Epilogue

I've been all over the world. I've been to each of the continents except for Australia and Antarctica, and I think the only US states I haven't seen are North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Hawaii.

But, none of those travel experience can match what it was like following the Protomen on their tour. I know they were probably a bit weirded out by having some fanatic follow them on a motorcycle from city to city, but if they were they never showed it. I decided to make this trip at a difficult time in my life, when I had a lot of idle time on my hands. I'll never be able to thank the band enough for their openness and kindness.

I can't think of another band that I could have seen night after night and not get bored. Each band member is extremely dedicated to his or her position in the band, and they each give 100% every single night. I really don't know how they do it; I was struggling to keep up each day on the road, and I wasn't even performing!

I can't say enough good things about this band. You can tell a lot about a band by their fans, and every single one that I met across the US were first-class people. I met one fan who has the band's logo tattooed on her arm, along with lyrics from some of their songs. I met another who had put one of the band's stickers onto his prosthetic leg, which he removed during the show in order to pump both his fist and his limb into the air during the band's encore. Talk about dedication! Suddenly, following the band around on a motorcycle in order to have the excuse to take a long-distance trip seems like child's play.

This experience went beyond music. Taking my motorcycle across the country allowed me to see a different perspective of America, of a different America than I'm used to seeing. Things are just so much freer outside of New England.

The band are playing a couple of shows in Virginia and Maryland in the next couple of days. I think I might have to hop on my bike and do this again, one last time before the summer ends.

Thanks for reading,
MD

I never finished posting the last few shows.

The last few shows kicked ass, but being on the road so much and with a companion distracted me from finishing this thing. Then, when I got home, I just kept putting it off.

It's hard for me to exactly remember when what happened where, and even in retelling some of the stories (that never made it into this public blog and never will) it was hard to me to keep everything straight: so much happened in such a short span of time, and the last couple of shows were no exception.

I remember Des Moines being a good show, despite the small crowd. The venue was pretty cool and they had really cheap drinks. The next morning my brother and I went to an Italian festival. It was funny, because nobody looked Italian at all, and I had a turkey leg for breakfast. Still, it was pretty cool, because in spite of the festival's small size, they had a lot of neat stands and whatnot.

We motored onto Springfield, MO, stopping for the night in Kansas City. I think we stayed on the Kansas side but I can't remember. Springfield was cool, with a lot of the quirks that a lot of college towns have. I guess there's a lot of meth use out there and you could definitely see it in some people.

The drinks were extremely cheap in Springfield. I was able to buy a cider for myself and a martini for someone else and it came out to $5. Needless to say, I was buying a lot of people drinks that night!

We said our goodbyes to the band that night, promised to be at the New York City show, and started driving home the next morning. It took us two days to get home. I think we stayed in Ohio, but it's kind of hard for me to keep track of, I guess I could check my credit card statement, but it doesn't really matter. All in all it was a helluva trip, by far the best vacation I've ever taken.

Missed a couple of days, but the show in Louisville, KY was pretty good. There were some issues at the venue, which was underneath a bowling alley that was closed for the night. But, the sound at the club was really clear. In terms of sound quality, this was the best night for Duane and Brando.

The next show was in Chicago, and was originally going to be my last show. On the way there, I stopped at a gas station and saw an article on the front page of some local periodical that had a tape machine. Being into that stuff, I took a closer look, and although it was really about the Beatles, the pictures they used were actually from the 1979 studio I had just been to the other day!

Chicago was the last night for Duane and Brando and the Super 8-Bit Brothers. The crowd was riotous and by far this was everyone's best performance.

Before the show I rode around Chicago a bit. I was a little disappointed by the city at first, lots of trash everywhere, lots of people asking for money, and tons of construction. It's as if the city decided to do construction on nearly every single street, but then decided not to finish it. But, I got to hang out a bit in the downtown area and it was pretty cool. There's a place called Kuma's Corner that serves heavy metal burgers. I got the Black Sabbath burger, which had blackening spice, chili, pepper jack, and red onion.

My brother met me in Chicago and we went to the show together, staying at his friend's house for the night.


We've decided to see the next two shows in Des Moines, Iowa and Springfield, Missouri before heading home. I also decided to ship back my motorcycle so we can deal with just a single vehicle.

We saw some weird stuff on the way to Des Moines. We stopped at a gas station where the 89 octane fuel was actually cheaper than the 87 octane by about 10 cents. There were also two slot machines in the gas station that you could gamble on in order to try and win store credit. That was $5.00 I'm never getting back...

We also saw two really low-flying aircraft. One was a mid-wing sport plane and the other a biplane. The biplane was flying extremely close to the ground, and although it wasn't doing aerobatics, it was doing some pretty tight maneuvers. We saw it go past a hill, and then we didn't see it again. Later, we saw a huge cloud of smoke that filled the same side of the horizon. I hope it made it.

Des Moines is a pretty empty town. I hope it's a good show tonight.

I'll upload some pics later.

The show in Chattanooga, Tennessee the other night was pretty cool.

The venue was in a strip mall, which brought back memories of playing at Curly's Coffee in Amherst, NH. The venue is part of, or is operated by, a church, confirming my belief that the Protomen are gods among men.

