June 28th, 2006 The SweetShop
Lewisburg, West Virginia

We got up way too early in Nashville. Ben heard little Clara singing in the living room of Betsy and Andy Snyder’s house. They housed us and fed us as they usually do in Nashville. They are very good people. Ben heard “yah yah” the Clara alarm and there was nothing to do but get up.

We had a really long drive and had procrastinated enough at a coffee shop in the little five points area of Nashville and Courtney talked to her friend Paul on the phone. We are suckers for the wireless connection coffee shops! But it is the only way for us to communicate with everyone that is not with us, so we welcome the new technology.

The drive was long and tiring but incredibly beautiful. On the way, we stocked up on fireworks in Tennessee at Courtney’s request. You can light off huge fireworks in that state in your own backyard, so every summer Courtney wants to stop and pick some up to bring back for the friends and family. Of course, we won’t be setting them off in New York since they are illegal! We regressed in our adolescence and bought $55.00 worth.

As we continued driving we finally reached the border of West Virginia, and like huge John Denver fans would, we instinctively started singing “Country road, take me home, to the place, I belong, West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country road.”

We arrived at the Sweet Shop with a very warm welcome from our host Allen and our friend Otis (who had us on the show with him). Otis is an incredible musician and made us feel like we were at home since he was there and was a veteran to playing in West Virginia. The show went well and people listened. It was an intimate crowd, but we weren’t sure what to expect and since the sound was fantastic, we had a great time no matter what.

Allen and his wife Genie have a band called the Rust Kings. They are a great band and awesome people. They offered up their house to us after the show. We got to their hand built house by Allen and were in awe. It was such a beautiful place. They had three dogs, two cats, and two french chickens. We spoke about wind power and the negative effects it will have on their area. We spoke about NYC and it’s fast pace compared to West Virginia’s more relaxed atmosphere. And then we got tired and had to go to sleep.

When we woke up, Genie made breakfast, we talked more and then we needed to leave. They are such good people. We will be happy to see them again in NYC and to come and visit their home in West Virginia.

Tuesday, June 27th
The Gig-The Basement

I am writing this entry while Ben is driving. We have a long drive to West Virginia next. We had a late start, but we’ll make it. The gig last night was our second time at The Basement in Nashville, TN. We love the venue and we love the city. There is so much music here it’s sick! Even the homeless are extremely talented. Now one would think that it would then be intimidating, but strangely it makes it a very supportive place to be. We were welcomed back by the owner of the place Mike Grimey. He also co-owns an awesome record store above the venue called Grimey’s which The Drive By Truckers played an instore at earlier in the day. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see it. We hit some stopped traffic on the highway due to a two semi collision and we had to of course check out the Antique district in Glendale (I couldn’t buy anything because we were too rushed, but I highly recommend stopping in these little towns to check them out! It’s a nice break from the highway, and a good way to meet people from the area).

The night was called “New Faces” at the Basement. It is a no cover charge evening for mostly local bands to showcase their new groups. We were warmly introduced by Mike and the crowd was completely quiet and attentive. They especially liked all the songs and let us play a lot longer than we were supposed to. It was also a fantastic response at the merch table afterwards. There was an actual line for cds which made us feel good. I also have to mention that the press welcomed us as well. We got a nice article written and pictures of us in the “City Paper”, Nashville’s free press and a picture of us in the paper “All the Rage” put in telling readers about our show.

We appreciate such a notable music city like Nashville opening their arms to us. It is the people of a city that makes it great, and there are honorable people in Nashville. We cannot thank them enough. We also have to thank Mike at Grimey’s and Andy and Betsy Snyder for feeding us and housing us during our stay. We couldn’t do any of this without the help and hospitality of kind friends!

Friday, June 23rd @ Gunther Murphy’s - Chicago

We got into Chicago with plenty of time to spare before our show at Gunther’s and hung out our good friends, the Suhars-Matt, Susan, and Stella.

We showed up at Gunther Murphy’s around 8pm, had plenty of time to hang out, drink, and be merry before our show. Michael McDermott, a Chicago singer-songwriter, was there with Matt and others as our support group for the night. Half of Rogue Wave showed up to the gig. They had an early gig on a tv show in the morning and another in the afternoon and had the night off. We were surprised to see them. It’s a small rock n’ roll world after all.

