I got that itch to keep touring... maybe someday i'll grow up

So i'm sitting at the Syracuse airport waiting for my vacation flight since tour was canceled and I can't go back to work, and going over some of the plans for the next Andrea Doria quest for failure. Actually, no i need to stop that. Someone told me that the reason we keep having the luck of the guy who got hit by a comet after getting struck by lightening twice is because we keep putting out our negative, sarcastic, depressing vibe. Not to get too super hippy-ish, but matt and i were sitting at denny's drowning our sorrows in breakfast burritos and maple syrup and going over our karma for the last few months. The conversation went something like "was it somehting bad that i did? did i wrong that guy??"... "no that guy had it coming to him. why are we in a rut?" So in attempts to get things going again and keep the frowns to a minimum, we're working this new angle.

Step 1: Matt is looking into a new van. Since naming all of our possessions after things that blow up, sink, or other wise sell your crushed dreams on the black market hasn't been panning out, i am campaigning that we name the new van "The Great White Hope"

Step 2: Weekend tours are in order! So when i got home and had my little moping spree, I got an email form the band Seen It All from Buffalo asking us to come play with them in Buffalo on August 29th. So that's in order, and we're looking for a show in Rochester on August 28th. We're also venturing down to Long Island August 8th to party and play. And there's a small college weekend tour in the works for early September that will include Manhattanville College, and hopefully some southern NY colleges. And of course those adventures will be updated here. Lets get rowdy and live to regret some things!!

Step 3: profit from underpants

Step 4: New songwriting spree, and plans for a winter release. Nothing is set in stone yet, but there will be more fun ahead. So tell your friends to follow this blog (because it makes me feel like i have real friends ourside the internet) and our myspace, and come hang out with us at a show or 2.

...and whoever thought i'd be giving myself a pep talk online to be optimistic because i play guitar

some days are diamonds and some days are rocks

and sometimes god says "i don't want you to succeed". I am posting this from my living room watching caddyshack on AMC. I can do this becasue a few days ago i was riding with the Andrea Doria boys in the Stockholm down I95 approaching exit 90 in Four Oaks NC when upon turning on the offramp, we noticed a chage when every time steve hit the gas the engine would rev, but we weren't going any faster.

we pulled over and realized that the there was an issue since we had burned up all the transmission fluid... and although i'm not a car guy i know that is important. to make a long story less long, we preceded to take care of the sad sad business at hand. So 1 free hotel stay, 2 expensive tows, a $100 cab ride, and about $400 in rental minivans later we sold the Stockhlom to Big Doyle in NC and drive 13 hours home with our tail between our legs.

So unable to financially get a vehicle on such short notice fate has once again bitch slapped the Andrea Doria. So here we sit depressed, home from work and upset. But like that girl you regret meeting and giving your real phone number, we won't give up. Plans are in motion to keep playing shows, keep writing songs and in the near future ride again.

keep in touch for updates. We're a band fueled by spite and for some strange reason just can't give up.

tour day 4- Happy birfday 'Merica

Hi there. I am currently in the van typing today's blog entry that should have been done last night but i'm a busy busy man so this will have to do. So if memory serves me right i last left you guys with us in long island hanging out with some crazy people. that evening, we slept on hard wood floor, and woke up to guests arriving to the families 4th of july party. So we left there and had to buy some oil for our small but irritating oil leak from the van. we also realized that the door handle didn't want to secure. so we would be driving with the back door flopping in the wind. Steve Peterson used his keen "fixin' stuff" skills he developed in the jungles of south america along with the ones learned in 7th grade tech ed. to take apart the lock and fix the problem. and off we went through the great.... ok at best state of new jersey. and further south to delaware.

i'm going to use this moment to bring you into the personal lives of the andrea doria on tour. most bands are all about touring to get new fans, and sell alot of merch. for us those are just gravy on the undercooked dinner of our touring experience. some of our hobbies on the road include finding alcohol that is not available in Syracuse NY. (such as maddog 20/20, mickey's hand grenades, and santana champagne) another one is eating at shitty fast food places unavailable to us at home (sonic, cici's pizza, in and out burger, bojangel's crystals....etc.)

so to make a long story longer... we ate at a sonic in delaware and all was right with the world. As we went deeper south, we arrived at Virginia Beach, but not before driving over an 11 mile bridge that goes over the ocean and into tunnels under the ocean. now i'll take minute to tell you that i don't like driving on bridges... but i did it!!!

