///we ended up having two shows at CMJ on Friday. the first being part of the Portland Showcase at the Knitting Factory during the day… we were grouped into this showcase thanks to our friends at Tender Loving Empire… load in was at noon. it was intense. three floors of rock music. all day.

we played right in between good friends and Tender Loving Empire labelmates Super XX Man and Jared Mees & The Grown Children. it was a tight stage. we rocked it hard. it was a our last show with The Grown Children on the two week family tour we’d been on and had started in Clarkston, WA. their set after ours was the bestest. it raged. we were all onstage for their last song. perfect end to two weeks of awesomeness.

the whole Portland Fest day was a big love fest with friends. our buddies Merrill and Patrick from Sister Suvi even made it over. soooooo good to see them. very bummed we weren’t able to catch any of their sets. we also made some new friends in Strangers Die Everyday who played before Super XX Man and were very very cool.

here’s a blogger review from this afternoon set… that includes some very kind words aimed at us: Best of CMJ includes a big photo of lots and lots of the people that performed that afternoon… including Lisa and I (in the back).

we wrapped things up at the Knitting Factory then headed over to Williamsburg (Brooklyn) for our night CMJ showcase at The Charleston… grabbed some epic pizza across the street, then hunkered down for a rather strange but super fun show with Capitol K, Peachcake and Team Genius. all were super nice. we closed the evening out at around 1am to a cozy and rowdy basement of friends and friends of friends and CMJ showgoers in general… even our recent tour buddies Low Red Land showed up to rage with us… and The Grown Children! and Scott from Super XX Man! and Marty! and Steve-o! and Kyle! and so on and so on. fantastic end to a wild wild couple of days.

things got really weird after the show at where we were supposed to crash nearby… so we said goodbye to The Grown Children then cruised back to Steve-o’s for another night of comfy, but not very much sleep…

///gilbert

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend two nights with my friend Steve. I’ve known Steve since my last year of high school, so a little while…something I was pondering as I walked around Greenwich Village with him in the afternoon. It was nice to be able to hang with him and chat, and he was nice enough to treat me to a gelato while Cam and Eric worked away at a coffee shop. We had spent the morning checking out the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, a neighborhood considered very hip right now that has fallen into gentrification quite quickly and was even spoofed in an article by the Onion while we were there. We saw a baby rat, the dirty waterfront, a huge building being built for condos, and ate thai food for breakfast/lunch.

Our show in Brooklyn brought us back to a venue called Goodbye Blue Monday. It’s a cool little bar/junk shop that hosts free music. We had a fun time playing there again. Inspires a real Beat ambiance. Subway rattling past every 7 minutes or whatever. We played a pretty loose/psychedelic set. It was fresh. Really fun. Played ‘snowglobe’ for the first time all tour.

After us, two members from a band called Starcode played a set of acoustic interpretations of their rock songs. Good guys. Got a kick out of what they added to the room. After them, a solo ambient/laptop set from Up The Turrett brought the
evening to an appropriately strange close. Marty and Steve both came out again to see us. Fun to have them there. Marty and Cam headed into Manhattan after the show to visit one of the oldest bars in Manhattan, while the rest of us headed back to Steve’s apartment in seek of rest.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses:
lisa simpson