The Old Stomping Grounds

So, first and foremost I quickly want to touch on how AMAZING our show was with Good Old War in SUNY Oswego on Friday. Everything about it was perfect; the venue (Sheldon Ballroom) was absolutely gorgeous, complete with chandeliers and high ceilings and a great stage, and Good Old War was phenomenal. If you aren't aware of them yet, you need to become familiar. They're going on tour with The Gaslight Anthem starting May 5th, and then joining up with Straylight Run shortly thereafter. What a great show, and everyone that came out had the nicest things to say to us, and even GOW was so incredibly kind and amazing to us. Huge, huge thanks to Jazz (coincidentally Jonell's twin sister) for setting it all up. Even the flier... ugh, original artwork, you kill me every time:


This weekend is Fredonia's spring concert (Fredfest), and Kaleena's boyfriend is running the whole thing, so we decided to head out and see all the alumni and friends that will be in town. Kaleena was in charge of the concert last year, and we have both been members of the student group that puts it on every year, so this was our first Fredfest that didn't include any stress whatsoever (and we also played the festival twice over the past 4 years). O.A.R was headlining, and they sold 5,600 tickets, which is HUGE at our school. Overall the concert was a huge success, and I'm so happy for Shane and Spectrum for making the whole thing run pretty flawlessly (at least that's how it appeared). I also met up with a few friends throughout the day, and it was awesome getting to see so many people again after a year of being away from Fredonia.

Two things about this weekend though:

1) It really isn't the same place I remember... at all. I remember coming out for the winter concert, and still feeling an emotional connection to the college, the dorm halls, my old house, etc. But this time, I almost got a pit in my stomach. There's definitely a lot of ghosts in this place, and I think the only reason I enjoyed and loved and even hated this place was because of the people that I had around me, and without them it's just a desolate college town with a severe alcohol addiction. and

2), building off of that addiction, I think Kaleena put it best when she tried to drive downtown last night, calling me and saying "Seriously... it's like a zombie apocalypse of drunk people. They're in the roads, they're everywhere. And there are no parking spaces." What a mess the place was. Driving to and from Jonell's was absolutely terrifying, you actually felt the need to drive slow when there were people walking on the sidewalk because you weren't sure if they were planning on doing a mad rush across the street at that given moment. I actually had to stop on a busy road for a dude looking UPWARDS crossing the street. Forget looking both ways, he wasn't even looking ahead of him. We did manage to get a lot of great drunken feedback, however. Someone came up to me and Jonell, just gave us this big high-five "you guys ROCK!" (at least he was a positive, happy drunk), and I also had quite a few people come up to me "KALEEEEENAAAAAA I'VE MISSED YOU HOW ARE YOU DOING?!" To which I put on my best smile and responded and played along with it (It happens. And there's no point in explaining to someone who is drunk that you're not the person they think you are because that will just confuse them and then inevitably lead to the 20 minute apology when all I want to do is get the heck out of the bar I'm in). But alas, I managed to find some amazing people I didn't think I'd see, some old friends I was hoping I'd run into, and luckily, no one I didn't particularly want to see.

I'll be in Freddy until tomorrow, and I'm staying with one of my bests Jonell at her place in Dunkirk; it's a little far from downtown Fredonia so we had every intention of either going downtown for an hour or so, or going to the grocery store, picking up some bulk candy, and going to blockbuster (I love her; we are such 'stay-in' people. It's awesome). We amazingly did it all, and I managed to snag 2 movies for 9 bucks (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day). Right now I'm sitting on the couch which she works on a couple self portraits she has due for her drawing class, and Atticus is keeping me company :)


This week is going to be crazy for me, as I return home tomorrow, record, work Tuesday, record, have a great show in SUNY Canton on Wednesday, and then head out to Nashville on Thursday morning. It's going to be busy, but I am so happy. With all the recording and the slow pace of progress in the studio, shows are basically necessary to keep our morale up. They absolutely make everything we're doing worth it. Seeing everyone in Fredonia ask us how we're doing, and telling us they're following us online... you guys are amazing. And again, to everyone who came out on Friday, and to anyone who plans on coming out Wednesday, we love you. Really.