Friday, 7/25/08 Susquehanna Bank Center (Camden, NJ)

What a lovely day in Camden, New Jersey. We were in the greater metropolis of Philadelphia and we was ready to make a Warped Tour. Found out that our set time was early (1:45), and hustled to get our stuffs loaded in. This time, Donnie and Rifqa had joined the Island Street Team ranks, and they were ready to fight with us. The Hurley.com Stage was underneath the pavilion again, and to access it, you actually had to go inside the concessions building, which was strange. We went on, did our six songs, and negotiated a flying shoe. At the end of the show, I hopped offstage and following Donnie as held the boombox high, I led The Idiot Parade through the crowd and to our merch tent. We did a signing and then a Fuse interview and then grabbed dinner and a few showers. Matt accidentally poured a beer into his laptop, it shorted out, and is totally ruined. He is unhappy. I don't blame him. We sat out in lawn chairs in front of the bus with some friendly peoples and Aaron Barrett from Reel Big Fish. Somewheres along the line, we went beddy-bye, while Big Jim drove us to Long Island.

Thursday, 7/24/08 Darien Lake P.A.C. (Darien Center, NY)

Woke up in Buffalo! Twas a cool, cloudy day. Fortunately for us, our bus was parked much closer to the Hurley.com Stage. Short load-in... Daddy like. Byron and Randy already had the Ludo machine up and running when we emerged from our slumber-chambers. Is this what life on the road can be like? Why were we in a van this whole time? Oh yeah, because we had no money. Sweet. Let's milk this thing while Warped Tour lasts. Someone bring me a vegan chimichanga. Since our set time was 6:45, we figured we would have to do the signing earlier in the day. We set it for 2:30 and then prepared for no one to show up since it was before we were even playing. Much to our surprise, there were 100 people waiting when we got there. Signed stuff for 45 minutes, grabbed some foods, and then commenced the warm-up. Took stage after a couple hardcore bands and blasted through the same set as the day before. A little more comfortably though. The Hurley.com Stage crew was very good to us, and made life easy. Right after we played, I ran to the side of the stage with my marching band hat on, and with an Island Street Teamer holding a boombox that played Ohio State marching tunes, I led a parade of idiots to the Ludo merch tent. There we all acted like idiots and listened to marching music, whilst the rest of Ludo packed up. We retired to the tent while Byron and Randy tore down the merch and loaded it out. Marshall fired up the grill and made foods for us. Jim (our bus driver) pulled away around 11:00pm, we had a meeting with Brigitte, recorded some ringtones for Arizona Iced Tea and some liners for AT&T on Matt's computer, and then went beddy-bye.

Wednesday, 7/23/08 The Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts (Mansfield, MA)

Ludo finally has a bus! After hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of shows, we finally get to do a tour in a bus! Unbelievable. With our new tour manager, Randy, and our new merch guy, Byron, we left St. Louis late on the night of the 20th, slept as we rode through the night to Columbus, got up, saw The Dark Knight, slept as we rode through the night again to Bay Shore, New York, got up, toured the merchdirect facilities (where all our merch is made), had dinner with Steve Davis, and then slept as we rode through the night all the way to Mansfield, Massachusetts. Our first day on Warped! Got our set time, Byron and Randy loaded in and set up merch, we did some radio interviews, then loaded in. We're on the Hurley.com Stage. In Mansfield, it was apparently one of two stages under the pavilion. Right before we played it began to pour rain, and probably 10,000 people piled into the shed to hide from the rain. Where they helplessly had to watch a Ludo show! Ha! Our sick plan worked. We played six songs as the pit flooded and kids down there went nutso. I immediately hopped offstage after the show, and cut straight to our merch tent, where we then hung out for the rest of the evening, meeting peoples and signing stuffs. Loaded out. Broke down merch. A few of us grabbed showers. They were freezing cold. We nestled snugly into our bunks and as we slumbered, we rolled toward Buffalo, New York.

Wednesday, 7/19/08 Ben & Tracy's Backyard (Springfield, MO)

Thursday, 7/17/08 Plaza de Cesar Chavez (San Jose, CA)

Channel 1049 in San Jose wanted Ludo to come play a huge outdoor radio show with Flogging Molly. Sounded awesome. Flew in to San Jose on Wednesday, got settled in at the Hotel De Anza, tried the local fare and had an all-around relaxing night. Except for Convy. He was hanging out with his mother and some extended family in San Francisco, when someone smashed into their rental car and stole his backpack. This included his laptop. And his iPod. And two of Ludo's cameras. Some of the effects pedals for his moog. All his chargers. Brand-new shoes. All his medicines and toiletries. Everything expensive that he owned basically. Many, many thousands of dollars of stuff. Not to mention all the irreplaceable data he had on his computer. Needless to say, this ruined his night. Actually the whole week. It kind of through off his whole year to be honest. Not good. Very bad. We got up on Thursday, got a 2:30 checkout, got picked up by our liaison, Ernie, and headed down to Plaza de Cesar Chavez. Played a solid (shaky) 45 minutes to a few thousand folks, signed a preponderance of stuff, met some great San Josers let Flogging Molly round it out, and then grabbed some dinner. All the Channel 1049 peeps were very cool to Ludo. We did a sweet-ass interview with Eric from the station. Good times. Ernie carted us back to the airport where we exhaustedly caught a red-eye to Dallas and a 6:55 connection to St. Louis. We would arrive around 9:00 in the morning. Yuck.

Friday, 7/11/08 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Burbank, CA)

Uhhh... so we were all at peace. Taking a little time off, when all of the sudden our manager Steve called the evening of Monday the 14th and said we were going to be on The Tonight Show that Friday. What?! I thought our careers were over. We had already all gotten rich, dated cokehead lifestyle celebrities, gone triple platinum, and then retired to the barbecue circuit. What did Jay Leno want with us? Only one way to find out - we're goin' to Burbank fellers! Yeehaw! We all hopped in planes and reunited in California. Five-way Ludo high-five. Slept in da hotel. Got up early the next morn, and hauled on over to the NBC Studios in Burbank, where we checked in through security, made our way to the stage, and started fumbling with the rental equipment to make sure it was all worky - twas. Then we did a soundcheck. It was all sounding very nice. Met Jay Leno (he was incredibly nice) and then went up to the room while they did various rehearsals in the studio for the night's show. Eventually it was time to do an on-camera rehearsal, so we got dolled up and did our Love Me Dead performance a few times so the camerapeople could get their cues and movements and shots and mise-en-scenes right. Then back up to the room, where our ladies, families, and friends hung out with us. Wardrobe had sufficiently ironed and steamed our silly band-boy clothes that are constantly wrinkled from the road. Make-up covered up our zitty faces so we wouldn't be to shiny on camera. Them's the rules. Speaking of rules... just as at the Jimmy Kimmel show, Standards & Practices did not find finger-banging to be an acceptable utterance for primetime TV, so we were dong finger-painting again. BUT additionally, the Tonight Show wasn't too keen on "vomit." They found it to be vulgar. I too found it to be vulgar. That's why I put it in the song. I was describing a vulgar person. Oh art and public commerce... where doth your twain meet? Out of respect and suddenly new-found amusedness from Matt Palermo's suggested replacement word, we changed "vomit" to "omelets." And so it was. There was only one problem. I'm an idiot. After watching Jay interview Michael Caine and then Elizabeth Banks, we hit the stage, curtain up, and we started Love Me Deading. I had three things to remember: omelets, sing the half-chorus first time through, finger-painting. I was so excited about remembering to sing omelets that I completely forgot and sang the album version! I'm an idiot. But we kept our cool and continued. God damn omelets. After we finished playing, Jay and the two guests came down to our stage for some promo stuff. Elizabeth Banks was very sweet and spoke appreciably of our performance. Which she didn't really need to do. She just could've said, "I'm a hot, funny actress." And then Michael Caine (who was there promoting The Dark Knight!!!!) also shook our hands and complimented us. I told him I appreciated his work in The Ipcress File, and I often found myself needing to reaffirm, "My name is Harry Palmer." It was either that or telling him, "Singer to singer, I really enjoyed your vocal performance as Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol." I think I made the right choice. We took some pictures with Jay, and then beat it upstairs. Ran over to 98.7, did some liners and interviewings, reconvened at the Universal Sheraton, wiped the make-ups off our faces, and then hung out with friends and families and whatnots until we left for the airport around 9:00. There was a red-eye to catch, and Ludo never misses a red-eye! Sleep would eventually befall us, washing warm over our consciousnesses with the assurance that at the very least we could always say that we met Jay Leno.

Thursday, 7/3/08 Summerfest (Milwaukee, WI)

Ho yeah! Out of bed and on the road. Milwaukee, here we come! Last show for a couple weeks and it would be our first time at Summerfest. July 3rd was going to be a fine day. Made our way down to the Summerfest grounds right by the lake, got the appropriate passes and checkings in, and then pulled our van around to the back. High-fived our good buddies in Sing It Loud, and then loaded our equipments into the back of a Penske truck with the help of a surly festival logistics gentleman. A shuttle took us into the park, where we found The Frantic frantically mid-set. Unloaded the truck and got our stuffs ready. Sing It Loud rocked it. We did an interview with WLUM and a signing for various contest winners and random Ludo fans. We brought it in, determined our hour setlist and then got onstage. Charged through Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Please, Girls on Trampolines, The Lamb & the Dragon, Broken Bride, Lake Pontchartrain, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Love Me Dead, and Epic. I broke a string halfway through, had difficulty getting through the curtain to go backstage, had no replacement guitar set up, couldn't find a strap that fit the guitar in the case, and then had to take a good minute or two to tune. It was a joke. Meanwhile, the stage management was forcing our guests to move where they were standing over and over again. Not very hospitable it would seem. I was very flustered and annoyed. But we pulled the show out anyway. Somehow. The Spill Canvas tour was amazing and did wonders for us, but after a month of it, it felt good to be playing longer than 40 minutes and in front of a few thousand people. Afterwards we loaded off and made way for The Plain White T's. We were supposed to do a signing with the record store after the show, but somebody raised a big stink and said we couldn't do it during the Plain White T's set. We were forced most forcibly to cancel it, so we did. Unfortunately though, all the fans were then told that Ludo had cancelled it without any explanation, so people probably just thought we were being dicks. We were, for the record, very much looking forward to doing the signing (as we are ALWAYS eager to meet and talk to fans after our show), but we were prevented from doing so. So if you wanted to meet us there, we apologize we had to cancel it - please know we would have loved to have done it. That aside, we weren't allowed to load out until 11:30pm, so we bumbled around the drunken debauchery for a couple hours, and then reconvened at the stage, loaded onto the truck, were shuttled back to where the van was parked, loaded the trailer with our equipment, embraced each other, and then parted ways. Said goodbye to Nick (it was his last show tour managing Ludo - the end of an era). We thanked him for everything. Nick was an amazing tour manager, and if you ever need a friend to watch youtube videos with you of people slipping and falling, he's your man; I've never heard an adult laugh so hard at something so stupid. We love you, Nick. Meandered over many, many minutes through the post-Summerfest traffic. Dropped Convy off at the Milwaukee airport, while Ferrell and Pmo drove south. Ferrell hopped out in Chicago, and like a lonely wolf crossing the misty highlands, Matt Palermo drove the Ludo van all the way back to St. Louis by himself, where he parked it outside Ferrell's house and caught a cab to the St. Louis airport in the pre-dawn hours. Great tour. See you all you bastards in San Jose and then on Warped Tour!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, 7/2/08 People's Court (Des Moines, IA)

Up and at 'em early on Tuesday, took a train from Lake Bluff down to the city and did an acoustic performance for the fine people down at Leo Burnette. Afterwards, we bumbled about and entertained ourselves and each other, eventually going back up north to Lake Bluff for some sleepage. Around 7:30 on Wednesday morning, we dragged ourselves facefirst out of bed and into the rental minivan, where we rode five deep with a back bench stuffed with equipment. That meant driver, shotgun, two captain's chairs, and someone on the floor between the seats. Whee! Meanwhile, Nick and Jackie, in a newly fixed van had driven through the night and arrived in Ames, where they awaited our arrival. After finally getting free of a nasty traffic snarl north of Chicago, we made as best of time we could (Marshall got a speeding ticket), and still ended up getting to the 105.1 radio station in Ames a good half an hour later than we should have. Did the interview anyway quickstyle (they were VERY good to us), played acoustic, high-fived Denise, and then booked it south to Des Moines, where Nick and Jackie had already had to load in all the equipment and merch. Yuck. The two of them recounted tales of van breakage and Cheyenne nightlife. Jackie and I counted merch. Ran down the street for food (some for vegan stuff, some for spaghetti stuff), and then hustled back to the venue. After Steel Train, we got up and did our set, including a disastrous debauchery for Epic that included half the people on the our playing guitar and percussion onstage. It was nightmarishly beautiful. Loaded out, watched Spill Canvas, sold some stuff, tearfully embraced everyone on the tour (truly our greatest tour experience ever by far), wished each other well, said we'd write, and then started driving back east - the rental minivan AND the van-and-trailer. We dropped the rental back off at O'Hare around 4:30am, and then all seven of us piled in the ol' Ludo van, drove to Phoebe's, split up, and slept until early afternoon.

