Ideamen

Aigh, took me long enough. I haven't had internet since, erm... before we went on tour. Well, I had the air card thing, but after the tour it stopped working for lack of me paying the bill. Once the bill was paid and it started working again, I discovered that it didn't really work where I live, worse yet, it wouldn't work at all, ever, on my PC. So I tried to get real internet. Tried. Who'd-a-thunk it would be hard to get internet. No DSL available at all where I'm at, from any provider. Tried to get the u-verse stuff from AT&T. They apparently don't do business with fiscally responsible people. They literally wouldn't take my money because I don't have a credit card. My bank card wasn't good enough for them. So I told them... well, they aren't getting any of the money that they won't take. Unfortunately the last resort was Comcast, and anyone who lives around here knows that's like the stupidest most expensive way to get internet. But it was my only option, so here I am, enjoying reasonably fast internet for at least $20 more per month then something faster. I hate you Comcast. But thanks for the only internet I can get. Now I can update the Ideamen website after 3 months of creepy silence.

Hooboy, what a tour it's been. Here's a quick roundup:
Mar 17 - Eagle's Lodge, Wichita, KS - Middle of nowhere, awesome crowd. Thanks to dude from The Nursing Home Panty Raid for the crash spot.
Mar 18 - The Conservatory, OK City, OK - Decent venue, good sound. Where all the van troubles began.
--Repair Log-- Attempted to swap out the AC compressor in the van with a bypass pulley. Wrong part. Put the compressor back on and crossed our fingers.
Mar 19 - Club Encore, Austin, TX - Empty. Who cares, we're in Texas baby!
Mar 20 - Lucky Lounge, Austin, TX - Packed. Awesome. Got to catch some of the goodies at SXSW. Fun. I met my virtual bosses, turns out they live in Austin. Thanks Eme and Pecos for coming out!
--Repair Log-- Due to the faulty AC compressor clutch, preemptively replaced both the idler and tensioner pulleys on the van.
Mar 21 - The Boiler Room, Denton, TX - Nice room, halfway decent show. Was a bit of a booking conflict between the Rotten show and a poker tournament. Fortunately the card games wrapped up early.
--Repair Log-- Went out to purchase a new AC compressor. Did not install. If it blows on the road, we'll drop it in and keep moving. A fuse blew on the way to get the compressor. Replaced that. In the meantime, the bearing on the trailer blew out, taking the spindle with it. Spindle is not replaceable. Replaced the entire axle on the trailer until 3am. Yay.
Mar 23 - Vino's, Little Rock, AR - Good Pizza, nice crowd. Tired. Met a couple from NY that's following the Polkadot tour. They mosh.
Mar 24 - PVF (Patriotic Veterans Foundation), Memphis, TN - Nice break. Not a great show, but a nice break. $0.50 beers for the bands. During the day we went to Graceland. Fun!
Mar 25 - The Muse, Nashville, TN - This show made up for the three awful ones that preceded it. Awesome crowd. Fans we didn't know we had. An old friend Mike from home that just so happened to move to Nashville and came out to the show. Another old friend Art who let us crash at his place.
--Repair Log-- Rear tires started bulging something awful from carrying all the extra weight. Replaced them.
Mar 26... On the road to Columbus, nasty detour. Left an hour early, currently set to arrive 5 hours late. We might get to play.

Jerry's Bait Shop in Lee's Summit MO - Best Tuesday ever. We know not to expect much out of weekday shows, but this one threw out the curve. Place was packed, and we're still ahead of the money vs. gas game. Jerry is a ginormous piranha-like fish in a tank that allegedly likes the hot wings they serve there. We ran into some technical difficulties during the set, the kick drum slid out of place a couple of times and Timmy's keyboard shut itself down for reasons it didn't feel like explaining to us. So we had to cut the set a bit short, sorry Jerry. SuperThanks to Joe F. Mills for having us crash at his place.
Currently driving through Kansas - spiffy fields and hills out here, plus a couple black spots where I presume there must have been recent brush fires. Vampire Mooose just passed us up and waved a single finger hello. Timmy and Doug still can't get past level 4 on Frogger. Happy St. Patty's day!
--dg

St. Louis is a really nice town. We showed up and loaded in (Cicero's is a nice place, big, clean, multi-leveled - free pizza for the bands), then took a walk about to see what we were missing. *Everything* was open. On a Sunday. After 7pm. Wow.
The show went well, good crowd, and we got to meet some of the local fans we'd been chatting with on the intertubes. Thanks to the Shattermask crowd (hi Josh!), Billy Bob, Rick G., and superThanks to Trevor of Tub Ring for letting us crash.
We get Monday off, so we're going to go be tourists and hit the Arch. Then we're off to Ryan's house (Vampire Mooose) for a BBQ. Good times.

We are grateful from the bottoms of our hearts all the way out through the roofs of our heads for all the friends and fans that came out to catch the Chicago show. It was like a family reunion of sorts for us, except that it was wonderful and full of surprises. Hugs and kisses to all of you! And to the Polkadot fans too, some of you were cute. Thanks folks - see you when we get back home!