There were too very kind and friendly local bands on the bill that night, one called The Demilos, who set up the show, and the other was Forty Piece Choir. I got to talk with both bands and shoot the breeze. After the breeze was shot, we had a show to play. We had another super attentive crowd, at Murphy’s. At one point Courtney said, “could you talk, just a little, you’re making us nervous,” and so they did. However, later I wanted them talk a little less and thought to myself, “Ok, you don’t have to take us sooo literally.”

It was a great show with a great crowd, a few photo flashes in our face (made us feel all the more fabulous), lots of merch sold after the show, and a great time for Courtney and I. We even had a few drinks. When I say a few, I do mean a few, we’re not known for our drinking. In fact we don’t even like to drink much at all. A big drinking’ night for us is one with two drinks.
It was a big night.

Saturday, June 24th @ Horseshoe Bar - Chicago

In the morning of our gig I felt sicker than a dog. Man, what 3 beers can do to a lightweight. Courtney was not sick, but helped nurse me back to health. We met Matt’s parents. Matt’s mom asked me if I had a long night. She saw me with my head hanging down at the kitchen table. No wonder. Matt cooked up some eggs and brats for a very Chicago breakfast and I wondered if I’d be able to stomach them. Then little Stella calls me into her playroom in her little voice, “c’m ere." She commands me to sit down in a two-year-old sized wooden chair. We played with teddy bears and toy pianos. I found it was easy to forget about a hangover in Stella’s room.
Courtney came into the playroom and taught Stella a children’s song she wrote called “Snakes,” complete with accompanying snake dance. Later we sang the ever popular, “Elevator why don’t you take me up up, up, up,” and it became a big hit with the little lady.

After lots of hanging out and playing with Stella at the Suhar house, we drove to the gig. We’d had been added to the bill last-minute (a week in advance) and when we got to the club the management hadn’t been told about our addition to the show. A bartender/manager told us he didn’t know anything about anything about KaiserCartel. I briefly wondered if we would play at all that night. He also told us that a number of people had called the club and had even come by looking for us and asking if we would be playing that night. Not knowing about us, he turned all the people away.

Many of the people who might have come to us, had been scared away. We found out that owner/manager who arranged our booking was away on vacation in Australia and neglected to tell the management. The other bands in the room were confused when we came in, and had “who-the-hell-are-you,” looks on their faces, understandably so. We had a few friends in the bar, but over-all it was a weird scene. Nobody us and the audience was probably most inattentive and least responsive we’ve had.

It was hard for me to get too down about it. I got to meet one of my favorite indie bands from years ago, The Smoking Popes. They were chatting with Matt on business, I’m not sure what kind of business, but it was nice to know our man in Chicago was ‘working’ the room.’ It’s worth saying there were a few cool new faces. Forgive me if I can’t remember any names right now. When I’m home and the cards come out of wallets and backpacks I say “Oh yeah, I remember that guy.”

We played our usual set, with our usual zeal. The minority of people who were paying attention to our music took notice and came up to us after the show. There was a lot of talking, not much music-listening to the other bands on the bill as well, so it was hard to take the gig too seriously. We’d gotten a good-sized guarantee, for our short set, so we weren’t complaining. However, after were off stage we left as quickly as possible. We just didn’t feel like hanging out. The Suhar Home was much more fun!

VINTAGE CLOTHES- Chicago
Chicago is a great town for thrifting and we were there over a weekend so I should have been garage-sale shopping, but Stella was too cute to leave the house and we really felt like relaxing. We will see what the next show holds!

Friday, June 23rd @ Gunther Murphy’s - Chicago

We got into Chicago with plenty of time to spare before our show at Gunther’s and hung out our good friends, the Suhars-Matt, Susan, and Stella.

We showed up at Gunther Murphy’s around 8pm, had plenty of time to hang out, drink, and be merry before our show. Michael McDermott, a Chicago singer-songwriter, was there with Matt and others as our support group for the night. Half of Rogue Wave showed up to the gig. They had an early gig on a tv show in the morning and another in the afternoon and had the night off. We were surprised to see them. It’s a small rock n’ roll world after all.

There were too very kind and friendly local bands on the bill that night, one called The Demilos, who set up the show, and the other was Forty Piece Choir. I got to talk with both bands and shoot the breeze. After the breeze was shot, we had a show to play. We had another super attentive crowd, at Murphy’s. At one point Courtney said, “could you talk, just a little, you’re making us nervous,” and so they did. However, later I wanted them talk a little less and thought to myself, “Ok, you don’t have to take us sooo literally.”

It was a great show with a great crowd, a few photo flashes in our face (made us feel all the more fabulous), lots of merch sold after the show, and a great time for Courtney and I. We even had a few drinks. When I say a few, I do mean a few, we’re not known for our drinking. In fact we don’t even like to drink much at all. A big drinking’ night for us is one with two drinks.
It was a big night.

Saturday, June 24th @ Horseshoe Bar - Chicago

In the morning of our gig I felt sicker than a dog. Man, what 3 beers can do to a lightweight. Courtney was not sick, but helped nurse me back to health. We met Matt’s parents. Matt’s mom asked me if I had a long night. She saw me with my head hanging down at the kitchen table. No wonder. Matt cooked up some eggs and brats for a very Chicago breakfast and I wondered if I’d be able to stomach them. Then little Stella calls me into her playroom in her little voice, “c’m ere." She commands me to sit down in a two-year-old sized wooden chair. We played with teddy bears and toy pianos. I found it was easy to forget about a hangover in Stella’s room.
Courtney came into the playroom and taught Stella a children’s song she wrote called “Snakes,” complete with accompanying snake dance. Later we sang the ever popular, “Elevator why don’t you take me up up, up, up,” and it became a big hit with the little lady.

After lots of hanging out and playing with Stella at the Suhar house, we drove to the gig. We’d had been added to the bill last-minute (a week in advance) and when we got to the club the management hadn’t been told about our addition to the show. A bartender/manager told us he didn’t know anything about anything about KaiserCartel. I briefly wondered if we would play at all that night. He also told us that a number of people had called the club and had even come by looking for us and asking if we would be playing that night. Not knowing about us, he turned all the people away.

Many of the people who might have come to us, had been scared away. We found out that owner/manager who arranged our booking was away on vacation in Australia and neglected to tell the management. The other bands in the room were confused when we came in, and had “who-the-hell-are-you,” looks on their faces, understandably so. We had a few friends in the bar, but over-all it was a weird scene. Nobody us and the audience was probably most inattentive and least responsive we’ve had.

It was hard for me to get too down about it. I got to meet one of my favorite indie bands from years ago, The Smoking Popes. They were chatting with Matt on business, I’m not sure what kind of business, but it was nice to know our man in Chicago was ‘working’ the room.’ It’s worth saying there were a few cool new faces. Forgive me if I can’t remember any names right now. When I’m home and the cards come out of wallets and backpacks I say “Oh yeah, I remember that guy.”

We played our usual set, with our usual zeal. The minority of people who were paying attention to our music took notice and came up to us after the show. There was a lot of talking, not much music-listening to the other bands on the bill as well, so it was hard to take the gig too seriously. We’d gotten a good-sized guarantee, for our short set, so we weren’t complaining. However, after were off stage we left as quickly as possible. We just didn’t feel like hanging out. The Suhar Home was much more fun!

VINTAGE CLOTHES- Chicago
Chicago is a great town for thrifting and we were there over a weekend so I should have been garage-sale shopping, but Stella was too cute to leave the house and we really felt like relaxing. We will see what the next show holds!

Thursday, June 22nd @ Indie Coffee - Madison
The Gig

We were very excited about our first ever show in Wisconsin, land of cheese. We
didn’t know what to expect from our little coffee house gig. As we drove down from Minneapolis we stopped at a dairy joint to buy ‘real wisconsin cheese!’ Courtney picked a lovely little 5 pound flat cheese in the shape of a mouse for her grandmother.
It was a beautiful moment in Wisconsin tourism.

On our way down to Madison, we learned from JJ, the manager of Indie Coffee, that The band Rogue Wave, friends of Courtney’s, were playing at a larger venue with The Stills across the street from us.

Our trip to Madison couldn’t be more simple than our road trip the day before.
We arrived in Madison with some time to kill before the show. It was then that Courtney went off to pursue her thrift/vintage mission-from-god.
Testify Sister...

VINTAGE SHOPPING

I only had a short amount of time so I wasn’t able to scavenge in thrift stores. But, I did find an excellent vintage store . I found three pairs of clogs and an awesome Jethro Tull t-shirt from 1977. I am wearing some of the clogs right now! They had excellent cowboy boots and some cool clothes. Madison is definitely a hot spot.

THE GIG
We played our show at 8pm to a cozy little coffee shop crowd. In the front row were Pat and Evan, the rhythm section of Rogue Wave. It was possibly our most ‘intimate’ show and by far the kindest, gentlest, show we have played so far. We managed to make new converts by the end of the show. We had a good time at the coffee house. The management JJ and Barrett were very kind and supportive. Their 5 year old son Wilson was mesmerized by my mini drum set and our xylophone.

