have you ever listened to the doobie brothers while driving through northern Ohio on a sunny march day with the windshield wipers on? NO?! oh my friend, you've not lived.
so. the last time we wrote we were on our way to a campsite. we were excited about a night of good company and good food. what we didn't realize is that we had a BANQUET in store for us, all of which was masterfully prepared by a ridiculous team of kitchen superheroes that have been disguising themselves as a rock band and crew. observe the first course:
it was honestly the craziest camping feast we have ever experienced. and the best part is that most of the food was prepared ON THE CAMPFIRE! yeah. crazy.
well, after 3 amazing courses, the inevitable happened - guitars came out, followed by instruments of all shapes and sizes and the singing began. before we knew it, we had attracted a few groups from neighboring campsites and we had a straightup sing-along/dance party around the now roaring campfire. great times were had by all!
Post dinner, post jam session was when we decided to make the bonfire as big as humanly possible...just because. The night took a turn towards cult-like activities because of said fire. Tis possible twas seen from miles around. After we got the fire as big as we possibly could it was feeling like bed time. Smith and Cleare Crashed in the old Lead Sled, Heather got the sweet chance to sleep on the Flufflers tour bus...(luuuckkkkyyy) and Mikey decided to rough it in his sweet one man tent. Don't get any ideas ladies....it's a one MAN tent.
We were awoken the next morning by Mr. Tilbrook a-rap-tap tapping on the van door saying that breakfast was almost ready. Bubble and squeak, eggs, salmon and the biggest garlic mushrooms any human has seen. The banquet continued. nothing but banquets with the Fluffers.
After Breakfast we cleaned up the dishes and headed to Chicago to rock the pants off of The House of Blues (and we're talking the british kind of pants...yeah, you know what we mean). Also playing at HoB was Katy Perry who has inspired us to get a huge inflatable cat with eyes that light up. We were this close to just stealing hers. We must say however, if we ever had the means to have an oversize blown up cat on our stages, we would need a new one every night. Battles would be staged, band mates lost, cats slain...you know...the usual.
So if anyone knows where we can find a sweet blown up animal for our shows....let us know. As long as you know you will never get it back... we couldn't let such a powerful creature live to wreak havoc among the commoners of this world.
So now friends, we continue our journey towards Ohio, in hopes to start our own rock band community of dragon slayers. We will write again once our army has been formed. Any volunteers?
The Lead Sled
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
kentucky showers bring chicago flowers
it's raining in kentucky and we're camping tonight. glenn tilbrook is cooking us dinner over a fire...in the rain. it's going to be historic and amazing.
last night we played in nashville - the night ended with an epic sit-in on two tunes with the fluffers, 'happy disposition' and 'take me.' heather whacked simon's floor tom, smith shattered a tamborine and cleare took a ridiculous impromptu electric guitar solo. the jam ended with all of us destroying the drumset in slow-motion, then lifting cleare up over our heads while singing 'loving you (is easy because you're beautiful).' we love these crazy brits!!
we had a great time the night before last in atlanta, at our main squeeze (no pun intended) 'smith's olde (<--- traditional spelling, doncha know) bar.' the exciting events of that show were, in chronological order:
1) the fluffers sit-in with us for our closing number, 'little bug.' glenn (electric guitar), stephen (keyboards) and cleare (acoustic guitar) all take amazing solos and the room goes wild.
2) halfway through the fluffer's set, we start playing the intro to 'goodbye girl' on guitars and melodica in the middle of the audience. glenn and the fluffers jump off the stage and lead us to the bar. we all climb onto the bar, and the 7 of us play the song from there.
3) glenn orders a mid-song round of tequila shots. we take them at the end of the song.
4) glenn announces: 'the spring standards will now lead us in a cover song of their choosing!' we pee our pants.
5) we decide to go with our old faithful sing-along, 'i shall be released.' we lead the entire room in a lovely rendition - still from atop the bar, mind you.
6) pandemonium ensues.
needless to say, we have had some memorable nights already on this tour and no doubt we will have many more. if we are coming through your town, please come make some memories with us.
now on to a kentucky campsite...
the lead sled
last night we played in nashville - the night ended with an epic sit-in on two tunes with the fluffers, 'happy disposition' and 'take me.' heather whacked simon's floor tom, smith shattered a tamborine and cleare took a ridiculous impromptu electric guitar solo. the jam ended with all of us destroying the drumset in slow-motion, then lifting cleare up over our heads while singing 'loving you (is easy because you're beautiful).' we love these crazy brits!!
we had a great time the night before last in atlanta, at our main squeeze (no pun intended) 'smith's olde (<--- traditional spelling, doncha know) bar.' the exciting events of that show were, in chronological order:
1) the fluffers sit-in with us for our closing number, 'little bug.' glenn (electric guitar), stephen (keyboards) and cleare (acoustic guitar) all take amazing solos and the room goes wild.
2) halfway through the fluffer's set, we start playing the intro to 'goodbye girl' on guitars and melodica in the middle of the audience. glenn and the fluffers jump off the stage and lead us to the bar. we all climb onto the bar, and the 7 of us play the song from there.
3) glenn orders a mid-song round of tequila shots. we take them at the end of the song.
4) glenn announces: 'the spring standards will now lead us in a cover song of their choosing!' we pee our pants.
5) we decide to go with our old faithful sing-along, 'i shall be released.' we lead the entire room in a lovely rendition - still from atop the bar, mind you.
6) pandemonium ensues.
needless to say, we have had some memorable nights already on this tour and no doubt we will have many more. if we are coming through your town, please come make some memories with us.
now on to a kentucky campsite...
the lead sled
Saturday, March 21, 2009
water flowing underground
we are crossing the george washington bridge. cleare is behind the wheel in purple pants. heather is in the front seat in spearmint pants. smith is in back reading the new york times in jeans. viotti is in the back sewing a patch onto his pants, so he's not wearing any. it's a beautiful march day and we're listening to the talking heads.
this is day 4 of our tour with glenn tillbrook and the fluffers. we're doing 14 shows in 18 days with these guys, and it's off to a killer start.
now i will admit something:
the first few days of a tour always feel sort of like boot camp or fall pre-season, after a summer of goofing off and not running even though your coach warned you about that timed 2-mile run at the end of the first week. we're winded by our second song, random muscles ache, we bleed on our snazzy tour attire and we collapse into whatever makeshift sleeping arrangements we've got at the end of each day. so we've been dealing with a little bit of that for the past 3 nights - first in long island at the crazy donkey, then at the narrows in fall river, MA, and last night in ridgefield, CT. but i think it's safe to say that tonight or tomorrow will bring us over the hump, at which point we will shape-shift into a well-oiled, 3-piece-machine that feels neither fatigue nor pain. we're actually illegal in some countries. i'm not bragging, that's just plain fact. we're almost there...
anyway, back to the tour. it's safe to say glenn tillbrook and the fluffers are some of the kindest, most down-to-earth and hysterically funny individuals we've met in the last year of touring. we first met glenn last fall when we did some dates with 'squeeze,' the new wave/punk-pop band from the '80s that brought us the timeless hit, 'tempted,' among other pop gems. check 'em out:
that's glenn in the green pants. those of you who know us will know he shares our fashion sense, but that's just one of the things we have come to admire and adore about this incredibly talented individual. we could gush for another few paragraphs right now, but instead we'll space it out over the next 2 weeks of blogging. so you've got that to look forward to, loyal readers!
gosh but it's good to be back in the sled...
hope to see you soon!
the lead sled
this is day 4 of our tour with glenn tillbrook and the fluffers. we're doing 14 shows in 18 days with these guys, and it's off to a killer start.
now i will admit something:
the first few days of a tour always feel sort of like boot camp or fall pre-season, after a summer of goofing off and not running even though your coach warned you about that timed 2-mile run at the end of the first week. we're winded by our second song, random muscles ache, we bleed on our snazzy tour attire and we collapse into whatever makeshift sleeping arrangements we've got at the end of each day. so we've been dealing with a little bit of that for the past 3 nights - first in long island at the crazy donkey, then at the narrows in fall river, MA, and last night in ridgefield, CT. but i think it's safe to say that tonight or tomorrow will bring us over the hump, at which point we will shape-shift into a well-oiled, 3-piece-machine that feels neither fatigue nor pain. we're actually illegal in some countries. i'm not bragging, that's just plain fact. we're almost there...
anyway, back to the tour. it's safe to say glenn tillbrook and the fluffers are some of the kindest, most down-to-earth and hysterically funny individuals we've met in the last year of touring. we first met glenn last fall when we did some dates with 'squeeze,' the new wave/punk-pop band from the '80s that brought us the timeless hit, 'tempted,' among other pop gems. check 'em out:
that's glenn in the green pants. those of you who know us will know he shares our fashion sense, but that's just one of the things we have come to admire and adore about this incredibly talented individual. we could gush for another few paragraphs right now, but instead we'll space it out over the next 2 weeks of blogging. so you've got that to look forward to, loyal readers!
gosh but it's good to be back in the sled...
hope to see you soon!
the lead sled
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