Eh. I Got Nothing For Ya.

Hey, there friends! I say friends because I probably actually know the five of you who still read this god damn thing. Posts have been infrequent but rest assured, the fun/pain train is at full speed. Well, it will be until later tonight when we once again part ways with The Gaslight Anthem. Polar Bear Club will begin a hibernation that lasts until October 7th I believe. Three of us will be relaxing in Denver, Colorado while the remaining Bears head home for a bit to see family members and girlfriends. I had a girlfriend once in the 90's. Ah, those were the days.

Tonight I'm typing from Little Rock, Arkan-sass. I'm told the show has actually started but you wouldn't know by the attendance. Craning my gigantic head from side to side reveals about two actual paying customers. Ever go to a show and try to buy a t shirt and the douche bag merch guy is too busy fucking around on a laptop checking his myspace? You know, completely ignoring you and not doing his/her job? Well, that's the move I'm pulling right now. Fuck the kids. Eh, I'm kidding, I love the kids.

To be honest with you, I could fall asleep or vomit right now, maybe even both. Once again, I have eaten too much food. Goose and I are training hard for an upcoming grilled cheese eat off competition. Basically, whichever one of us eats the most grilled cheese sandwiches in one hour will go on to compete against one of the members of The Gaslight Anthem crew. Goose and I's match is like a one round playoff to enter The Big Dance. What does the winner receive? Looks of disgust and horror I would imagine; probably nothing else. Anyway, to prep for the event the Goose and I went pizza slice for pizza slice resulting in both of us each consuming five slices. While I now find myself in a half alive/mostly dead sad state of affairs, Goose can be found dancing to the Jackson 5 and playing a mean set of air drums to "Hot For Teacher" by Van Halen. Goose is a cyborg man/boy creature.

Yeah, so a couple weeks ago we were on tour with American Steel, and Gaslight Anthem. We dropped off for a bit to do some shows with a band called Static Radio without the two aforementioned bands. To say those shows were less than kind to us would be a tremendous understatement. As you might have read previously, a show in Augusta Georgia had about nine people come out. Of course, I'm complaining, it's what I do. However, I don't mean to put any blame on the promoter or the actual kids in that part of the state. The show was tremendously last minute and the dude who put the show on fed us which often is more important than turnout or merch sales. That leads us to a couple of days ago when we hopped back on with Gaslight accompanied by O Pioneers. Still in the South, still some hit or miss shows attendance wise. The biggest highlight during this time was somehow ending up on Bourbon Street while in Louisiana. I cannot wait to upload some of the pictures from this night. Now here we are. Tonight. Just you and I.

Believe it or not, I'm actually typing this entry while Polar Bear Club is playing. This might come off as rude to some, PBC not included, but not as rude as most of the people sitting in chairs while watching tonight's performance. Listen fuckers. I've earned the right to sit. I fetch these bastards their water, collect their money, tell them they don't look fat in those jeans, and every night somehow convince them that "Yeah, man, everything sounded awesome." Sure, y0u motherscratchers paid about ten dollars to get into this club but that doesn't mean you can just sit down while Jimmy is up there hamming it up and telling jokes that a four year old wouldn't laugh at. You could at least come over here and tip me! Wait, no, not you fatty, your friend. Dammit.

Alright, I'm all over the place here.But you know what? Who cares? I have no writing experience or background. I have a criminal justice degree. I could totally be a correctional officer. Get bent. Let's wrap this up so I can watch Gaslight Anthem. What we got going on here is a couple of things. First, I now fit into a large sized hoodie whereas at the beginning of this tour I was a medium. Second, to prevent the need for elastic waist band clothing I've taken up smoking again. Get over it. Lastly, I'm growing a moustache. Believe it or not, I'm a balder, fatter, John Waters. 22 year old girls eat that shit up. No joke. I can't wait to get North. Be well.

The South Will Not Rise Again...

...at least not tonight. There are nine people at this show. There will be no pictures, only frowns.

Some Albany and Richmond Pictures....

