UPDATED: 01/04 @ 1:00pm (CST)

David will be playing a few living room shows in and around Seattle. Tickets go on sale Sunday, December 20th at Noon (PT). Only 30 tickets will be available for each show.

undertowtickets.com

Friday, Jan 8 – Seattle, WA – SOLD OUT
Saturday, Jan 9 – Seattle, WA – SOLD OUT
Saturday, Jan 9 – Seattle, WA – SOLD OUT
Sunday, Jan 10 – Bellevue, WA – SOLD OUT

Here’s a video of David and Casey performing “Hard to Be” in New Haven, IN on December 13.

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the house shows this year! We really appreciate your support.

UDPATED 12/03/09

12/9 – Detroit, MI – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/10 – Cleveland, OH – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/11 – Columbus, OH – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/12 – Indianapolis, IN – 5pm – SOLD OUT
12/12 – Indianapolis, IN – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/13 – Ft. Wayne, IN – 5pm – SOLD OUT
12/13 – Ft. Wayne, IN – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/14 – Goshen, IN – 8pm – SOLD OUT
12/15 – Lansing, MI – 8pm – SOLD OUT

Read the full interview at Wunderkammer Magazine

Hello all.  We’re looking for a few more places to host living room shows in and around the Seattle metropolitan area on this weekend:

Friday, Jan 8th – 8pm show
Saturday, Jan 9th – 5pm early evening show
Saturday, Jan 9th – 8pm late evening show
Sunday, Jan 10th – 8pm show

Same goes for San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego the following week:

Tuesday, Jan 12th – 8pm show (San Francisco area)
Wednesday, Jan 13th – 8pm show (San Francisco area)
Thursday, Jan 14th – 8pm show (LA area)
Friday, Jan 15th – 8pm show (LA or San Diego area)
Saturday, Jan 16th – 5pm early evening show (LA area)
Saturday, Jan 16th – 8pm late evening show (LA area)
Sunday, Jan 17th – 5pm early evening show (San Francisco area)
Sunday, Jan 17th – 8pm late evening show (San Francisco area)

If you are interested, please read this https://pedrothelion.com/wp-content/uploads/bazan-houseshow.pdf, then email trey@billions.com with your address, a few photos of your living room, and which dates and times work for you.

After we have the dates and locations sorted out we will announce the dates and tickets will go on sale at undertowtickets.com. Stay tuned.

October 29, 2009 : The Picador : Iowa City, IA

The Picador, formerly known as Gabe’s Oasis, in Iowa City, Iowa, is commonly known as the worst rock club in America to touring bands. Load-in takes place up a full flight of metal stairs (as physics would have it, load-out takes place down those same stairs), the room is an unfinished mass of bare concrete, a carpeted stage (for optimally bad stage-sound), some lawn chairs, a couple of exposed electrical wires, and on this particular day, a nasty leak above the men’s bathroom which resulted in half-an-inch of standing water by the end of the night.

The show was also the most poorly attended of the tour thus far, and the weather was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. The band still played a great show, and I met some really nice people who were glad we came through town. Thanks to those people.

October 30, 2009 : Jackpot Saloon : Lawrence, KS

Lawrence, Kansas is definitely a pretty standard midwestern college town, but that’s not a bad thing. We did some awesome record shopping at Love Garden and ate some delicious food at Local Burger. Apparently, Lawrence likes to celebrate Halloween a day early, as about half the town were drunk power rangers, drunk pirates, drunk nurses, etc. The show was very full and very fun. The band dudes checked out C & C Drum factory / shop on the way out of town – a treat which I had to bypass to by some medicine for my nasty cold and look (in vein) for a replacement suitcase for my current stuff-holder which is in critical condition.

October 31, 2009 : The Slowdown : Omaha, NE

The dudes at Saddle Creek seem to have spurred some serious development by erecting The Slowdown, a very awesome venue, in a sort-of-abandoned part of downtown Omaha. In the strip with the multi-level venue now rests an American Apparel, an Urban Outfitters, an Art Theater, the Saddle Creek offices, and a pretty good coffee shop. A real hipster’s paradise.

It was Halloween in Omaha and the 200-something Nebraskans in attendance were suitably-dressed. Best costume goes to the couple dressed as H1-N1. Awesome and topical. The Slowdown was giving out candy, which was nice, and despite some technical difficulties people dug the set.

I accidentally took some nyquil about two hours before load-in which put me in a zombie-like state for most of the evening as I tried in vein to fight my way out of an Antihistamine-induced quicksand. Not one of the better moments of tour. Tomorrow is an eight hour drive to Denver, followed by the same to Salt Lake City the next day, and an I-don’t-even-want-to-think-about-it thirteen hour jaunt to Seattle the day after that. Good thing I have that Nyquil.

A Blake Wescott Look-a-like. (Photo by Andy Fitts)

October 27, 2009 : High Noon Saloon : Madison, WI

After a 14-hour day at Electrical Audio, we hailed a couple of cabs and retired to our rented rooms at the Days Inn on Deversey – a surprisingly awesome hotel, with a lot of it’s 1930’s charm still in tact. Some really cool stuff went to tape at Electrical Audio, and I had a lot of freak out’s centered around realizing the history of the room we were in. Several of my most treasured records were made here – Songs : Ohia’s “Didn’t it Rain,” Smog’s “Rain On Lens,” Shellac’s “At Action Park,” and tons of others – so I did what anyone would do and stole a blank track sheet to frame and hang up somewhere.

The High Noon Saloon in Madison is a pretty great room – big, with a nice backstage area, an upstairs for people who want to talk, and some good food in walking distance (the California Chicken Sandwich at Brass Ring will effect your day). The show was, unfortunately, the most poorly attended and also really early (7 and 8 pm set times with a hard 9:15 curfew). Despite this, the crowd was fine, and everyone had a fine time.

Dave’s friend Ben lives in town and came to hang out at the hotel afterwards where we had some good pizza and watched South Park.

October 28, 2009 : MPR, Turf Club : Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN

We left Madison early in order to make it to the MPR studios in time for an in-station for their excellent program, The Current. MPR has a pretty immaculate setup in downtown Minneapolis, and their live room is nicer than lots of professional recording studio’s – a rare thing for radio performances. The set will air sometime next week, and it sounded pretty great. The band played “Heavy Breath,” “Please Baby, Please,” and “When We Fell.”

I write to you now from the Turf Club – a really cool venue with really friendly staff, and an amazing Ethiopian restaurant across the street, at which I recently finished overeating. Wye Oak played first of three tonight, one of only four opening bands on this tour (not counting Say Hi, of course) and they were fantastic. I can’t say enough great things about them, you should check out their record called “The Knot” which came out on Merge a few months ago.

Tonight’s show was another sellout, a nice change from last night’s show, and both Say Hi and BAZAN totally brought the ruckus to the twin cities.   In terms of audience quality tonight was one of, if not the best, and the Turf Club is an amazing place to play. Act like you know.

Well, I left my Macbook charger in Toronto, so tour blogging has gotten significantly more difficult, but I promise to keep at it. The easiest way to catch up is a quick recap with some photos:

Toronto was amazing, the crowd was one of the best yet, Canadian money is really pretty, we had some great thai food, I bought socks and shirts at Honest Ed’s, and Lee’s Palace sounded great. I can’t believe how smoothly the border crossings went – Vancouver will surely be a nightmare, because we got over the border in fifteen minutes, and back to the states in ten. Thanks for being so awesome, Toronto.

Pontiac was uh, it was pretty good. Michigan doesn’t have an indoor smoking ban, which is a bummer, and the staff at the Pike Room / Crofoot (an awesome venue) is not exactly big on hospitality. As Barnhart put it, “it’s a great place to have a terrible show.”

Chicago, as always, was fantastic. Lincoln Hall overtook the Bowery as the most excellent venue of this tour. It was only their fourth show, and the venue is big, pristine, and sounds incredible. The hospitality staff at Lincoln Hall gets a special shout-out for being, without doubt, the most kind, helpful, and accommodating bunch of folks we’ve dealt with this trip. The Schuba’s dudes run this place, so they know a thing or two about putting on a rock show – not exactly a lightweight.

It was nice to be in Champaign and hang out with Bob and Adam, we also got to eat Papa Del’s, my favorite pizza in the world, and watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Now we’re in Chicago at Electrical Audio, and I’m freaking out because some of my most favorite records were made here. I can’t tell you exactly what we’re doing here, but you’ll know soon enough, and you’ll be psyched about it. Here are some pictures Bob took, click on them to make them bigger.

October 20, 2009 : TTThe Bear’s : Cambridge, MA

TW Walsh, whom you most likely know if you’re reading the David Bazan tour blog, came down for the New York show and rode down to Boston with us. On the way down we played some fun van games, ate some bad fast food, and generally hung out.

Today, the 20th, was a day off in Boston/Cambridge until our 6:00 pm load-in at TT The Bear’s in Cambridge. Alex, Matt, and I decided to wander around Cambridge, the rest of the dudes hung out at TW’s for the afternoon. After a delicious lunch, Alex dissapeared, so Matt & I hit up the super-excellent Twisted Village Records, where we both found a handful of stuff we were psyched about, and then the MIT Press Bookstore where I saw about thirty books I wanted to purchase. However, being poor, I decided to get just one, which was on sale. A Bazan fan was working the register, a fact he had established with Matt through small talk, asking why we were in town. I was hoping for a sweet discount since we were rockognized and all, but no such luck.

The Soft Drugs played first of three for this show, and it was an incredible treat. TW writes amazing songs, and he has an amazing band, of which he’s probably the most impressive member. Anyone who can drum that well and sing songs has something figured out.

October 21, 2009 : The New York Thruway, New York

Today was a “day off” (Drive day). We drove the entirety of the New York thurway, stopping at five “service areas” which all looked eerily similar, prompting a running groundhog day joke. When we got to the hotel we all met in Bazan’s room to watch “The Hangover,” which was on HBO. Bazan decided to order some nasty/awesome hotel bar chicken wings, fries, and onion rings for us (what a great boss) and set up a pretty amazing hotel room bar that was comprised of ice filled trash cans, left-over rider beer, and a half-empty bottle of tequila – a regular Martha Stewart, that one.