Wednesday, January 17, 2001
We just finished a new track entitled "Naked." Our webmaster is here instructing us on the use of this new "tour journal" format.
posted by jeff scheel 3:06 PM
Thursday, January 11, 2001
12/19/00 CHICAGO, IL
Today things are remenisant of the first time we were lucky enough to play in Chicago at The Metro almost 5 years ago to the day. We were younger, more innoscent, more naive, but it all feels like yesterday. I get to spend some time talking to Chris Randall (Sister Machine Gun) about the old times. We love The Metro. GK has played some very special shows at this venue. This place is sort of like The Blue Note in Columbia, MO. It is very intimate but it feels bigger for some reason. After the show there must have been 50 or so musicians and fans in the dressing room area. We leave them for a minute to sign autographs at the merch booth as everyone is leaving. Finally back to the dressing room to "entertain" and do the "shake and howdy" with everyone that is still in the dressing room area. We hang out with friends that we have made over the 5 years we have been coming to Chicago. As we leave the venue to get on the bus I run into a guy named Josh who has been to virtually every show that we have ever played in the Chicago area. I mention him because when he saw us for the first time he was 17 years old. Tonight he was legally drinking at the show. My how time flies when you are having.........
12/18/00 FT. WAYNE, IA
Never Let it be said that when things are bad, they can't get worse. We stayed in Ft. Wayne to play tonight, hoping that the weather would be better and more people would be able to get to Piere's to see the show tonight. We have an "on-air" to do at the local modern rock station so Matt, Doug, Brad, Terry (our tour manager) and I get into a van (with a driver who's name I can't remember, sorry) to attempt the drive. The snow starts coming again. We have bad directions and never make it to the station. We do get to sit in a van for about 2 hours and see alot of the city that we would never get to see in the first place. We were reminded that the last time we were in Ft. Wayne, a tornado blew through town and nearly destroyed half the city. So in other words, now Gravity Kills will be synonimous with natural disasters and Ft. Wayne. Everyone's morale is still pretty high because we know that we will be playing at the Metro tommorrow and Chicago has become a home away from home for GK.
posted by The Gravity Master . 6:10 AM
Wednesday, January 10, 2001
12/17/00 FT. WAYNE, INDIANA
What the fuck is a level 2 snow emergency? At the time the doors opened and the brave or insane started to enter the venue, the management of the club decided to cancel the show because apparently if a snow emergency goes to level 3, then you get a traffic ticket for even driving your car. I guess level 4 is martial law. We were asked if we would stick around Ft. Wayne one more night and play on the 18th instead. Our first suggestion was to play both nights but the club didn't want to take the chance of the snow emergency going to level 3 and then being stuck with everyone having to hang out and I guess having a big Gravity Kills slumber party. They did keep another club in the complex open and gave everyone a drink ticket that showed up to see us. Our posse, including our bus driver Bear, went over and hung out with the drunken. Everyone had a great time but a couple of people were pissed off because they thought that we had decided to cancel the show.
Anyway...
Everybody but Doug, Brian and myself went to the safe confines of a local hotel but we wanted to stay on the bus which had quickly become my fortified castle. Brain and I watched a movie while Doug was tearing up the place in Doug like night of madness. He did everything except break out the plastic siverwear knife and ask Brian and I to bleed for him.
12/16/00 DETROIT, MI
I wake up in Detriot and feel hungry. Matt, Doug, Brad and I decide to make a run for it to some fast food places that are about a block from the venue. We take out in 2X2 cover formation on a suicide mission for a fucking hamburger. This is the first time that I have ever seen bullet proof glass on the inside of a fast food joint. I'm not talking about the drive thru but actually inside between the customer and the person who takes your order. As Brad and I are leaving with our food I point out a sign that reads: PRISON TRANSPORTATION, VISIT YOUR LOVED ONE, accompanied with a phone number to call. I might be from a small town and are compasionate to those in our correctional facilities, but I knew we were in a rough part of town. Before the gig, a group of people who have been to every Detroit show we have ever played, brought us a cake that depicted Doug as a skeleton with a Santa Claus hat. We will post a picture of the cake because any description I give of it will not do the cake justice. I think there were 3794 opening bands before Tinfed even got to go on and play their set. All of which gave an interesting spin on nu-metal. I played a death metal version of "jingle bells" as a joke but I think some of the openers thought I was poking fun at them. For the record, I was not. I just like to growl on occasion. After the set, we hung out on the bus with Grant Birchmier a.k.a. Jim Theta. He has a great GK site of his own that you can check out through the links section of our site. I think he was disappointed that it was to cold for the hookers to hang out with us after the show.
