Jeremiah Edmond
Manchester Orchestra
NYC»MD»Day Off»Norfolk»NC»ATL»FLx3»New Orleans»Houston

NYC Nokia Theatre We had to show up a lot earlier than normal for load in and so we had all day with nothing to do but sit around the dressing room or walk around Times Square in the freezing cold. The theatre was big and flashy and made me feel like i was in Las Vegas instead of New York. The sound on stage was pretty awful and I had a ton of issues with my drum set and played pretty poorly. When things go wrong like that, it is really tough not to let it get into my head and distract me the whole set. There are always off nights now and then but I was bummed that it had to be in NY where so many of our friends came out to see us. Kevin Devine and some of The Goddamn Band came out. It is always refreshing seeing them.

Towson, MD was pretty uneventful. We had some good pizza from UNO. The venue was a huge old theatre that was pretty cool. Afterwards, we hung out on the bus with Biffy Clyro and listened to music and found out that oversees Tool is actually huge and very well respected while over here in the States they seem to just be listened to by angry middle school boys.

All the bands drove overnight so we could all stay in Portsmouth for the day off. We all stayed at the same hotel. Did some laundry, got some good food at a local pub, and had a little hotel party in our room. I had an amazing quesadilla from room service and got amazing pictures of everyone drawing tattoos on each other.

Norfolk The show at the Norva was alright but only really because the venue is so cool. The crowd was just weird and didn't seem to care that they were at a show. The backstage and dressing rooms at the Norva are great. Basketball court, table tennis, pool, leather couches, showers, hot tub. Everything you want to pass your time while on tour. We of course all took full advantage of it all. Even the sauna.

Carrboro Carrboro, NC was wonderful because my wife drove to the show along with Robert's girlfriend (who is also Andy's sister). There was a pretty great crowd the whole night. Biffy Clyro had big fans in the crowd. As we make our way south, they seem to have more and more fans, which I found interesting.

Atlanta It was nice being in Atlanta, since it is our hometown. We were all a bit bummed because we didn't have time to go home and had to drive right after the show, but it was great seeing everyone and the crowd was great to us. Tim at The Masquerade took care of us as always. He has always been a big supporter of the band and is the only reason we even play that venue. Leaving Atlanta after the show was tough. A few of the guys rode on the bus with Biffy Clyro and Say Anything, so we ended up with only 4 guys to make the 10 hour drive. I took the first bit but was having a horrible time trying to see. My eyesight is awful at night normally and there was just enough misty rain and fog to make the windshield smeary and make all the lights streak and blur.

Ft. Lauderdale was fun. It was Biffy Clyro's last night, so we all hung out a bit afterwards at the bar behind the venue. If you havent heard Biffy Clyro, do yourself a favor and go buy their newest record Puzzle. And then go see them live. They are absolutely awesome live and were almost impossible to follow every night.

We played the House Of Blue in Orlando right by Paradise Island. It is one of the better HOB's in my opinion. The load in can be a pain but they are always very helpful. There is always great catering and the sound is usually pretty good as well. We had some old friends from Pensacola come out to the show. It was nice seeing them, even though it was short.

The State Theatre in St. Petersburg continued a random and weird series of shows where kids are moshing to our set. I don't really think of us at that kind of band, especially because we have so many quiet parts to our songs. I guess that is cool. Just be careful. I hate seeing the people in the front who are trying to watch the show get smashed.

I bought a reggae compilation that Johnny Greenwood compiled for Trojan Records at a nice little record store in St. Pete. I have only listened to it once through, but it is pretty awesome.

I forgot to mention that Eli "Paperboy" Reed joined the tour to fill Biffy Clyro's slot in Orlando. He is like a clean white version of James Brown with out the crazy.

I rode with Say Anything after St. Petersburg and we stopped in New Orleans for the day off. Alex and I walked around the city for most of the day and then caught the trolly back to the bus/hotel. We spent some time at the pool and got some work done for a little while. We missed catching up with everyone else to go on a ghost/vampire tour so we went and ate some fried seafood at Denny's. It was amazing but WAY too much fried food at once. After we ate we wandered around Bourbon Street until we ran into the rest of the guys. We also ran into Eli Reed's band. They had stopped for an hour on their drive to see New Orleans and then had to continue to Houston. We hung out a while longer and then caught a cab to the bus and watched King of California. It was a little slow but I enjoyed it.

We are now in Houston and Alex and I have set up a little office to get some work done