However, the sound at the club was terrible. Despite this major setback the Protomen still kicked ass. The next night's show in Murfreesboro was canceled because, according to Panther, the club blew up. To make up for it, the Protomen played an extended set, even doing an encore that lasted close to 30 minutes.

I returned to the Knight's Inn after the show, getting good use out of the jacuzzi.

Today I rode into Murfreesboro, TN, which is where the Protomen are from. On the way, I passed a sign that said I was near the Jack Daniels Distillery. Figuring it was right off the highway, I thought I'd stop by to check it out. In reality, the distillery is about 30 minutes off the highway. I eventually got there and checked out the museum, but didn't end up taking a tour. The tour is about an hour long, I would have had to have waited for one to begin, the tour is mostly outdoors, and I had already taken a chunk of time getting to the distillery. Still, the museum was pretty interesting.

I finally rolled into Murfreesboro and decided to check out the Middle Tennessee State University -- what a nice campus! I guess their school of Mass Communications is one of the best in the United States, and they have an excellent recording program. Don't believe me? Listen to any of the Protomen's recordings.

I hung low in Murfreesboro for the night, making up for lost sleep over the past week. I ate at a Mexican restaurant called Acapulco's, then hung low on Sunday as well at the motel, but did get a chance to go to Nashville to check out the 1979 Recording Studio - which is an awesome, 7,000 square foot all analog recording studio. The staff there were really kind to show me around.




That night I had dinner at a Hardee's, which to me is nearly identical to Carl's, Jr. I wonder if they're owned by the same company or something. A kid that worked there talked to me about motorcycles for awhile, then I headed back to the motel.

Did some laundry this morning where a guy who apparently hangs out there every day talked to me about his upstart ethanol business, motorcycles from the 1970's I've never heard of, and football players from probably two generations ago. It was kinda weird, how he kept going on, but at least it passed the time, somewhat...

Now I'm hanging at a Wendy's in Nashville, watching the skies for rain, and planning my route to Lousiville, Kentucky.

Woke up and had a visitor on my bike. He scared the crap out of me when I first noticed him peering at me.

The ride to Chattanooga was easy. I was able to do it with only one tank of gas. It was cool riding into the Smokey Mountains. I decided for a change to rent a motel before the show, that way I could kind of take it easy beforehand. They screwed up the reservation and gave my non-smoking room away, so I ended up getting a room with a hot tub for the same rate! Not too shabby...

Off to dinner, then it's show-time!

I left for Atlanta, GA after getting some juevos rancheros at a Mexican restaurant. I hit a little bit of rain, but didn't bother putting on the rain gear because it was just a sprinkle and it was really hot and humid. About a half hour later, in the distance I thought I saw fog past an overpass. I thought about stopping to put on the rain gear, but pressed on.

That was my big mistake for the day.

The "fog" was actually a huge rainstorm that I got caught in. Visibility was nil and I left the highway as soon as I could. I stopped at a Home Depot in the contractor's area, changed clothes in the bathroom, dried my seat, and waited for the storm to die down before throwing on the rain gear and heading out again. The rest of the trip wasn't bad, with intermittent sunshine and rain.

I eventually arrived in Atlanta and hung out around the area, which seemed equal parts college town and dangerous. The area we were in, which was called Five Points, had that whole Boulder-hippie vibe, but with lots of graffiti and bars on all the windows. The area looked a like a not as nice version of Columbia, SC, which is odd because that area was called Five Points as well.

I ate an awesome guacamole and pepperjack burger at a place called the Vortex, which had this giant skull you had to walk through in order to get into the door. They also had burgers like the Elvis burger, which has peanut butter, bacon, and a bunch of other things that shouldn't go together in it. Next to the Vortex was a liquor store, and inside they sold flat water in glass bottles, which is something I've been saying they ought to do for years. I bought a couple of bottles over the course of the afternoon and evening.

Figuring there is safety in numbers, I parked my motorcycle next to a couple of other bikes in the parking lot. It must be some meet-up area for bikers, because within a couple hours there must have been 100 bikes there!

The venue, the Star Bar, was right across the street. The venue was pretty small and it didn't seem like the staff knew what they were doing, but everything came out sounding great. The Protomen opened, which meant they had a shorter set, but because of that every song they did was killer. I also got to see How I Became the Bomb, which is a band the Protomen have often played with in their hometown. It was cool to see a different take on the whole snyth-pop/guitar rock thing, my buddy Milvestro would be all about that band.

I left about the time the final band was ending, winding my day down at a really nice Motel 6. I didn't think those words would ever go together in a sentence, but it was a pretty nice establishment.

On to Chattanooga, Tennessee tomorrow!

Each night keeps getting better and better.

Columbia, SC is a cute little college town that reminds me of Boulder, Colorado.

The venue was a cool building with bricks walls inside, but the room was large enough so that the brick didn't present any sound problems.

The Protomen opened with "How the World Fell Under Darkness" and also played "Will of One" and "The Sons of Fate," which is the first time I've heard them do those songs since picking up up this leg of the tour. They also did a cover I wasn't familiar with that I'll have to look up.

Tomorrow in Atlanta they'll be playing with different bands, which will be refreshing, but they won't be headlining.

Checked into the hotel around 3:30, went to sleep at 5, and checked out before 11 - all in the AM. I would think these 5 AM nights would be taking their toll on me, but strangely they haven't affected me much. When I've been sleeping it's been very deep.