Syracuse Ska Forum

Sunday 8-3-08
New post catching up part II of our tour. Please leave me some replies

Sunday 7-27-08]
Back in SYRACUSE!!! Blog posted updating from St. Louis back here to the Cuse. Westcott show tonight!

Wednesday 7-23-08
St Louis blog posted. leave some replies!

Monday 7-21-08
New update in Replies, including a quick ska weekend recap. leave replies / love / suggestions!


Thursday 7-17-08
Just put up an update, including our "mustacha monday" pic... leave some replies!

Wednesday 7-16-08 notice
I have been updating via replies... so i hope you arent just checking this top post for updates. please scroll down, leave us love or hate!
PS, Matt Wixson loves 2girls1cup.

Tuesday 7-8-08

Top o the morning, Syracuse Ska! It's 9:55am right now and i've been up since 8am feeling slightly dizzy and disconnected (oops.. gin and tonic mixed with red bull and vodka = bad idea). I'm writing to you from the porch of a magnificant mansion on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Pat our trumpet player kept in contact with a friend of his who he knows from when he went to Hawaii for college. Her name is Christie and she is a bands best friend - her parents are out of town, so she has the place to herself... perfect.

Last night we played a show at a place called "The Side Bar" which is right in DT Baltimore. (Funny fact: Danny, remember Disaster Strikes? They had stickers plastered all over the mens room at the venue... brought back some good memories. I almost forgot about them!) The place has a great vibe... it's a bar, but it's definately a punk/ska bar. Punk bands stickers all over, punk show vibe, etc. We introduce ourselves to the bartender and she catches us up a bit on the show: Apparently, Riotgirl entertainment (who we contacted, and books shows for this venue) booked 5 bands to play but never contacted her contact at the bar to give him the final show info until the day before. So, he went ahead and booked his own show after not hearing anything from her... and he went and booked 4 or 5 bands also. Uh-Oh.

So, we introduced ourselves to the bands who were there, and we played it by ear. This is one of those shows where there was technically a promoter, but he didnt bother to stay for the show. He literally showed up, grabbed his check, and peaced out. Rad.
So, the show is now in the bands hands to take care of. Well, we've been here before, so no problem. We waited around to see how many of the supposed 7-10 bands were actually going to show up, then play it by ear. 8pm rolled around, and I think there were actually 6 bands total. We had a band meeting and decided that every band could play, as long as the sets were 20 minutes, and we shared gear. Success!

So, during the downtime before the show kickoff, we kicked out - what else- KanJam! Seriously, the greatest game ever invented. We taught a couple other bands how to play, and we all had ourselves a good time. KanJam is now well-liked in the Baltimore Ska Scene... woohoo!

We played second after a local band. Show was a lot of fun, and I think we made some new fans. We stuck around and danced for the rest of the bands, and left the venue at - damn - it gets kinda fuzzy from here on out because I was having myself a 'gin and tonic, red bull and vodka' party. So anyways... I think we left the venue around 1am or maybe later, and followed Christie to her beauteous home on the bay. I think the rest of the guys stayed up and partied some more, but at this point I passed out on the couch rather quickly.

So alas, I am awake and writing to you guys. Day off at the mansion = showers (finally!), laundry (finally!), swimming and hopefully a decent meal or two. Hopefully my long blogs are somewhat an interesting read, especially for the syracuse bands. Guys, leave some replies! let me know you care... or don't care. either way, please give us your 2 cents, we're lonely on the road.

- Aaron

PS: Again, we got word that we ARE playing Ska Weekend on July 19th, so please stay tuned for details!



Monday 7-7-08

So it's 4:30pm and we're sitting in a hotel lobby in beautiful DT Baltimore, MD. After our show in Brooklyn, NY last night (a small venue/restaurant where nobody came... but bands: this is how it is!) we made the long drive to Baltimore. It was around 4am when we got into Baltimore, and the weather was super shitty - all kinds of lightning and rain. We made our way to a Wal Mart parking lot in a town called Essex, Maryland and planned on setting up a tent. Our plans were shot dead when three wal mart managers came out and told us that we cant set up camp... we can only park our van in the very back of the parking lot... so we did. Slept very uncomfortably in the van for a few hours and woke up around 10am.

We call our singer Jami "The Chef", "Papa", and other such names because he likes to cook us food with our camping grill and keep us well-nourished. We found a parking spot in DT right near the giant 3-story Barnes n Noble and Hard Rock Cafe. Jami whipped out the grill and cooked some canned food goodness like ravioli and other chef boyardi noodles. We took out our lawn chairs and bean bag and set up kitchen right on a street corner - we become more like homeless guys with each days passing. But take note: It's much cheaper to be smart and pack canned food / ramen noodles than to buy food everywhere you go.

