October 4th, 2004 15:55
Currently listening to: sweet, sweet nothing
Feeling: exhausted, but it was worth it.
Photos by Me, Yukako Yamanaka, Yukari Tanaka, Takateru Kagawa, Arturo Valle and Vince Keng

TAKE IT IN THE ASS FOR ART!

-- a diary by Jeremy Wrenn of airiel --

Wednesday, September 14th -- After cleaning the living hell out of my apartment, I went to the airport to pick up Taka and Yukari. The last time I waited in this international arrivals area of O'Hare was when Yuka came to see me for Valentines Day. ^_^ Hartfield arrived with two of the heaviest suitcases I'd ever carried. Luckily they had wheels. They were so excited and so was I. I knew I would relax a bit when they finally arrived. I'd been tense for weeks about this whole thing.

We got in my car and I suddenly noticed that they smelled like Japan. Made me miss Yuka a lot. I drove them up to Mitsuwa so we could get ingredients for curry. We stopped at Dominick's on the way to my apartment and they had the same reaction that Yuka did. "Everything is so big!" They unpacked a bit when we got home and I made them take a nap. Hahaha they were dealing with a 14 hour time difference and I wanted us to go to SmartBar later. I cooked curry while they slept.

We stuffed ourselves and then went to Panic. We actually tried to stop by Club Foot, but there was no parking. A Cubs game had also just ended, so Wriggleyville was packed. However, I managed to get a parking spot right next to the Ginger Man. Score! I introduced them to Arturo and we hung out for a little while. Taka ordered a cola but the bartender misunderstood him and gave him a Corona. hee hee hee

Thursday, September 15th -- They made eggs the next morning and I introduced them to FLCL, which they hadn't heard of at all. They loved it. I went out to pick up the t-shirts that arrived at my office and then to get my hair cut. I came back and they were completely passed out while watching Die Hard. We went to Penny's Noodles in Wicker Park and Arturo met up with us. Chris also joined us on our way to Kinko's s we could copy flyers for the Double Door show. We were running a bit late, so I left Chris and Arturo to the poster duty and we went up to the practice space.

I had a big smile on my face when they started playing. It was Nineball, which is a song I love. I knew then that this whole thing was going to work out. I was very proud of Cory and John for learning these songs so well. They accidentally picked up a few bad words thanks to John and Cory. Taka took to it the fastest. "What, fucker?" quickly turned into other low brow things like "Ass-hat", which I had difficulty in explaining. Hearing John shout things like "Say 'bitch', Taka!" had me on the floor, laughing.

Cory had us follow him to Gameworks, where he bartends. We split some appetizers and Taka got "the biggest burger in the world". We went upstairs and tried this freaky miniature bowling game. It's two lanes, roughly half the size of normal bowling lanes. The ball pretty much fits in your hand and the pins are operated by strings. I kept expecting to see some Oompaloompa-like creature back there with some marionette action happening. Cory started to lose, so he livened things up a bit by have "wind-up" throws that required him to run for about 50 feet. Good times. Taka got drunk from one sex on the beach. hehehe

Friday, September 16th -- Since the weather in Chicago was feeling like fall, they wanted to go some place cheap to get some coats. I took us to Wriggleyville and we each got a vintage coat at a different store. I scored this light brown suede number that fits like a glove. That's a rare event when I look for used stuff. We went to Clarks for lunch and this time Yukari got a giant burger. Bless her heart, she almost finished the damn thing.

Took them back up for practice. Arturo joined us as well. He and I made one last trip to Target so I could get a travel pillow of some sort. How much fucking money have I already spent on this tour? Sheesh. We thought about going out for drinks, but there was too much that had to be done. I think we got to bed around 3 AM, maybe? ugh. This was only the beginning.

Saturday, September 17th -- Day One of the tour. I got up at 5:30 AM. I don't know if I really slept at all. Nerves. I had a huge check list of things I had to do that morning. I made a bunch of turkey sandwiches to put in the cooler. Put out the dry food for Stella, kissed her goodbye, etc. We picked up Arturo and went back up (once again) to the practice space. Everybody was in good spirits and we loaded the vehicles. Things, for some reason.... didn't fit quite right this time, so we shifted stuff around. Luckily everything would fit. We took off right on time and made our way to Pittsburgh.

Indiana and Ohio are positively the most boring fucking states to drive through. Flat and nothing to look at. We made the unfortunate decision to pull into a "service area" that had food. You know that scene in Trainspotting with "the worst toilet in Scotland"? Well, this was the Ohio version. It consisted of a barely functioning Hardee's with a soda machine that spewed fruit punch Poweraide. Cory refused to eat here and he was the smart one. I completely forgot that I had turkey sandwiches in the cooler! I walked into the toilet and walked right back out. I told everyone to avoid it. I was fucking repulsive. I looked around for a number to call so I could complain about this place (or call the CDC), but my desire to evacuate overrode that. I can't imagine what Taka and Yukari thought of this place, but thankfully they're too polite.