Monday, 6/30/08 Six Flags - Great America (Chicago, IL)

So the next day (Sunday), Nick and Jackie were driving the van back to Chicago, when the "Service Engine Soon" light comes on in Cheyenne. Meanwhile, we find out entirely by accident that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. Scrambled with the airline to find a replacement flight, since that would be the last of the day and we needed to be soundchecking in Chicago the next morning. Turned out there was a flight 50 minutes earlier that we could get on if we hustled. Barely got there via taxi from the hotel in time to check our bags. We would catch a flight to Denver and a connection to O'Hare that would arrive around 8:45. Only one problem: only room for four. Marshall was rerouted to San Francisco and then to Chicago, arriving at 12:40. We said bye to Marshall and made the flight. Stayed at Phoebe's house in Lake Bluff, whilst Marshall's flight landed late at 1:40, and the taxi we ordered him ran out of gas and then cancelled on him. He took a $110 cab from the airport to Lake Bluff that arrived at 3:30 in the morning. Blech. Got up and drove our rental minivan to Six Flags at 7:45am. Nick and Jackie meanwhile were stranded in Cheyenne. It was going to cost $1,000 and instead of being able to meet up in Lake Bluff, we were going to have to keep the minivan rental and meet them in Des Moines after the van was fixed. Guh. The Q101 staff greeted us warmly and with great love in the employee parking lot at Six Flags. We drove our minivan up to the stage where a bevy of furry Warner Bros. mascot characters has been playing a nightly show for years. We were set up in three tiers: Pmo and Marshall on the mountaintop, our amps down a flight of stairs from them, and then Ferrell, Convy, and I on the downstage side of a tall, banner-backed platform from our amps. The drum set was a good fifty feet away and 15 feet above me. The amps were completely shielded from us. Did a quick soundcheck, realizing that the majority of our P.A. and monitor was going to come from the park's antiquated, embedded speakers stuck on top of poles around the square. They were usually used for Bugs Bunny's spectacular stage show. It was going to be am adventure to be sure. The sound guy and SIR guy took good care of us though. Retired to the VIP lounge above Bugs Bunny's Candy Emporium (or some such ridiculousness). It was not unlike a funeral parlor from the 70's in there decor-wise. Which is how I like my VIP rooms. Had some foodstuffs. Hit the park. Rode The Viper and Raging Bull. The Raging Bull was amazing. Hit Batman and Superman too. I mean, we was ridin' some rides, baby. Met a lot of Ludo fan-friends along the way too, many of whom joined us waiting in long lines. Hung out with The Frantic, and met some of the guys in From First to Last and Relient K. Took our picture with Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird. Ate some Papa John's. Eventually made our way over to the stage and tirelessly fought our way through a maze of sound to play a sloppy set to the gathered throng of rollercoaster and Q101 enthusiasts. Impressively, they mostly seemed to know our songs. Then they formed a gargantuan line for us to do a signing along with The Audition. It took us roughly an hour and forty minutes to get through the whole line. Sheesh. Such flattery! Then we did a deprecatory interview with the Manno brothers, I made a comment over the loudspeakers about Bugs Bunny doing coke backstage, we rode some more rides, verified that The Dark Knight did indeed suck horribly as a ride, thanked all the Six Flags crew as well as the phenomenal staff at Q101 who took such good care of us, collected our whatnots, and drove back to Phoebe's parents' house, where we slept like mongeese after a royal rumble in a nest of king cobras.

Saturday, 6/28/08 The Venue (Boise, ID)

Woke up in Eastern Oregon at a charming little inn. Drove east into Idaho. Beautiful country. Pulled rather late-ish to The Venue, but it was par for the day (everyone else was late too). We loaded in and navigated some roving, literature-bearing Jesus advocates in the alley. I always wonder if someone out there actually gets converted to the light of Christ by being handed a novelty coaster or fake million dollar bill. Maybe there are people so starved for meaning that a hip marketing gimmick is really all it takes to orient their entire life to an evangelistic ministry. I'd like to think it would take a major life event or a deity opening the stratosphere for me to have such an epiphany. Well, whatever. Good luck to all those little God soldiers. High-fived Roland who decided to hang out in Boise with us that night, and we got to meet some sweet-ass radio dudes as well. Took some pics in an alley, and then hung out with the other bands in the parking lot. Liam & Me took flight first, followed closely by a just-arriving Steel Train. We got up and got down. Found out that the Boise economy was originally built on potatoes, but then segued into tech commodities. Not a bad transition. Got to meet some fine Idahoans, watched some Spill Canvas, and then split up. Ferrell, Convy, and I went back to the hotel, where Nick was already sleeping, whilst Jackie, Marshall, and Matt joined several other tour members for a night on the Boise town, drinking and drunking and whatnot. Got some thangs done and then found our sleepytime. That is, while Jackie and Nick started driving east. They had to get the van to Chicago. We would be flying the next day.

Friday, 6/27/08 The Hawthorne Theatre (Portland, OR)

Ludo woke up in Oregon! First time ever. And not only that, but we were to play a show in that very state! Unfortunately though, Portland was the height of Oregon away from us. So we drove up and down the mountains we'd been scaling and descending all the night before. More long stretches of climbing at 35 mph in the right lane. The ol' Ludo van really seems to be filing requests for dignified death. But we force it on like a slave driver. Enjoyed stopping and buying little items at gas stations. Enjoyed? Yes. Because in Oregon there is no sales tax. What a little treat. I got my little Planters' peanuts sleeves (that are advertised as 2/$1.00) for the first time, actually two for $1.00!!!! It's the little victories, people. Portland is a delightful town filled with zany, uber-liberal people/places. We arrived ten minutes before doors, and did the load-in of our lives. Jackie set merch up faster than e'er before. Backlined and got ready. Ate. Back at the venue, it was inexcusably hot. Both Liam & Me and Steel Train came offstage drenched in sweat. When you stepped into the venue from the loading area outside, you were hit as you crossed the threshold with a wall of burning, hot air. With an inflatable superman standing before Convy's moog, we battled through a Ludo show, reaching desperately for bits of oxygen wherever we could get it. Wetly squished and squashed our sweaty selves out of Spill Canvas' way with all our schlepped equipments. Just as they began to play, I was visiting Jackie at merch when I suddenly felt a girl's forehead slam into my thigh. I looked down and saw a teenage girl completely pass out from the heat and eat it right in front of me. And for whatever reason there was no security watching the crowd. I picked her up and dragged her outside. It was weird. It was the first time I'd ever moved a completely unconscious person - she truly felt dead... limp deadweight. Crazy. She had water and lived on. After the show we sold CD's and other merch items as Jackie continued to marinate in the humid venue of death. Got in the van, and drove east. We were going to be making another state debut... in Idaho!!!!! Got to the hotel around 8:00am again. Blech.

Thursday, 6/26/08 Slim's (San Francisco, CA)

Not so much sleep. Split up to find food after load-in in San Fran. All the Slim's folks were kind. Rocked the city by the bay considerably harder than we had the last time we were there. Our friend at IDJ, Russell, helped us load off stage. After the show, hung out outside and greeted gobs and gobs of Rice-a-Roni type people. Steel Train Daniel played a funny joke by hiding in Spill Canvas Joe's drum road case, and then surprising people. Such laughs we had. Packed up merch and peaced out. Drove until 8:00am. Found that the fine folks at Comfort Inn had given away one of our two rooms. Great. So Convy and I slept in the van. All seven of us showered in the same room (at different times). We would get a full four hours of sleepytime.

Wednesday, 6/24/08 The House of Blues (Anaheim, CA)

Tuesday we ran up to Tempe to the mall, where we played a sweet-ass in-store at The Virgin Megastore for Tim Virgin and all the fine people at The Edge. And then like 160 people showed up too. Huh. Bizarre. We had a gross sing-along, including some audience participation on percussion for Love Me Dead. Marshall, Ferrell, and I scurried to the airport courtesy of Krishna, Bearer of Sedans, and met Chiappetta there. Flew to Burbank, swung through Chia's house, said hi to her foster dogs, and then drove to Loveline, where the three of us hung out with Dr. Drew and Stryker while sharing grody sex advice with callers. It was good times. Except for the rest of Ludo: Matt, Convy, Nick, and Jackie drove through the mountains in the van-and-trailer with brake problems and probable food poisoning. Chia drove us to Anaheim afterwards, where we met Ludo and we all crashed at the Rodeway Inn. It sucked. We slept. Next day, we drove hard and fast back into Los Angeles, did some good stuff shooting for MTV and got to meet the staff at the L.A. Island office. Finally! Ran down to No Good TV in Beverly Hills, and did an offensive interview with some very cool guys, and then booked it back east to Anaheim, where we squeezed through Disneyland security and then loaded in at The House of Blues. Hung out, had some great catering, met Matt Wallace and family(!), signed a boogie board, watched Liam and Steel, and then took the stage. Convy's moog = totally fubar. He was going to have to fly blind. Then Marshall's bass crapped out. We were picking up where Steel Train had left off with the technical problems. Eh, whatever. It's an adventure. We rode the beast. Forty minutes later, we destaged. Spill Canvas was delectable. Mingled extensively with the concert attendees. Nearly killed people with projectile copies of "You're Awful, I Love You." Ridiculously exhausted, we packed up, loaded out, and drove to Bakersfield. Hard.

Monday, 6/23/08 The Rock (Tucson, AZ)

Up and at 'em with the rooster on Monday morning. The rooster who leaves the hotel around 10:00am. Drove to the venue, loaded in quickly, and then skittered over to the Zia Records in Tucson, did some on-air whatnots with the good people of KFMA, and then played an acoustic set to what shockingly turned out to be well over a hundred people. Huh. Who knew? Tucson is good to Ludo. After some signing, we rushed to the venue and loaded onstage whilst Jackie set up merch. It was around 115 degrees in Tucson on that Monday afternoon. Hot. Hoot. Owls. At least the air was dry. You can actually breathe. It burns your skin, but it doesn't drown you and sit on your lungs. Ate foods, Marshall and Matt did a sweet interview across the street, and then we reconvened. Jet Lag Gemini rocked first, followed by our boyfriends in Liam, and then the unstoppable Steel Train. We mounted the stage like a backtalking steed and rode it to silent submission. Sweat, saliva, and gushy mush was afoot. Spill Canvas killed it. After the show, we trapped more people and forced our CD on them. The Tucsonians were very sweet to Ludo. We gallivanted down the lane and stayed at The Comfort Suites like a mofo.

Sunday, 6/22/08 The Sunshine Theatre (Albuquerque, NM)

Dragged our departure time like a rotting carcass out the door all the way up until 7:00pm. Cleaned out the van and strapped the obstinate spare tire to the trailer hitch. Drove to Lubbock. Slept for a few. Continued west to Albuquerque, where we loaded in and grabbed foods. The crowd was screamy. We played a sweaty set after The Liam & Me's and The Steel Trains and before The Spill Canvases. After the show, we trapped people by the merch and forced them to buy our CD. Got up out of town and drove several hours south to El Paso area New Mexico, where we slept for a few hours.

