Day 3
My word 2007 is not letting me access my stuff sooooo day 2 will come later
:p
Day 3:
We awoke at yet another rest stop, the brisk morning dew still clinging to the windows. The daily rise and shine happened, and then we were on the road yet again. We were heading to Metairie, LA. But before we could arrive at our destination we made a detour and stopped at the Bel-Air mall, which was somewhere around Mobile, AL. Matt needed to pick up a shirt for his valentines day project. He was infusing a long sleeve baby blue shirt then sowing on the collar, button, cuffs, and pocket of a plaid shirt he owned. The idea does sound a little crazy, but the outcome is actually pretty neat. I was happy to find a Chick-fil-a in the mall and pleasured myself to a sweet tea. Then we were back on the open road.
If you have ever read a book where the setting is in New Orleans or Louisiana in general, it is exactly what it sounds like. Everything having that old-timely feel; and the colors purple, green, and yellow gracing nearly every item in plain sight. But the depressing side of it is that as you get closer and closer to the city, the more devastation you see. There are still half blown away apartment complexes and office buildings that you can see from the interstate. Trees nearly all lifeless and bent and snapped in the way the powerful wind that ripped through. To think that Katrina happened 4 years ago, and these people still haven’t recovered completely.
When we got to the venue it seemed to be an old 2 story bar, or small warehouse. A one way road led to the back where the vans had space to park and unload. Then you became surrounded in beautiful graffiti that decorated the tall buildings . I became Dman’s photographer for a whole 5 minuets and took from pictures on them all by it. They turned out pretty snazzy, but once all the big timin’ was over we ventured inside the club and Nic notices the flyer for the show and to all of our surprise the bands I Set my Friends on Fire and WATCHOUT! There’s Ghosts! were both set to play with us that evening. They had played the previous night in Tampa, and I cannot even begin to imagine how their drive was. I had the chance over the evening to talk to Ismfof for some time, and they are pretty cool dudes actually. They are also big Fear Before fans, so that makes them immediately high up in my book. They are also playing in Houston tomorrow, so possible plans to hang are being made.
The venue ’The High Grounds’ has been my favorite venue so far on the trip, and yes it crushes the Orpheum. The sound quality was as crisp as it could be, the lights looked so sweet, and the kids were super into the show last night. Well for the most part, the opener Watch Out! honestly wasn’t that good. But Dman was there to follow and revive the gasping start to the evening. Everyone was really into them tonight, and a big group of boys choreographed some dance moves during one of their songs. The best part of their set, besides Andrew being a creeper in the rafters, was after they played Grogbase, it was the loudest roar I have ever heard them get before. It was really over powering, and slightly unexpected for me; But completely deserved. The rest of the show carried on nicely; Ismfof drew a pretty decent sized crowd, though Foxy again was the winner in crowd participation and overreactions. Their set was really strong, and their closing song literally was wild. Daisy hung his bass from the rafters and was just pounding on it, while Eric was hanging upside down on them, Alex leapt at Tyler and clasped onto him as he just screamed in his face, and Sky picked up his keyboard and was playing it above his head. It was the best live show I have ever witnessed by them.
After everything was played and over with, had some more conversations with the dude’s in Ismfof and then departed on an epic quest to find beignets. We traveled to the one next to the venue, but to our distain it had closed 34 minuets prior to our arrival. But our dreams were not crushed, no sir not one bit. We then ventured to the heart of where Mardi Gras was to be held the next day. Pre-party festivities were already going on. As we were driving down the road slowly to make sure not to hit any inebriated pedestrians, one guys pointed into the drivers window at Nic and said “Hey, it’s Dr.Manhattan!” really random moment for none of us knew him or recognized the guy from the show. Then we scarcely parked and Adam and I got out on a beignet run. The streets reeked of a large assimilation of fowl, awful things. Stumbling street walkers gave crazed crooked faced stares at people as they past. An Asian man who liked to round up delivered us our freshly made deserts of Creole descent. The powder goodness soon filled our stomachs, and speckled everyone’s pants legs.
The next adventure was to go Foxy Shazam’s hotel room that they were nice enough to share with us. We arrived somewhere around the hour of 1am and to find 5/7ths of foxy all cozy and tucked in bed watching old basketball highlights. They had spread extra blankets across the floor for us to stay on. Nic, Tyler, and I were the only ones who actually stayed in the room, everyone else opted for the van. The sandman was no where in site for me, and it grew into a nearly sleepless evening. But once I did, it was nice.
