wow, delay.

why have i NOT posted an entry for like 10 days? ridiculous.

alright so the philadelphia show wasn't at the filmore. it was at another venue which i forget the name of. oh well. it was fun. i got some photos developed, my first lot with the yashica and they turned out okay. shame about the developing, didn't work so good. we drove back to our hotel in jersey and hit bed hard. the next day we drove into brooklyn and had breakfast/walked around. somehow we ran into the mumford guys. you'd think we were on the same tour or something. they showed us a few things then mark and i went for a long walk to try and find a music shop. we probably spent about an hour walking around to no avail. eventually we loaded into the venue (the music hall of williamsburg) and went off to find the real music store that actually existed which we did find because it actually did exist. amazing. back to the venue, soundcheck, eat some food. we played alright. mumford did too. we did our first "whole band does a song with them" and it worked pretty well besides a lot of bung hits from me. after the show we went bowling at some bowling alley which was a ball. no pun intended. back to rich's, sleep time.

we woke up super late and rich took us to eat some burgers at some burger joint which was sick. it was also raining a lot. i went and tried to get my film developed but to no avail. we headed to the venue (webster hall). i could spend so long in that venue just looking around. it's beautiful. i took a lot of photos which will eventually be developed properly. we did another shared song which went better and it was an enjoyable show all around. for me at least. after the show we retired like babies and just went to sleep. the next day was our own show in NYC at the mercury lounge. earlier in the day we went and had lunch with rich and jordan (TAO) at soho house. very snooty. food wasn't bad though. after that we went to the venue and loaded in to get set up. it was an early show, we played at 8:30. it went pretty good. crowd was quiet which is always nice. the venue runs two shows a night so we had to load out straight after we played. we hung around for a while, went to a bar or two then mark and i headed into the city to go to the empire state building.

this was the fulfilling of a long-term dream of mine. i've always kind of romanticized about the empire state...it's always been a bit mythic to me. king kong hung out there for crying out loud. i knew it was an art deco masterpiece too which got me even more excited. it was about as exciting as i expected which ruled. i took a lot of photos. it was 20 bucks to go to the 84th floor and another 15 to go up to the 104th. we just went to the 84th. i might do the 104th when i come back. for sake of completion of the dream. i was too scared to get too close to the edge too. you get serious vertigo that high up. you could see everything, even the statue of liberty despite it being tiny. after that we went back to rich's and slept. time to leave NYC.

we headed to washington d.c. next, the 9:30 club. before we got there we drove around for a little while. to be honest i didn't really dig the place. i understand how important it is and it's really clean and nice and such but it's just...kinda dull. sorry d.c. the venue was real nice, i like the 9:30 club a lot. nice vibe, nice sound, nice layout...real chill. and they give you these amazing muffins! chocolate filled with cream and 2 (TWO) layers of icing with 9:30 written on top in some other kind of beautifully delicious amazingness. so good. i think i ate like 3. bad me. we guested with mumford again but did it in our underwear this time. they were surprised to say the least. after that we went to the hotel and slept.

the next day we headed to cleveland. we played in a ballroom. the beachland ballroom. kind of a ballroom in the 70's sense. just a big room with curtains and a few other things. i went to get some photos developed but they turned out garbage so i demanded a refund. it's crazy how varying the quality can be sometimes. definitely not keen on walgreens or CVS developing anymore. going to wait for pro-shops. shame cause of some the photos i could tell were going to rule really hard going by the (bad) prints and the negatives (which the dude dropped on the floor while i was getting my refund...thanks). the show went nicely. all the mumford guys joined us for better times which was kinda fun. oh wait, ben wasn't there. he was off buying food. might do it again tonight but with all of them. mumford played solid and we did our usual whole band guest appearance with them too. everyone gathered around winstson and thrusted while playing their instruments. solid. after the show we messed around for a while and went to a bar from some pool and hangs. morgan came out for the show which was nice, real sweet to see her. we went to her grandma's house in canton, ohio to sleep. it was a really legit old house.

