Day 54: Nottingham Co-op. Madison, WI. 4-28-08

\\\woke up in the van once again. got straight to work.





\\\We had taken a route out of Chicago the night before that would allow us to avoid paying any tolls. Illinois isn’t the most expensive state to drive through, but instead of having a method to pay based on where you get on and off, you end up having to stop 15 times (give or take) at toll booths where you pay $1.80 or some other nonsensical, non-even amount of money. Not only is it hard to see this money at work in any state, it’s a big traffic jam around Chicago especially. We managed to drive in and out of Chicago without paying a single toll. Kudos to our GPS babe for sure.

\\\All the same, our little detour took us past the jelly belly factory in the morning. Behind the candy factory are some other big factories, and en enormous smokestack spewing huge amounts of white smoke. It looked ay first like the jelly belly manufacturers were fronting for some other huge industrial pollutant-type facility, but no, they’re just neighbors.



\\\We went first to Milwaukee to meet up with Moscow transplant Nate Lowe. He met us downtown at an historic market. We had a great lunch hanging with Nate and catching up. Talking music, and teaching, and books, and politics, and houses, and the rest. After lunch we wandered the market a bit before saying goodbye and heading on.



\\\Madison is really cool, and the state capitol building is enormous and beautiful... at least from the outside... it was a rainy drive in to town...



///We played at a place called the Nottingham Co-op, it is right on Lake Mendoka, and resides among many a frat and sorority. In fact the building used to be this kind of establishment, and now it’s a housing co-op. It has a large communal area, and about 20 rooms that rent for a varied rate depending on size. Members have communal meals, taking turns cooking, and also share many chores around the building. One member that Cam met at dinner had been living there for 11 years. The Co-op hosts shows regularly, and we set up and played in the main room.





\\\We were joined by a couple of great local solo acts: Oedipus Tex + Icarus Himself. Both were rad and very nice. It was a small but appreciative crowd on what ended up being the coldest day + night of tour by far... 54 days in... the room sounded great made for a great night of listening. nice big old room.

\\\Eric aka Oedipus Tex



\\\Nick (aka Icarus Himself) and his girlfriend Katie were nice enough to let us stay with them a few miles away from the co-op. So we got to hang out with them and their brand new kitten that night and the next morning. I think Cam got a little bit too much kitten love in the nighttime. It was, perhaps, the most vocal kitten I have ever been in contact with. He had a great time cuddling with Eric in the morning and I had my turn petting him too.

\\\yay for kittens.

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\lisa + gilbert

Day 54: The Elbo Room. Chicago, IL. 4-27-08

\\\woke up nice and late in Bloomington and cruised back downtown to experience the original Waffle House, a place not connected to the chain restaurants that we’re known to frequent, especially late night. This waffle house is a local establishment, and is the reason that the chain stores are called something like Waffle and Steak in Indiana. The place has been there for a long time, and the menu is bigger and more varied than the average waffle house. It was a huge and decadent breakfast. we were proud to be maintaining our very important research into local and awesome restaurants around the country.

\\\We got to Chicago in time (despite some traffic) to hit up some Chicago style deep-dish pizza before our show. Completing our research for the day...



\\\We played at a venue called the Elbo room, the same place we played in the fall with Woven. This time we had similar problems with local acts cancelling, but we were joined by local act Violent Vicious and the Vagabonds, who were sweethearts and did manage to get some friends to come out on short notice for the show. It was a small but enthusiastic crowd.





\\\Everything ended early, which we were thankful for, and packed up on high gear and headed a few blocks away to see some music for ourselves... We had found out in Ypsilanti that one of the bands we played with there -- Child Bite -- was going to be playing with our good musical friend Merrill from Sister Suvi in Chicago at a venue called Fuck Mountain. We headed there hoping to at least catch a few songs. It was tricky to find, but once we did get there Merrill -- as her solo project Tune-Yards -- had only played one or town songs since the bands had gotten shut down by the police after a noise complaint. So we got to catch most of her set... which was awesome. Merrill is amazing and it was rad to see her solo, and certainly made us all look forward to the next time we will get to see / play with Sister Suvi again.

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\lisa + gilbert

Day 53: The Cinemat. Bloomington, IN. 4-26-08

\\\woke up to this sign in some small town in Michigan... hmmmm....



\\\with the gas prices rising as we traverse the country... we jumped into our first expedition into Indiana... where we crossed paths with the Obama campaign once again...





\\\we played at a cool indie film store / movie house called The Cinemat



\\\balloons hauled from some other event by Addison from Busman's Holiday. helped the mood amp up to festive.



\\\Busman's Holiday was fantastic and fun. check them out at www.myspace.com/busmansholiday





\\\here's a video for another taste... super hammy.


\\\we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel room -- only the second splurge out of our pocket for a hotel room on this tour. it was nice on the outside. and surprisingly cheap. once inside we understood the low price...





\\\we slept well though. and slept in.


\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 52: The Elbow Room. Ypsilanti, MI. 4-25-08

\\\our first expedition into Michigan...



\\\we played at the infamous Elbow Room in economic torn Ypsilanti, MI... pretty interesting scene.



\\\played on a pretty good bill. made for a fun and rawkus show. we played second after I Became The Sky... after us Detroit's CHILD BITE played and then So Cal's VOODOO ORGANIST. all were classy. and rowdy.

\\\child bite



\\\voodoo organist



\\\we had a friend in Katie Duke (milo duke's sister) show up, which was fun. all in all, good show. but we were ready to roll out of town and cruised south towards indiana... ate at a crazy little truckstop diner in the middle of the night then crashed in their parking lot... wow. another weird epic encounter with small town america...

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 51: Tree's Farm. Middletown, OH. 4-24-08

\\\woke up in a truckstop somewhere in Pennsylvania after putting a small dent in our 566 mile / 9hrs and 20min drive to Ohio...



\\\the drive across Pennsylvania was pretty epic. in length. but also in beauty.



\\\we went through a few tunnels throughout the day



\\\showed up at Tree's Farm by about 4pm... quite the change of pace from the night before...





\\\played inside the barn on the farm. from the minute we showed up it seemed as though we'd landed in heaven. so peaceful. so green. weather was unbelievable. a pace much more like our idaho lives. what a blessing. and the show was super fun. played with locals Tibetan Yeti Hunter, featuring Josh Kettleshake on drums -- an old friend from Moscow. their trumpet player ended up sitting in on a couple of tunes in our set. Very cool scene. definitely a highlight of tour.





\\\the hosts -- Tree, Danny and Mary -- took such good care of us. Tree is a chef and cooked a marvelous dinner and breakfast the next day. the long drive was well worth it. all of us were well rested and recharged for the final stretch of tour as we parted ways with the farm the next morning... thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert


\\\PS here's a little taste of the serenity we tasted on Tree's Farm:

Day 50: The M Room. Philly, PA. 4-23-08

\\\woke up and headed to Philly, our first real move West and thus homeward. the drive took us back through NYC and the Holland Tunnel.



\\\rolled into hot and steamy Philadelphia just a day after the Pennsylvania presidential democratic primary where Hillary Clinton eeked out a win over Barack Obama... not in Philly though... pretty sure Philly went to Obama... saw lots of remnants from the campaign...



\\\cruised into Fishtown, the neighborhood where The M Room is located -- where we'd be playing that night. found parking on the street. Cam proceeded to clean himself up while i walked around to check out the venue.





\\\we then headed into downtown Philly to meet our friend Marty (from north carolina) and one of her friends for dinner... drove past Philadelphia City Hall... absolutely amazing building. check out this wikipedia entry on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_City_Hall pretty awesome.



\\\played that night at The M Room with three philly bands: Media + The Psychadelicates + Rasputin Secret Police. it was a fun show. and we had a bunch of friends there which made it all the cooler... thanks to the Cloud Minder / Anthropic Records crew -- david, evan and shannon -- for coming out! thanks to Trevor (triangle shirt factory)!! and to Marty and Ashley!! and to Kevin and Kate and Brian.





\\\we had a big drive to Ohio the next day, so we packed up and hit the road for the long trek across Pennsylvania...


\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 49: Univ. of Rhode Island. Kingston, RI. 4-22-08

\\\woke up next to the atlantic ocean in newport, rhode island. spent a good portion of the morning by the water collecting sea shells and taking breathing the salty air.



\\\cam and i fulfilled our mission of eating fresh lobster. it was amazing. turns out the lobster in rhode island is pretty epic too.



\\\lighthouses rule.



\\\drove to Kingston, RI to play a show at the 193 Degrees Coffeehouse on the University of Rhode Island campus with a rad band from Rhode Island called Milo.



\\\milo. (not to be confused with the man. milo duke. different all together. but still awesome.)



\\\we slept in a couple dorm rooms on the UofRI campus that night. thanks to the kate and her friend that offered up their cozy jail cells. it was a fresh experience to say the least. it was awesome. yay for beds!!


reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 48: Never Say Never Ink. Beverly, MA 4-21-08 + best sleeping spot ever

After saying good-bye to my family we headed towards Beverly Mass via the NH seacoast (there’s only 18 miles of seacoast in NH). We stopped in Hampton Beach and had lunch at one of the restaurants along the beach. It was a little bit cold, and certainly still off season. Our waitress was nice enough to give the guys free coffee and Cam left with an extra bowl of chowder.

