tour, whoa.

i have been really quiet and not said much on tour, especially on the blog.

probably cause i never really understood what was going on. well i mean, i get it, but i wouldn't really be able to put into words the exact stuff i felt.

same thing with pictures,  only really ended up taking some iphone photos and one disposable camera's worth. i think it was in an effort to try and remember everything the way that i want too.

im gonna do a free association thing where i say a whole bunch of stuff about the trip in no particular order: America slays hard, strange at times, with places like DC where you see the most elaborate concrete government buildings and drive 10 blocks and you see really bad poverty stricken areas. we have that in Vancouver too, but the sense of desperation was just, different. i guess everywhere is like that. sorry, not trying to sound righteous or redundant. it's just one thing to hear about it then a whole other thing to see it. there's still a lot of pretty though, there was this really cool sunset driving through illinois yesterday, probably the nicest sunset i ever seen. comparable but not better than the fireflies in nashville. not comparable to the fried chicken in nashville though, fried chicken rules, so does the heat. so do the homes, so do the people. no one calls the cops cause no one wishes law enforcement on anyone. woah. i think that wisconsin might be one of the most sincere places in the world, i loved meeting the Will's folks, so welcoming. Cool meeting eau claire peeps like Jana and Caleb too, who are going on tour soon i think? Minneapolis reminded me of seattle, especially the venue we played, the bands slayed(see bobby's photo's from before). Madison is an insane university city, probably why the show was so fun, nice seein Jack again too. not to mention paul blue, who after we left went on a three month walk through the forest with nothing but a tent and a backpack, now THAT means something. chicago had two firsts: i have never been inside a three story art/living space warehouse before and i never have gotten my car door opened by a stranger hoping to get inside while moving, RIP treasure town. CANADA had it's up and downs, show cancellation blues, it was swell meeting Aaron from weird canada though, took us out for some good Ethiopian, cool meeting the CROSSS guys too. + kingston shredded. my old homie kaity housed us in MTL which was awesome, so good to see her/ she took us out for fresh bagels at 3am. + crazy to see everything that is happening with the student strikes over there, real life. made a good new pal lynds too, ya dog.

quick aside- i felt like i was being watched, all the time. all. the. time. so much that i couldn't sleep sometimes.

every city had it's own creative community and some communities more than others are prone to insularity and the belief that they are the coolest people in the world. I can't tell if that is a "duh" statement or not. but i guess whut im trying to say is that i believe in what we are doing, but that doesn't mean anyone else will ever give a damn, or there will ever be obligation for anyone to listen/ care about anything we put out. so i feel pretty cool about the responses that we got.

quick aside- everyone gets the same show, one person or a hundred people.

NY- becky rules. so does NY. inspiring but intimidating, + i fell in love. death by audio, shea stadium, rooftops.

i lost my favourite jacket in north carolina, i think that was probably the only time i lost my cool. i thought i was going to jump out of the van on the highway, but i just screamed and screamed instead. which leads me to believe that it was about more than a jacket. but i guess i don't really wanna think about it that much.

we are in the midwest again, we just drove through the night and everyone spent the day sleeping. yesterday after our show bobby and i smoked a cigarette out behind the space and he sat on a tree stump and i sat on this weird brick walkway like it was grass, we didn't say anything to each other, we didn't even look at each other- at that point i realized tour was over. just a couple tired dogs hangin out back. my head is spinning, my head will be spinning for a while.

a part of me wants to tell everyone everything about every city. but i won't. because i don't want to bore anyone and because i am selfish. and because i feel intimidated when i share. there are things about this trip that no one will ever find out about, the guys in the band will know about most of it, but not all of it, and that is the way it is suppose to be. i don't want to romanticize the whole thing.

i'm excited to write this new record. on tour we kept talking about the band in a way that made me realize it's finite. few records, few tours. i mean, who knows.

too fun.

xo

hugo