Ela Tour Journal #5

tour diary – buffalo / Toronto

Pulling into the city of Buffalo on a Sunday is like entering a city from Mad Max. The streets are deserted, old steel factory’s hang darkly on the outskirts. We arrive at the club, the Tralf Music hall, with everyone feeling gray and old and shagged and fagged. We load, and soundcheck is once again running about 2 hours behind schedule. We’ve been having this problem, because of the amount of gear between the three bands, of clubs not really being prepared to mike everything. What this means as the opener is that you are at the end of the defrayal line – ie, no soundcheck.

OR, in the case of buffalo tonight, a quick sound check as the club is halfway full on its way to filling up completely. We are having a lot of trouble communicating with the soundman, and start talking with the crowd instead. It feels right for us to be once more playing a short low stage, no barricade, in touch with the kids who have come out.

We start playing and everything is hitting right. Some nights you can go from feeling so shitty, like you don’t even know why you are out here, just want your bed, a routine, some silence, a stove top, a bathtub….but then you start playing and the communication is HAPPENING, and you feel connected even though you never knew you’d be here, they never expected it, the music comes together outside but connected to all of this, and it just lifts you up.

Subtle and the Bear kill it, some kids unleash a ton of balloons and its just a party. Totally impressed by Buffalo on a Sunday.

***

The drive into Canada has us all on edge. Ela as a band has never played another country, and are unsure of what to expect in the border crossing. We decide to leave the bulk of our merch in Buffalo and take as few things as possible in the event that we have to pay taxes.

At immigration, we have to go through a special line to explain our business and just generally be checked out. It is very tense, almost militaristic in the waiting room. Lots of coughing and shuffling of feet. The person in front of us is an old man, who notices a ring on the border guard, and makes some comment none of us can hear. Next thing we know, they are laughing, winking at each other, and he is on his way. The man says something along the lines of “To the east my friend, always eastward” to which the guard responds “oh , most definitely”. We are confused, and continue to listen as his guard-mate asks him what was up. We catch him say something about the Masons, and that hell “explain it later”. Hmmm. Secret society here we come?!!

Finally we are in, with time to spare. We get to the club, the Opera House and meet up with everyone. Already I am just amazed at how nice everyone in Canada seems. Also endearing, the main production lady keeps referring to her backpack as a “Knapsack”. We’re early, so load in and head down the street. Toronto feels like a much cleaner, more European Chicago. We pass the time at a Japanese-ish restraunt eating noodles and hot and sour soup.

Tonight the club TOTALLY has their shit together, with a great front of house and super nice monitor guy who really knows his tools. We get a great soundcheck, in this huge, empty castle-like room. Its got like 3 balconies, stone walls, and the stage is beautiful old planks of shining wood. Everyone is happy with the way things sound on stage, and we go downstairs to try and prepare mentally to warm up another night by writing a super-set-list. Just the Jams sons, the transitions sons!

The set feels absolutely amazing. This is pretty much the biggest, fullest club I have ever played, with insane lasers and smoke and the sound is on, and there is room to move around, and we are just letting the music breathe. We played the song “build a garden” which I was conscious of feeling very different to sing in a different country. Especially a country that seems much less entrenched in misguided foreign politics. I try to speak the lines to that song especially clearly, mainly to hear them again myself.

We quickly sell out of all the CDs we brought into the country, and feel dumb for not having brought more. Oh well, more incentive to plan a 1 off to Toronto in about 6 months.

The rest of the night is fantastic, with the crowd just getting more and more amped up. Ela and Subtle bro out in the basement, drinking Molson and whiskey. Marty (sax player from Subtle) and peter just GETTING into some jazz land talks while Dose-One , Jel, and Sean just get deep into some hip hop esoterica. It feels great to be making these new friends. The night is capped by a fucking BATTLE session between Sean and Dose One (who is quantifiably one of the best freestyle rappers in the country) with me (billy c) providing the beats. Um. Funzo from Minus the Bear has this on tape, and I will shortly be putting it on You-tube / Myspace for you fine people to witness your self. Words will no longer suffice.