We got to Beverly and headed to Never Say Never Ink, an art store that we played at in the fall. The people who run it are super nice, and were excited to have us back. We had to hold the show off for a while due to a complaint from the business next door, but it gave the crowd a chance to fill out and in the end it was a good Monday night show. The opening band was an interesting instrumental (mostly) local high school band called And the Sea Was Ours. They’re creating some cool sounds as a young band.

The show ended fairly early, at least by our standards, and we decided to drive and find someplace to sleep. The guys wanted to head towards the ocean, and I was game for that. So, we headed to Newport RI. By the time we got there it was pretty late, and I as really tired. We did find a great spot right on the ocean to park and sleep, and since it was off season no one bothered us for parking there over night. It was beautiful to see the moonlight shining on the ocean, and hear the waves crashing all night. We were right next to an old fort/home/now park. It was once the summer home of a wealthy family, and then turned into a military point during the war, and then later returned to family who then allowed it to become a park area. It was amazing to think that it used to be the summer home of a family, and seemed like a very romantic place to spend the summers, between the ocean and a large acreage with paths through blackberry brambles and shrubs.

Here's what it looked like in the morning:















definitely the best place we slept & woke up all of tour. maybe best ever. it was unbelievable. we took our time in the morning for sure. collected tons of shells and breathed the ocean air deeply.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses:
the simps + gilbert

Day 47: day off. New Hampshire. 4-20-08

Our last day off with my family. We headed over to my brother and Sister-in-law’s house for lunchtime. After food we watched the new “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie with the kids. It was nice to just chill and do something very family centered like that, laughing with the kids and sitting on the couch with my family. I don’t get chances to see them as often as I wish I could, so I appreciate normal things like that a lot, especially in the middle of a crazy adventure. It keeps me grounded. It’s really a blessing to have a great family that supports me and my band mates in following our passion. It was a treat to be able to hang with them as much as I did (and we did) over the time we spent in the northeast.

-lisa

Day 46: The Q. Worcester, MA. 4-19-08

Worcester MA is a city with an often mispronounced name. Growing up in New England, I grew up knowing it was said “woostah” instead of a more phonetic version. Of course, you can say “wooster” and locals won’t look at you funny, but don't stray any further than that if you don’t want to stand out. There are some other interesting-to-pronounce places in Mass, but that’s not really the point of this story...

Anyway, the show was set up by our buddy Dylan Clark who we met when we played with Tiger Saw in Seattle almost a year ago. He plays drums with Tiger Saw, but had set up this show with a new project he's playing with as well now called The Points North. We were pumped to be hooking up with Dylan again and trusted it would be a sweet show.

We got there early to meet up with Dylan and some of his friends for dinner at a vegan Chinese restaurant up the road. After not feeling great the night before, I did my best to steer clear of too much soy (a slight challenge in a vegan Chinese food place) but enjoyed some veggie wonton soup. The place also makes some pretty killer coconut milk smoothies. The rest of the crew mowed down some tasty looking dishes and the entourage was stoked. Both of Dylan's friends were from Wisconsin. One was there to stay: Emily. The other, train jumpin Perry, was only in town for a few days before making his way back to cheese and beer country. They were good company. Spirits were high.

The show was at The Q, a locally owned coffee shop with a cool artsy vibe and decor. The space was fairly small. As was the stage. We picked up right away that it was going to be a quieter show. We unloaded our light setup, which we were excited about as these stripped down sets had been a blast as of late.

The first two bands were from Boston. The Woodrow Wilsons played first. They were fantastic. Loved every minute of it. Rad acoustic instrumentation. Great tunes. Smart lyrics. Good peeps. Check them out for suresy. www.myspace.com/thewoodrowwilsons

The Points North followed. Somewhat similar sound to the WWilsons. Made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside and all over. Wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. you can find them and their sweet tunes here: www.myspace.com/thepointsnorth Big thanks to Dylan and Chris for bringin us in under the wing for this show and for singing good stuff and for taking such great care of us.

Our set was super fun.

Nat Baldwin played last. He's from Portsmouth, NH. Brought just himself and his stand up bass for the show. Crazy amazing stuff. There's a video below of one of his tunes. He'll be playing in Boise this summer with Jared Mees and Hillfolk Noir. We're stoked to have him out and to be playing with family. He did some wild contrabass improv stuff in the midst of his eccentric pop tunes. Word is he used to play with The Dirty Projectors. Good guy. check it. www.myspace.com/natbaldwin

We drove home to New Hampshire that night. The next day would be our last day with the Simpson family. Then Monday would bring the beginning of our homeward movement.

(Lisa wrote the first half. we collaborated on the rest).

on behalf of all uf us finn rigginses...

love,
gilbert


Nat Baldwin playing "Lake Erie":