So we're getting ready to head to the venue - a place called the "Side Bar". Hopefully the show will be a great time, with a decent turnout. i'll catch the blog up later. Is anybody reading? let us know... leave some comments

Aaron


Sunday 7-6-08
Good Morning Everybody!

It’s 12:30pm and we have just begun our trip to Brooklyn, NY from Montrose, PA. The kids grad party we played last night let us stay over at the house and drink/eat all their food: A touring bands dream. The weather is perfect… again. Some things we’ve noticed: we’ve seen more ball/butt/stomach scratching in two days than any other time ever, Pennsylvania still sucks for driving, Garmins are the coolest inventions of our time, Kan Jam is the best game for touring bands, and great hospitality is almost always better than somebody paying well.

Endless thanks to the family for making us feel at home.

Joe/Jami/Mark/Pat/Booch/Aaron
-Endive


Saturday 7-5-08 Montrose, PA

3pm --
Hello bloggers!

This is our first post from the road and we’re super excited to start this whole blogging thing. Today, we’re heading down to Binghamton to meet up with our buddies in Don’t Ask and then off to Montrose, PA for a killer house party.

We managed to fit six dudes, all of our gear, two 30 racks and a ton of sunflower seeds into Brown Eye Betty, our ‘97 Dodge Van. If all goes well, we might just make it through tour without killing ourselves.

You’ll hear from us soon!

Love,

Aaron / Mark / Joe / Jamie / Booch / Pat

P.S. We just got word we’re playing SKA WEEKEND. We’ll get you more info soon!


1:30am
So we played in PA tonight, and It was a blast. We arrived around 5pm after following our buds in Don't Ask (http://www.myspace.com/datheband). It was a backyard BBq setup, and was actually somebodys graduation party. We played KanJam for a long time until people piled in and got to playing. We were surprised to find a mix of younger and older kids having a blast - and God Bless PA for allowing fireworks to light up the skies all night.



We played a set after the fireworks of nothing but covers, and everybody sang along and had a blast. Very awesome.
A great start to tour. Sorry if this is a quick post, its 1:30am and we need to sleep.

Aaron


Friday, July 4th 2008

Today we are getting the last of our things packed up, getting some gas in the van and heading on down to Jami’s house for some old fashioned 4th of July BBQ. We are going to do some sun soaking, boozing, firework gazing and, of coarse, some Kan Jam.

If you have any good stories about yourself or a friend and 4th of July fireworks, parties or whatever, leave a comment! Or send them to EndiveNation@gmail.com or http://www.MySpace.com/Endive.

Also, this evening will be the start of our Kan Jam charity drive. We will be splitting in to three teams: Aaron/Booch, Jami/Pat and Mark/Joe. People will be able to place wagers on their favorite team. If their team wins, they will be entered in a drawing for a Tour Prize Pack with all sorts of gear we pick up from the road. We will have more information and results in some later posts.

Until then, have a happy and safe 4th of July and don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!

Cheers,
Endive


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Hey, guys and ladies -

Over the last six months or so, Endive has been working hard and we set ourselves up a July- mid August tour which we will embark on. We are really excited to get out on the road and play out to new places.

I plan to do a daily blog about what we experience, and the hardships and graces of an unsigned band touring (especially with the declining economy). Initially I was planning on doing the tour blog on our myspace page, however, I'd really like to work something out with you where we will keep an updated "Endive Tour Blog" post here on Syracuse Ska. We owe a lot to the Syracuse ska community and Danny, and we'd love for you guys to check out the blog and see what kind of stuff we're doing - I know that before I first went on tour, I wodnered what another band in my position went through, so all you guys in bands, I want to tell you what its like

I think it would be great, and I'd really appreciate if you would all read it and reply to our postings. We are going to head out on tour nonstop July 5th until August 13thish.

Thanks guys, I hope the blog will def. help bands who want to tour in the future. Let me know your thoughts!

Aaron

PS - can we get this "stickyd" when tour starts?

so we're leaving tomorrow for tour.... stoked.

ill be talkin about everything we experience on tour. please feel free to reply to the posts!

That'll be cool. RazSum meant to do it, but never did, which was a cryin' shame.

Here's a reply to everyone knows we're still updating im just editing the first post as not to have a million replies. check out the updated blog in the top post!

Aaron

I hadn't realized you were continually updating the same post again and again. There's no way to know that without looking at the post again and again, even though it shows no new responses.

Why not just keep adding replies? With 48,000+ posts here already, a few more isn't exactly going to cause a problem and that way, we'll see when you've added something and people can also use the automatic notice function as well. A win-win deal.

july 27th super

Thursday 7-10-08

So I took Dannys advice, and I think the updates will be replies from now on. So right now it is noon, and i'm writing to you all from the "Livin Lattes" venue in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, which is also where we played last night.

