Our last concert in the Carolinas took place in Columbia, the capital city of SC. None of us had ever been to the city, but we elected to spend a decent amount of time down there because we had nothing to do until the gig besides drive, seeing as we spent the night before at a rest stop along the interstate. We arrived in Columbia in the early afternoon and drove the town for several miles. After seeing the river, the main avenues, and the university quarter of the city, we all came to the conclusion that it's just a tight little town with lots of cool things to see.
After not being able to find a parking space, we decided to just drive back to the venue and walk the couple miles into town. (Later we found out that it's all free parking on Sundays; fuck us). However it turned out to be a great walk that did all of us some good.
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| morning picnic |
Dave made the decision to take a jog into town, rather than walk with us. We had no idea why he wanted to run, but one thing was for sure: he was the only one of us interested in exerting that sort of energy in the blazing Carolina sun on such a steamy and humid day. Our destination was a nice Starbucks located in an old, rustic brick building. When Karl, Joe, Sean, and I arrived there, Dave was drenched in sweat, and seemed as though he had something very important to show us. It turns out that on his run, he met a guy at Jimmy John's who liked his Trap Them t-shirt, and obtained a HUGE bag of approx. 50 reject loaves of bread for free through a friendly exchange of words. Dave scored big and we're all swimming in bread now!
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| the magical dumpster |
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| nice fucking haul! |
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| bread ecstasy |
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| the bag broke |
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| inside starbucks |
After some iced coffee and relaxation, we walked back to the venue, and just chilled the hell out on their outdoor porch until the sound tech arrived at the venue. It surely was a day of much relaxation. We were first up on the bill, so took our sweet time to load in. We ended up waiting, and waiting....and waiting....and waiting. Not too many people showed up before the gig started, so we ended up playing for a small crowd or 7 or 8. However that's all part of tour life! If anything, it just reaffirms that we're doing this tour because we love what we do, and we're in it for the music.
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| Flyer outside Conundrum |
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| awesome. |
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| Our stage setup |
We shared the stage with two killer acts. Second up was Haus Werk (http://www.purevolume.com/hauswerk), an "all-housewife punk rock" group. They played a bunch of cute punk rock originals, and won over a bunch of us in the crowd. Check these ladies out, they rock! Headlining the night was The Dead Kenny G's (https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadKennyGs). They play a brand of music that isn't described well in words. They call themselves "jazz punk," so I suppose that's the best description there is. They proved their tightness and creativity as musicians with awesome melodies and experimental grooves. This has definitely been the most stylistically diverse show that we've played thus far, and it was a great pleasure to play with these two bands.
After the gig, we were coming up short on shelter for the night. Karl, our American badass, was going on 5 days without a shower, all the while covered in metal shavings and grit. The rest of us too would've done well for a night of peaceful, comfortable sleep. We hotlined a cheap 2-star hotel and swung over to the Days Inn. There, we enjoyed showers, beds, and some free breakfast. It's just the rest we needed to kick it into high gear and go back into black metal nomad mode! Woohoo!
Tune in tomorrow for a write up of our adventures in Jacksonville, FL. Peace!
-Matt
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