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Friday, June 25, 2010

Pinot Tour Blog #2

On Monday morning we left Lincoln, NE and made it to Minneapolis around 6:00. We had a little basketball match at Schroedes' house and then headed over to IPR for a recording session with our sound engineer, Troy Watson (who also has a blog: http://thetroywatson.wordpress.com) We came up with 2 new tunes in the studio and didn't end up leaving until 5:00am!

The next day we had a show at 'Honey' in Minneapolis which was a last-minute show that was set up by Troy. The venue was in the basement and had a really cool vibe. Here is a video and a link to a facebook video from the show that night:

Facebook Video Link - Click HERE



We had the day off on Wednesday so we took the van in to be fixed and is now running great. After that we went over to John's cousin's place and had a little BBQ session.

On Thursday we drove to Madison for our show at The University of Wisconsin's Union Terrace with The Wood Brothers. We stopped over at Patrick's brother's house in Madison to meet up with guitarist Kelvin Kaspar who will be filling in for Schroeder for the dates he will be missing (John plays with Franky Valli and The Four Seasons if you didn't know..)

Thursday was actually a pretty crazy day for us.. G was supposed to have a flight into Madison, WI at around 3:30pm, but it was Thursday morning and he still didn't have his confirmation email from the person who bought him the ticket. So anyway, he was trying to get a hold of this dude who was in London and finally found out that no one ever booked the ticket for him. He said the only flight he could find was into Milwaukee, WI at 4:30, so I figured that was a little out of the way, but it would work. When G called me back he told me that there was only one ticket left and it had already been booked. SO... he said the only option left was for him to fly into Milwaukee at 9:25pm.

I called my friend Alex Moede who actually helped book the gig at the UW Union Terrace and asked if he could pick him up.. it was like we were in the movie "Get him to the Greek".

So anyway, it came to 11:00pm and we were all set up and ready to go, but G wasn't quite there yet.. so we started with "Alabama Slamma" and G got there towards the end of the tune. We rocked the rest of the show and the crowd had some serious energy. If it wasn't for the strict curfew at the Union Terrace we would have probably played all night, people were chanting for "one more song" over and over again.

Overall, Thursday was probably the most stressful day for me so far with all the setbacks and stuff, but everything came together in the end and we had a great show.

I can't believe we're only on show #4 tonight in Appleton, WI at Red & White. I can't wait to see what each and every show from here on out brings. So far the tour has been amazing, each show the band is sounding tighter and tighter.

That's all for now.. we've got a ton of pics and videos, but haven't been able to upload them or edit any of the video yet. SOON!

-Sam

Pinot interactive tour map


Sunday, June 20, 2010

Pinot Tour blog #1

The tour has gotten off to a pretty crazy start. We stayed an extra day in Los Angeles to watch the Lakers win the national championships. G and I went downtown that night and got wild in the streets with everyone else. I'll post some pictures and videos soon..

In Las Vegas, we noticed that there was something wrong with the van. We pulled over and called the rental place and it turns out that our "turbo" is failing. So, any time we pull over, we have to restart the vehicle and then it restarts the turbo.

Our first stop was in Beaver, UT to camp for the night. We rolled into this campsite and that's when I realized that I had forgotten an essential item for the tour: my air mattress.. DAMN! I ended up sleeping in the van and everyone else slept outside on the ground without tents. I think they got some bug bites..

On Saturday, we were traveling from Beaver, UT to Denver, CO on the 70 freeway, when out of the corner of my eye I see this motorcycle come up next to us.. we're in the left lane, he's in the right lane.. then he takes both hands off and pulls down his t-shirt. Then, he looks back and puts one hand on his handle bars and turns back to signal to his buddy. The other motorcycle must have been coming too fast up towards his buddy, because all of the sudden, the second motorcycle runs into the back of the lead bike and crashes.. right next to our van, and his bike skids across the highway right in front of us. Patrick was driving and he slammed on the brakes. We pulled off on an exit and called 911. Man, that was a close call!!

So anyway, we just made it to Denver at the last minute for load-in and soundcheck at Quixote's and played a show there. It was pretty crazy, we met this band called Antioquia who we are randomly playing a show with in Chicago at Reggie's Music Joint.

We're in Denver, CO right now, just about to leave for Lincoln, NE. We aren't playing a show there, just staying with a friend. After that, we're driving to Minneapolis, MN for a recording session with our sound engineer, Troy Watson, at IPR.

I'll have another update on here in a couple days and will try to post some pictures and videos when we get to our next stop.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pinot

-Sam