PHOTOZZZ

11/4/08 – Election Day
(walter) So today is election day and it’s time to blog yet again! We are driving through Florida right now, the state where old people always ruin it for the Democrats. Today I plan on going to my nearest polling place and helping some older folks to press the right buttons. Hopefully it helps. Barack Obama will be grateful I’m sure.

Also I thought I’d mention a little known fact about John McCrane. He was the first guy to say “I’m enery the eighth I am, I am,” We’ll see if that helps or hurts him or helps him in the long run, it’s hard to tell these days.

Anyway, the shows have been fun lately. In New Orleans we were surprisingly well received. We had never played New Orleans and even though I hate the places of that town that I’ve seen I still really liked the people at the show. I can’t wait to come back there and play… although the parking was a nightmare. St. Petersburg was fun too, even though everyone hated us just because we are from Philadelphia. They’re just jealous that we have a sweet baseball team. Whatev. I ain’t sweating it.

(ciukurescu) What better day to pick up the tour blog than on election day? We’ve been in Florida the last couple of days, what better a place to be today than this historic place known most famously for the “Great Hanging Chads of 2000?” This year will be different though, from what I heard, they’ve had a rigorous fitness program running for the last four to eight years to help make sure the older retired folk push through the paper ballots all the way to avoid any confusion.

Since all Hallows Eve, we’ve been to the happiest place on Earth, New Orleans. I’ve been a big advocate of relocating the nations capitol to Bourbon Street because, and this was solidified for me the other night, that place spells the true meaning of the American Dream. We’ll see if we can make it happen. Anyways, the shows have been good and our tour manager, Hodge, looks like James Hetfield. Tour’s really coming together well right now.

(walter) Yeah man, Chris from Bayside looks like a pirate, their merch guy Boddy looks like a French man.


In New Orleans they get seriously worked up if you call it Soda.


Here's our P.O. Box. #2903. We decided to stop using myspace and only use real mail from now on.


Walking to Starbucks to get our free "I VOTED" coffee.


Hodge and his crazy new James Hetfield facial hair.


George tried to model his new facial hair after Hodges. I don't think it came out quite right. So he shaved it immediately.


Dylan from the Matches sometimes thinks guitars are basses, he should know which is which though since he PLAYS BASS in his band.


Something must have been surprising in Fort Lauderdale.









Wishing I was holding a cheerwine just then instead of whatever it really was.



Watching John McCain give his speech after losing the election.


Everyone sitting around watching Obama whoop McCain's rooster gullet.


Hodge. Pissed that I keep looking over his shoulder.

11/5/08 (1am EST) –Post Election Day Excitement
(walter) The show was really fun, watching cnn was really fun (which is something I never thought I’d say) and just in general it was a fun and exciting day, I was excited for all of the events leading up to the election and really excited for the actual election. Everything has gone the way I had hoped, but I was also really surprised. I really didn’t think the electoral votes would be such a landslide. It was pretty awesome to witness history today. I didn’t get to help any old people to vote but it seemed like they got it figured out this time around.

(ciukurescu) It’s true, I didn’t think Obama would win by as much as he did, I had gone into the whole thing thinking it would be close the whole time. It seems like everyone else did too, though, because from what it sounds like, this time around voter turnout was huge. Either way, I’m happy with the outcome and I think watching the speeches at the end really solidified that for me.

(walter) Totally, even Edwin McCain’s speech was pretty good, glad he realized that his song wasn’t going to take him to the top of the political ladder like it did the billboard charts in the 90’s. Many people think that the billboard charts and the hierarchy of American politics are synonymous… but they’re wrong. They’re thinking of Hollywood. (P.S. I hope Al Franken won. I haven’t seen yet but I was rooting for him)

(ciukurescu) Stuart Smalley for Minnesota Senate, that’s what I say. If the Terminator and “The Body” can be elected into office, I think anything’s possible. Anyway, tomorrow we’re going to Disney World. And it’s not just to celebrate, because the venue we are playing is in Downtown Disney from what I hear. If everything goes my way, this time tomorrow I’ll be hanging out with my good friends singing, “It’s a Small World After All.” We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

11/5/08 (8:40pm EST)
(walter) I just walked off stage and I’m pretty sweaty while I watch The Matches so I decided it was time for more bloggin!! Today we are in Orlando, Florida at the House of Blues. We are in downtown Disney and it was awesome because our friend Mickey came out and sang the ‘IS IT IN ME?’ part of the Space Between. I hadn’t seen him until he got on stage and he ran on and gave me a big hug. He broke my guitar but it didn’t matter because he’s a freakin’ millionaire so he already bought me a new one. What a guy!

(ciukurescu) I’ve always been pretty convinced that my best tour blogging happens while wet so why not start blogging about it now. As an aside, I’m surprised that blogging isn’t recognized as a word in Microsoft Word but then again what should I have expected? Either way, today the venue was in Downtown Disney and we had to disappoint a lot of old friends because our guest list was full with our new friends Mickey, Goofy, and Donald Duck. Sorry guys, that’s what rock stardom is all about. Now we only hang out with celebs.

