We ground to a halt in Chicago traffic – according to the GPS we were 5 minutes from the venue – although we've learnt that the GPS is no longer to be trusted. It seems to insist on completely irrelevant detours, where we get off a the interstate, only to merge back on 15 minutes later. Doubleyouteaeffff. We bemoaned our situation, as the 5 minutes took about an hour, but it turned out to be enlightening. Not going a trillion miles an our, we noticed how badly the van was shaking. After final arrival at the Elbo Room we inspected the van and discovered the culprit – a 6” x 4” section of tread was missing, leaving only internal wire mesh exposed and peeling away. We thanked our lucky stars that it hadn't blown on the three lane 70 mph highway we'd driven on for 8 hours and set about finding a suitable establishment for tire replacement. Matt – the manager of the Elbo Room – hooked us up with a 7:30am appointment at a local joint.
With that organized we set about loading in for the gig.
After playing we talked with locals and extensively with the Norwegian bartender – Solfrid (her full name meant happy as the sun snakehouse!!!!). It happened to be her birthday and she was stuck working. Seeing as we had a morning appointment with the tire shop before another 8 hour drive to Pittsburg, we did the only honourable thing and got supremely sauced with the foreign birthday girl.
The bar closed down and we continued. Plenty of Jamieson shots later we stumbled out into an insane thunderstorm (that lasted for 12 hours) and accompanied Sol to a local bar called Exit. It was there that the serious drinking and dancing began and continued until 4 in the morning.
Day the Seventh
Significantly worse for wear, we roused ourselves an hour late for our appointment, arrived at the tire repair shop and were told that we'd have to wait for about 5 hours. This would not do. Harnessing the available technology, we got ourselves out to another shop (which had a $100 dollar discount on tires), sorted the van out, ate disgusting breakfast and were on our way in an hour. The drive took us through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and into Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was our destination – playing at the Smiling Moose.
Pittsburgh surprised us. We didn't know much about the city before we rounded a corner on the highway and saw it burst forth from the tree covered hilltops. Damn. Gorgeous scenery, crazy mix of architecture, so many trees, great neighbourhoods. We learnt that you could buy a house for $19,000; a number of peoples we met payed less than $200 a month in rent.
In motion van shots never really deliver, but here's a couple none the less. . . .
The show was great, splendid bill – a passionate spoken word poet called William James started it up, followed by In the Wake of Giants. Worn Out Tiger closed up the shop. All three of the acts had toured a bunch together and were great friends, and their music ranged from post-rock to a dirrrrrty kind of hardcore – pretty freakin' amazing. We ate pizza and drank two dollar beers to recover from our lack of sleep.
Here's Worn Out Tiger doing there thang -
Justin (from In the Wake of Giants) hooked us up with a nearby place to crash – thanks to Mary-Ellen! - and we crashed gooooooood. New York is the next destination, and we've got four nights to play there, so a little time to cool our heels.
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