We pulled into Pittsburgh and.... made a wrong turn. Funny enough, we drove right past Gooskis, where we played in December. THAT'S why it look familiar. Duh. We called Brad and he got us to his place. We unwound with a few beers and John decided that for the tour, he would shave off his beard. He wanted to do it outside so he wouldn't make a mess of the bathroom. We were running low on light, so we lit the two Tiki Torches in the back yard. I grabbed the mirror off the wall in the front hallway and we got the whole thing on video.

Shadow Lounge is a neat venue. Two different rooms, both of which have their own feel. Sleeping Kings of Iona were awesome. Really nice people. Life In Bed were good, but I was getting nervous, waiting for them to finally say "we've got one last song..." or whatever. They seemed to play a bit too long. Hartfield played a great set. It was only the 3rd time John and Cory played with them, having had two nights of practice previously. We had a good set, but the crowd had thinned out quite a bit. Always good to be around Brad (Flash, as his local friends call him). Can't help but love the guy. Get your ass down to Chicago, mate!

We all needed food at this point, so we took the caravan over to Wendy's. This happened to be the only Wendy's open for 50 miles, because there was a giant line of cars for the drive-thru. We ended up at a very busy gas station deal called GetGo, that actually made custom sandwiches. I opted for a salad and a couple muffins for the morning, which was 2 1/2 hours away at this point. I think I was able to sleep for about 2 hours before we had to get up and get going. Cory got up at the same time as me and did a good job of waking up the troops. Glad to know there was another early riser in the group besides myself. Jennifer McKee, John's Girlfriend, was with us and had to be taken to the airport so she could fly to Philly and meet us there. Long story. Taka, Yukari, Chris, Arturo and I went to Einstein's for real food. It was glorious. Exhausted yet determined, we made our way to Philadelphia.

Sunday, September 18th -- The reason we hauled ass out of Pittsburgh was so that we could get to the Popnoise Festival in time to see as many bands as we could and also interview them. Cory dreamed up a video documentary idea and Arturo had the equipment to do it. We didn't get a chance to interview Sleeping Kings of Iona in Pittsburgh, so we wanted to get there in time for their set in Philly. We drove through some crazy tunnels and had some great mountain scenery on this leg of the tour. It was also on this leg that I was introduced to Sobe's "No Fear" energy drink. Tasting like peach and carbonated ass, I downed two of them for the ride to Philly. Worked pretty well. Chris played the role of iPod DJ and we agreed to have a music swapping party sometime soon.

The night before, Taka expressed and interest in wanting to navigate, so he studied the maps and the road atlas before going to bed. ^_^ He did very well in getting us into Philly. We found the Rotunda and Tommy Lugo met us on the curb and let us park right by the entrance. Driving on sidewalks is fun. I've known Tommy via email for a few year, so it was very cool getting to meet him in person. He was also wearing a fabulous My Bloody Valentine t-shirt that I wanted to steal from him.

Sleeping Kings of Iona had just finished setting up when we arrived. They seemed happy to see us again. They left Pittsburgh after the show and slept in their van. Rock. We were a little disappointed in the volume of people in the audience. Honestly, it was mostly the other bands. I met one of the guys who runs the Walls of Sound festival, which we asked to play but never got a response. He seemed a little embarrassed when he realized who I was. Especially after freaking out that Hartfield was here and not mentioning us at all. It happens.

Got to meet Andy, Courtney and Mike from Autumn Thieves, who also run the Loveless Music Group in New York. These guys were hosting the after-party event for our show at Sin-e. There was a little bar/restaurant nearby where we all lounged around and were lucky enough to hear the music playing inside the Rotunda. The music all day was wonderful. Got to meet Natalie, who was busting her ass in New York to promote us. She helped me get our New Jersey gig as well. EJ Hannigan and Isaac (both from Highspire) showed up and we had a good time.

Things ended up running VERY late and we were getting nervous about the crowd population. Sky Divers played a very long set, which kind of pissed us off. Things were supposed to be only 30 minutes for each band and they played for at least 45. We went on before Hartfield this time. The room was pretty empty at that point, but we still played a good set. I was getting a bit depressed at this show. I was just hoping that Hartfield wasn't disappointed with the shows or anything and that was stressing me out a bit. But, bless her heart, Yukari always smiles and acts like nothing could ever bother her. She announced that this was their first time in the US and their first tour with Airiel. She mentioned their CD's and shirt and then finally said "let's fun!". People, I almost cried. I said to Chris, who was next to me, "Hartfield, this world does not deserve you."

Finally it was time to leave and EJ drove with me as he lead us to his house in Lancaster. I was really happy to hang out with him because I'd been a Highspire fan for a long time and he and I are similar in a lot of ways. He's my age, but I still view his as older for some reason. Not because he looks it, but because I look at him like he's a peer. We met his girlfriend, Erin, at the house and we finally got a chance to really relax. We didn't have to be in New Jersey until 9 PM the next night, so we would finally be able to sleep in. I think Taka and Yukari were out in an instant. In addition to the lack of sleep, they were still dealing with a 14 hour time difference.