Friday, 6/20/08 Javajazz (Houston, TX)

Drove straight to Javajazz from Texarkana. Hello, everyone! Loaded in a little later than the rest of the tour, set up merch, had Mollie watch it until our return, and then shuffled quickly down to Chez Palermo, where we quickly took showers and ate barbecue and vegetables. It was Courtney's last night as merch girl and she was resolved to sell her ass off that night. We believed in her. Got back to the venue during Steel Train's set, warmed up, had our pre-show meeting and then loaded onstage. Quick, quick, quick! Like little rushed bunnies! Gauntleted our way through eight daring Ludo songs (someone threw a tube of toothpaste at me during Love Me Dead, so I grabbed it and ate a mouthful during the song). Loaded off quickly and with much sweat on the stormyish Houston night, and met a ton of fine Ludo peoples. After the show, all the bands retired to Chez Palermo, where a poolside barbecue was in full swing. Fran was chaperoning and that meant only one thing: PARTAY!!!! The party quickly devolved into a clinic on water basketball trick shots. There was hot-tubbing and off-the-roof, over-the-head, mini-basketball throws galore. Eventually the other bands trickled away, and the last of us found our beds by 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. We slept in aforementioned beds.

Thursday, 6/19/08 Juanita's (Little Rock, AR)

Up and out the door by 10:30. Had researched up a sweet-ass park in downtown Memphis that had a nice full basketball court. Marshall, Matt, Nick, and I met the Liam and Me's and three of the Steel Trainers at the court ready to make ball. It was hot as hell. We played a solid game and sweated like we were building the pyramids. Except at the end, there was no pyramid to show for. Back to the hotel, picked up Convy and Courtney, had some Pei Wei, found the trailer brakes to be entirely dysfunctional, and then drove to The Fournies' to pick up Ferrell. Advised to hit up a truck stop in West Memphis, we set out to do just that. After some research and upon landing at our third place, Courtney had found us the people who would make our trailer brakes work once more. An hour-and-a-half and $130 later, a battery was replaced and we were lectured on pin removal. West to Little Rock! It was Haley's last show at Juanita's and poetically, it was a Ludo show. Sentimental.... Had some fajitas after loading in merch, and then hung out up in the green room for a spell. I took a shower. Actually I got naked and let a rickety showerhead dribble cold water on me for a few minutes as I tried to rinse soap off my body. Guh. A couple of dudes from The Feds surprisingly showed up! That was exciting. Especially since we'll be playing some shows together in late August. Liam & Me and Steel Train did their shows, and with Ace's help we loaded on as quickly as we could. Soundchecky linecheck. Powered through a Ludo lineup: Lake Pontchartrain, Drunken Lament, Broken Bride, Topeka, Girls on Trampolines, Go-Getter Greg, Good Will Hunting By Myself, and Love Me Dead. The peoples were sweaty and loud. Good times in the full house. Watched The Karate Kid during Spill Canvas' set, hung out with the Little Rockians a bit, and then loaded out merch and hit the road. The engine started making a terrible sound in Texarkana around 6:00am, some locals looked at it quizzically, and then we resigned ourselves to having to see a mechanic, and get a htel room for a few hours. The local innkeeper was a dick and would give us no late check-out and no discounted rate for only being there for a few hours. Meanwhile, Nick and Marshall had tracked down a place in the middle of nowhere that could fix the problem, and spent five hours at the shop on the rural property of a Texarkana couple. While a new spark-plug was fitted, Marshall and Nick spoke with the gentleman's wife on every manner of topic, ranging from grass airstrips to local gossip. They met a deformed miniaturized horse with an overbite, an undeveloped ankle joint that it gingerly walked on, and a twisted testicle. The surly Indian fellow meanwhile shooed us out of the hotel room at noon sharp, so the rest of us just sat outside in the motel parking lot for a couple hours until the two van-fixing adventurers returned. Got out of town as quickly as possible only $350 poorer and with a fully functional spark-plug situation. Marshall and Nick would never be the same.

Wednesday, 6/18/08 Skatepark of Memphis (Cordova, TN)

Arrived at an office park, confused. Ah yes, there's the abandoned skate park where we will play our show tonight. Hello, Memphis! Loaded in, set up merch, and then went to the Fournies' house, where they served us gourmet cuisine and showed us spectacular views of the Mississippi. The food was exquisite. Back to the venue just in time to catch Liam and Me. Such dancey dance rock and so good! Then Steel Train mercilessly pummeled the scantish crowd. We took stage and did our best imitation of the band Ludo, before Spill Canvas got up and did a spot-on Spill Canvas impression. Little else happened. Retired to a hotel in Wolfchase. Slept dude-on-dude.

Tuesday, 6/17/08 The Masquerade (Atlanta, GA)

Monday was a day spent driving and doing some radio-station visiting in beautiful Richmond, Virginia. Interviewing, performing on-air, whatnot. Drove the rest of the day and arrived in Gainesville, Georgia around 2:00 in the morning, where we slept daintily in Courtney's tidy, homey abode. Tuesday, we left around 10:30am, having intercepted a shipment of new CD's and a package with my new glasses in it. New glasses! Yay! The other pair was falling off my head and insistently cracking, so I was excited to be newly sporting thems. Drove into Atlanta and played a little acoustic show for a few dozen people at the spacious, futuristic, and very cool 99X. Joined Scott Davenport thereafter and had a delicious meal at Soul Veg, where we discussed global economics. He had a lot of brilliant notions on the topic. Shimmied on down to the beautifully filthy Masquerade and loaded in using the old, grisly platform elevator. Played a sweetly sweaty show to a bevy of beautiful Atlantans and then loaded back down that rickety, Medieval elevator. After the show we hit up an all-night diner called R. Thomas, Ferrell did some black magic on the van to make it work better, or at least to check every fuse, and then we drove until 5:00am, when we pulled up at a Birmingham, Alabama Candlewood Suites. We candled that wood for about 5 hours, before continuing west.

Sunday, 6/15/08 The Recher Theatre (Towson, MD)

Woke up whenever the hell we felt like it. Hung out at the Holiday Inn hours after checkout. Did little. Leisurely rolled over to the venue. Loaded in and set up. Ate catering and found foods at Trader Joe's. Taught Ben from Sing It Loud how to play Love Me Dead, watched Sing It Loud sing it loud, loaded on, and prepared to play. There was a bad cable though on the house's equipment, and we had to start our set about nine minutes late. Had time for only five songs, so we tried to make them count: Lake Pontchartrain, Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Good Will Hunting By Myself, and Love Me Dead. Ben and Chris and Nate all came up and rocked some percussion, keys, and dancing on Love Me Dead. Cleared off for Steel Train and loaded out. The concert attendees were quite enthusiastic and Ludo-friendly and we made a lot of new fans/bffl's. After the show, we tearfully embraced the dudes of Sing It Loud. It was their last show on the tour and we were very sad to see them leaving. A finer group of lads you will never meet. And a great band. So much youthful exuberance, pop hooks, and hair. It's like an overload of sugary sex. We exchanged collages and said we'd write. Took a goodbye commemorative picture and headed south. We had a couple rooms at the StudioPlus in Glen Allen, Virginia, and we fully intended to occupy and sleep in them.

Saturday, 6/14/08 The Chameleon (Lancaster, PA)

What luck! Ludo was right there to pick me up from Philadelphia International when I landed. What fine chaps! Drove to Lancaster, stopping at a vegan Chinese buffet on the way. I slept my ass off in the van. It were hot in that piece. Got to the venue, loaded in, and Courtney set up merch. Enjoyed some delicious free burritos at Senorita Burrita across the street. Best burrito I've ever had. No joke. Ate with some of the sweet-ass dudes in Sing It Loud. Lordy, was it delicious. Sing It Loud sang it loud on that sweaty stage to a packed house, and then Ludo took over with 40 minutes of slightly apologetic douche-rock. Listened to The Spill Canvas tear the house to pieces with their signature South Dakotan sound. After the show, we said farewell and drove away from The Chameleon, all the way to the Holiday Inn in Towson, Maryland. What a world!

Thursday, 6/12/08 The Webster Underground (Hartford, CT)

At 11:00am, the Econo Lodge kicked us out, and we moved about 500 yards away to the Homestead Suites ($30 cheaper on hotwire.com than the Econoshithole). Showered, and then drove into town, where we loaded in at the ol' Webster Underground. The promoter was VERY cool to Ludo and had gone out of his way to make us comfortable and promote the crap out of the show. It was going to be a fine night. Especially better than the other time we'd played there. When there were 12 surly people watching. My phone was fubar, so I drove 45 minutes to an AT&T Wireless Store in a nearby city and got a new one. Meanwhile, everyone else hung out at the venue, and Courtney diligently counted in all the merch that had arrived in the previous day's order. It took FOREVER. So many shirts. Crowd showed up, we ran down the street to a deliciously overpriced Juice Bar, and sipped smoothies and whatnots. Back at the club a couple sweet-ass local bands and Sing It Loud were making the room all sweaty. When it was time, Ludo did a full hour for the first time all tour. It was hard to hear ourselves, so I'm not convinced we sounded all that great, but the show was fun nonetheless. We ended with a hot dance party circle version of Good Will Hunting By Myself. Easily 15 minutes of that song. WAY too much! Nice. After the show, we loaded out, and headed back to the Homestead Suites. Did some laundry for free, worked out, and everyone went to bed. Except I. I went to the airport and caught a flight to Newark and a connection to Los Angeles, where a kind, young Jordanian girl picked me up around 11:00am, and drove me to the Comfort Inn in Hollywood. I would sleep there for a few hours, have an M Cafe dinner with Andrew Buck, and then go shoot a scene at a local bookstore for a feature-length film directed by Scott Culver (director of Ludo's videos for Love Me Dead and Good Will Hunting By Myself). The movie is called "How To Make Love to a Woman" and I played a bookworm who tries to give the main character a few lines of advice on how to please a lady. Meanwhile, the other guys were hanging out, cleaning out the van, and then making their way down to a hotel not far from the Philadelphia International Airport. Immediately after we shot my scene, a car took me straight to LAX airport, where I caught a red-eye flight to Houston, and a connecting flight to Philadelphia. I was counting on Ludo to pick me up in Philly around noon. Good times.

Wednesday, 6/11/08 The Fillmore - Irving Plaza (New York City, NY)

Car was arriving at 7:45. Ferrell and I rolled out of bed around 7:15. Ugh. Vomit. Gross. Death feelings. We felt like huge pussies. We were sreepy! Were chauffeured to WRXP studios, where Matt Pinfield interviewed us and had us play Love Me Dead acoustic. Grabbed breakfast with Nicki and Mark at un petit cafe francais, while the other Ludo boys began to stir back in East Rutherford with Courtney in tow. Around 11:30, they started driving in to the city. Ferrell and I ran over to Anna's apartment to grab a quick nappy nap. Forty-five minutes later, we were up and grabbing a cab for 32 Avenue of the Americas. Visited ClearChannel Online and did an interview on Z100 (the huge pop station in Manhattan). All five of us were supposed to be there, but the other four could not find parking at the venue, and just kept driving around. So long in fact that they just ended up driving back to New Jersey, grabbing some Panera, and then heading back into the city to load in. The Irving Plaza people finally had parking for us right around load-in. So we loaded in. A giant shipment of merch came in around 6:30, half an hour before doors. Which sucked because it was supposed to be at 4:00. Courtney and Anna threw the order together as quickly as they possibly could. We warmed up, watched Sing It Loud, and then powered our way through a half-hour of Ludo. It tasted good. Watched Steel Train and The Spill Canvas rock hard while hanging out with all the fine Islanders and other friends and esteemed guests. Anna and Courtney guarded the merch with skill. End of the night, we met all the New Yorkers we could, packed up, loaded out, and then drove three hours to an overpriced room at the Econo Lodge next to Hartford's Bradley International Airport. There were 7 hours between us and check-out.

Tuesday, 6/10/08 North Star Bar (Philadelphia, PA)

Okay, now it's getting really hot. I mean, my skin melted a little bit. It was going to be a day off from the Spill Canvas tour, but Steel Train and Ludo said, "Hey, let's get the band Liam & Me and a solid local band and play a show in Philadelphia!" The North Star Bar was closed when we arrived 25 minutes early. But the parking lot was scorching hot and rather dismal. Loaded in with no air-conditioning, shared rigs and drum kits with Steel Train and Liam & Me, erected merch for a quickly acclimating Anna to sell, and then waited for a long time until the soundcheck was over - we watched The Astronaut Farmer in the adjacent bar and sipped Diet Cokes while we waited (partay!). Piled our stuff onstage, then split for food. Marshall and Matt to a place that serves the bet Philly Cheesesteak in the world (according to The Food Network), and Ferrell, Convy, Anna, and I to Gianna's where we revisited the sloppy, unhealthy vegan chili cheese dogs and burgers and pizza. Overate. Almost 200 people packed in to the North Star Bar. A fine show was blossoming. The Tims and I did an interview with a fine lady for the ABC's local Philadelphia news station, while the sky ominously threatened to rain down downpourical rain on our heads. Once Liam & Me was done, we blasted through a 50-minute set on the oppressively hot stage. At the end of the show, I asked a young lady to marry her boyfriend (at his request) from the stage. She said yes. And she's pregnant! Loaded out through a hole in the floor on the back of the stage. The sky was ominous-er than before. I ran to get the van. The skies opened, and all our gear was soaked. We frantically tried to cover everything up and get it out of the rain. Misery! Got everything into the trailer as quickly as we could. Steel Train had to play a mostly acoustic set, because the sound guy was worried all the lightning would lead to room-wide electrocution. We loaded out and drove north. After an epic 55-minute search, we finally found the Homewood Suites on Route 3, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Got to sleep around 3:00am. Blech.

