Welcome to the Diary page of 2000.

Cedars, Youngstown, OH ~
Saturday, January 8, 2000 w/ Circus of Sun

Playing at the hometown club should be a very comfortable, relaxing time...but that is not so, at least for me.  I feel a lot more comfortable playing in a room of strangers, because these people have never seen me before and I am not pre-judged, and the people have no idea who I am or what I am about, and I think that makes for a much more relaxing show.  So standing before me in my hometown may be my brother-in-law, high school people who want to kick my ass, 2 or 3 x-girlfriends, dudes that want me dead, bands that want me dead, friends who want to kick the asses of people who want to kick my ass, and so on....so I just played the show and bolted.  Sorry to anyone who wanted to talk with me after the show, just understand that there is a lot of stupid talk going on in this town and people in general are currently pissing me off, so I chose to be a better man by avoiding such conflict.

Hermatige VFW, PA ~Sat. January 22, 2000

-4 degrees is pretty cold.
We arrived at the Hermatige VFW around 7:30PM, and we walked into a movie scene. What we thought was the door to load in our equipment was actually a bar full of pissed WW2 veterans. They all gave us the WTF are you doing in our bar look. I think the music stopped too. Well, we then went to the front door where we met our destination. A small hall jam packed full of an anxious young crowd. We thought since there were only 2 bands there, and we had to fill up 8-12, that we would bring our friends Jakebrake to open up. I love that band. Anyway, there was a little bit of time to kill, so I thought I would go have a beer in the VFW bar DENIED...yea right she said, let me see your war card or whatever, sorry, i didn't know. I don't know why those people are so cold. I know you guys fought for us, hell I'd love to hear some war stories. Anyway, we set up our own little PA and combined it with the one we had there, put kick drum and vocals through it, and we were set to go. We played for about 90 minutes, and it was a blast. Everyone was moving the whole time....that's what is so cool about a younger crowd. We've built up a pretty large all-age following over there in PA, so we'll definitely be back. Thanks to all the friends we've made out there. Thanks for your support.

Odeon, Cleveland, OH~Thursday Feb. 24, 2000~Free Times Music Awards
Playing at the Odeon is a good time. We started the night off early, around 7, so we could load in our equipment and also be on time for the band meeting at 7:30. The meeting was cool, just a reminder of what to do, who was supposed to be where at what time, etc. We were really relaxed because we've been playing a lot of shows, and we have been 'on' lately. From there we chilled in the cool backstage room where you can watch the bands from above. We were up for 'best underground / alternative act' but that is not what mattered, what mattered is that we kick serious ass on that stage and not pay attention to the awards show that was going on. We did just that. We were focused. The show was awesome. There were about 1,000 possibly 1,500 people there. I didn't look out into the crowd though because I was way too into the song. We did really good. I was very happy with the rest of the guys too. Thank you Belkin, thank you Free Times. Maybe we'll win an award next year if we go to Cleveland, snag up all the Free Times papers, and vote for ourselves like some others did.

Nyabinghi, Youngstown, OH~Friday, March 3, 2000
The Nyabinghi is a different kind of place, so different that I don't know if the people in this area are doing things there that the place requires. Anyway, we were there extremely early so we could really work on the sound and get it right because this is the only place that will make you sound EXACTLY the way you want it to sound. Anyway, I shaved my head today. Everyone has been asking me what possessed me to do it. I don not know the answer to that question, so please do not ask. It feels very good, like an extra sense. I can now accurately tell you the temperature in any room I am in. My cousin Chris showed up, I was pretty happy about that. I must make my family proud of me, because it is a pretty hard thing to convince your family that you are serious about being in a band....We played a great show. It was a blast. I have most of my fun talking to Greg about sound and old Les Pauls. Someone stole my hat and my head was freezing.

The Avenue, and The Robin Hood, Kent, OH
Sat. March 11, 2000

(click to see larger image)
Early in the morning, usually called 'afternoon' to non-musicians, I received a call from the Robin Hood asking if we can fill in for a cancellation.  Normally, I would have handled the situation in a normal way, but I was still sleeping and told him 'ok, no problem'.  It wasn't really a problem, it's just that now I had myself into a position of making calls ALL DAY to make this work.  After I got hold of everyone, we all seemed pretty up to the task.  We met at 5, left at 6, arrived at the Robin Hood at 7 for our show at 10.  We were to play from 10-11 then bold on over the The Avenue and play from 12-2. We went on a bit early at the Robin Hood, and didn't realize we were putting our all into the show. On departure, cars full with ivet fans rolled up, and we led everyone like an army over to The Avenue, there which Sam was presented with a Super Sam Pie from one of our fans.  I was feeling very tired.  It is not that much of a physical task to play a show, but for some reason, it really takes a lot out of me, as it did the others in the group also.  At the start of our set, I was feeling very good.  We opened rocking at an intense intensity.  When the first hour was over, I was beat, but I did catch a second wind.  We played a little over 2 hours, and we were definitely beat down at that point.  Wasn't the first time we did 2 shows in one night.  Thanks everyone, we had a blast.

Cedars - Youngstown, OH ~ March 19, 2000

Bad shows happen to every band, no matter what their status.  Not every show can be perfect, and I realize that, but I am still very hard on myself.  I do not know how the other guys take it, hell maybe they had a good show.  For some reason tonight, I couldn't figure out why everything sounded just a bit out of tune.  I tuned between every song, checked the other guys, but everyone was fine.  We just didn't click tonight.  I couldn't get into the v with the guys.  At the beginning, I was in the v, but the rest was not settled and on track, like a broken closet.  I don't think anyone noticed (I hope no one noticed).  There's always next time.  It's like a bad day, you learn from it.