Thanks to Canada, for ruling so hard and once again proving what a superior operation you run. Im torn between wanting to work towards turning my own community into something more closely resembling Toronto, and just dropping everything and moving there and making babies. (Hi Abby)

Love,

Bill C + Ela

Ela Tour Journal #4

Check the deal guys. Still on tour with Minus the Bear and Subtle. It feels great. I haven't written in a couple days and Pittsburgh is a bit of an alcohol/deeesh/hand rolled cigarettes mystery. Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a great book by Michael Chabon. Check that situation out brother. We drove for fifty-thousand miles. On the morning of Tuesday the 25th we got up in the morning and started driving vaguely towards Detroit. The whole first day was just long ass. Long long ass. We watched the entire film "The King of Scotland" with Forest Whitaker on the computer that I now type on. God bless that man. The movie was great in my opinion. We ate at the Olive Garden. I ate so much of that fucking salad and soup. I did the deal where all you get is all you can eat is those two and fuck an entrée. It was more like "all the waiter will bring you cause he's ignoring your ass." Everyone is familiar with the salad, I got zuppa Toscana, and the one with vegetables, what the shit is that one called. Maybe Olive Garden's myspace page will comment "it's minestrone, bitch."

We slept in Dickinson, ND at a Super 8 maybe? I think a Super 8. I sat on the internet forever and wrote the last blog you read. And then I just kept on sitting there and I could not stop looking at the dumbest shit on earth. Every photo of any band I've ever played in on flickr. Fuckers who I don't even like on Facebook. Shitty message boards. Porn. Including that fake ass Meg White video, which is definitely in the "spank bank" as our friend (and occasional Ela bassist) Mike Gunnarson refers to it. I can't believe it excites me to look at a girl who is definitely not Meg White having sex more than just looking at a girl who is having sex. The video has taken on a Blair Witch like place in my mind. Who are the people in the movie? Was the guy thinking, "this girl looks like Meg White, I'm about to get paid." Or was the Meg White vision manufactured after the fact? My mind reels as I take a trip around myself. I'm trying to be less misogynistic, and I have proofread this, and I don't think it is. I don't think. I'm going to post it on bell hooks myspace and double check though, better safe than sorry.

So, Dickinson fuck you, let's keep driving. Peter drove in the morning I believe and we stopped accidentally at the place that Heiruspecs got into a big ass van accident at the end of 2005. My emotions and skin feels strange to see the Subway we sat at, the hotel we stayed at, and to actually pass the little piece of real estate that I rolled our van over on. We think we have the spot placed exactly cause they haven't replaced the little metal pole we knocked the shits out of. So that happened. And then we drove right past the fucking Twin Cities. It stung. It really stung. But the real fuck you wasn't driving through, it was stopping at One For the Team's rehearsal space to pick up 13 Ela CDs. When I was parked at University and whatever the fuck profile music is on I was just thinking, "if I ran right now I could be eating an awesome granola from Espresso Royale in 11 minutes.. .I could be looking at cute girls at the University of Minnesota in 6." And no amount of waiting in the world will make cute girls show up in Pittsburgh. I mean, it's been a city for 185 years and not a cute girl has ever lived in Allegheny County. The shit is a law. If you do see a cute girl in Pittsburgh, I demand you make sure she is not trying to figure out where the airport is to go back to the University of Minnesota or the cute girl factory (if I knew where it was, I still wouldn't tell you). For real.

We stayed the night in Madison, WI to get closer to the goal of Detroit. We stayed with Bill's sister who has a big old family. And Bill's mom was there. I parked like a jackass and hit a ton of branches and crap. We were celebrating Bill's birthday and we had a little bit of champagne with Bill's mom and caught up. I slept for the first time on this tour in a bed and it felt just fantastic. But I felt guilty moving around because the bed creaked super loud and I didn't want to wake up the people we were staying with.

The next day we got an early start after some cereal at the house. We stopped at an internet café to send some time sensitive material via the interweb (we are also counter-terrorists). Our van decided to take a break from working in Belvidere, IL. On an earlier Ela tour one of our van tires got the bubonic plague and birthed a huge bubble. We stopped to get it looked at at the same cursed rest stop. If you've toured for awhile it starts to feel like hanging out with the ghost of Christmas past as you drive. In that spirit Peter spent a good amount of our time on University Ave in Madison trying to remember which corner I puked all over the night after I broke up with my girlfriend on tour. Peter finally found a corner he felt was right and we smiled. I had no fucking idea. None. We got our van to work basically by locking the car, unlocking it and starting it again. Caravans are known for having kind of questionable electronics. We were running late and kind of stressing it. And the thing is, running late heading towards Chicago means you won't really have any idea how late you'll be til you have gotten into lovely Gary, Indiana.