Gone Country

Tonight is our first day off of tour and we’re staying with a friend in Nashville, Tennessee. We came back here after the show in Louisville, Kentucky. Last night was the first show without The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel. In a couple of days, we meet back up again with Gaslight but unfortunately, we won’t be seeing American Steel again for a long time. Hopefully, we get a chance to play some shows with them again. The whole premise of bonding with another band and being bummed once they’re gone is pretty cliché and boring but in this case; it’s really true, especially for me.

As a fan of American Steel for about ten years, it was a dream come true to be able to meet those dudes as well as watch them from the side of the stage. The fact that they are humble and outrageously nice individuals just made the whole experience even better. Of course, everything I typed goes for Gaslight Anthem as well, but like I mentioned before, we meet up with them again soon. Who knows if we’ll ever see American Steel ever again. Perhaps that’s a good thing, I mean, you see that bruised eye at the top of the page? That’s my eye and my bruise courtesy of Scott, the drummer from American Steel. I’m not sure what happened exactly but I can tell you the encounter was fueled by booze, a misplaced friendly head butt and now me looking manly for the first time in my life.

Either way, like I said, here we are with no show to play. It’s nice to have some time off in order to accomplish real world tasks that need attending to. On show days, it’s difficult to take care of laundry, get an oil change, masturbate six times within one hour, watch House, and change a tire on a trailer. However, I’d rather be busy doing show day things such as driving to a new city, peeing in Vitamin water bottles because we’re too late for load in to make another stop, boozing as soon we finally do load in, setting up merch, sweating hard, creeping out girls, disappearing for hours from the merch table, sweating hard(er), counting money whilst intoxicated, and maybe ducking my head in to check out a PBC song or two. Good news, though, even on a day off it’s possible to get drunk. Oh! What timing! Goose and Emmet have arrived with burrito making ingredients and beer! I’m going to go get fatter now! Take care!

Getting Caught Up

So I’m trying to bring the blog up to date as far as where we have been and where we are headed today, which happens to be Richmond, Virginia. Shows I haven’t really mentioned yet are Rochester, NY, Albany, NY and last night’s show in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. So let’s make this quick so I can go back to napping and smelling like an onion sandwich.

Basically, on the way towards the Rochester show our bus continued to make horrible, ungodly noises. We split the drive from Ohio to Rochester by staying with our friends The Sidekicks in Cleveland, Ohio. The next morning we rose super early but a couple hours into the trip we came to the realization that our bus was completely un-drivable. Once again we had to pull off the main highway to come up with a plan B. I believe we were somewhere near Erie, Pennsylvania.

A couple of the guys in PBC have Triple A so after a lot of cursing it was decided that we would call a tow truck to tow us as far Triple A would take us - which ended up being Hamburg, New York. The main catch here was finding a truck that would be able to accommodate a bus as large ours and a tow truck driver who wouldn’t mind all of us chilling in the van whilst atop the tow truck.

Things didn’t look good when the grizzled, old time prospector of a driver showed up. Dude looked old school and by the book. Gus Chiggins, as we’ll call him, explained that it was illegal to have anyone in the bus while he towed us. Therefore, only two people could ride up in the actual truck while the rest of us were fucked. However, after the promise of gold coins are rare doubloons, Gus allowed the rest of us to ride in the bus on the stipulation that we all hid from authorities. On the ground. In the bus.

So there we were, three adults, hiding on the floor of a bus we all despised more than the dudes in The Swellers. Moving, rocking and shaking, fearing for our lives - again. In Hamburg, NY our friend Isaac agreed to pick us in his van and drive us to our hometown show in Rochester. So thanks to the kindness and generosity of others, Polar Bear Club was able to make the Rochester show.Without the help of Syracuse friend Wildcat we would not have been able to make the following shows either. So as of last week we were actually on our third van of a tour that wasn’t even a week old.

So, to quickly bring us all up to speed:
Rochester show – show started way too early for a show on a weekday, awkward crowd response, it was nice for me personally to see lots of Oswego/Syracuse friends in particular Ted AB who gets better looking by the day.