we woke up real late (like 12:30) and went for a drive through amish county. buggies, bonnets, long shapeless dresses, chin straps, the works. i really liked it there. we stopped at a place where they made cheese (a LOT of cheese) and sampled some along with some fudge. then we went and got some chow at a big amish market. pretty sweet. morgan's dad bought it for us which we were pretty stoked on. thanks morgan's dad! i forget his name which is really bad considering he bought us chow. sorry morgan's dad! we high-tailed it to columbus where we are now cause we were running late. quick sound check and a bit of a recline before the show. looking forward to it.

catch.

mmm. yais.

the drive from montreal to boston wasn't too bad. i don't remember if we stopped off anywhere or not. as we were leaving montreal though one of our windows suddenly smashed. it was utterly bizarre. nothing on the ground near the point of impact that could have done it. no sign of anyone. i wonder if it was a sniper with a frozen bullet. it wouldn't need to travel very fast to break our window although i guess that would depend on its' shape. it could be a pellet type or perhaps more of a standard pointed bullet style. from an elevated position (there were apartment windows all around) i don't think they'd have much trouble. but then you have to think about the wind. i guess since we were in the north we didn't have to worry a whole lot about humidity wrecking the usefulness of the ammunition given the bullet itself is made of frozen water. or perhaps another heavier liquid.

food for though. it was probably just a rock but it helps to think about these things.

we got boston and unloaded. turns out the venue was in a basement which isn't very fun for loading in or out. but that's okay. after the load in i got a salad and wandered a bit. ran into simon (binns) who i know from a while back from the antiskeptic message boards (that's really taking it back). we talked awhile; i expressed my jealously that he had seen christopher walken in a play off broadway and he expressed his envy that we were touring with mumford. a fair trade i think.

we played and then mumford played. we both did okay. load out and head to the hotel. sleep.

the next day we drove into NYC. this ruled. a lot. i've been waiting for us to reach NYC for a long time. rich met us outside his apartment and we went for a walk up to this thing called the high rail which is this old railtrack above the streets on the upper west side that's been out of use since the 1920's. plants grew all along it and eventually the city decided to invest in turning it into this swish walkway. it's really awesome, very surreal to just be walking around in the city above the city. i dig it. we went to some italian restaurant/bar after that which was real nice. had some pizza and some laughs. back to rich's, watched the end of hangover then tried to decide what to do with the night. eventually jord, jack and i headed to times square for a look around. i bought some black & white for my yashica electro GSN. i just finished it tonight. we got back to rich's after that, finished off some of true lies then headed back to our hotel in jersey.

woke up and went for a walk. i found a battery shop which was good but then it was closed which is bad. got some subway, sat around for a while. i finished watching all of the nightmare on elm street films (all 7). 1-5 were pretty alright and 7 too. 6 sucked. eventually we headed off to the venue in philly where we are now. the filmore. it's real nice here. i walked around for a bit and snapped some photos. i'm typing this while we soundcheck. should be a good show. i wonder if ?uestlove will come out for it...

catch.

moomfudd n soons.

so we played our last show with laura in portland which went the best. it was jord's birthday and i think it made the show better somehow. we were all playing well, it felt great. laura played stunningly too, man she's good. smoke fairies killed it too. it was sad to leave those guys but hey, it's not like we were going off on tour with a bunch of non-brits again. mumford ahoy!

we slept then bailed on the road up to canada. along the way we saw some pretty stunning sights. this amazing hotel just sitting in the middle of this big wide open area with huge picturesque mountains snow capped in the background way away. and we stopped off at a lake between two enormous mountains too. we just don't have scenery like this in australia. next to the lake basically at the same level as the lake were a bunch of trees and flatland. like a flooded zone. it was just...don't even know. it was kinda surreal-ly awesome. i wish i had a camera at moments like that. thanks a lot detroit.

two hotel rooms in montreal again. amazing. rohin's birthday, i guess that was the occasion. they have those crazy bike rental systems here too, like in paris. i kinda wish i'd done it, looked like a bit of a lark. i wound up going and seeing the nightmare on elm street remake. i get to the cinema and it's like oh ho ho ho frenchy. everything was in french. even the ticket guy was like BONJEWER OH HO HO. so anyway i ended up seeing it only in french and without subtitles. the title was translated badly too. it translates back to english as "the glove in the night" or something. weird right. i understood what was going on most of the time. the wonder of horror films. but anyway besides some really cool looking shots the film was a mess. some of the closeups were tons out of focus and the pacing was just wack. like you see freddy properly like 5 seconds into the film. goodbye tension.

