This was pretty fun! It’s a new space run by the band The Demigs, who we don’t know personally but they were nice and accommodating. Shiny Around The Edges ended up being just Mike w/ help from Mike Forbes + Ashley Cromeens. I tricked Howard into playing a new song. We bailed after Shiny’s set because we’re old and have babies and stuff, but thanks for having us!

We played:

• Manumission
• The Engineer
• Bleeding Around The Edges (1st time in public)
• And If I Never
• Toward St. Ambroise
• The Illustrator

I can’t believe we got to play with Mission of Burma.

Mission of Burma? Epic! UME? Fiery! Us? Hey, we started and stopped at the same time. Thanks for having us!

We played these songs:

• The Illustrator
• And If I Never
• Manumission
• The Engineer
• The Visible Hand
• Toward St. Ambroise
• Solar Minimum
• Declaring Space

This was our first time at this great 80 year-old dive bar in South Dallas. Kara (the promoter) plays in the Darktown Strutters? and is a sweet lady, for sure. We’re always happy to play w/ the Curtains!

One of the greatest days ever spent on tour, and proof that punk rock glues good people together. Let me tell ya about it:

Karl and his family invited us to dinner before the show. He and I met once years ago when he opened for The New Year in PGH, but otherwise we’ve been out of contact. So we head out to his house and meet his wife Meagan and their wonderful kids, and we hang out and listen to records and have great conversation and eat some incredible curry that Meagan whips up like it’s no big deal. They treat us like family — hell, better than family, like old friends, even though we’ve only known each other for an hour.

Finally it’s time to actually go play the show. The venue is upstairs, and it’s an old, beautiful Pittsburgh building with a tin roof. It’s loud as hell but a fun spot regardless. Becoming Projections blew us away, and were hella nice guys to boot. We were scared to play after them, but we did because that’s what bands do. Then the Karl Hendricks Trio took the stage and gave a master class in rock and roll. Fuck, they were great. I had always loved his records but to see the band, in the flesh? My word. I want to see them again right now.

Back to the Hendricks’ after-show, where we drink beer on their PGH porch and generally soak up all the good feelings these wonderful people create. We don’t want the evening to end, but it has to eventually, right? Howard and I (Matt) roll up to Nell’s room while Bryan takes the couch w/ the cat. In the morning we eat bagels, fix Meagan’s bike, and hit Paul’s CDs (fantastic deals!) and spend 3x what we’ve made on this tour. Somehow we left the side door to the van open the entire time we were in there, but the good citizens of PGH left our shit alone.

We stopped for hoagies on the way out of town w/ the Hendricks’. We didn’t want to leave. These great people took us in, showed us the best of their city, and proved that punk rock changes lives.

Jeff from Arc In Round is an awesome guy for shoe-horning us into this bill. We loved them and BUSSES so much, and I can’t wait to see them again. Afterward we went back to NJ and stayed with our lord and saviour, Jon Solomon and enjoyed the hell out of his family’s company.

Anyway, what a great place stocked with great people. Totally unpretentious, lots of good times eating fried chicken with the door guy and drinking PBR with the nice people who showed up. Sadly, we had to bid farewell to the Ferries, but we nestled ourselves into Pete + Kara’s beautiful Brooklyn apartment and snoozed like angels.

The Obamas were getting ice cream 1/2 a mile from the ferry terminal, which caused a major traffic jam, so we all plopped out of the van and hoofed it with our guitars + crap over to the ferry terminal. The ferry was already taking off, so we jumped in the water and swam to the boat and climbed aboard like pirates! Ok, that last part is a lie. We did see a shark (true) jump over a Coast Guard boat and catch a seagull in mid-air (not true).

Anyway, rolled up to the TT’s, a place we’ve all been a zillion times with other bands. We setup, did our thing, sweated, and had a relaxing evening otherwise. Elisha’s brother Phil put us up in Cambridge, and we repaid him by fixing his plumbing. That’s the kind of guys we are.