mattwertz

The last couple days have been amazing. We've added a new member to the family!

see it? it's our new GPS.  it talks to us in a british accent and tells us where to turn. I think sometimes he gets confused though and sends us driving in circles, or into people's driveways...or maybe 
it's just his way of having fun... either way, it's nice to have an international member of the van.

We played a killer show in Lawrence at the Granada Theatre.  The last time i was in the Granada was watching the Ben Folds Five play in the fall of '97.  One of the best shows i've ever seen, so it was a dream come true to play the stage of the Granada for myself.

We had to make the drive to Boulder the next day, which is like 10 hours, so we got a head start and slept in Hays, Ks for a few hours. The last time I stayed in Hays, Kansas, I was probably 10 years old and my family was stuck in a blizzard on our way out to Colorado to ski.  Ahh, the memories.

Boulder greeted us with 40 degree, sunny skies and the Flatirons in the background. the Fox was ready for the show, and so were we.

We had no idea what was coming...I drove up to the Fox after dinner to see THIS:

People just kept coming in! I really don't know where y'all came from, but i'm glad you did. Sell out number five, and the best one yet. This was also to be the last show with the Alternate Routes, and 
the last time of us performing 'Gonna Get Through' together. We made it an extra special one, and had Jon's tour manager Bob come out and play banjo.

I think that's 11 people on stage.  yep. 11.

and the view from the balcony...

beautiful.

I think Boys II Men said it best when they sang 'it's so hard to say  goodbye to yesterday'... and indeed it was, you gotta get the end of  tour group pic in, though.

See ya soon...

Wertz

So i dont know what it is about the mid-west, but the coldest experiences i've EVER had in my life have taken place in the midwest.  Prior to this past week, the coldest i remember being was   in Orange City, Iowa... -4 degrees.  We slaughtered that record in Minnesota... with a painful (and completely unnecessary) -11 degrees.  don't believe me?

 

We obviously got out of there as quickly as possible... i mean, what GOOD is cold weather, anyway?  I'm trying to figure out the POINT.  I mean, i understand it to a certain degree- like to the degree that it takes to get snow... but beyond that, do we REALLY need it THAT cold?

I guess the other good thing about cold weather is it makes being INSIDE that much sweeter...especially on super bowl sunday. It also makes Rufus's Super- Secret chicken Chili even more amazing then it already is.

Someone mentioned that Rufus looks like David Arquette the other day, and now, looking at this picture up next to David Arquette,  i think the guy was right.

So, my buddy Bradley opened up his house to us in Des Moines and we invited the Alternate Routes guys over and we had a little Super Bowl Party. Timmy had the idea to make the game a little more interesting, and guess who won both the half time and the final draws?

yep. and as you can imagine, since i was the guy drawing the numbers,  there were conspiracy accusations being flung left and right.

i won fair and square.

we were all excited about the Colts big V. Probably because we think Peyton Manning is the Man (ning).  I guess Rufus wasn't uber-stoked, but he kinda decided at last-minute to root for the Bears, so it doesn't count.

After the game, we all sat around and had a 5 hour jam sesh. It was amazing.  The Routes love them some jam seshes and it's so refreshing. They are the real deal, folks.

There were more g-strings in that room than at a dance club... what?

All for now- we're piling up miles on the van. Funny how 99% of our  life is being lived in this thing, but everyone else only sees the 1%  lived on the stage.  that's what the blog is for, i guess...

Wertz, '07

 

Sitting here in Madison, Wisconsin on what could be possibly be the coldest day on record EVER.  We kept watching the Weather Channel, hoping that what it was forcasting for the next couple days was a mistake, but so far it's proving to be dead on.  I feel like I've been a little dishonest with you lately, and need to reconcile... you see, i left out a really important detail on the last blog that i
feel needs to be addressed.  (see image)

yeah, we ran out of gas, and not just anywhere... we ran out of bridge going through New York City.  (see image)

That's the exit for the George Washington Bridge.  Probably one of the least convenient places to run out of gas... fortunately Jon McLaughlin was about 20 minutes behind us and were able to stop and
get some gas and rescue us (see below)

We played an incredible room last night in Ann Arbor called 'The Ark'. The list of who has played at that place is endless- everyone from Marc Cohn to Patty Griffin to Nickel Creek, Tom Waits, the list
goes on and on.

We can't stop watching the 'Dog Whisperer' on the National Geographic Channel. Its funny how much what he's doing with dogs applies to humans, too.  More on this to come... we've got to go play a show-

Wertz '07

So here we are, a week into the tour- 4 shows under our belt, as well as an additional 5 lbs, it seems.  It'll be a miracle if we still fit into our tight pants 3 months from now.  Chancho! get me some
sweeeaats! We've gotten a lot of use out of our outerwear as we've been met full on by sub-zero degree wind chills in Boston and now Pittsburgh.  Chad, Brad, Rufus, Jason and I have logged some serious hours in the Red Rover (i haven't called her that since Beh Beh was
behind the wheel...)

College Park, Maryland was the first stop, and proved to be the tallest stage i've ever played on...probably WILL every play on, too.  Chad had his own drum room, which conveniently doubled as a sauna, which was awesome for him. the show was great....

but couldn't compare with what was ahead at the hotel we stayed in. The first clue that we should have loaded up the van and tried somewhere else should have been the fact that it took literally 30
minutes to check in.  Everyone spoke english, our credit card works, i mean- c'mon, how hard can this be?  But we shrugged it off, knowing that sleep was hopefully only a few more minutes away.

We climbed up the stairs to our room only to find our extra cot sitting OUTSIDE (in the 20 degree weather) or room. (see exhibit A)

Amused, we slid the key card into the lock and entered the room. "Cool! Adjoining rooms!" We open the door on our side of the wall to find... WHAT!!?? (see exhibit B)

That's a stack of compressed towels that had been sandwiched between the two doors for Lord knows how long.  We didnt have the courage to see what lay amongst them, especially before stumbling upon EXHIBIT C!

This is where we were expecting someone to come out of the bathroom with a knife and start slicing us up.  I mean, WHAT IN THE WORLD!  In case you can't see what's going on, here, this is a random high heel hidden behind the chair in the corner of our hotel room.  We all felt a little dirtier waking up the next morning, but glad to have gotten sleep.

One of my favorite things about the Northeast is Dunkin Donuts. I know I may offend some people here, but i want you to hear me when I say that Dunkin Donuts is a superior donut to Krispy Kreme.  Not to mention the fact that their coffee is phenomenal.  We made some friends at one of our many Dunkin Donuts stops and assured them they would see themselves on the internet, so ladies, here's your 15 minutes...

This week has been all about us gel-ing as a band, figuring out parts, choreography, when to set the pyro off, you know- same ol, same ol.  Jon McLaughlin is sitting in on keys for us and that has
been rad.  He and rufus and I were taking some time to tickle before the show at BU the other night.  Notice the scarves.  We found out it was literally like 18 below with the windchill that night in Boston.
Someone please help.

oh, and we drove past the New Balance headquarters on the way to Holy Cross where we played the best show of the tour so far... great crowd, great cause (raising money for Africa) and everything was in black and white that night... weird. (and yes, my back IS covered in sweat... one of those nights).

That's all i've got for now.  We're playing tonight in Pittsburgh after a few days off and we really can't wait to drop kick it.  It's been snowing all morning here, and it feels like Christmas should
have felt.  I'm proposing we push Christmas back to the end of January.  Any takers? It's finally getting cold enough to feel like Christmas.  Would that mess things up with retail?  They might still
need some 4th quarter help... we could start a new holiday, or just give presents for New Years... Bueller, Bueller?

Wertz '07