November 2007

November 2007 is brazen with good memories. Sure the tour was exhausting but that is expected for anyone who is traveling for nearly a month in an enclosed space with four other guys. We finished our second regional tour in the mid-west as a part of our promotion of our CD, A Wheel Within a Wheel that came out in October. We played a lot of billiards during the tour -- one of our favorite past times, especially if the venue was not well attended (which happened with some frequency). Our show in Des Moines, Iowa was one of my favorites because we stayed up in a Red Roof Inn that my father had procured for us. I am ever grateful for the hotels that my dad put us up with whenever we were on the road. I hope one day I can repay him for that.

*****Coming to Terms with Touring*****
We ate a lot of apples on the road. These were the good kind although I don't know what they were called because usually Jesse and Leo were the grocery purchasers.

*****Skippy*****
More road dietary items.

*****Chandelier in Kalamazoo*****
We played a really neat show in Kalamazoo Michigan. It was one of the last nights of the tour and it was fun. It was in a church so I felt like Sufjan Stevens or the Arcade Fire, etc. People from Kalamazoo College were excited though and actually danced to our music!

*****Palm's Lake*****
This was on a hike after work sometime in November. Location: The Ridges, Athens, Ohio.

*****Little Red Nova*****
When I get a good hand, it's my master plan, I'm gonna stick it to the man, he won't see me again.

*****Greenfield's*****
This was Rem's truck at the time (or really the company truck) and later was passed on to Bobby. We were doing two decking jobs over at the Greenfield's out on Hooper Ridge Road. They had an adorable dog and I remember the site being cold and wet.

*****More Greenfield's*****
We built an octagonal-shaped deck in the back.

*****House Lamp*****

*****The Grog Shop with Grog Buddies*****
Southeast Engine had a show in mid November opening up for Bears in Cleveland. It was a fun time but it was especially fun to see best bud Jamie and Lauren too.

*****Facially Doomed*****

This photo showcases my inability to grow respectable facial hair.

October 2007

October 2007 was a spectacular month. Two regional tours for the band (Northeast and Midwest), lots of traveling, a CD release, lots of interim work, and plenty of friends to share it with. I am baffled on what to say about this in a sentence or paragraph. Lifetimes were compressed into this month -- I was able to travel far, gain perspective, and learn a lot about myself and those around me. Southeast Engine's record came out in mid October but we started the tour on October 10th for the first part of the tour. For the first part of the tour we played 11 shows in 11 days and then came back home to work for five days mainly because we were not at a point in publicity to get shows for a month straight. Regardless, the second regional tour resumed and we went from October 26th until November 10th going around the Midwest. There was a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, immature potty humor, horrible van smells, grand skylines, loads of bands and musicians, traffic and navigation, late nights, wood floors, carpeted floors, bare floors, linoleum floors, and tons of new friends we encountered all along the way. CMJ was a highlight for sure -- it gave the band a chance for some exposure and an opportunity to canoodle and network with a bunch of industry people in NYC. While they were doing that, it was a great opportunity for me to catch up with Dustin and Gretchen and bona fide best bud Erin. I remember eating at Katz Deli with my brother before our CMJ show and it was superb. Gaelan was a new addition to Southeast Engine for the tour and I am very happy to had met him and had the opportunity to spend time with him and share a wonderful experience. One of the tour highlights was going to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. We played at the Dogfishhead Brewery (they have world class beer) and the band save Rem and Me went for a night swim on the beach. I am happy with how those photos turned out. I was experimenting with the shudder speeds. The next day was fun in the sun with the band, full of sand, sun and blue sky water too.

*****Rem*****

October 10th 2007. We are preparing to leave Athens to go to the Tritone bar in Philadelphia.


*****Leo and Gaelan*****
Such an amorous photo of Leo and Gaelan.


*****Philadelphia*****
We had a little time to explore Philadelphia for the afternoon. We toured the downtown area, a local music shop, and the Masonic temple (although we could not enter the temple without paying so we didn't actually tour the tmeple).