Albany show – sweaty, best crowd response yet, stage dives, a couple high fives, I peed in a weird part of the city and I may now have poison Ivy on personal places. Favorite show as of yet.

New York City show – Knitting Factory again, no Gaslight this time, good turnout, worst I’ve ever smelled, very tired, had to cut out on the show early to go see Lagwagon in Times Square. I FUCKING MET JOEY CAPE. FUCK. Friends put us up for the night and I finally got to shower, everyone wins.

Wilkes Barre show – last time we were in this city we went to the local Taco Bell and there was only one employee there. She had her two children, both under the age of ten, in back with her helping her fill orders. Hard to gauge the crowd response, I think kids were into the newer songs more than the older ones, which is a first of tour. Had to drive right back to Syracuse to pick up our fourth van of tour.

Yeah, we’re onto a new van thanks to our friends in Angry Penguin. This one is pretty much brand new, comfortable, and thankfully, we don’t really have to even talk to each other if we don’t want to. (I don’t want to). We’re on our way down south and finally ready to make a go of this. See everyone soon.

Real Problems

Right now it's Thursday morning and once again I'm up before everyone else. We're in some part of new york city after playing a show at the Knitting Factory with American Steel. I haven't had much time to sit down and bang out a couple of entries here and there because I've been pretty busy. I suppose the band has as well but I'm trying to focus more on me now. It's good for the self esteem. Anywho, I'm currently acting as tour manger for Polar Bear Club, holding down merch duties, taking pictures each night, and most importantly, making sure Jimmy has the two pounds of heroin he requires before each show. While things are going pretty well now, there were certainly some setbacks that marred our first week as a full time touring band.

You see that expensive piece of trash at the top of the page? The Mistake On Wheels being lifted up on some sort of man device? Yeah, that's our van/slash bus for the next couple of months. Well, it was supposed to be but as early as day one that motherfucker started giving us serious adult type problems. The first show of tour was in New Jersey at Rutgers University with the Gaslight Anthem. Forty minutes outside of town the van started leaking various fluids and making horrible banshee type noises I haven't heard since my last unattractive girlfriend. After scrambling around and trying to make accommodations , PBC had to cancel the first show of tour after barely making it out of Syracuse. There would be no show but some of us still had to drive to New Jersey in order to pick up all of the merch we had shipped to the venue. It was absolutely necessary considering there were about eight boxes of t shirts delivered. Thankfully, a kind friend was generous enough to let us borrow his van to make the trip. Nate, Jimmy, and I made the depressing trip to New Jersey, picked up our wares, and headed straight back to Syracuse, NY to prepare for the following night's show in Columbus, Ohio.

While a couple of us drove to New Jersey the other half of PBC tended to the broken down van. So, collectively, we thought our transportation problem was behind us as we loaded up and set off for Columbus, Ohio. For a brief amount of time everything worked out for the best. Polar Bear Club reached Columbus and the venue which was called Bernie's. Just getting to the show was a relief but I personally was more concerned with meeting and seeing American Steel since I've been a fan going on ten years now. After accomplishing that personal goal, PBC played an intense set that I briefly already wrote about a couple of entries down. Fan reaction was fierce (I used a thesaurus) and almost overwhelming at points. After having to cancel the first show of tour, a reception such as this was really unexpected and necessary to keep us going. I posted a link for Ohio pictures in the entry before this one but if you missed it, you can also click here.

I can't remember where we slept that night or if we even hung out after the show. What you can count on though is that I was drunk. The next day the plan was to head to Covington, Kentucky which I'm told is near Cincinnati Ohio. (Side note, from now on, instead of saying "the van" or "the bus" I'm just going to refer to that money pit as Fuck Face.) So on this day. Fuck Face began by cooperating with us. Mother Nature on the other hand decided to break our balls. Our commute was hampered by seventy mile an hour winds on a stretch of highway that didn't have any trees or buildings to take the brunt of the force. That meant that Fuck Face dangerously rocked and swayed along the highway as we held on for life inside. Everyone was really nervous about getting into an accident and having something really deadly happen. Members of PBC sent half serious texts to their loved ones just in case Fuck Face decided to tip over and get in the way of an 18 wheeler. I didn't text anyone because all I have is my dog Poncho and he died over ten years ago.

