Today we embarked on the final drive of our tour, traveling away from the setting sun, toward the Pioneer Valley and some much needed and well deserved rest. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then maybe the road to good intentions should give you a glimpse of hell. It offers perspective on the entirety of a situation. Life isn’t without its snags, and to experience them makes the good times seem that much better. In the end, it’s the ability to hold yourself together and deal that inevitably leads you to the greener side of the fence, or rather, acts to brighten the grass on which you stand. You need not dream of a better place to reside, your already there.
Chicago was a blast. Old friends, new bars, and lots of music lovers. The Horseshoe, while intimate in numbers, was warm and hospitable and set the tone for a good run in the Windy City. Opening for Cornmeal was great, and an educational experience at that. It is always good to see bands that have their act together. It pushes you to work harder, play better, and well…I suppose those two cover it.
Michigan and mother nature appeared to have conspired against us like mischievous Greek gods from some bad adaptation of The Odyssey. But even Ulysses wasn’t without friendly encounters, and neither were we. The folks in Michigan were great to us, warranting a much needed return to The Great Lakes in the near future. Leaving Detroit was indicative of the whole Michigan travel experience. The first hour was spent on crazy detours in and out of Detroit and its surrounding suburbs. It is always nerve racking when you need to head south, and you can only head west. Logic and your personal sense of reason start to go at it, and your forced to calmly tell yourself that it is actually good to be heading in the wrong direction. Once we cleared the bulk of southeast Michigan, we started sailing smoothly, and have been ever since. The silver lining to the dark clouds settled over the Michigan leg came in the form of a trafficless Easter sunday. A rather “state trooper free” sunday I might add.
This is where the past and the present meet. It is 11:11 and we are an hour outside of Albany. So far we’ve recieved little resistance toward our efforts to get back home and in bed before the sun comes up. It has been exactly two weeks since we left MA. We’ve traveled over 5,000 miles, driven through 15 different states(some more than once), and played 15 shows in between. I am happy to go home and rest, but if I had to keep going for another two weeks, I know I could. You get used to driving all day and playing all night. It becomes the norm rather quickly. Sleep takes on the role of an unobtainable luxury, like one you only experience through window shopping and quixotic day dreams. Just as snags in the road offer perspective, so does chasing good rest. You almost never seem to get it; but when you do, it is the most glorious thing you can experience at that time. The realization of something long awaited tends to overshadow the means in which it took to get there. It validates the chase, and makes the whole damn thing seem worth all the trouble.

Thanks to everyone who showed us kindness and hospitality during our travels. Thanks to the venues who hosted us and Cornmeal for letting us open. Caz…if your reading this, good luck on the west coast, it was great to see you in Lansing.
That’s all for now. More to come when more piles up. Stay tuned.

Erik Alan
TAF

We are back in the North country. Chicago. It’s 9:53 and I’m sitting in an arm chair in a dark Super 8 hotel room. Pete and Lyon are past out in front of me. Pete’s breathing is that of someone who has contracted a rare jungle virus, erratic and heavy. I know he’s ok…so it’s kind of crackin’ me up.
Big drives have a way of affecting your memory. New places do too. Clearing lots of ground in short amounts of time. Meeting new people 8:00 p.m. and then saying goodbye at 2:30 a.m.. Then you do it the next night. And the next. Pretty soon you realize you’ve spanned two thousand miles in less than a week, stopping off each day to play a show, maybe two. It makes New York seems like a lifetime ago. Its only been a little over a week since we were there, yet the memories of everything we packed in there, in such a short time too, carry an air of nostalgia, as if I were conjuring them from a place in my brain reserved only for pieces of days, that over time, have been sewn together as piecemeal memories. They serve to reflect an era, and not so much the specifics of a single day. One day i’ll look back at all of the southern tours and they will probably start running together and mishmash in my brain. Confusing the wednesday of one tour with the thursday of another. An era of my life to reflect upon while I’m in the midst of something else, which too, will become something of the past.
Big City. Small City. Mountain town. College Town. Windy Plains. Windy City. And still a week to go. Each place is both vivid and vague. Or maybe I just can’t tell. Did I remember that building from Knoxville or was it Norfolk? Did I have that conversation in New York City or was it in Johnson City?
All the different people, the juxtaposed landscapes, and the thousands and thousands of miles….the nostalgic veneer laid across the top adds a special quality to the final product, creating the look of an era, blocking focus from the individual pieces it’s covering.

