| |
 |
Tour Update - June 12th, 2005
Could some one pleaseeeee tell me who the hell I was talking to at the end of the Danbury Conn show at the Emperess Ballroom. It was at the very end of the show, near the merch booth…she had 4 friends (boys), we were all talking for a bit, till a huge bloke said it was time to jet. Not to ask for a cupid arrow, but Oo la la la.la. I guess myspace me if you know who knocked my socks off. Jeezzzzze… Anyway, thanks for all the people who inquired about the ANIMATION VIDEOS; keep them coming. If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about…BIG D is putting together a DVD in October, so if anyone wants to send us an ANIMATED VIDEO, for any BIG D songs, will put them on the DVD. Badass huh… So, to the most important matter at hand - THE WARPED TOUR. We will be heading out for this 9 week, yes that's right 9 week tour, in 3 or 4 days. We're sharing a bus (this is our first bus) with some of THE DROPKICK MURPHY'S. We have to be ready to leave at a moments notice, that's anywhere between the 15th and 17th. We're like Warped Tour Firemen. BIG D will be the only SKA/PUNK band on the entire tour, except for locals, so please - please give our seen the support it deserves and lets all be some badass-ankle-biting-under dogs. Lets show these silly medio-core bands and mascara wearing Goth-rock bands what we're made of. Can you tell I'm pumped - Dave June 10, 2005 Animation Video
BIG D is putting together a DVD and is looking for an animator would cold put together an animation video for any of our songs. I personally would like to see ‘HOW IT GOES’, ‘President’ or ‘THE SOUNDS OF ALLSTON VILLAGE’.
So, if anyone knows anyone would does impressive animation, have that person contact us, for they have an open invitation to have their work seen. May 24, 2005 It’s Steve’s birthday today, he’s finally 21! We’ll be going out to dinner at our (Steve and I) favorite vegan restaurant in Allston, Grasshopper. It should be good! As for what we’ve been up to as of late, it’s been pretty much enjoying being home for a while. We’ve all been seeing friends, family and roommates. It’s nice to do the everyday, normal things for more than a couple of days at a time. Personally, I’ve been having a blast. I bought a moped and have been cruising around town on that. We saw Star Wars Episode III at the midnight premiere…and it was awesome! I’ve been watching every Red Sox game with Bush and have even gone to a couple of games too. Skydiving has been kept to a minimum due to the crappiest weather ever! This is cool…I went down to Rhode Island the other day to see my brother and his kids. My niece, Abbey is 4 and my nephew, Connor is 5. My brother has been playing How It Goes in the car a lot lately and they love the song Safe Haven. I got video of the two of them singing along to it and it’s amazing. They like the whoa-oh part! Hopefully I can put it online. Hmm, what else? We’re psyched about the Warped Tour coming up. It’s going to be an amazing summer to say the least. Florez, our original merch guy has been hired by the Dropkick Murphy’s as their full time guy, in charge of everything. That’s awesome for him! We’re lucky enough to be splitting our tour bus (yes, our first real, proper tour bus) with some of the Dropkick’s crew, and Florez happens to be one of them. So basically, we’re all psyched! Oh, and I got a new guitar. It’s a Gibson Flying V. Gibson has been kind enough to sponsor Steve and myself. It’s amazing to be sponsored by a company that you truly believe in and support. Mac from Gibson has been seeing the whole process through and he’s done an amazing job! So, when you see my new, crazy, awesome guitar at upcoming shows, know that it’s a Gibson and that they rule! I guess that’s about it for now. I’m actually going to go see Star Wars again now. Be good! Sean P. Rogan May 6, 2005 OKAY, LISTEN UP EVERYONE. The people who were going to film our LAX video bailed on us, so this is the plan… BIG D is STILL gonna play at CHARLIES on the night of Monday the 9th. As of right now it is 21 pluse, but I'm working on that. After it was changed from a video shoot to a show, the owner isn't sure he's down for all ages, but like I said I'm working on it. What we're gonna do is have one of our buddies that has 4 badass cameras come down and shoot, but this is the good part…everyone that comes to the show can bring a camera and film. Later we're gonna compile all the footage and my buddies footage and edit an LAX video. We are also gonna hangout after the shoot and drink. Yes yes yes and film at that too, for some good old Boston hangin out. Again, no whimps, still only badass…ha ha ha. I'll