Halfway into the drive we received a phone call from Gaslight Anthem's tour manager informing us that the show had already been canceled. Apparently, the high winds knocked out all of the electricity in the city we were scheduled to play in. Later on I would find out that buildings were actually being blown over due to the strength of the winds. Obviously everyone was disappointed but we were releaved that we could pull off the highway and figure out what our next step would be. The priority was staying safe as well finding a gas station since we were way past E. I'm not exactly sure where we pulled off into but it quickly became clear that this city didn't have any power either. This meant all the gas stations were unable to give us the precious fuel Fuck Face so desperately needed. PBC decided to pull off into a Wendy's, turn Fuck Face off and hope for the storm to blow over. If and when the city ever got power back, we would gas up and head back the way we came in order to make our show in Rochester, New York. However, we had a bigger problem on our hands that we needed to take care of post haste. Goose had to take a dump, and since most business had closed down, Goose was in trouble.

From what I'm told Goose waddled into the nearest hotel and made friends with the front clerk who offered us shelter from the hurricane type storm. The front clerk also offered us free reign of the hotel swimming pool, bathrooms, and even gave us a free room for a couple of hours. The best part about the whole situation was the busload of senior citizens who were also given the same free deal from the front desk clerk. Finally, women on tour my own age.

Fuck. I have to go, we're going to breakfast. I'll write more later today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. I'm an adult, I do what I want.

Ohio Pictures

Click on Handsome Nate for a limited amount of Ohio pictures.

I Need A Shower

I'm sitting in a living room somewhere in Ohio, sweating bullets, sans pants and awake before everyone else. It's been an intense couple of past days. The show in Columbus last night was pretty unbelievable but in the best way possible. Turn out for the show was over 200 and kids went wild for PBC. So wild in fact that midway through their set, I had to take leave of them in order to feel safe in back of the room. I was near Nate taking pictures and the crowd was so overwhelming that I had to make a run for it.

The real story though starts the night before. Both Gaslight and PBC were booked for Rutgers University in New Jersey. We left Syracuse, NY around 11am in order to make load in time at 4:30pm. We made it about twenty minutes out of Syracuse before our van started leaking some sort of fluid. Emmett tried his best to fix the god damn money pit but in the end, after some serious scrambling, we came up with a plan to borrow a van from some friends.

We didn't have enough time to rent a trailer for the new van so the plan was to pile both the equipment and all of us into a vehicle that was clearly only meant for one or the other. It soon became apparent that we were running out of time and there just wasn't enough room in the new van for instruments and 1200 pounds of man.

Unfortunately, Polar Bear Club had to cancel their show at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The kicker here is that six boxes of our merch had been shipped and already arrived in New Jersey earlier in the morning in anticipation of us playing the show. So whether we liked it or not, some of us still had to go to New Brusnwick in order to pick up all the merch we needed for the rest of the tour.

Nate and Jimmy volunteered to make the drive while everyone else took care of our original van that clearly needed so quality time with a wrench and Emmett. Somehow I got roped into the New Jersey road trip which baffles my mind because I don't really contribute to a long distance road trip. Trevor refuses to drive a van. Ever. But that's a story for a different time. So........ to make an insufferably long story even longer, a trio of jerks drove into New Jersey in order to get six or eight boxes of t shirts. As soon as we picked up the t shirts, we headed straight back to Syracuse to prepare for last nights show in Columbus. That's a lot of fucking driving on not a lot of sleep.

But here we are today eventually making the two hour drive to Kentucky. Being able to see both American Steel and Gaslight Anthem on a nightly basis is a dream come true and makes up for any type of nightmare drive through the night into New Jersey.

