back in the siznaddle

so. it's been a while. and yet....it feels like only yesterday we were eating pistachios and watching 'wet hot american summer' while driving through kentucky. did i say yesterday? i meant today. that's what we're doing RIGHT NOW. they're great pistachios.

so we kicked off our tour with jeff taylor (www.dumpsterhunter.com) on friday night with a killer show at philadelphia's own 'tin angel.' this is what jeff taylor looks like:


it was freezing cold in the venue and the stairs were just as steep as they were last time (and the time before that), but we had a blast - it was the perfect way to start our 'divine 09' tour. that's just a name we're toying around with. anyway, after the show we hit up a delaware favorite called 'the charcoal pit' for some ridiculously delicious milkshakes and funtimes with our friend joyce, who's been there for over 30 years. this is what joyce looks like:
fun fact: it's joe biden's favorite restaurant! (but don't tell that to the other half dozen in DE that make the same claim...)

the next morning we hit the road earlyish for the 6 hour trek to thomas, west virginia, home of the illustrious 'purple fiddle.' we hit some nasty freezing rain in the hills/mountains, but somehow we made it there in one piece. more on that later...

the town of thomas, west virginia has a population of 500 people, all of whom are super nice and ridiculously friendly and helpful - at least, that's what our experience suggests. the show turned into a dance party which continued into the night at the pub down the road. we played a game called 'cornhole' with some locals, drank some delicious IPA (brewed on location!) and saw some of the best taxidermy EVER. we ended the night with some bunkbed acrobatics:
now that's a great night.

our plan was to get up this morning and be on the road by 6am, but when we tried to drive up one of the many hills in town, we kinda sorta (well, totally) slid back down and almost had a not-so-romantic rendezvous with a stop sign. remember that freezing rain from our drive into WV? yeah, it had its revenge. luckily, james cleare is a ninja behind the wheel so he regained control in the nick of time. also luckily, we're all ridiculously jacked and agile so we were able to manuever ourselves out of harm's way. after the ordeal, we decided to wait until dawn when the ice would (hopefully) thaw and we could make it out of town. we passed the time in a local 'breakfast and lunchery' called the flying pigs, geeking out over a huge planet-earth-style book and the delicious grub. we ended up on the road 3 hours behind schedule once the ice had melted, but safety first! SAFETY FIRST MOM! always.

so that brings us to our present situation (pistachios, 'wet hot...'), with 212 miles left before we get to nashville where we're playing tonight with jeff and the incredibly talented ben sollee. should be another great one. hopefully this time the city will have gas... (see previous posts for details)

smashville or bust!
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