Even though we got to the club late Minus the Bear was still soundchecking so all was good. We brought all our shit in just in time for the paid loaders at the club to show up and go "anything need to be moved?" But, thankfully, we have the smallest amps in the world so everything was straight. I spent a ton of time counting in merch and just acting stupid at the table. Then I grabbed an antipasti type of salad from an Italian place down the street. The rest of the night I was really just working merch and trying to get shit together for my brother's bachelor party. After the show I was beat and we headed to the hotel pretty quickly. But, at the hotel I lived the dream. The dream is a swimming pool that effortlessly flows between outside and inside areas. But the real dream is to swim with two of your best friends in the world at 1 in the morning when the pool should be closed but the lady at the hotel is super nice. Bill is blissfully drunk and Peter's a bit drunk and we are swimming in this pool in the dark doing handstands and sharing one pair of goggles. I felt so happy at that moment. Just swimming and laughing and talking and being part of a life where this is my Thursday. Granted, I'll have horrible Thursdays, and everyone will. But right now, we are stomping around a hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan soaking wet.

In the morning I got salad bar from a granola ass grocery store and then we drove on to Cleveland. I hate Cleveland. It's been the capital of shitty shows for me for a really long time. Now this show in Cleveland had a lot of people at it but we still had a tough show. And the club was great, everything could have gone right. But the cost of the beauty of playing live music is that sometimes things conspire to really head the other way. And tonight, well shit, they did. Kids were gently heckling us but we couldn't figure out if it was really heckling or not. And I think the kid who was mainly doing this got that. He yelled, "Billy Joel" at one point. And understand, we didn't start the fire but that certainly can't be a fucking compliment at a hipster as fuck Minus the Bear show. But then the guy was like "I mean cause he's about to play piano! Whew!" I think the kid was just kind of socially awkward. Actually, really socially awkward. It would be semi awkward if it wasn't a show with a shit ton of people. We didn't sell much merch and then we dipped out early to get to Pittsburgh. The 2 hour drive was turned into a 3 hour fiasco because of some construction worker just parked in his big bulldozer blocking the one road out of Cleveland. Cleveland's motto should be "you're fucked, really fucked." We finally found our way out and arrived to stay with Bill's friends Matt and Jess in Pittsburgh. Regardless of all the no cute girl talk Ela loves Pittsburgh, we have friends there and it's great. But tonight we basically just go to bed because everyone is tired. Except for me, so I sit on the internet, watch not Meg White and write shitty trivia questions for the trivia night that I run. And then I hit some sleep on their basement floor.

I wake up in the morning just freezing my ass off. I slept in the basement on the floor and at 7:13 I wake up because the urine has frozen in my ball sack. Does your urine even go to your ballsack when it's not freezing? I got up and got back on the motherfucking quicken and started figuring out how much money we're making/losing on the tour. I am pleased by this work and was very proud when my accountant said that I am the best quicken band boy she's ever worked with. After that I decided to go on a run and listen to Lil' Wayne because it's the only record I have on my ipod (long, shitty story). I am listening to Lil' Wayne like usual but I am also trying to think about not saying misogynistic things anymore. Lil' Wayne could use a bit less misogyny but his poetry is still strong: ) paraphrased, no headphone: "my momma's bitchin' got to stop calling women bitches, but she ain't really trippin' cause the pots is pissed in." He's a strong writer, misogyny or no. And I think he is the best rapper alive. Jay-Z was. And I know he's still alive, but the spark is gone.

Right after running, one of the housemates, Nicole, asks if I want to go to a donation only yoga class. My healthy ass is feeling it so I drop in and get to it. I was pretty into yoga a couple months ago but my ex-girlfriend got the access to the yoga classes we went to together in the break-up so I haven't done much of it lately. It felt great, I love the spirit of yoga and it is so different from what I do most days on tour (which apparently involves ranch dressing and some sort of complaining). After the class I felt blissful and I took a shower. It was beautiful. We went down to the Strip in Pittsburgh and I got an amazing salad and a Korean pancake. It was truly one of the most beautiful days I've ever had.