The ride here yesterday from Maryland was the longest ride we have endured thus far. We have some books and movies to keep time moving... hurray for "Die Hard" for killing a couple hours. Virginia is a long, long state to drive through - reminded me of PA. We hit some heavy rain just before we came across the VA/NC border, and once we hit North Carolina it cleared up nicely.

After some issues finding the venue (also typing the wrong address into the Garmin), we asked around and were directed back into another part of town. We showed up pretty late to "Livin Lattes" and we actually were worried that we wouldn't be able to play. Luckily, we strolled up and were able to play - but we had to play immediately. We came in and played to a couple other bands and some other people, and had a blast. We finished up and a band played after us, and by this point it was very obvious where we were - this place is a christian place. The gentleman running the shows name is John, and pretty much he is an extremely religious hippy. The last band that played played their last song, and then the band explained that their last song is dedicated to a bible verse - and then pulled out a bible and preached for a few minutes.

Then John asked everyone to come in for prayer. All the bands and others got into a big huddle and prayed to Jesus for about 20 minutes. A very, very uncomfortable experience for somebody like me, who is not religious to any extent.

After the show, John took us to his house up the road where he had a little camp set up in his woods. We left to get some hot dogs for grilling and when we got back it started to rain. For the next hour or so, we had to help our friends in the band The Yellow Team try to get their van back up the hill, mud and rain everywhere. Rough times.

The ruckus caught Johns attention, and he came outside and helped everyone get the van back up the hill (we felt pride for our van, as the new tires helped our van fly up the hill with no issues). John gave us the keys to the venue and us and the Yellow Team slept in the venue. A roof over our heads was amazing compared to the muddy wreck we were in earlier.

We cooked our hot dogs, drank some cheap bud light and went to sleep. Also, we found out that our show which we are supposed to play tonight in South Carolina got canceled, so we were show-less. Word got around that we could play again tonight at Livin Lattes, so here we are.

We are playing the same place again, but today we are going to go promote like crazy today. Pilot Mountain is a small town, so we will probably just find anybody near our age group and flyer our asses off.

More tonight.
Aaron

Yeah, you're in the Bible Belt now, so these kinds of venues are pretty common. RazSum got to play a Christian all ages metal venue in Alabama and also enjoyed it. You just have to roll with it. Did you guys have any problems with your lyrics with this crowd? And likewise, these folks don't usually drink alcohol, but if John is a hippie, he probably doesn't care. You could call the people who run UCF Underground in Syracuse extremely religious hippies and that'd be pretty accurate.

Sounds like you guys are keeping a positive attitude on the road and that's 99% of the battle on tour. Looking forward to more updates!

Danny,

We conciously cut out a song or two... i think we cut "Life of the Party" and one or two more. Otherwise however, everything was cool. No issues with anything.

New post soon!

Sunday July 13th

Hey! My apologies for not posting anything for the last couple days. This is the first time we've had internet access for a while, as we have been staying in Wal Mart parking lots and tents.

So, after my last post about playing in Pilot Hill, NC, we actually stayed and played the same venue the following night, July 10th. John was nice enough to let us play once again with The Yellow Team, and also another band - I can't remember their name - they were really young kids who played screamo (not even real lyrics... just random screaming). It was pretty much band playing for band (except the young kids in the screamo band - they stayed outside till us and the Yellow Team were done). All in all, it was nice to play again and keep ourselves used to playing each night.

We stayed in the storage area of the venue (again), and headed out to a place called Coffe'z in Jefferson City TN. We arrived early and the Yellow Team arrived soon after. It was extremely hot and humid - god bless the south. The venue was pretty much a decent looking coffee place, but it wasnt even open yet. It was next to buildings that were condemned, and there were many red flags about this show. Three people showed up (long haired guy and two girls), and they were very dismissive to us when we made inquiries about show details. The girls with him were apparently on something, as we were outside playing kanjam and they would come out screaming and yelling because the redneck guy was wearing a mask and scaring them like it was Halloween.

We waited until it was door time, and nobody was there. There was barely a PA system, the guy running the show wouldnt tell us any info, and they were outside being dumbass rednecks messing around attempting wheelies on a motorcycle. Needless to say, both bands simply got into our vans and left. There was no show, it was a couple of idiots who want their coffeeplace to have bands, except they can barely talk to people, let alone be sober and run a real venue. It may be hard to tell by my poor description of the situation, but trust me, leaving was the best/right thing we could do.

So we decided to go to Knoxville that night. We drove about an hour to Knoxville, and right when we came into the city we saw a giant park with a giant tent - this place is Worlds Fair Park, and THIS is where Ska Weekend is going to take place in just a week! The place looks amazing, and only makes us that much more excited. Ska Weekend is going to be prime - I can already tell.

