last week

It was France at a glance. In n' out, smash n' grab, wham bam thank madame. As we drove through northern Paris I kept an eye out for famous roads landmarks. We arrived at the Nouveau Casino in the early afternoon, loaded in and met up with the NME.

They had learned that the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise was nearby and so we all walked it from from the club to do some photos... in a cemetery. It was a fine introduction to Paris, well, the show playing sense that is. The crowd was cool and there were even some very sweet fans up in front snapping away with their digital cameras.

Prior to showtime we did a Web TV interview for Kombini? The show was called "Custom, On Stage With" and involved 2 gentlemen in all red with white helmets and lights & cameras mounted on them. Wow. Jojo, the interviewer even came up on stage for a mini lovers dance party.


Leaving France was an unbelievable task. Upon arriving at our ferry line we learned that Belgian fishermen were on strike and were blockading the waters. To which our Stef replied, "What? they're blocking the entire ocean!?!?" Enough of it at least. They do have those nets. The only alternative was to take the Eurotunnel.



Edward, Stef (friend & engineer) and Chops (along for the ride & drive) were the only ones who knew about the tunnel. The rest of us knew only that it was a tunnel beneath the channel connecting France and England. What we did not know was that it's a huge train that everybody drives their vehicle into and then you sit in your car while the train travels at over 100mph... which we later learned was incorrect in regard to speed. After further research the train does not jet through the subturanean tunnel like something out of THX 1138, but rather travels at a max speed of 80 km/h (50 mph).

In Southampton we met up with the Semifinalists, who were playing with us the next several days. A smoke-machine blasting, projection lighting, electronic/live guitar & keys duo from London. The Joiners was just as we remembered it. A mini dance party up front, delicious pasta provided by the club and one of the best sounding rooms in England. The last time we played London, Ed got a bottle thrown at his head. Easy to say, our own gig at Bush Hall was much more enjoyable. Like a ballroom and a touch of aristocracy. Elegant, ridiculously reverberant. Stef had his work cut out for him. We had a troublesome microphone, but the gig was fun nonetheless. And huge thanks to those who drove from far and away to see the gig.

The last time we played Manchester was at the Evening News. Always nice to come back down to reality and play something we're more accustomed to. The Roadhouse easily won the Best Crowd Award of the tour as well. And if my memory serves me correct, I think someone requested Cecilia?? Also, a truly great band called Bluebird Kid Clark opened the night. Good band, good melody, good harmonies. My, oh my, Manchester is always a fun and lively time.

Oh that reminds me, we saw Charlie and Kate from Lost at Heathrow when getting our baggage. We should of sung the You Are Everybody Driveshaft song when we saw him. Yeah, that wouldn't of been annoying or weird. Then again I once saw Jason Lee laugh his ass
off when someone started singing Fever Dog to him while exiting a Radiohead concert.

Now I'm wandering. Bits on Sasquatch later.

i.

watching france

29 hours ago we little ones boarded a plane in Los Angeles headed to London Heathrow. It was easily the quietest transatlantic flight we've ever been on. No one recalls even taking off, the first meal is a bit blurry and the landing is vague at best. Clearly a direct result of the preceeding days. That being a six week tour with but one day off until jet-setting to Europe.

The last four days of our lives have been a whirlwind of events leading to this. The now. Sitting in what would be my US equivalent of where I sit in our van back home, but now in a splitter, with my back once again to the window and my eyes taking turns between my laptop and France. Somewhere in there was a night time ferry ride from Dover to Calais. And now we are somewhere between Calais and Paris.

Looking most forward to it :)

-i

p.s. - The term jet-set evidently refers to people of wealth who travel a lot. We are far from that, but I like the word nonetheless. So yeah, jet-setting! minus the glamour.

watching idaho

Did I mention we celebrated Cinco de Mayo in Minneapolis? We managed to find some margaritas across from 1st ave (where both us and RRR were quite enamored with the legendary purple rain venue). This pic is actually not from cinco de mayo, but rather the next day in Omaha at the Slowdown.

We had a near tire blowout while en route to Denver. Some nice Coloradians noticed the tread coming off one of our trailer tires and were thoughtful enough to wave their hands frantically at me while passing by. I am a tad guilty of mentioning a couple weeks ago that we were due for a tire blowout. I mean, purely from a numbers perspective, the odds were not in our favor. David, was not happy with this statement at all, responding with a, "why would you say that?".

What you call jinx, I call foreshadow/number-crunching. Either way, crisis averted.

We made it to Denver unscathed and curious as to what the night would be like. The night, my golly, would end up being an unexpected treat. 2 prior times through and Monolith, we felt, had equated to something. What a great time and the food next door at the sister establishment was delicious. We didn't pull out Pot A Brewin however, as it was a late evening. We hadn't played that jam in quite some time. We started rehearsing it at soundcheck and if memory serves me correctly, played in Chicago and Minneapolis. Moving on...

