I’m going to try to write here more frequently because I feel like its harder for people to be involved as intimately with making things for and being around Defiance, Ohio than it was 3 years ago when we started this band. I guess I fealt that the people who we lived with in Columbus were almost as much of a part of this thing that we were doing as those of us playing instruments. Artwork or words or ideas from conversation or help making things came from a lot of people, and they still do, but I can’t help but feel like more and more, its just the six of us. If that’s the case, I hope I can at least make the things that we do as transparent as possible, and I hope that writing about what I do or what we do can make things more that way. I brought my computer on tour this time because I needed to continue working on some programming projects I had started in Bloomington for various community groups, and Ryan brought his as well, so we should be able to post here pretty frequently.
We left Bloomington today in our usual slow fashion. I fealt a little crazy leaving town because I feel like there is always that moment where you realize, both in terms of logistics and emotions, that you are really unprepared to leave town and that there are some things that you’ll just have to put aside, even though you shouldn’t, until you get back. We started our drive west, stopping at a farmers stand to buy some produce, and a supermarket to buy some other things to make sandwiches at a rest stop which reminded me of our daily routine when we were touring in Europe. Just taking the time to eat some fresh things and assemble food together around a table makes a big difference from the fast-food/truck stop eating that is so easy for one to fall into when traveling.
We listened to Op Ivy on the car stereo, and then a radio show about the Beatles, some recordings that Ryan had made with some friends and some recordings I made with my friend Kevey. We also listened to some of Stephen King’s “Carrie” that Bz picked up from the library. Its hard to stay occupied on the long drives. I read a little. I brought two books on tour, Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion and a collection of three novels by Octavia Butler. We talked some shit and some tried to doze. I saw graffiti in the bathroom that said “Kill all cops especially Terra Haute drug force and all federal cops”. Underneath it someone wrote “I’m a fed and you’re next. We’re closer than you think a-hole.” It was pretty funny.
Tomorrow we’ll be in Denver which is exciting because there are nice people there that Ryan and I met a few snowy winters ago when we randomly went on tour with Life Rocks, and its been a while since we’ve been back there.
We drove past the arch in St. Louis. Sorry that there wasn’t a St. Louis show. Its not that far from Bton, so hopefully we can play there some time after tour.
-Geoff