We've been enjoying New England for the past few days; we're both totally in love with southern Vermont! After playing the Turn of the Tide music series on Sunday and enjoying some delicious potluck dinner that accompanied it, we left for Portland. On the way, we dropped by VT's infamous Long Trail Brewery on our day off and enjoyed the local fare. I enjoyed six [small] different types of local fare. Also on the way, we saw some amazing lawn ornaments.

Last night's show in Portland, ME was great-we'll be back in August. It's amazing how similar Portland is to Asheville; it felt remarkably like home.

Here's some more proof of our shenanigans in NYC and Brooklyn-thanks to Steve for the shot of us at Goodbye Blue Monday and to Danielle for posting the video. Scroll down to about a week ago for the whole story on why we were playing on the streets of Manhattan in front of our vehicle. . .

We have been so busy having fun the last few days that I've got some catching up to do. . . We enjoyed playing and being in Brooklyn; the show was fantastic and we had a very enthusiastic audience. After spending the night in the city, we actually got to drive through and see the city during the daytime.

We drove across the Brooklyn Bridge on our way out of town
and drove right through Manhattan.
The bridge to the left is the Manhattan Bridge and the bridge to the right is the Brooklyn Bridge.
We got to see both Yankee Stadiums at the edge of town. 
We made it to Providence a little early on Friday and were able to take a leisurely stroll around the downtown before we played at Tazza. We rocked out till the wee hours and then knocked out part of the drive to Montpelier. On Saturday morning we played on WGDR then took a little nap before heading to Langdon Street Cafe.  
We love playing in Montpelier and were glad to get a chance to play for such a great audience--we'll see you all at the Northeast Kingdom Music Festival this August!

We sure have had quite the excitement recently. . .after our radio show on WDVR on Monday night (which was fun as expected--thanks to all who tuned in to hang out in radio-land) we learned from three cruisers full of cops that you are not allowed to sleep in your vehicle in their jurisdiction because it "isn't sanitary." So, we had to leave, not because we were violating any law, but because the head honcho couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that it is possible to get a good night's sleep in a bed you've constructed in your vehicle.  [Side note: we do realize that in some places it is against the law to sleep in any vehicle not registered as a motor home, but apparently this was not one of them, since the only thing they could figure that we were doing wrong was brushing our teeth in our vehicle, which was deemed not sanitary.] Ah, the things we deal with to travel around the country playing music.

So, after a refreshing night of sleep in a different undisclosed location, we played at John and Peter's in New Hope, PA. The turnout was fabulous and we were thrilled to be part of the festivities of New Hope's Gay Pride week. New Hope is, per capita, behind only San Francisco as having the largest gay and lesbian population and our show was the place to be after Gay Bingo on Tuesday night. 

Yesterday was Day One in the greater NYC area (we were told that Brooklyn was not part of NYC, so we're trying to be sensitive to all of you Brooklyn-ers out there). We were scheduled to play at the 169 Bar in Manhattan, which is right on the edge of Chinatown, so we got there early, parked, and walked around for a bit. [note the dude's super-sweet mullet in the bottom left corner of the picture]

When we went into the venue we found out that three people had come out specifically to see us, which was a good surprise to us since we've never played Manhattan before and don't have a big budget for promotions.  Apparently the owner was not as thrilled, because he wouldn't let us set up until ten people walked through the door specifically to see us. Usually venues that are strict about the band drawing people will at least let you set up and begin to play, then if you start scaring off customers already in the venue and don't bring in any new customers, they'll cut your set short. This is what we were betting on; typically we'll make up the difference because some people will come in off the street to see a guy shredding on a guitar while playing basslines with his feet and a girl playing a violin like an electric guitar. Not the case last night. We had to pack up and leave without even having a chance to take our instruments out of the cases. So we told the three wonderful folks that had been patiently waiting for us to start playing what was going on and took our show out to the street. This show lasted for about five minutes before the building superintendent came out and politely watched, let us finish the song we were on, clapped and then told us we couldn't play there. So much for Manhattan! We'll give it another shot in August when we tour back through; this time we'll find a venue that we can actually play in. . . tonight it's Brooklyn at Goodbye Blue Monday and we'll for SURE be putting on a wicked good full-length set! 

We're driving down the road on the way to play a live radio show tonight to promote our show tomorrow night in eastern PA/western NJ. Yesterday, on the way in to DC to play at the Red and the Black, we got behind a Bookmobile. Both Chris and I had't seen a Bookmobile since we were kids, so that sent us to Nostalgia-ville for a little while. We played with The Blue Line and Noon:30 last night at the Red and the Black. Noon:30 is an all-girl band, so I had a great time watching them and chatting it up about what it's like to be a female musician (this is Melissa writing, by the way. . .).