The show in Pittsburgh was at like a Miami Vice style cocaine friendly bar that was called Diesel. It felt like the place where a door guy was going to be like, "yins in for some yayo"?. Yins aren't. And "yins" is a term for "you" in Pittsburgh talky. The show is very well attended but we can't connect with the audience. Our soundcheck was very short and we sort of struggled through the set but we seemed to support each other. I needed a break from selling the merch so I went and ate some pizza. Knol called my attention to what I like to call "the vodka mishap of 2007". Minus the Bear drinks whiskey, not vodka. But they got a bottle of vodka. Subtle and Ela got drunk. I got real drunk. And I smoked a bit of a spliff. And I forgot just how great that is. I went up to the VIP area that we got for our Pittsburgh friends on accident. We said it as a joke to a guy working at the club and he hooked up for free. I walked past a whole crowd of people desperately trying to see every detail of Minus the Bear playing into a little VIP area with our Pittsburgh people just shooting the shit. Sitting there a little drunk and pretty stoned everything felt just amazing. And after a minute we let the super Minus the Bear fans drop in to our area and it was great. Somebody bought me a drink cause I let them in to an area that we didn't even really deserve to have. As Minus the Bear played I was again really glad to be on tour and sitting with friends. I ended up talking to the girl who bought me a drink for awhile and it felt really good. She worked at the Art Institute and we were talking and it was beautiful. Peter came over and started talking about the foundations of art and emotions and kept it real art school with her. I just didn't have shit to say. When the conversation got all deep I just dipped and went down to the cocaine filled bar and started dancing alone to R&B and letting the promoter buy me drinks. I felt wonderful. Later, Peter said to me, "I think I convinced those girls to stop sleeping with boys in bands and start making their own art!" Mission accomplished Peter, mission accomplished. And I was getting pretty fucking drunk. I recalled a famous story with the Pittsburgh promoter where De La Soul refused to perform without money in hand even though the ticket sales were all there. And they shot waterguns into the monitors and totaled them. What in the shit. Come on posdnous. Get serious. After I drank a kiddy pool full of drinks and danced to a ton of R&B songs I had a long conversation with Minus the Bear's soundguy about how I am able to wear my pants so low. I explained that all you have to do is be a complete idiot and want girls to not talk to you. Bill drove our van back to Matt and Jess's. We drank more and smoked some more deesh. And we talked and everything was beautiful. I wrote tons of numbers for pizza places down on my skin and then called them. And none of them would deliver pizza. None of them. We got into a really long conversation about class struggles and life and things. And for all I know a fucking bunny came up and started speaking in German, cause I can't remember a lot of shit. I slept in a chair with my pants on. But Peter put a blanket on me cause he cares. I woke up and felt like shit. Actually I felt like shit that got drunk and stoned the night before.

(Sean McPherson)

--
ela on tour with minus the bear/subtle

Oct 1 -- Toronto, ON -- Opera House
Oct 3 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 4 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 5 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Warsaw
Oct 6 -- New York, NY -- Irving Plaza
Oct 7 -- Sayreville, NJ -- Starland Ballroom
Oct 8 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Theatre of Living Arts
Oct 10 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat
Oct 11 -- Norfolk, VA -- The Norva

Ela Tour Journal #3

Day Something - Monday September 23

Early ass drive back in the other direction from Spokane. It's nice to get one good show in Spokane under the belt because Heiruspecs has never had one. I often thought that Heiruspecs might have met "fuck those dudes" in local slang with how few people showed up. We are losing an hour going to Missoula but we have plenty of time. We arrived on time but soundchecks and things are running behind. The club is going to be really full and the stage looks like the puppet stage from "being john malkovich". it's just hopelessly tiny. We load our stuff in and mill around doing nothing. I helped move a ton of couches out of the way with some dudes from the club and we figured out how to make our merch as small as possible between the three bands. Minus the Bear's merch guy, Steve, is great. If I didn't have a real brother named Steve, I'd call him brother Steve. But I do. He drinks whiskey diet cokes and beers. He talks about girls. We're both chunky but super suave (that means smooth in portuguesa or something).