Erik Alan 3/18

Excerpt from Pete’s journal - March 15th somewhere in North Carolina:

I’d die to live this life. I’d give up all I have and go to another place, where music is forever; Playing for God because that is what he wants me to do, creating with my band because for these moments we care more about each other than ourselves, sharing with anyone who allows our sound into their soul. People dance to our music and lounge to our music. People smile laugh cry conversate imagine dream and love to our music. I’d die to share, create and play the drums. I’d give up all I have and go to another place. Thank you God, Friends, and Anyone who allows our sound into their soul.

Day 7. We’re making our way, slowly, toward Raleigh, from Black Mountain. It appears, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our van( or rather many of its parts) has conspired against us and our efforts to make it to places on time, or even make it at all. It started with sticky brakes, that only seem to stick when you REALLY need them to stop. Next, a strange noise from underneath quickly turned into transmission failure. The troubles haven’t stopped there, as just today, our driver’s side rear wheel nearly fell of while we were traveling through steep and winding Blueridge Mountain roads. A cautionary note from weary travelers: Quick service is only worth it when the service you receive is as good as service that would have taken longer. For instance, it is great when a mechanic can get your vehicle in and out in one day, so you can make it from Knoxville to Black Mountain for a gig that night. However, if the same mechanic fails to reattach the wheel he took off properly….well, you can see where this is going. One might assume we are driving a piece of junk around, from state to state. Well…….our piece of junk has a t.v., window shades, and limo lighting….there are naturally going to be trade-offs in these situations. All in all, band morale is perfectly in tact…if not strengthened by the ridiculous events of the past week.
Things we have learned on the road:
1. Maryland State Troopers DO NOT know what a “terrorist” looks like. They DO, however, know what a “stranger” looks like. It is for that very reason that EVERYONE who is a “stranger”, might also be a “terrorist” and should be treated accordingly.
2. It is VERY important, when trying to reach the venue that you are running late to, that you call the CORRECT number, rather than redialing the incorrect one…..many times…….over the course of several hours.
3. Giving a girl your CD does not mean she will take you home with her that night.
4. We have, collectively, discovered a fondness for hookah bars….and crazy Egyptian dance music.
5. It is always better to be a little late and arrive safely and without speeding tickets….
6. Falafil should not be eaten for more than two meals in a row….
7. It is imperative that you feed the meters in New York…a stitch in time saves nine, if you will.

Well…….that’s it for now. Stay tuned for more from TAF!

Hi folks,

We are down in Knoxville killin’ time so I thought that I would say a few words about our journey thus far.
We started out our tour on a two-day bender in the big apple. The Rockwood was our first stop (located on Allen St); it is a great place to see a show. I am always amazed at the talent in NYC. But to our surprise we realized that we left a very important piece of equipment at home….Erik’s guitar! What a way to start out the tour. However, with the help of our manager we were able to pull some strings and get a great deal on a new guitar. So now Erik is also rocking a custom shop telecaster.
The next day we performed for “Billboard Underground”, it was a live interview and a performance. Look for us on the website: www.billboard.com/ in about three weeks. BTW, do you all remember “the grind” on MTV; well the woman who hosted our show on Billboard was the same host for The Grind…. After that we performed at the Living Room, another excellent venue located on Ludlow Street in the lower east side of Manhattan. What a great room for a show. BTW, if you like Bill Frisell or other amazing telecaster players check out this guy: Jim Campilongo you can find him on the web at www.jimcampilong.com you will be amazed! Also another act that I was impressed with was a group called Pete & J. Check them out!
Next we traveled to Philadelphia to play The Word Café Live, we opened for Zok, an Australian band. That was fun, after which we promptly went home to the hotel (I think we were all in bed by 1:00, which is early when you are on the road) in order to make our 8 hour journey to Norfolk VA to play the Tap House, a very cool venue. You know The Amity Front and the bar are going to get along well when we walk into the bar and they feed us well, drink us well and on top of that play Wilco and Uncle Tupelo on the house system. As part of our 8 hr journey to Norfolk we need to make a detour Charlottesville, VA to pick up another instrument. Last year when we were on tour we left Lyon’s Saxophone at the Gravity Lounge. After a full year of playing phone tag with the venue Lyon was able to get through to them and we were able to pick up his instrument!! Very cool. But if we keep going at this rate I don’t think I will be able to find space in the van for all the instruments we keep acquiring.
After the Tap House gig we drove straight through the night, another 8 hr drive, to get to Knoxville, TN where we played The Blue Plate Special on WDVX http://www.wdvx.com/. I think that you can download the show at their website. That same night we played Barleys Tap Room. Another excellent venue with good beer and very friendly people, they also make a mean pie! Check them out online at http://www.barleystaproom.com/.

So that takes us to today, and here we are hanging out in TN while we get our van worked on and prepare to head to Black Mountain, NC to play at the Town Pump.

Hopefully see you out some time soon.
Take care,
Much love and respect,
The Amity Front