Day two - 6/13 House show/Dragon's Den (Baton Rouge/NOLA)

6/13 - House Show/Dragons Den (Baton Rouge/New Orleans, LA)
Man Plus Building
A Living Room
Promis
Motion Turns it On
A Living Soundtrack

We left Lafayette a little after 5pm and made it to Baton Rouge around 6:30 to play Man Plus Building's CD release house show/BBQ. I entered the wrong address into our GPS and got temporarily lost but then our quick thinking and resourceful attitudes brought us right to the party at Loubie's house. We were warmly greeted by everyone in Man Plus and those at the party. After a quick game of catch-and-throw (occasionally turned into jackpot/cool exaggerated catch contest) and a few drinks from the keg, we took to the carpet inside and played our set. I felt my voice giving out and I felt the spark inside. We were accepted very well and everyone at the party that we had the honor of chatting with after the show had nothing but good things to say and that makes us super happy. We sold a good amount of merch, putting the icing on the already GOLDEN visit to the red stick. We had to quickly jet out of there, however, so we could make it to the Dragon's Den in time for the doors to open. We arrived promptly at 9:45 (45 min late) and began loading into the newly-un-air conditioned upstairs of the Den. All the bands were here this time and Promis was setting up. We got everything loaded in and Sean started working the door, lacking change and a reliable permanent marker. Promis started playing and I was quickly reminded why I liked this band so much. Crafting intricate, dirty pop songs, the duo earnestly pushed through their lofty goals of songs. I find their music and execution very endearing, and Tom (keys) kept the party going in between songs and probably broke Eric's heart by screaming "Fuck you Eric" at random intervals in their set. Great quote (roughly): "I see a lot of our friends here and that rules. You know who you are. And to those of my friends who didn't come, you know who you are too. I guess everyone knows who they are...except for maybe some of these college kids who are still finding themselves". Their set was high-energy and fun and they were a great beginning to the night. Next, Motion Turns it On (Houston) took to the Den and blew me (and many others, I'm sure) away with their psychedelic post post post post post post post rock. It was the first time I saw this (amazing and) amazingly loud and aggressive band live (i've heard their album "rima") and they completely took me by surprise. Their live show was a truly unique and mind-blowing experience that I can't wait to witness over and over again. After Motion Turns it On, we hopped in the pit and invited others in to join us. We played one of my favorite sounding shows in a while and had a great time with friends we haven't seen in a few months. My voice surprisingly came back and didn't feel strained at all. It was hot and I took my shirt off after we played and cooled off downstairs with Mojo Method and friends while A Living Soundtrack was setting up. I never did quite catch my breath and felt pretty faint for the rest of the night. With drum'n bass rumbling at our feet, our good friends A Living Soundtrack began wow-ing the crowd at a slightly later than anticipated time of 1:30 or so. As always, they blew my mind with both their virtuosity and friendliness. After they finished their amazing set that I've been blessed with witnessing three times in the past few weeks, we took about an hour to load down the stairs and into the 4Runner and then we went back to Byron's apartment and crashed hard. I forgot that I took my No Doz right before we played and couldn't sleep. I later realized that the caffeine pill was probably the cause of my feeling super shitty right after we played and my inability to calm my body down. Now we are on the road to Hattiesburg, MS to play at the Thirsty Hippo with The Squirms. Talk to you tomorrow.

Day Two Expenses:

Chris: Snoball ($2) + Bottle of water & tip ($2) = $7 so far

Sean: Snoball ($2) + 1/2 carton of Parliament Light 100s split w/Andrew Lee ($20) + 4 High Lifes ($10) + 3 pairs of shitty drum sticks now all broken ($12) + Drum throne clamp that did not work ($5) = $58 so far

Chris still in the lead.