"A Collective Confession"

In this section of the blog, each member of the band will post one event from tour that stuck in their mind. Whether it be magical, stressful, hilarious, painful or delicious. If you were part of the tour in any way, shape or form..please add one of your memories for our viewing pleasure.

tour blog 5

this is a new tour blog from Ben! Thanks dude!

tour photo album

The Rock N' Roll Hotel B&W's

Here's Tom & Catherine manning battle stations at the merch table. We didn't do as well as Toronto but we are getting a good response to the new shirts. I think we would do better if we have Jessica & Catherine model the shirts, what do you think?

"It's right outside your door, now testify!"

So, on our day off in Minneapolis, Bill and I decided to take a drive around town to see the sights. As we were driving, we saw something that made us slam on the brakes while saying, "What the Fuck?". I said to Bill, "Get your camera". We approached Mr.X (He wouldn't give us his name & he would not shake my hand) with cautious wonder. So, I got him talking and once we got on the subject of government...that was all she wrote. His public display of protest was all about....I don't know. He really didn't have 1 point, maybe like a blend of mis-directed anger, crooked facts and maybe even a little racism. Nonetheless, still an impressive use of his front lawn. I have to respect a man with something to say even though I couldn't follow what he was exactly saying. Well, he did tell us not to trust any country that has a predator (A bald eagle) for a mascot. Stay tuned for a video clip of our conversation, maybe..that's if the CIA doesn't stop us from publishing it first..
-casey

Minneapolis in Black & White

Here is Bill sitting at our favorite morning coffee spot in Minneapolis. I do not know if he is pooping or sharting..looks like a little of both.

Tour Blog Video #4

Deleted Scenes make things fun

This is what we got to enjoy every night for two weeks on the road.

Kawl-fee talk part duex

As I was writing the last post (Riding in Tom's car) I got cut off. Anyways, the Annex, cool bar, hip location, but that's about it. Manhattan is like the southern coast of South Africa, very strong current, rocky shores and full of sharks. If you're in a band and you want to play in Manhattan, the best thing you could do is get everyone you know, put them in a bus and drive them up to the club that you're playing at and install them as your audience. I hope that explains the scene there. O and try to dress like you're in Interpol.
West Chester, PA..It's a small town right outside Philly. Cool little town that reminded me of Annapolis. The venue was Rex's and the place was serving up $1 PBR's and for $3 you got a PBR and a shot of whiskey. They kept the bands happy with 3 free pitchers and I think Rex's had a small built-in crowd that obviously came there for the cheap booze. The show went well, good response and the load-in/load-out went pretty easy. As for the accommodations, our good friend Alli was nice enough to let the whole band stay at her place like 5 minutes away. We got pretty lucky this whole tour with kind people that would let us stay with them. Whether it was old college buddies, relatives, friend of a friend or best of friends. The tour would have been very expensive without all of you. Thank You. I would do it all over again.
-casey

The Kawl-fee is great in New Yark!

I think the highlight of the Boston show was seeing a monster raccoon run through the streets and under the deleted scenes van. I freaked out when I saw it and Carlos and I chased into an alley. It was about 24" tall and maybe 3 ft. long. But besides the wildlife, the show was pretty cool. After we played our set, we found out that we had the next night off. So, with mixed emotions, we drove about an hour south of beantown. We found a Rodeway Inn. Patrick pulled a miracle out of his ass by getting us 2 rooms for the price of one. Thanks be to a trucker that had to leave immediately after paying for his room. OK, so we slept like coma victims and woke to a day of driving. Our destination, Manhattan, NYC.
Once we arrive Staten Island, we prepared ourselves for a day of R N R at Tom's parent's house. I will sum up our visit in 1 word. NEEDED. The Annex waits. A bill of 4 bands has packed the house. They were not there for rock, they came for friend rock. Which was bad for us because everyone left after the 2nd band..well almost everyone..

an ode to chicken parm in the form of a haiku

A slice of heaven
chicken parm made by toms mom
i will eat some more

h'allo

oh... man, i can't even remember where we are right now... somewhere in a motel... in... massachusetts or connecticut... its about check out time and back on the rhode to rhode island (did you see my play on words??). our bruise count at the moment is Patrick (3), Casey (4), Carlos (18), and Tom (1)... but you should see the one on tom... it looks like he was kicked by a horse.

let see, since i last posted, i believe we've hit burlington and boston. burlington. beautiful. everybody in burlington, i'm convinced, has a congenital affliction of congeniality and helpfulness. casey ran into one of the DJs at The Point (big radio station in vermont)... which is always interesting meeting folks as such - there's that big slap in the face moment of "hmmm... this seems like an opportunity here... what to do what to do..." - and then you either act or you don't. casey... casey acts.

boston. ah, boston. carlos (once again) managed to drive us right into the middle of the city on newbury and parked the car getting us all excited thinking that we were playing in the cruxt of downtown boston. at which point came the famous c-love stick to the gut... "soooo, we have the wrong address." so we load back up and drive over the bridge, out of the city (or at least out of downtown boston) and into cambridge to arrive at our cosy "abbey lounge". we were very happy to see that there was indeed a stage and that the amplifiers were actually going to be mic'd this time. good folks at the abbey so many thanks to them and the other bands. mike, i hope your equipment recovers (i haven't seen anyone go sonic youth on their equipment in ages - was really spectacular).

so the deleted scenes... ahh... may good things be written about them one day and soon. doesn't matter if there's 10 or 100 people, those cats bring it every night - something all bands trying to carve out a little spot for themselves should take a note from... if you can't bust it out each night... its that much of a longer road ahead. perhaps the scenes could start educational clinics or something ;) at any rate, if you're reading this and haven't seen the deleted scenes as of yet, you're missing out. and for the next several days, you're lucky enough to see us with them too!!!! heh, heh!!

we'll speak soon darlings.

video blog 3

video by Ben Rowny

whoa... I know Kung Fu

so.. according to 'Los and Hatrick, when i awoke this morning i looked like Keanu Reaves in a Scanner Darkly..


hmm..