keep you posted - Dave April 18, 2005 BOSTON and NEW ENGLAND April 16, 2005 Hey everyone. Yesterday was a crazy day. We drove all night to get to Paris. When we arrived we parked the bus at the venue and attempted to conquer the Paris metro system. Boy did it kick our asses. The language barrier was definitely a major contributing factor, but after much deliberation and switching of trains and doubling back we finally made it to the metro stop of the Louvre. I don't know if it is the biggest art museum in the world, but I couldn't possibly imagine any other museum with as many amazing pieces as the Louvre. We saw everyone's favorites, the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo plus hundred and hundreds of other beautiful statues, paints, sculptures, etc…After a few short hours (way too short) we walked down to Notre Dame. This cathedral is unbelievable. I am always shocked at how people could create such amazing architecture with such primitive techniques. Everyone should check it out. The stained glass windows are so intricate it blows my mind. The show at Batofar was great. It is a boat on the river Seine. The kids packed the place and it really felt like we were playing a show back at home. Sadly it had to end and we had to drive to the Ferry. We are safely back in England and ready to destroy this island. That's all for now. Thanks to everyone on the continent for showing us how Europeans party!!!! Cheers, April 14, 2005 Big D has been nominated for the Best Live Performance category of the WFNX/Boston Phoenix 2005 Best Music Pol. VOTE HEREl Please help us win both the best live performance categor. WFNX has a CD Compiltion sold exclusively at Newbury comics and you can vote on for us in the wicked cool band category. I don't have the full details of the compilation and the contest as of yet, but go to newbury and check it out!!!! Steve April 13, 2005 What haven't we done in the last few days? We did wait for hours in Montpellier do the the lack of work ethic provided by French shipping companies. Once we got on the road to Barcelona we made a stopin Spain in a small town called Figueres to visit the Salvidor Dali museum. Yesterday morning before leaving Barcelona we visited the Picasso museum. Both were amazing to see. For the first time we viewed many of the most famous paintings by each artist in person. It was really unbelievable to be standing eye to eye with a paint that until then was only something the frame store in the malls sold for outrageous prices. there is definitely something magical about standing in front an original surrealist painting by Dali. A few people we told we went there looked at us like we are freaks, but music is art and artistist should be able to appreciate more than just what they create. For me it was one of the coolest things we have done on tour and my only regret is we didn't have enough time to really see the entire museum. Lookout Paris, Louvre here we come!!!! Steve April 5, 2005 Halo! We are in Vienna, Austria right now watching the Red Sox! Dan, Bush and I went in on an MLB account for the month. So, if we can get internet access, we can watch any professional baseball game this month. It's the little things in life that make it wonderful…like watching the World Series Champions in Europe. In other news, the Arena (the venue we're playing at tonight) is amazing. It's like a punk rock oasis in the middle of a European desert. We can do laundry, internet and actually eat. We should have called this tour The European Malnourishment Tour 2005. The food hear is so good. We had a four course meal and tiramisu for dessert. It's hard to find a way to call home on the road, that's just a fact. So, I want to take advantage of the internet and wish my brother, Matt, a happy birthday! I know a lot of our families read these tour updates and check up on their boys without us knowing when they might do that, so hopefully my brother will get this! Well, back to the Remdawg and our boys of summer. Sean P. Rogan March 30, 2005 My first European tour update… Believe it or not, we're on tour again, I never thought I could feel so free (sing that to the Greatest American Hero melody). If some of you out there don't know, it was a show in the 80's about an unlikely superhero. I'm sidetracked already; this should be a fun update! We're in Copenhagen, Denmark right now and the city is beautiful. We landed safely sometime last week in London, met up with our new driver, Steve "The Ghost" Clasper, and he had all of our gear with that we're renting, with him. We rented the same backline (drums, guitar amp, bass amp) that we've been renting from our good buddy, Ben. The