Southgate House Cincinnati, OH ~ Saturday, May 6, 2000

The Southgate House is a HUGE old house, and the venue is in the basement, which is about 5,000 square feet.  We were supposed to play 2 shows this weekend, but the first one was canceled because the club closed down.  Anyway, we stayed with our friend Matt Fry and played frisbee and drank beer most of the day.  Matt Fry threw thr frisbee on the roof of this old nasty building, so Mark was the hero of the day...he climbed up a very thin huge tree to get atop the building, then almost fell through the roof.  Before the show that day, Matt Fry took us to the Afghan Whigs studio to hang.  The show went very well.  There is an older crowd in Cinci, and I couldn't get them to come up front or even stand, but the applause was excellent....they were all paying attention to every note.

Heisters, Reading PA, ~ Friday, October 6, 2000

Fans, I understand that I haven't written in the diary for a very long time, and I am sorry. There are times when my life is very dry, so much that what I write just doesn't sound good to me anymore, and believe me, I've been trying to write here for a long time. Hopefully I am past this and I can begin to tell juicy nonfiction stories about our trips.

When a Harrisburg/Reading (PA) show is on the calendar, I get excited. I'm sure you know by now that our best friend Larry Kennedy from the Jellybricks lives in Harrisburg, and it is always the best time in the world to go visit Larry and Tom (drums). They have a sense of humor that is so different and entertaining that it is a true learning experience every time, plus Larry is the best guitar player I know. I have a lot of favorite guitar players that are very technical and fluent, but there is something about Larry that makes him shine...his choice of notes and simple feel. The surprise you don't expect....something you don't normally hear from a guitar. I believe it is the extensive 60's-70's musical background he has. I say this to him all the time but he doesn't believe me and continues to try and build MY ego. There are also a few other bands in the area that we love to speak with and have a lot of fun doing so.

The drive is horrible. The time is not what bothers us; we have things to pass time. It's the rotten PA turnpike. There are just so many twists to that trip that as soon as you try and relax for a minute, the cards and chess pieces fly to distant crannies of the van. Arriving to the club was pleasant as we had many of the other bands dousing us with hospitality. I was very tired and decided to have a shot of vodka and a water to spark me up. I wandered to the backstage area and played "lover you should have come over." It's probably my favorite song, and it does relax me as I get very anxious before shows (I truly am not myself until afterwards). The night was looking good, and we were up on stage ready to go into our third song and the PA was suddenly down. We did the only thing we now how to do in this situation: play funk. Well, considering some of the fans in the all-ages crowd were korn-heavy oriented, we scared those few of them off before our next song. From there on, the show just wasn't the same and the beginning of my horrible night had started. I felt it. I didn't want it to happen, but it was unavoidable. I still fought, and managed to have a decent time only after leaving the club. Special thanks to everyone in the front who was screaming support between songs, and thank you for your purchase of merchandise. We hope you enjoy it to the fullest. Keep in mind all the money still does go into the band fund so that we may continue to make records.

After the show, we headed to Larry's place and within an hour slumbered in various parts of the house. I awoke in a very good mood. I was very comfortable and had long conversations due to the morning bakery. After showering, we proceeded to Perkins for a decent breakfast. I ran my mouth about guitars for a very long time, and then tried to get Frank to do the horse stance in the restaurant. He replied, "young michael roberts, only when I am threatened do I craft the horse stance." What a good time we had. What a complete waste of a beautiful Saturday afternoon to spend on the rotten PA turnpike.

It is critical to mention the new Dreadful Checkmark system. This new idea arouse to keep us alive on the road. If you fuck up driving, you get a checkmark. Check the checkmark standings at http://www.ivet.com/checkmark. No checkmarks were distributed during this trip. Thank you to everyone.

Odeon, Cleveland OH ~ November 17, 2000 w/ Liquid and Sinomatic

Whew what a busy day. There's just something about a warm bed when you know you have to get up, so I didn't. I finally got into the shower, which I have now learned to do efficiently (I don't stand under the hot water for an hour anymore), and I discovered for the third time that I hate all my clothes. I needed pants. 1pm: I call frank and sam to let them know we have to leave by 4. The plan was I would go to the music store to get strings, shoot over to the mall for some pants, drop in at work to switch the satellite to W1-CH1 & cue the evening tape, and make it to franks by 3:30 to load the van and head out by 4. I thought to myself, "this isn't going to work". I hate shopping for clothes, but this time, the perfect pants were right there in front of me at the first store I stopped in. Enough of my rambling. I made it to work to switch the sat and headed to franks. We were off by 4:30.

Arriving at the Odeon is inspiring to me, for this is the stage I have shared with hundreds of my favorite artists. The thought of it gives me that nervous tingle feeling that you get in your stomach at the top of a roller coaster. Another humble thought occupied my mind: "Today is Jeff Buckleys birthday, and I'm going to make him proud." Then I thought, "If anyone knew my thoughts they would all laugh at me."

I couldn't wait to play. I knew I was going to stomp all over the place, and so did the others. First was the band Liquid from Cleveland, who totally took me by surprise. What a tight band. We were next, and spent the waiting time listening to Liquid, drinking, and stretching backstage. Whenever I get on that Odeon stage, I tense up and tire out real fast. I had to tell myself to calm down and take it easy so I didn't burn out too soon. I didn't really have to do that because I burned out on every song anyway, to the point where I didn't even care. I was rolling around on the floor for gods sake. What a show. What a sloppy show, but I don't give a shit this time, it was just too much fun. One of the real highpoints was the Sinomatic guitar tech. Whenever I put a guitar down, he dashed after it and took it offstage to tune it. Thanks for making me feel like a rock star man. Thank you all so much. Sam gets a checkmark for almost killing us on the ride there.