nan's tour diary, april 2001
April 2nd & 3rd
Pittsburgh. The city where they filmed Flashdance. Ahh, leotards, Jennifer Beals, and the Duquesne Incline. What could be better? We arrived about 9:30pm---we stayed with Molly from the Hulas and Frogdog. Our gig was on the 3rd so we had a whole day to fart around Pittsburgh. We went up and down the Incline and had some lunch at the Grandview Restaurant and had a great (well I should say GRAND) view of the city.
Fast forward through naptimes, snacks, and reading magazines, to our gig at The Rosebud, a premier Pittsburgh venue located on "The Strip." I was excited about going to "The Strip" thinking that there'd be strip bars and some old NYC Times Square ambiance, but it turns out it was just warehouse spaces and shops near the water.
When we got there the mulleted sound man accosted us about "wedges." He wanted to know how many we wanted on stage--he said he had six of them. Did we want to put everything into the wedges? Took me a couple seconds to figure out he was talking about monitors and not cheese. We've never had six monitors before! I almost felt self-conscious that I could hear myself so well.
Molly's band, Frogdog, played first and they rocked so hard! Molly is a guitar goddess, kicking out bluesy, punky, and surfy riffs with Derek and Ron.
Our set was okay---not crazy full of energy but still getting the groove. It was cool to hear us sound SO BIG and fill up such a giant space.
Molly's other band, The Hulas, played after us and they had more of a pop sound than Frogdog. Their bassist, Deanna, sang harmonies with Molly and it was downright sweet & catchy. Loved their song "Platform Shoes." Check them out at dashboardhulas.com.
After the show we went out to get beer and burgers with The Hulas and Frogdog, and Molly was cursing her friends who didn't come to the show. She kept wailing "Those Mullet-loving Fucks!" over and over. How can you not love this girl? We decided to talk about and sing about and look out for mullets over the course of our midwest tour.
Footnote: This show was the only time I wore my red skirt and boots and I have to say, it limited my jumping ability.
April 4th
Left early afternoon for Columbus, Ohio. Pam forgot her camera about 10 miles down the road so Molly met us at a BP station about an hour later, with camera in hand. What a sweetie! I checked the air pressure in the tires while we were stopped.....I've discovered I have 4 anxiety triggers. They are tires, tuning, driving in rain storms, and flying in airplanes. Of course, the 10 times I checked the tires on this tour, they were just fine. But better safe than sorry you know.
We had discovered that morning that they cancelled our gig at Old Field's because Fletch (the band who set up the show for us) couldn't play with us(Pam note: we'd known this already, but the club didn't...and they weren't happy when they found out)----but Jimmy Rico (sounds like a mafia name), our Columbus Connection, got us another gig at a punk club called High Five.
We walked into the club and immediately saw a poster for Harlow--the VH-1 "Bands on the Run" girl band. They had played there in November 2000. I wonder if VH-1 sent the poster to the club or if they really did all the promotion themselves. Hmmm. I only watched that show once--I hated it and of course couldn't turn it off.
So we set up our stuff and waited around.....we didn't know if anyone was going to show up. There was an AC/DC concert that nite---and the after-party was at High Five, so we expected people to show up late. Pam's pals Sandy and Bruce came and sat at the front table with some of their pals. We got the camera out and made some bad jokes.
Our set was better than Pittsburgh--we felt more energized and rockin'. The band who played after us were good sports and cheered for us even though we didn't play Slayer as they had requested. Their name was Lylo Americans and I very much enjoyed their cover of AC/DC's "Have a Drink On Me."
April 5th-7th
More driving and it's smelly in the van. It doesn't matter if we shower in the morning or night or twice a day. The van develops a stinky body smell as soon as we're in it for more than two hours. We got out the video camera and taped ourselves doing madlibs. I felt very arty listening to Sonic Youth and recording the scenery. I KNOW IT'S BORING TO LOOK AT, but I don't care.
We got to Bloomington, IN in the early evening. We were staying with one of the Ladyfest volunteers--Heather. She and her roommates are college students at I.U. so they weren't there that much but it was still a little crowded. We got our dog fix though---they had a sandy-colored dog named Femi and we took lots of pictures of her doing cute dog things. Like sleeping and being petted.
