The Real Adventure Begins

The next two weeks will be where boys become men in the touring world. Here's our schedule:

July 8 - Chicago, IL : Goose Island

July 9 - Barrington, IL : Penny Road Pub

July 10 - Indianapolis, IN : Lizards

July 14 - W. Hollywood, CA : Whiskey-A-Go-Go

July 16 - Las Vegas, NV : The Freakin' Frog

July 17 - W. Hollywood, CA : The Viper Room

July 20 - Austin, TX : Momo's Club

July 22 - Kingwood, TX : House show

July 23 - Dallas, TX : Fat Daddy's S.S.

July 29 - Spring City, PA : Chaplin's Music Cafe

July 30 - Niantic, CT : Pro Tek Auto "Music for Music" Festival

I know we are all very happy to see the rest of the country now. There's gonna be a lot of family at shows due to our connections especially in LA and Texas.

Presently we are in Ohio on our way to Chicago.

Some of us were a little sleepy. I'm pretty sick as I type this so I was relieved of driving duties, but the rest of the guys have been driving since 2 am last night. We're making decent time and spirits are high.

Looking forward to sharing how this leg of the tour goes.

Jon

New Pics from Manhiem, PA show

A new friend of the Hot Mugs, Chris Aumen, took some pictures of us on Saturday. He just sent me a link to them so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites and the link to the set. These pics show the craziness of the light show a little better than my last entry.

Blake and I got pretty distracted by the laser show.

I'm usually not down with impersonating the Savior, but that's awesome.

I shoot lasers from my bass. Don't mess.

Happy official 'Holiday Recovery Day',

Jon

Manhiem, PA - LaserDome

Driving back right now from our hotel in Manhiem. What a show! I've never been so distracted by the lighting in a show I was playing before. The hall at LaserDome is traditionally used for laser light shows to popular music such as Pink Floyd, U2, Rianna, ect. But in an effort to promote local music they set up a PA and let bands perform there while the LaserDome staff put on a laser show to their music. Talk about epic! The hall, which was literally a dome, had pretty rough acoustics but the light show made for such a cool looking show. Here are a couple shots I took of one of the other bands during their set:

No pics of us last night unfortunately, I think we forgot our camera. : /

The promise of free laser tag rang loud and true last night. Blake (guitar), David (keys) and Austin (road haus) absolutely obliterated the opposition in their game. We also had our fill of free arcade games.

Openers The Varsity and headliners, The Riot were very nice, although we all would've loved to try and pwn each other in a Band vs. Band. vs. Band laser tag game. It just didn't happen. After a late night party with the locals and a mild night sleep we're all quite tired and ready for an afternoon nap and evening of fireworks in Weston, CT.

Actually, now I'm really looking forward to the fireworks part.

Jon

New Haven, CT - Toad's Place

Toad's place is one of America's historic mid-sized clubs, one of those clubs that can have a wall of fame that actually has names you recognize and regularly listen to on it. We pulled out every once of energy we had tonight in honor of the mojo-filled stage. Besides, just imagining one of the smudges on stage being a drop of Keith Richards' sweat was plenty of inspiration. We had a bunch of Tucker's friends there tonight, it's always good to see them. They bring so much energy to the show because they know Tucker so well, and he feeds off of them. They really do put a bigger smile on his face.

Toad's stage is a large, wide stage with plenty of room to run side to side, but not much room front to back. It makes a for an interesting look for us. We've always had trouble getting our drummer Taylor's face in view, but this stage let us set up in a way that you could see all of our pretty faces. I definitely knocked over a mic or two because it was tight front to back, but it was a blast having all that room side to side.

We played a different set list last night, well, sort of different, and we busted out a couple oldies, so for interest sake:

Train Tracks

One Night

Summer of Dreams

Easy Livin'

Best Friend's Sister

Get High

I Don't Give a Damn

I'm loving 'Get High' lately. It's such a fun song to play live. Blake has a killer solo, and Dave and I jump around the entire time.

