Sunday, July 22, 2007

Incublog 2

Hello friends, new and old!

Matthew here once again, bringing you your not-so-daily picture-tour update. Just to warn you (though it was expressed that long blogs are not so much of an issue), this will be another long one. I have lots of pictures to show you, and for your sake, hopefully less writing? Anyway, we are riding in the van right now, leaving from this crazy radio festival SD played in what we initially believed was Omaha, Nebraska, but was actually somewhere in Idaho.
Here is the bill; kind of funny, maybe?:
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There are seemingly thousands and thousands of cars on the highway currently static on their way to the venue from which we are leaving. We have been driving for almost 10 minutes and the line of cars is ever-extending. Hopefully they’ll make it in time for Incubus, though it looks like they’d have a better chance if they just got out of their cars and walked. It’s that bad—like that R.E.M. video for “Everybody Hurts.”

Now, going back to a few days ago, here are some pictures from a venue just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah...
The pre-show lapdance:
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Taylor singing to a rained-and-thundered-upon crowd:
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Now on to that place which I was most excited to tell you about: Red Rocks, Colorado. What an amazing place, what an amazing crowd. I'm going to post these pictures only so you get an idea of what this place actually is! Man, it's crazy!
This is a rock arch you drive under to get to the venue:
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Look at the people and cars to get a little perspective on how big these rock-boulders are:
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This was the backdrop to the stage!:
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As we pulled up, it looked just like Woodstock, hackie sacks and all (no offense, I fucking love hackie sacks). The single road leading up to the amphitheatre was completely packed, as you may be able to see from the picture.
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Here's Wylie signing a fan's t-shirt.
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Gee whiz, what a place. Hopefully the pictures get across at least a little bit of what I’m trying to say.
I also feel somewhat obligated to mention the superb treatment provided us by the staff at Red Rocks. Everybody was so kind, the food was so delicious, the dressing rooms were so lavish (i.e. flat screen television, foods, drinks, clean bathroom, masseuse?!), etc., etc.
Here's a photo of Darren using our breathtaking bathroom:
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Here's a photo of the catering (caVering) room... What the hell?
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Here’s what this place looks like with one person sitting in the audience:
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And this is what it looks like almost full:
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And here is Simon Dawes playing to the packed theatre of 8700. You guys all rocked—it was an extremely satisfying experience. Red Rocks will live on in our hearts forever.
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Perhaps this will give you a little taste of what it might be like to be on stage playing for about 8500 people... I came off stage with a pee stain all down the right leg of my pants.
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We love you Colorado!

Next up was Kansas City. We love the city, we love the name of the city, and we love the fact that there are two different Kansas Cities separated by only about 40 miles, but for me, the humidity was just a little too much. It was very hot and sweaty. SD got to play on a stage that was set up in the middle of what appeared to be some sort of food square/country market type place, and that was pretty weird and kind of amazing.
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Some pre-show goofiness...

Here’s Blake eating a sandwich from an Italian Deli that was in the marketplace:
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Darren bought a pear nectar drink from the same place... He didn't like it much, but I really did.
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As some of you may have noticed, Taylor's last blog post was titled something a little funny, a little crazy, and a little intriguing. This is Kariki (just like Hannukah, it can be spelled many different ways), minus the rules:
p.s. it's a gambling game
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We play for the big stakes:
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And finally, here are a few performance pictures from there. To be honest, there were a lot of people there:
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AAAHHHHH!!!
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Simon Dawes ACTUALLY rocked color out of existence for a moment. I was lucky enough to have captured the moment.
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After playing, Taylor, Wylie and I hung around for a little bit, spoke to some people, and went out to a local bar with a couple of friends. We drank a local Kansas City beer called Boulevard, which is actually quite good. I recommend it to anybody aged 21+. Man my hands are hurting.

That leaves us up to date, having just played the festival in Idaho. Here's a picture from the show:
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That’s it for now! Feel free to write and talk about those things of which you’d like to see more or less and perhaps I can adjust accordingly.

Dictated but not read,
Matt
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13 comments:

.. said...

hahaha. it's not that funny that you thought you were in omaha because council bluffs and omaha are right next to each other. but it is funny that you think you were in idaho. back in may i posted a comment that said: "westfair's not actually in omaha. it’s in council bluffs, iowa. so, i'll see you in iowa."

simon dawes was great and incubus was cool...everyone else pretty much sucked.

the only bad thing about the day (other then having to hear 5 shitty bands play, having my brothers car die, and not getting to talk to blake) was that we had to wait in line for an hour so i missed a lot of love is after me. i was freaking out cause i could hear a song starting to play. adam (my brother) tried to tell me it wasn't them, like it was a radio or something. i was like "no, it is them!! it's my favorite song!! fuck! FUCK!!!!". i was almost in tears. we ran through security (thanks to security who could tell that we just didn't have the time for a pat down, and let us skip out on the search) ran down the hill up to the crowd where i grabbed adams arm and he pushed our way to the front. i felt kind of bad doing that...but come on, i was pretty much the only one who even knew who simon dawes was. anyway, it was an awsome show...simon dawes gets better every time i see them.
sorry about such a long comment(:

reading_girl said...

the show in kansas city was great! i looked for you guys after the show to no avail. the river market is one of my favorite venues in kc. the music sounds really great bouncing off the bricks. you should come back soon...

Anonymous said...

Wow! That place in Colorado looks so amazing. I love these long blogs, they make my day. Keep up the great work guys!

ps. I emailed someone ( i think it was taylor) using the email links on your official site. I don't know if it worked or if you guys ever check those but if not I'll just eventually reply to mailing list email :)

amy said...

I love these long blogs. Did I hear someone mention videos a while back? Do videos!

I'm intrigued by the 'band members urinating' theme. A deliberate choice, or happy coincidence?

Unknown said...

yaaay. simon dawes has pictures on their blog.
w00t. w00t.w00t.w00t.w00t.w00t.

xo
-rian

Anonymous said...

You guys got screwed in St Louis. Your sound was crap. Feedback, no snare, heavy lows. Too bad.

-Brian the drummer

Anonymous said...

Matt- your mission: from now on all blogs should include a photo of someone peeing and someone sleeping. Got it? ok good

Anonymous said...

Sorry guys, but as Darren says, peeing and sleeping are simply just two of the main components of touring. We try to keep well hydrated, and as I mentioned earlier, sleeping around Warndahl just isn't that easy. We've gotta get the Zs where we can. PS HI RIAN ROCKFORD
PPS: if you're serious, I'll try me darndest to get pee/sleep pics up on each blog. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

personally I find drinking Pear Nectar akin to what I imagine drinking the contents of someones intestines would be like.

I'm happy to be catching up on some lovely, picturesque blogs but wheres the photo of our author Matt?

Whilst we're making requests, pictures of roads and road signs is always cool when on tour. Actually they become cool after the tour is over ...but, nonetheless cool.

aha.

Anonymous said...

Hey, this is Tori, from San Francisco!

You should try to get almost the same frame of the crowd for each venue, or relatively the same, and that way when you post them it'll be really cool with only the venue itself changing, but not the perspective. I dunno, it might be hard, it's definitely hard to describe!

And yes, peeing & sleeping are great subjects. :) Haha!

Anonymous said...

haha. Berkeley DOES know how to get hyphy!:D

aleah said...

Hey! Just wanted to say I really enjoyed you all here in Kansas City. It was a great show until I got pummeled by thousands of people and almost lost my best friend, sunglasses, and big toe in a period of 30 seconds... But anyways.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it as well. That was y first time going to a show at City Market and it was kind of strange rockin' out in the middle of a food court, or at least that's what I felt like. Hmm... But do come back and grace us with your presence again!! And when you do, find State Line Road, and throw a football/frizbee/cat/other thing of choice across it so you can say "HEY! I threw my frizbee from Kansas to Missouri!" and impress people like woah.

elaine said...

great show pics!