Both the other bands on tour have their own soundguys but we get to work with the houseguys everynight. And this house guy was just not into the deal and was arguing with the traveling sound guys but then they started broing out and talking about whatever sound guys talk about. I try to hang with jokes with these dudes but I have not a fucking clue what a crossover is or why it's called a cardiod? I don't even really know how to play bass. We had a soundcheck after doors opened but tonight it was count the 19 year olds because it was an 18+ show. Our set turned out to just be wonderful. Small stages can really help. We played our asses off and I had some very strange moments of just being so close to people and looking at each other. Not in a rock star/fan way but in a very "it's hot in here, I bet those drums are loud for you too, I like tuning my bass between songs, have you noticed?" type of way. After the show we loaded out while drunk people walked past our equipment and tried to knock it over. A sold out show in Montana is not like a sold out show elsewhere. Because the town drunk who orders a double shot of Jameson but claims he ordered a single somehow still gets in. And the dudes running shit at the fake ass digital casino next door don't give a fuck if your "fuckin' skynrd", get the fuck out of the way.

I attempted to hit on a girl that was nice to me working behind the bar after she got cut from her shift. Hitting on in this sense means talking and going "really?" when if it was a dude I would go "sure, yup, sure". She was actually super nice and dropped the boyfriend line within the third paragraph. But she added in a nice way that he is in a hardcore band and is working the door right now and is eight feet away from me. More turtle dick. But the dude was super nice and when a very drugged out dude tried to sit behind our merch the dude got even more drugged out of the club by hardcore bf and another door guy.

I ended up getting the number of a girl towards the end of the show who was staying in the area cause her and her girls didn't want to drive back to Helena (the sham capital of Montana). They picked my drunk ass up from the Ela hotel and brought me to their hotel. We sat their alcohol-less while we talked about random shit that appeared on the TV. It never materialized into a conversation and I could not figure out what these three girls that didn't go to high school together and were different ages were doing together. I was getting pre-hungover and towards out of it. They mentioned it was one of the girls' birthdays recently. Small talk me asked what they did to celebrate. Big talk them mentioned the old Jehovah's Witness deal. They were all Jehovah's Witnesses dude. Forgive my dude talk but I've never like socially ran into a Witness, just the typical knockety knock type meetings. I would like to thank the author Zadie Smith for giving me half a leg to stand on in regards to knowing what their whole deal is. I asked some acceptable questions, cracked no jokes (people deserve respect for their religion and a hang out is not a comedy routine). But, I'm plagued by that indecision when you find out an interesting fact about someone, do you ignore it, or delve deep or try to quasi natural bring shit up. Such as: "oh weird, that door's made out of wood. Do you guys knock on doors made out of wood to proselytize about the second coming and the doomsday scenarios I've read about in your pamphlets?"

A dude friend of one of the girls came over and I was downright excited to see another guy. I mean, I had no idea how to hang with three girls, all witnesses, with no liquor talking about shit on TV and everytime I want to say fuck or shit or even anus bubbles I sort of put like an extra half second before and after of considering not swearing, and then still swear. I am waiting for the dude to bring some liquor in from his car so I can remember how not to act like an idiot but he's got jack shit. But, he's not a Witness and we talk about smoking pot in high school (i feign coolness and experience) and other shit and suddenly people are talking. But, nothing is remotely popping off in any sort of coupling up mode. So they drive me back to my hotel but we stop at Denny's. I see an insane girl I remember from the show who bought about 150 dollars worth of merch total from all the bands and wanted it all signed and didn't seem totally on her rocker. She is grabbing two boxes of to-go food and heading home. I drunkenly imagine an alternate universe where I'm eating hash browns with a plastic fork in a 90s taurus listening to the new subtle CD and passing gas on the Minus the Bear tote bag I'm accidentally sitting on. But, I am actually in the form of reality where I am ordering an appetizer sampler extra ranch with two Witnesses from Helena, MT. I mean shit.

The Denny's food is decent and I'm done being annoying flirty now that it's 4:30 and the thing they most look for in a man is "faithfulness, decency and a commitment to morals". At this point something comes through my nose. But I actually get a really interesting picture of life in Helena for these girls and they are certainly not preaching anything to me, we are just sharing things and I realize that you really do learn a lot hanging out and talking to people at shows and at anywhere that's comfortable to talk. They voluntarily dis-spell a lot of rumors regarding Witnesses. They mention that a lot of people think they don't believe in Jesus. I never thought that and I tell them so. I think people think that Witnesses do these things: think the world will end sooner than most of us do, knock on doors and talk about this stuff, and count Michael Jackson amongst their faithful. I guess Michael actually is not himself a member and not everybody knocks et cetera. So, we iron out all the details, pay our bills and they drop me off.
Knol lets me in after Bill doesn't answer. I sleep on the floor with a hoodie for a blanket (it's 6x, so don't feel too bad for me, plus I'm still a bit drunk). I sleep through "Blood Diamond" which I put on on my computer with my headphones on. We have to drive a lot tomorrow.
--
ela on tour with minus the bear/subtle

