Cleveland, OH - Roc Bar

For our first time in Cleveland ever as a band, last night wasn't bad, especially considering the headliner cancelled. A few days ago we did a college radio interview in promotion for the show, and the host who interviewed us came out and chilled with us. The Roc Bar staff are really nice, they fed us and took care of our drinks all night. It's on this sketchy street south of downtown Cleveland, but next to a hoppin' night club. The street went from being super deserted when we got there to being a happening part of town by the time we went on.

Watching the 5th Element right now. Such a good movie.

We played a longer set last night because headliner, acoustic blues dude Billy Wallace, cancelled last minute. So the other acoustic guy played his set and we rocked out for a little longer than usual.

Cleveland turned out to be a late town. We stayed hanging out and making friends until around 2 am. New friends are nice. Feels good leaving towns knowing you met people worth seeing again.

We're in our hotel in Indianapolis right now, chillin' before our gig later. Back to the 5th Element. :D

Jon

Chicago, IL - Reggie's

What a cool show yesterday. We we're the only out of town-ers, and the rest of the groups brought great crowds. This was a special show though; we were the oldest band there, which for us, is a rarity. The first group was a 16 year old Allman Brothers band who ripped on some bluesy jams and hinted that they had some jazz chops too. They were from a local Chicago School of Rock, which, by the way, has yet to let me down. Every band that I've heard from those types of programs has been burnin'.

We were up next and didn't bring the house down or anything, but I think the younger bands enjoyed seeing what some older kids could do. This summer I started paying more attention to people's faces and how they reacted to what I played. I've been trying to project what I play like I would if I was trying to tell somebody something from across the room without using words. That said, I think I connected better with the kids if we had a little eye contact to go with the crazy fill or whatever I did.

The band after was a cute group of 13 year old girls and their 24 year old baby-sitter/drummer. They were so good! Even for 13 year olds. Great performers too. Then the band after them was a group of high school students who had a Killers or MGMT kind of vibe. The whole night I was thinking about how great it must be playing at those levels at such young ages. They kids we played with last night could all go really far if they wanted.

New show added: House of Blues in Houston, TX! That'll be sweeeeet. Show date is August 24 (11 days from now), @ 8pm. But first off to Cleveland tonight, Indianapolis tomorrow, and Austin, TX a couple days after that. We're passing through Indiana, the "Crossroad of America". Must be depressing knowing that nobody wants to stay here, they only want to cross over it.

Peace be with you,

Jon

Boston: I Will Not Miss You... (read on)

(Some of this is more to myself; pardon any poor or cliche writing)

I will not miss you, Boston.

But I will miss your people. You are the home to so many of my best friends. And that is the only reason I am sad to leave you. You are not the place for me though. You were great to me when I was at school; I enjoyed so many parts of you, but they will rest as fond memories in my mind, not as devices to pull me back.

My last weekend in Boston was great. I pwn'd my packing responsibilities, and had most of my time there to hang out with friends, friends I won't see for quite a while I fear. I recorded my parts for the Video Game Orchestra album which is gonna be sick. Check out a little sample:

It still hasn't hit me that I'm not going back any time soon. Being still two and a half weeks away from the end of this tour, I have yet to experience the typical sense of leaving. It's strange leaving in a place for good but not settling in another place for another month. And it's not like I've been living in Boston at all this summer; I've been out playing with the band since June 1st. So I had to sit and think about the life I was leaving in order to appreciate the severity of this move. I won't see my friends for a long time, I won't play with Video Game Orchestra, I won't be a part of the Boston church movement, I won't pay 700 dollars a month just to have a roof over my head.

Okay, there are some perks to leaving, definitely. And after considering it all I know it is still worth it, it's just that right now I'd rather not go. Even though the touring life means your with people 24/7 it has been easy to feel lonely. I think you still need the people who get you in your life. People who you have other things in common with you other than work. Makes me appreciate those I've gotten to know over the past 4 years a little more.

Shout outs, goodbye for now. I love you guys. I'm sorry I didn't all get to see all of you one last time before I left.

VGO:

Rosie

Brent

Brian

Akash

Zac

Niki

Alvaro

Shota

Yohei

Jeff

Julgi

Alex

Barak

REUNION/Common Church/Park Street:

Andrew

Bobby

Krissy

Pete

Graham

Gerald

Melanie

Mike

Tim

Nick

Phoebe

Trevor

Damon

Lisa

Hanneke

Berklee:

Kevin

Brian

Justin

Paul

Jidam

Much love,

Jon

Pittsburgh, PA - The Altar Bar

After a couple days of breaking in Boston, we headed out to Pittsburgh, PA for a single show at the Altar Bar. The 'Altar' Bar in uptown Pittsburgh is rocking the 'church converted to a venue' renovations. A two story club with a balcony section and bar upstairs, it was definitely one of the cooler places we've played this summer. They get a lot of major acts in there too. I don't know if you saw my Twitter post last night, but Vanilla Ice is playing there in 4 days. They can get some bigger acts, if only the washed up ones, but should any roll through they have the facilities to handle them; I believe I saw that the Method and Red men would be performing there in October.