Ladyfest in Indiana was small and intimate and I loved it. We went to workshops on vegan cooking and fat oppression (actually the title of this one was "Size Matters! A caucus for ladies and ladylike men of girth and mirth"). We saw a film by Sara McCool that had large women in the adult entertainment industry talking about their work and body image. It was pretty amazing to hear women who would be considered obese in our society talk lovingly about their bodies. There is so much silence around the topic of weight and it was so refreshing to witness "fat" women being sexy and beautiful. It's about time!
Another highlight of Ladyfest was meeting up with Penny Arcade, the raw and brilliant performance artist (who also lives in NYC). We had many conversations with her over the span of two days, covering a range of topics from "our goals as artists" to our family histories to trying to make money off of our art to our astrological signs.
One of the bands that stood out for me was Pretty Pony. Try to say that name 5 times really fast. Pretty Pony Pretty Pony Pretty Pony Pretty Pony Pretty Pony. They made me shake my booty. I liked Greg's sticker on his guitar that read "All American Cocksucker". Greg is gay, by the way. Not that you care and not that it matters but it does make the sticker on his guitar more amusing. Greg is also very nice and funny and articulate as we found out in the Size Matters! caucus. Another band I dug was Karate Cowgirl---just guitars and drums and lots of vocals. I love that combo--their singer had a sexy voice and some guitar riffage reminiscent of PJ Harvey.
We played on the last nite of the fest and I have to admit I was pretty nervous. But I had my green prom dress on which gives me courage and the ladyfesters were very supportive. They threw some shoes at us (Moxiestarpark style) and one of the drag kings (who were HOT HOT HOT) even placed a dollar at Alina's feet.
Oh and Raunchy Reckless and the Amazons. How could I forget them? They dress up like vikings and they sing songs about Xena the Warrior Princess. One viking was wearing a plastic, flesh-colored male upper torso and she sang a song called "Man Chest." We sang "Man Chest Man Chest You know you want to touch my Man Chest" for two solid days after seeing Raunchy.
April 8th
Ate at Waffle House for the second time and began our trek to South Bend, IN. We had a show at a coffeehouse called Higher Grounds with a South Bend band called Space and Noise Productions. Their sound reminds me a bit of Guided By Voices---bittersweet instrumentation and lots of layers---really lush and dynamic. Loved the wacky instruments--bells and bird noises and weird keyboards and not two but THREE guitars. Unique drumming too. They did a hair-raising cover of The Pixies' "Where is my mind" that gave us goosebumps.
It was really refreshing to play an all-ages show. The people that came were excited about seeing new music and we got a very warm response. And playing with S&N inspired us...they are diamonds nestled in the heart of Indiana cornfields. Okay maybe not cornfields exactly, but they are a really great band, and me & the Fingers want everyone to know about them!!! We are working on setting up shows with them in NYC, so STAY TUNED. And check out their website (which is being worked on, but they have an IUMA page) at spaceandnoise.com.
April 9th, 10th, and 11th
Oh Indiana. I love Pammer's mom's house. It's very spacious and is on a nature preserve so there are a lot of squirrels and chipmunks and critters. It's so relaxing, I'm thinking I want to vacation here every year. I love waking up late and having an international coffee moment looking out on trees and green grass. I think all of us needed a break like this---before we left New York we were pretty wound up with organizing the tour and doing a million things, and it is so lovalee to lounge around and have FREE TIME!
THINGS WE DID IN MISHAWAKA, INDIANA:
April 12th
We lazed around for most of the day. I did some yoga but once I started handstands I had to lie down and rest for two hours to recover.
We drove to Chicago and played at Girlbar. Sarah B. and the Gist played before us and Sarah had a real husky Melissa Etheridge thing going on and lots of ladies came out to see her. The bartender kept giving us free drinks---that's one thing about our tour so far...we've drunk a lot at our gigs. And we're not a drinking band. This is how addiction starts.....all the waiting around to play with nothing to do---I'm sure when we get back to NYC we'll detox and go jogging every day, ha ha.
