Saturday, August 4, 2007

Incublog 4

Friends, it's time for a fresh update.

First of all, I want to thank you all for providing a record-breaking (I'm being serious) number of comments on that last blog. Africadabra has never seen anything like it. I feel honored and revitalized! This blog is going to be especially long and enjoyable, featuring lots and lots of pictures as a gift to you guys. Let's try to crack 19 comments and go for 20! I know we can do it.

I think I left us off in Detroit where we spent some time at Orley's manor. If I said Indianapolis, I meant Detroit, because NEXT up was Indianapolis. I have to say Indianapolis, you were quite humid. Miserably humid, in fact. I mean, humidity is humidity, and being from the west coast, it is difficult to appreciate this weird water-air stuff. However, also being cigar smokers, we found a new appreciation for the humidity, as it greatly aids in keeping the cigars from drying out. So, thanks for that.

When we arrived at the venue, it turned out there was going to be somewhat of a delay, so Darren decided to take a peek (not a pee, sorry) off a nearby bridge. Here's what it looked like: Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

While Darren was checking out the scene, Blake was checking out of reality (this will never get old).
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After waiting around a while, we decided to go into town, which, once we got there, we realized was only really comprised of a few tall buildings and a large mall. It was around here that we not only found our cigars, but a few new pairs of shoes for the guys as well. Here's Wylie with his new boat shoes that he's really stoked on. If you ask me, they'll be the new trend in no time.
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Here's a view of one of the streets from a large window in the mall:
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We noticed a few funny things while walking around downtown. First, they had these really weird "walk" signs. They weren't inanimate hands or white cut-outs of people in walking position, but rather, they were full-size, animate digi-people walking in place. It's hard to describe, but here's what it looked like:
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Imagine that thing in motion.

Also, they had horse carriages!
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...And homeless guitar players...
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So, like I said, after getting our cigars, we got back in the van. But, upon entering, Darren hit his knee on something and flipped out. Quite literally, in fact.
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Poor guy.

So, once we got back to the venue, I managed to get a few funny pictures of Darren and Wylie. Just enjoy, I guess:
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Then, they started playing, and here are some pictures from there. It was really weird, almost the entire middle section was empty until much later on in the night. But as you can tell, the general admission areas were quite full. Also, check out the skyline in the background. Pretty cool, eh?
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For anyone who didn't know how hard Darren rocks:
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A Blake Mills solo. Like his funny sleepy-faces, these never get old:
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And I just needed a picture of Wylie playing:
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SO THAT'S IT! Thanks for reading and... No, HELL no! There's much, much more. From here, we went to Ohio. My camera was dead at the time, so I don't have any pictures, but it's okay, because I got some batteries in time to document all the fun that happened after our first Ohio show.

The reason the next bit of time was so much fun was because we (Simon Dawes, Incubus, and Production) all went on a big camping/rafting trip. After the Ohio show, we all busted out to Wal-Mart to get some goodies for the following day. Some people bought wiffle balls and bats, some got soccerballs, some got fold-up chairs, and some bought air-soft pellet guns with which they could shoot each other. Invading the Wal-Mart at 2:30 in the morning was quite funny. This superstore was located somewhere in the boondocks, so of course the few customers and employees inside were quite shocked to find a fleet of super-energized/excited weirdos raiding the store. And it was quite a raiding - no lie. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Wylie and Darren entering the store:
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Then Taylor:
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Now we can get into some new introductions...
Ladies and dudes, meet Tim, sound tech:
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Trew homie.

Another bromie, Michael the monitor man. 10-4 good buddy.
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Here's Greg and Shawn. Greg works front of house, and Shawn is Jose from Incubus' drum tech.
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Oh yea, you guys have to meet Dale. He's a bus driver for one of the production crews. This is one funny man. It's great playing dice with him because I think he has a difficult time adding up the numbers. He also has a tattoo on the inside of his arm of a skull holding a smoking gun with "Death" written in the smoke.
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I told him I wanted to take his picture for our blog and he said "Oh, he already has my number." Somebody tell me what that means?