The show was fun, big stages always are. I got hooked on bigger shows when the Video Game Orchestra got to perform for seven thousand people one time. So any time the stage has a little more room it makes me a little more crazy.

Good to play again, but now we have an even longer break. We all have to go to Boston to pack our stuff. I'm already packed for the most part, so I'm gonna do a recording session and just hang out with my friends for one of the last times for a while. It's gonna be sad moving from such a cool town where so many of my friends are. I'm blessed with good people.

I'm recording with Video Game Orchestra this weekend so I'll post some pictures and maybe an audio sample...

Jon

NYC - Angels & Kings (acoustic show number 2)

We played at Angels & Kings about a month and a half ago and loved it. They do a great job of setting up shows, so we were happy to come back. It's an intimate setting, so you feel like you get to know your performer, you get more of a VH1 Story Tellers atmosphere. But last night was even better than our previous time at A&Ks, bigger and better crowd, better fellow performers, overall another great gig.

The drive back to Connecticut was quite silly after the show. For some reason we ended up with a light saber iPhone app fight in the middle seat. I think I won. :)

(sorry the video hangs off the page a bit)

I'm sitting at my desk in Boston right now, about to start my packing for Austin, TX. I've got more stuff than I thought I had. : / Wish me luck! I'll be back with another post after our show in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Jon

Philadelphia, PA - D&B's Dockside bar

Rain or shine, the Hot Mugs rock, but the rain was almost too much for us yesterday. The Dockside bar outside Dave & Buster's in Philadelphia is right on the water facing New Jersey. The view from the dock was beautiful, even in the pouring rain I enjoyed the mist over the water shrouding New Jersey. It rained all day and into our scheduled show time, but the event coordinator gave us the okay to wait it out. And sure enough, 20 minutes later the skies broke and the sun showed up for us. It turned into a beautiful sunset as well.

The crowd was stiff, but we had fun, and you can't beat playing waterfront. And you KNOW when you play anywhere near a D&B's, you go. We ate a delicious meal that we totally bought just so we could game cards to play games in their giant game room with. Nobody won an iPod or a Wii, but we definitely had enough tickets for at least a temporary tattoo set. Blake and Austin had a gleeful time playing the "rapid fire; mow em' down" machine gun game; I'm pretty sure that's all they played actually.

It was my turn to drive last night, so I was rocking an amazing playlist, three specific albums: 'Worship & Tribute' by Glassjaw; 'Black Holes & Revelations' by Muse; and 'Blue Sky Noise' by Circa Survive. Throughout this summer of pop and alternative blues rock stuff, I have not lost my affinity for angry, violent styles of music.

We're quite happy to be back at our home but not quite home, the Jameson house here in Connecticut. A little bit of familiarity is enough to hold me over at least. Playing an acoustic set again at Angels & Kings in NYC tonight. The acoustic set is gonna be a welcomed change to our typical electric attitude.

Jon

Harrisburg, PA - IndieBarn.com Summer Fest

I'm just thankful we're all okay after last night; free vodka was a little too tempting for some people. We're all safe in the van on our way to Philadelphia right now, don't worry, but we definitely had to go looking for a band member, and eventually found him in an ambulance saying he thought he was in New Jersey. He has been reprimanded and ridiculed. He will not live this one down any time soon. :D

Last night at the IndieBarn.com Summer Fest was our most diverse show ever. IndieBarn.com networks bands, artists, film dudes, models and fashion designers, and this was just one of their summer events. The bill was full of R&B/Hip-hop artists, a poetry slam artist, and modern rock, punk, and blues rock bands. It was so much fun, boundaries fell down last night. My favorite act of the night, The Burning State, put on an awesome set of hard rock originals but threw 2 amazing rocked-out covers, 'Umbrella' by Rhianna and 'Billy Jean' by the only Michael Jackson.

Our set was a lot of fun. Lots and lots of energy on that tiny stage.

We just got to Philadelphia, after taking the bridge to Jersey on accident (navigator fail, minus 1 team Jon), in time though for load in. Actually we're early. Woot. We're playing at a Dave & Buster's so we're gonna go eat a delicious meal and play some games before our load in. :D

Jon