I'm sweating so fucking hard. Goose just turned over and I think I saw his balls. It's going to be a good day. See you soon, kids.

Forever Yours,
Trevor

**Pictures soon, camera is in the van****

Leaving Soon....

you know how people always say "music is my life"? well, maybe people don't actually say the phrase but you usually read it on a teenagers' myspace in the about me section. it's usually followed up with a long list of bands on their ipod. the thing is, music currently is my life. ok, wait. that's not true. my life actually is balding, touching thyself, and snacking. BUT, music is currently paying off my car loan so I think I have more ownership over the aforementioned phrase than the teen who cuts Bayside lyrics into their forearm. thanks, polar bears!

point being, polar bear club leaves in about a week on a tour that will take us away for about two months or so. there will be breaks here and there but essentially, Daddy's leaving town. i'm ready to be gone, i have no connections here other than my parents and some high school friends. everyone i'm close to is in pbc, and hell, i can hardly stand them. you see, ever since i graduated high school, i partied. i refused to change. insisting on living in the moment, i never settled down. when i did meet Her, she left for Him. year after year, i would not grow up and the next thing i knew, i woke up, and I was old. this isn't real talk kids, it's sad talk.

uplifting, no? so, i'm not going to learn my lesson and i'm going to live in the moment a tad bit longer.

let's hope we never come home.

Sep 13 2008 8:00P
Bernie’s Distillery with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Columbus, Ohio

Sep 14 2008 8:00P
Mad Hatter with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Covington, Kentucky

Sep 15 2008 8:00P
The Club at Water Street Music Hall with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Rochester, New York

Sep 16 2008 6:30P
Valentines with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Albany, New York

Sep 17 2008 6:30P
The Knitting Factory Tap Room with AMERICAN STEEL New York, New York

Sep 18 2008 6:30P
Cafe Metropolis with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Sep 19 2008 8:00P
The Canal Club with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Richmond, Virginia

Sep 20 2008 8:00P
Local 506 with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Sep 21 2008 8:00P
Exit/In with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel Nashville, Tennessee

Sep 22 2008 6:30P
Skull Alley Louisville, Kentucky

Sep 25 2008 6:00P
Cave 9 Birmingham, Alabama

Sep 26 2008 6:00P
House Of Blues with The Gaslight Anthem and O Pioneers!!! New Orleans, Louisiana

Sep 27 2008 8:00P
Rock Bottom with The Gaslight Anthem and O Pioneers!!! San Antonio, Texas

Sep 28 2008 6:00P
Prophet Bar with The Gaslight Anthem and O Pioneers!!! Dallas, Texas

Sep 29 2008 8:00P
Vino’s with The Gaslight Anthem and O Pioneers!!! Little Rock, Arkansas

Oct 7 2008 9:00P
Surfside 7 Ft. Collins, Colorado

Oct 12 2008 7:00P
Satyricon with BROADWAY CALLS Portland, Oregon

Oct 15 2008 8:00P
Thee Parkside with CRIME IN STEREO AND BROADWAY CALLS San Francisco, California

Oct 16 2008 8:00P
The Knitting Factory with CRIME IN STEREO AND BROADWAY CALLS Hollywood, California

Oct 17 2008 6:00P
The Glasshouse with CRIME IN STEREO and BROADWAY CALLS, Pomona, California

Oct 20 2008 7:00P
Angel’s Roadhouse with CRIME IN STEREO, BROADWAY CALLS and THE SWELLERS Apple Valley, California

Oct 24 2008 7:00P
The Warhol with CRIME IN STEREO, BROADWAY CALLS and THE SWELLERS San Antonio, Texas

Oct 25 2008 6:00P
Red 7 with CRIME IN STEREO, BROADWAY CALLS and THE SWELLERS Austin, Texas

Oct 26 2008 7:00P
The Mink with CRIME IN STEREO. BROADWAY CALLS and THE SWELLERS Houston, Texas