Monday, 6/9/08 Crocodile Rock (Allentown, PA)

A sweltery day in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Loaded in with the help of some nice staffers and despite one obnoxiously rude one. Damn, it was HOT up in that piece. The zone designated as the merch area doubled as the bathroom area and was about the size of a small bedroom. Yucky. After backlining and a sweaty merch count-in, we split off and found foods. They opened the giant garage-door-type walls on one side of the venue during our show to try and let some of the insanely hot air out. We strutted and pranced and glutted and danced. Loaded out as quickly as we could, nauseous from the heat and the humidity, packed up our gear in the alley, and then hung out until the show was over. After the show, Ludo lined up and high-fived all the departing patrons, wishing everyone "good game." Endeared our persons to some fine Allentown folks, packed up, loaded out, and sauntered down the lane to a Days Inn, where we kept our sleeping situations the same, and slipped into somnolence.

Sunday, 6/8/08 The Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

Hello, Massychewsits! Ambled out of the hotel kind of whenever we felt like it Sunday afternoon, and ran down to the delicious vegan Chinese restaurant, Grasshopper. Marshall and I agree: best fried spring rolls we've ever had, vegan or not. Slowly worked our way down to the fabled Middle East. I remember when I traded a cassette tape with someone I met in an AOL chat room. It was 1997. I gave them a bootleg of an acoustic set by Weezer I had recorded in 1997 at McMurray Music Center in St. Louis (including a devastatingly rare performance of "Susanne" - that's how I got the good stuff in trades!) in exchange for a bootleg of Rivers Cuomo playing a bunch of solo acoustic stuff at The Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And now, in 2008, Ludo would be playing there for the first time. Does that make me a loser, or Rivers Cuomo old? Or vice versa? Or both? The universe will never know. Another scorcher of a hot-ass day. The kind of day where you say, "god DAMN" a lot and dab your forehead, and you drink frozen lemonade on the stoop, and you crack open a fire hydrant to keep the neighborhood kids from expiring, and you start jackin' it when you hear the ice cream truck a-comin'. Haht. Loaded in down the stairs and Anna started setting up merch. Ran to Kinko's in Harvard Square and made copies of sales sheets and flyers for Boston Warped Tour. It was then that we finally had the intervention with Convy. In Madison, ten days earlier, he had lain down on top of the crowd (a rather tame "crowd-surf") and then when he landed back onstage, his right calf started cramping hard and causing him great pain. A deep muscular pain came the next day, followed by a very wide bruising on the FRONT of his leg. Its purpleness intensified over the next few days, and the hematoma spread down his leg, around the back, down to his ankle. It looked like some sort of Civil War injury. After a week of this, Ludo had had enough of his untreated necrotizing flesh. Fearing amputation, we demanded he go to a walk-in clinic. Ludo insanely still has no health insurance. And so he went. They sent him to the emergency room, did an ultrasound to see if anything was gestating in his calf apparently, and then determined he had a pulled muscle and a hematoma (aka a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues, outside the blood vessels). No big deal. But it could have been a weird blood clot, so we were glad he went. The only problem was he wasn't there five minutes before we had to play. We quickly recruited members of Steel Train, Sing It Loud, and The Spill Canvas to fill in with whatever improv suited their fancy. We tried to set up Convy's keyboards, but some of it was hard to figure out within the short span of the set changeover. Miraculously, he appeared a few minutes before our set began, set up the rest of his stuff, and we beat our way through seven scintillatory songs. Even hotter than the night before onstage, I spent my last energy on Epic, and then by Love Me Dead, I could not get a breath, I was seeing stars, and I was getting cold tingles. I was definitely going to pass out. Somehow avoided it, got through the set, and then we quickly loaded off, back up the stairs and outside, where we all caught our breath for about ten minutes. Buckets of sweat. Ate a sweet-ass meal in the restaurant portion of the venue, whilst watching a Persian belly-dancing performance. Brought Anna water down in that sweaty room. Met all the good peoples, watched some Spill Canvas, and loaded out merch as the Celtics took Game 2 from The Lakers. Said goodbye to Stephanie and Katarina and thanked them for all their help. Drove away. Found our GPS was broken about two blocks in. Stopped, got an atlas, and continued two-and-a-half hours to Waterbury, Connecticut, where we checked in to a creepy, but beautiful, expansive Holiday Inn, that was widely darkened from a storm-induced power-loss. A couple dick-dances later, courtesy of Hotwire miscommunicating with the hotel, we bedded down around 3:00am. Workout in the morning. Leave me alone for now though. I make sreep wif Anna. Ferrell got his own bed. Marshall and Matt slept together for probably the sixth night in a row and Convy had his own bed.

Saturday, 6/7/08 The Living Room (Providence, RI)

Drove. It was HOT in Providence on Saturday, June 7th, in the year of Our Lord 2-ought-ought-8. Hot as balls. Loaded in at the charmingly dirty venue, The Living Room, set up merch and backlined. Set out in search of food. Found a bar and grill for Matt, a Whole Foods for Ferrell, and a nice noodle house for Convy, Anna, and me. The area of Providence around Rhode Island School of Design was considerably nicer than the area around the venue, but really, who's keeping score here? Back at the venue, we determined we could not find a Kinko's and put off printing up new sales sheets until the next day - Anna would MAKE one! Aha! Such ingenuity! So she made one. Woot. Deeply embraced Donnie and Rifqa, as we knew this would be our last show with them on the Spill Canvas tour. They had to make their way out west to join Ye Olde Warped Tour. We met a new teamer though: Stephanie. She was a sweetheart! Donnie and Rifqa chilled in their van like hippies squatting outside Woodstock. Despite the best attempts of a blasting A/C unit, once the people came in, it got hot as hell in Ye Olde Living Room. Sing It Loud sweated loudly. And then we picked up where they left off in the whole sweating department. It was hard to get a breath onstage, there was a pole dead center where my mic would go, and my cord was rather trapped underneath Convy's tootsies. It was also quite dark and the monitors were oddly placed. Hard to move, hard to breathe, hard to see, hard to hear. But we did our very best! The staff was all really cool to us the whole night. Loaded off drenched in sweat and set our stuff off to the side. Load-out would have to wait. Met all the diminuitive homunculi of America's very own Lilliputia - the smallest state, Rhode Island. It's strange enough to say the least, but all the people in the tiny state are in fact, tiny. We tried not to step on them. They were all quite cool though. At the end of the night, we signed a few things, packed up, and loaded out. Tearfully bid Rifqa and the Donman farewell, and promised to write. So sad. But twas go-time. The society of state-sponsored dwarfism had been quite Provident indeed, but we had to move north. Stayed at a swanky Holiday Inn Express about 35 miles from Boston, enjoyed all the creature comforts thereof (LAUNDRY!!!!), and then passed out, drool-first onto pillows - Convy and Ferrell each with their own bed, Marshall on Matt in a bed, and Anna and I in the other. Two rooms are better than one. Unless you're only with one other person and you want to make out with that person and be all up in the same bed together. At which point, a second room would be wasteful and/or a cuddle-deterrent.

Friday, 6/6/08 The Stone Pony (Asbury Park, NJ)

Day off, bitches! Kind of. Got up on Thursday after a couple hours sleep, and gallavanted down to the G-Rock studios, where we played Go-Getter Greg and Love Me Dead acoustic with the whole staff and some contest winners on kazoo. Nicki from Island chaperoned us ably and we hung out at the G-Rock studios for awhile. Fine people there.... Back to the hotel to get some internetty work done throughout the day. Worked out, hung out, slept out (Ferrell on the flo', Marshall/Matt in a bed, and Conman/me in a bed). Around 9:00am Friday morning, Ferrell and I got in the van-and-trailer and drove north to Edgewater, New Jersey, got lost seven times trying to get to the right place, parked in the Homewood Suites parking lot, and were 40 minutes late to catch the car service into the city. We met Nicki at the XM Radio studios about 30 minutes late, but they accepted us anyway (VERY cool, those XMers!), we did a long and ponderous interview with the very laid-back and sassy Eric (from Ethel on XM-47), and with the engineersmanship of a bald-eagle named Bill, we played Go-Getter Greg, Broken Bride, and Love Me Dead on our two acoustics. A few of the office-peoples joined in on kazoo. It was magic. Back outside, Valentino was still waiting with the car. Anna Wickes appeared like a vision of escapism coming down the sidewalk in front of the XM building at 33 W 61st Street. She joined us in Valentino's chauffeurous ride, and we made a quick stop at Zen Palate. Delicious. Very tired. He drove us back to Edgewater, where we got in the Ludo van and drove back down to Asbury Park with the newly acquired Anna Wickes in tow, ready to run merch! Picked up the boysies, and made rubber for The Stone Pony, right there by the ocean, in the old boardwalk, beachfront town of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Loaded in with the help of a courteous, capable, and enthusiastic staff, set up merch, backlined, and then split off for dinner with the intrepid Rifqa and Donnie to a little place called Kaya's Kitchen, where fake-meated foods abounded. Meanwhile, Matt and Marshall had Surf Taco with a couple of young, interviewing ladies. The street teamy couple split an order of hummus (they claimed not to be very hungry; I just think they don't like that frou-frou vegan food). Hustled back to the venue, had our pre-show pow-wow in the van, loaned a bass to the mid-show-panicking Nate from Sing It Loud, and then set up to play. The crowd was slightly raucous, and we were stalwartly strumpetty as we battled through seven songs of sweet something. Anna guarded the merch like a den-mother guarding Cub Scouts. Donnie and Rifqa dejectedly hung out in their van, barred from parking and presenting the full Island Street Team promotional experience to the exiting concertgoers. But they sold CD's, by God! Katarina was there promoting and hanging out with her brody and his band of merry dudes, who had giddily come along for the Ludo ride. Steel Train rocked their home state like rocky rock-masters, and then The Spill Canvas made love to all the hysteria that remained. Met the peoples, high-fived promiscuously, packed up, loaded out, and then hit up a convenience store on our way back to that ol' Days Inn we had just recently started calling home. Conman and Ferrell on the floor. Anna and I sharing a bed. Matt and Marshall sharing the other. Captasm!

Wednesday, 6/4/08 Infinity Town Ballroom (Buffalo, NY)

Decided to leave something behind for the third consecutive show. That's three. Three in a row. Son of a bitch. What is wrong with us? This time it was a keyboard stand. Instead of subjecting ourselves to the embarrassment of announcing to the group that we had now thrice forgotten to grab our shit, Convy just skedaddled over to a music store and bought a replacement. We loaded in, backlined, set up merch, and then did an interview with Jodie Justice next to our van. Ran to the store, bought a bunch of vegan treats and party hats, came back to the venue and surprised Nick with a premature birthday party. He hopped in the van and we drove to Panera while listening to birthday music and eating Tofutti Cuties. His birthday wasn't actually until the 7th, but he was going to be abandoning us for a week or so to celebrate with his family, so we gave it to him a little early. Hustled back to the venue and high-fived Donnie and Rifqa who were sitting and straightening her hair (respectively) in the Island van. Watched Sing It Loud and Person L tear up the stage, then prepared to deliver our first delivery of music-deliverings to Buffalo, New York. The Infinity was a good-looking ballroom. And we bounced our music all up against its walls without apology. The crowd was attentive, but mostly woodenish. We're told they don't move much in Buffalo, but we weren't sure if they liked us or not, until after the show when we met a stupid number of kids who all said they loved it. Such a great populous, this Buffalo settlement. Loaded out, hung out, watched Spill Canvas, and then high-fived every last person on the premises. Packed up, said farewell to Nick and then hit the road toward Scranton, Pennsylvania. Smelled burning rubber very pungently. The rear right tire was smoking vastly. Uhh... I think we had the parking brake on a little bit. That's bad. Kept driving, got to Scranton around 5:30 in the morning, and then re-evaluated. We had to be at a radio station near Asbury Park, New Jersey at 12:30pm, so we kept driving, and checked into a hotel near the radio station around 9:30am. Slept in a hotel room (and I accidentally in the van) for two hours or so.

Tuesday, 6/3/08 Mr. Smalls Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA)

After a productive Monday, Ludo rolled out of bed at a reasonable hour with Chris Convy in tow. He had swooped in from NYC with a camera and a vision - we would be shooting our episode of MTV2's Saturday Rock the Deuce, and MTVHits HitList, where we were presenting some of our favorite videos to the peoples. So we went to a playground Tuesday morning/afternoon and shot us playing crazy-style on the jungle gyms and whatnots. Hustled to Millvale, Pennsylvania straight from the playground, arriving only after sitting glumly in an offensive amount of traffic. Loaded in amidst much rain, Chris shot more footage, we gotst our eat on. Came back, set up merch, loaded onstage. Took more footage. Watched Sing It Loud. Played our show with pep, vim, and vigor, loaded off, watched Steel Train, loaded out, high-fived Joe Madia, went back inside, watched The Spill Canvas, took pictures of ourselves posing for a Go-Getter Greg "how-to" poster and also one for Lake Pontchartrain, ran out to merch, met some people, slung CD's like hot cross-buns, took some final footage for Chris, loaded out merch, and then we let Donnie and Rifqa's friends put a huge Pittsburgh Penguins decal on our trailer (little did they know the Penguins would be eliminated from the Stanley Cup finals the next night). We said "see you tomorrow" to our Street Team super-couple, got in the van and hunkered down in our adjoining hotel rooms after failing to find an adequately open eatery, and after three attempts to find a place still selling gasoline at 1:00am. Annoying, early-closing-stuff places! Started snoring. Didn't stop all night.

Sunday, 6/1/08 House of Blues (Cleveland, OH)

Got up just outside of Toledo in Michigan, bid it good day and then hustled over the border into Ohio. We had a date with Cleveland. House of Blues. Not to be taken lightly. We showed up. Loaded in with the help of the HOB staff, set up merch, backlined, and then enjoyed a delicious catered dinner. We were sharing a room with Sing It Loud, so we bonded with them and stuff. Took in a rousing performance from the fine, young gentlemen, and then played right after them. Great crowd. Very Clevelandy. Loaded off, loaded out, slung merch, ran backstage. Watched the re-airing of the MTV Movie Awards, where our song "Love Me Dead" played as Johnny Depp was nominated for and then won "Best Villain" for his portrayal of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Yowza. That felt good. Steel Train and then The Spill Canvas tore it up on dat dere stage, and we all noted how lucky we were to be on a tour with all really good bands. Fine peoples too! Hung out at merch for ages after the show, met everyone, signed everything, packed up, loaded out and headed eastish to Pittsburgh where we arrived at the house of the indomitable Joe Madia around 3:30 in the morning. We had a day off in Pittsburgh the next day and plenty to do. Thank you, Cleveland, for a fine, fine show. We got on the sleep trolley and rode it until the conductor asked us to leave.

Saturday, 5/31/08 The Intersection (Grand Rapids, MI)

Got up and out of Megs-n-jen's at a reasonably non-morningish time, bid them au revoir with embraces abounding, and hit the road east for Grand Rapids, Michigan. Last time we'd played at The Intersection, we were headlining for some ungodly reason, and we were doing so in the front bar room on a very small stage. This time, thanks to the power of The Spill Canvas, we were in the big room. We pulled up a good hour-and-a-half late (nice work, team) and immediately loaded in. Backlined. Set up merch in a flash with the intensely competent assistance of Rifqa and Donnie, and ran backstage just as doors opened. Ferrell and I did two different interviews (AnnexisPR, and Under the Gun websites) while sitting in the van together. Then we ran inside, had a quick pre-show meeting, watched the end of Sing It Loud and a bunch of Steel Train from sidestage, and then got up there ourselves. We said hello to the crowd by pummeling our instruments awkwardly for 40 minutes, doing a curtsey and then gliding offstage. They were an enthusiastic bunch to be sure. Ferrell, Convy, and I ran out and found some really good Ethiopian food, ran back in time to catch a few songs at the end of The Spill Canvas' set, and then all five of us swarmed around the merch table and met all the beautiful denizens of western Michigan. Good times, as always in The Great Lakes State. Packed up, loaded out, embraced our street team babies, and then proceeded to get our van stuck in the parking lot. Palermo negotiated us out of the predicament with the help of at least two members of each of the other bands, and after about 25 points and 20 minutes, we were free and on our way to Toledo-area Michigan. That's where I would accidentally sleep in the van because I couldn't wake up enough to get out at the hotel. Idiot. I am an idiot. Good night, Moon!

Friday, 5/30/08 The Metro (Chicago, IL)

Woke up in Chicago and drove down to Wrigleyville. Parked the van outside The Metro and ran down the street to join McGilvray, The Manno Brothers from Q101, and a couple of contest winners at a Cubs game. Good times! After subsisting through a rain delay, we got to watch about 4 innings of The Rockies scoring 8 unanswered runs, before it was time to load in. Thanks, Colorado. The Cardinals could always use the love in early 2008's hotly contested NL Central. Ran down to The Metro, loaded in, backlined, set up merch, and then went in separate directions to find food. Chicago Diner, a Mexican place, and Penny's Noodles. Yummy, everybody. Good work. Apparently after we left the game, The Cubs came back and won 10-9, thanks to a difference-making 3-for-4 slumpbuster from career Cardinal, Jim Edmonds. We should've stayed. Our presence had kryptonitically dampered the Cubs' prowess. Meanwhile, back at The Metro, it was a pretty full house. Sing It Loud poofed onto the stage and cemented their brand of peppy, poppy, synthpoo magic before the eagerly awaiting crowd. Steel Train killed it with the indie oomph that makes them so themmy. Ludo took over and invented a show of rock for its fine Chicago friends. It was a good-looking chunk of Windy City wonderers stuffed like pimentos into the olive of the Metro. They sang along. We blasted through 40 minutes of delightful Ludo action, and then jigged off the stage and loaded out. The Spill Canvas played a full and ferocious set, appeasing their manifaithful who'd shown up to have their canvases spilled on. After the show, we spent the better part of an hour embracing our fans and friends and making new ones along the way. Oh, Chicago... always so good to the Ludo. Packed up merch, loaded out, and then convened at a bar, where we entertained ourselves and our friends for a few hours. Sleep would sneak up behind us like an ocelot on a jungle path.

Thursday, 5/29/08 The Loft (Madison, WI)

Loaded in at the teen/youth-center known as The Loft. There were adolescents typing away vigorously at various consoles in a computer lab. Hi, everybody. The room where we were playing was a veritable echo chamber. Set up onstage, set up merch, waited for the soundman to return, soundchecked, and then set out into the early Madison evening to find foodstuffs. Reconvened at the venue to find an impressive number of people showing up, considering the atypicality of where we were playing. Steel Train and Sing It Loud joined us for the show. We were letting the Spill Canvas have the day off. So we three bands teamed up and hit it hard. Sing It Loud killed the stage. Steel Train owned the corpse thereof. And then we mounted and began to lye the remains. An hour of Ludo power in the most abrasively echoey room ever designed. The peoples loved it. We had two monitors onstage, but even those two were for naught. We could make out nothing we played or sang all night. Lobbing blindly. Woot. Hung out afterwards with all our peoples, Amy ran merch, we packed up, loaded out, high-fived the other bands, said goodbye to Rifqa/Donnie and headed back to Chicago where we crashed for several hours at the home of Jen-n-megs.

Wednesday, 5/28/08 Turner Hall (Milwaukee, WI)

Fully refreshed from our few days off, Ludo was ready to hit the road again and kick off a VERY exciting tour with The Spill Canvas!!!! For the first couple weeks of tour, we were going to be sharing the stage with not only The Spill Canvas, but also Steel Train and the band Sing It Loud. Fine things awaited us. Matt and Convy drove the van up from St. Louis, whilst the rest of us convened via various modes of transport at the venue in Milwaukee. Loaded in at 2:30. Hello, Turner Hall. You are very good-looking. Met all the dudes in all the bands. It was then that we knew we were in for a very friendly tour of friendship with our new friends. Took in a Spill Canvas soundcheck, backlined our amps, set up merch, and then ran down the street to a record store called Exclusive Company where we presented a riveting acoustic show to the fine people who bothered showing up with little advance notice. It was sponsored by 102.1 (nice), and a good time was had by all. Grabbed a little din-din back at the venue in the catering room. Held a pre-show "what-the-hell-are-we-doing" meeting. Listened to Sing It Loud and Steel Train, and then set up onstage, linechecked, and launched into a sexualizing set of Ludo lollygaggery. Got up out the way. Loaded out immediately, watched The Spill Canvas work their thang, and then hung out by the merch and met all the great Millywaukee people. Phoebe and Amy guarded the merch like badgers guarding pineapples, while Rifqa and Donnie got stranded outside by the Island van. Loaded out merch once the people trickled away. High-fived our new friends, embraced our old ones, and peaced the eff out for the Sergenian Abode in Sun Prairie. We closed our eyes and lost consciousness.

Saturday, 5/24/08 Cool Springs Galleria mall parking lot - Journey's Backyard BBQ (Nashville, TN)

Marshall and Matt had a beach exercise surfing date with Chad on Thursday. Slowly made our way to Gainesville, Georgia that evening, where we crashed within the welcoming confines of Courtney's townhouse. Friday was a day of great progress in the video-shooting and Ludo-meeting departments. Departed for Nashville late-ish and arrived late-isher, bedded down for the night at The Comfort Inn, and made sleepies. And then it was BARBECUE DAY!!!! Which actually means skate-demo/rock-show in a mall parking lot day!!! Hooray! Loaded in around 1:00, dispersed (most of us to Whole Foods, Matt to Schlotzsky's) to find foodsicles, and then reconvened backstage a couple hours later to backline and set up merch. Courtney ran that booth like a demon with a little help from Phoebe, whilst Rifqa and Donnie B. owned (OWNED) the Island Street Team tent immediately adjacent. A couple opening bands rocked the stage, including one where the lead singer fell off the stage and hit his FACE on the barricade. Then he got up and continued to perform. Hat's off to you, sir! Wow! Then we got up to get down. Rapid-fired through a 45-minute set, thanked the throng of beautiful Nashvillians, and then got out of the way so that dudes with wireless mics could resume doing "sweet product tosses" from the stage. We didn't swear onstage once, which was a vehemently enforced prerequisite of production. Go, us. Met about 100 delicious people (high-fives, low-fives, medium-level-fives) and then broke down merch, said our goodbyes, and headed all in opposite directions for our three days off before The Spill Canvas tour began. We slept in four different cities that night.

Wednesday, 5/21/08 Music Farm (Charleston, SC)

Tuesday night, we drove and drove and drove and drove. Not really as far as I make it sound, but that was the order of activities, with the "ands" representing stops. Grabbed a room at a Comfort Inn outside Knoxville around 4:00am and slept until our departure time Wednesday morning of 11:00. Drove and drove and drove and drove. Three stops. Pulled up at Music Farm only about 100 minutes late, and the crew fastidiously, energetically helped us load in. It was our first time in Charleston, and the area we were in was lovely, full of quaint shoppes, glowing restaurants, and obnoxiously patronized bars. Set up onstage, sorted through the carnage of merchandise that remained after the previous couple weeks of strange radio shows, soundchecked, and then set up the merch display. The Carolinans of Southern persuasion dribbled in, and shortly thereafter we were bringing it in backstage, high-fiving Jason and Andrew from The Presidents and then taking the stage. We played to a couple hundred peoples, and shimmied through the gauntlet of Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Hum Along, Broken Bride, Girls on Trampolines, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Lake Pontchartrain, Love Me Dead, and Epic. The Charleston crowd was a fine temperature for this unknown Ludo band, and they took to us quite swimmingly I must say. It felt nice to play a show after two days off. My body felt less terrible. Yay! We no longer felt that Death was sniffing our glands. Got out of the Presidents' way, loaded off, packed the van, helped Nick at merch, ran and grabbed some food, came back, met more people, said goodbye, loaded merch out, reparked the van for the third time, and joined some of The Presidents dudes at The Silver Dollar, where Jason bought us drinks and some Cubs fan said "Fuck you" to me. Fair enough. Fuck ME. Good luck this century. Embraced our presidential friends and then rode with Ferrell's older sister Erin and her husband Chad back to their lovely house in James Island. Most of us slept at their out-of-town friend's house down the street. Smuggled some internets out of the air and then made snoring.

Sunday, 5/18/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Pointfest (Maryland Heights, MO)

There must be no God. My alarm didn't go off. Fortunately, I was having a dream about my alarm not going off, so I woke up with a jolt and checked the time. 11:05. NO!!! NO!!!! I have to shower!!! NO!!!! Having redeemed my installment of Ludo's 75 minutes of allotted sleep, I sprinted upstairs, rinsed off, threw clothes on, sprinted outside and joined all my equally jostled compatriots, for a trip to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (formerly UMB Bank Pavilion (formerly Riverport Amphitheatre)). Got there by noon, just in time to load in. By the time we got there, the place was already filling up with people. Curran was there to lend a helping hand. Nick set up our stuff with the merch people. Tim, Tim, and I joined David McGilvray and his crew on a van ride over to the 105.7 The Point lounge where we did a sweet-ass interview with Rizzuto and Donnie Fandango (their first of the day!). Rejoined the rhythm section on the side of the stage, met some fine young gentlemen in Copperview, and then watched the bands Red and Ten Years vigorously play our stage. There was quite a dense throng around the stage. We went on at 2:35. The throng got denser. And bigger. We were worried that maybe the crowd was going to think themselves a little too nu metal to enjoy a Ludo show, and there were certainly some confused faces as we soundchecked. But the faithful were PUMPED. Once Tom announced us though and said we were from St. Louis, and the rock show commenced, it just started going crazy. We were playing to somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people. They were CRAZY. The crowd-surfing factory was sending far more surfers down the assembly line toward the stage than the guards could handle. I saw one girl fall from seven feet up in the air over the barricade and she landed where I couldn't see her, headfirst on the asphalt. I was trying to sing Lake Pontchartrain at the time, but the fall looked so gruesome, I almost stopped. I was thinking to myself, "Oh shitballs, security dudes, please pick her up, please grab that girl..." and they did. As they lifted her three seconds after she landed, all I could see was blood. Soaking her whole head, and waterfalling onto her legs. They dragged her out of their quickly - shook me up to see it so close. It made me nervous for all the other people crowdsurfing, but security seemed to catch all the others - and they were coming in droves. A circle pit ensued for Epic. A circle pit. At a Ludo show. Okay. Whatever. Go for it. Just don't hurt any small, gentle people. Upon my request the crowd threw hundreds of plastic bottles and shows and other random bullshit into the air. I was hoping for watches and cell phones and gold nuggets, but no one had the cajones to make it happen. They were singing along unappeasably, moshing like assholes, and screaming like werewolves. I saw bloodied noses everywhere, and people passing out in the crowd. The good news is, for every person who looked like they were dying, there were at least seven who looked like they might live. It was nuts. Then we passed out kazoos and had the whole front of the crowd play Love Me Dead with us. Amazing. The weather was perfect. The crowd was like nothing I'd ever seen at a Ludo show, and then the show was over. It was hands-down the most intense experience I've ever had in Ludo. We caught a ride over to the Slacker's tent and signed stuff for a good hour until we got to the end of the line. Unexpectedly, lots of dudes in Killswitch Engage shirts saying we rocked. Turns out the Pointfest liked Ludo. It was an amazing day. Stopped by and gave some love to Rifqa, Donnie, and the beautiful Island Street Teamers at their van, and then we reconvened back at our stage where we sat on top of the van stage right and watched Coheed tear it up. It was beautiful. Nick settled with the merch people, we all shook hands and went our separate ways for a good 48 hours of rest. Pointfest. You are a gorgeous, healthy baby and we were happy to babysit you for a half-hour. Let's do it again in the fall.

Saturday, 5/17/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - KROQ Weenie Roast (Irvine, CA)

Enough air travel for Ludo! We hopped on an Amtrak train in downtown San Diego around 8:00am and took the SurfLine north to Irvine, taking in the sights of the Pacific Ocean in the morning sun along the way. San Juan Capistrano is the sexiest name for a city ever. Upon arrival in Irvine, we lugged our stuff along the bridge over the tracks and met our driver who shuttled us to The Marriott. Slept for 45 minutes. Yes! Got up, hopped in the shuttle, and rolled hard toward the fabled Roast of Weenies. Arrived behind the second stage at 10:55 after having been told to be there at 11:00. Immediately got shit from the production staff, who was under the impression we'd be there at 10:00. They were very rude to Pmo. Sweet. Thanks. That's what we need this morning. Awesome. Soundchecked. Believed in ourselves. Retreated to our trailer, turned on the A/C and gathered our eggs for the day's activities. Nick and Chia ran around and tracked down the kazoos. There were two stages side-by-side that presented bands back-and-forth without interruption (the mainstage didn't start until later that afternoon). We went on right after the morning show DJ played a set of parody songs on the adjacent stage, and right before the Flobots kicked it on that same stage. It was a hot day in Irvine, California. Ludo's bones were finally thawing from the soul-crushing winter. We stoked a conflagration of six songs to roughly 4,000 people and then got up out the way. Got some catering that was yum. Ran over to the KROQ on-air interview stage thing, and did an interview with Stryker from Loveline/Ellen. He was doubly high-fiveable. Skedaddled over to the merch, then interviewed some people about the interweb, loaded our stuff out, and caught a shuttle back to The Marriott with the lead singer of Flogging Molly. Sought out food and 30-45 minutes of sleep, before the van came to take us to the airport. Long drive from Irvine to LAX, stopped at a pharmacy on the way and got some BenGay for "my poor aching back," and arrived at the airport in plenty of time to find out that they had booked our 12:10am tickets for the night before and our flight no longer existed. Clearly the whole "new-day-starts-at-midnight" thing had foiled another mark. We flew standby. Passing out in our seats by the gate, we heard our names called one-by-one right before the plane was to take off. We all made it! Yay. Nodded off over and over for 4 hours. Jolted awake by the plane landing in Dallas-Fort Worth. Slept on the terminal floor for 25 minutes, until it was time to board the 6:25am flight to St. Louis. Dazedly stared out the window until a Lambert International runway hit the tires in St. Louis. Emerged dead to the world at 8:30am, reclaimed our bags, took the shuttle to the parking garage, picked up the van, and drove it (failing brakes and all) back home, arriving at our respective beds around 9:30. Fully aware that we had to leave for Pointfest at 11:15 in the morning, we closed our eyes and set multiple redundant alarms.

Thursday, 5/15/08 The Tempe Marketplace (Tempe, AZ)

After three hours sleep, we caught a 10:15 flight to Phoenix. Upon arrival, the unflappable Christine Chiappetta ably fetched a large rental vehicle to tote us around in. Good-looking weather, Phoenix! Damn, we have waited a long time for weather like this. It's been 8 months since we've really seen the sun. HOORAY! Drove from the airport straight to the venue: a bad-ass outdoor stage in the Tempe Marketplace. Ate some delights at (something) Ranch and twas tasty. Apparently not tasty enough for me to remember the name though. I am an idiot. Soundchecked for awhile, but rain somehow started falling in the desert, and we scrambled to cover our equipment with tarps. Once Nick and Chiappetta got back from Kinko's or wherever the hell they disappeared to, we skedaddled down the lane to the studios for The Edge 103.9, where good ol' Tim Virgin was awaiting our arrival. That crazy bastard was on The Point in St. Louis back when we were in high school, so Convy and I were very excited to be interviewing with him. I guess the other guys were excited too, but not in as much of a dude-on-dude kinda way. He shuffled us off into a little room, where a capable engineer recorded us rattling off Go-Getter Greg and Love Me Dead acoustic on some rented guitars, a glockenspiel and a tambourine. Then we ran into the studio and entered the weirdness of a Tim Virgin interview, where we jocularly joked and then pretended to play the songs we'd just recorded. Did some liners, took a photo, and peaced out. Christine whisked us quicklily to the Comfort Inn right down the street from the venue. It was long-awaited, this arrival at the hotel, because it meant we had a chance to take a quick nap before we had to play - very necessary since three hours had been all we'd gotten the night before. Great location, plenty of time. Perfect! Oops. They'd given us the wrong hotel. No reservations there. Ha! Found out which hotel we actually had a reservation at. Then sat in traffic to get there. By the time we arrived, the time to take the naps we had so desperately pined for had evaporated into wispy memories and we were left with 15 minutes to run inside, put on some deodorant and change our clothes. Shitty. Dragged our asses back to The Tempe Marketplace to discover 1,500 or so people thronging around the stage, where the opening band was KILLING it! Those guys were great and very nice too. Tim Virgin intro'd us after a quick game of musical chairs onstage, and then we pounded through an hour of Ludo power. The crowd was amazing. Singing loudly! Broke out the kazoos for Love Me Dead and they played them with gusto. Afterwards, we met a TON of fine Arizonans, and then packed up the van, and grabbed a bite with our good people at Dave and Buster's right next to the stage. Chiappetta dropped us off in a hazy sleepfunk at our hotel around 2:00am We passed out for 3 hours.

Wednesday, 5/14/08 The Voodoo Lounge at The Rio (Las Vegas, NV)

Spent Monday night in St. Louis. Flew to Vegas Tuesday around noon. There was a shiny sun in the city of sin, and we were pleased to see it. Had a longish meeting in Convy's and my room shortly after checking in to the Rio, covering topics such as "Band Issue 1" and "Band Issue 2." Productive! Hung out Tuesday in Vegas, some people at the casino, other people in their beds. Tim Convy went and saw Trent Carlini portray Elvis Presley. Really pushing the envelope, that concept. Got up Wednesday, soundchecked at The Voodoo Lounge where we took in a gorgeous view of The Strip (it's on the 51st floor of the hotel). Yowza. Ran down to the radio station, The Area 107.9, and did a scintillating interview with the jocular radio personality, Funk. On our way back, Christine, Convy, and I stopped at the Venetian, where we at, and then I got a massage, because I had nastily messed up my lower back a few days before and it was getting worse and worse. In retrospect, I probably lifted some heavy equipment bullshit without using my knees the morning of the Indy 500 show. None of us had slept that night since we'd taken the red-eye, and I clearly did something stupid. Anywho, I felt better after that sweet-ass rubdown. Ran back to The Rio and met a gaggle of 107.9ers and some Vegas area fans (including a very familiar face from our early days in STL) at Lucky Strike Lanes on the first floor of the hotel. All the 107.9 people were very nice and went out of their way to be cool to us. Did a fair amount of bowling, and then made our way upstairs, where we played on a small stage whose front butted up against a stairwell. In fact, if I stepped over the railing in front of my mic stand, I'd've fallen 20 feet to the stairs below. There were couches and whatnot off to the sides, but the stairway was large and very prominently in our grills. Battled through an hour with some questionable vocals on my part, but the average intoxication of the crowd was such that no one was complaining. Hung out for awhile after the show, grabbing some ehh fare at an all-night restaurant in the lobby. Said our good-nights around 2:00 or 3:00 and then had not enough sleep.

Sunday, 5/11/08 The Magic Stick (Detroit, MI)

After a ginormo sleep, Ludo was ready to drive that ol' Ludo van again. We'd never played Detroit before and it was only a five-hour drive away. Let's go to Detroit! So we did. The Presidents of the USA were in need of an opener in The Motor City and Ludo had the day off after the Indianapolis 500. It was all going according to plan. Ludo was in bad shape: thrown-out backs, twisted ankles, you name it. We was hurtin'. Loaded in with the help of the people at The Magic Stick, including bringing in all the boxes of new merch that had arrived in Indianapolis and were schlepped down to the raceway by the Unsinkable Ball Family. Up two flights of stairs and into the imaginations of all the Detroiters who dated enter the venue that night. Embraced Kate, John, Davey, and all the Presidents guys upon spotting them individually. Courtney was in tow, her friend Caroline popped in, and before we knew it, we were counting in hundreds of T-shirts and hoodies. Loaded onstage, sounchecked, and then did the eight-person merch count-in sprint before doors opened. Merch sprawled across the room, counting sheets, plastic tubs, tables, what a mess! Still rather discombobulated once the people came in. Got it together in the nick of time, Courtney ran it ably, and we started to say hi to the peoples. Ran out to the van, had a pre-show meeting, and then warmed up briefly. Took stage and powered through 45 minutes of Ludory: Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Hum Along, Topeka, Broken Bride, Girls on Trampolines, Lake Pontchartrain, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Love Me Dead, and Epic. It was a happy Mother's Day up in that piece. Met a lot of Motor Cityists, watched the Presidents be amazing, and then loaded out in the rain, packing for air travel once more (leaving for Las Vegas on Tuesday), setting aside three bags of merch, guitars, moog, and kick pedals. Said our see-you-soon's, thanked Detroit for all of its Detroitery, and slid out onto the detouring highway for ten hours of driving power. St. Louis would see its native sons return around 10:00am. Then the good Lord would bless us with sleep. Or would it be the devil's work???

Saturday, 5/10/08 The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis, IN)

Arrived around 9:00am. Got picked up and driven straight to the Indianapolis 500 raceway. Checked into the hotel there, dropped off our bags, and were carted immediately to the stage, where we set up all our equipment and soundchecked until noon. Courtney had driven our van-and-trailer with her mom from New York City all the way to Indianapolis, and since load-in was at 6:30 that morning (while we were in a plane), she had supervised loading in all of our equipment earlier that day. She deserves a big hug from her boyfriend. And probably some money. Were golf-carted back to the hotel, where we slept for two hours, woke up in a deep haze, and were golf-carted back to the stage. DJ Orion was finishing his set. We got up there, linechecked (my voice felt worse than it's ever felt before), and then absolutely carnaged our way through 45 minutes of Ludo. It felt like every note was a slow-dragging cheese grater just shredding my esophageal flesh. Wow. But we battled through it, playing to around 1,000 people all in all. At one point, I think someone took the "Go to hell," from our song Good Will Hunting By Myself, seriously and personally, because he singled out and very emphatically flicked off Convy. We then invited any and all other fanny-pack-wearing grandfathers who wanted to flick us off to meet us at yonder tree after the show for some fisticuffs. We are not afraid to go toe-to-toe with someone's grandfather. Courtney sold CD's, we packed up and got out of the way, so that Yellowcard could play their acoustic set. Very nice to us they were, introducing themselves before the set and sharing in our bewilderment over the playing of a rock show as rocket-propellish engines terror-screamed around us. We ate some delicious catering, met some extremely nice people who had watched the show, and then once they kicked everyone out around 6:00, we loaded up the trailer and drove it over to the hotel. Most of us were fast asleep by 7:30pm. We would sleep for over 13 hours. After 15 days of crazy, it was time for such a slumber. Thank you Indianapolis Motor Speedway for having such well-located sleeping surfaces.

Friday, 5/9/08 El Capitan Theatre - Jimmy Kimmel Live (Hollywood, CA)

Ludo performing on network television for the first time ever!!! So excited! Loaded our stuff into the car around 7:30 in the morn, drove to the airport and caught a flight to Hollywood. I sat in the window seat next to two middle-aged businessmen with a Goodfellas pomp about them, who didn't hesitate to make implicit threats when I had them move to let me use the restroom. "You're not makin' any friends, cowboy." Sorry, Mr. Menace, I need to take a piss. I guess I shouldn't have been wearing those chaps and spurs. Got in to Burbank, gathered our various baggages and was chauffeured to the El Capitan Theatre, where Jimmy Kimmel Live is shot. Brought our stuff in, admired the beautiful trappings and comforts. Got a quick tour of the studio and a rundown of the day's events. I slept in the green room on some pillows. Got up, greeted our whole team, including the irreplaceable Matt Wallace production train, and then soundchecked, kazoos and all up in the room. All our friends and various whatnot peoples streamed in, populated the green room and then once showtime came, moved en masse for the most part into the studio where they watched Jimmy Kimmel interview a dusty statue of Kelsey Grammer and then the long-since hollowed shell of Alex Trebek. Jimmy Kimmel is hilarious. There's a reason they sling Emmys at the man. The stage manager called us up to the stage (go figure), we linechecked, and then they moved the entire crowd from the main studio into the performance room. Nick and the crew passed out kazoos, the hype guy hyped and got the crowd crazy excited about life, and then I did the standard sexy tutorial on kazoo playing and when to play it in the song, etc. The crowd did a practice run and we were good to go. Jimmy came onstage and said hi to all of us, thanked us for coming and stuff (such well-mannered gentlemen these television hosts...), and then went over to his spot to introduce us. Cameras rolled, he showed our CD to the viewers for the fifth time (nice!), and threw it to us. We shat through Love Me Dead (remembering to do the short version... yikes!), and I changed the lyric to "finger-painting my heart" because the people at ABC aren't into manual masturbation in music. The crowd NAILED the kazoo part. Not sure if you could hear it on TV or not, but it sounded great in the room. Jimmy said good night, thanked the guests, and we tore into Go-Getter Greg, getting at least most of the first chorus in, before the show ended. Obviously we finished the song live though, and I think they're putting the whole performance on the Jimmy Kimmel website. The handlers put Kelsey Grammer and Alex Trebek back in their travel cases, we packed up our gear and schmoozed with everyone. All the people working on the Jimmy Kimmel show went way out of their way to be nice to us, which was surprising and delightful. I guess that's why everyone says it's the coolest show to play of all the late-night shows. Had some drinks with our people across the street at The Roosevelt, said our farewells, and caught a ride to LAX. Boarded exhaustedly on a 12:05 flight. Slept minimally, intermittently, torturedly. Arrived in Chicago around 6:30 in the morning. Caught a connecting flight to Indianapolis. Didn't sleep.

Thursday, 5/8/08 The Boardwalk (Sacramento, CA)

Up and at 'em Wednesday morning. Met a camera crew in our hotel room actually and shot some sweet-ass interview footage all in a hotel bed. Hopped in the rental car and tracked down the address of a studio where we shot more interview footage in front of a screen with our logo on it. Then we drove to American Eagle and did an interview in front of the largest photo of a man with a popped collar that has ever been printed. Said goodbye to gorgeous Seattle, drove to the airport, and caught our Alaska Airlines flight to Sacramento. Checked into our hotel and went to see Iron Man. Three thumbs up. Woke up Thursday, exercised, did some laundry, and then got picked up and driven to The Boardwalk around 3:00pm. Got there, met the rental gear dude, loaded in, set up onstage, and waited for Claude to work his magic. Chiappetta showed up and entered the club fabulously. We changed strings, soundchecked, and then were escorted to KWOD studios by Christine Chiappetta, where we met Rubin and Andy Hawk, rocked a couple Ludo songs and an Elvis tune on acoustics, and chatted sillily. Great guys, lots of callers. Good times. Ran back to the venue, grabbing some Thai and some barbecue on the way, actually arriving back at The Boardwalk exactly as Self Against City was finishing their final song. The place had already sold out before doors even opened! CRAZY!!! It was our first time selling out a show in advance and we were thrilled! Pounded through an hour long set: Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Save Our City, Hum Along, Topeka, Girls on Trampolines, In Space, Broken Bride, Lake Pontchartrain, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Love Me Dead, and then encored with Epic. Woot! The crowd was LOUD and unapologetically sweaty. Signed a ton of stuff and hugged a ton of people. Packed up, loaded out, thanked the Boardwalk, and then peaced out. Chiappetta drove us in two shifts back to the Hilton Garden Inn in Folsom, where we went to sleep after watching Jimmy Kimmel say Ludo would be on his show tomorrow. YAY!!!

Tuesday, 5/6/08 Chop Suey (Seattle, WA)

Got up on Sunday and ran around NYC a lil bit, before the car picked us up to go to JFK Airport around 2:30. Arrived in San Francisco, and checked in to the Westin downtown. Got up earlyish Monday morning and soundchecked at the Marriott down the street for the NARM Conference (National Association of Recording Merchandisers), where we would be performing the next morning. After the soundcheck, Tim, Tim, and I ran to Herbivore, an amazing vegan restaurant, then met up with Matt for some quick clothes shopping. Met Jerry, Jonathan, Russell, Chad, and some new friends for a delightfully marathonny dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Tuesday morning, got up, ran down to the Marriott, watched the Temptations perform (wow), and then got onstage and dropped two songs ourselves. Shook some hands, kissed some babies, and then bolted straight for the airport where we narrowly caught our flight to Seattle via Alaska Airlines. Hm. Okay. Went straight from the airport in Seattle to Chop Suey, where we set up and soundchecked. Immediately after soundcheck, Tim, Tim, and I participated in a panel for up-and-coming musicians. They had all won a contest through the radio station (107.7 The End) to come ask us "music industry people" how to make their band bigger and better and get their music out there. There was a bunch of question-and-answering, and then we listened to a couple of their demos and gave feedback. We talked a lot. Which I hope was more helpful than obnoxious. Not sure if we've got any answers on the topics, but we certainly had a lot to say. It was fun, and really helped remind us why we do what we do. Cathartic! Ran down the street, got food, and hustled back to the venue. Watched two great opening bands, and then got up there. We weren't sure what to expect since it was a radio show and we'd never been to Seattle before. We were afraid people would only want to hear Love Me Dead. But we were pleasantly delighted when they rocked out hard the entire set. Passed out kazoos for Love Me Dead, and rounded out our hour of power with some Faith No More action. Word. Packed up sweatily, met all the fine Seattle folk, thanked The End profusely for setting up such an amazing show, thanked Chop Suey for being so great, and then headed back to the hotel. We slept at it. In beds. Hurrah!

Saturday, 5/3/08 The Meadowlands - Bamboozle (East Rutherford, NJ)

Still exhausted from the day before, we left in the van-and-trailer (fetched by Marshall and Matt) from the Hudson around 7:45 in the mo'n. Drove on a miserably soggy and cold day for East Rutherford. Arrived at Giants Stadium at The Meadowlands, pulled in to the Bamboozle parking lot, counted out merch, brought it up to the booth to be counted in, pulled the van around to the Aquarian stage and loaded in. Set up our booth next to our brothers of the road, Treaty of Paris (http://www.myspace.com/treatyofparis), and then set out to find catering. We wanted a meal. Ate with TOP (good veggie burgers). On the way back, we stopped at the Island tent and greeted all our favorite street team peoples. Pmo, Marshall, and I ran to the van and took some naps. At 11:30, we did an interview with the irreplaceable Steven of Fuse's "Steven's Untitled Rock Show." Steven had interviewed us on the air a few times, four years earlier when we won the "Just Add Video" contest and then "The Next Big Thing" contest on Fuse. So it was cool to be able to see him again and do another high-class interview. Then I got to interview him for my fake music show. Good form, Steven, good form. Ran back into the festival, caught Less Than Jake's set, met back at merch, warmed up, and then got up to blast out our half-hour of Ludo power. A shitload of people showed up about one song in to our set. It was thrilling to get to play for such a fat crowd in the New York area. Loaded off quickly, packed up the trailer, and signed a lot of stuff by the merch booth. Met a ton of great peoples and told them about our return with Spill Canvas in June. It was sopping wet, it was freezing, my allergies started freaking out and I started snotting on the world. I realized it was time to get out of there. The other guys hung out for a bit, I packed up merch with Nick, and then brought it out to the trailer and packed it away. I caught a bus with my cousins, Anna and Maggie (who had run merch for us), and we all called it an early night at The Hudson, generally asleep by 1:00 or 2:00. Bamboozle was great. I'm sure it makes a lot more sense when you're not in a chilling Scottish November rainstorm. Hope we get to do it next year!!!

Friday, 5/2/08 Churchill Downs - The Kentucky Derby (Louisville, KY)

SUNDAY: got up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Drove to Chicago.
MONDAY: crashed at Megs-n-jen's for a couple days.
TUESDAY: met up with David McGilvray at the Chicago Theatre. Soundchecked our acoustics there, ran down to Q101, visited the Manno brothers, and then skedaddled back to the venue. Played a few songs to about 500 advertisers and various CBS radio affiliates, mingled, said goodbye, and started driving east. Slept that night somewhere along I-80 in Ohio.
WEDNESDAY: Got up and completed our journey all the way to Manhattan, where we dropped off the van and trailer at an expensive pay lot and then checked in to The Hudson.
THURSDAY: Car picked us up around 8:30 in the morning and took us to Rebel where we soundchecked for that night's showcase. Shortly thereafter, we ran down to the K-Rock studios and did some interview/performance stuff for 923krock.com. The car then whisked us off to the MTV offices, where we took some photos, did an interview, and then played a couple songs acoustic for the good people there, followed by an MTVradio interview. Hustled back to Rebel, where almost every single employee of Island Records was there to see a few Island bands play, the last of which was Ludo. We played five songs full-band for all our friends and associates at the label. Hung out for awhile, loaded out into the obnoxious New York street, retired back at The Hudson by midnight. Four hours sleep.
FRIDAY: The car picked us up in front of the hotel at 4:30am, and took us to the Newark Airport. We caught an early flight to Louisville. Another car picked us up and took us straight to Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby takes place. We rode through a tunnel under the track to get to the in-field. A stage was all set up and John McLaughlin was soundchecking when we got there. We each tried to find various corners under benches or behind cases to catch a quick nap. Got up, warmed up, and after John's set, took the stage and battled through five Ludo songs. Now the idea was that we were going to play five songs, break for a horse race, and then play another five songs, but on our fifth song, a typhoonigator descended from the hell above us, and it began to rain as though four horsemen were drawing nigh. Our equipment was wet, the backline and P.A. was soaked. They turned off the power on the stage. Eventually the decision was made to cut our set short. No one wanted to try to send electricity through all the wet amplifiers while we were standing onstage. All the super-nice, extremo-drunk Kentuckians scrambled and cavorted in the tempestuous rain, while we said our goodbyes and thank-you's. Our driver whisked us back to the airport where we found our flight had been delayed four hours. Lucky for us we caught the one two hours earlier, and only had to wait two hours extra. Score! Tim, Tim, Nick, and I grabbed an amazing dinner at Zen Palate. Crashed back at the Hudson.

Saturday, 4/26/08 St. John's University (Collegeville, MN)

There we were, three hours late for load-in. We hadn't slept. We hadn't stopped. We certainly hadn't changed our clothes or showered. Let's do this, Ludo! Loaded in with the help of many Pinestock Staff T-shirted students. Backlined, set up merch, watched a little of the opening local band, who had won the Battle of the Bands. They covered Reel Big Fish and had a song called Sexy Train. So they were doing alright. Met in the RV where we supposed to be warming up and eating snacks. We did just that, came up with a setlist, fought the urge to pass out sitting up and sleep all day, and then went back inside to watch Trampled By Turtles. They were awesome. We got onstage, ran through a monitor check, and then blasted out Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Save Our City, Hum Along, Broken Bride, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Lake Pontchartrain, Love Me Dead, and Epic. We unabashedly affirmed that we were indeed still wearing last night's clothes. There were a couple thousand people there, and they were rather riled up. There was a young gentleman crowdsurfing, bouncing up and down for about two songs straight. The police there working security were not amused and put a stop to it shortly thereafter, threatening to stop the show if we didn't make them stop. Okay. Sure. You got it, lawman! We told them to stop having all their fun. Got our stuff out of the way and loaded out. Watched Jack's Mannequin rock the crowd. Fine performance! Great dudes! Met some people, thanked the student-staff for all their help, loaded out merch, and hit the road for Sun Prairie. Stopped and ate Chipotle along the way. Good for us! Oh yeah, and there was 6-8 inches of snow on the ground in Minnesota. This shit is out of control. It's really gotta stop. We can't handle anymore winter.

Friday, 4/25/08 The Blue Note (Columbia, MO)

Got together in St. Louis Wednesday, made a couple of viral videos for fun, and then headed out on Friday for Columbia. Picked Nick up at the airport on the way. Rolled up to the back of the Blue Note where Dylan was patiently awaiting our arrival. The temperature had dropped about 30 degrees since we'd left St. Louis, and the clouds had chased all the sunshine away. Loaded in, soundchecked, set up merch, and then meandered down the street to Main Squeeze with the boys in Tally Hall, whom we hate. They are our least favorite band of all 1,200 we've ever played with. By far. They are horrible as people and as a band. I can't believe we let them play on our Columbia show. They are such crap. But we ate dinner with them anyway. Dicks. Got back to The Blue Note, and found that the show was selling out! What?! It was going to be our first sold-out show at The Blue Note!!!! Over 800 people! The largest Ludo-headlining show outside of St. Louis ever!!! High-fived and hugged Shags and Barrett out front and said hi to all the peoples lined up around the building. John Henry and The Engine went on first and rocked roilingly. Then Tally Hall got up, talked shit about Ludo the entire time, and were about as terrible as any band could be (because they are not talented and they are exceedingly dumb). Tally Hall are our arch nemeses, and we wish them nothing but sadness and trash. Anyway, we let the Blue Note staff clean off the stage after their set, so that their hideous filth wouldn't pollute our Ludoness, and then after a savvy intro from the tallest man in radio, we took the stage and blasted off a rocket of Ludo goodness and yarn-spinning musicdreams. Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Save Our City, Please, Topeka, Hum Along, Such As It Ends, Saturday Night Thunderbolt, Broken Bride, In Space, Good Will Hunting By Myself, Lake Pontchartrain, Epic, and Love Me Dead. After a brief chanting session, we did Girls on Trampolines, and I promised to high-five all 800 people as they left the club. I sprinted around to the front but only got about 300 high-fives. It was okay. It still felt like a lot. We signed stuff, took pics, and then packed up and headed out. But not before Convy's precarious positioning of the merch tacklebox led to the lavish spilling of hundreds of buttons, labels, rubber bands, pens, markers, and many other tiny Ludo necessities all over the floor. It took only about 25 minutes to clean it up. Thanked John from the club for running our merch so ably, loaded out, and started driving. We were ecstatic to have sold out The Blue Note finally! It didn't take long though for that ecstatsy to be replaced with the terrifying realization that we had to drive straight to Collegeville, Minnesota without stopping or sleeping, and pull right up to the gymnasium at St. John's where we would be playing Pinestock. Even with driving straight there, we were going to be three hours late for load-in.

Friday, 4/18/08 The Warehouse (La Crosse, WI)

Refreshed as concerns sleep at the Sergenian Abode, we came upstairs and feasted on vegan and non-vegan breakfast fare before a 2:00 departure. Drove aggressively to La Crosse, loaded in in the mucky, cold rain, and then ran down the street to eat at Big Al's with the Official Ludo Ninjas. Deee-lish!! Came back, watched the openers slay with their rock and then got up there to get down. Busted through Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Save Our City, Topeka, Hum Along, Such As It Ends, Lake Pontchartrain, Saturday Night Thunderbolt, Broken Bride, Good Will Hunting By Myself, and Love Me Dead. After some prodding we finished it off with Girls on Trampolines. Nick played on Good Will Hunting and we sent a Happy Birthday song out to his little sis Geneva. The crowd was dense, voracious, sweaty and very Ludo-friendly. Matt and I were pretty jacked up on NOS energy drink the whole show. It gave us super-power. And painful stomach burning. Afterwards, we loaded out, and drove to St. Louis. It was a make-up show for when the weather made us postpone our La Crosse visit a couple months prior. And it felt right. Sleep would befriend us in the post-dawn hours of a St. Louis morning.

Thursday, 4/17/08 The Intersection (Grand Rapids, MI)

Arose and drove to Grand Rapids. Pulled in at The Intersection and loaded in to set up on the front bar stage, soundchecked, and then ran a little errand. I went to Wal-Mart to get my glasses adjusted, whilst Ferrell checked some internets at Starbucks. Found out from Nick that we were playing 45 minutes later. Rushed back to The Intersection, warmed up briefly, caught the tail-end of Liam and Me, and took the stage. Battled through a full hour of Ludo action for a first-time-in-Grand-Rapids extravaganza. It was an early show. We packed up, tearfully embraced the Liam boys, exchanged many high-fives with the peoples of western Michigan, and hit the pavement, heading west for Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. We pulled up to the Sergenian Abode around 4:00 in the morning. Sleep!

Wednesday, 4/16/08 Grog Shop (Cleveland Heights, OH)

Woke up Wednesday morning in serious pain. Wow. Don't go from lethargy to playing three long intense basketball games in one day. Pretty stupid. But we're boys, so I guess we have to do dumb shit like that every once in awhile ("are you asking for a challenge?!!?!"). Gingerly hobbled out to the van, drove back to Benevolence Cafe, loaded up on veganism, and peregrinated north to Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Pulled up about 100 yards down the street from The Grog Shop on a gorgeous day, and trawled all our stuff down the sidewalk and into the venue. Set up, soundchecked, greeted The Liam and Me's, made a call to a very rude technician at a guitar repair shop, and then split over to The Winking Lizard with our fine friend Joe Madia for some din-din. Actually, I slept in the van for the duration of the meal. Back at the venue, we watched Liam and Me wrap up the burrito, and then we took the stage to devour it. There were multiple chunks of Ludo enthusiasts out that night for the rock show, and enthusiasts they were! Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Topeka, Hum Along, Good Will Hunting By Myself, In Space, Such As It Ends, Lake Pontchartrain, Broken Bride, Love Me Dead, and Girls on Trampolines. I was having myriad tuning problems, so the whole flow of the set was off from the beginning. We eked through though and the crowd didn't seem too upset with us. In fact, psychotically, they seemed very much to enjoy it. We hung out for a bit with the peoples afterward, packed up, loaded out, and then worked our way down the highway to Highland, Ohio where a Days Inn offered us a two-bed room for six dudes for a sweet-smelling $50 after taxes. Etherized by that inebriating aroma, we soporifically acquiesced to the opiate of cost-effectiveness, and slept like dead people.

Tuesday, 4/15/08 The Basement (Columbus, OH)

Monday morning, we got up and drove down to the 106.5 studios, where they broadcast Charlotte's rock station for all to hear. We brought in our gear and played a touching acoustic set for the assembled staff and faculty. You can watch it at 1065.com (keyword: Boo Koo). I haven't seen it yet. I hope it doesn't suck. Made some friends and then hit the road for Columbus. Slicing right down the spine of The Appalachians, we stopped in Ripley, West Virginia to devour some Chinese food (Convy, Nick, and I) and some Cozumel Mexican food (Marshall and Matt) and some deep thoughts (Ferrell). Kept on trucking, pulling up to a gruff gentleman at the Super 8 in Reynoldsburg, Ohio at some point late Monday night. Packed up our booties and got some resticles. Next mo'n, we arose, put on basketball shorts, drove to a court, and challenged Ha Ha Tonka (who happened to be in town) to a rip-roaring game of half-court 4-on-4. It was Nick, Marshall, Matt and me vs. Lennon, Brett, Luke, and Brian. Brian was GOOD. Luke was a beast. Brett wore boots. Lennon was disturbing. They were all dressed like a troupe of mimes. Very disconcerting. We were out of shape and foot-blistering like bitches. We lost 32-28. It hurt. Said "good game" and then headed back to the hotel for a conference call, showered, and headed into Columbus proper. Had an ebullient lunch at Benevolence Cafe (vegan sloppy joe = #1 pick), while Matt had Mexican at an open marketplace. Pulled down the street a couple blocks, loaded in, set up and soundchecked. Then we did an interview for the promoter's multimedia production company's website, had a band meeting in the van, watched Pretty Balanced, followed by an ass-kicking by Liam and Me, and then got onstage ourselves. Exploded through Go-Getter Greg, Drunken Lament, Save Our City, Topeka, Hum Along, Please, Good Will Hunting By Myself, In Space, Lake Pontchartrain, Broken Bride, Love Me Dead, and Epic. That's when Lennon from Ha Ha Tonka heckled us about losing earlier that day. So we rechallenged them to a night rematch. We found out from some dudes in the crowd where we could find a court with lights open late. They knew the spot of Ohio State campus. It was on. We played Girls on Trampolines, packed up, loaded out, said our goodbyes, drove to Taco Bell to feed, returned to the Super 8, put on our basketball gear, abandoned Marshall, Ferrell, and Convy and drove back downtown to Ohio State's outdoor courts. We met some of the students there, and they rounded out our 5-on-5 teams. We played two full-court games to 64 and we lost twice. Ugh. It hurt. First game, they smoked us by like 15. But on the second game, they only won by 2. Damn it! Pmo, Nick, and I absolutely destroyed our bodies in the process. Then I took a few full-court shots and made one on the fourth try. I felt accomplished. Drove like warmed over