So after we played we ran across the street to see Rogue Wave’s show at the Annex.
We became new fans. Courtney and I enjoyed their show so much that we went back to their merch table and bought shirts and cds. Minutes later we chatted with the band as they loaded up their gear and got ready to head out to Chicago.

We had our own heading to do as well. We didn’t have much time to hang around in Madison. We were off to spend the night in Morton before going to visit Courtney’s grandma the next day. It was a crazy late night drive. We were both too tired for the trip, but that didn’t stop us. We were heavily armed with a book-on-tape, ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ and some dried fruits and nuts, and we were road warriors again ready to take on Route 55!

Nearly half asleep, we made it to the Quality Inn, our first motel on tour, cause for celebration. We would have celebrated if we weren’t so tired. Instead, we watched the House and Garden channel, I video taped our Motel room, and passed out.

Wednesday, June 21st @ Varsity Theater - Minneapolis

Courtney and I started our day at 6am to prepare for a mutha of a drive to Minneapolis from St. Louis. What a trip it was. Rather than driving on a lot of main interstate highways, we took the smaller roads, particularly Route 61 North, I lost track what road we were on while driving through Iowa and Wisconsin. I started to wear down and was delirious after 5 hours of small, one lane highways, with stop and go traffic through centers of small towns. I had to hand the steering wheel over to Courtney.

I became the navigator, and proceeded to video every pretty little town and lake that we passed.While opening the window lost in my video camera, a piece of paper flew out the window. we figured out that it was our directions to the venue. Courtney and I looked into each other’s eyes and burst out laughing for at least 5 minutes.

The scenery was beautiful. I didn’t stop my mad video shoot, but I managed to keep my window rolled up and the next set of directions off the dash board. However, the drive was endless. After nearly 14 hours in the car, we reached Minneapolis. We missed our sound check, but were just in time for the start of the show.

Another good batch of local bands, Thunder in the Valley, Mike Gunther and His Restless souls, and us, the curiosity group. We got to meet, greet, and talk with all the bands who were good musicians as well as being easy-going people. There were return customers, (from our last show in December) old friends, and big crowds to fill up the large room.

The show-up-and-play gigs always feel rushed and strange, but the scene at the Varsity was so mellow and accommodating, that it was easy for us to pull it off. Thankfully, Thunder in The Valley was on first, so that was another thing to help us deal with our road-weariness.

Courtney secured our dinner while I set up the drums and prepared our Fantastic Planet dvd to be projected behind ourselves on the movie screen as we played. I also gave our sound man Eric a camera to video our show. Video madness continues!

The show was well-recieved. We laughed about our impossible journey from St. Louis to Minneapolis and told our travel woes to the audience. They laughed along with us. Theaudience was incredibly attentive. I swear could hear a pin drop in-between songs, a very light, and small pin at that. It was almost disturbingly quiet during our set.

It is also worth noting that there was a dancing’ man in sweat pants, sleeveless shirt, headband, basketball sneakers, with hair in a ponytail whose dancing was even more exuberant than the the man in Indianapolis. I refrained from thanking the second dancer. He also asked Courtney after the show, how many times she had circled the sun. He was an interesting charscter.

The show was over by 12am. The night seemed to start and finish so fast. Or maybe it was that we were so burnt out that world kept spinning fast around our tired bodies. We drove back to our good friend, Karrie Vrabel’s (the one we often refer to as our “Pimp in Minneapolis”) had a sleepy little hangout, and then collapsed.

Courtney is sad to say because our driving day was soooo impossibly long there was no thrift/vintage opportunities.

Tuesday, June 20th @ Cicero’s - St. Louis

KaiserCartel’s working day started out on the earlier side at 1pm we were at St. Louis’ NBC affiliate to play on a midday show called ‘Show Me St. Louis.’

There were a few communication mishaps with ourselves and the producer about what kind of gear we needed to bring to the NBC set. Eventually all was worked out, but at one point we had Courtney’s cousin Kip on hand to lend us a PA, if need be. Miscommunication was in the air.

Before we went on to fully seize our 3 minutes of fame on St. Louis regional TV, we were introduced, by the show’s MC as the “brother and sister duo called Kaiser.” If you look at a video of the show I think you can see Courtney laughing to each other after our introduction. We played a total of 15 seconds of ‘Okay,’ 15 seconds of ‘Teresa,’ and then 30 seconds of ‘Okay,’ which actually adds up to 1 minute of fame, to be exact.

