Lewis and I are currently waiting in the lobby of a hotel in Houston, TX for Jon to show up from his 20-hour drive and pick us up. We had our last show with Mates of State last night. I have to admit that I can’t help feeling a little bit emotional leaving those guys. Over the course of the last month I feel like we got really close. It felt like family. On our day off in San Francisco the whole bus (+ girlfriends) came over to our family’s house for a barbeque and it was amazing. I was so excited for everyone to meet our parents and everyone got along really well. It was really special. I think, and I hope that our relationship with the Hammels is one which will last for a very long time.

Alright. Enough of that sentimental dribble. Here are some of the highs (and lows) from the west coast tour:

• Lewis watching all of Battlestar Galactica (see photo above)
• Free shoes with fluorescent-green laces that glow on the dance floor
• The Progressive Auto Insurance girl buying a shirt at our Hollywood show!
• Great food everywhere!
• 4/20 in San Francisco
• Getting the van searched for drugs on the way to Canada…
• Depeche Mode playing for free on Hollywood Blvd, right outside our venue!
• Depeche Mode playing for free on Hollywood Blvd, right outside our venue… during our set….
• Amazing shows every night! Thank you!

Dredg tour starts tonight! We can’t wait.

-Anton

Ahh... San Diego, discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

Anton and Lewis are back on the Mates of State bus on their way to Texas, playing more shows w/ out JD.   In the meantime, I get a much needed (and much deserved) break.  I’m spending the time in SD with my good friend Josh Rosenberg.  San Diego sports fans may know him as the voice of the XTRA Sports 1360 AM radio.  Josh and I are old high school friends, both pursuing careers in the entertainment field.  

Lounging by the pool, soaking up the sun, reading a good book, watching season 4 of Weeds, eating great food, no obligations.  Could this weekend get any better? 

Tomorrow I leave for Houston, on another 3-day solo road trip.  I don’t think i will mind a bit knowing what is waiting for me… DREDG!!!  This tour is gonna be so sweet.

This is what our drive looked like.

We are currently in the middle of a mega-drive from Denver to Seattle. More specifically, we are at a Motel 6 somewhere in eastern Oregon. I’m not going to lie. We are all exhausted. After an amazing breakfast at our new friend Michael’s house in Denver we hit the road at around 10 am, mountain time and drove straight until 1 am pacific. Most of the time we were in a snow storm. The difference between bus and van touring has never seemed more apparent. We’re trying to make it to Seattle by around 2 pm tomorrow so we’ve really had to power through. It’s not bad though. We’ve been breaking up the drive by gas tank. You start on a full tank and when it’s empty you fill it up and let the next person take over.

Thanks to modern technology we’ve been able to watch TV shows on our laptops while riding passenger. We all watched the newest episode of Lost (pretty sweet!) and I’ve been watching Twin Peaks. I like it. I especially recommend the premier of season 2, although if you haven’t seen season 1, it will make absolutely no sense.

Luckily, the misfortunes of our first show in Minneapolis appear to have been a fluke. The last two shows went off much better. Although experimental, guitarless, instrumental metal is an understandably tough sell to the cheerful pop crowds that we’ve been playing for, we’ve still managed to keep them entertained and win new fans.

I’m excited to be back in the pacific time zone. This will definitely be the biggest west coast tour that we have ever done. I’m hoping we’ll see some of our old school fans out at some of these shows, especially in Portland because we had such great DIY shows in Oregon last year. It will be interesting to see if we can actually pull some weight on this tour in terms of bringing folks out.

Alright. BED.

-anton

Judgement Day, reunited in our borrowed hotel room

We had our first show tonight as the opener on the Mates of State and Black Kids tour and man, it was a rough one. First off  everyone was running late all day so The Black Kids didn’t finish their soundcheck until the doors were already open and we had to do our whole soundcheck in front of the crowd. Then on the first song (Barrage) Lewis’s string slipped it took him about 5 minutes to fix it before the next song. At that point the crowd pretty much was already gone. They were bored and over it. When his string slipped a second time later in the set I was pretty much over it too. We finished the set and actually had a pretty cool jam in the last song (Genosha) but we left the stage pretty bummed. It was a huge, sold out show at a venue that treated us great on our last time out. It should have been amazing but it just wasn’t in the cards for us tonight.

Other than that we’re pretty stoked to be back out on the road. Jon made it on time and in one piece from his 3 day drive. Mates of State got a hotel room to shower in today but they are riding on the bus to Kansas City right now so we’re crashing in their room for free. It’s really sweet of them.

We have internet in our room and we got a very exciting email. It was the final mix of “Out of the Abyss” for our new 7″. It sounds sick! We recorded it live to tape so it’s way more raw than the version on our myspace. It’s going to sound amazing on vinyl. Our friend Dave Reep recorded it and he’s putting it out on his new label Third Culture Records in May. After hearing that mix tonight, we’re really excited about the release. The other side of the 7″ is just Lewis shredding for 3 minutes. We’re going to include the sheet music for that song as an insert. Oh my god, it’s going to be so sick!