gear is the same backline the Fugazi uses too! Our ride is not normal by any means for us. There are bunks! Yes…BUNKS!!! We get to sleep whenever we want so we can rock harder at shows and hopefully avoid getting the traditional Big D "European Cough". The Ghost is a cool guy too. He's been driving bands around for the past 23 years and the tour laminates hanging next to his driver's seat range from Lenny Kravitz to UB40. Now he'll be able to add a Big D and the Kids Table laminate to his stock. Speaking of UB40…on our day off in Amsterdam, The Ghost ran into the singer of the band. Basically, we got hooked up big time. He got all of us into the show for free, but he could only get himself a backstage pass. I've always wondered what goes on backstage at a show. I bet it's tons of sex, drugs and rock n' roll! Anyone that's been backstage to a Big D show knows I'm kidding…at least about the sex and drugs part! Hmm, what else? Everybody forgot to bring their DVD's except me. So, before our month tour is up, I'm sure the guys will be sick of my collection! The van/bus (we call it Coach) has two benches facing each other with about a foot in between, the aisle, in the front half. It's not very conducive for anything else other than sitting, but we like it. That's where we watch my movies. The back half of Coach contains two rows of 3 bunks. They're like little coffins. I guess that's all for now. For all of our families and friends back home, we haven't had much luck in the way of finding calling cards to call home, but everyone is okay and healthy…so far! Send us good vibes across the pond and we'll do the same. Take care of one another! Sincerely, March 16, 2005 I know this could seem cheap, but a desperate man does desperate things. Just the other day my cd booklet got stolen, that’s right 70 cds, 70 records I’ll never see again. It was so - so, so tragic, I ‘m now just kind’a getting over it. Now, I don’t have the cash to buy any of them back, so I thought maybe I could put a list and whoever felt bored or inspired could burn me a copy of any listed. I’m sorry if my musical taste disappoints you, but I do recommend all listed. Thanks and sorry for my pettiness. 1. March 9, 2005 I know, I know…I've totally been slacking on the tour updates as of late; and for that, I apologize. We've been so busy, playing so many shows, driving so many miles…playing so many shows, that I just forgot to write a tour update. Okay, good or bad? Bad. The River City Rebels got their van (which is a converted box truck set up like a mini tour bus) and their trailer stolen from the show in Spokane, WA while they were playing their set. Thankfully their gear wasn't stolen. But, all of their money, clothes, laptops, iPods, CD's…EVERYTHING THEY OWNED WAS STOLEN! Good news. Yay! The Rebels van and trailer were found over a week later, after all hope was lost, and EVERYTHING THEY OWNED WAS STILL IN IT!!! That little emotional rollercoaster is one ride that we all hope to never have to go on. Anyway, back to the world of Big D. Right now we're doing a 20+ hour drive from Tucson, AZ to Houston, TX. We've got a day off to do it thankfully, otherwise, we'd have to use our time machine, and frankly, that gets expensive after a while. We're heading east! It's been a long time since we've been on the right time! I'm really excited to get to Florida personally. The shows are always really great down there and we get to meet up with some really good friends! However, we've got to destroy the south before getting to the Sunshine State. Texas. Everything's bigger here apparently. I know that that's true about the drives at least! I just realized I don't really have a direction in this email. I'm basically just entertaining myself right now. We don't have cell phone service right now either so, we can't talk to the outside world, and I think between the guys in the band, we've officially run out of things to talk about! Ha, I'm just kidding. We can always talk about law, cats, volleyball…whatever crosses our minds! So we were in Vegas a few days ago and we met up with the Ska Is Dead II tour. All of the guys on that tour are Big D touring buddy veterans…BDTBV we'll call them. It was great seeing all 25+ BDTBV. The show rocked! It was also Michael J.'s first time in Vegas. In case anyone doesn't know, Michael J. is behind the merch table at all of shows! Basically, he's the man. Why is he the man? Well, you would be too if you won over $160 on one nickel!!! It seems like everyone one that night or on our day off the following day. I don't gamble, but got to do a bungee jump! It was my second one ever and I made a video documentary of it. It