard it all before, but Lucas persisted and pissed off most of the people there.  I really thought that one dude was going to punch him out.  It was one of the funniest versions of the Aristocrat, not because it was funny, but because of the aftermath.  We went back to the house.  Lucas slept on the bathroom floor.  Thanks Jeff for the great show!

10/17/07  sidewalk cafe Manhattan NY
"The DIY scene is one that is supposed to be supportive/nurturing of other independent acts.  You give a hand to artists that need one.  It is also nice to get help from others.  It is a give and take."
             --Me
I swear that this is the last time that I play at that venue.  It can be very lame there. 10 or 12 of my wonderful friends came out to the show, but very few others did.  I sold a couple of discs as well.  Unfortunately Lucas's bus was running late, so he was only able to play three songs.  He travelled for 13 hours to NY and was only allowed to play three songs because he was 'Late'.

THERE IS NO "PUNK ROCK" TIME IN NYC, only in Bloomington Indiana and Pensacola Florida.  IN NY THERE IS  ONLY TIME FOR ME ME ME.

I will not play there again.  It's not the place, it is the people that make it.  I sold a disc to a girl named Racey.  Cheers to Racey.   She said that she heard me through the 3 dollar a gallon Crafty Records comp. Go figure.  I also sold a disc to Betsy.  I haven't seen her in ages.  I will only step foot in the sidewalk again if ACDC is playing.
Dec 3, 2007 | no comments | [Add a comment]

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