Sept 28 -- Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop (Early)
Sept 28 -- Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop (Late)
Sept 29 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Diesel
Sept 30 -- Buffalo, NY -- Tralf Music Hall
Oct 1 -- Toronto, ON -- Opera House
Oct 3 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 4 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 5 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Warsaw
Oct 6 -- New York, NY -- Irving Plaza
Oct 7 -- Sayreville, NJ -- Starland Ballroom
Oct 8 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Theatre of Living Arts
Oct 10 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat
Oct 11 -- Norfolk, VA -- The Norva

Ela Tour Journal #2

Sunday September 23.

Ela wakes up in Billings, MT. It is early ass in the morning and I decided I'm done with using the fake ass present tense. So at 6:30 when I woke up we had some continental breakfast. I used some cream cheese, low carb bread and bananas. I like to call it the albino elvis. check one out. they suck. I had two.

After continental, we drove for a long ass time. Peter was our first driver. I was our first sleeper. Lots of sleep. I was woken up when the rest of Ela crafted a long text edit file that they played through the "computer voice" guy thing on Macs. I think no one should be allowed to use the word "asshole" in Montana for the next three days just to make sure it still has meaning. Soon after I woke up I started driving. Billings to Spokane is a long time. Me and Knol listened to disc 2 and 3 of Dwight D. Eisenhower's insane life. Let me just tell you this, that guy made some big missteps as a President. He should have kicked the living shit out of McCarthy ASAP. Hey Ike, if you can fuck up Hitler, I think you can knock down the Red Hunter. But it's great. I drove the last two hours of the drive in full turtle dick mode as we drove on slippery roads across mountainous ranges. It was just me, Knol and Ike to get us through as Bill and Peter were deposed in deep art convos.

We arrived for our first show with Minus the Bear and Subtle. Minus the Bear's merch weighs more than the sum weight of all the people of all the bands I'm in. If Minus the Bear fails they will be able to clothe all of Myanmar in shirts with smart indie design and the brand appeal of American Apparel. Maybe Minus the Bear will be the first band accused of exporting their t-shirts to impoverished nations, as opposed to vice versa. no promo.

So while standing in a sea of merch I met most of the gentlemen from Minus the Bear and Subtle. I had actually met Jel and Dose-One when I was a senior in high school on New Year's Eve from 98-99. Heiruspecs was playing the Rhymesayers "Soundset '99" at First Avenue. We talked briefly and fake "caught up" since we certainly didn't really know each other then. But, you know, rap waters run deep.

Minus the Bear soundchecked on their beautiful gear. I walked around the semi christian coffee shop/huge venue as if I had a fucking clue what to do. I try to stay real far out of backstages, just to give the people who really need them to relax space. I sat around at the coffeeshop and would get the non-news that opening acts always tell to each other. Bill walked up to me and said "we're going to put our stage on stuff after Subtle is done soundchecking" and I said "I bet we will sell our merch right next to where the other bands sell merch". Just typical talk talk talk while trying to get into the rhythm of playing with bands that have tour managers and soundguys and always wear their ipods et cetera.

Our soundcheck turned into our "stand on stage and count twelve year olds" while sound dudes who are competent but arguing can't decide whose job it is to plug in my bass direct out. fantastic. Turns out one of the guys toured with Flip. Flip was a fun loving band with a smart attitude from Minneapolis. They also wore make-up and knew that rock was kind of a big masquerade and that they weren't really the greatest band ever. My dad always liked that about Huey Lewis and the News.

The show went well and we sold some merch afterwards. Subtle pretty much blew me away. The last time I saw Dose-One play live he was in front of a set of turntables talking about being a man of the 90s with big belt buckles. very good, but this is a step up. the best drummer in the world also isn't a drummer. it's jel live hitting samples. as they say in rap, "that's a spicy meatball". try it if you are ever hanging at D&D studios with Preemo. (no promo).