Then, of course, you have to meet Old Man McGee. He did not get out of this thing the entire time we were in there. He even had people get things down from the shelves for him.
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In addition to many other things purchased, everybody was looking for the perfect boating hat. Whose was best? You decide.
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This is Warndahl, if you don't remember:
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We were really surprised to find Lil' Jon in the building. YeeeAAAAaaawww!!
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Here's me Wylie and Darren:
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No, I'm kidding. That's Ben, the bass player from Incubus. Great dude.

While everybody else was off finding things they wanted to bring camping, Taylor became well attached to a certain, pretty bike.
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He learned to ride in that damned Wal-Mart.

That concludes the Wal-Mart excursion. Afterward, we continued on to the campsite and hit the hay at about 5:00 in the morning. Here are some photos of and around our cabin that I got the next morning.
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This is how we roll!
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Some of the dudes decided to make their way across the river that morning. It was a bit early for my taste.
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Now on to some of the day's festivities. But first, here's Sherra. She's Incubus' super-cool private chef on this tour. She was kind enough to bring out all of her supplies and food and whatnot to serve us all. You're the best Sher!
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Some of the foods:
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This was a game that took up a lot of our time that day. It's called "cornhole." Don't ask me why. Figure out your own technique - it's harder than it looks!
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This is the hole into which you have to throw your beanbag from about 30 feet away.
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Later, here were Ben and Kil loading up their shotguns. These things were way more powerful and accurate than the automatic ones the rest of the campers got.
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This was the result:
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Kilmore ended up shooting young Greg (there's a young and an old Greg) in the testicle from about 20 feet. It looked and sounded incredibly painful. If you're wondering, Greg's made a full recovery.

This is the point at which I apologize for not having any more camping/rafting photos, but things just got a little too hectic. I hope that you've gotten a good sense of what it was like out there. Oh yea, and we took a full-moon, midnight raft ride down an almost stagnant river. For me, it was almost a spirit quest.

I hope you're all doing fantastically. It's time for me to go to bed. You know what to do.

Serenity,
Matt

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

kind of embarrassing to admit this, but i laughed really hard at the pictures of Darren upside down in the van. Why is it embarrassing you ask?

I was all by myself. :( haha

Anonymous said...

i always secretly wanted to run around walmart at some insane hour because of its sheer randomness and to piss off the workers. now i know the only right way to do this is with a large number of hyper people with raiding abilities. wylie gets my vote for best hat but i dont think anyone can compete with taylor's excellent taste in sunglasses and bicycle selection hah. and now my life ambition is to master cooking to become a private chief and tour with simon dawes! this post was terrific, maybe the best yet!
p.s. cornhole is not for sissies!

reading_girl said...

i'm pretty jealous. my rafting trip for this weekend was cancelled! it looks like you guys are having a really good time, keep the great posts up.

and my vote goes to wylie!

Anonymous said...

this is hands down my favorite SD blog entry ever. that camping trip looks like so much fun! i miss record collection and you boys so much.

stay gold.

Simon Dawes said...

We miss you, Ri! Stay strong.
m

Andrew said...

I love your blogs, I think it's really cool to see all the fun things that bands do when they tour, besides playing awesome shows (Salt Lake City man, you guys were awesome!). Cool Stuff!

Andrew said...

Oh, and I'd say Darren has the best hat...

Anonymous said...

Well done on capturing Blake's sleeping face...i'm trying to work out whether he trained himself to sleep with his thumb in his chin especially for the tour because normally it ends up on his mouth?

Last time we hit a store at a crazy hour we sat in the kids book isle and one of the guys read a story. Then we played soccer up the toy isle (which we later found out was next to the glass vase isle) Then we found a worker down the tin food isle that looked like he needed lightening up so walked up and down the isle numerous times going tuna...you want tuna? to each other. We sang , we skipped, we laughed ...we pretty much annoyed all the night workers...What did we buy? I was thirsty and got a juice and one of the guys needed some razors...that was all we got but we livened the joint up for an hour or so.