I started writing a fantasy metal song on my computer tonight. It’s super over-the-top epic with lots of galloping and fast leads harmonized in thirds. I think it could be a cool song live. I’ll finish it and see if it’s physically possible for us to play.

Alright, Lewis has a genius bar appointment in Kansas City tomorrow at 3:00. His computer has been pretty messed up all tour so maybe he’ll finally be able to get it fixed. It’s a long drive from Minneapolis though, so I better get some rest.

-anton

It’s been fun playing with the Mates. We’ve had some great shows and some great fun. Tomorrow we’ll be meeting up with Jon and Judgement Day will be opening and riding in the minivan for the next Month and a half. We can’t wait.

Here’s a fun video that I found on youtube from our Manhattan show:

Jon - Day 1

I’m posting this just before bed, at the end of a long day of driving. Today was day 1 of a 3-day drive to minneapolis.  I’m burnt. 

In the last hour I put together this video for my other band,  Sorry Mom and Dad.  I play guitar and sing in this Get Up Kids style bro-band (my closest homies).  Please enjoy our song, Letter: 

Sorry Mom and Dad – Letter

Anton and Lewis hipstering it up at a record store in Williamsburg Brooklyn

Yes! Touring is awesome. Lewis and I played on the street in Brooklyn and were joined by a random dumbek (hand drum) player and a trombonist. It was a sweet jam! The next day we played our best show yet at Webster hall in New York and partied so hard afterward that the Mates of State left town without us and we had to find our own way to Boston. In Boston we played at The House of Blues, which is literally across the street from Fenway Park and it was opening day for the Red Sox, so that was ridiculous.

Today we had our first official day off of the tour. We found out that Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s were playing in New Haven, Connecticut and our bus was parked close by so we decided to spend our day there. We were right in the middle of the Yale part of town which as beautiful architecture – all stone buildings. We had dinner at a noodle place and had an interesting conversation about the first rock concerts we ever went to. Mine is embarrassing. It was the “Horde” festival with Lenny Kravitz, Dave Matthews Band and Blues Traveler. Our tour manager Mark Capon’s first rock concert was Nirvana and the Breeders. How dope is that? He told us a pretty interesting story about it:

When the Breeders played, there were a bunch of people in the crowd who just didn’t care, were only there to see Nirvana and had no interest in showing respect for the opener. They starting booing and throwing their shoes at the Breeders, forcing them off of the stage early. Kurt Cobain came on the stage, said “KEEP YOUR FUCKIN’ SHOES ON!” and flipped off the crowd. He was genuinely disappointed and angry with them. The crowd went crazy. They loved it. Someone probably made a “KEEP YOUR FUCKIN’ SHOES ON!” t-shirt. I started to understand why the guy felt so conflicted.

Now we are back on the bus, driving to Montreal. We’ll be crossing the border to Canada early in the morning. I guess I better get some sleep now.

-anton

While Anton and Lewis are partying it up on the tour bus, Jon is back in the bay area sitting in his cubicle. 

Fuck a tour bus… I just picked up the Judgement Day minivan from the shop.  New shocks, axles, spark plugs, engine mount, and an oil change, THIS BABY IS RUNNING SWEET! It’s truly the Cadillac of minivans.  I even re-taped the broken headlamp (what!). 

I’m super excited about my 3 day drive out to Minneapolis next week… NOT.  But i am excited to be heading back out on tour, especially during this gorgeous time of year.  The weather in bay area right now is unreal.  Until I leave I plan on getting lots of sun and sleep.

Well, I’m off to see the Get Up Kids this evening in SF (jealous Lewis?).   More from Jon to come…

In this picure: Lewis, Anton, Tom (sound man, left) and Mike (merch dude, center)

Tour has officially begun. The tour bus showed tonight at around 10 and we all hopped on board. It’s pretty nice. There is sattelite tv, dvd players, a bathroom, a shower, a refrigerator, bunk beds, individual tv’s in each bunk, wireless internet… It’s pretty swank. Actually, all tour buses are like this, or at least all of the buses that I’ve been on. It’s still pretty sweet though. As much as I love the Judgement Day minivan, this is definitely better. Lewis has never been on a bus before so I think this is pretty exciting for him.

Personally, I’m pretty excited to get on the road. Connecticut is nice and quiet but honestly it was starting to get pretty boring. We did have a fun warm-up show last night though. It went well. People liked it. Here’s a review if you are curious. This Irish guy Glen was there to see us. He’s a really good song writer and he’s got a couple of cool bands – The Frames and The Swell Season. He was also in the movie “Once”.  He was a super cool and he told me that he really liked our contribution to The Mates. That was pretty special to me.

Right now we are all drinking nice scotch to celebrate our first night on the bus. It’s a pretty sweet party so I think I’m going to get back to it. I’m sure I’ll have many more adventures to report soon. -Anton