Monday, September 19th -- I missed most of the hang out conversation the rest of airiel had with EJ and Erin, but I got to catch up with them in the morning. The sun was up when I woke up, but luckily it was around 10:30 and not 7 AM as I had feared. Apparently John Rungger is a freaking omelet master. He cooked omelets for all 9 of us and they were awesome. Taka slept through most of this. I think he actually slept for 10 hours. He needed it. We had a wonderful time sitting in their back yard, drinking tea, strumming an acoustic and just chatting about life. We really needed something like this to recharge or sanity. EJ played us some crazy CD's and I took a fantastic shower. I was DYING to be clean again. I ended up leaving my shampoo, conditioner and soap on the edge of the bathtub though. Shit.

We stopped at a grocery on the way out of town and said our goodbye's at a gas station. The highway signs in New Jersey were honestly a bit confusing and we wound end up making a lot of u-turns on this leg. Chris and I both noticed this weird smell, but then realized it was this salad that Taka made at the salad bar in the grocery. Seafood, crab meat and broccoli and some other stuff. This was only the beginning of the weird car smells. Living in Chicago gets us a bit spoiled with road directions. By and large, Chicago is an enormous grid. This makes navigating Chicago a complete breeze. You only have to deal with the occasional diagonal or one way street. Any time we drive through a city with curved roads, we almost have to scream "help!" out the windows.

We arrived at the Brighton Bar around 8:30. We loaded our gear inside and I stayed at the bar to have a few drinks while the others walked to the shore. It was so close, you could smell it. Also must have been why it was so god damn humid. I called BJ's phone to see if Yuka had landed yet. She actually answered the phone. ^_^ "Hi darliiiing!" heheheh. Couldn't wait to see her. I sat at the bar and drank a few Maker's and Cokes. I hadn't been drinking much at all so far. There's this blues song playing on the jukebox and a guy sitting on my left, drawing on a pad of paper. He asked me if I knew who this band was, and I didn't. He checked the jukebox and told me that it was Hendrix. We hadn't heard him doing something so minimal before. He asked me if I knew the bands that were playing tonight and I said "yeah, my name is Jeremy and I play in Airiel". Well, turns out that this guy I was talking to was DJ Rex Nexus! Hahaha

He had been emailing us a lot through myspace about how excited he was that we were coming to New York. I had not expected him to be at the New Jersey show, so this was a cool surprise. We talked about music (what else?) for quite a while and then I finally got to meet Jack "Jack-o" Monahan. Picture Santa Claus after he's been on a binge of Decedents albums. Got it? Good. We quickly got Airiel setup and I had a chance to meet Steve Romain, who turned 18 on this very day and got in to see us. \m/ We felt a bit better while playing this set. Probably due to be well rested and also because were back in a bar setting. It felt more like home. Hartfield also rocked out and had a good time. My stomach was being super weird, so I spent a lot of time in the toilet during the New Sins.

And then...... Mau Mau Tsunami happened. This is Jack-o's band. HO-LEE-SHIT. This was rad. Super loud, high energy punk rock. Jack described his role in the band to me over the phone once and said "yeah, we just kinda play rock and I mumble shit into the microphone." LIAR. What he should have said was "we kick ass and I scream shit and rub beer into my shaved head." From the moment they started until the moment they ended, we had a blast. Jack-o was walking through the audience, being crazy. There was a call and response bit in one song where he yelled "bullshit" into the mic, then turned it to the audience who would also yell "bullshit". Simple and effective. Cory and Arturo got nicely drunk and even skanked in front of the stage. The gig ended with hugs and waves and Jack-o yelling "hey Jeremy! Call me any time, buddy!" That's gotta make you feel good. And now, on to NEW YORK!

I think we actually started going the wrong direction the moment we got on the highway, but whatever. It took us about an hour and a half to get into Brooklyn. Chris and I woke up Taka and Yukari so they could check out the Verrazano Bridge. Driving on the streets in New York is like driving on the fucking moon. I arrived with 3 wheel covers and by the time we got to Oliver's Place, I only had 2.

Oliver Ackerman (A Place To Bury Strangers, ex-skywave) and I have known each other via email for a number of years. Back when he was in Skywave and lived in Virginia, he wanted Airiel to come down all the time to play shows. Sadly, it never happened. But now, at 3 in the morning, he was greeting us outside of his practice space, with a big smile on his face. About 2 weeks before the tour, I was still unsure as to where we were gonna stay in New York or where we were going to store our gear. I got in touch with Tim from APTBS and he told me that Oliver was more than happy to host us. This was a huge weight off of my shoulders. We unloaded the gear and he took everybody else to a bar for a quick drink.

As luck would have it, Yuka's friend BJ (who picked her up from the airport) lived just 4 blocks up the street. I walked up there and he met me outside. I finally got to see my Yuka. She was barely awake, as was BJ. Exhausted and in need of a shower, I crawled into bed with her and we fell asleep in about 2 seconds.

Tuesday, September 20th -- I can't quite recall when we all got out of bed and assembled for the day. We wondered around for a bit while BJ was at work. We stumbled upon a diner called "diner" and finally sat own for breakfast. I think it was noon at this point. I drank nearly every carafe of water they put on our table and ate a fried egg sandwich that was absolutely wonderful. Super bad for me, sure, but I needed it. BJ arrived with Jon and we walked to the nearest train station. I noticed that their ticket system is a lot like the CTA. Great view of Manhattan as we crossed the Hudson. I actually expected New York to be busier, but nothing compares to Tokyo.

