the month of may has been pretty good to the guvs so far. we’ve been on a break for a coupla weeks after our two night easter blowout celebration in knoxville at the bijou theatre. the first week of may, we found out that we got added to two sold out shows opening for train. in addition to that we have some cool runs this month so it started lookin really tasty for us. the two train shows were in jackson mississippi at their convention coliseum and chattanooga at the tivoli theatre. the other runs included the cities of roanoke, va., charlottesville, va., ny, ny., birmingham, al., pensacola fla., and seaside fla. to cap it off we’re gonna assemble a family chill for three days in seaside for some frizzin (tossing a frisbee) and nerfin (tossing a nerf ball of various sizes and shapes) on the beach. we might do some tiki bar chills so we can get a frosty beach hammerhead coolee or two.
we boarded the mule to begin our trek to open for train in jackson. this show was alot different because we didn’t have doody with us who is the “butter man” for our music. spreadin the butter like no other. to remedy the situation we all agreed to ask kevin “skyhi” hyfantis to fill in for doody because this show was important for exposure. skyhi is a very talented singer/songwriter/piano player from the great planet of knoxville, tennessee. skyhi loves flying helicopter missions and rod “the bod” stewart. after workin with doody for a few days skyhi caught on to the songs and we ran a solid rehearsal before we left knoxville to work the kinks out. the set sounded strong.
we finally arrived at the venue and checked it out. this place was of titanic proportions. the biggest indoor show we’ve played so far. before soundcheck we went and ate at hals and mals. james and aaronius split some beans and rice, jenkins got somethin american, like chicken fingers or the all american boy bacon burger, skyhi ate a beer, and me and justin got some grilled cheese samwiches and some bowls of bisque. i used my grilled cheese for a spoon. our dinner was delicious and justin bought me a green flavored gumball for dessert. once time arrived for the soundcheck we loaded our stuff on stage. after setting everything up i turned around to look at the room from the stage viewpoint. it was like staring into the abyss. the room was huge. i started noodlin around on my guitar when shortly after, the “front of the house” sound engineer puts it through the main speakers. big noise son. it was loud like jimi hendrix concerts. they checked everybody else individually and it was the same effect. when we ran a full band check, it gave me chills from how big we sounded. we went backstage to hang after sound check and have some designer cheese cake. justin just ate pickles.
the countdown to the face scorching rock n roll set had begun. we were side stage getting ready and you could hear the audience through the curtains. it sounded big but we weren’t sure how many were out there. we walked on stage and the crowd cheered, it was loud. i looked out and noticed that every seat in the venue was full so that was a big chi booster for us. the set started and we ruthlessly delivered gallons of rock to their faces. skyhi did an awesome job filling in and we greatly appreciate him helping us out. after the show we had a line about thirty yards long outside of our merch booth and only one sharpie. it was the edgiest of merch times, but we were successful in signing everything and keeping up with the money. big thanx to tribe one screen printing for replenishing our inventory from the attack on our merch booth. for all your t shirt needs please contact my best friend ol’ dave at tribe one screen printing (865) 546-4131.
the next day we headed back to knoxville for the full eight hour run. justin and i sat in the front so we were in control of the mule. earlier in the journey, when we were leaving knoxville, jenkins made a bet that justin and i wouldn’t eat any cheese stix the whole trip. we love stix. little did he know, we were plotting to hit up the stix on the way back hoping that he would forget about his bet and we could maneuver a surprise stick-ing right in his faayyyse. i was controlling the garmin san diego in search of the nearest arby’s. there were none of them anywhere. team hoskaway started getting worried that jenks was gonna get the best of us but sure enough one popped up on the garmin. the only problem is that it was on a whole different interstate and everyone in the back had to pee, but that didn’t stop us. we were determined to get to the stix so we drove forty-five minutes out of the way to seal our victory. hoskaway 1; jenkins 0.
the chattanooga show with train was just as awesome. we played at the tivoli theatre and it was another sold out show. we had doody back which was also awesome. it was pretty much a repeat of the previous show as far as the crowd response so you couldn’t contain the awesomness, it was thru the roof. ashley, jess, the murph, and dearman were there so the chill was extra chill. i drank three mountain dew’s on the way home. thank you train.
next we did the roanoke, charlottesville, new york run. we’ve played both roanoke and new york several times but never played charlottesville. we had to be in roanoke early for our in studio radio performance at 101.5 “the music place”. they are awesome, and they have a seven foot tall louisville slugger baseball bat in their lobby. that night we rocked a packed kirk avenue music hall with our friends “mellodime.” check em out. thank you to martin’s for my ragin cajun steak and tater’s. another rockin show for the guv’s.
charlottesville is a cool town. the downtown is made out of bricks and has a cool vibe to it. we hung out at miller’s bar for some brews. that is the bar where dave matthews worked when he lived there and that’s where the dmb band formed. inside the bar they play nothing but nineties hits on the stereo while you sip your brews. the venue we performed at is called the southern. it’s a smaller venue with an underground aggro crag kinda feel to it. we love it. there was a pretty good crowd there that was into our music so it was a good first showing. we can’t wait to get back there to build that market. we ate at a taco place that got my order wrong twice, but i’m cool with it cuz i got to eat two quesadillas, for freeee. dave matthews for life.
if anyone asked me “what is your strongest market outside of your hometown” i would have to say new york city. each time we have played there our crowd has grown exponentially and everyone knows our music. we do have a strong knoxville crew there that has helped spread the word about us, mainly diana warner who spearheaded the campaign. thank you diana. also, the last two times we’ve played there we somehow parked our forty foot bus ten feet away from the front door of the venue. unheard of. parking doesn’t exist in new york so i think it’s a sign we’re suppose to be building there. we moved to a different venue called the mercury lounge which has a ton of history and is an awesome venue. a band called “aunt martha” opened for us, who also opened in charlottesville the night before. i highly recommend yall give em a listen. they brought a big crowd out as well and we were excited to be jamming with them. it came time for us to hit the stage in the big city. you couldn’t move in the venue due to all the people. sold out son. we rocked so hard that there were fist pumps and high fives galore between audience members. even easy “e” hall flew in from san fran to catch the show, while his parents flew in from auburn. (close friends of the band). we shook the bowels of new york with great fury then had some hang time with our fans. amazing night.
if you can tell from some of our blogs, the band pretty much eats at three different restaurants, cracker barrell, chik fil e, and arby’s. we’ll throw some others in there but as far as chains go these restaurants are where our comfort zones lie in. on the way back from new york we stopped at an arby’s somewhere on the route back to knoxville. this was no normal trip to arby’s. this was the birth of the “tizer alliance.” if anyone has ever been to arby’s you will know that they have about forty seven different combos as well as tizer’s o’ plenty. they have stix, pops, bites, seasoned curlies, you name it. tizers for all your friends. the founding members of the tizer alliance are justin “mozzarella mouth” hoskins, christopher “bronco berry” doody, and cozmo “beef and cheddar” holloway. this is how the tizer alliance works; first, you get a combo meal and order an extra tizer, once everyone has their meal you sit at the same table and combine your tizers to make a heavenly smorgasbord for each member to enjoy. we had a volcano like mound of stix, pops, and curls with the sauciest of the sauces. it was devoured with great intensity. we want to add a fourth member which will require a thirty word written essay about your love for tizers and a strict interview process conducted by one of the founding fathers. tizer alliance forever. looking forward to the beach chill in a few days so stay tuned for our updates as we close out the month of may.
this ride keeps getting better and better and we owe it all to our fans. thank you for what you do and always know that we look forward to playing music for you in the days to come.
Cozmo