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Pappy celebrates the good news
Pappy celebrates the good news
2 of 10
Audience Participation led by Dan Deacon
Audience Participation led by Dan Deacon
3 of 10
Diarrhea Planet is so passe
Diarrhea Planet is so passe
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Prophets & Kings performs for RedGorilla Music Festival at Whiskey & Ink
Prophets & Kings performs for RedGorilla Music Festival at Whiskey & Ink
5 of 10
Dave got "Jammy's" phone number
Dave got "Jammy's" phone number
6 of 10
Show at Kick Butt Coffe Shope, airport location. We killed.
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SXSW: The Mardi Gras of Hipsters
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The Drums perfroming at SXSW
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soCro even made us all breakfast. What a sweetie!
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Road to SXWS - The Van
Road to SXWS - The Van
2 p.m.
SO TIRED.
On Saturday (or was it Friday – time is irrelevant at this point), our bass player, Travis, discovered that his wife is pregnant with their first child! Travis, a.k.a. Pappy, is gonna be a real Pappy real soon. After a 9 a.m. celebration with Swisher Sweets & beer, Travis declared that we’d be heading back to TN directly after our two shows on Saturday night (St. Patty’s night). He would drive.
After soCro whipped up breakfast it was time for Moonlight Bride to take off on the next leg of their journey. We headed back to the festivities in preparation for two St. Patty’s day shows we were to play.
The first show wasn’t until 5 p.m., so we caught a Dan Deacon performance. His show is heavy on audience participation; he made us do silly things like run around the whole venue in a conga line and singing certain parts of songs. If you didn’t know, Dan Deacon is one of the fathers of the Baltimore scene that has reared up such acts as Beach House and Future Islands. After Dan’s show, Jon-Michael introduced himself, generally made friends and persuaded Mr. Deacon to hook us up with a show in Baltimore. With any luck, we’ll have Dan Deacon at JJ’s Bohemia sometime soon!
Our first show, at 5 p.m., was at the Tiniest Bar in TX. The place wasn’t tiny at all. The show went really well. We became very sweaty.
Our next show wasn’t until 10 p.m. and thus far, we had failed to hook up with our Nashville homies that perform as Diarrhea Planet. First, a little backstory – Diarrhea Planet, a 7-piece band, kicked off a recent tour in Chattanooga and stayed at our downtown pad afterward. We know how crusty things tend to get on tour, so we make it a point to sneak any willing touring band into the downtown Sports Barn locker room. The steam room in underground Chattanooga is all you need to make a sticky man slick again. One of the funniest experiences of my life was in a steam room stuffed 12 smelly dudes, half of which were in a band named Diarrhea Planet. The Sports Barn people don’t know it yet, but their steam room is quickly becoming one of the keys to wooing great acts to Chattanooga. I’m pretty sure that was the clincher for Jack White.
We headed across town to what turned out to be a much cooler rock ‘n roll scene at Spider House on the north side of the city and partied it up a little with our Nashville friends who are currently on tour with the likes of Titus Andronicus an Screaming Females.
We arrived back at our other show across town just in time for Snoop Dogg to start his set around the corner and Timbaland to start his set around the other corner. Downtown was packed. The band playing before us was four-piece rock’n roll lesbian outfit Hunter Valentine. Not only did they bring the house down, they brought a hundred fans and a full documentary film production team with them. All we had was Jack Daniels and dirty underwear.
Despite that, our show went really well – with one exception. Some industry people came out to see us and I thanked them very publicly from the stage. I didn’t understand why they were so embarrassed, pulling hoodies over their heads and cowering in the corner. Apparently, the band that happened to be scheduled after us had worked very hard at soliciting said industry-people’s services, but had been turned down on aesthetic grounds. That kinda made me happy, since the agency is working with Prophets & Kings.
And with that, we were off.
The drive back to Chattanooga is grueling, but in the best way possible. We succeeded in attaining most of our goals. We came closer as a band and reignited our excitement for making and playing music. We strengthened our ties with Moonlight Bride and other regional acts. We made valuable industry connections with the likes of Dan Deacon, Rittz and agents, managers, and executives alike. We partied a lot.
Most importantly, obligatory Dave woke up from a stupor with “Jammey’s” phone number sketched onto his bicep.
Success.
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