We’re playing on the computer! This Sunday, we’ll be in San Francisco and while we’re there, we’re playing a show on the internet. Don’t ask us how. We just know that if you go here at 3:00 PM PST (6:00 PM EST) on Sunday, April 25, we will be on your computer screen… playing songs.
We’re broadcasting from a small studio, but there’s room for about 4 people. Wanna come? Are you going to be in San Francisco on Sunday? Two winners will each get to bring one friend. The first two people to email myhomemadeshirt@gmail.com and let us know you’re coming will get access to the filming!
The Shame, Shame expedition of 2010 is underway and our first week of shows is now in the books.
If you were at any of the shows, you may have noticed that we have our friend Dimitri (from Golden Boots) on tour with us to add a little extra flavor to the music. Depending on the song, he’ll be shaking a tambourine, playing acoustic guitar or triggering some sound effects. You might have also noticed our new light show (If the strobe lights are too much for you, we also have cheap sun-glasses for sale at merch;) It’s all designed to give you, the crowd, the best concert experience we can imagine.
Since we have a light show for this tour, Scott hasn’t been dressing the stage. In tours past, Scott would literally fill up the trailer with props he found at truck-stops and thrift stores. He needed to channel his creative efforts somewhere, so he’s been decorating the bus and creating one-of-a-kind merchandise. On the first day of tour, the band went shopping in Toronto and found a bunch of bandanas with the three-dot logo and some painter hats and we stenciled Dr. Dog logos on them. These turned out to be really popular, so we made some shirts on our day off in Nebraska. Scott has a knack for creating a menagerie wherever he goes.
The past few months have been a combination of waiting to share music with fans while working to promote the new record. The first week was a payoff for all the hard work the band, management and crew has put in over the past few months to build a stage show to match the potential of the songs. Now is the fun part, when the band gets to go out and play the new tunes live, while dipping into the ever expanding songbook for old favorites, with a light show to match.
The band’s playing a bunch of songs from Shame, Shame and mixing some older songs into the set – they’ve also been sound-checking a fan favorite that has never been played live…yet.
Now, I leave you with a behind-the-scenes look at the band being “creative.” Have a look!
In exactly one month our new album Shame, Shame will be made available to the world. However, for those of you who are no longer in the world, we’re gonna let another track from the record fly into space. Tomorrow morning Rollingstone.com will premier “Stranger”, which happens to be the single from Shame, Shame.
Let it all sink in and prepare your mind. We’ll send you a link.
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…
A spring in the axel snapped on the trailer, so we had to get it fixed before our drive today. As we left the hotel we noticed there was a slight tilt to the trailer, and decided to get it checked out before our drive to Milwaukee.
Finding a place called Mr. Trailer on google maps was a good sign, and it was only 7 miles away. Mr. Trailer was a kind old man, who looked at the axel and said, “don’t worry, it will be fine. The only thing that’s broken around here is me, one of those lucky to be alive situations, I guess.” as he winked and limped around his shop. It looked like half of his body was paralyzed, possibly from a stroke.
We unhitched and left it in his care. First stop, was the Hot Spot drive-thru coffee we noticed just down the street from Mt. Trailer. Were the stories true? Baristas in bikinis, maybe even topless?
We pulled up and were greeted by the sight of a lovely tanned brunette in a bikini who smiled at us and those in the front seats smiled back, while the guys in the back leaned forward trying to catch a glimpse.
We gave her a tip and a sampler CD and went across the street to Bob’s Big Boy diner and got lunch. There we made friends with the wait staff, who told us to keep smiling and made us feel at home – they got a CD too.
We sat and talked about last night’s show in Pontiac. It was a really fun show in the sold-out Pike Room at the Crofoot Ballroom. It only fits 300 people, but there might have been a few more than 300 inside. We heard that a few fans snuck in, but got kicked out – we’re really sorry about that, next time we’ll try and play a bigger room. The Detroit area is a great place to play music – the people there are awesome.
We’re a solid week into tour and despite todays trailer incident, spirits are running high. Many of you tell us that you love the new songs and that you’re excited for Shame, Shame. We’re excited to share it with you, and you’ll hear one of the new ones, Shadow People on Facebook real soon.
The trailer was repaired in a couple hours and Mr. Trailer fixed our hitch too. We left him and his wife, who works the front counter with their friendly dog and cat and went on our way. Before we left, we gave him some Dr. Dog CDs because he told us “All we get on the radio up here is Bob Seger.”
Waterford, the town where we were stranded for the morning, is not on the way to anywhere, and probably doesn’t get too many bands driving through, but the locals were extremely kind to us today.
We’ll be a couple hours late to Turner Hall, but we’re confidant The Growlers will hold it down for us until we get there. Those guys are the real deal, it’s been nice getting to know them.
With a horseshoe balcony offering fans the choice to be right above the action or down on the floor in the thick of things, Revolution Hall was an ideal place to start tour. The crowd responded to the new songs with applause and shouts for more new music. The band was on fire from the start, and Teach aced his first official Dr. Dog show on drums.
The kid wails, and it’s going to be a blast watching him grow with the band.
There were many, highlights, but “The Pretender” stands out as being extra special. The crowd was mixed with young fans like Annie, who has been to 3 shows and said,”This was my favorite one!” to older fans like Clayton, who attended his first show (based on a recommendation from his buddy) and left clutching prized copies of Fate and We All Belong on Vinyl and fond memories of his first Dr. Dog show.
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