We left Maryland at around twelve to head to Philadelphia. We had two shows today, the first of which was to be held in a newly opened skate shop called Exit. Before that though, we headed around to the promoter Andy's house, for what had been sold to us as a 'Shitty Limits - welcome to America' BBQ. We arrived there and hung out for a pretty awkward time, but still enjoyed the free food and beer supplied for us. After a while, one of the bands playing the second show that night arrived. Foreign Objects from Mass, who were all really cool and great to meet. More on them later. After a while we head to Exit. The shop has a massive empty downstairs area that is a perfect space for a gig (well, apart from the massive ceilings). We load in and start sampling the free keg of beer, which has the perfect PBR style mix of 95% water, and 5% taste. Still, free is free, so we keep at it. Women kick off the gig tonight, and LP follow up quickly after, and manage to be the first band to discover the advantages of having a vocal PA that doesn't actually work. Deep Sleep play next and Tony attempts to master the art of singing and holding the microphone lead in the one precise spot where it doesn't crackle for a whole set. He does a pretty good job!
We play next, and manage to get the PA working for a good two minutes, until one of the speakers starts smoking, we persist and it's great. People are into it, we play 'okay-ish' and have a good time, and at one point even the Keg gets thrown across the room.
We play next, and manage to get the PA working for a good two minutes, until one of the speakers starts smoking, we persist and it's great. People are into it, we play 'okay-ish' and have a good time, and at one point even the Keg gets thrown across the room.
After this, we load out to head to the second show that night at a bar called Kung Fu Necktie. As a few of us are pretty hot, we opt to walk to 3 blocks to the bar instead of getting in the van for two minutes. About an hour later, we've walked a full circle back to the venue and are still non-the-wiser about how to get there. Josh spots some girls standing outside a bar and asks them for directions, and they offer to show us the way. After a few minutes, it's decided that it'll be a better idea to drive there instead of walk, but there's one slight problem, there's one car, and eight people. Cue some Benny Hill show-esque compression, with Josh and Louis in the boot together, myself, Seth, Cameron and one girl in the back, and two more up front. It's a little tight in there strangely enough, but we get to the venue in a couple of minutes, and start pulling everyone out of the clown car.
By the time we get there, we've missed the first band (who I believe had members of the Dead Milkmen), and Foreign Objects are up next. They are fucking awesome, and play 15 minutes or so of tight punk rock that reminds me of a more aggressive Bayonets. They even cover Alternative Ulster at the end. On a side note, I've never seen an Irish or British band cover that. We play next and it goes fine. We cover The Weirdos at the end with additional BB on vocals and a couple dancing on stage. Jet lag has properly kicked in by this point so we all head back to Daniel's house and sleep in the living room and kitchen, despite his insistence of sleeping in his room.
Time spent driving today - Approx 3 - 4 hours.
