The final road journal

February 17th, 2010

After an amazing arena rock experience at the spacious Turner Ballroom in Milwaukee, where we were amazed to see 800 of you rocking out with us, our tour started to zig-zag through smaller, intimate rooms in the midwest.

We bounced west to Madison, south to Iowa City, east to Rock Island for a Daytrotter session, then west to Omaha, only to drive the entire state of Iowa again the next day back to Rock Island, then NE to Cleveland, SW to Bloomington, …after that we’ll play two more shows on the way back home to Philly.

Our Daytrotter session was a blast. Besides being amazing people, the folks at Daytrotter have amazing gear and it was great to spend a few hours playing in their studio. We recorded three songs, “I Only Wear Blue,” “Where Did all the Time Go” and “Station” off our new record and then got creative and laid down a dub-version of “Army of Ancients” with Whiz at the controls, live mixing the effects.  It sounds a little bit different then anything the band has ever done, but I think you are going to dig it..

We were on our way to a super bowl party in Des Moines when the snow-ice storm paralyzed I-80.   Dozens of cars slid off the highway near Iowa City, and traffic was moving at 15 MPH.  It was almost halftime, so we chalked up our losses and decided to grab a hotel and hit a sports-bar for the 2nd half.

The roads were so slick that when we stopped behind some cars on the slightly inclined off-ramp, we couldn’t go any further.  Our tires spinning, the trailer slowly pulling the van backwards, we hopped out of the van to push, discovering that there was a solid layer of ice underneath the lightly falling snow.

Just then two police cars pulled up to help us.  we decided to try and push the van the rest of the way up the off-ramp and through the intersection.  First we had to push one of the police cars up the on ramp because he was spinning too.

With flashing lights as an escort, 7 of us pushed the van up to flat ground and “little miss sunshine” style, all hopped into the still rolling van and went to the first hotel we could find.

We walked in just in time to watch the Who & then witnessed the heart-pounding onside kick that started the 2nd half.

Safely off the road, we were able to enjoy the falling snow and the rest of the game and a whole bunch of beer.  It was a super-bowl experience we’ll never forget.

Two days later, driving back across Iowa, we witnessed the extent of the ice-storm.  At least 100 cars & big rigs lay abandoned, on their sides or facing the wrong direction, in the snowy banks on the sides of the highway, waiting for tow-trucks.

Don’t worry, we’ll continue to take things slow & steady on the road, and we’ll see you at a show soon.

There is a bunch of exciting things going on as we get ready for the album release.  You can listen to “Shadow People” over at Stereogum & we’re stoked to be playing Bonaroo again this summer.  We have some other festival announcements coming soon too…

Love,
Forrest