FRIDAY 5.14.10
BOULDER COFFEE – ROCHESTER, NY

4AM came just as early as expected and I showered in the dimmest light possible. Eric’s mom works for Paul Mitchell, so we always get to try all these nice shampoos n’ things. She even made us product care packages to go, not to mention freshly baked cinnamon rolls – props to K Kehoe. We pretty much hit the road as soon as Eric stepped out of the shower, but we first needed to get some exercise. It was decided the night before we would do as many pushups as there were hits on the video we had posted from WIDR, which turned out to be 32. We had gotten about three hours of sleep, one for every hour we had to drive to Cleveland for a radio spot on 88.3 WBWC. However, we got through all of them and the skedaddled. Rider is driving most of the days and also working on Thoreau’s “Walden” via MP3 on the GPS. Unfortunately, he somehow did NOT load the first half of the book, forcing him to start somewhere in the middle. I think he’s lost but he’s chugging through it, even with Jill chiming in with directions. There was no question of stopping for coffee as soon as the sun came up. After all, we couldn’t think or speak correctly. Things were coming out as; “It’s very human out today,” when “humid” was clearly the intended adjective.

Rider and I played WBWC two tours ago and they were very good to us. Where as last time we recorded a session for later airplay, this time around we were live on the air. We always appreciate fielding good questions and WBWC delivered with ponder-worthies like “Which part of your latest release are you most proud of?” We were all tired from lack of sleep and driving but I do believe we had some noteworthy things to say about what we do. And somehow I even slipped in a few things about singing math textbooks and shamalamadingdongs. On the musical side we performed a newer ditty “Why I’m Not Great” and my harmonica holder fell down as soon as I went to play it. During the chorus, Kehoe hoisted it back up and tightened the screw for me – what a gent and a professional! From there things went smoothly through “Leaving Town” (though awkwardly acoustic at 8AM) and “Lament” stole the show in my opinion. It was a nice opportunity to promote our show in Akron when we’re on our way home next week. A big thanks goes out to WBWC for doing their thing and doing it well. We should receive a copy of the interview and performance and hope to have it posted shortly thereafter.

Now it was another 3 hours to Rochester, NY where we would play in the evening. Our no-sleep giddiness was wearing off and fatigue was setting in. A quick fix of peanut butter and apple sandwiches cured us enough to begin the trek, but the energy wore off quickly during these lazy daylight hours. There were a lot of tolls to pay and we stopped at many a rest area. We had the idea of stopping in Buffalo to fulfill our promotional aspect of the tour, but decided to knock out the rest of the driving in one stint. There is only so much four guys can handle in 24 hours on the road. Finally arriving in Rochester, we checked in at Boulder. It’s a fairly big place that makes what we’ve deemed “serious coffee,” and also has a full bar. This kind of environment is custom fit for Valentiger in the way that we can present all sides of our band to a mass, diverse audience. This was our third time playing the establishment and we’ve always done well. Sometimes people are more open to the music when they haven’t paid a large cover and can really hear our melodies and what we have to say.

It was obviously naptime at 1:30PM, seeing that we had been up at 4AM, driven 6 hours and already played on the radio. The van was parked under a giant, shading tree that whispered Kehoe and I to sleep on a very windy afternoon. Rider and Joe decided to make promotional efforts downtown and, after a few hours, we swapped places. There was an exceptional store featuring vintage folk instruments that really made all of us a bit depressed. They housed a number of quite rare items including a 1940’s Martin that was going for over $11,000. When we walked in, though, they were talking about Elderly Music in Lansing, so; overall, I think we’ve got it pretty good in Michigan, too. Eventually, we all met up again for GPS Jill to take us on the most roundabout way to Five Guys Burgers and Fries, where they are famous for all natural, fresh ingredients. It was indeed quite delicious and we all liked how they left the skin on their French fries. Back at Boulder we had just enough time to load a few journals and photos and to update Facebook and Twitter before it was time to setup for the show.

Nick Gordon opened up the show with his strangely sultry folk tunes and it was good to meet up with him since we last shared a show in Buffalo. The place was pretty empty during the day but was filling up now as Nick began. I decided to use only the hollow-body Gibson with my amp, which mostly sticks us to an awkward volume, but tonight it felt just right. I think it’s because we’ve played this room before and people were there to listen, making us really happy to be melodious and not just “rocking.” We opened with “Lament” and hit up most of the usual songs from there, but also included “Love To Forgive,” which hadn’t yet been performed on this tour. It received a pretty good response with a three-part harmony during the chorus and even “Oh My God! This Weekend” seemed to find its place here, closing the show. An incredible amount of sales came through at this venue and people were very friendly and inquisitive. I personally thank anyone I talked to – you made a difference! It really helps when you’re trying to sell art, I guess. It’s just different than selling something people need or seek out. People might be there to just drink or because friends invited them to meet, but it’s important to know that sometimes people just need or even want to be asked. And I think the reason we’re selling items at “name-your-own-price” and setting goals to “shake hands” is based on that idea. At any rate, it was a great night and Valentiger enjoyed themselves.

Surprisingly, we made it out of there by 11:30PM and were now on our way to Rexford, New York, near Albany, where we’d be staying the night at Joe’s grandma’s house. We needed to push through over 3 more hours of driving, bringing the total to around 10 for the day, with performances in between. Boulder gave us coffee to go and it helped for about the first hour, but things got “real real” thereafter. At the first rest stop I bought a giant bouncy ball and we threw that around the parking lot for about 15 minutes before we lost it. However, it allowed us the opportunity to wake up and stretch our legs a bit. Somewhere around 2AM at the second rest stop, we encountered several characters and then made up ridiculous stories about what their lives were like. There was one lady working, mopping the floor inside while I was reading the Roy Rogers menu. She must have assumed I wanted to order and made her way over to get behind the counter. However, I didn’t really intend to order anything and walked away. We figure her to have been so angry. Now, by the time 3AM rolled around the jokes were lewd beyond belief, but it was getting us through the incredible twists and turns of upstate New York. None of us were sane people at this point, but Rider managed to pull the van into our destination: Double B Horse Ranch. To give you an idea of what kind of state we were in, I’ll tell you we were making jokes about horse ranch as a salad dressing.

Joe’s sister let us inside around 3:30AM as we dragged our bags upstairs to the bedrooms. It looked as though Joe and Kehoe were sharing a waterbed, while Rider and I were led into a different bedroom with a bed and a mattress on the floor. It looked like heaven to us, as we had been up for 24 hours. We even shrugged off the room Joe’s sister showed us next-door, titled the “fly room,” where flies apparently were constantly trapped and had been swept into a pile. There were also a few porcelain dolls giving us the willies, but it was only a matter of seconds after actually lying down that we were all sound asleep at grandma’s horse ranch.