we didn't have a show booked for today, so we decided to have cook out on virgina beach... literally on the beach. so on virginia beach we made camp with a mini grill, burgers, hot dogs, cherry pepsi, mickey's and miller high life in hand. some girl came up and said she was dared to throw water on us. so i promply spilled her bucket of water and was like "awww crap now you can't do it". we then spent some time getting flipped off by the party on their beach blanket and returned fire. later as steve was walking by he made small conversation with them, and mentioned that we were from syracuse. turned out one of the girl's boyfriends grew up in syracuse and went to our high school. to make matter even crazier... her boy friend is one of matt's best friends who moved away. so now we have friends in Virginia beach.

anywho, after our beach adventure, i drove for 2 hours to get us back to the walmart we were at prior. the GPS said it would take 10 minutes, but apparently ALOT of people go to virgina beach for the 4th of july. crazy. so the 10 mile highway drive took 2 hours.

so for another night, i slept with sandy feet, without a shower, and this time instead of on a floor in long island i spent my evening curled up on the back seat of our van in a wal mart parking lot in virgina beach because i play guitar.

tour day 2- NYC

well, i am currently in Wantagh Long island. We drove across the state and everything went well. Matt parallel parked the van in NYC and Steve and i wandered for food and guitar shops. The overall turn out was depressing, even though i ran into some friends i hadn't seen in a while and really appreciate them coming out. I thought we played decently, although we had some technical difficulties.

so... now we are at jeff's house and were out on his dad's boat, steve kissed a fish. and i am srtuggleing to stay awake. and now we're going to bed.

tomorrow is 7 hours in a car becasue i taught jeff how to play guitar.

Tour Day 1- Syracuse, NY- Singer's Karaoke Bar

today doesn't feel like a real tour day because i woke up in my own bed, just got out of my shower, and am going back to my own bed. But in news that one or two of you may care about. We played tonight at Singer's Karaoke Bar. I was a bit skeptical of it since they don't usually do shows, but decided to have a going away/good riddance/ CD release party/show for us. It was running very behind schedule and i was curious as to how many people would stick round for us. A surprising amount of people hung out danced, sang along, clapped, and encouraged us to follow our boyhood dreams of being professional rock and rollers. (edit: nick's dream was to be an Olympic ice dancer, but his dad laid down the law and said making out with dudes is the closest his son could go to being gay.)

So back to the topic at hand. Awesome fun show. tons of merch sales. today counts as shower #1 of tour. and tomorrow we start the real days of tour, by heading to the big apple.

Side note: keep an eye on that shower count... and don't expect it to get much higher than it already is.

so tomorrow i am waking up early, packing my few remaining possessions, and meeting my idiot friends around noon to drive across the state to play notes wrong for a hopefully decent sized group of strangers, and then party with my old roommate from college at his parent's house in long island. i never really thought my daily planner would read that just because i know how to play guitar.

Its always quiet before the storm...

So tomorrow the tour starts with a Syracuse show at Singer's Karaoke Bar. Currently, the van AKA "The Stockholm" is sitting in my driveway with new tires, new batteries, freshly charged AC, and a basically rebuilt engine. All the gear is working properly, and bags are packed and things are good. I'm going to try to update this blog everyday, but don't quote me on that. If you can make it to any of these dates, we'd love to see you there!

July 2nd- Syracuse, NY- Singer's Karaoke Bar
July 3r- Manhattan, NY- Kenny's Castaways
July 4th- Virginia Beach
July 5th- Wilmington, NC- Lucky's
July 6th- Charleston, SC- Village Tavern
July 7th- Jacksonville, FL- CD Connection
July 8th- Orlando, FL
July 9h- Tampa, FL- The Orpheum
July10th- Tallahassee, FL
July 11th- Pensacola, FL- The Handlebar
July 12th- New Orleans, LA- Banks Street Bar
July 13th- Baton Rouge, LA
July 14th- Houston, TX- Super Happy Fun Land
July 15th- San Antonio, TX- White Rabbit
July 16th- El Paso, TX- Badlands Billiards
July 17th- Tucson, AZ- The Living Room
July 18th- Los Angeles, CA- The Rainbow


....and awayyyyyyyyyyyy we go....