12/15/00 TOLEDO, OH
I'm already tired of the fucking snow. This tour is quickly becoming like the movie "Groundhog Day," grey, cold and it will last you the rest of your life. It seems that most live venues are in shitty parts of town. The Main Event is no exception. Nothing to do but sit in the bus or fuck around in the venue bothering the crew. Terry, our sound guy and tour manager decides that he will play and endless loop of Brian, our light guy, saying his name. Every 5 minutes we are bombarded with and echo of "Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry, etc., infinity. It is one of those things that is only funny when it is happening. You want to make it stop but only the sound man has control. After sound check I make my way to a Walgreen's to fetch my dinner. You guessed it, Cup'o noodles. Doug and Matt do an online interview right before we go on. You want to complain but you thank anyone's god that someone is actually listening.
12/14/00 MILWAUKEE, WI
Winter is a brutal season. I didn't think we would actually make it to Milwaukee in time for this show. We arrive at the place that we played with the Sex Pistols some 4 years earlier. There is nothing to do except the usual- hunt for a place to eat and a place to shower. The showers at the rave might as well have been outside. I nearly froze my ass off waiting for the water to become mildly warm. I got to hang with some friends that drove down from Minneapolis. At the show, we were reminded why we love to play in Milwaukee. It was like an all-star audience from every Summerfest we have ever played showed up to tell us to get off of our asses and get back out on the road. Now a lesson to music fans: It seems that if you act like you know someone in the band, you can work your way back stage. It seems there were 25 people in our dressing room by the time we got off stage and worked our way back to change clothes.
Everyone seemed to be cool but can I at least wipe off my sack before you barge in?
12/13/00 LAWRENCE, KS
We get to Lawrence and it looks like a nuclear winter. Snow everywhere and not a soul in site. The venue is empty and we wonder if anyone will even show up to unlock the door to get in to set up our stuff. By the time the show rolls around we can't believe that people actually came out in this snow shit to see GK. I did an acoustic version of "Guilty" by request which went down like honey. My voice was killing me so I let the crowd sing the "Hey, Hey, Hey" part. It seems the sickest humans come to shows during national disasters.
12/12/00 - SPRINGFIELD, MO
We get free Italian food for playing in Springfield. I had a meatball sandwich. It was tasty. The show was a good one for the one's who braved the blizzard to come see us play. Tinfed didn't show up but a great band Wake opened and fun was had by all.
12/1/00 COLUMBIA, MO
This show was a Christmas show for 98.3 KFMZ "The Buzz." Columbia also qualifies as a hometown show being that we are from Jefferson City, which is about 30 miles south. When you play The Blue Note, you feel like a rock star. The room is small enough to get in the trenches with the audience but it feels huge. This show was a far better show for us than the St. Louis show we played a week earlier. The set included an extended request driven acoustic performance. People always want to hear Skynard for some reason. I guess we from mid-Missouri can't fully escape our Hee-Haw roots. Maybe next time Jeff will play some Buck Owens and The Buckaroo's. It was cool to hear the audience sing to every song (including Sweet Home Alabama.)
11/25/00 ST. LOUIS, MO
Home town shows always make for a hectic day. Lots of friends and family to put on the guest list and never enough time to hang out with all of them. It was our first show with Brad on drums, not to mention that it was our first live performance in almost a year. We played 3 new songs for the first time which seemed to go over well with the audience. We saw many new faces and also noticed the hardcore GK fans that we have been lucky to see at every St. Louis show. Thanks to all of you that drove in from out of town to see us as well. After the show we had an after-party at Mr. Blood (our recording studio.) I think we were too damn tired to actually enjoy it but everyone seemed to have a good time. By the way, that was our last opportunity to play at Mississippi Nights. Farewell to you old friend.
posted by The Gravity Master . 5:56 AM
