Surfin' Sandy: Day 10 - Macomb, IL

There I was, half naked on stage again. My shirt had come off and I had a slight headache. I thought maybe I was hungover from Friday in St. Louis but I think I forgot to drink coffee. A cute girl in the front of the crowd asked me what I'd do for $10.. The possibilities were endless. Ol' Blue was getting such questionable gas mileage this run I figured I'd take what I could for cheap tricks. I should have asked someone for Advil but I wasn't in the mood to be personal.

That's where the energy was in the Cafe this evening. There was a recklessness and careless feeling throughout the room. Propositions would be made, some were obliged. The trusting kind we are.

We had started our day in St. Louis and decided to stop in Alton, IL at a Cajun restaurant. We had Bloody Mary's. I wish they tasted as good as they looked.

Vincent Joseph toast Kevin and I to a great run.

We rolled into Macomb and met our old friend Doug for dinner and drinks at Magnolia's. Doug would later open this show for under the name NARP. Doug is formerly of  "Henderson". He took the trip from Indianapolis to come loosen up the crowd for us.

"NARP". Real Deal Holyfield.

He was truly a one man show this evening. He played to a backing track he recorded at home. He played drums live and sang. It was a lot of fun watching him do his thing.

We steamrolled through all three sets, playing new numbers and crowd favorites. Opted on playing any slow numbers as I fear we may have been booed if we should the slightest shift from our abandon. The show was eclipsed by me stabbing my guitar multiple times through a floor Tom. After the first two puncture wounds, the drum fell over in defeat. An excited fan ran to the stage and grabbed the drum to hold it for me so I could continue my massacre. It wasn't until after the show that I realized how close I must've come to smashing them in the face with the body of my Telecaster.

Thankfully no one was hurt but I did quite a number on the drum and later found a tuning peg from my guitar bouncing around the shell.

Weak Sword.

Better off Dead.

It was good to come to a familiar place to finish the tour.

Back into the studio we shall go.

Thanks for Reading.

Stephen Francis

Surfin' Sandy Tour - Day 9: St. Louis, MO @ The Crack Fox: 11/09/12

St. Louis has been a growing market of ours for almost two years now. We have never encountered foul people here, but this is based on the few kind souls we have collided with during our travels. This time around we had a much better/denser crowd and still the sweetness was in the air.

The Crack Fox is a really hip joint with some of the sweetest staff you'll ever find in downtown St. Louis. Remarkable still shots cover the walls; any pictures I could have taken would not do them justice. All the stills are in a burlesque-vain with beautiful women in beautiful poses; creates a great atmosphere for Rock n' Roll... and rock we did.

We were the last of 3 bands and seemed to capture the crowd quite well (Where's The Chief? and Living Room Lava were the first two)... but to be completely honest I did not notice the crowd while we were playing. It was just one of those majestic nights where I could feel the music through my bones and the band was all on the same page; speaking through our instruments and completely one with what we were producing. Stephen had a great solo during, "Balance" and we shared a great push-pull momentum during that outro. Kevin and I were a completely synced rhythm-section laying the ground work for the set which consisted of a lot of our darker, Stranger, tunes. It seems we pour our souls into every set we play, this one was just plain evidence of that concept.

-VinSauce

Surfin’ Sandy Tour – Day 8: Indianapolis, IN @ The Rock House – 11/8

Indianapolis is our home away from Chicago.  Lazy Hawk Promotions has done so much for us there and we cannot thank them enough.  This was another show that Will and Bebe from LHP helped us out with since the venue doesn’t typically have bands on Thursday nights.  We’ve played at The Rock House before and they treat us very well.  This show was no different except we played a longer set than our fans are used to seeing there so they got to hear some deeper cuts as well as covers that we got to pull out for fun.  After catching up with some fans as well as making new ones and selling some merchandise we loaded out and took off.  Will and Bebe let us crash at their place so we got a good night’s rest and had some lunch with their family before heading off to St. Louis.  

Surfin' Sandy Tour - Day 7: Lousiville, KY @ Hideaway Saloon 11/07/12

Of all the cities we hit during the Surfin' Sandy tour Louisville is the one I could most see myself relocating to. In my opinion, it is the Austin of Kentucky. They have everything I need: music, bourbon, good food and a lot of weird. On par for us, we hit another brewery before load-in, Bluegrass Brewing Company. The best part of the brewery for me... Vegan BBQ wings, flippin' delicious.