Oct 31 2008 8:00P
The Fest 7 Gainesville, Florida

Week Wrap Up

Tour is a strange thing even if it's only for five days. We're home now after five days out with The Swellers in Canada as well as a show in Vermont. Before this past week, none of us from PBC and The Swellers really knew each other. I mean, there were text messages and emails sent back and forth but no real face to face time. So, when you tour with another band, in my opinion, it's quite essential that everyone hits it off since you'll be spending so much time together. On the flipside, I suppose you don't have to spend any time together if you don't feel a common connection. Luckily, as the cliche goes, The Swellers were great people who made the past trip a blast. PBC are questionable people who ruin lives in the nicest way possible. It's what they went to college for.

Once again, I wanted to churn out a blog entry after each show so everything was fresh and booze soaked. Obviously, this didn't happen so here I am now on Tuesday struggling to remember exactly what happened and who I need to thank. Just know that all the shows were a blast. Toronto and London had huge turnouts, great promoters and great opening bands. The Artist Life are now good friends who opened up the London and Toronto shows, make sure to head over to their myspace and give a listen. I believe there is some talk to bring them to the US for an extended weekend. Equally important to note is the fact that the city of Toronto is exclusively inhabited only by attractive women. Women that I have no business talking to and fear not, I did not talk to one of them.

From London we headed to Guelph, I think, which was also a great show with a pretty big turnout. Thanks again to the promoter for a great time and a great place to crash afterwards. As fun as this show was however, it pales in comparison to the fact that I saw my first hobo without a nose. Things like that you can't, don't, and shouldn't forget. Hobos missing body parts > PBC shows.

Montreal had a pretty good turnout and probably would have looked packed full of people if the club didn't have such a weird set up. You entered the venue, then had to step into a Sarlacc Pit type of set up and then had to climb out of said Pit to get to the stage. This load in would have been particularly taxing on me if I actually had helped carry a piece of equipment. I was drunk on chicken burrito and well, probably drunk so I don't feel too bad. Once again, we had a great promoter who took care of us and the actual city made up for a so so turn out. The last time I went to Montreal the Expos were still a team and Darryl Strawberry was still on the Mets. Try and wrap your head around that one my eighteen year old readers.

After spending the night in a king sized bed with Goose and Emmett it was off to Vermont but first we had to persuade the US side of the border to let us back in. If the border police read that last sentence somehow beforehand, we probably wouldn't have had a chance but after a brief harassment, both bands were welcomed with opened arms. Well...we were welcomed. Well....we got back in. I guess the issue with the border was that we lacked a proper visa or permit in regards to our merchandise. As tour manager, I probably should have had this figured out but more often than not, I fail at the things I enjoy.

The show in Winooski, Vermont was especially wonderful because the venue had a Bouncing Souls performance playing on a HDTV as we entered. While the turnout didn't match the numbers of the first two shows, the energy and crowd participation probably exceeded any of the previous shows. More incredible and impressive however was my consumption of two foot long meatball subs in one day! Hooray! From there, the drive home seemed to last 23 hours and included a legendary exchange of words between Nate and an incompetent cashier at a rest stop of sorts. This took place while a haggard and tired Nate just wanted a cup of coffee in order to finish out his shift as bus driver. Just coming back from Canada, we still had some Canadian coins on us. Well, don't try and US Canadian coins in Vermont...

Cashier - "We don't accept Canadian coins here"
Nate - "Canadian coins 25 cents or less is considered legal tender in the United States"
Cashier - "But we don't accept Canadian coins here"
Nate - "Is this the United States?"

I don't know, maybe it's funnier if you were there but at the time, this was the greatest thing that ever happened. Ah, it's the simple things, kids. Really.

Ok, so, we're home now and I want back out already. Ten days or so and we go back out with The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel. Soon, I plan an entry solely dedicated to how fucking excited I am to meet American Steel. Until then, let me live with you for the week or so.

Oh! Click here or on the picture of those handsome dudes way up at the top to bring you to PBC pictures from most of the shows from last week and over the summer! New 90210 tonight, holler!