after that i tried to get a royal with cheese but it was just called a la quartear pewendearrr or something like that. boring. i went to a pizza store after that but they had no pizza. why was it still open then? sigh. back to hotel, sleep time.

woke up today and some of us went and sussed some breakfast for ro's birthday. after what felt like 2 months of walking we found a place and ate. delicious. back to hotel. we went out after a bit to the op shop and i bought a nice jacket, scarf and a winter hat that looks like something a woman in the 20's would have worn. nice. they had this ballpit there too but instead of balls it was clothes. like it was a whole other room (pretty big too) that you took your shoes off and went digging through these mountains of clothes. seriously so awesome. this was a sick op shop.

after that we went and loaded into the venue. nice little theatre kinda thing. so good seeing the mumford guys again. many hugs all around. ben (mumford) bought a cooker that he thought was for rice but it turns out it's a slow cooker so his meals will now take hours to make. this is hilarious. mark and i went and found food and i ate too much and felt sick while we played. mumford played solid. we all had champagne and a tiny little cake for ro's birthday. it was grand. we loaded out and now i'm back at the hotel. the hotel is literally like 20 metres walk from the backstage door of the venue. now that's taking care of business. lotty would be so proud of us.

boston next. tomorrow night.

catch.

hi it's vince with the sla-sla-sla-sla-sla-sla-sla-slaslaslaslaslaslaslaslaschopchopchopchopchopchopchop - WATCH THIS.

hi it's vince with the slap chop, and you're gonna be in a great mood allll day, cause you can slap all your troubles away with the slap chopSLAP SLAP all your troubles away with the slap chop.

alright so canada was nice. i had a crepe. if you imagine crepe as a different way of saying crap then everything to do with crepes becomes funnier. try it out. make it happen. turns out there was a whole stack of australians at the show. weird huh? i love australians. they remind me of home for some reason. after canada we went down to somewhere. oh yeah, grand rapids. that was nice. i don't really remember much about the show though. oh wait now i do. i just asked joe. we played at a venue called the women's literary club. it was like a little recital theatre kinda thing with a stage and curtains and everything. it felt like we were in one of those high school movies. they gave us money to eat dinner too. i love it when shows give you money. also there was chocolate.

turns out laura marling & her band (and smoke fairies who are the second support) are basically the nicest people ever. touring with british people is amazing. they're all so courteous and funny and proper and excellent people all around. can't say enough good things about touring with these guys/girls so far. they're all killer players and performers too. their sound guy joel rules too. and the guitar tech, dave. i could tour with these people for ages.

after grand rapids we went to detroit. detroit swallowed my phone and for this i will deny it being talked about. f u detroit.

next: the most exciting stop for me so far. the andy warhol museum. it was real sick to play there. i spoke to this guy ben who runs the museum i think and he gave me a bit of a tour. showed me the projection booth. they have a bunch of the negatives for his films there but unfortunately they usually show them on dvd. bit of a let down but understandable cause they're showing them every day. they'll probably do some new hi-def transfers of them soon. not bad. the show was weird, felt a little sterile. i think cause realistically we were playing in a cinema. ben gave me this dvd after the show which is 13 of andy's screen tests of actors set to music. it looks pretty sick, keen to tuck in. he was telling me that george romero and tom savini are locals so they do stuff there from time to time like zombie nights and tom savini will screen films he's worked on there. apparently they're rad dudes. i would love to come to a halloween party with makeup done by tom savini. imagine that! also apparently romero's kid runs a few haunted houses on the outskirts of pittsburg (oh, i forget to mention that's where the museum is SORRY) that rule. i'm so keen to visit one it's insane. like i would lose my mind in one. go legitimately crazy. i haven't been to a good haunted house in a while but a good one is GOOD. thinking of trying to get to the one at disneyworld or land. i don't know if i'll end up there though. bit of a bummer. hmm.

also rich was there. we went to an eatery for lunch and it was great. good to see a familiar face, especially one as friendly as rich's.

