Hi and welcome to the blog. We’ve returned safely from our 21-day tour of the east coast. It was quite an amazing time and best summed up by Chase (our road manager and friend since childhood) as “Four months worth of life in three weeks.” So , I’m going to be recounting our happenings with pictures and videos. I hope you enjoy them. Feel free to leave comments. Especially if they come at Dan's expense.

My Old Apt. In South End

June 26th: Boston is easily one of my favorite cities in the world.  I lived there while working on a summer session at Berklee and I would love to permanently move there if I could only put up with their annoying infatuation with the Red Sox.  My sister (nine years my senior) went to college in its suburbs and visiting as a young lad, I developed an early affection for the place.

Our friends and fellow Miami musicians, The State Of, recommended this place in Cambridge called "The All Asia."  It was described as an oriental restaurant and they even warned us that louder bands could sometimes create a muddled mix in the small(ish) bar.

At this point, we had all realized that there was a very common difference between the northern and southern venues.  As the tour progressed and we ventured closer and closer to the Mason-Dixon Line, we noticed the appreciation for our work and the empathy for our daily dilemmas kept growing.  In the South, we were "the band," here to entertain the people with background noise while they drink and talk amongst themselves but once we hit Raleigh, we noticed that people were coming out to hear original music.

There is such a disparity between the performances of small bands and famous bands and most of the time, it has nothing to do with the quality of the performance, but the quality of the songs. Of course a great show is mandatory but as a new band, you're asking the audience to both pay attention to this new art you're throwing at them but also enjoy themselves.  It really isn't an easy task to ask of someone out for leisure.  It's infinitely more fun for both parties when the audience has a predisposed expectation and they can put the concentration and comprehension aside and just rock out.  People up north, for the most part, seemed way more willing to listen and not just hear and as someone who spends an exponential amount of energy writing songs that contain a lot of honesty and very little apprehension (or at least I hope they do), it's a huge compliment and very comforting. But I digress...

The Old Stomping Grounds - Mass Ave and Boylston

Part of the reason why Alejandro joined the band was the departure of original guitarist, Sean Skelton, who coincidentally took a job in Boston, so it was cool catching up.  I asked him to join Ale and the rest of us on stage for the last three songs, "Concrete Dreams," "Black Panther Party" and "Let it Go" and it was great looking to my right and sharing geeky smiles with a guy that I had been through a lot with.  Sean was the first person I ever asked to join and he, in turn, helped me fill out the original group.  He was always very outgoing for the band and for that I'm forever thankful.

It was also really cool to meet up with Courtney Smith.  Courtney is a blogger living in Boston under the pen name "Miss Media," who we contacted on MySpace quite a while prior. And late one night, someone sent me an email saying that we had our first review of "Duende." Sure enough, "Miss Media" not only had reviewed the EP but helped me set the record for largest head growth in ten minutes.  As I read through it, I couldn't believe the considerate praise.  I even woke up my band mates to share it.  Courtney checked out the show and wrote a review which included quite an appreciation for Al.  So much so that the sonofabitch almost broke my record!  Read it here.

Of course, we explored the immediate city during the day.  I showed Colin and Chase my old place of residence during the summer of 2008 and where I used to play basketball almost everyday after lessons.  A trio of 12-year-olds were occupying the court and we asked to shoot around with them, but those little f*ckers kept egging us on to a competitive game, so I had to show them exactly how I got my middle school basketball nickname "White Chocolate."

Did you see that pass? I mean, shades of goddamn Magic Johnson right there!! And what about "Heavy C" Chase Neilson with the finish?  So what if they were pre-pubescent children, I could still totally make the NBA if this silly little music thing turns tits up.

Seriously, here's a random video that I found.  This is us unloading.  We're in very good spirits because we were really getting into a groove with each other.  My favorite part is Chase singing "Tenacious D" as he misses putting the sleeping bag in the truck.  Good memories.

The show was a lot of fun as was Boston and suddenly sadly, we found ourselves with only one more show.  Rueing the end of the next night, we soldiered onto Rich's hometown, Philadelphia.

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