Richmond /  by Bryan Lackner

RICHMOND, VA - Gallery 5

stayed at The Compound in Richmond. PT Burnem informed me that it used to be a dentist's office, but has been an art space for the past 25 years. (actually, "a space for artists" is probably more accurate.) PT's girl offered to show us around town, but we got in late from Annapolis and loafed around until it was time to load in. fresh air is nice, but wifi is, too.

the energy was great at Gallery 5. PT, who will be joining us later on the tour, threw down. 

after the show, Mya was telling a lot of pun jokes -- and i love puns -- but the last joke she told was the longest i'd ever heard, and i feel like i have to tell someone else, and soon, or i'll forever be cursed by this thing.

Annapolis /  by Bryan Lackner

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Metropolitan Kitchen

after recording the podcast with Height (listen to it here), we headed down to Annapolis. 
to give you some background, here's who we're touring with:

HEIGHT KEECH

...and EZE JACKSON ("Thanks for the Love")

Metropolitan Kitchen was another upstairs venue that appeared to have a swankier clientele below us.
by that i mean, i saw someone bringing a plate of scallops downstairs, so that's why i've decided the clientele was "swankier".

the local acts were Team Heen, Blacksage, and Tobias Russell, who we shared a stage with. we knew Tobias was gonna come correct because when we asked his partner Alex what the setup was, he said, "i have my amp, and the laptop, and Tobias has a keytar."

it was a small show, but the energy was good, which can oftentimes trump attendance. by that i mean, i'd rather have 20 people that really dig what all of us are doing, versus a room of 100 indifferent people on their phones or whatever.

didn't have a place to stay in Annapolis, so Height drove us straight to Richmond. thankful to have him at the wheel, 'cause i can't drive late night for shiiiiit. a few years ago, driving to North Carolina with Brent, i veered across three lanes in the mountains, fortunately with no one else on the road. so hey, while the sun's out? i'm your dude. otherwise, let's not.

arrived at PT Burnem's place at 5 (daylight savings y'all). just woke up, and didn't realize when we got here earlier, that the room i was staying in had no windows. pitch black. i don't think i've ever had the luxury of sleeping in a pitch black room. also PT informed us that the room we were staying in served as an S&M movie set, which explains the, "SUBMIT YOUR FLESH" spraypainted on the wall.

Gallery 5 tonight.

 

 

Baltimore /  by Bryan Lackner

BALTIMORE, MD - The Crown

...and so it begins.

we arrived to a glowing red room as the sun set on Baltimore. The Crown sits atop a vacant mini-plaza; ex-Korean business offices that have newspapers covering all of the glass panes. Height's wife Gabri suggested we try the Kimchi fries:

for this tour, we set up our speakers* opposite Height's, and the stage at the venue completes the Round Robin. we ran our respective soundchecks, and then heard The Crown's stage.
now, we're not traveling with subwoofers, and goddamn does The Crown have some bass on their stage. it sounded great, but we started getting a little worried that our stage would sound so tiny in comparison, so we started fiddling with knobs. i guess we forgot to check the sound post-knob fiddling, because for our opening track, the music was low. and i mean, we knew the capability of these speakers, so we both kind of looked at each other befuddled, like, "shit was just working a minute ago..." we troubleshooted and by the second song, things were running smooth again.

if you aren't familiar with the Round Robin concept: 6 acts (in B'more's case, 8) share 3 stages, and each act performs a song before passing it to the next stage. it's a good way to keep energy high throughout the night, and keep people in the venue, instead of leaving to go smoke and do whatever else. it also brings like-minded emcees together, which is very welcoming.

we shared a stage with the group, DI. DI were dope. DI were also selling/wearing t-shirts that had their name (Disturbed Individuals) resembling the ISIS flag which was...confusing? DI had a counter-culture tilt to their music, and right now, what's more counter-culture than fucking ISIS? very punk rock of them.

i got a chance to talk to Sam Herring (Future Islands) in between songs, which was dope. Sam will be joining us in Asheville under his rap moniker, Hemlock Ernst. it's nice to meet someone you admire from afar and they end up being down-to-earth, cool people. that isn't always the case. while i talked with Sam, one of the bartenders made me the best whiskey ginger i've ever had. thank you, Charles. thank you, Sam.

great attendance, great energy from all the performers and the audience. perfect way to start off the tour. we ended the night by going to Royal Farms, which Height and Gabri described as, "a Maryland Sheetz". OH HOW I LOVE TOUCHSCREEN MENUS. i did see that they have sweet-'n'-salty Combo's now, though. not on board with that shit.

about to record an episode of Height Zone World, then head to Naptown. in a literal sense, and a figurative! (i'm a little tired)

*shouts to the Prince

en route to Baltimore /  by Bryan Lackner

ahoy!

we left Detroit in the AM -- my Prizm packed to the brim -- hearing that Baltimore was supposed to get 10" of snow. checked the radar, and, sure enough, saw a sheet of blue conveniently covering exactly where we had to drive. 

let's goooooo

drove through Ohio with no problems...and then Pennsylvania with no problems...but i didn't want to say, They don't even have snow on the roads! What a bunch of wimps, 'cause that's the shit you say that immediately precedes you spinning out into a ditch. i reserved my words, and we stopped at Sheetz.

now, anytime we tell our Michigan friends how pumped we are for food from a gas station, they look at us like we're sad, sad men. it should be noted, though, that Sheetz is fucking delicious and i don't care what you say. fully customizable, no pre-wrapped pre-made nonsense. i kind of love Sheetz. one thing i will say is that they go a little too far with the "SH-" stuff:

also, why does Lays feel the need to make everything a chip flavor?

uncalled for

after Sheetz, we made it to Maryland, with no problems on the road.

at one point, three salt trucks prevented us from going past them, by shooting salt at my car, and lowering their plows so sparks were all over the road? not sure if that's plow protocol, or if they were new to the job. 

we made it to Height's, grabbed a drink w/ him and Eze Jackson, and called it a night. this morning, i'm chilling with Height's cat Cool Man, and getting everything ready for the first show tonight at The Crown.

we've been preparing for this tour for months and months, and we're all pretty pumped that it's about to start. the headaches were worth it.

see you soon.