"Welcome Home": car rides, Wawa, LDE DVD, and rock

Dan and I hit up the Hoboken Dunkin Donuts for our obligatory breakfast, though afternoon, for the stretch down the turnpike to southern NJ. We listened to CKY and The Killers while groggily discussing future rock endeavors and plans of action.

We made it to Morita’s without getting lost – woohoo, everytime I go there I end up on some other road. We hung out there and watched the NFL draft and basketball while Dan dabbled on the acoustic. After Dan left, I attacked Morita’s Real Rhapsody and we listened and critiqued some tuned. Blue Merle sounds like Chris Martin’s evil twin. We likey. I also called my mom to tell her I was alive and she yelled at me for being an alcoholic. She yelled so loud that Morita could hear her, so I have her yelling and him laughing. It’s ok, I am not an alcoholic, I just have a problem with throwing up. She asked how I could drink so much that I ended up in that state. I didn’t drink that much! I just can’t handle it!

Maryann and Nate were coming up from Delaware and so delayed our Wawa trip. So much so that I felt the need to call and text them every fifteen minutes with the word, “wawawawawawawawa” included in the message. They walked in to Chris and I bobbing our heads to some old school MC Hammer. Yay for DE friends! Off to Wawa...we actually walked to Wawa...it was fab.

We grabbed our grub and parked it in the entertainment room to watch the LDE DVD on the big screen with super duper speakers. The poor LDE guys, they had no idea what they were in for...

I laughed so hard, not at the DVD, just because of the company we were in. It hurt to laugh! I couldn’t even get words out! I can’t remember what we were talking about, just that I gazed at Nate and said, “iPod...noooooo”. I’ll keep the DVD critique concise...not in chronological order.
*We think that LDE should tease Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open”
*After talking about various members of the band coming and going, the band wasn’t in the same interview shot for the rest of the DVD
*Doug really doesn’t like music
*Never stand in the front row of a show, we will make fun of you
*If you don’t have arms, we will make fun of you
*If you have man hands, we will make fun of you
*During “Over and Over”, Chris pronounced a word with an odd accent, and we all look at each other and say, “what?!?! He’s not British!!” And of course we watched it multiple times and laughed multiple times.
*Also speaking of Chris, he totally did what we now call “the flamingo” (maybe break dancin’ mike will bust out this move at the LoHo in two weeks...), where he pointed then brought his leg up, it was weird and we laugh and rewound and laughed again
*Rusty and Donnie making interesting gestures because they aren’t allowed to talk in the interview, and once Rusty gets a word in edgewise, he’s silenced by Chris’s singing

Oh man, I know I am forgetting a ton more, help me out guys?

After the DVD we headed out for the Grape. Oh how I love the Grape. I think I almost exploded from all of the excitement. Maryann and I caught up on stories in the back while the guys made fun of us in the front. We almost died I think and I wasn’t the one driving, score! As we pulled up to the Grape, I figured I would get out my ID and money so I wouldn’t have to dig for it at the door. Oh what the fuck, no license!! I tore up my bag to no avail. So I call Mr. John Faye to see if he could get me in, and it went to his voicemail. Dammit. Chris, Nate, and Maryann went into the Grape and we were going to cell it to figure out how to sneak my ass into the venue. While loitering in the front I saw Cliff, who basically told me, “yeah, good luck with that.” John calls, and I meet him at the door. He had told Joe that I am the video shoot girl and how I am definitely of age and in I went...harmless! We saw Cliff inside and he said that he wasn’t even going to try to mess with that. Victory! I meet our crew inside and grab a coke.

We checked out Snoozebox then went onto the patio to talk and make fun of people. I don’t know if we looked familiar or not, but apparently the weirdos felt it necessary to stare down Maryann and me. It was also a Who’s Who of Philly rock there that night, Rob from Pepper’s Ghost and Ben Arnold were in attendance.

IKE took the stage and we forced Nate to stand up front. The band played a lot of new songs, which were full of great indie pop angst. The older new songs sound tighter than ever and the new new ones were great to hear. I got “Welcome Home” so I was content. The crowd seemed into it and it was great to be in attendance with such an awesome home town crowd. We were also graced with “Devil’s Diary” and I love how whenever anything is shouted out, they always look to our crowd first. It wasn’t us! But of course we got the initial glance to prompt the sing along for “Deathbed”. See, what would they do without us? After the last song, the screens went down and the video for “Deathbed” rolled. Oh happiness! I can’t believe it’s been over a year since we filmed it. After the vid, Mike rolled the b-sides to the video shoot. Oh what fun times that was!

The guys were determined to make Maryann and I do a car bomb with them, so off to the bar we went. I nearly died, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even finish it, I only got through a quarter of it. I think my body was still soaked in alcohol from the night before (see the Friday night blog for details). Of course I was made fun of because of that. We then went into the hip hop room where we didn’t belong. The guys played hide and seek and Maryann and I talked with John. Morita then came back to tell us that he almost roughed it up in the hip hop room and there was almost a beat down. On that note, it was time to hit the diner.

Ahhh..the Manyunk Diner... one of the best diners around, good eats, a bar, and live music. The guys had decided that everything tastes good with bacon or cheese wrapped around it. Of course I got an egg salad sandwich since I can’t make them at home. Good conversation and an hour later we hit the road to Tanya’s house via mapquest. See...I know how to get to Tanya’s via I95, but since we were on the other side of the city, I figured it would be short going route 1. Ha. Silly me. So we’re driving and breaking laws and realize that the street we were looking for didn’t exist, so naturally we drive into the ghetto. We knew we were in the right area, because Tanya lives near the ghetto, but nothing looked familiar. Mind you, it’s about 3 AM. So of course Morita pulls up to someone standing on the corner...did I tell you that it was 3 AM in the ghettos of Philly? And asks where Harrison Street was. He didn’t know, so Chris finds another guy, who asks to everyone else standing on the street and they pointed us in the right direction. A few minutes later we pull up to Tanyas, we said our goodbyes, and I tossed Nate the Darth Maul mask for the ride home.

Since it was so late, Tanya and I said our hellos and saved our conversations and stories for Sunday and passed out till noon.