This was our second trip through Louisville and our reception was superb. The staff and patrons of The Hideaway Saloon were beyond kind our first time through and more than exceeded our expectations this second pass. It is very easy to play music and feel at-ease when you are playing to a room filled with music lovers whom love to dance... Simply awesome. The club has a great bohemian vibe with the crowd to match.

My favorite part of the evening was sharing the stage with The Pranksters. We have shared the stage with a lot of acts, however, these guys in particular were a VERY talented bunch and couldn't have been any sweeter. Tom Browning, their guitarist, was a phenomenal player and was the one kind enough to let us share the evening with them. He has played with the likes of Bo Diddly, players of The Grateful Dead, Stevie Winder and many more (it was obvious after seeing them play); Grade-A awesome.

Hideaway gives the touring bands a house to stay at; so we microwaved ourselves some grilled cheeses and got a good nights rest. The day after the show we had some time to kill so we wandered over to our favorite local leather shop, Leatherheads. This is a slice of heaven for me; kickass cowboy boots, belts, cowboy shirts and custom guitar straps. Nick, the master leather worker there, has a patented design for a guitar strap that takes the stress off of guitar players' back and trapezoid muscles.

He has sold these straps to many folks including: Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), My Morning Jacket, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Depp and more. We saw this spectacular strap our last trip through Louisville and Stephen was even fitted for one. This time through we pulled the trigger and bought Stephen and Kevin an early birthday/Christmas gift. Nick, then had me draw our Model Stranger logo next to Kevin and Stephen signature on his own personal straps that he keeps in the shop. It's cool to see their names surrounded with some of our idols... I dig it.

All-in-all, Louisville will always have a piece of my heart and I can't wait to get back.

-Vinny The Dominator 

Surfin' Sandy Tour - Day 6: Cleveland, OH

We had never been to Cleveland to perform. Kevin and I had taken the trip when we were little guys to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We pulled into town quite late following an 8 hour trip. We decided to stop at the Great Lakes Brewery and have a drink. It seems if there is a brewery in town, we will be stopping there.

Thinking about putting together a brewery tour.

We performed at a place called Wilbert's which was down in the Sports district. Much like Cameo's it was tucked away in a back of a building. It was election night and we were in Ohio. There was an odd tension throughout the evening and the crowd was painfully light.

The difference in the night came for us when we learned of the rich history of Wilbert's in it's original incarnation. Artists like Jeff Buckley and Jack White had graced it's stage early in their careers. The owner Mike is one of those guys that has contributed as a stepping stone for many young touring artists. He had a lot of great stories.

Despite the light crowd we did well in merchandise. We decided to sleep in the parking lot and watched "The Hunger Games". It was shortly into this movie when we found out that Obama would be our president for the next four years.

It wasn't a very eventful evening for us but I'll never forget that night.

Stephen Francis

Surin' Sandy Tour - Day: 4 and 5 - New York, New York

We left Maryland promptly after our show at Guido's Speakeasy.

Having never taken a trailer into New York City I was quite anxious to arrive at a time when traffic wasn't very high. The drive was just about 4.5 hours. We spent the evening listening to Jazz and sharing stories, talking fashion and playing pretend. We made sure to grab gas before we hit the turnpike. We were warned about the gas shortages throughout the state. After 60.50 in tolls into New York we pulled into Greenpoint around 6:16 am and to our surprise found parking right across from where we would be residing for the next few days.

I've heard nightmare stories from bands and gear gone missin' while in New York so I was particularly grateful to be able to stick my head out the window of my friend's apartment and check on the trailer at will.

Having driven over night we decided to take a good slumber but plans for rest were quickly interrupted as 1 PM drew near. Just because we were touring doesn't mean we should miss the Bears.

We spent a majority of our day at a Bar in the back corner cheering on our team with fellow transplants from the Windy City. After the game we took a brief rest before heading out to Cameos in Williamsburg.

At first we were confused because we couldn't find the club. This of course is probably nothing new for people that have never made the trip there as the club is really a back room in another club. The kind of place that looks like it would be perfect for a private party or a rave.

The recent hurricane had disabled most transportation from Manhattan to Brooklyn so the promoter and New York bands weren't expecting a huge night. We had anticipated this and were mostly grateful that the show was still happening. Although it wasn't the night the bands had hoped for the crowd that came was plentiful and stuck around for all four bands.

The night was opened by Shayna Sands, a very talented female who rocks the guitar quite well. We took the stage second. We were followed by "The Reckless Collected" which is really a band that had been assembled just a few weeks prior for this show. You'd never be able to tell that. Connor Grant assembled a stellar cast of musicians. Connor plays a mean guitar. Lastly, The Dharma Project, a project manned by Jason Boner, an exceptional singer and ambient musician closed the night.