next night: buffalo. this was a weird venue but pretty sick. it was FREEZING in buffalo. it's in new york. new york is cold so far. anyway while walking around (poor bree turned into a breesickle) we found this thing which turned out to be the city hall. it is actually the coolest building i've seen in america so far and I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA BECAUSE IT IS LOST IN DETROIT. sigh. here's pictures anyway.

seriously. so good. i wish i'd gotten to go inside. it was so intense just turning a corner and seeing this massive thing. suss out more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_City_Hall. if you enjoy art deco stuff this is a goldmine. hoo boy.

so yeah, the building excited me.

marcus (mumford) turned up at the show too. it was so good to see a familiar face. fantastic hugs were had. he did a bit of mandolin with laura too. laura's cellist ruth finally joined the tour as well and adds so much to her sound live. it's great. also it was joel (sound fellow)'s birthday. rachel (TM for laura marling) organised a cake and champagne and everything. it was such a good time. eventually we loaded out into the freezing cold and went back to our respective hotels. we slept in a bit then went and saw niagra falls on the way to portland (maine) where we are now. the falls were sick. just watching the water continually fall was hypnotic. weird looking over and seeing canada too. the drive took a while. i watched the end of the last detail, sunset blvd (amazing), in the electric mist and i finished off watching izo and the keep. good sesh. it's jord's birthday now. we got two hotel rooms for the first time in a while too. it's so good not to have to be sharing one room with 6 people. the best. might try and see a film tomorrow (still haven't been to the pictures in america...criminal).

catch.

in canada.

alright so the rest of the time at don's was killer. we went to a bunch more places and spent a bunch more time sleeping and getting our lives rejuvenated. one night we went and saw the dead weather play at this little venue which ruled. another night we went to a restaurant on top of this huge mountain looking out over birmingham which was real nice and then went and saw the black keys in a little club. blew my mind. flat out blew my mind. on our second last day there we played for a bunch of indie record store owners from all over the states in a warehouse in birmingham. it was a weird mood playing in a warehouse. wouldn't have picked us to be a band that would work in one but it seemed to go okay. i got some records real cheap too. gnarly. on our last evening we went to dreamland. they had bbq ribs and a lot of them. they had bibs. the lady put mine on for me. it was amazing.

i still haven't been to a cinema while i've been travelling yet. this is insane.

after that we went to nashville. we made friends quickly with some people named norman, lady pearl, delbert reese, barbara jean, connie white...all up probably around 24 people. there was even this guy with a tricycle riding everywhere. he seemed to transition into every situation we were in. not kidding. just before we left everything climaxed in the parthenon. there was a concert and everyone was playing. crazy. i guess christmas has always smelled like oranges to me anyway. i managed to get a photo while we were there.

that's linnea reese. she really brought the house down. best kids too.

anyway from there we went to bloomington. it was alright. more mexican for eats. good times. the show we played had approx 10 people there (i think 7 were from the two openers) but that's cool. good chance to try out some brand new stuff and experiment a little. we stayed in some hotel (they all look the same now) and woke up the next day and drove to newport, kentucky. we played at a converted house called southgate house. apparently the tommy gun was invented there.

a tommy gun.

the house was pretty sweet, would be cool to live there. show went okay. tried a beer or two. blue moon, a wheat beer they had really killed it. they put some random stuff in there to make it taste better. excellent. we stayed there for the night and i was trying to work on my film script but this burly friendly guy with an eye patch kept bursting in and talking to me about working stiffs and stuff like that. but he was friendly enough. here's a photo of us.


things got a little weird by the end. flames and such.


we met some sweet girls who let us stay in their attic and made us awesome pancakes in the morning. we schooled them on how australians talk. one of them couldn't get it right and sounded like they were deaf. we travelled along and found our way to canada. crossing the border was pretty easy. we got inspected a little though.

"i'm sorry about this ma'am but you can never be too careful nnnnnNGMOOOOO"

we didn't really get inspected. then we got some food. then we drove to the hotel which looks like every other hotel. i think i'm slowly going insane. we're playing in prescott tonight. apparently the venue is nice. keen.

catch.