Shondes vs. Steelers (shondes lost...)

Tour began as a rainy, gray monday morning. We had neither our 3000 cds (originally expect to arrive on the previous friday) nor our van (to be picked up, circa 7:30am). All in all a good start. We scrambled through the cold november rain to get our shit together, pick up the van, get gas, go to our practice space and get our equipment. Ian went to his office to head off the UPS man, who kindly unloaded our cds (26 boxes) onto the sidewalk, where Ian waited for the rest of the band to pick him up.

Circa 1pm (late!) we were on the road to our first stop, pittsburgh. It rained in sheets and the drive was less than fun, but Eli managed the weather and got us there on time for our show at Garfield Artworks.

It should be said, we love Garfield Artworks, Manny Theiner has always been enthusiastic and worked hard to turn people it and the people in Pittsburgh have been pretty warm to us. This, however, was not the ideal night for a show. By the fault of the National Football League, a Steelers game was scheduled for this monday night in november, resulting in particularly low turnout (even for a monday night). But alas, the crowd that was there was enthusiastic and fun, and we had a very fun first night of tour, with plenty of rock and plenty of roll.

At the end of the show we sped away toward Ann Arbor, where warm beds, wonderful people and another show awaited us.