///super beautiful fall Sunday in New Hampshire. spent it with Lisa’s family — the Simpsons. riding bikes. hangin with bunny rabbits. checkin out old cars. getting shot with airsoft guns. playing Legos. watching star wars. and eating some good home-cooked food. and some much needed rest.

thanks Bruce + Laura + Nina + Kevin + Heather + Josh + Jared + Gracie + Jacob Simpson!!!

///back at The Barley House in Concord, NH — ground zero of the infamous New Hampshire presidential primaries. lots of memorabilia on the walls and a shrine to Ronald Reagan next door. awesome.

fun show. thanks to Rose and Anne and Dana and everyone else for making it out. and thanks to Cory for having us and feeding us some good grub. nice crowd for a good chunk of the show.

rainy rainy night in ‘ol New Hampshire. torrential downpour as we were loading out… the friggin Nile was flowin underneath the van… it was pretty hilarious. we got very wet.

///gilbert

Our last day off with my family. We headed over to my brother and Sister-in-law’s house for lunchtime. After food we watched the new “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie with the kids. It was nice to just chill and do something very family centered like that, laughing with the kids and sitting on the couch with my family. I don’t get chances to see them as often as I wish I could, so I appreciate normal things like that a lot, especially in the middle of a crazy adventure. It keeps me grounded. It’s really a blessing to have a great family that supports me and my band mates in following our passion. It was a treat to be able to hang with them as much as I did (and we did) over the time we spent in the northeast.

-lisa

We were excited to be back in the capital of New Hampshire, one of the main hubs of the presidential primaries… only a couple of months ago it had been overrun with candidates and press and primary madness. We were playing at The Barley House once again… during the primaries they made a name for themselves as the home of the Hucka-burger. It’s a funny little place. Right next door is an office that appears to be a tribute of some sort to Ronald Reagan.

Lisa was feeling horrible and was having a hard time getting herself together to play. As show time rolled around, Cam and I ended up starting the show by ourselves… wandering our way through a couple of pretty loose interpretations of some old tunes: MIC [ ] and Faroh. Luckily, Lisa was able to rally and joined us for a wild and wooly first set.

check out this blog about the show… i’ll let her fill you in: www.18milesnh.com/2008/04/sailing-seas-with-finn-riggins.html

in general, pretty fun show. really great to see some New Hampshire friends. some new ones and some old ones. even Paul Mitchell (an old friend from Idaho) cruised down from Maine to hang out. so cool.

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gilbert

Cam and i woke up at our buddy Jamie’s Vermont farmhouse to a clear and brisk april morning. It warmed up quickly though. Amazing day. We made some waffles with Jamie then stepped outside and met his goats before rolling in to Burlington, VT for the day. We caught up with Jamie later to check out his studio: A-9 Studio. good chance we’ll do some recording there when we’re back out East in the fall. He’s got a great setup. and great taste.

We tracked down some monster burritos for dinner then cruised to the Higher Ground to catch a show… Surprise Me Mr. Davis was in town, and we’re long time fans of The Slip (who play in SMMD) and thought it would be a fun way to spend our day off…
we ended up helping them with merch and chillin. it was fun. chatted a bunch about the state of the music biz and what the future holds for bands like us and them… lots of good things going on, but it’s getting tougher and tougher to travel as extensively as we have been with fuel costs booming right now… curious to see where the next couple of years will take us… and the scene in general… we finally decided to roll as they began packing up… we drove for about 40min then crashed in a rest area… btw, had a good time with the fellas and girl from The Low Anthem too… good peeps, enjoyed their opening set… we had a good time behind the merch table together…

Lisa, on the other hand, had ridden back to New Hampshire with her friend Harmony the night before and spent the day hangin with their dog Samson while Harmony was at school (she teaches). They got to spend the afternoon together and lisa got a whole day off from us boys and some bonus time with her parents that evening. Seemed like a much needed rest for the Simps.

yow.
gilbert

monday morning and we had a 10am show. yep, 10am. pretty much flipped our bodies on end, but we were able to rise and make it happen as we were pumped to be playing at another New Hampshire high school. we had been invited by Lisa’s longtime friend Harmony to play for her music students and some other classes at the Moultonborough Academy. we played in their beautiful auditorium and answered questions from the students for an hour or so. we drank soda pop. and had the van packed before noon. pretty wild. the kids were great. helped haul gear. and had good questions. they made us laugh. and yeah, our day was done at noon. pretty much felt like a day off at that point.

we really would love to play high schools on a regular basis. nice way to connect with kids and share with them an approach to music that’s not necessarily easy for them to find. and it’s fun. and unique. and there’s no cigarette smoke.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
-gilbert

enjoyed a mellow day off with Lisa’s family in New Hampshire as it was getting it’s first real glimpses of spring. if nothing else, our tour is definitely succeeding in providing us with a nice long springtime. and for that, we’re very grateful.

-gilbert

We received a message right before going to bed the night before that the house show planned for Somers, CT on this particular date had been cancelled suddenly. We were a little bummed, but decided to make the most of the extra day off. We spent the morning hanging out with Miranda in Northampton. We ate a fancy breakfast then went to a very cool store in Northampton called Faces — knick-knacks and joke stuff and overall goodness. After the store we went by a local candy store that makes ice cream… and were unable to escape the temptation. It was delicious.

Since we were so close, we headed up to my parents house in Belmont, NH. Along the way we saw our first snow since Colorado back at the beginning of tour. There was quite a bit of snow still in my parents yard when we got there. It was kind of fun to have snow again. My parents were excited to see us an extra day, and I was excited to see them as well. It ended up being a nice night off, the guys headed out to find wireless and get work done, and I got to hang out with my mom and grandma and work on a puzzle.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
lisa