I'm Analog.

Our set was highlighted by trying out some newer songs and interviewing the crowd from stage about them when I realized that no one really cares if a song is old or new. If I wrote it yesterday or today.. I mumbled into the mic.. "Like anyone fucking cares when I wrote this." The crowd had a giggle as I realized the truth in that.

After the show we took up our friend Connor's offer to empty the trailer into his loft as we had an off day the following day and wouldn't have to worry. We took up his offer and spent the night listening to R and B tracks, shooting pool and drinking PBR.  We stumbled into the New York streets to greet the sun and I took advantage of a 24 hour Deli on the corner.

Day 5 

Our off day was slightly wasted as we slept into the afternoon. When we awoke we made a quick decision to hop a ferry and make the trip to Manhattan.

Nice day for a Ferry Ride. Not really. It was cold.

We paid our respects to Mr. Lennon as we took a late night stroll through Central Park. Afterwards we stopped at Mc Sorely's and enjoyed some cheese and crackers. We capped our night at Downtown Pub and Grill, which Kevin had been hoping to do since we booked New York.

Respect.

Women weren't allowed here until the late 70's.

Our visit was the perfect mix of Rock and Roll and quality time with friends. Of course we would've loved to visit under different circumstances but we actually were quite lucky considering the timeline of the storm patterns. Unfortunately they got hit with another storm the day after we left.

Our best wishes to the city and the great people there. We look forward to making the trip again.

Goodbye New York

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Francis

Surfin’ Sandy Tour – Day 3: Frederick, MD @ Guido’s Speakeasy – 11/3

This was a last minute fill in which we were lucky enough to get.  Our friends in Vinny Vegas hooked us up with their friend John who runs his own promotion company.  This was our first time through Frederick so we didn’t know what to expect.  We were greeted quite kindly by John and his wife and they accommodated us in any way that they could which included great beer (the Flying Dog Brewery is in Frederick) and tasty food.  Before our set we were approached by a gentleman who was a diehard Local H fan and after seeing we have opened for them a couple of times he decided to come check us out.   We hit the stage around 11:30 and played a set of pretty much nothing but straight rockers.  The crowd really enjoyed us and bought us some rounds of shots after picking up some Model Stranger gear.  We got to talk with John before we left and he assured us we will be booked again in Frederick as well as Baltimore so we look forward to heading through again.

Surfin' Sandy Tour - Day 2: Columbus, OH

We have grown quite fond of Columbus ever since The Moustache Bar Crawl brought us there in 2011. It is a quaint, yet progressive, oasis in Buckeye-Country chalk full of boutique bars, music clubs and (my favorite) great vegetarian-friendly fare.

Columbus had a lot to live up to after having a successful night in Muncie; and I didn't want my romanticized idea for the city to flicker out like a dull flame in the wind... It did not.

We were lucky enough to get into town a bit early and relax at a friends' posh digs while watching "Street Thief" (a great mock-u-mentary about a burglar in Chicago) before heading to the club for load in.
I knew I was going to have a great evening as soon as I walked into Circus. The walls were lined with vintage-esque sideshow posters and circus themed regalia... My favorite. The staff was extremely kind, as well.

We were billed with a good band from Columbus called Emily and The Complexes; I highly recommend checking them out. One song in particular that I enjoyed was ”I Don't Want To Brush My Teeth," awful title but great track. The turnout for our first show in Columbus was good, the response of the crowd was great. We couldn't ask for much more from a new market and the second day of Surfin' Sandy.

-Vinny Fresh

Surfin’ Sandy Tour – Day 1: Muncie, IN @ Be Here Now – 11/1

Who would’ve thought Muncie, IN would be such a cool place to play?!  We’ve played there a couple of times now and made sure to kick off the Surfin’ Sandy Tour right which Muncie was perfect for.  We got into town a little early, Kevin stopped at the same craft beer store he goes to every time for some choice picks, had some dinner with the owner Whitney, who is a super human being, along with some Strangeloves and headed back to Be Here Now to play.  The energy was right for a Thursday night and the crowd danced and enjoyed our set and stuck around to chat with us after the set.  Some students at Ball State are putting together a documentary on the Muncie music scene and stopped in to interview us and get our opinions on Be Here Now.  Once we were done and all loaded out we wandered over to Whitney’s where he let us hangout, have some late night conversation and crash for the evening.  After getting solid rest we hit the road again to head on over to Columbus, OH for our next gig.  All in all Muncie was a great start to the tour.