So...night one of two at The Hamilton in DC. We loaded in, sound checked, I did some personal warm up stuff, and still had time for a little run around the neighborhood.
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| I'm not sure what this was all about, but it was kind of great that something so preposterous was hanging out directly in front of the White House |
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| I tried sushi for the first time. Edible, but kind of weird and fishy |
Pretty great crowd, especially for a Thursday. I felt like I redeemed myself after Boston's performance. The best part was that we left everything set up for night two...
Friday: We had all day to kill. I slept late, ate breakfast with Greg (we were charged for the food because we ate from the "hot" part of the buffet--a fee Greg immediately dubbed the "meat surcharge"; for the record, I had pancakes), went for a long run in the rain...
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| Air Force memorial |
...had Indian food delivered! (I think I got screwed on the bill, though)...
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| mixed vegetable curry |
...and played night number two. Another good gig.
Saturday: On to Philadelphia! Not a bad drive. South Street in Philly was spring-break-level packed. I'm kind of surprised that none of our gear got ripped off while we were loading in.
P.S. TLA is kind of a dump.
I did a little bit of personal warm up after soundcheck and then headed up the street for...Indian food! Lovash Indian Restaurant and Bar was really delicious. No wait, either. I even branched out and tried something new.
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| Rajma Aloo |
Philly was sold out, too--our third in a row on this trip. We had several Atlanta friends in the audience, which was really cool and kind of upped the ante for us, I think.
After the show, we drove about forty-five minutes away from Philadelphia, crashing in our rooms somewhere around 1 AM. The next morning, we were back on the road at 8:30 AM. Ouch.
Sunday: On our way to Cleveland. In the middle of nowhere off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we stopped for lunch in this empty strip shopping center. Mexican food or Subway; take your pick.
Cleveland's House of Blues feels a lot like the one in New Orleans, mostly in terms of its smallish size. Not a bad room. I had hoped to explore the city after soundcheck (first time here!), but it was pouring when we finished, so I practiced for about an hour instead.
Some dudes from Canada road tripped to come see us. That's pretty awesome/weird.
Nice gig overall! I think we had about 500 people there, which felt like a success for our first time (considering the rain and that we were up against Game of Thrones).
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| Hello PAR cans! Feel the heat of real light bulbs! |
Monday: Somehow, I got upgraded for the flight home, and left these jokers at the gate.
No TVs on the plane, though, so my movie will have to wait.
One more week to go.