It’s official, we’ve left home for good.
On Friday night we played at McRaney’s Tavern in Winter Park. It was a fitting send-off for me. My mother brought the whole town out and our buddies from Cocoa Beach (Mark, Lindsay and Jessie-o-peia) showed up to watch the show and bid us farewell.
In Tampa, we played a radio spot at WMFE to promote our show at New World Brewery that night. Our buddies Scott and Bev were darlings for hooking that up for us. Live on the air, Devon introduced a new band name based on what we decided would be the best animal to become. Yep, we actually had some guy ask us if we were the Beaver Boys at the show… so he earned a free CD.
That night, we played at New World Brewery with Holy Ghost Tent Revival (from North Carolina), who were wild. Thank you, Andrew Williams, for driving to see us. Thank you, Phil Benito, for letting us stay with you and tolerating Devon’s and my indoor football toss.
At New World Brewery
Trailer of Tears!
Onward to Valdosta! After stopping by Gainesville to say goodbye to family, we played the Bleu Pub in Valdosta. There we had a small but attentive crowd who were, apparently, waiting to see the punk show that started right when we were done.
Afterward, we went to crash with some of our friends from Ninja Gun at the Trailer of Tears. What I didn’t know is that it’s a good 20 to 30 minute drive from the venue and that there are no gas stations on the way. Oh yeah, and that it’s on unlit country farm roads (they live on a road named after their family). So, Devon’s phone (the one with the directions on it) died. The van’s gas tank fell to well below empty, but somehow we rolled onto the farm all the same.
There we hung out with Jeffrey and Jacob, two of the most hospitable guys around. They told us about the haunted property and ghost sightings from childhood. This morning they cooked us breakfast and gave us a tour of the Trailer of Tears (their music room) and a golf cart tour of the property. That place is so many layers of haunted I can foresee a ghost war in the near future. They have an old hanging tree from pre-civil war times. Then there’s the Indian burial mounds in the woods. There’s also the old farmer’s house that was torn down to build a new one. Spooky.
The hanging tree. Yikes.
We’re now gearing up for our show tonight at the Mockingbird Cafe in Tallahassee. If you’re in town or know somebody who is, we start at 8:30. Maybe I’ll see you there!
Catfish pond
Goodbye for now.