Tonight was our last show in NYC. We are playing a rough-looking bar called Hank's Saloon. It's definitely a rough-looking place, but its also pretty cool looking. They use a cinder block to keep the drums from moving.

A lot of people were coming out to this show, so we were a bit more nervous than the other nights here. A few friends I graduated with were also coming out, so we knew we had to bring it. We took the stage at 9 p.m. The show went amazing. We played flawlessly and had a great reaction from the crowd. It's funny how we thought this would be the worst show in NYC, but it turned out to be the best one yet. The New Heathens closed the show after us, and those guys brought the place down. We can't wait until they come to St. Louis and we can rock 'n' roll with them once again. What a way to go out in NYC.

Sat. 03.03.07 

We got up early today and made the four-hour drive to Boston. We all had a blast in NYC, but we were anxious to continue on the tour. We arrived in Boston around 2 p.m. We had a few hours to kill, so Mike, Neal, and myself decided to see the town. Boston is one cool town; everyone has cool accents and its such a beautiful town. We went to the harbor and checked out downtown Boston. We arrived at the show around 7 p.m. We played a place called Frank's Steakhouse. We were told it was a great place for bands to do acoustic gigs on Saturday nights. However, when we arrived, we noticed this was not the case. The place was a really nice restaurant; everyone there was age 55 and up. They had a lounge singer singing show tunes and what not. We asked the owner if we could play, and he looked at us like we were crazy but he went ahead and told us we could do a few songs. The stage was really small, and it already had a piano up there. Dei took to the piano, Michael sat up his small practice bass amp, and I sat on my cajone. Neal couldn't even fit on stage, so we decided to just do piano songs and he would sell CDs. When we got ready to start playing, it was the most uncomfortable we have ever been. Everyone was looking at us with a sense of confusion. When we started playing, everyone sat and listened politely. Then a strange thing happened: As soon as we finished the first song, people started clapping like crazy. The lounge singer narrated the whole thing for us, and Neal sold a ton of CDs. When we finished playing, people were asking us all about our music. They were surprised a band all the way from St. Louis was playing for them here. We had a blast. After the show, we were all in such a great mood. We knew we had to get up at 6 a.m. the next day, but we didn't want to go to sleep. We still had some 40s left from NYC, so we decided to make a night out of it. We drove the 20 minutes north to Salem (where the witch trials took place in the 1600s). We found this huge graveyard and totally trespassed into it. We spent the next few hours drinking in the graveyard. We then took a tour of Salem; it is one creepy but cool town. For the first time on the tour, we all seem to be having fun at the same time. Rock 'n' roll, Boston, rock 'n' roll.

Sun. 03.04.07 

Six a.m. came too soon this morning. After our drunken graveyard party last night, we are all exhausted, but still in good spirits. We had to drive eight hours to make it to Washington D.C. We were supposed to be playing the Meeting Place. When we arrived at the club, we were all tired from our no sleep and eight-hour drive day. Unfortunately, the club owner didn't show up, so after waiting for about two hours, we realized the show was not happening. We found out there was some confusion with the guy that booked it, so all the bands were there waiting with no show. I decided I didn't want the day to be a waste, so I got on my smartphone and found us an open mic night in D.C.

(This is a tip for any band that hasn't toured yet, but is planning on it some day. There is always an open mic night in every city you're in, on whatever night. Definitely look those up when your show is canceled—and trust me, it will happen to you.) We showed up at Rag Time for open mic night. Washington D.C. is a big college town, so a lot of people were there.

We only played three songs and we sold about six CDs, so we made $60 just for three acoustic songs. It was great. We had a lot of people digging us, so we felt we had made the most out of Washington D.C. We were now all ready to go to bed.

Mon. 03.05.07 

After getting some rest, we were all ready to hit the road this morning. We drove eight hours to Columbus, Ohio, for a last-minute show. We arrived at the Ravari Room around 8 pm, and enjoyed some pizza at this place called Hound Dog's Pizza. Afterward, we went on over to the club and set up. This was definitely more of a metal club, but we were still excited to be there. The turnout was pretty small, but the response to the set was pretty good. We seemed to impress the owner and sound guy the most; they loved us. They gave us all the free beer we could want and are wanting us to come back. We didn't sell much merchandise tonight, but the vibe was good, so that's all that matters.

Tomorrow morning we are hitting the road early to drive the seven hours home. We are feeling torn about that. Of course, we are looking forward to getting home, but we all feel like we could go another 13 days out. We definitely had a blast out here, and learned a lot. It's really good to know that we can be together this much and not kill each other. That's a big thing for any band to realize. We are looking forward to our West Coast dates in May. Then in October, we are hitting the East Coast for our second time. We can't wait to do this all again. | Andy Herrin

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