should be up on the website any day. It's a first person point of view bungee jump! I used my camera helmet that I use for skydiving to film it. Speaking of skydiving, on our day off in between Vegas and Tucson, AZ, I got to make some jumps at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, AZ. It's one of the coolest dropzones I've ever jumped at. It's basically a skydiving mini-city in the middle of the desert. If anyone living in Phoenix or Tucson is thinking about trying it, go there! I managed to squeeze in 11 jumps in a day and a half and I'm definitely feeling it today! Enough about me, let's talk about Steve! He's become a video game maniac over the past couple of weeks thanks to our fans that have been kind enough to donate X-Box games to the cause. And while we're talking about generosity, we have to mention Jeff. Jeff is a long-time Big D fan from southern California. I'm not sure what city he lives in because he comes to shows in L.A., Anaheim, San Diego…he's ubiquitous! Jeff gave us 2 cases of water! That's one of the coolest things. We get care packages a lot and snacks, and we're very appreciative of all that we get, but this was just a really good gesture. Jeff hooked us up big time because we were about to go to Mexico. Montezuma did not get his revenge on the ol' Boston boys!!! Thanks Jeff. That's right folks, Big D went to Mexico. Our good friends in Los Kung Fu Monkeys hooked us up with shows in Tijuana and Mexicali. Both shows were sick and Bernie, on of the singers, let us stay at his place for two nights. We ate authentic Mexican food including cactus! His family was so gracious to host us for the two days we were in TJ. Muchas gracias amigos!!! I'm sort of working backwards here, chronologically speaking. Before Mexico, we had yet another day off where we spent about 6 hours waiting outside the CBS studio. Why would we do that you might ask? BOB BARKER BABY! Dave McWane came through big time with tickets for the whole band and our friends Brian, Rob and Marissa (D Girl). It was unreal, or rather surreal. The studio hasn't changed since the 70's and Bob Barker is one of the funniest, most quick-witted, classy entertainers of our day. I have a whole new respect for him after seeing him live. Unfortunately, none of our crew one, but the episode will be airing on March 29th and we're sitting against the wall on left side of the studio, facing the stage. I'm about to go take a personality test online right now to find out how cool, or rather how much of a dork I am. Be good. Sean P. Rogan March 1, 2005 Today is our first headlining show in L.A. since…actually, I think it is our first! We're playing at the Troubadour tonight with the River City Rebels and the Phenomanauts. These two bands have been on tour with us for the past couple of weeks and it's been great. I must say, every show on this tour has been really, really good! San Diego, Anaheim, and Seattle…the list goes on and on. We're very thankful for the turnouts and the crowd reaction to our new songs. We've also been throwing some older songs into the set that we normally don't play, like "Great Song" and "In Front Of Me". We'll be leaving the Rebels and the Phenomanauts in a couple of days and heading south to play two shows in Mexico! Los Kung Fu Monkeys will be helping us out down in their homeland. I personally never thought I'd end up playing music in Mexico! After the 2-show/3 day stint south of the border, we'll be heading to Vegas to meet up with the current Ska Is Dead tour…Streetlight Manifesto, the Voodoo Glow Skulls and MU330, all past touring buddies of ours. We have a day off in between Las Vegas and Tucson, which should be fun too. I'm going to go to Arizona a day early and meet up with some friends to go jump out of a perfectly good airplane as many times as I can. I'm sure the rest of the boys will tear up the strip in Vegas! On our day off tomorrow, we're going to try and get on the Price Is Right! It's been a dream of Dave's since he was a wee lad. Hopefully his dream will come true. Everyone is still sleeping now, it's about 7am in Southern California and I've got jet-lag…or rather van-lag. I think that my body is always on Boston time! Fortunately, we're dealing with sunny, 70-degree days and not the constant snowstorms back home! On that note, I'm going to go outside…because I can. Oh yeah, the new version of Little Bitch should be up today. We shot it in Phoenix, or technically Tempe, AZ the other night and I'll let it speak for itself. Don't forget to check out our video for How It Goes, too! Thanks for the support. Did I mention that we'll be on the entire Warped Tour after our European Tour?
March 1, 2005 Big D and the Kids Table are proud to announce that they will be this year's featured artist on the Ernie Ball stage at the Vans Warped tour 2005. They will be filling the role that their predecessor Bowling for Soup held for the last two years. Look for Big D performing in mid afternoon each day at the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands Stage. Don't forget to sign up if you have a band and try to win a spot performing live at the warped tour. Check out these links for more information on Ernie Ball, The Battle of the Bands and the Warped Tour 2005. Steve February 26, 2005 Its official, Big D will be playing in the entire warped tour on the Ernie Ball Stage!!!!!!!! Steve February 17, 2005 That's just how it goes. Check out our new video for
the song "How It sean February 17, 2005 Show number one on the "Steady as She Goes" Tour starts in Denver in just a few hours. The last couple of Days have been pretty rough. We left Boston lazily on the afternoon of the 15th. That gave us a little over 2 days to make it to Denver. "Alright Boys looks we're doing an all night drive" I said to everyone when I got behind the Wheel at 9 pm on Tuesday night. I usually don't mind doing the all night drives it's sort of cool driving across the country at night, there is a lot less traffic and gives me time to think. I was extremely tired after taking full advantage of my one day off in Beantown. By the time we hit 3 AM I'm totally beat. Unwilling to admit defeat as stupid as it was I pressed on. We are deep into the Heart of Ohio when BAM! out of no where the Sky dumps more snow than Mount Everest could handle. Visibility was zero. I was freaking out. There was a truck in front of me to guide my way, but that soon disappeared. My only reference for knowing I was on the road was looking to my left and seeing the guard rail. Behind me was a steady line of trucks eagerly awaiting to take full advantage of my handicap and pass Halen, our van. The Halen slowed to about 40 miles an hour and these huge beasts were flashing their lights and expressing anger in their fullest extent. I managed to move to the right enough to stay on the road and let them pass. It was so weird having trucks fly by us when I'm barely creeping along afraid for our lives. They are the unstoppable beasts that would rather barrel down and topple over any unsuspecting victims instead of playing it safe and sharing the road. The snow storm lasted for about an hour and it was definitely the worst storm I have ever driven through. I'm not looking forward to an experience like that ever again, but I'm sure it'll happen. In other news...Personal debt…..a serious burden turned into a Blessing. When we were filming our video for "My Girl Friends On drugs" I made a discovery. My credit card gives me reward points. I checked out the website and low and behold in a few minutes I managed to order myself a free XBOX, Madden 2005 and Halo2!!!!! I was pumped. Guess what showed up when we were on tour in Canada? That's right! Before we left Boston I hooked it up in our van. XBOX kicks ass! So now this is where you guys come into play. If anyone has any old XBOX games that you don't want and you want to donate them, we'd be happy to take them off your hands. PLEASE only give us stuff you don't want. I would feel terrible if someone donated their favorite game. Having two games is going to get old quickly, but until I can beg my parents for a new game or two in May for my B-Day I'll have to tough it out. If anyone has extra controllers they don't want that'd be cool too! We have two but if we had four we could all kick each others asses. I was thinking about picking up a couple of wireless controllers but they are pricey. Aright, time for me to get cleaned up and maybe get an hour of XBOX'ing in before we leave North Platte, Nebraska and hit our final destination in Denver for tonight's show at Rock Island. See you all there, Steve February 14, 2005 It's Valentine's Day…so have a happy one! We're in Boston today for our one-day off after our Canadian tour. It was a huge success! Thanks to all of you Canadians…and Americans, that came out to the shows and showed your support over the last couple of weeks. We really appreciate it! The shows in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto stood out in my mind as being top notch. I really don't understand how those shows could have been any better. Well, our set got cut short in Quebec City due to the oncoming snowstorm and late start, but it was still an extremely memorable show! So usually on a day off, we all take care of whatever business we need to and catch up with some friends. Today, I had the usual stuff to do like laundry and hitting up Guitar Center. I also wanted to go buy some new CD's. I went to my favorite record shop in Boston to pick up some music from the New Amsterdams. On the corner of Mass Ave and Newbury Street, I was accosted by some really big, weird guy! He grabbed my arm as I was writing a text message and said, "Friend?" "Are you my friend?" he said. It was a really weird interaction. The look this guy had in his eyes was one filled with the creepiest of intentions. This all happened in the middle of the day, too! Ah, Boston you're my home!!! Time to go finish my laundry and get ready to hit the road again! This next tour, which we've named "STEADY ON", is going to be great. It's a full United States tour with a three-day stint in Mexico. We'll be hanging out with 2 great bands for most of it. The River City Rebels, our buddies from way back, will bring it hard every night with their brand of in-your-face punk rock. Along with RCR, the Phenomenauts will be blasting their tunes from outer space into your face! I feel like I should be writing a zine. Sean P. Rogan February 8, 2005 As long as Big D is on the road, all New England teams shall win! That's my own personal prophecy and prediction. It's been happening so far. The Sox won, we were in California. The Pat won last year, we were in Texarkana, the Pats won…again, this weekend, and we were in Canada. I'm right…at least in my own head. I guess there's a huge parade back home today for the Superbowl champs, that's what I hear anyway. I'm stealing wireless from the Best Western next door to our hotel right now…I'm so sneaky! We had yesterday off and it was really nice. We got to go see Niagra Falls again and even went to Hooters. Steve has now decided to boycott Hooters. He was unhappy with the whole experience. Besides Hooters and water falls, we watched a lot of TV. I've never seen that show Everybody Loves Raymond, but I must admit, it was quite funny! Bush, Steve and I were actually all laughing out loud consistently throughout the whole episode. That's pretty good! That's all of the time I have right now, the troops are mobilizing and we're heading off to Kingston.