*****Untitled*****


*****Shock & Awe*****

*****Shock & Awe pt.2*****

*****Supreme Band*****
They are getting ready for their case U.S. v. Southeast Engine.

*****Capitol*****
*****Glory*****
*****Bridge to the Sky*****
*****Untitled*****
*****Spider*****
Here was a performer in a house show we played at in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I don't remember her real name but she performed under the moniker Spider.

*****Boston Grave*****

*****Paul Revere's Grave*****

*****St. Francis Stature*****

*****Providence Radio Show*****
We played at the college radio station for Brown University in Providence. It was the second time Southeast Engine had performed at a radio show outside of Athens. The first one was my first show ever with the band back in 2005. This was an enjoyable experience and we had pizza afterwords.

*****Yale******
Leo walking around a Yale courtyard in New Haven. Jesse was nearby sprawled out in the grass like me. We met up with Alex Maymind later after playing at Cafe Nine with Hallelujah the Hills.

*****CMJ '07*****
This is the only photo I have of any member of Southeast Engine on stage at CMJ. It is Leo and he is walking across the stage before our set. We were the Misra babies so we went first and later on the more developed acts like Palomar and Centro-matic played.

*****The Music Industry*****

*****Erin*****
I had a great dinner with an even greater friend, Erin Barker. I was lucky and happy to see her. She has been living for over a year in Jersey City, New Jersey.

*****Untitled*****

*****Early Reflections*****

*****Delaware Night*****

*****Night Moves*****

*****Usher In*****

*****In the Middle*****

******The Cusp*****

*****Untitled*****

*****You Would Be a Kid Forever*****

September 2007

September of 2007. Hmm. My memories reflect a sweaty time of working outside on May street at Lance's house. Stalwart was working on extending the kitchen on the lower level and then extending the bathroom on the second floor that was directly above the first floor kitchen. There were a lot of early mornings and even earlier nights during this period. The band was in full swing in preparation of releasing our record in October. We practiced at least once a week and I am surprised to find that I was able to keep this exhausting schedule. The band met with a filmmaker and were talking about shooting a music video. All sorts of discourse resulted from this and I remember getting early morning phone calls from some members of the band. Indeed.

Other than that I was trying to keep myself busy and having a great time with it too. I was in the middle of marathon training and was doing pretty well with it. This all halted later with subsequent touring (it is nearly impossible to train while on the road with Southeast Engine) but maybe next year is what I say.

These pictures from September are from one evening after work and probably after running. I went to go meet up with friends at Donkey Coffee and then later at the Smiling Skull Saloon for open mic night. The band pictures are from the Mid Point Music Festival in Cincinnati. Right around that time I was pretty busy re-vamping and redesigning the Southeast Engine website in collaboration with Charlie MacArthur.

Let the good times roll.

*****Jukebox Whore*****

This was the old jukebox at the Smiling Skull. Since then, the owners have replaced it with a newer and on-demand-friendly one. The old one had a lot of charm.

*****Me and Jessie*****

I laugh at this photo eternally. Jessie looks like Quasimodo.

*****Beer in the Smiling Skull*****


*****Converse All-Star*****

Leo and his phone.

*****Riley*****


*****One of the band's favorite tour stops*****

We took a bunch of photos inside with a Wendy's sign. Those photos can be seen at southeastengine.blogpsot.com along with a lot of other photos I took.

*****Midpoint Music Festival Street Performers*****

They seemed so happy.

*****Rem and Leo -- the constant navigators*****



******On the Wing*****

Photos taken from the trip from Switzerland to Atlanta. This picture was probably taken over Canada. It was such a clear sky although it's hard to not see a clear sky when you are flying 30,000 feet above the earth.

*****What a mess*****

All of it looks so serene from this high but just think about what is going on down there.