Our set was kind of wierd at Girlbar. I think all the waiting around made us lose some energy. The sound was muddy and I felt off. People were very nice though....and stayed around to talk to us after the show. We made it back to Mishawaka to our luxurious tour home by 4am.
April 13th
Rock and Roll Summer Camp.
Got up at noon and drank a pot of coffee. Space & Noise asked us to play a gig with them at Purdue University so we left in a caravan around 4pm. Scott rode in our van on the way down and Leener rode in their van....we made Scott tell us all their band gossip. Which of course I cannot elaborate on. I think Leen got some gossip too but she's holding out on us.
We got to Purdue and the two guys that set up the gig had a PA outside, as well as a table with cookies and soda! I was psyched they brought snacks. We ended up playing on a loading dock outside one of the residence halls. There was a group of guys working on a race car at a room to the back of the stage. I tried to sing some songs to them but they weren't amused. Fine then.
There was a lot of jumping and cheerleading kicks in our set. I think our cover of Human League's "Don't you want me?" was a hit. The guys working on the race car looked over at us on that one.
Space and Noise were once again on fire. They started singing some Britney Spears in the middle of their Pixies cover. But they're not that innocent, I tell you. We videotaped their show and plan to sell it on e-bay.
Then we went to a party at Jeff's house (a friend of Josh from S&N). We danced and sang silly songs until 2am and then it was splitsville to South Bend. We have decided that S&N are like the Indie Backstreet Boys. We turn into gushy 13 year olds around them.
Had chocolate donettes and doritos in the van and told our life stories to Scott. We got back at 5:30am--I hadn't seen the sun come up in a while. Nothing like farm fields and an Indiana sunrise.
April 14th
Chicago again. We kidnapped Scott and took off in the early evening for Chi-town. Holli, of the now-defunct band Joygirl, hooked us up with a gig at a club called Manhattan's, where she is a bartender. People have been extemely nice to us in the Midwest and this gig was no exception. The owner, Mark, bought us deep dish Chicago-style pizza and at one point there were shots of scotch going around and a lot of Moosehead beer. Holli is a cool girl and I fully expect her to send me her solo stuff as soon as it is recorded (hear that missy?).
A band called Dime opened for us---A Brazilian woman named Ruthie is the singer/guitarist of this band...I dug their bossa nova/loungey style...Holli calls it "sensual samba rock." A lot of the old modern dance moves started coming back to me, and Scott and I managed a not-too-shabby duet...I like to lead though, and that's always a problem with old-fashioned partner dancing.
I think this was one of our best shows on the tour. We had an extreme amount of energy and felt really happy. There was a dork in the audience who kept yelling out how we sucked, so we dedicated "Big Dick" to him. We dawdled around post-show, and Ruthie gave me a "Brazil" shirt to remember her by.
April 15th & 16th
We are sad to leave. We'll miss all our free time and Indiana and our new S&N friends and Pam's mom and the house with all the critters. But rock and roll camp must come to an end, so we packed up our stuff and hit the road around 2pm. We were going to drive straight from Indiana to NYC, but it was raining pretty hard. My anxiety attack while driving through The Perfect Storm did not help matters. Shark was a good co-pilot though and got me to the nearest exit without mishap. We got a room at the Dubois, PA Holiday Inn and conked out for a few hours.
The next day we woke up at 6am and got back on the road. We stopped at Cracker Barrell and decided that we're going to plan our next tour around various Cracker Barrell restaurants. They had free maps in the restaurant with all the pertinent information. YUMMY. Fried apples and grits from sea to shining sea.
All right, that's it---we're back and we had a great time and we recommend that everybody take a two week tour. Even if you don't play music. Just go from city to city and check out bands and talk to people. Also, if you want to be Bionic Finger's benefactor or give us large sums of money so we can go on tour again, you can email us at bionicfinger@bionicfinger.com.
Love,
Nan "Thrasher" Turner
P.S. My new band nickname is "Thrasher" because Christine noticed I thrash around a lot in my sleep, turning over violently and stealing covers. No Finger wanted to share my bed by the end of the tour. I think Sharky was made to do it because she is very good with animals (even human).