Going to bed the night before, we didn’t know what we doing this second day of the tour. Our show in Chapel Hill, NC had been cancelled a few days before. We figured we’d just drive as far as we could towards Greenville, SC where our next show was booked and when we got tired we’d find a motel.

Since we were all so well rested (thank you Yuri and family for letting us stay with you)…

…we figured we could get pretty far.

Trevor had slept in a bed of flowers so he was feeling the best out of all of us.

Once we were rolling we still had to make a few stops.

We needed to stop for a sewing kit, batteries, peanut butter, jelly, and some other essentials.

We had to go to the movies and we had to eat sandwiches.

After a while we got a little bummed that we weren’t playing a show that night so we got to calling clubs in towns we’d be passing through. Fortunately for us, Lily and Tim are wizards at getting shows and were able to land us a gig for that night at The Box in Charlottesville, VA. We arrived and loaded our gear in. It seemed like a pretty quiet Sunday night with only a couple patrons in the bar. But that was fine, we were happy to have somewhere to play. The owner had promised us a percentage of bar sales and had brought us some pizza so, hey, better than nothing, right? JP and Tim walked off to promote the show with anyone who may be out and Datus started playing. After Datus we decided to open up the large doors at the front of the bar and basically play outside. The show was a lot of fun as more people started arriving (I’d like to think they were drawn by the music) and by the end of our 1+ hour set there was a pretty sizable crowd of people with beers in their hand listening.

We go to settle up with the owner but he’s changed his tune from being the gracious host promising us the moon to the bar owner who suddenly has a full bar and wants to make a buck. All of a sudden he needs to make $700 before he can give us a percentage of the bar and “I’ve been giving drinks away,” he says, “so we’re not there yet.” Remember that pizza he brought for us without asking? Well, now we need to pay for that as well as the beers we’ve been drinking (he can give away beers to patrons but not to the bands?). For two bands that played two hours of music and filled his bar he says he can throw $35. “Thirty-five?!” We’re all stunned. We ask if he could give us fifty for gas money and a motel and he turns away shocked that we’d even ask. All of this comes after telling Lily that he’d heard stories of the owner of another club (that Lily had played at before and only had nice things to say about) screwing over bands and how that just isn’t right; how he knows what it’s like to be a band on the road since he used to be a tour manager. So much for southern hospitality.

We left and drove for another hour or so and crashed at a motel. I guess $35 is better than nothing.

Sincerely,
Alex

Here are some more photos from the day: