Category: News

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.

Photo by TW Walsh

October 17, 2009 : Kungfu Necktie : Philadelphia, PA

I was skeptical when we arrived at Kungfu Necktie – skeptical of a lot of things. Skeptical that it could hold 150 people like we were told (it couldn’t), skeptical that loading in through a door that an average-sized adult male had to turn slightly sideways to fit through would be much fun (It wasn’t), and skeptical that the bar, who told us doors were at 8, would actually be adhering to that, since there were some patrons already bellied-up to the bar when we arrived (they didn’t).

Remember that load-in door that an average-sized adult male had to turn slightly sideways to fit through? Well, we’re average-sized adult males, for the most part, but we have keyboards, drums, guitars, merch bins, audio racks, and the like to lug in, so load-in wasn’t much fun. I hurt my back picking things up, which made me feel weird and old, and we had to store our stuff in the basement, down two flights of stairs, because the stage was so tiny.

Now, I should interrupt long enough to say that the bar was cool, the staff was cool, and the show went fine. But the mechanics? The dirty, behind-the-scenes operations that The Bottletree makes so smooth for bands? Those were horrible.

After load-in we got what was undoubtedly the best sandwich I’ve ever put in my mouth from a place down the street called Paisano’s. I’m still thinking about it and feeling happy. I also got to hang out with my friend Chris from the fantastic philly band Pattern is Movement, which was a nice Philly surprise.

After the show, load-out proved to be even worse than load-in. Same narrow door, but add a dance party, complete with DJ, that started AS SOON as Bazan finished playing. No one had mentioned that this would be going down to any of us, so I was pretty stoked to be carrying 100 pounds of merch up stairs, around a pinball machine, and through 20 drunk people dancing to bad remixes.

October 18, 2009 : New York, NY : Bowery Ballroom

We arrived at the Bowery about an hour early for load-in, so we did what anyone would do – we went to find pizza. We didn’t have to look far as Lombardi’s was a scant two blocks away. While there I had the best white pizza I’ve ever eaten (this might as well be a food blog) and a lively 25-minute debate took place about the appropriate piano-tone for “Hard to Be”

BAZAN played their best set of the tour to an almost sold-out Bowery Ballroom, and it felt really good. The nice thing about the Bowery is that it’s a Ballroom, not a rock club. The bar is hidden downstairs, there’s a proper balcony, great sightlines, the best sounding P.A. of the tour, and arguably the best sounding room of the tour. It was great, and somehow I’m not sick of seeing this thing after 19 nights in a row.

Today was a day off in NYC, until a 6 pm van call in Brooklyn. Everyone recalled their day off fondly, as if it were a distant memory when we met back up at the van, alot like when you went back to school after summer break in grade school. Tour is a real time warp like that. After that we walked a few blocks to get some (apparently) world famous, really-expensive, and totally-worth-it Red Velvet cake from a place called “Cake Man Raven” (google the dude) which I won’t even try to explain. It blew my mind.

Next, we hit the road to Boston, but didn’t get all that far before being pulled over on a Connecticut parkway for illegally towing a trailer on the parkway (who knew?). Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between Bazan’s insurance folks, so although the van was insured, it wasn’t yet listed on his card, and the officer wasn’t too thrilled when he thought we were illegally towing a trailer on an uninsured 15-passenger death trap down his parkway. He was nice enough to let us exit at the next exit (after writing two tickets) to an Econo Lodge where Bazan got a card faxed over and we were back on our way in no time.

We stopped for bad fast food and played fun van games with TW Walsh, who came down for the New York show and rode back to Boston with us tonight where his fantastic band, The Soft Drugs, will play 1st of 3 tomorrow at TT The Bear’s. I’m pretty stoked to see that.

October 15, 2009 :   Local 506 : Chapel Hill, NC

My favorite moment of the night was dinner from Carburrito and getting to hang with my friends Perry, Morgan, and Matt briefly.

We stayed at Bazan’s friends Jeff & Tricia’s house, and what a house it was! If you’ve ever perused a copy of Dwell Magazine it looked like an awesome, more indie-rock version of whatever the coolest thing you saw was. This morning we had delicious biscuits from Neil’s Deli and delicious coffee from Open Eye Cafe. Chapel Hill/Carrborro knows how to eat.

October 16, 2009 :   Black Cat : Washington, DC

Tonight was the best show of the tour. The band totally killed it – at one point someone at the merch table in the middle of “Cold Beer and Cigarettes” threw down their shirt and said “I’ll be right back,” before running back towards the stage in response to one of Casey’s drum fills. There were about 450 people there, and the Black Cat is an awesome venue with the most helpful staff of all time and an awesome cargo elevator.

I wanted to put Barack Obama +1 on the guest list just in case, but Matt wouldn’t let me. Here are some pictures from the last few days on tour. If you click them they get bigger.

David Bazan’s Crisis Of Faith

October 15, 2009 from WXPN – David Bazan has always worn his faith on his sleeve. Under the Pedro the Lion moniker, he challenged both Christian and non-Christian communities with honest narratives that revealed previously unspoken truths. But just as he wore his faith, on the new solo album Curse Your Branches, he wears his newfound agnosticism.

Curse Your Branches has already been compared to the work of Leonard Cohen. Amid melancholic arrangements, the disc finds Bazan detailing his struggle with faith in the Evangelical world. It’s an album of great music and great humanity. In this installment of World Cafe, Bazan gives a moving performance of songs from the new album.

Live performance includes When We Fell, Curse Your Branches, Bless This Mess and In Stitches.

LISTEN NOW

Photos by Matthew Barnhart

October 13, 2009 :   The Social : Orlando, FL

Orlando was a great show. The Social’s a really nice bar in what was once a factory, or warehouse or something. Lots of exposed brick, vaulted ceilings, big pieces of wood everywhere, a boarded up fireplace – the works. There were about 300 people there, and all of them were pretty excited to be where they were. Dave got coaxed into doing another encore, and Blake was a hit with the fans (a couple of glasses of wine increase Big City’s rock-and-roll moves tenfold).

After a sweaty load-out (92 and muggy in the middle of October – gotta love Florida) we found some surprisingly killer, and unsurprisingly pricey ($5 a slice) right around the corner and totally killed it, then it was off to the shadiest hotel of the trip so far, and I should say they’ve mostly been great, the Orlando Quality Inn (so bad that I couldn’t even access the internet to write on this tour blog). Funny how the more they assure you the hotel is nice in the name, the worse it typically is.

October 14, 2009 :   Drunken Unicorn : Atlanta, GA

I loaded the first season of the fantastic HBO series, “Eastbound & Down” onto Matt’s computer and let Blake watch it on mine today. Matt finished the entire first season (albeit abbreviated pilot season), and Blake finished the next-to-last episode right before we pulled up to the venue. He’s pretty bummed about not knowing if Kenny and April ever hook up or not.

What a show! The Drunken Unicorn is definitely the most rock-clubby place we’ve played on this tour. The green room doesn’t have anywhere to sit, put things, or do anything really except stand around, the rider was about ten percent fulfilled, there was a water leak, and the venue went to get merch tables from a pita restaurant across the parking lot – it was also one of the best shows of the tour.

Dave got coaxed into playing another encore (I Promise he wasn’t and isn’t planning on encores) and this one was a three-songer: Priests & Paramedics, Man In Me (it’s first appearance), and Harmless Sparks backed by the whole band on vocals, another first, and it sounded great.

After the show the bar hosted a dance party of sorts, and I got to watch six older black dudes have a dance off. I’m kind of going to miss being in the south.