(walter) I dunno about everyone else but I’m done hanging out and talking to my old friends now that I’m so famous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, today our podcast went up and I’m really excited to start doing that. Someday we will master all forms of media and no privacy will be spared. Someday I hope to be just like Big Brother where you can see and hear everything that I do. We have graduated from the standard blog to the photo blog to the video blog to the podcast (blog). We haven’t mastered the real life talking to people in person blog, I hope to blog face to face with someone someday but I haven’t yet. I can only dream.

(ciukurescu) I’m over blogging. Well, not really, but I want to talk about how good the show in Orlando tonight was. I’m pretty sure everyone was excited to be at the show, I could kind of tell but my hair is getting really long so sometimes when we play it’s hard to see everyone. I really know how Slash must feel, let me tell you what. He’s had it pretty rough; I don’t know how he did it.

(walter) I don’t know George.

(ciukurescu) Me either, Brendan.

(walter) Cool.

(ciukurescu) The Matches are done. Let’s go talk to people.

11/7/08 – En Route to Greensboro, NC!

(walter) So today we are on our way back to the best area in the country. (That area being the northeast corridor of America.) We are entering the close to home territories where we have lots of friends and lots of time-share vacation houses. Tonight we are staying at George’s time-share in Greensboro. It’s fun to play Florida and Georgia and all those places, but just not AS fun…. that’s all I’m saying. Everybody knows that my favorite city in the country is (INSERT YOUR HOME TOWN HERE)!

(ciukurescu) You guys will probably notice that we skipped our day in Atlanta on here, but it was only half on purpose and not ENTIRELY because we didn’t think it deserved an update. I think it was half the excitement of being back in the areas we know and love best, and I was especially excited to stop off at my heavily invested real estate in Greensboro to make sure all is well before we continue on with the rest of tour.

(walter) Yeah we only skipped Atlanta because the Starbucks down the block was closed AND it reminded us of a barfly. Inside jokes for outside folks. That’s the name of the Nightbeast’s album and it also applies to this situation, considering many of you don’t know what barflys are… but I will not be explaining!

(ciukurescu) ANYWAYS, the show itself was pretty good. We haven’t been back to the ATL for a little while and it was good to see some of our friends there. I think we played really well and I could tell we got a good response. A lot of people bought our merch and said they couldn’t wait for us to come back. After the show was over, we all got in the van and laughed and reminisced about how good we’ve gotten and how good we played, it really brought us all closer together. It really was a moment of high camaraderie for us.

(walter) After we got in the van George wouldn’t shut the hell up about how great he was. Everyone was like “GEORGE THAT NEVER HAPPENED, YOU’RE THINKING OF SOMEONE ELSE” and he wouldn’t shut up about the time we all supposedly met some little green guy with big ears and helped us harness our powers so we could save some princess from this giant fortress shaped like a ball. He just wouldn’t stop and kept saying things like “remember the good old days? And chewy???” It got pretty annoying but eventually he went to sleep because we shot him with a horse tranquilizer. I knew they would come in handy at some point on this tour, and Shane said I was crazy for bringing them.

(ciukurescu) All in all, it was a great time in Atlanta and we can’t wait to get back there, as is usually the case. We’re actually driving on the way to North Carolina right now and I’m looking forward to the usual hijinks that go on when we get there, but I’m sure we’ll have more to update you with in due time.

Shane practicing his jump-kicks.



Wapner watching the merch.


He did a terrible job because right after that picture was taken, it was floating in the air outside.

11/508 – Several hours later at a gas station in South Carolina.
(walter) We are in Cheerwine country! Cheeeeeerrrwwwiiiinnnee!


Cheerwine is delicious... and i'm the devil, apparently.



11/6/08 – Post Show
(walter) So the show in Greensboro was really fun, we just got off stage and it was probably one of the best crowds of the tour so far. (Or at least in recent history because I can’t remember more than like a week back) my guitar wasn’t working well at all and I was really pissed but I tried to make the most of it by smashing my guitar over Max’s drums so that neither of us could play! It ended up that my plan worked better than expected and because of smashing the guitar it fixed my guitar and tuned Max’s drums. Thank god, that could have gone horribly wrong.

(ciukurescu) The show tonight was a lot of fun. The venue was full and very hot, and I got very sweaty. It probably has a little to do with the fact that I wear a jacket when we play every night but usually that’s just because I have a heart of ice. That being said, Greensboro managed to melt my heart of ice with their warm smiles and cheerful dancing. Jon and Matt from the Matches just said they agree with us and Bayside is playing right now and I’m sure when they are done, they’ll say the same thing, so good job, Greensboro!

(walter) Yeah give yourself a round of applause, Greensboro, NC. Here are some pictures from yesterday. Hope you like them. Andy from The Status took some of them, he's awesome and so is his band. Make sure to check them out! Myspace.com/TheStatus


George's time - share!! We're so excited to stay here!! Isn't it nice??




Andy looks like the Fonz.


So THAT'S how Jon keeps his shoes so white!


JD's main source of protein is his guitar. That's where the muscles come from.




No pictures, please.




X-Ray of my back. It hurts so bad.

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ANGRY ANDY!