After the nightmare of our previous days’ drive, the traffic was refreshingly spare. But the blustery day had our van jumping like a bucking bronco. With the highway being so close to the lake shore, we decided to make a slight detour and spend some time at the dunes in Michigan.

The part where Nathan entertains himself by taking pictures of seagulls.

A picture perfect day at the beach

Wish you were here! <3 jascha.

Regretfully, we had to get back on the road in order to make it to Detroit for the first show.  We did however take the time to figure out an in-car hookah method:

in-car hookah method (TM)

…and saw perhaps one of the best slogans of all time:

yum

We stopped by and dropped off our non-music related gear at our new quarters with Maggie and Petra in [HIP]silanti, and got (by far) the most impressive welcome of the tour.

The Welcome Wagon

We were greeted by this message adorning the stairs, and the smiling faces of Maggie, Petra, and Kelsie. They had meals made up to take with us on the drive to the venue, and were perfectly happy to let us eat and run.

The first night, our show was in Ferndale (a suburb of Detroit). It was a show. That’s about all we have to say about it.

On the way back to Maggie and Petra’s, we got diverted off the interstate by an accident, and had an adventure in one of the more blighted areas of the Detroit metropolitan area. The urban decay here is both beautiful and depressing at the same time. The next day, with Petra as our tour guide, we went out to explore Ann Arbor. They have an incredible Downtown area that feels like a larger and more well executed version of Mass Ave., that is immediately adjacent to an enormous green space called “The Arb”. They have a great Farmer’s Market, vintage shops, bookstores, and everything is so bike friendly. I forsee a solo trip back to photograph the blight of Detroit and the beauty of Ann Arbor in my future.

The second night, our show was in Warren. It was a show. That’s all we have to say about it.

Now, it’s another beautiful, bright morning, and we must bid adieu to Maggie and Petra. On to Jamestown, NY and the Labyrinth Press Co.

We absolutely loved the venue in MN – the folks at the Triple Rock Social Club have a great room (any place where Rocky Votolato is playing the next month is just fine with us!), and rolled out the red carpet for us.   We made fast friends with the band Alas, Alas and we think you should check them out because they are awesome.  The lovely Katie, from Alas, Alas, put us up for the night and was such a gracious host.  She even offered to cook us breakfast!  On the way to her house after the show, Jordan might have had a little too much to drink.  The result was a hilarious drunken rendition of “I Believe I Can Fly” which we will post as soon as we figure out how to upload it.

andy robs a bike graveyard.

Andy showed his true self control when we came across a ton of old bikes.  If it were up to him we would have dumped the gear and brought every bike back.

Anyway, we had a ball.  Minneapolis, we will be back.

Amazing clouds yesterday.  We stopped in Milwaukee for a few hours, had a few caramels and sang/slept/explored the Lake Michigan shoreline for a bit before finding an amazing burger shop with local brews.

Singing on the Beach...Milwaukee, WI

Cloud Watching...Milwaukee, WI

Balancing Act...Milwaukee, WI

Naptime...Milwaukee, WI

milwaukee sky

Sheboygan treated us well, The Green Room is a nice little spot.  Our favorite part of Sheboygan was our friend Jared from Cedarwell – the kid danced like his legs were going to fall off!  Beautiful.

we promptly threw all ours away.

Eric was kind enough to allow us to crash at his place with Jared acting as host…we’ll definitely be back soon.

serving food daily!

Things got off to a little bit of a rough start, and it got a little rougher when we realized we weren’t going to be able to use the car top carrier.  After an hour (+) of finagling, we figured a way to pack both the luggage and the gear.  4 hours later we rolled up to Cal’s on the south loop – turns out it’s a liquor store/stockbroker bar by day and underground indie/punk venue by night.

We unloaded before heading over to eat some Giordano’s for some Chicago pizza.

Never go against the family....

We loved the set from the Remaindermen – great drumming from stickman Chris K. – and can’t wait to see those guys again.  The lovely William Winter put us up for the night in his amazing abode – altogether a pretty amazing day 1.

cal's

Doors open at 8 p.m., and pre-sale tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets for $7. Fans who purchase presale tickets will receive a limited edition acoustic “lost session” CD titled “the jamestown special” the night of the show.

Tickets are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119517or through your favorite jascha. member. For more information, send an email to info@uptownlocals.com.