Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Day 17: Jacksonville, Florida. Shantytown. 3-21-08. sunshine

We enjoyed an absolutely stellar drive on some backroads through South Carolina as we began the trek down to Florida. Drove through some cool little towns and were blissfully enjoying the near perfect weather. One area we drove through appeared to have suffered a recent tornado knocking down portiions of the forest and causing scattered damage amongst some homes and a town, including one particularly striking image of a steeple knocked off a church and laying in the yard next to it. Pretty epic. Should have stopped for a photo op. Then again, maybe the damage was caused by an army of choppers like the one pictured to the right.

Our drive then took us down through Georgia, however, most of that drive was on I-95 and not near as cool as the backroads. Much more traffic. Much less personality.

We had plugged in the wrong address to our GPS babe and found ourselves in Jacksonville, but out in the middle of nowhere. Upon fixing the address, which luckily hadn't taken us too far out of our way, we were still 15 miles away from our destination, yet still in Jacksonville. Weird. We'd learn later that evening that Jacksonville is the largest city in America based on its city boundaries -- not on population -- a big sprawling city area... interesting that we got to experience it first hand. That, and it was the first place we'd ever seen almost all the highway signs mysteriously blocked out... lucky for us, our GPS babe takes such good care of us. Oh how we love thee... fairest GPS babe of them all...

The show that night had been put together by Kevin from local band Helios Eye, and he and his girlfriend Cameron were kind enough to play host to us as well. Kevin even cooked up some dank chicken fajita/burritos for us all. So yummy. Oh my. What a blessing in the midst of tour.

The show was at a little divey / local hang called Shantytown. Very cool place. Tiny, but with tons of character and a really cool backyard with a fire pit and lots of chill space... and apparently with a very cool built in scene. Very cool scene. We had a blast. This dreaded fella that goes by Zeke opened the show, despite being really drunk due to drinking all afternoon. He tried to get out of playing, but everyone heckled him into playing, and had to continue to do so after each song with him flipping everyone off and resisting with all his might. It was classic. Despite his condition, he was pretty rad. Really cool tunes and surprisingly well delivered considering. A few fell apart into expletives, but that only fed the show. It was great.

Helios Eye played next. Apparently they used to be totally acoustic and just a couple of guys, and this was their first show electric and with drums -- now a six piece. We all lovvved their set. Sweet sweet psychedelic / garagey / punk stuff. Awesome tunes and stellar presentation. Loved it so much. I had left my camera back at the house, but i was able to snap a few shots with my camera. Thus the fuzzy photos you see around.

We played after that to a packed, pumped and sweaty sweaty room. It was so fun. Vocals feeding back and distorted. Super raw and energized. One of the hottest shows on tour thus far. In several ways. Temperature included. Can't imagine what that room would be like in the heart of summer. Wow. Jacksonville was so welcoming and warm to us. What a blast.

Local duo Elevators Making Analog closed the show out with their wall of amps and stellar female drumming. It was a fun set as well, although i had to take most of it in from out back in the fresh air. Holy goodness. Met lots of rad people and felt incredibly at home in Florida. My first time there.

Went back and hung out late at Kevin and Cameron's. Great people. Thanks to everyone that made our short stay in Jacksonville so good and so memorable. Especially: Kevin, Cameron, Amber, JT, all the Helios Eye clan, Thomas, Zeke (mike), Charlie and EMA co-conspirator, Aubrey and all the other characters who's names are alluding me. thank you thank you thank you.

Reporting from the warm confines of the South for all of us Finn Rigginses :::
::; gilbert


PS lisa captured the Shantytown in the act of a common misspelling / missreading / missunderstanding of the name of our created character and band name:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hey duders, this is jeff from helios eye (the percussionist). just wanted to let you know you fucking rocked it and wishing you the best of luck on the rest of your southern trek. cheers!