The Funeral Portrait
Hey everyone Lee here from The Funeral Portrait and here is my: "WHAT THE HELL IS TFP DOING WHILE ON THE ROAD!?" Part 1.
Today is: April 30th, 2016
Where I am: middle of nowhere, Maryland
Where I am actually: Truck Stop middle of nowhere, Maryland
Time of day: Why am I even awake this early?
Starting off on day one we had made it to Eric Fornelius' (from TTTC) house in New Jersey around 4:30am the day of our first show. Of course he had his family's famous "Mac n Cheese" waiting for us. What more would you need at 4:30 in the morning than a nice sleep on the floor and some baked cheesy goodness?
After a nice little nap we said our goodbyes and headed for the BIG city! On the way we got word that Alternative Press had premiered our new single "Meanwhile" and so far everyone was loving the new song! We finally make it into the city and meet up with our sound guy / merch guy, Q, and we go out to explore the land. We found a few record shops and make our way to the legendary Trash And Vaudeville for our punk rock fix of the day. Now here is where we mess up...
We get on the subway. We think oh they all go the same way... Oh we can get anywhere going on this train and then we start looking at our map and see that we are going the other direction away from Times Square! After about an hour of train hoping we make it to our destination. While in Times Square we meet the Naked Cowboy, got free chocolate from the Hershey's store then we made our way to the Nintendo Store so I could get my yearly visit out of the way and pick up some exclusive Pokemon swag. After a few hours of prospecting NYC we headed back to Webster Hall for load in and to start our first show of our tour with Davey Suicide.
It was a great first show, we always love playing in the city and hanging with our friends. After the great show we walked to Joe's Pizza (the pizza place that was in Spider Man 2) and hung out with Jesse and Steve from TTTC. We had a few slices and then we were off to our next show.
Our next show was in Worcester, MA we played with some great local bands had a few "mystery beers" from the bar and walked over to Burger King for the almighty 10 nuggets for $1.49 after the show. Now it was time to make the 8 hour drive to see some more great friends and one of our favorite venues in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland is home to a few great things, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (we have been there a few times already so we decided to pass this time around), and one of my favorite venues The Agora Ballroom! Great staff, great sound, clean bathrooms, super easy load in, and for some reason Cleveland likes to sing along louder than anywhere else!
After another great show and hangs with friends we headed on our way the next morning to meet up with the Vanity Strikes boys in Buffalo, NY to play another one of our favorite venues, The Waiting Room. If you have never been to a show at The Waiting Room and you live in the area do so. Amazing staff! Amazing sound! And the look and vibe of the place is great. From the old school posters blown up in size hanging all around the venue to the red, black and white color scheme this place is a dream come true for me and if I owned a venue it would look just like this place! Again!!!!! Another crazy show I actually think Buffalo sang louder than Cleveland this run (Cleveland are you guys going to take that?). This show was great, our friend Lauren brought us one of buffalo's legendary "PARTY PIZZAS" this thing was like two XXL pizzas put together in one!
After a great night of hanging with Vanity Strikes and eating our weight in pizza we headed for our last show of the week in Baltimore. This show last night was a little weird because it was all ages until 9:00 and then after it turned into 21+... In the middle of our set the venue staff came around and started kicking out our fans that paid over $15 to see us because they were under 21. Luckily they only had to miss the last two songs but we made sure they didn't go home empty handed and everyone went away with a poster and a CD for their troubles.
And that brings us to right now... I'm sipping on some Sweet Tea at a truck stop / McDonald's in the middle of nowhere Maryland writing this blog entry while everyone else is fast asleep. Be Sure to keep checking back with Revival for more updates on our adventures around the United States of America within the coming weeks!
Hope all is well everyone,
- Lee Jennings -