So my band,
Wormeaters did a little weekend tour June 1-3. We had gotten on a show in Baltimore on the 2nd, and got on a show in Philly for the 1st to make more of a weekend out of it. At the show in Baltimore, we were offered to play a show the next day at the UMD Campus. We only had a 4 song demo CDr, and had a great time. This is the first tour type thing that I've done in a while, so I was a bit nervous. It's rough being in a new band w/o any ex-member cred to draw people, luckily we had pretty well attended shows and played w/ great bands.
The main cast of characters is me of course (I play bass), Ray the guitar player, Kris the drummer, Seb (aka: Spazz, aka: First Base, aka: (B.A.) Barak Obama, aka: Phelipe Anselmo) the singer/whipping boy, and John who recorded our demo/ Kris' #1 fan. John was also filming our sets and other things here and there
Friday: We all meet up (minus Kris) to pick up the rental car. We rented a car so we wouldn't have to worry about our own cars crapping out, but it left little room for equipment. We had to borrow drums and bass/ guitar cabinets at every show. After we pick up Kris, we quickly realize that the car is WAY too small for all 5 of us. Luckily he lives close to Philly. We meet up w/ Rob (AKA the Captain), and stop off for food and drinks before the show. We get to the show on time, and nothing was going on (no surprise). We wait around, and a bunch of our Philly friends come, as Seb hits on 2 young crusty girls. The first band, Acid Drop was good, and had a few of our pals from Retard Strength. Before we played, we couldn't find Seb, and I used that as an opportunity to reference the beginning of the Warzone LP. "Yo, where's Seb at? He went to get the Wormeaters women!" Ray had a little too much to drink in too short of a time, which added to the mess that was our set. During that time, Ray was drop kicked into the amp we were borrowing and almost knocked it over, put a fresh bloody tampon in his mouth that he picked up from the floor and smashed his guitar. We played a Negative Approach cover, and in the process he broke 3 strings, and thought it'd be a good idea to just Pete Townsend his guitar. In the process he also cut up his hand real bad. The rest of the bands weren't really our style, but it was still cool. When I went to thank the guy who's house it was, one of his friends accused Ray of being a homophobe. I don't really know what he said, but we always make homosexual jokes to eachother, but nothing malicious. Oh well, but we're not homophobes. I just wanted to get that out there before people start writing letters to MRR. Seb also met a nice young lady friend, and made us all jealous.
Saturday:We stayed the night at Rob's place, and I didn't sleep too well because of a jerk cat, and John's snoring. In the afternoon, we wandered the streets of Philly. Went to Gianna's and a bunch of random record stores. On the way down to Baltimore, Rob was awesome enough to drive down w/ us, so we weren't all crammed in one car. Before the show we made a detour at Celebrated Summers Records in Towson, MD. If you're ever in the area, I'd highly recommend checking it out. We all got stuff; it's got a great mix of old used stuff and real good current records. It's located in the back of a comic shop, combining the best of both of my nerdy obsessions. The show in Baltimore was originally scheduled to have the Inmates, but they had to cancel. Still, there was a decent amount of people there, and we got to play with Blank Stare and Pulling Teeth. We had kind of loosely discussed going down to the show the following day that Government Warning was playing, but at the show we were asked if we wanted to play, since 2 of the bands dropped off it. When I went outside to tell the guys, John had drank too much and was basically passed out on the street. Apparently the cops came by also, yikes. We were able to stay w/ Michelle from Sick Fix for the night. Apparently we parked the car on a bad street, and when we went back 5 minutes later to go move it, there was a car on the corner w/ its flashers on, and a group of people on the sidewalk next to the car. I think a few minutes later, and it wouldn't have been there anymore.
Sunday:We figured that we should get to the show early today, since we were playing first, and added last minute. We quickly realize that we have no clue where on the University of MD campus the show would be. I call Michelle, and find out the building name, and we eventually find it and it's all locked. We eventually find an open door, and get to where the show was going to be, and
that's locked too. I left a note and pinned it to the door that we left to find food and we'll be back. We find some expensive Mexican restaurant, and when we return there's a bunch of people there, and Let Down was all set up to play. I don't know how everyone else found it so easily, I guess they have enough shows there that people can find it. We borrow more equipment, and I think we played best this day. Some people seemed to be nodding their heads, and someone even moshed during our Agnostic Front cover. The other bands all played great, and it was awesome to get added to such an awesome show. We kinda had to get out soon after that, since most of us (not me) had work to get to on Monday.
Overall, we didn't sell a lot of demos, and it didn't seem like many people really liked us. Either way, I was real happy with the way we played, despite being on mostly borrowed equipment. I'm hoping we can do another weekend tour before the end of summer.
Thanks to Rob Systema, Johnny Moontits, Dom, Mike Blau, Parsons, Nick, Michelle, Pulling Teeth, Blank Stare, Let Down, Acid Drop, the Claw, and everyone else who helped us out.
*I uploaded a bunch of pics to the
Wormeaters site too...
Labels: hardcore, punk, show, tour