VINTAGE SHOPPING IN ST. LOUIS
Being famous was a lot of fun I have to admit, but then there’s the important business at hand. We gave ourselves plenty of time to go thrifting and vintage clothing hunting. The first place we journeyed too in St. Louis was closed. Oh man, what a comedown from midday TV fame.

Then we met a man who told us of another great place not far away. We get over there in great anticipation, and what happens “Closed On Tuesdays” is what happens. What is with this place? Who closes on a Tuesday? Apparently a lot of people in St. Louis. Well, it was starting to seem that we weren’t going to find anything in this great city to go to so we started driving towards our gig destination. We ended up taking a route past a Goodwill and a Salvation Army. We were both able to walk away with a little something but nothing to write home about. And then.....it happened. We saw it, I paniced....there it was..I vintage store open! We walked inside. The placed was incredible! I mean amazing! I bought five things: a 50’s white and pink eyelet dress, a seersucker wrap around dress, an incredible black 30’s dress which deserves a cameo on the collar, a pair of victorian bloomers, and a red play suit. Ben bought a seersucker pin striped suit jacket. Wow, what an incredible find!

THE GIG-ST. LOUIS
We played at Cicero’s for Playback STL, sponsored night with some very tight, talented bands and soloists- Jon Yeager, Stephen Donavan, and band called John Boy’s Courage. They were all kind to the out-of-towners (us), which makes a difference when you’re on the road meeting strangers night after night. Jim and Laura from Playback are also our good friends of ours for a couple of years now. They are the foundation for the St. Louis support group, and for that I am grateful.

It was our second time at Cicero’s and St. Louis,and we notice the crowd was even larger and more attentive than before. Was it because of ‘Show Me St. Louis,’I assured the audience that we were not brother and sister. We enjoyed a very warm, and attentive crowd. St. Louis was receptive. Sadly we had no dancers in the audience, but we did have new fans and enthusiasts by the end of the night.

Courtney gave her ‘see An Inconvenient Truth,’ speech on stage and ended up wrapping with a skeptical republican after the show. It’s amazing how many people don’t know about the damage to the earth’s environment and what global warming is. I think Courtney was talking to a guy who did not believe that global warming was real. I will spare you the political rant. All I can say is - SEE AN INCONVIENENT TRUTH! It is an education, full of scientific facts. Every night Courtney says something on stage to our audiences about it. She wants to take the opportunity to inspire people to do their own research and hopefully will in turn take action in their own way.

Friday, June 16th @ Radio Radio - Indianapolis

THE GIG-INDIANAPOLIS
Our first gig of the tour we played the after-party show of a charity event called Art vs.Art. Art vs. Art was held in ballroom next-door. We played with Jake Smith, Pravada, and Richard Edwards. We got see and hang out with all the bands on the bill, all good friends of our from Indianapolis. Getting together with our Indy crew of friends was one of the highlights of the night for me.

The show was not without random moments of comedy. There was an unknown, older man dancing to all our music - even the lighter acoustic songs. He danced alone, gliding around the room with a red face, turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers, as if he was in the clouds. I wanted to bust out laughing while singing, instead I made a comment after a song. “we’d like to thank our dancer,” I said, and the room cheered as he continued dancing thru our the rest of our set.

Radio Radio was a loud and rowdy scene. At times it was hard to hear our ‘intimate’ selves over the chatter in the room as we played. There were times during the set when I thought to myself, “maybe it would be more fun to be the dancer.’

We enjoyed all the other bands and soloists, Pravada were fun, Richard was great as well. I had never seen Jake Smith and was particularly impressed by his one-man-band skills. He introduced himself, ‘I am mysteries of life,’ and indeed he was that night. He played guitar, hi-hat, bass drum, harmonica, and guitar in way that surprisingly did not come off looking sideshow freakish. The songs were great to boot.

All told, Rowdy Radio Radio was a fun night. We gained some new fans, enthusiasts, dancers, and managed not to get too carried away in drunken craziness. I had more fun watching the characters carry on. It’s a little easier to take when you know the people in the room.

VINTAGE FINDS IN INDIANAPOLIS
So, Indianapolis has always been a great area for thrift shopping, but due to a store called Broadripple Vintage and their aggressive buying, it’s difficult to go to places like Value Village and find great vintage dresses for $0.45. There are a few great reasonable stores and antique malls. We both bought some great clothes while scavenging around. I will insert some pictures in the next few days.