Actually we ended up in a store after a Radiohead gig once and amongst the randomness ran down the meat isle pointing at the meat going are you a vegan cow...are you a vegan cow...No didn't get thrown out that time either.

hmm good times.

Wylie's hat is the coolest...it has stripes...

Anonymous said...

Ohh the beauty of a walmart run is unparalleled, expect for I don't know.......seeing simon dawes in about 8 days! Did taylor actually buy that hat because I see him wearing a similar one in another photo further down. Also I'd be willing to donate my childhood bike to taylor, it bears a striking resemblance to the walmart one but come complete with training wheels and a basket.

P.s I myself am a master of cornhole.

Anonymous said...

Old Man McGee's hat. You can't go wrong with a work of art like that!

Anonymous said...

this is my favorite blog!:D. I love how you guys just went to a wal-mart so late. I too have ridin thos tiny bikes:). they are soo much fun! Your guys camping trip sounded amazing:).

i love reading ur blogs! keep them coming!:D

Anonymous said...

amazing blog!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the great pictures...looks like you guys are having a blast. Love the camping pictures but would really like to see more of Simon Dawes playing. take care keep smiling

Anonymous said...

WILEY GET A HAIRCUT!

next time you're in san francisco, I reccomend 2412 Fillmore.

Anonymous said...

I just bought your carnivore cd. its amazing i cant wait to see you guys play with incubus september 1st at the cynthia woods mitchell pavillion!!!


im totally stoaked~

btw great pictures guys!

those were some serious hot shades that yaull were trying on! hope yaull bought some!

.. said...

comment #18...almost there. looks like you guys are having a great time! love the pictures of taylor on the bike and blake sleeping.
oh, and wylies hat is best.

Anonymous said...

i still think orleys gay

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to be #20! You guys are awesome

Anonymous said...

Record breaker

All Hail Matt the africadabra blog revitalizer.

Hailey k said...
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Hailey k said...

HAHAHAHHA! My vote is for Taylor! the big red sunglasses totally make the outfit! ;)

I love walmart ranting at 2 in the morning! haha I cant tell you how many times my friends and I have done that! hahaha!

Dannielle said...

I'm pleased to see that others are fond of disturbing the late-night peace in Cincinnati Wal-Marts. And also that somebody discovered something other than suckiness in Ohio. Woo! You guys were fab, btw.

Ken_notabarbie said...

You guys rocked in Toronto. I'm sad to see nothing mentioned about it. How often to Blake and Darren get to sign someone's boob? ... That's right, I was with that woman! haha You guys rock!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lot of fun. I can't decide who has the best hat. You're all fabulous in your own ways. But Wylie's got the coolest shoes!

I think it's great that you guys are reaching a lot of people. If any band deserves to make it big, it's you guys.

Anonymous said...

id say. next time you swing by to ohio. come out to berlin center and go camping. muuuch much better.
and then you can go to the most amazing place in this boring little state called the tressles.

oh and by the way.
your show in cleveland was not to bad. i really enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

I love this blog.. midwestern wal*marts in the early morning is creepy.. they all just stare.... great blogs! safe/rocking journey

Anonymous said...

Great stuff. Cornhole (or bags, which is the name I am familiar with) is a great game. Keep up the good work, and hope to see you guys play again soon!

Anonymous said...

Awesome blog. My vote also goes to Wiley. Dodgeball is a great walmart game to play, especially when played with the workers. You guys were great in Indy and Cleveland. I loved Taylor's dancing to Kelly Clarkson. Classic.

Anonymous said...

That mall is quite nice, as our the boat shoes! Keep up the good stuff :D

Anonymous said...

I used to work at the subway in that walmart and im there all the time wish i would have been there that night.