SLC! Ah yes, we had our first song request and then went directly into it (song) scenario. Not as seamless as it sounds, but rather went something like...

Girl in crowd: High On a Hill!

Band: OK

David: click click click click

Lee: shaker shaka shaka

Edward: chuka chuka chucka

Band: song

That was a terrible text reenactment. To Seattle...

i.

watching iowa

With my back to the window and feet on the bench I sit here in the van watching the Iowa landscape slide on by. Lee and Ed are at the helm and spinning reggae at the moment. Aelx is on the ground watching some comedy show. The rhythm section is in the rear nappin in an unofficial silent contest to see who can spend the most time unconsious on tour. I started to put down tidbits about occurrences here and there regarding the last few days. I'm not sure why daily updates are so hard. There are factors though such as lack of internet and at times lack of inspiration I suppose. Eh, we do what we can.

(Hours later due to nap and arriving at venue...)

Perhaps a rundown of highlights for now. In Pittsburgh we got to experience a dear friend's YouTube VJ night at the Brillobox. In Cincinnati we swung by WOXY and performed live on air at the Lounge during Shiv's show. Pictures can be found on the WOXY flickr page here. We cheated on our RaRa buddies again in Chicago and played a one off gig at Schubas w/ Ladyhawk and Neva Dinova. In Detroit, Lee, our now official activities coordinator, researched and found that Hitsville was but 1.5 miles from the club. This was truly a treat. The museum was not open but we of course did the outside picture thing. Please excuse my Hitsville pic. It's merely a placeholder pic until I track down the group photo from one of the guys.

till next time,

-i

The summer blockbuster movie season begins in... Iowa!

What can I say?  I'm a huge sucker for summer blockbuster hits, and besides the new Batman movie, I've been anxiously waiting to see Iron Man.  So when it was determined that we would be spending our day off in Des Moines, Iowa, I immediately got on the net and found the nearest movie theatre showing it.  The Carmike Southridge 12!  What can I say about thee?  First off, I knew I wasn't in Los Angeles when I realized I paid only 6 dollars for the film.  Easily, the biggest bargain of this tour.   Secondly, I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I saw  a promotional poster in the lobby for BYOB Tuesdays.  Nope, unfortunately not that type of BYOB, although some of us actually did encounter another BYOB promotion later in the day... Bring Your Own...Bucket!  For 50 cents, the theatre will fill up your own personal bucket from home (up to 3 gallons) with hot buttery popcorn.  Alas, Ian and I had no bucket so we opted for the over-priced popcorn bag instead.

I have to say right now that Robert Downey, Jr. was incredible in Iron Man.  He was the sole reason why I would have to rate this movie among the top three super-hero movies I have ever seen (just behind Batman Begins and ahead of Spiderman 2).  In his performance as Tony Stark, Downey is able to bring to life one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel Universe.  In fact, I found myself wanting to see more of the free-drinking, kiss-stealing, wheelin-dealing, jet plane-flying, Tony Stark than the morally-changed Stark in the Iron Man suit.  Maybe that's just the Ric Flair fan in me.  Anyways, the movie was great.  You have to see it.  And for all of you really hardcore Marvel fans, make sure to stay after the end credits for a tasty bonus scene. And make sure to check back here soon for a counter-review to follow from Ian!

By the way, Ian's review won't be the first time he'll be called upon to make a judgement.  Check this pic out...

  

I better go now, time to get in the van and make the trek to Omaha, Nebraska!  

Cheers -Bri

blah blah blah

My, where have the weeks gone? This is terrible. I wrote some of this stuff days and days ago. All right, here's a sad attempt to recap some of stuff that's gone on in the past week.

Hoboken, NJ
Fun, warm, sold out, tasty food. Lee continues his ongoing quest for Margarita city sampling. Everybody orders a burrito that is more like a square the size of my head.

NYC
This gig was actually a one off and not part of the current tour we're on with RRR. Though some of the Ra Ra Riot dudes came out to support nonetheless. Truly a testament to their uberness. We were uncertain of what the ratio of Little Ones fans were gonna be given the unlikely pair up of ourselves and the headliner. Alas, it couldn't of been more comfy and cozy in there. Coincidently, the first stage we ever even played in NYC. Gi-hugic thanks to those who came out to support, those from Chicago, and those on holiday. You gave us comfort amongst the fray.

Boston
I don't think we've ever played anywhere else besides the Middle East in Boston. Always a treat. Good food, good people. While running out to the van I recognized this lady in gold pants and big glasses walking in. I knew I had seen this woman before. Earlier, Ed had pointed out that Hot Jams artist, Denny Blaze, was performing upstairs. With that in mind I had a hunch that there was something goin on, so I checked out the upstairs line up again. Bingo! Leslie and the Lys. It was like youtube puked reality all over the place. Quite surreal to say the least. A friend of a friend had a pretty great comment in stating that seeing these internet entities in person was like watching a unicorn walk by.

I truly don't know where this pic is from. But I'm mostly sure its from this tour.