We caught wind of a review of our Spartanburg show last weekend at the Spring Fling and decided to pass it along. Here's what the Spark thought of our show--big thanks to Steve and Chris!

Went back to see The StereoFidelics. They were outstanding. They were easily the most original and interesting band I saw all weekend, combining a dizzying array of styles into a very enjoyable original sound.

They have two members, Chris Padgett who alternates between electric and acoustic guitar, runs loops, play a little synth, and plays synth bass with his feet, and Melissa McGinley who plays electric violin and drums. McGinley’s violin playing style is phenomenal, and the interplay of her violin and drum work and Padgett’s multi-instrumental stylings makes it seem impossible that two people are making that much music.

The only problem I saw was the crowd. The Spring Fling always draws a pretty diverse crowd and in a way, I felt like that may have worked against The StereoFidelics. There just seemed to be a lot of people who just plain didn’t get it. Not to put to fine a point on it, but a lot of the people watching were the same sort of people who were enthralled earlier when a local musican on the same stage played a cover of “Hotel California”.

Let me just say, if your idea of a great band is one that covers The Eagles, you probably won’t have that much to say about The StereoFidelics. Also had a couple of groups of metal kids who wandered away from the Broad St. Stage to roll their eyes at anything “not metal”. God I wish I was cool enough to roll my eyes at something that didn’t fit into my narrow idea of what genre’s are acceptable and which ones are to be mocked. Remember kiddies all the cool musicians wear black and grunt lyrics incoherently.

Curiously though, you can almost always tell the metal musicians, from most of the metal music fans. The metal musicians I saw hanging around, seemed to really dig the StereoFidelics. There were plenty of other people enjoying what they had to offer also, and after the show there was a nice little line at their merch table waiting to buy a cd. I bought one too (an act I reserve almost exclusively these days for independent or local acts)

I have to say also, big ups to Mr. Shanafelt for recommending them, and it was also nice to see some of Asheville’s finest playing down here. I hope to see the StereoFidelics playing somewhere here in Spartanburg again soon.

It's time to start our road journal back up, but first we'll fill you in a bit on what we did while we were at home. Thanks to Bart Greene we got some pictures from our outdoor show at Spartanburg, SC's Spring Fling. It was a great way to wrap up our time at home before heading out on the road again. . .

Yesterday our friend David took us on a tour of the Bristol newspaper printing facility and we saw some huge printing, folding, cutting and sorting machines and lots of ink. I liked the cyan ink and rollers the best.

We played two nights in Johnson City, the first night with our friend Jobu Babin (and Jason) from Memphis. We sat in on a few of their tunes and then played our own set. 

Thanks to David for taking pictures and for snagging this shot of a girl breathing fire outside the venue. . .

Today we start the trek to Washington, DC. . .

Well, we've been home for about three weeks on and off and we're just itching to get back out for real. . . it doesn't take long to get cabin fever when you're used to being in a new place every day! We've gotten some much needed relaxing time as well as a chance to perfect and practice some new material that's been jangling around the brains for a while. The last few weekends we've taken off for Charlotte/Chapel Hill and Knoxville after enjoying the "home crowd" in Athens, GA and our very own Asheville. We've got some live tunes from our Asheville show that we'll be posting later this week. This weekend it's off to Newport, KY and Spartanburg, SC for one last "regional" (admittedly it's difficult to consider western KY regional to NC) run before really hitting the road next Thursday. Well it's off to practice some more and get some new merch ready (it's a suprise!) for this tour. . .

Thursday night was a great time in Grand Rapids, MI at Founder's Brewery. The room is a huge beerhall style and, lucky for us, lots of festive beer-drinkers were there enjoying themselves.
We played with our pals the Total Blam Blams -- in fact, it was dubbed the StereoBlam battle, complete with a red dinosaur flyer. Amazing. And fun.Friday we drove south into Northern Indiana to play at the Beanery in Mishawaka. Since we were there last spring, they have literally raised the roof, making it a much better acoustical space and so we were able to rock out with all of our gear. Much fun! (Special bonus: they spelled our name right on their little window-scrolling marquee.)
We caught up with some college friends and spent the evening post-show visiting. The next afternoon we visited some more, driving up to Zeke's to visit over one of the area's finest bottle selections. . .Last night we drove back north a bit to Kalamazoo to play at Papa Pete's with Dooley Noted. They also (mostly) spelled our name correctly on their marquee, although the "stereo fid-three-lics" is probably even more difficult to remember. . . It is raining and chilly; we've come to the conclusion that the Midwest (particularly the northern part) hasn't gotten the memo that it is April and clearly spring rules have been in effect for a few weeks now. . . As we drive south we are, yet again, trying to outrun a snowstorm. But, we're heading south!