PREFACE: This happened almost a month ago. It took me a while to get this posted. There were lots of AMN updates that needed to be done prior to festival season. I've also been lucky enough to have three well-paying clients on Odesk fro the last few weeks. That said, here are some old posts that I started but did not publish.

Red Dahlia Road Trip Review

So, the band recently spent two days (April 4, 5) on the road. I have only been to northern Ohio a few times in my life. I never realized how much the Great Lakes affect the weather in that region. Once we drove within a hundred miles of the lake, we were enveloped in a fog cloud. We drove in this fog through Ohio and Pennsylvania for nearly two hours. It sure was creepy--which brings me to our first stop.

Our first show was in Eerie, Pennsylvania on April 4th at a club called Sherlock's. It was The Douglas Bros. final show ever. They invited us to play their farewell party. It seems that most of all of the band members had decent jobs and decent lives and decided to finally sever the limb that was holding them back from living those lives. That happens sometimes. If finances, health, or a family doesn't knock you off the musical path, sometimes people just discover they don't like music as much as they once did. The crappy state of live music doesn't help either. It's a tough time to be in an ORIGINAL rock band.

The club has a huge stage, a huge PA system and even a spot where a second sound man can run monitors. This, in my mind, means that we should be able to play a little louder than normal, at the very least we should be able to perform at practice volume, right? Not so here. The sound guy is one of those peeps that has to have EVERYTHING going through the mains, even if it isn't needed. He actually told Felix to not play the cymbals so loudly. Kenny was at 1 on his volume knob and still it was too loud for the sound. If the guitars are too loud, leave me out of the mains. If I'm still too loud, then I'll turn down. That's my motto. Stupid mains. That same thing happened all the time in Little Brothers and look what happened to that bar.

Evidently, well-known regional goth-metal rockers Mushroomhead play this bar once a month. I doubt they tell Mushroomhead to turn down past one. Then again, those guys are so successfully, they most likely bring their own sound man wherever they go.

We played an amazing three song combo to start the set. I jumped off the drum risers. Kenny and Byron were shaking their things as well. I worked up a sweat midway through the combo. Even Jodi was shaking her head and getting into the act. Then, after we finished what was possibly one of our most energetic openings to-date, we looked at the crowd and we could have heard CRICKETS. A table of girls started clapping. It sounded like pity clapping to me, so I announced to the crowd, "clappity clap clap, whatever" and we launched into the next song. That made the table of girls laugh out loud. After the sound man turned us all down, the crowd kinda warmed up to us. It was no that bad of a show, in the end. The beer was cheap, the stage was nice, we had a hotel room only blocks away, and we made enough money to cover the hotel room and about half of our gasoline bill.

The next day, we explored Eire before heading out to Pittsburgh.

It is easy to get lost when driving around downtown Pittsburgh. It's an older city surrounded by hills. The city grew up randomly and it is as though city planners tried to fit in as much stuff as they could in the valley. As a result, the roads are not laid out in a grid like in New York, LA, Chicago, DC, or Dallas. Instead, Pittsburgh's roads are more like those of Boston, or London England. They have circles, squares, tunnels, lots of one-way roads, and confusing street signs. That said, Pittsburgh is a pretty town. This was the first time that we've been to Pittsburgh during daylight hours. The last time we were here, we got lost and ended up at the top of this hill that overlooks the city. We could see the lights of the city spread out before us. This time, we duplicated the same mistake. Once again we ended up on top of that hill. Only this time, we parked the car to take some photographs.

Once we found the club, "Club Cafe", we hung around Pittsburgh's version of Columbus Ohio's Arena District. They had a Hard Rock Cafe there. We went in. I've never eaten at one before. The food was good, but the place is waaaay too expensive for real rock-n-rollers on tour. That's the irony of that place. It's basically a tourist attraction for middle-aged folks who like to think they are still rock-n-rollers. Unfortunately, real touring bands either can't afford to buy a $16 hamburger, or they are just wouldn't be caught dead in the place. It had a very hair-metal vibe. Still, if I was ever offered the chance to play a Hard Rock Cafe, I probably would. I bet they pay their bands. I wonder if the food is comped?

After splitting a $9 quesadilla with Jodi, we went to Club Cafe to unload. We still had hours before the show, So Jodi, Kenny and I walked for a few blocks down town. This section of town reminded me of Dallas' Deep Ellum district, or the Short North in Columbus. There were lots of bars, music venues, hipster clothing stores, head shops, and specialty stores. Jodi browsed around for some clothes, and eventually found a chocolate store.

While we were on our walk, we discovered a self-cleaning public restroom. Wow. That's high-tech. Evidently, you can only be on the can for 20 minutes at a time. That seems like plenty of time, but I bet it is a measure to prevent homeless people from camping in the crapper for a night.

Finally, it was time to play the club. However, by this point, I was pretty darned tired. Lucky for me, Club Cafe had a killer "green" room. Most green rooms I've been to usually have a nappy sofa, some crappy furniture, and the place smells like ass. The green room at the Club Cafe is located upstairs. It is also a recording studio. They keep the equipment room locked off, however the lounge had two clean, wonderful sofas, a computer to check our myspace and email while on the road, and they even had a clean SHOWER! Wow. Next time I play there, it is shower time!

FIN.