We walked a bit to the former World Trade Center site, now referred to as "ground zero". Can't say that I felt anything particular while I was there, but BJ described what streets people were running down and a few churches that had been covered with missing person posters. We walked quite a bit and eventually made our way to Chinatown. We all made phone calls to our New York friends to see if there was anything exciting going on tonight. My feet were already killing me. Heh. It was like being back in Tokyo, although I have to say, Tokyo is MUCH busier than New York. Nothing holds a candle to how exiting Tokyo feels because of the sheer amount of people. Dave and CB joined us at some point during all the walking. BJ, Jon and Dave all visited Tokyo over a year ago and Yuka was their tour guide. Now they were returning the favor. At some point Cory called Arturo a "little dumpling" and they proceeded to video tape or take a picture of any sign that had the word dumpling on it.

We seemed to search endlessly for a bar to take a rest. We were pretty tired at this point and hearing Dave and BJ say things like "I swear it's right over here, dude" or "I'm always drunk when I'm in this area, so..." were kind of wearing us out. But we finally found the place, although I never got its name. Sitting on plastic covered furniture, we kicked back with some ice cold beers and got off our feet for a while. Taka and Yukari made origami hats for the bartender using a local newspaper.

We eventually arrived in St. Marks Place. This area was rad. I wish we could have spent more time here. Cory and I made a quick dash into a small video game store to see if they had We Love Katamari and the clerks there looked at us like we were from Mars. We visited a multiple floored video/book store and I sat memorized for a while watching the (original) Dawn of the Dead DVD. Taka was craving Japanese food, so we all regrouped and went to a GREAT place just down the street called Izakaya Kenka. We had a great time at dinner. Yuka recommended a sake to Cory and John discovered that the only smokers area was basically a human fish tank in the middle of the restaurant; a weird glass room, exposed to the sky, where everyone could look at you while you smoked.

I got a few phone messages while we were eating, including one from my friend Xiomara. I've known Xio online since I moved to Chicago, and I was excited that I would get to meet her at Sin-e tomorrow night. We got in touch with Rowan (Rex Nexus) and made our way down to a lounge called Belly. They were having some little one-act plays inside and the place was crowded and hot, but VERY cool looking. Reminded me a lot of Danny's, here in Chicago. We watched one really funny play about a guy who was a private detective and he was spying on his wife. We said goodbye to Dave and Jon (BJ had already left to do some work at his studio) and made our way with Rowan to a club called Lit Lounge. It should be noted that Taka was tagging New York all over with Hartfield stickers. That little vandal. I gotta say, it is cool knowing that a certain NYPD patrol car is supporting good music. Cory nailed that one. Anyway, this club was pretty cool, but the drinks were expensive. We were getting really tired at this point, but our moods picked up when the DJ spun both Airiel and Hartfield to this packed audience. \m/ We took a couple of cabs and met BJ back in Brooklyn to get his apartment keys.

Wednesday, September 21st -- At 8:30 AM, Cory called me to inform me that the water at the practice space had shut off. We were informed that this might happen soon, but we had no idea when. Cory managed to get a shower, but then Chris couldn't flush the toilet. Grrrrreat. BJ, being the ultimate accommodating host, was cool with us bring people up in pairs to use his shower. This day was absolutely beautiful, but we had lots of stuff to do. Once everybody got cleaned up, a few of us did laundry right across the street. Yuka, Taka, Yukari, Arturo and I went to this FANTASTIC Mediterranean restaurant called the Grand Cafe. I had this wonderful dish that was comprised of spicy tomato sauce with vegetables and 2 eggs that were cooked inside the sauce. Humus and pita bread on the side. It ruled. We sat outside in the back. I wish I had my camera for this. All restaurants need big pillows to lie on.

We met with our myspace friend Cesar on the way back to the practice space. He was there to interview both bands for Giant Robot magazine. He brought a videographer with him that he had met the night before who was doing work with CMJ. We took a lot of time getting things ready for the video guy. Hartfield interviewed in the main room and we ended up interviewing in the practice space. I haven't seen this thing yet, but I'm curious how it turned out.

We stayed out of the way while Hartfield did their interview. Oliver customized the Death By Audio Interstellar Overdrive pedal that I bought from him. Death By Audio is his own guitar pedal company. He put an external power supply jack in it before my eyes. I wish I knew how to do stuff like that. I saw all of the silk screen frames that Oliver uses on the Death By Audio pedals. When we did our interview, the light seemed really bright. I was wearing that new coat I bought at Hollywood Mirror, but I wanted to take it off after about 15 minutes. Note: it's probably not the smoothest move to say "oh yeah, we just discovered this great band" when you were on a compilation CD with them years ago. Nice move, guys. Talking about our previous guitar players was weird. We were running low on time, so we had to wrap things up and get the vehicles loaded. The rest of APTBS showed up and we started the loading process.

We scored parking right in front of the place. Rad. I had read about several bands getting all of their gear stolen while on tour in New York, so I was rather nervous about this. Brian Jonestown Massacre had all of their gear, their trailer AND their van stolen just weeks before we got there. Sin-e was really cool. I'd seen so many photos of bands in this place, so it was neat to finally be there in person. My stupid Fender Twin blew another fuse but Oliver let us borrow his. Score. We did the soundcheck dance and then Yuka, Arturo and I went to go grab some pizza.

