And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead --> 
The Official Halfway MarkPosted 11/24/2006 by Merlin From CK:
It is time for me to write a little update for the news. Tour's been going well, despite my best efforts to sabotage it. I did manage to cancel our Houston show, but no matter how much I complained they have forced me to play every night, even the nights when my favorite soap opera is on. Just joking.
In all honesty we apologize to the people in Houston for our cancellation, it was necessary for us to take care of a few things in Austin before continuing the tour. Much of our equipment had gone the way of the buffalo, so rather than play a horrible show in Houston (which we always seem to manage, as if cursed there) we went straight "home" and had amps and guitars and spirits mended and wended.
So far the nicest thing about this tour has been becoming friends with the other bands - everyone is playing on each others sets and there is a strong feeling of unity. That, and the bikes, which somehow manage to raise spirits just by being there. We have three bikes on our bus and the BB's have one of their own. America needs to embrace the bike in the same way that Holland and China have. That would reverse our C02 emissions drastically. The only problem being that our suburbs have been designed for cars, and actually discourage bike riding and pedestrians. If we want people to think more environmentally, we need to redesign these vast, concrete sprawls that we have created and make them look like something people would want to bike through. Those grotesque wastelands surrounding outlying malls that we call parking-lots could, with some effort, be turned instead into parks. Parks for people, not for cars. These are my road ruminations.
One thing I get out of touring with other bands is learning from them. Mark of the Blood Brothers's drumming is stellar, and he makes me wish I hadn't stopped playing. Both them and the Celebration have these almost tribal rhythmic breakdowns that remind me of something from Pete Gabriel's Passion, which practically invite you to grab a tambourine and join in. Sean of Celebration is another one of those musical savants who doesn't just play more than one instrument, but plays them at once, managing guitar and keyboard and pedals simultaneously. A wise woman once told me that the best way to learn is by watching, so I have been trying to give myself a musical education in the way that other bands incorporate keyboard sounds into the music. It's funny, when we were growing up in Olympia if you had a keyboard in your band they'd hang you from a tree and stick a fork up your ass (sorry, I couldn't resist that tasteless reference).
We have reached the official half-way point of the tour and now we head West to the land of the setting sun. In the upcoming days I hope to a) improve our pathetic merchandise designs because they suck, b) get around to making more prints of my art, which I haven't done in ages, and c) find Gauntlet for the X-Box. Hope to see all you west-coasters out there.
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