notes from the road

Its a smoky Tuesday in Bucks County PA. We have been racing around the Northeast for the past week trying to keep up with the Rusted Root bus and having a ball playing back on the East coast again. Our first show with Root was Asbury Park in NJ. We had never played the infamous ‘Stone Pony’ before and were excited to see what The Boss saw many years ago. There is nothing quite like the beach cultures of the East coast…always quirky boardwalks, funnel cakes, toothless old men fishing with no luck, and strange gift shops that sell everything you don’t need. We met a whole crew of original locals that night who impressed us with their tales of the Grateful Dead and stories of a day gone by when live music seemed to play a larger part in people’s lives…

We hustled our way down to Falls Church Virginia, where we played the old State Theater. We befriended ‘Preacher’, the very talented and magnanimous drummer for RR and hung out listening to stories of their road trips (including their recent interview at High Times). The next morning we headed over to ‘Voice of America’ radio and played them a few tunes from the UPside. If your in DC, get your butts down to our headline show at Jammin Java on Oct. 9th or else!

Whats the deal with North East traffic? Getting past DC, NYC or Boston to go anywhere on time has been a constant battle for our tour manager Jim Kaminski. We have known JV for 7 years now and he was our best friend before we asked him to be our TM, so we share EVERYTHING. When one of us is stressed and in need of venting, we just let loose and vent. So when JV gets road rage…we all get it.

A little back story on Jim…One Halloween some years back, Thorry and I were in NYC and threw a party downtown for our mates. There was an unusual cast of onlookers and some were particularly crazy. A fellow Australian artist, named Nadia Ackerman (check her out) brought her ‘big deal’ friend Jim, who was the head buyer for Tower Records in NYC. The first thing you will notice about Jim is his eyes. They glow in the dark some piercing green color and we think they have some hypnotic power to them. We immediately hit it off with Jim and he helped us out for years to come at Tower Records by putting an unsigned band in a listening station and putting up big posters for our local shows. It wasn’t until the Tower fell and we were starting to tour nationally that we asked him, ‘do you think you could come and boss us around for a bit on the road?’. We had no idea how much fun we would have until we did our first national tour with Josh Kelley and Pat McGee Band in 2007 right after the release of ‘Rise and Fall’. On top of having a brother bond to hold the band together, we also have a third brother in Jim. Some say we rely too much on each other, but it really feels like you need that kind of force behind you to keep doing something as unreasonable and gruelling as constant touring. We know how to amuse ourselves and find relief to any situation. We are grateful…beyond grateful for his friendship and his commitment to The Kin. And we wish he would stop swearing so much…

Back to now…we high tailed it to Boston, where we played the House of Blues. Driving down along the Fenway while there is a Red Sox game on is intense. We have never witnessed a more sport driven city than Boston. They deserve to win for their passion alone…and ofcourse JV is a devout Yankees fan so the first thing we have to do is make sure he is not wearing his Yankees T-shirt. We were thrilled to see 80 or so of our fans pay alot of money to come and see a short set…so we are really looking forward to our OWN show in Boston at the Red Room on Oct 16th! It was Darwin Johnson’s birthday so he got messed up and was kissing people and had to be extracted from all kinds of compromising situations…he made it out alive.

Hauling it down to Philly next we listened to the new recordings we did in SF and decided that it would form the basis for an ongoing side project that will be called BUSHRANGER. Watch out for them…

The TLA in Philly was our next hit…we love the sound there and the staff are such dedicated locals. Philly on a Friday night is wild…more wild than NYC in many parts…rougher and more soulful. We had a laugh trying to squeeze our van and trailor behind the venue along the small cobble stone pathway made for horse and carriage. If your in Philly, be sure to come to the show at the Tin Angel on Oct 8th, it our own show.

We are excited to announce that for the next two weeks leading up to our official release of The UPside on October 6th we will be putting songs for your listening pleasure on youtube. The first song to drop is WATERBREAKS…here it is!

Stay tuned and get your tickets now for the headline run in October – NYC, Philly, DC, Northampton and Boston! Please spread the word to those who have and have not heard us live…we need a little help from our friends!

Cheers

Isaac and Thorry
The Kin

Tags: blog, Fidel Castro is thrifty, House of Blues, josh kelley, Pat McGee, Rusted Root, Superbowl, the kin, the upside