August 27, 2010 Tour blog 2: “Is that a mountain?”

Brooklyn is always less stressful than Manhattan, though the severity at which Manhattan chewed us up and spit us out that day (after such a nice entrance, too) via tickets and parking and low morale had us truly STOKED to get off the island. Beautiful friends and drinks and my god, yet another good NYC show (and venue) under our belts! I’m amazed- we managed to play 2 great NYC venues in one tour. Nevertheless, still felt good to be driving to New England the next day.

In Boston we played TT the Bears (!!), a venue at which I’ve seen The Cardigans, The National, and countless other amazing bands over the years. Suffice to say I was honored to play the stage, and we had family members in attendance so it felt comfortable all the way through. Spouse incited the crowd tonight, even roused up an encore and some dancing.

We split off from Spouse for a night to make the homecoming gig in Portland happen the following evening. Got we some family time, ocean, and anticipatory musicmaking to prep during the day. The show that night was legendary in its heat and intensity…best crowd of the tour so far and we really reigned it in onstage, though the humidity had us sweating bullets. Afterwards we all ended up puking from heat exhaustion, actually…don’t ever say we don’t mean it onstage, dammit…

When you spend all night doing that, though, the following night’s show can’t help but be hindered. We played safe and subtle in Easthampton, MA, with the highlight being a dedication cover of Spouse’s “Knob” to the boys we had just spent a week with on tour. It shall not be the last time we do this, gentlemen…

Pittsburgh. Last night. Feeling A-OK. Our set was a great sendoff, and we set new records at the merch table. I even managed to find 4 Sunny Day Real Estate fans in the same room. Our hosts walked us around the city and as we drove home Kevin and I saw fireworks exploding over the city. Felt some closure.

We slept under a massive, ornate shrine of Pittsburgh sports memorabilia and drove home in peace the next day under miles of sun and sky blue sky. Good tour.

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