our first three day road trip - part 1

Roach here wanting to talk about the insanity that was this past weekend. S1D went on their first three day road trip to three different states to play some shows outside of New York City. A lot of shit happened so let's get into this:

first stop was friday July 30 in Bethlehem, PA. we get to the place and its a nice, small place. Some sort of gathering hall for members of some community. The beer was cheap, the people at the bar were nice and it seemed like it was going to be a good show.

I won't lie to you folks, the show didn't go the way we expected it to go. First off, almost nobody but the other bands showed up. There were maybe 8 people there in total. I'm not saying this to shit on the promoters. They were awesome people and they worked their asses off promoting and trying to get people to the show. It just didn't work out the way they wanted.

We set up our stuff and start our set and even with the small space, hard walls and hardwood floors, making for bad acoustics, it actually sounded really good. Of the people who were there, though, nobody is moving. Nobody is getting into the show were trying to put on. We do our covers and I see that one guy is wearing a Metallica shirt so I'm thinking "he's gonna love Seek & Destroy." He doesn't move at all when J.R. goes into the opening riff. He doesn't move for the entire song. Not...one...bit. He doesn't sing along, He doesn't even bob his head. He just stands there with his arms folded half sitting on the table behind him.

We finish the cover and Bobby immediately goes to us and stops the show. He then proceeds to yell at the people who were there for not interacting with us or even reacting to what we were doing. We seriously could've been playing to a morgue and we would've gotten a better response. And it wasn't because we weren't on our game. I think we sounded and played tighter than we ever have. The people just weren't into it for some reason. So we brushed it off and finished our set.

We go downstairs to drink some more and i notice a little sign behind the bar that saids "Hot Bologne in a cooler: 75 cents" J.R. tells us he's ordering a pizza pie for us before he disappears. We wait for the pie and laugh our asses off when it finally comes because its one of those personal pan pizza. The diameter was no longer than a dollar bill. We all took a bite before J.R. comes back to see the tiniest slice a pizza can be.

So everyone else notices the hot bologne sign and we're intrigued. How can a bologne be hot but also in a cooler? I couldn't let this question get away from us. So i waved the bartender over and with a wave of my finger i ordered up 5 hot bolognes in a cooler. She gives it to us and we're about to dive in when she immediately stops us and saids "YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE SKIN OFF" After removing the thin layer of skin from the bologne we tried it and, while it was cold from being in the cooler, it was sort of spicy but really good. We all approved.

Day two: Worcester, Mass
We drive up to Mass and we found out we were going to be playing with Hemlock. If you haven't heard Hemlock then you NEED to we also got some friends of ours on the bill too, Odd Man In. There another band you should be on the lookout for.

The drive wasn't bad. We get to the venue and I don't know about you people, but Worcester looked as ghetto as can be. I mean when I see a Fried Chicken place, bullet holes in the restaurant next to it and iron bars on the window of the pizzeria next to that, something tells me "ghetto" right away. We unload our stuff and for the first time I think we weren't the ones who brought the most equipment. Anyone who has seen us knows how much equipment we bring, but i think Hemlock beats us out. Odd Man In goes on first and they kill it. There's a drunk guy dancing, moshing, jumping on stage with them. Guys were running around acting crazy. It was a fun show.

Fuel of War goes on next. This band features a midget paraplegic in a wheelchair on guitar and this guy is amazing. He's fucking shredding and rocking out more than most guitarists I've seen. People were definitely into them and they kept the metal going.

We go on next and we destroy this stage. Everything is tight as hell and everything is working. Odd Man In jump in and start singing some of the songs on the mic with some of the audience, including Beer Run. Let me tell you its fun as shit to see a bunch of guys grouped around a mic yelling Beer Run as loud as they can.

Hemlock closes out the show and, after packing up my drums, i jump into the fray to mosh and bang my head to this amazing band. Their music is tight, their stage show is phenomenal and their talent is undeniable. These guys are amazing and if you haven't seen them live, you should see the next time they're in your town and check them out. Not something to be missed.

Now before i move on i want to tell you a mini story. A story of getting food in Worcester Mass. As i mentioned before there was a chicken place, a diner, and a pizzeria next to each other a block away from the bar. So me and the mrs go to get food before the show starts. The diner is closed. its 6 in the evening. So we go to the chicken place. There's a indian/spanish guy behind the counter and saids hi to us. we look at the menu and my wife wants shrimp. So i order the 21 piece shrimp with fries (not 20...21. i dont know either) the guy looks at me confused. So i point to it on the menu and say shrimp again. hes still confused. So i say the number of the order. He goes to a back table to get his glasses, which dont have handles. he looks at the menu for a longer period of time than i thought was necessary, but he finally saids shrimp in spanish which i understood and agreed with. He then proceeds to go to the back room where another guy is and converses with him while looking in the cooler for the shrimp. They're not looking for the shrimp, they're trying to figure out what shrimp is. at this point i look at my wife and say "thats ok. thank you." and we walk out of the chicken place to go to the pizzeria. we get pernil sandwiches (pork shoulder for you non spanish people out there) and it was actually quite good, but that one things nags me to this day. how do you not know what shrimp is? i mean i can understand if he was retarded or something, but he wasn't. he just simply did not know what shrimp was. and the fact that he had to go to a back room to converse with someone else who also didn't know what shrimp was boggled my mind even more.

this story isn't over by the way...

so we're walking back up the block to the bar when a car screeches up the hill beside us and spins out right in front of us. it literally was two steps away from hitting us. the two guys in the car just stare at us for a minute before reversing the car and parking it on the street they just spun out on and then run up the hill past us laughing. they almost killed us and were laughing about it.

needless to say i wanted to get out of worcester as soon as possible.

we rented a hotel for the night in Auburn Mass to save time for the drive to Walden the next day. I passed out right away while J.R., Mrs Roach, Gio, and Bobby explored the hotel and had a party of it.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion...

-Roach