Minus the Bear came on and they put on a phenomenal rock show. Great endings. Great beginnings. Great songs. I saw Minus the Bear at the Triple Rock before, but this stage was big as shit and there was a fan blowing on their drummer (like a keep you cool type of fan you pervert sean). So it all seemed very much like they are a band that is on MTV, and guess what, they are now. After the show I used my automated merch sheets made on Excel (thank you U of M accounting 2050, p.s., cute girls go to Carlson). Counting out merch took 8 seconds. It was tight.
We went to the hotel and I think we just went to bed.
--
ela on tour with minus the bear/subtle
Sept 27 -- Detroit, MI -- St. Andrew's Hall
Sept 28 -- Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop (Early)
Sept 28 -- Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop (Late)
Sept 29 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Diesel
Sept 30 -- Buffalo, NY -- Tralf Music Hall
Oct 1 -- Toronto, ON -- Opera House
Oct 3 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 4 -- Cambridge, MA -- Middle East Downstairs
Oct 5 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Warsaw
Oct 6 -- New York, NY -- Irving Plaza
Oct 7 -- Sayreville, NJ -- Starland Ballroom
Oct 8 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Theatre of Living Arts
Oct 10 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat
Oct 11 -- Norfolk, VA -- The Norva

Ela Tour Journal: Day 1 and Intro

Download: The Clash - "Lost In The Supermarket"
Download: Al Green - "Tired of Being Alone"

For those of you who have never met Ela, let us introduce you. They are a lovely indie-rock band from Minneapolis (that's where we're from too) and they have just headed out on tour with Minus the Bear (Suicide Squeeze, very cool). A couple of weeks ago, they approached us with the idea of running a mostly-daily tour journal featuring photos, videos, live tracks, mix tapes and crazy stories about the touring life that they are embarking upon with the rapidly-growing-in-popularity Minus the Bear, and we decided to party. Granted, we have a disclaimer in regards to the label they are on, which is also run by MFR editor Ian. But, in the end, we decided it was just too cool to pass up the chance to document a Mpls band who had this opportunity. And so, day one:

Ela is peter, bill, knol and me. i'm sean. this is my blog entry.

We left St. Paul at 2:30 after stopping at Ellis drums for sticky
sticks for Peter. The long drive to Bismarck, ND wasn't shit. I can
confirm that buying snacks for tour is just bullshit for me because it
just means I eat 8 lbs of granola and peanut butter the first day and
then eat whole chickens from grocery stores the rest of the tour.
Little people know that if you eat the chicken in the store it's free.
They also have to not notice you eating the chicken.
We listened to the new Kanye West record. It's all decent except
for "barry bonds", which is, as they say in rap slang, one spicy
meatball. Lil' Wayne for president. We listened to Dungen and also the
new Common record. We're going to keep it pretty rap on this here rock
tour. Heiruspecs often keeps it pretty rock on our rap tours, so it's
only fair.
We stopped at the absolutely wonderful store of WalMart in Fargo,
ND. WalMart creates the great democracy amongst people when someone is
all "I want Garth brooks CDs!, and tampons, and a water bottle, and
tylenol, and a gardening plot, and 3 new tires". It sucks. and what is
a gardening plot? A girl tried to clown me in the parking lot. Comedy
comedy. I am wearing a fully members only 5x black and white floral
design senior citizen shirt. The kind with form fitting bottoms and
sides. It looks tongue in cheek on a skinny rock guy and it looks
semi-special needs on those of us endowed with gorgeous man curves. I
walked past two female Fargits in the parking lot and gave them a
smile. The girl rocking a mustard stained Marilyn Manson t-shirt said
"I don't think you should wear that shirt anymore". I asked her if she
thought it was too old for me. She said yes. I told her that she
should wear her shirt everyday. Hizaa. Lame walmart justice is served.
but that's the whole deal.

When we got to the hotel me and Peter went swimming and hot tubbing.
It was completely hetero since you asked. And now I'm sitting my ass
on email in the lobby watching Carson Daly make an ass of himself. And
I'm still wearing the senior citizen shirt. I feel like I could kill
in shuffleboard and 4:30PM clambakes in this outfit of up high
sweatpants and black and white hawaiin. I don't think I can spell the
word Hawaian. fuck. Hawwwian. perfect. Tomorrow we play with Vampyre
Hands and Thunder in the Valley in Billings, MT. st. paul/minneapolis
rock stand up.