Next stop, Manhiem, PA! I'm super excited for this gig: it's at a LaserDome. Oh yeah, that means free laser tag! Super duper excited. We just found out we'll be spending the night too, so we can laser tag alllll night long. Awesome.

So, my next iPod/iPhone game recommendation. 'GT Racing' completely fulfills my desire for a Gran Turismo play-a-like to take with me everywhere.

Happy Fourth of July weekend everybody!

Jon

Milford, CT - Daniel St. Club

The Daniel St. Club is in downtown Milford, which has a really happening weekend night life in the summer. People were everywhere either walking to clubs and bars or riding around the block in their shiny, weekend-only muscle cars. We were opening for a couple local acts Mercury Seed and the Mike Cusato Band, who frequent the Daniel St. stage. Daniel St. had by far the best sound, lighting rig, and vibe out of all the shows we've played thus far. I love being able to hear everything on stage, it makes me a happy bass player. Here are some shots from last night taken by Kenny, our merch-man extraordinaire.

The band is looking at upgrading the Powershot camera we use; it's hard to get good action shots with bright stage lights and really dark audience lighting.

They had this really cool ledge thing in the front we could all stand on; it was incredibly rock star.

Tonight we're in New Haven, CT playing at the famed Toad's Place, where all the great bands played at some point in their career. Check it:

So, yeah. Awesome. We're looking forward to seeing some friendly faces there tonight as well, so it should be a very fun show!

Jon

Worcester , MA - Lucky Dog Music Hall

I thought I'd show you guys how last night when instead of telling you. It was a more visually entertaining show than usual. :D

Much fun was had last night. A couple of the guys met some people at the bar across the street and talked them into coming over and checking us out, which was pretty easy to do actually due to the lack of a cover charge. My good friend Andrew Fatato (@afatato) come out too; great to see him again before the band heads out west for the next month.

Off to Milford, CT to perform with a couple bands in a local music showcase at the Daniel St. Club tonight, just a nice short drive for us (yay).

In other news, everyone should play this game if they have an ipod touch/iphone: Angry Birds, it's awesomely addicting.

Jon

Boston: Video Game Music and 8 Year-Old Shredders

This weekend was definitely one to remember. I lived the last 4 years of my life in Boston, MA but this is the first time I've been there with no intention of being at a school in any capacity. I now treasure that adult feeling of walking around knowing I'm there for business and pleasure instead the responsibilities that come with seeking graduation. Playing music with people I like is a joy I've had all throughout my music life, but cool part about life now is that most people will pay you to play with your friends. When I first thought about that I just started laughing. I feel so blessed to do what I really like to do, with my friends, receive payment for it, and have every time I do so be an opportunity to do it another time in another place with new friends. Musician life is crazy.

For the Music For Video Games Workshop at Berklee this weekend, the Video Game Orchestra was asked to provide a string quintet and a rhythm section for the recording sessions of student projects. The session leader for the Weekend was Wataru Hokoyama, a killer composer, fellow coffee addict and all around great guy. We've worked with him before playing a piece of his for a VGO concert and it was so good to see him again and to work alongside a musician of his creativity and professionalism. We also worked with Go Shiina, another Japanese composer, famous for his work in Tales of Legendia, Tekken and Mr. Driller, and got to read a piece he'd written for an upcoming game. I could talk up how cool that was, but I'll spare you the nerd-out session.

Last night the Hot Mugs came up and we headlined a show at the Middle East Downstairs, playing to mostly my friends from VGO and church. It was an especially fun show for me because of that, even though I had problem after problem with my gear (no worries, it's fixed). But one of the highlights of the night for everyone was having this 8 year old kid melt our faces off:

No joke this little guy was the best guitarist there, hands down. We were all amazed, envious and proud at the same time. It was an honor to hear him play; I hope he goes far.

Well, I'm spending the rest of the day in Boston while the rest of the band headed back to Connecticut this afternoon. I'll meet up with them in the morning for our all day rehearsal. The longest time away from home is about to begin! Starting Wednesday we will be our for exactly one month. Much to come!

Jon