Sean P. Rogan February 6, 2005 It's Superbowl Sunday…and we're not in Boston. Well, we're used to watching the biggest games for New England sports fans in the most remote, weirdest places. Last year, we spent Superbowl Sunday in Texarkana, the World Series throughout Colorado and this year we'll hopefully see the Pats win in Ste. Catherines, Ontario. As long as we keep winning, I don't care where we are! We named this leg of our next couple of months of touring, the Cross Your Fingers Tour. There's a lot of reasons, mostly because of crossing the border into Canada. We're also headling these shows, and it's been a while since we've headlined a tour…so cross your fingers that kids will show up. It's been going extremely well so far too! The bands we're on tour with up here in the Great White North are all really awesome too! The Know How go way back with us. They're brand of ska/rock/punk from Gainesville, Florida is refreshing night after night! Crowned King, from somewhere in Canada rock. They're a rock band. They rock. We also had our buddies in the Flatliners play the past couple of shows with us too. They're a sick band. We would have them on more shows, but they're still in high school and don't have a van yet! If you get the chance to see these guys play…do it! All of the show so far have either sold out or come pretty damn close! That's huge for us and we're all extremely thankful and grateful. Not only are we thankful for seeing faces in the crowd, but these past few days, kids have brought us SO much stuff! The Guelph crew, who also showed up in Toronto last night, have given us DVD's, snacks, water, floss and so much more. I sound like a commercial. We've also gotten a lot more fruit and healthy snacks this time. That's amazing to me. Bush is sick right now, so I'm sure he'll enjoy our fresh oranges from Chinatown! Speaking of being sick, I spent all day Saturday puking my brains out! I got me a good dose of food poisoning. I'm never going to eat a quesidilla again. I've gotten food poisoning once before, but this time was worse. It's amazing how much you can continue to puke, regardless of how much you ate. I didn't eat one thing all day Friday. Luckily it was a short drive and while the boys went to go see The Boogeyman, I got to crash at the hotel until 11pm. Dan picked me up at the hotel and we headed to the show. It was pretty rough playing, but sleeping all day helped and I made it through like a champ. Can you see me patting myself on the back? Anyway, I'm better. I felt like a new man yesterday and today is even better! Okay, I'm done for now. Bush and I have to go watch Sportscenter and get ready for the Pats dynasty to begin! Go Pats!!!
Feb 1, 2005 Day two of the cross your fingers tour. So far crossing our fingers has worked...but we won't talk about that right now. I should be making regular updates now that we are back on the road, but remember that in Canada we don't get internet access so easily so please be forgive us. Steve January 16, 2005 My first tour update of the year… Happy belated new year everybody! It's been too long since my last update, so here goes. We've all been enjoying our time off since the end of the Voodoo Glow Skulls tour. Dave, Steve and I are in NYC finishing up the fist stage of our dub/reggae record. We're at our good friend, Rich Stein's apartment in Brooklyn. Those of you who were at our Skydive New England show on labor day probably saw him…he was the really AWESOME percussionist playing with us. Rich just finished recording with Lauren Hill for her album as well. Now we've got him! We've got a handful of shows coming up this week, starting off in my home state of Rhode Island. Then before we head up to Canada in February, we'll be doing our video shoot for "My Girlfriend's On Drugs". If anyone in Mass or RI can get their hands on the new copy of the Sun Chronicle, there's going to be a Big D interview with yours truly in it. I'm pretty sure that that comes out on Thursday. Other than the new recording, shows, videos and interviews…we've got a new website in the works and I'll be updating the website more often. So we've been in Brooklyn for the past four days, held
up in a tiny apartment with a mobile recording studio. It's pretty much
the opposite way that we recorded "How It Goes", but equally
as fun, exhausting and rewarding! This new album is a chance to show people
a side of Big D that we haven't really showcased yet. It's the kind of
music we all play for soundchecks, before rehearsals and just for fun.
Now we'll have a whole A lot of bands in our style give up after a while if the whole ska/punk thing didn't work out for them. After they give up, they turn to rock or as of late, emo. Well, we're not giving up, but rather exploring the world of reggae/dub. We'll still be playing all of our previously recorded album material live though. This is just a treat for us. We'll also be doing some shows for this album too…but that's way in the future. I guess that's all for now. Rich has one or two more songs to do before we head back to Boston. My computer's also about to die. Be good.
December 20, 2004 HOME AGAIN Forward: I believe when people don't have much, they welcome nice things. No, no, I'm not referring to a hot car or a flashy watches, it's more that one wants to come home to a nice house, clean cloths, enough food, and not just the bottom shelf food at that. I'm about to write about my coming home. While reading this, don't think that my goal is to come off as "punk" or "cool", because that's just not the case. It's more of a disappointment that I am compelled to write about. Remember, people who don't have much, usually welcome nice things. HOME AGAIN Michael J and I were the last ones to get home, the last ones of the entire tour, that's 27 people, and I guess it's not my home, it's his, but there's a bedbug infested couch that I'm to collapse on for two nights and I was only 2 miles from it. We weren't prepared for the cold, so the shock of Boston's biting air threw us to a survival panic. Oh, how quickly our New England skin relaxes to the Southwest stern air. Of course Michael J rightfully assumed I'd have the front door open by the time he latched up the tailor and locked up our exhausted van. However, with the complete loss of feeling in my fingertips, I was nothing but a fear driven teenager in a slasher movie, illiterate in the functions of using ones house keys. I had to reassure myself that if I kept enough pressure on my first knuckles, it would somehow relay a message to my fingertips to turn the key. This was one of the seldom times my body was so angry with me, that it was reminding us both who was the real operator of this complex yet silly vehicle. Like most men my age Michael J felt he could get the job done faster on drive alone. Now stood two exhausted bouncing Boston boys, laughing/cursing and dropping their temper testing house keys, with their bags all around them, collecting a nice light coat of snow. Where could I fine warmth? I found by sticking both hands in my mouth and desperately exhaling warm breath upon what used to be my fingers, a small amount of blood could slip down my first knuckle and will the key left for a successful unlatching of the front door. We danced in with the grace of a first year Inuit modern dance class student. The trash was as generous as the skunk cabbage is in my fathers swamp. It laid ankle to chin deep. If filthiness is ever commended, the gang I run with have giv'in it a new talent. Yes, there were trash bags filled, a product of a brief moment of motivation. But now they layed open, looking guilty as if they had vomited up the filth. My best friend Todd's under wear and sox hung on the coffee table drenched in beer and leftovers. There was no way to tell exactly what the leftovers were, the only name that could suit it would be, chines-freeto-pizza. Michael J, let out a full sadden breath and went up to his room to inspect the damage. "Hopefully there's no one do' in it in by bed", he said as he made his final tour exit. Without taking my coat off or my sashel off, I began to push the trash about. I grabbed one of the trash bags and began to clean off the table. The scattered change wouldn't come off; it was coated with sugar-beer shellac. This new powerful shellac coated the entire makeshift coffee table, eating up the covers of different magazines, playing cards, and cigarette boxes, forever documenting they're existence. I remember getting word from the road, that the couch given' to us by our neighbors was now indeed full of bed bugs. This couch was Todd's favorite place to watch late night movies, but after getting bitten so many times by bugs, I hear he now uses the chair. No matter it was now 5:00am and I wasn't about to sleep on the sticky wooden floor. I made a nice little area, free of trash, but not odor and laided down. Ever muscle thanked me, by fully relaxing and falling asleep before me. My senses however scanned around in disgust, they could see what my muscles could not. No matter I was in heaven. Sleep. I woke around 5:30 to Todd discovering me. Todd doesn't sleep, he never has. I thought that if I kept the blanket over my head and avoided eye contact, the 4-hour drinking reunion was avoidable. "Buddy, when'd you get in"? Todd was satisfied; he loves any talk of an outing to Charlie's, oh Charlie's is a seedy bar in Harvard Square. My last view was of Todd heading back to his room and of my silly feet at the end of the couch. Sleep. I woke up to Todd's girl leaving and then, to his ex-girl friend picking up her car minutes later. It was nice to see Todd still lived dangerously. I pulled myself up and scratch the 5-day-old beard I had grown. I spotted an old water someone had left, but not finished, I killed it, however, my throat, my brain, and my body needed more. My bare feet blackened as I made my sticky steps to the kitchen. it was as if some pored glue on the floor and was having a laugh at me. The kitchen looked like a cabbage patch of open trash bags. If you have even seen the movie Aliens, it was similar to the scene where Rippley found the room full of open alien eggs. I then noticed every single dish, bowl, glass, and Tupper wear product, pan, and skillet was used and then stacked. The kitchen was one big ashtray, an orgy of rotten food and cigarettes. I opened the fridge, in the hope to find a half drunk Gatorade. Todd for some reason only drinks half of his beverages. However, when I opened the refrigerator door there wasn't a small wave of coolness, it was a big wave of warmth and the most offensive odor I have to this day come across. In the first 3 minute of being awake I hadn't noticed that all the trash bags were full with rotting food and milk. The fridge had been empted for reason, I still don't know. I found the Gatorade I was looking for on the floor next to the old broom. Ironic, huh? I had to get going, because I had a big day of going to get a hair cut. It was 4 days till Christmas, and one must look nice for Mom. However, I only had enough money for a bus ride, a subway ride and a train ticket home. "How was he to pay for a hair cut", an observant person might ask. Well, the way the underground-lower class of Bostonians work is "trade within jobs". If I worked in a club, I'd let you and your friends in for free, in return you'd give me your employee discount if I ever needed a pair of new sneakers. Got it? Well, Will's girlfriend knows how to cut hair, so I was to grab two new records of the band I'm in and a small t-shirt and trade it for a cut. But I figured I should shower, so I don't loose the deal on the account of my offensive body odor. The last time I had a shower was in Tallahassee and that was more days then I'm keen on admitting, so it was time to wash up. After tour a long tour, the first shower home reminds me of the old western movies when the band of cowboys stop in to a towns local brothel and draws a hot bath to wash away any remembrance of their excursion. I sludge up the stairs finishing up Todd's Gatorade, but when I entered the bathroom I saw that the bathroom didn't have a trash barrel anymore. The back of the toilet was now used, for the discarding of used products. So, I let my empty bottle sled down the mountain of toilet paper rolls, used tissues, boxes of new toothpaste, pizza crusts and old beers. The 'Mountain Extreme' Gatorade bottle roll down and out the doorway. The floor was coated with wet magazines and brown molded towels. That brown scum in the toilets, similar to the scum found in abandoned truck stop bathrooms, had managed to also coat the floor and the sink. A movie director would have said, his set designers that they went to far, trying to emulate a junkie's bathroom. However, my shower was divine, I stayed in there for a least 45 minutes. In the shower there were wet boxes of old products on the floor and on the shelf. The ink that labeled each box ran and stained the shower walls and floor, similar to a crying drunk girls running mascara. I combed threw the wet boxes looking for a bit of soap. Under the sopping Zest soapbox, were a piece of soap no bigger then half a silver dollar? That piece of soap cleaned my entire body. After the good wash, I threw on some cloths and slick my hair back in a manageable 1950's pompadour. As I walked down stairs I eyed a box of food that Michael J was smart enough to bring in. The box was given to us in Texas by a fan, regretfully I never met her, and so I don't know her name. It was full of chips, cookies and other snackable treats. However, I remember seeing some cans of Chief Boyardee raviolis in there one hungry night. It was only seconds before I was back in the kitchen combing for a can opener. It was where I expected it to be, at the bottom of an old Tupper wear bowl covered and camouflaged by floating macaroni. When a can is frozen, the interior food doesn't just slip out like we're all used to, and the use of a plastic fork only can pathetically chip at the frozen future breakfast. All and all, I managed and dinned on warm in some placed frozen in others ravioli. I'm going to type a bit faster, for today there are things to do… I took the 66 bus to Coolidge Corner and met up with Gillian. I asked her to cut my hair like Calvin from Calvin in Hobbs. She did just that. It was about then that I realized, I had flea or were they bedbug bits on my ankles, neck, fingers and hipbone. They itch like a bitch, I mean not as bad as poison ivy, but a bitch just the same. I thanked Gillian for the cut and was off to the commuter rail to catch the 2:00 train home for Christmas, and I was scratching all the way. DavidMcWane Check out the previous tour update archive here
|