tuffin' up 2k9 tour diary 2: DIY Market Research

Hey I started this in Athens, and got bored writing it so i never finished, but here you go. I'll fill in some gaps real quick. There are a bunch of good pictures that will get posted later, but I dont have the camera around right now.

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good morning, blogger maniacs! I am writing you from the depths of The Secret Squirrel, here in gorgeous, Georgeous Athens, Georgia. Georgia is a beautiful state in the summertime and I imagine otherwise, verdant and lush. As we switched highways outside Atlanta, we passed a number of large growths of very tall, narrow trees, covered entirely in dark green vines with thick leaves. The way the trees bent it formed these crazy liquidy shapes. It was beautiful and I wish we could have gotten off a snapshot. But to back up...

After spending the night in the mansion in New Orleans, our next stop was Pensacola. There may be other spots, but the place to play in Pensacola is Sluggo's. Sluggo's is has a classic anarchist feel and seems to have a stranglehold on Pensacola's vegan cafe/bar/venue market. I would attribute this in part to the delicious half pound burritos on their menu for 2 dollars (!), as well as a community feel, as Dann noticed the unclosed tabs sitting behind the bar as much as 2 weeks old. I guess its a safe bet that these regulars would be in at some point to close their tabs out. From conversations overhead, the Sluggo's dudes listen to everyone's band who sends them a myspace message asking for a gig, and they do not like dealing with booking agents. If you would like to play Sluggo's, its as easy as writing and finding a local band to play with you. Fortuitously, the date we needed was open, and we were able to finally confirm the show on only 2 weeks notice. Also, although I think the music was running off a computer behind the bar, they also had a very interesting jukebox, about equal parts punk, college rock, and jukebox standards, with like 3 John Coltrane records stuck in there. We got there rather early in the day and hung out reading, drawing colored pencil show fliers, and taking stupid pictures.

Finally the show arrived. There were just 2 bands on the bill, us and "You Win Instantly!". We played first so YWI's friends would have to stick around and we would actually get to play for some people (maybe like 9 people counting the band). The space was perfect for all our props, and we blew up about 4 beach balls and laid streamers across the floor. Pensacola was our first show without a stand in drummer, but the bar let us borrow some duct tape which we used to patch up Monkey's holes, so we were in reality a 3 piece once more. I think Monkey is getting a Jesus complex, becuse the holes were in his hands! Also we used the duct tape to write "SPIKED PUNCH" on our tremendous sized Texas flag which we began hanging up behind us at shows now that we were a solid 2 states out.

You Win Instantly! turned out to be fucking awesome. Tonight they were in an experimental pop 3 piece arrangement. One guy brought in his desktop (!) and was running Ableton off it, while the other 2 had a variety of synths and smaller toys and percussion working. It was improvised. The first half of the set we sort of sat down, but at some point Dann started shaking a tambourine and then the room (the 6 of us) really came to life into an interactive bizarro conceptual beach party. Beach balls were flying, tambourines shaking, the music was great and the whole thing felt very natural. Afterwards we ended up going back to one of the audience members house for a jam session where there were as many people as at the show. Things got really intense, with some posivibe rapping going on. The next day we hit the beautiful Pensacola beach.