BLACK SS / SICK FIX WEEKEND TOUR DIARY

Day 1 -
One thing about my band is that we just cannot be on time. It's scientifically impossible. Show tonight is in a basement in nj with a 6pm start time... We didn't leave Syracuse till after 1. So just as sure as the sun will set this evening, bss will be late yet again. Providing transportation is our good pal biff from I object/brown sugar. Anyone that knows him will tell you he's one of the most crucial fellas on this planet.. So I'm very excited to have him with us this weekend. His iPod has also made the journey with us. Interesting mix. From bold and impact unit to dead kennedys to some bullshit that may have been led zepplin or some other
Marijuana music.

I've been in the back of the van watching don't be a menace to south central... On my phone. After a short nap I rocked the newer af record. Man that shit is good.
Gas is ridiculous. I don't really go anywhere so maybe I was a little oblivious, but we have burnt through about 100$ since cuse an still have an hour to go. Hope the shows are good.
(after show)
Yup, show was good. Show was in a basement by the rutgers college area. Seems like this piece of nj is inhabited only by dudes that tan and lift weights, wear gold chains, and drive mercedes. I commonly refer to these types as d-bags. As to not offend my good friend buckles I'll hold off on calling them guidos. Another thing I'd like to point out is no basketball court was in sight. Disturbing.
First band up was shitfit I think. 3 dudes in 1 band. Pa kinda sucked but they were decent. Not much banter in between songs which is sometimes ok in my book. The bass player had a big beard that reminded me that even at 31, I could never make that happen. Shit. Next up was draize. Pretty good band with fast parts And the crushing slow parts. Kids seemed real into them. Sick fix destroyed the place next. Fucking pa system kept me from the max wig out, but that band is so good. They played some new stuff that was incredible. Definetly still one of my favorite bands.
Black ss closed out the night.. Doing what we do.
After the show the fun really began... That is if you count eating fun (I do). We headed out to the grease trucks. Wow. What can I say? I had the fat Philly. This beauty had it all... Gyro, cheese steak, mozz sticks, fries,chicken tenders and hot sauce all on a delicious roll. Me and chuck were so pumped we were making plans to buy our second sandwich after only 1 bite. After getting it down though, we both figured it'd be best not to. I hope they are open for breakfast. The vegans even have their choice of fat sandwiches. What a beautiful way to end the night. We headed to our friends spacious home for a good nights sleep and to get ready for the party that is Albany.





Day 2.

After throwing pennies at mr biff to wake him up we hit the road and went looking for the grease trucks again. On the way I ran into tj maxx to get sunglasses and some new headphones. Both were pretty "urban" if you will.
Thankfully one of the grease trucks were open so I got the fat bitch this time. Biff and buckles finished up their jar of veganase on their sandwiches. Those guys love that stuff. They used a bacteria ridden knife to spread it all over their shit. I'll miss those fat sandwiches.
Show in Albany was pretty cool. Local band reptar was awesome. Young straight edge folks who kept it fast and furious. Sick fix killed it yet again. Early mic problems kinda gave their set a slow start but it quickly started being the steamroller that I love and the mosh began. Bss played next then the almighty face value took the stage. They played a bunch of songs off the first ep. which I'm most familiar with. Seemed like the place kinda cleared out before they began which was a bummer. I wasn't really expecting a mob scene, but thought they deserved a little more then what they got. Erba seemed cool with it and was the true showman we all expected. After the show we loaded up, dealt with the Albany druggers, hit up our favorite diner, and finally hit the sack... All right!




Day number fuckin 3

NYC today... Very exciting. After an exhilarating ride into Brooklyn care of biff (and shirtless Sunday!) we met up with our Syracuse buds andy and jon. me and buckles left the crew behind and ventured in the big city. luckily for us it started to pour while we stomped through the streets in search of delicious food, nerdy comic shit, and of course wild entertainment. First things first... The damn food. After Taking hundreds of unnecessary steps we finally found our destination.. Vegetarian paradise 2. Buckles had tasty chicken and I destroyed a crab cake and veggies with beef. Paradise indeed.
After the feast we hit up some comic store. I dont really care for the colorful hand drawn books, so i checked out the bootleg dvds and toys. Nothing good so we split and headed to times square to people watch. We saw some great ones this day.. a handsome black man dressed in a little girls tutu, crown and face full of badly applied makeup... 2 crazies shooting fake lightening bolts at each other and acting like their force fields were being damaged, and of course random a-hole tourists who enjoy staring up at the big buildings, not watching where they walk...and in turn running right into me. I think this happened about 200 times. We then took the L train to brooklyn for the show.
I very much enjoy my iphone. Part of that enjoyment is the maps function. If only we had used it. Once again, me and buckles took about 10,000 steps too many walking around in circles. Fucking brooklyn. Showtime was at 7pm and I think we finally made our way there about 7:15. First band was on and the rest of the band was AWOL (get it?). After my angry phone call to them about not having shit set up, we met up and set up the precious merchandi$e. As we loaded in I was listening to agnostic front trying to imagine being in one of their music videos as I walked the streets of NYC.(At this point, Id like to point out that we had very little band money and a whole lot of expenses ahead of us. The turnout (which id say was 1/4 syracuse transplants) was less then stellar so Id have to turn into crazy danny and offer those hot deals on the merch. While my charm didnt really bring in the big bucks, our syracuse pals bought up our wares and we ended up with just enough to cover the weekend...thanks!)
So that first band... I only caught like 2 songs but they were rough. I remember telling someone that I hope it gets better. Well folks, it did not. Next band was bad. The band after that was bad. The band after that....yup, bad. In fact the band before Sick Fix had me searching for a anvil that I could toss up in the air so that I may run under it. You know how nirvana had those annoying moments of feedback and nonsensical screaming? Well this bands whole set was that. They prob played for 25 minutes but it felt like forever. Mentally and physically drained I helped sick fix set up and tried to get stoked on the show again. After they rang out that first note I woke back up and got back into the swing of things. That band needs to get a full length out asap. Everything they do is awesome. Hard as nails, fast as fuck, straight edge, and songs that mean something. Bands cant seem to escape the bullshit american nightmare style of lyric writing. Maybe its the age thing, but if youre that depressed maybe you should start listening to crap like the cure and blend yourself into that scene....fucking winers.
Anyways, SICK FIX = the damn best.
We set up after that storm of hate and edge, and whipped through our set. Kids seemed to be into it. Chuck said kids in NY are too cool to dance, so there ya go. After our set some dude brought us some free food from the health food store he works at. I was a bit apprehensive because I had a feeling it was old shit that was getting tossed anyways, but I was starving so down it went. Id like to thank that man, my colon has never felt so cleaned out from the chicken and peppers thing I ate. Yikes.
I dont remember much about the ride home other then buckles freeaking out about running out of gas since no gas stations were open. Fucking NJ.
We finally arrived home at 630am on monday and I decided to go to bed instead of right into work.
So thanks to mike, buckles, chuck and biff for making the weekend awesome. Lets do it again sometime!