-tom

Tour pics- Bill Risen

by cky3k66

check em out....
-tom

colt 45 swims in the veins...

so as it turns out... tom was once formally known as "stang". we discovered this fact when we pulled into albany and were greeted by several of his cohorts and former associates from the days when he attended the university of albany. before i get to that though... kudos are due...

CANADA... OH, CANADA... I LOVE YOU! with a full (and heavy heart). toronto is, quite simply, a swell place... a vibin' town... a hood o' blue cool. i've made it to montreal once and it was equally fantastic - thus leading me to the final assumption that canada, in many regards, is were americans are destined to go when they die - realizing that america, again, in many regards, is kinda stupid sometimes... (cough, cough). thanks for the good turnout and show canada, titty driven, hal's ballroom and its fine employees. bless ya...

so, albany. didn't know what to expect from albany. as it turned out, we had to do battle with a hardcore show in the venue upstairs from our venue. i remember distinctly one of those "bellflur-esque" pause for thought moments in one of our songs, and then - BOOM! - the bass and drums from the hardcore show upstairs rattled my stomach and vomitted with its heaviness. no, actually that didn't happen. much respect to the hardcore kids... they're committed and driven! anyways, albany was awesome. every once in a while you have a show where everything just falls into place and it feels unstoppable. that was albany. great show, great people, great $2.00 schaeffers and so on. had a great time. and LunaSea, the words touch... oh yes they do... and to pat & pat, thanks for allowing both bands to crash at your place... its people like you that make these things flow more smoothly than they normally do.

and speaking of "both bands" - DELETED SCENES ARE THE BEST!!

we left albany this morning (actually now i guess it was yesterday morning) and drove through upstate new york and vermont to arrive in burlington. i think that may have been the most beautiful drive i've been on in these united states. burlington is a great place. smaller than i imagined... but fantastic none-the-less. and its nice and cool, which i dig. if you've seen me, you'll know i have my own personal insulation system, and cold weather definitely agrees with me. we played a shorter than normal show, but good regardless. not as killin' as albany, but good all the same. off to boston tomorrow. i'm sure we'll wake up feeling battered and bruised as always.

and now... my ode to coffee:

A CAFFINATED HAIKU:

Oh, Black cup of death...
drink the magic elixir
See you tomorrow!

-patrick
-------------------------------

thanks to all my friends who came out to the show last night. It was great to see all of you, i had an awesome time. Here are a few pictures..

-Tom (formally known as: Stang, The Stang, Stang-a-rang, Stang S. Stangerson & Stizzle)

video blog 2

carcast

Hey..

check out this video by bill risen..
-tom

Roy Rogers: A Lament

Roy Rogers sign post on the road
My head begins to spin
And see the tasty chicken
Dipped into the mashed potatos and gravy

The gravy

The gravy

One more mile.
Soon my stomach will feel the satiation.

1/2 a mile left.
My head reels with apprehension.

WAIT!!!
There is to be no stop.

Roy Rogers in my rear view mirror.
Nothing in my stomach.
Roy Rogers in my rear view mirror.



~~~fin

carlos: current mood: sad and hungry : (
currently listening to: my stomach cry

New treat from Ben

Along with num-chuck skills and computer hacking skills, Ben has got mad editing skills.

3 cheers!!!!

OOOooooo Canada

Dear Canada,

Please forgive us for all the bad things We've said a-boat you in the past. Turns out all those rumors were totally false! Bellflur <3's our neighbors to the north. Toronto is an awesome town! Everyone at the show was super-cool and was really into our music.. which, well.. makes this all worth it. We ended up hitting the streets and handed out about 100 cd's fo' free. We did not want to leave. Thanks for all the support, love and food. mmm.. Hal's Burgers.. until next time (and there will be a next time)

Adios!

Da Flur

here are some pics from last night.

Border Crossing..Canada, eh...

so we finished up the show in detroit last night and headed straight for the border. It turns out we were only 5 mins from canada. From talking with numerous bands we have heard lots of horror stories about bands trying to cross the border. we were all stressing the thought of having to unpack all of our gear, unhook pedals, getting taxed on merch, and getting strip searched at the border. All of our worrying was for nothing, they let us pass right through. So far canada is pretty cool except for the damn metric system.. ahhhhh

we drove up to london, ontario to stay w/ ben's friend Cali. The town she lives in is a real cool place. she had an awesome cat "cecil" who could pick things up w/ one paw and throw them.. Her band "titty driven" will be playing w/ us this evening...we are all looking forward to our arrival at Hal's Ballroom. Pat and myself are going to hit up "paul's boutique" as soon as we step foot in toronto.. its a vintage/boutique music store and has nothing to do w/ the beastie boys.

until later..

-Bellflur