Anonymous said...

I love Simon Dawes

elaine said...

I don't know if you remember me but I met you guys after your set in Berkeley in July. I believe I was the first one waiting out by the merch to have my CD signed after your set. Anyways, it was great meeting you guys and I hope to see you in Berkeley again soon.

Ok so I've been keeping up with the blogs since I saw you guys in Berkeley and have since then become quite smitten with you fellas, but this is my first time commenting cuz I suck and didn't do it beforehand. I don't know if you guys still read the new comments on old posts but i'm gonna go back and make comments on those too.

I love this entry. The pics are great, they really seem to embody the fun you guys are having on the road.

I love the pic of the horse-drawn carriage in the city. It reminds me of the funniest thing I saw the other day. Although I go to school in Berkeley, I'm from this little town in the country outside of Fresno, CA that's full of agriculture. I driving down a road that has almond orchards on one side and vineyards on the other. And I see this guy riding a horse down the side of the street...ON HIS CELL PHONE!! It was the funniest thing. I'm kicking myself now for not taking a picture of it. Anways, I just had to share that story.

The Wal-Mart invasion pictures are great! Although all of the guys look very cute in their boating hats, Taylor's wins but just because the pinkish red glasses seal the deal.

Well the camping looked like a lot of fun. Did Kilmore really shoot a guy in the 'nads? I don't believe it..

Well have fun guys and I'm looking forward to the next post!

Anonymous said...

Hey guys, if you didn't get my email, here's a comment instead.

I saw you guys in Toronto on August 2nd and you guys rock. Furthermore, to give you an idea of who this is...I was the girl chilling out all day backstage wearing white shorts, purple top...tall....) Anywoot...I want to throw a few kudos to certain ppl....

To Micheal (young sound guy)"We need more nice guys like you in this world..Thanks for being just that..."
To Taylor "Thanks for the great meal time laughs at the Molson Amphitheatre...it was a blast"
To Jim (transport driver)"Thanks for the opportunity of a lifetime...I'll always remember this"
To the guy whom I can't remember his name but looks like one of the Baldwin Brothers with thick glasses..."I am still convinced you are one of the Baldwin Brothers...lol)
To Mikey from Incubus..."Thanks for being a major inspiration to my own music. I still wished I would have hung out with you afterwards,like planned...I'll always regret that...."
To Brandon from Incubus...."Hope the books bring you much enjoyment like they have to me..."

So, if I missed anyone...Thanks again. I didn't get much photos, but there's 2 I posted on my photo blog site..

Check em out...peruse the site...many great shots...

www.flickr.com/photos/andrealknapp

Thanks again.Keep it real,enjoy yourselves.

Andrea Knapp
andrea_l_knapp@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

TT tight

Anonymous said...

COOL!

Anonymous said...

So I started to read Crime and Punishment whilst we await a new blog. Not nearly as amusing but a good read all the same.

Anonymous said...

it's always a good read with a great bottle of wine ;)

Anonymous said...

Do you guys have any pics from the toronto show?

Anonymous said...

need SPAC setlist...not a big fan and liked the songs need to know the names so I can find them and jam out..thanks you guys made the bravery look like crap bc they are crap

Anonymous said...

man i go out of town for a week and you guys get 42 comments on your blog sheesh.

um in trying to be discreet, jen told me a little something that made me go like this "NOOOOOOOOO." and then weep. i think you may know what i am talking about.

oh god please tell me this isnt true.....

oh and that other danielle isnt me. keep track of the real homies

.. said...

danielle: your comment is kinda freaking me out...

Anonymous said...

tell blake.. i said he was a chad

Anonymous said...

melissa, you should be freaked out

.. said...

danielle: seriously? now you have to let me know what's going on. you should e-mail me at melissa5183@gmail.com or contact me via myspace myspace.com/melissa5183. I promise to keep whatever you tell me to myself. if you don’t, well that’s just cruel(: