this friday, steve, dan, and i loaded up the honda with 2 acoustic guitars, an accordion, and about 25% of dan’s drum kit and departed for wooster, oh to open for americana rocker matt hoover at seattle’s. we stopped by notable pittsburgh vietnamese eatery tram’s kitchen for three orders of chicken fried rice to go and hit the road. if you’ve never eaten at tram’s, i highly recommend it the next time you get a hankering for vietnamese cuisine.

before we left, steve had the wherewithal to grab trevor’s gameboy for diversion whilst traveling.

about trevor: what you have to understand is that he is an unabashed empiricist. his see-it-to-believe-it disposition makes descartes look like tertullian. you may recall his last post. if not, take a look at it to see a blend of skepticism and joe-bashing at it’s finest. and then take the time to review the evidence below for yourself.

that’s not imovie magic folks, it’s raw tetris skill. for the record, steve beat tetris earlier that day. and though trevor has undoubtedly made more attempts than the rest of the band put together, he has yet to see 11 dancing russians and a space shuttle with his own eyes. just please remember this the next time we’re in conversation and i share with you an interesting bit of trivia.

having defended my honor, we arrived at the show to find that not only is seattle’s a purveyor of freshly roasted espresso, they also have a full bar, including draught beer by the pint (or tall glass, if you prefer your brews 20 oz. at a time). steve was happy to find in one establishment the only two liquids i have ever seen him consume: coffee and libations. i was happy to drink complimentary guinness from a glass the size of my head. and all three of us were happy to be in wooster playing some of our new material acoustically to a packed house.

thanks to matt hoover, his band, and seattle’s for hosting us. thanks to jillian and tony for coming out and bringing friends to the show. thanks to dan and kyle for introducing yourselves and conversing with us. thanks to everyone who showed up and listened. and special thanks to trevor for giving me yet another opportunity to exonerate myself and display his tendencies towards disbelief in one fell swoop.

i’m writing this, my first post, not to contribute anything novel or edifying to the conversation that is already well underway, but rather in the hope that it will be a catalyst for more and better submissions from the rest of the band. i’m also writing this to share with you, my loyal fans (or our loyal fans…whatever) the deepest, most profound, most personal components of my being. my deep, cavernous being.

it’s a little bit embarrassing for me to share this with you, but i think it’s important that our relationship be founded on the solid rock of honesty. preferably a truth-bearing slab of limestone (for any potential patron[esse]s out there granite or marble would be really nice, it’s just not in the budget right now). in fact, i’m going to edit the tour rider to call for a truth-bearing slab of marble on every stage we play henceforth.

last weekend, in the midst of a 12 hour rehearsal (no, we did not break for meals, and yes, i was wearing a catheter) i did something i’ve never done before an audience. right there in trevor and megan’s living room, in front of god, the band, and the elderly neighbors on the east side of bruce street, i busted my nut.

of course, this made quite a scene. at the time i was tweaking the nord lead 2 (for our regular readers, i’m also playing the synth label game) and i stumbled across a particularly stimulating bass tone that sent my guitar from its precariously pro junior-supported upright position into the opposing wall. and though i thought nothing of it at the time, when i next picked up the guitar to play it, i found that my nut was indeed busted.

i’ll have you know that superglue is a legitimately utilized substance in the repair of many guitar parts, nuts included. steve was good enough to find the disembodied nut piece, megan was good enough to find some superglue and a bamboo twig to apply it, and i was good enough to flawlessly return the formerly disembodied nut piece to its rightful place on the neck of my guitar.

see, this story had a happy ending after all.

as a final word, i’d like to bring to everyone’s attention the blatant war-on-joe’s-integrity that trevor has imprudently waged via this blog. every good deed deserves another. just wait…