We walked around downtown Knoxville, which is a beautiful place. An abundance of bars was pretty neat, as we walked into every one of them and asked if we could open / play any open slots for whatever show was happening for that night. One of the bars gave us the "ok" to play with the Natti Love Joys, however it had to be acoustic, and we do not have any instrumentation or rehearsal to try and pull that off. So, after two hours of busting our asses to try and find a show, we enjoyed some of the DT sights and got back into the van. Dalton Georgia, here we come.

So we arrived yesterday early AM to Dalton after a few hour drive. We slept in a wal-mart parking lot and made camp. We woke up and went to the venue around 1pm. Sue, the lady who runs the venue, met up with us and took us inside. The name of the venue is - oddly enough, "The Venue". Bands, i'll tell you now, this is THE place you want to play. Sue is phenominal at running the place. She was very helpful, very nice, and actually loves the bands she brings in - she bought CDs, shirts, etc. from every band. As for the venue itself, it was a large place with amazing air conditioning and plenty of room. The walls were covered with T-shirts from bands who have played there.

Right around door time, 50:50 Shot showed up. They are headlining the show, and when they got there, we already felt like great friends as we had been talking to them for weeks when they got us the show. Our chemistry was instant - there are bands we have met on tour that have been pretty disrespectful / unhelpful, and there are bands who are very nice and like to help out - 50:50 Shot is straight up the best guys we have ever met as far as bands go. They are awesome guys. http://www.myspace.com/5050shot - check these guys out. They even invited us to stay at their apartment in Atlanta.

We played third, right before 50:50 Shot. We played a very energetic and tight show, however Jami our singer is on his 6th day of feeling slightly sick, so he lost his voice pretty quickly. I don't think it was too obvious, as he did a great job belting out his parts with me and Joe helping to cover up any vocal gaps. Kids went nuts at this venue - this is a great place to play.

50:50 shot got on stage and absolutely killed it. They are a wall of sound and energy - reminded me of Catch-22, except a lot heavier and more enrgetic. I have always said it - I love the sound of two trombones together - just a huge wall of sound. Syracuse, check them out every time you get a chance. We will be playing right after them at Ska Weekend, as well.

So after the show (ended at midnight), we followed 50:50 Shot to taco bell and ate 89 cent burritos (taco bell is the shit for this reason alone). We got to their apartment pretty late, and originally they planned a big party with us, but in Georgia you cant really get beer after 11pm or midnight. We were all tired anyways, so we watched youtube videos on their Wii and called it quits.

I'm writing to you now from the Futon I slept on last night. We are playing tonight right here in Atlanta, and we are looknig forward to it. Sorry for the long blog, hope you guys are enjoying the posts.

- Aaron

Where's the Atlanta update!

Monday July 14th

Howdy!

So we're currently just outside Orlando, Florida in our friend Mary-Kates Apartment. Last night, we played at a place called The Wonderroot in Atlanta, GA. We showed up around 6pm and nobody was there. The place has a very "westcott center" feel to it, pretty much a small building, but definately sweet for shows like ours. A few minutes later, a white car pulled up and a gentlement and his buddy got out of the car and walked towards us. I recognize him... sure enough, its the one and only MATT WIXSON! I can't describe my excitement for finally meeting him. He is the shit.

The Disreguardables, Jesse Nobody, and a couple other bands and show-goers showed up early before the venue opened and we all met and had a nice parking lot/ kanjam party. The "man with venue keys" arrived around 7:30pm and we all piled into the venue.

Wonderroot is mainly an art center upstairs with a nice downstairs where they (shhhhhh! don't tell!) serve dollar PBRs without a legal liquor license. We played third, and Matt Wixson played right before us. Fact: Matt Wixson is the best guy ever. He actually had a t-shirt, cd, pin, and sticker package for $10 which is the best deal ever in my book.

We played a fun set and everybody skanked and kept the energy alive. We hung out till the end, and we exchanged numbers with Matt, as he was supposed to play in Orlando today (we're sorry Matt, we didn't make it ) Directly after the very end of the show last night, we made the drive down to Orlando Florida... a long drive. Jami drove and we slept most the way to Orlando. We spen most of the day checking out the Orlando scene... namely music stores to practice for Full Sail recordings.

Here we are watching Knocked Up and getting ready for the next 4 days of 9-5 work days at Full Sail recording studios. Reply to us, tell me you hate my posts and how uninteresting they are, or tell me you read them, at least... thanks!

Aaron

Endive are awesome dudes, and we're probably hanging out together way far from any of our homes. Next time I'm in the ol' upstate NY, I hope to play alongside them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOn1htjSZic

for wixson, since he is such a fan....so are a few other well knowns. : D

i don't know how people like that shit. and pun is intended.

i've listened to 50:50 shot before and i really like them.

good luck guys