Photo by Jake Merten on Flickr.

ANOTHER THING: I am making a 90 second video every single day on Flickr.

Alright, you wanted it, so you got it! Here's our blow-by-blow account of our second tour with the bigger, badder, and 100% live Vampire Weekend. The "100% live" reference is about how they used to play to a DAT tape on the last tour we did with the Dirty Projectors. Chris was just learning the bass and hadn't gotten all the songs down after Demetri left the original lineup to pursue acting (kudos to him, Ironman actually looks like a really promising film).

Well, delay no more, here you go:

Day One: San Diego, California

Previous to this tour with Vampire Weekend we were in Austin, Texas for SXSW, then back in Portland for literally one day. We hit the streets in our brand new Mazda Miata (convertible) and made it to the city of angels (Eugene) to stop at our favorite gas station. Seriously, if you're ever in the windy city (Eugene) you should stop by SeQuential, exit 189 off the I-5.

Our drive to San Diego from Portland via the emerald city (Eugene) took 40 hours. Don't ask.

Then we played a show at the Casbah.

Day Two: Los Angeles, California

Well, would you believe that the 2 hour drive from San Diego took us a whopping 13 hours? Believe it. Again, don't ask. We took a meeting with a manager, drank 7 Red Bull drinks, and smoked around 22 cigarettes outside of Jeff's Famous Deli.

We played at the El Rey and Andy Samberg, Jonah Hill, and Spike Jonze were in the mezzanine. It was pretty good.

Day Three: Day off

'nuff said.

Day Four: San Francisco, California

VICE COOLER

OK, I'm sounding like a broken record now, but seriously, something happened and it only took us 2 hours to get to San Francisco. Don't ask.

We played a show at The Independent and it was possibly the best show we've ever played. Google it. The promoter hired a string quartet as a present to Vampire Weekend after seeing them with strings on SNL, for his present to YACHT he "hired" a gold Rolex watch for yours truly and $5,000 in backstage catering JUST for Claire. But somehow I STILL feel like we got the rough end of the stick...

Day Five: San Francisco (Part 2, this time it's personal)

I'm not going to lie, we got mixed up in some shady dealings in the Castro today. Maybe we bought the wrong guidebook or something, but whoever said $48 is too much to pay for a used six-pack of Dr. Peppers was probably right. We needed those like we needed a hole in the head. Am I right?

Our second show in San Francisco -- we're kind of a big deal around there -- was a blast. On this tour we got a lot of questions about how we don't have a traditional band (no live guitars, drums, etc.) and even a couple excited comments about how he/she hadn't ever seen a band with a computer before. This is interesting.

Day Six: Day off

We rolled the car six times and landed in a ditch. I lost a couple quarters in the mess and Claire still can't find her sunglasses. Thank god for insurance, State Farm specifically. We're A-OK.

Day Seven: Portland, Oregon

Fuck the Doug Fir. We're never playing there again. I hope this gets me "in trouble." Seriously though, you need to stop going there.

Day Eight: Seattle, Washington

Would you believe it was snowing up a storm when we got to our sister city to the North? Thankfully we found a funky bean-slingin' shop to just chill out and focus on some serious Java.

Day Nine: Vancouver, B.C.

RULED. I was expecting it to not rule and I was so wrong about it not ruling and it ruled so hard. This might have been our best show of the tour even though we lost $6K at the border and I'm now legally a personal slave to a border patrol guard named Christopher Baskins. You could say it could be worse and you'd be right. Christopher is actually really nice and so far he's only made me open up his 7-Ups and fluff his pillows after his afternoon nap. It's very mild.

Day Ten: DRIVETRAIN: Vancouver, B.C. to Missoula, Montana

We've been touring with a travel french press Thermos and some Stumptown Coffee and it's been lifechangingly awesome. Also, I need to talk to you about something very serious if you tour in a band, or travel a lot. You need to start bringing a very nice scented candle with you. I recommend a soy candle because it will last long. We got ours at Aveda, I know, fancy, but dude, it's a very good item to bring on tour. Burn it while driving. Burn it at night while driving and listening to the new Valet record. Burn it in the club. Burn it backstage. Burn it in the kid's house. Burn it in the cheap motel room. Burn it.

We ran into so much more snow that I imagined late March would bring us. Trip on that.

Day Eleven: Missoula, MT

Have you ever even been here? Man, it's really beautiful. Around 5 years ago I was on a tour that presumably had a show in Missoula and when we got there, no one had heard of us or knew that there was supposed to be a show that night. So we ate at a Thai place on the corner and kept driving, no big deal. This time around was similar, but almost the exact opposite. The crowd was fucking pumped and screaming so loudly after each song we played that I felt my ears melting into themselves. The PA sounded like it was dying.

After the show the division of merch zone, audience, backstage room, and all personal space was destroyed. It was awesome. While I was loading our stuff into the Volkswagen Golf I noticed a dude walking around with Claire's laptop asking if anyone was looking for a laptop. I explained to him that it was Claire's and he told me he found it on the floor. Something happened. The screen is now cracked and broken and it takes a very long time to check your email.

Day Twelve: Boise, ID

Holy shit the drive from Missoula to Boise is intense! CHECK IT OUT. There was a good bit of snow and Vampire Weekend was pulled over and their van was torn apart in search of drugs. They had lost their drugs and tore apart the van looking for their drugs that they lost. Just kidding. The police pulled them over, I bet because they were in a nice Sprinter van with California plates, and searched the van only to find nothing. Vampire Weekend does not do drugs. Neither does YACHT. We do sniff white out though, which isn't technically "a drug" or "cool" or "good feeling" or "real." Please don't do drugs.

Day Thirteen: Salt Lake City, UT

Our favorite fan made a really cute shirt! She also left us a note on the back of our car.

Day Fourteen: Denver, CO

Our friend Chris Adolf is in a band called Bad Weather California and they got to be Daniel Johnston's backing band when he came to Denver. I wish so hard we could have been there.

Day Fifteen: Day off

Claire had to fly to Portland to fix some of the crap that went wrong with our new business, Manila Mac, and almost singlehandedly ship out the remaining 400+ orders. We are now sold out and making more of our AirMail sleeves for the MacBook Air. This is a strange and new part of our lives. BUSINESSPEOPLE.

Day Sixteen: Minneapolis, MN

I was so happy to see both Dr. Garlich and my Best Friends Forever. Before the show I went with Vampire Weekend to try and find where Bob Dylan used to live. We found a pasta place.

Day Seventeen DRIVETRAIN: Minneapolis to Madison

I stopped at a Rest Area in Menomonie, Wisconsin and the men's restroom featured a dude talking very loudly over his two-way cellphone while in a stall. I only caught this:

"..the only one I did in February was the one with the...uh... flapper bent up."

Day Eighteen: Milwaukee, WI

Day Nineteen: Chicago, IL

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? Yes No

Comments:

• Mission
• Souvenirs
• Join

• 
• 07-16 Portland, OR - City Hall
• 07-16 Portland, OR - UO White Stag
• 07-23 Manchester, UK - Deaf Institute
• 07-24 London, UK - Cargo
• 07-25 Brighton, UK - Audio
• 07-26 Steventon, UK - Truck Festival
• 07-28 New York, NY - See Mystery Lights
• 08-07 San Francisco, CA - See Mystery Lights
• 08-14 Seattle, WA - See Mystery Lights
• View Events

• Archives