I got to meet Xiomara, finally. She and her boyfriend Chris came together. IfWhen played and honestly, I as expecting a bit more out of them. Certainly more volume. Hartfield got up there and rocked out. Alyssa Hammer (the lovely gal on the inside of the Winks & Kisses box set booklet) showed up as we were just about ready to go on. It was good to see her again. I got a little nervous because this was the first time Yuka has ever seen airiel play live. We played Thinktank and I announced that I "wrote this song for my girlfriend". ^_^ That felt good. We got a very good response. At some point in between songs, somebody (I'm pretty sure it was Xio) said "Welcome to New York, Airiel!" ^_^ That also felt good. I stayed around the merch table with Yuka after our set. Got to meet Takako, who Yuka introduced me to via Myspace. I hope that she'll do one of her videos for an airiel song. BJ and Dave were also there. BJ was mixing drinks in the mensroom because Sin-e only serves beer and wine.

A Place To Bury Strangers flat out kicked ass. The were so loud. They sound checked at a quarter of the volume that they were now playing. Nice one, guys. Oliver's girlfriend introduced herself to me and wrote on a napkin "I know we can't talk now (too loud), but let's talk later about getting you guys some bigger shows in NY". Woo hoo! Spencer, the video guy for APTBS was sweating his ass off. He was using these 3 foot log loops of film and manually strobing the two cameras. At one point, one of the films started to melt and he kept shifting it and it would melt more. It was an awesome effect and we cheered him on.

We got back to the practice space around 1 AM. We wanted to unload in a hurry so we could get to the after-party. Jay gave me several hits from his bottle of Jim Beam Black. We all piled in the APTBS van. Besides the front seats, it had one bench and that was all, so most of us were bouncing around the back like loose cargo. Taka, Yuka, Yukari and I were starving, so we got some sandwiches from a deli across from Scenic. BJ was drunk as hell and was shouting loudly that we were taking too long. Hahah. I felt bad because when we got there, Xio and Chris were already leaving. Didn't get to hang out with her, but I'm sure I'll see her again some day. The Autumn Thieves were there and apologized for the fact that some guy was spinning metal instead of shoegaze stuff. He was sharing his weed, so maybe that's why nobody kicked him out. Hah. Oliver drove us back to the space, since it was getting late and we needed to be on the road by 10. Driving over the Williamsburg Bridge, I noticed that the horizon of the dashboard seemed to be sinking on the right. Well, we had a very flat front right tire. We pulled over to a gas station, but the fix-a-flat we bought wasn't doing much good. Oliver, who never lost his cool for a moment, got us all back in the van and we went to the space. Yuka and I crashed on a futon and before I knew it, the sun was coming up.

Thursday, September 22nd -- BJ had expressed serious concern that we leave no later than 10:30. Reason being that we would miss the NY morning traffic, but more importantly, we would miss the DC traffic. Apparently DC traffic sucks something awful. Yuka and I climbed into that shower and froze our asses off. I was about to put conditioner in my hair when....... the water shut off. I was still covered in soap suds too. Oh well. "That will save us all some time," I thought. We piled everything in the vehicles and proceeded to get fucked in the ass by mapquest. Mapquest, for some reason, didn't understand that 2nd Street was one way. Cory got us back to the bridge and we made our way to the highway from there. We got stuck on the turnpike in some heavy traffic and had a rather large garbage truck parked next to us for a while... and that's when the attack began. John pulled the van up next to my car and all of a sudden I got pelted with dozens of pretzel bites. Fucking things hurt too! John was screaming stuff like "this is for art! Take it in the ass for art!" My response was "Art, who?!?"

The trip to DC was pretty uneventful. It was very nice having Yuka in the seat next to me. We had always wanted to take a road trip and, well, here we are. No AC and already sweating. Hahaha. She made lots of drawings on the mapquest pages. I've only been to DC twice and each time I went directly to the monuments and The Mall. DC is a fucking DUMP, people. We were sitting at an intersection, with a view of the capital building waaaaaay off to our left, and I noticed that everything around us reeked of piss. We got to the Warehouse Next Door very early. While trying to park, this homeless guy came up and tried to recite poems in exchange for money. The guy had so much booze on his breath that you could have lit it on fire. The Warehouse Next Door wasn't open yet, but luckily there was a coffee shop next to it, so we loaded our gear and relaxed for several hours. We were getting rather worried when 7:00 came and went with no sign of a sound guy. Kyle Storm showed up and we discussed our options. At this point it was 8:30 and there was no sound guy, also no sign of Alcian Blue. The doors were supposed to be at 9 and I was getting nervous. Suddenly, everybody showed up at once and we hurried to setup Hartfield up. This show ended up being wonderful. Alcian Blue were really nice and they have WONDERFUL songs. They also had some video treatments, but of a darker pallet, so it's hard to see who's who in the photos. We saw some people that we met at the Popnoise Festival. Nice to see familiar faces in the crowd. Once again, we got a bunch of CD's from people after the gig.

Kyle took us to an area of town that I can only compare to Wriggleyville after a Cubs game. I lost count of the amount of completely drunk people that were out on the streets. We went to a place called Diner, but everyone was really tired. So much so that we decided to skip dinner and go to Kyle's place on the Chesapeke Bay. (note: I'm omitting events that occurred in DC for personal reasons. Serious drama went down, but everyone was OK.) Kyle deserves the title of "most awesome host ever". His friend had a house that was about 50 yards from the bay. John and I took off our shoes and walked in the water. Kyle told us a story about the types of fossils you could find on his beach and I felt like I was back at summer camp. We devoured some Frechetta pizzas and went to bed. Note: Chris looks like a pretzel when he sleeps on a couch.

Friday, September 23rd -- The next morning, Yuka and I walked out to the beach with the doughnuts and orange juice I had bought on our way to this house. John, Cory and Arturo were on their way back from the beach, but after I told them I would go swimming, they followed us. Being in the water felt great. Yuka made a comment about how lucky she was to see 3 airiel members in their wet boxer shorts. However, after looking at the photos, I can't share her attitude. We all need to get to the gym, quickly. We signed Kyle's guestbook and I went over the route to Norfolk with him. Since we weren't near DC anymore, our mapquest directions were useless. I sat on the porch for a while and strummed an acoustic that had a giant hole in the top. John asked me to play some REM songs and once again, I felt like I was back at camp.

This next topic needs its own paragraph. For me and Yuka, this was our 1 year anniversary. 1 year has passed since I first flew to Tokyo to meet her in person and I fell in love. She worked so hard to make this trip happen and I'm so glad she did. Not only was it special that she was a part of my first tour experience, but having her there was therapeutic. Just watching her head bob up and down as she fell asleep in the car would put a smile on my face and ease any tension I was having about the tour. She told me that she didn't really know her "place" in the tour because she wasn't in either band, but was only taking pictures. Despite the fact that everyone there knew that she and I only get to see each other every few months, nobody had a problem with her being around at all. She took our photos, helped carry guitars and was everybody was comfortable with her around. I love you, Yuka.

Ok, back to the tour. Because we weren't near DC, we took some great roads on the way down to Norfolk. I was glad that Yuka and Hartfield would get to see this stuff. Rolling hills and farm land, mostly. It was a very nice change of pace from the never ending stretches of highway. Norfolk is another one of those cities that confuses me because they have curved roads. I swear, living in Chicago has me spoiled. We took some wrong turns and went through a very sketchy neighborhood, but eventually found the area where Relative Theory Records was located. Since my Fender Twin was still needing a fuse, I ran to the nearby mall to find Radio Shack before they closed. I wanted to smack the woman at the counter because she gave me this look of "yeah, whatever". I didn't realize that she was waiting on a customer, but she seriously gave me this look of "fuck you, asshole" for no good reason at all. Bitch. Relative Theory Records is a kickass record store. Unfortunately it's on the 2nd floor of this mall thing and they lack an elevator. Hartfield played a good set. Yukari made me and Chris gasp because at the end of their set, she dropped her her guitar and stepped on the neck. This is a Gibson Flying V for fuck sake. She didn't do any damage to it, though. Learn played next. Odd combination of metal and classical. Proof positive that you can't judge a band on appearance alone. We played a good set but the crowd was pretty much gone. Jason was there and I also got to meet Ty, who had been emailing me before the tour started. Once again, Hartfield sold more merch than us. Damn you! :P

We drove to the house of a married couple, Abel and Mickey-Anne, who used to live next to Arturo in Chicago. Super nice couple. they were still awake at 3 AM when we arrived. (Why do we always get in at 3 AM??) We found places to stay and Yuka and I grabbed our own bedroom. Yuka gave me a lovely blue wristwatch for our anniversary. She and I grabbed a shower and everyone quickly started passing out. Note: inflatable mattress is too noisy for sex. The next morning we got up very, very early. We had to be on the road by 8 AM because it was a 10-12 hour drive from here to Cincinnati. Mickey-Anne cooked us all breakfast, a Spanish dish that I can't recall the name of. We watched footage of the new hurricane, Rita, I think they called it, and wondered if our gas prices were going to go up again. So far, we were lucky to find gas around $2.80 per gallon. Abel and Mickey-Anne drove in front of us to help us get on the highway and we waved them goodbye.

Saturday, September 24th -- This was going to be a looooong day. At some point, the van ceased to keep up with me and we got separated a bit. Luckily, we took a rest stop just after the turn I missed and got back onto the correct highway. Once we got back on, we lost cell phone connectivity for the next 2 hours. Screw it. They have directions. They'll be fine. We drove through some wonderful country. Misty mountains and such. I was a little too focused on getting in touch with the van for me to really enjoy the view, though. Eventually we reconnected and I was pretty far ahead of them. I told them which exit to take because I saw a sign for a Kroger and I had formulated a plan; TURKEY SANDWICHES. Hartfield, Yuka and I walked through the air conditioned splendor of Kroger and I hit the deli up for a pound of turkey and half a pound of swiss cheese. I found bread, mustard and even fat free miracle whip. got some plastic tableware and some napkins then proceed to assemble sandwiches in the front seat of my car. I think Cory got some of it on tape. I was slicing tomatoes (oh yeah, I got a tomato) on the roof of my car. Yes, they were on napkins. Come on, I wasn't that desperate. Anyway, they sandwiches ruled and I felt a lot better. The guys were itching to leave so I let them go ahead of us. Unfortunately, they pulled off somewhere and didn't tell me. So, I was trying to haul ass and catch up with them when in fact they were way behind me. Once again, the mountains of West Virginia proved too opposed to technology and we lost cell phone signals for several hours. Now, my car is full of Japanese people. I can't exactly ask them to drive, so I took a 15 minute nap while we parked at some weird country restaurant. Also filled up the car using a pump that still had a roller readout. We're in the stone ages, man!

We eventually caught up and John took the last of the band money (and also merch money) and used it for the van. I guess they filled that thing up 3 times already that day while driving through West Virginia and Kentucky. Grrrrr. I was in a bit of a bad mood on the way into Cincinnati, but Yuka, as always, did her best to cheer me up and listen to things I had to complain about. Cincinnati sucks to drive through, especially at night. John and Cory did a good job of getting us to Comet Bar, despite all the turning around we were doing. Comet Bar treats their performers rather well. We all got two drinks and also dinner. They gave us little wooden nickels for our drink tickets. I was determined to to not lose these as I had lost practically every drink ticket that had been handed to me during the course of this tour. I got a burrito that turned out to be way too large for me to handle. My friend Lisa showed up and sat down with us. She was very happy to finally meet Yuka. Cory showed me his bass and there was a giant crack in the neck. I didn't realize it but he had tossed it at the end of our set in Norfolk. I was..... not happy about this, but I was also really wanting to ignore that there was even a problem and get back to catching up with my friend and eating my dinner. We had a bit of a pow-wow before the show and I think John or Chris smoothed things out behind the scenes. I realize now that this tour has definitely strengthened our ability to communicate with each other and it helps that we have a solid group that we can talk to. Or at least, there are other people in the band for people to bitch to and I don't have to hear all of it from the person doing the bitching. This goes both ways, of course.

Hartfield played first and then we took the stage. The crowd was pretty slim and let's face it, we were exhausted. We actually cut our set short by a couple of songs. Taka and Yukari split a burrito and I don't think they were even able to eat half of it. Hahaha. Lesser Birds of Paradise played last. They were actually from Chicago but I hadn't heard of them. They were very, very good. However, they were like a lullaby and I was falling asleep big time. John came up to talk to me and we all decided to skip sleeping in Cincinnati and just suck it up and drive back to Chicago tonight. I thought that was a great idea, so I crashed in my car for 15 minutes. Lisa drove us to the highway and we waved goodbye. We stopped at a gas station and stocked up on energy drinks and some stuff to nibble on. I actually did pretty well on the drive home, but we did have to pull over briefly so Arturo could drive my car and I could sleep in John's van for a half hour. We switched back and I woke up Yuka and Hartfield as we made it over the skyway so they could see the lights of Chicago. We hadn't even gotten to my apartment yet and it already felt good to be home. The sun was coming up as we got the last of the gear into the apartment.

Sunday, September 25th -- Yuka, bless her heart, gave me a foot rub. While she did this, I put in a call to my parents. Talked to my dad for a little bit. Well, I tried to. Between the foot rub and exhaustion, I didn't make much sense over the phone. It felt so good to be back in my bed, especially with Yuka there. I pulled myself out of bed at noon because I was determined to make us some french toast and have this be and awesome, lazy Sunday. I came back and started cooking before the others got up. I can't remember what we watched while we ate. Maybe Samurai Champloo. We did some laundry and spent the day recuperating. Later that evening, we ordered a pizza and it was soooooo good. We watched How Do You Like Wednesday, which is a TV series in Japan that Yuka got me into. I had to be at work at 8 AM the next morning, so I didn't stay up too late. It was good to be home.

Monday, September 26th -- Work sucks ass. I felt like a damn zombie. Naturally, I bought a "No Fear" energy drink from CVS on my way into work. No wonder my throat hurt much. The caffeine in those things was probably what was causing my heart palpitations. Yuka and Hartfield made their way downtown and met me for lunch. I showed them around the office and introduced Yuka to a few of my friends. We had lunch at Mai Thai and they could all tell that I was about to fall over into my food. They made their way north to a chocolate shop because Yuka wanted souvenirs for her coworker friends. Hartfield then went to Virgin and then made their way back up to Wicker Park. Yuka came back down Michigan and finally got to go the the photography museum at Columbia that we had tried to visit during Valentine's Day weekend. She met me at my office and we rode the train back to Logan Square. I called to make reservations for us at Tsuki and then dropped off Taka and Yukari at Rodan so they could hang out with Maria and Brian. We had a wonderful dinner. it was so nice to have some time to ourselves. I felt like we were leaving Taka and Yukari with a babysitter so the parents could have a night alone. Heheheh. I called Maria on the way back to make sure they wouldn't be home anytime soon. Ended up sitting on the couch waiting for them to get in. They weren't answering their phone because they stopped at a grocery on the way back and their hands were full. Damn kids.

Tuesday, September 27th -- Yuka met me for lunch again and we went with DJ to Caffe Bacci. I was in the need for energy-supplying carbohydrates and Bacci had some kickass ravioli. After she went to go exploring, DJ commented to me that she always looks like she's going to smile when she looks at me, and when I look at her, she does. *sigh* She came back to my office and we took the train back to my place again. We left the office around 3 because we had an early sound check time at Double Door. When we got home, Yukari was on the couch with some cold washcloths on her forehead. I thought she had come down with a fever, but Taka assured me that she was ok. She was moving really slowly and I thought she was going to fall over. However, she still helped out with loading the truck. This was the first time I had used the new truck for a show. We crammed all of our stuff perfectly into the bed. Taka and Yukari sat in the little foldout seats in the cab. The weather was simply awesome. Fall was on it's way and it was still sunny out. As always, Chris was right on time. We found a spot right in front of Double Door's loading entrance. \m/ I introduced everybody to Only Lovers Left Alive and also Arks. It was good to see them all again. Taka went across the street and got a 16 oz Rock Star for Yukari and 10 minutes later she was bouncing off the damn walls. I don't know what's in that stuff, but she was feeling a hell of a lot better.

Chris, Yuka, Hartfield, Scott Cortez and I went over to Papajin for dinner. Yuka and I split sweet and sour pork but when it arrived, it was clear by the look on her face that she had something else in mind. She wasn't familiar with the American version of sweet and sour, which I basically describe as "meat candy". We took some pictures of the marquee outside Double Door. Taka and Yukari seemed very happy to see our names up there. So was I, really. LOTS of people came to this show. We kind of over did it with the free comp tickets. In the end, only 20 people paid to get in at $3 each, so each band only got $50 when we could have received $250 if people had paid. Who cares? I'm just glad that we had such a rocking god damn crowd.

Only Lovers Left Alive kicked ass. I'm really happy that they could open for this gig. This was only their second show in Chicago and I'm glad they got this crowd to see them. Hopefully we can play together soon. There seemed to be a good vibe in the crowd when Hartfield got on stage. They had a slightly rough start at first. They started playing Today Forever, but Taka's mic wasn't turned on. I think it kicked in after a few phrases, though. They played very well. I was so glad that they got to have their last show in front of a great crowd with really good sound. Once again, it's totally adorable when they talk to the audience in English and ask the crowd to buy their CD's and shirts. I can't count how many times Yukari threw up the horns (\m/) between songs. Taka was actually writhing on the ground during their last song. He looked like he was gonna toss his Stat, but I knew better. hahahah

We had a blast on stage. It was good to be playing at Double Door again. Cory was playing a jazz bass that he borrowed from Chris's friend, but it didn't seem to bother him much. I know I would feel weird if I was playing somebody else's guitar at a show. I tried to be all cool and jump down into the audience during the finale', but I fucking pulled my lead out when I jumped. Despite the volume of our music, I swear I could hear Griff laughing at me all the way from the back. Ahem. Anyway. I awkwardly got up on stage again and plugged myself back in to finish the stupid song. We were loud and we had a great time. Arks took the stage next and played very well. I really like these guys the more I hear them. While they played, lots of beer bottles were clinked and hugs were given as we all realized that this tour was coming to an end, but more importantly, we all had a blast. I don't think I'd seen Taka and Yukari smile this much until now and that made me feel great. We crammed into the photo booth a few times, and I do mean crammed. You can barely tell what's going on in those photos. We dragged everything back home and once again, it was 3 AM.

Wednesday, September 28th -- Yuka's flight actually left an hour earlier than Hartfield's, but Taka and Yukari were nice enough to give us some time alone. I always hate saying goodbye to her. But, she's coming back for Christmas and she'll meet my whole family. I'm counting the days, dear. The check-in line for United was enormous, so Taka and Yukari let me go home. I was still pretty misty eyed, but we said our goodbyes with big smiles on our faces. "Kiotsukete" (take care of yourselves), I said. I gave them a couple stickers and they put them on their luggage. I tried to explain how "be not half-assed" was an old and new way of saying \m/. I think they got the message. I drove home slowly, not yet feeling the effects of having said goodbye to them all. Despite all of my gear in various rooms, my apartment was once again empty. Stella was walking through the living room with more freedom. She did rather well with them, although she was a bit skittish with all the guests in the house.

This was definitely a milestone in my life. I put 90% of this tour together by myself and I feel pretty good about it. Nobody got sick, both vehicles made it and nobody had any gear stolen. Ups and downs, but certainly more ups than downs. I can't wait to watch the video footage that the idiots took while in the van for hours and hours with no music (John lost his stereo face in New York). Cory interviewed most of the bands we played with and I'm curious what they have to say about the state of indie music these days. Just like Arturo said "if I hear the word shoegaze one more time....." I relaxed for the rest of the day. Had a bit of trouble sleeping because I would wake up thinking "oh, shit! we gotta get the car loaded and get on the road!" Yuka called me at 2 AM when she got into Tokyo and then Taka sent me a text message at 4 AM when they got into Tokyo. *sigh* Everybody was safe. Time to go back to bed.