We arrived at our hotel in Grand Rapids around 7 a.m., I pretty much went straight to bed. I usually try not to sleep on the bus. I guess I’m not that comfortable with communal sleeping quite yet. But this is a blog about the band and the tour, not my neuroses.
We had the day off yesterday and it’s always a challenge to find something to do. After waking up and grabbing some coffee, I stepped outside into the not-so-California-like humidity of Grand Rapids. Armed with my tote bag full of who knows what, I began to wander around the downtown area looking for something to do, maybe find a nice cafe or something. I walked for about 20 minutes or so, started getting really hot, really tired, and really depressed. Not much happening here on a Wednesday morning, I thought. I was about to return to the more comfortable albeit somewhat lonely confines of my hotel room when I suddenly wandered upon this sign: Ladies Literary Club. One of the best afternoons of my life. Just unbelievable.
And yes, I just made all of the that up.
The truth is, I woke up, ordered lunch, and went over Billy’s room to watch Germany play Spain in the World Cup semifinals. The damn octopus! After the game, we did the usual: record-shopping. We ended up at one of the weirdest record stores I’ve ever visited, Dodd’s. Mr. Dodd has owned this place since 1951, and from the way it looks inside, probably not much has changed since then. The strangest thing about the store is that Dodd shrink-wraps every used record and writes that it is in mint condition when clearly it is not.
After record-shopping, we met up with the rest of the gang (and yes, we are a gang these days) for a nice dinner (I’m much more comfortable with communal dinners than communal sleeping). The restaurant we ate at, in addition to having good food and excellent cocktails, had a small but decent collection of ’80s video games, which we played after eating. I must admit, I’m a little pissed because the joystick on the Galaga machine was sticking a little and totally screwed me from getting the high score. Whatever …
Robbie Sacunas – I'm in my Sophomore year at Slippery Rock University studying Secondary Education with an emphasis on History and Special Education. I'm a 19 year old born and raised in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm a ballhawk at PNC Park, and I'm a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates as hard as it is sometimes. My favorite player in the MLB is Michael McKenry of the Pirates. Other than baseball, I enjoy traveling, music/concerts, and Denny's.
Robbiesays:
Robbie Sacunas – I'm in my Sophomore year at Slippery Rock University studying Secondary Education with an emphasis on History and Special Education. I'm a 19 year old born and raised in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm a ballhawk at PNC Park, and I'm a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates as hard as it is sometimes. My favorite player in the MLB is Michael McKenry of the Pirates. Other than baseball, I enjoy traveling, music/concerts, and Denny's.
Robbiesays:
Can’t wait to see you guys tonight! We’re leaving to pick up a friend right now and heading out!
(And yeah, there’s not a whole lot to do around Grand Rapids.)
ophelia – Australia – I write speculative fiction (gothic and supernatural themes) and I work as a freelance editor and researcher. I also spend a lot of time drawing and riding horses!
Opheliasays:
i was at the cleveland show as well, and i, like many longtime sp fans, was a little skeptical, but i knew in my heart everything would be great because i have never been let down by billy and the pumpkins. in fact, i knew it would be ok so much that we drove from EASTHAMPTON MASS to cleveland just to see the show (it was the closest show by the time we figured out we could afford tix) and i must say, mike killed it man, he did great and out of the 7 or 8 times ive seen the pumpkins, cleveland may have been the best, musically and moodwise…i just HATE that rock shows have to be associated with beer and assholes who could care less whos playing and just keep shoving you out of the way every 5 mins to get more beer, that part of general admission rock shows is obnoxious and enough to make me not want to go to shows like that, but still, up close at a very exciting pumpkins show is well worth it. keep up the great work sp, its good to see a band onstage thats playing music for musics sake. nicole and jeff tore it up too, great players!
Hope you guys had fun!
Also, you guys were so good in Cleveland, me and my friend came all the way from Pittsburgh. 🙂
You guys should have gone to Vertigo Music! It’s the only real record store around these parts. Looking forward to seeing you play tonight!
Can’t wait to see you guys tonight! We’re leaving to pick up a friend right now and heading out!
(And yeah, there’s not a whole lot to do around Grand Rapids.)
You must have ate at Stella’s!! One of my favorite places. See you at the Orbit Room
Bahah, I totally dig this blog update!
that octopus is on fire.
Haha. Well what better way to deceive the human eye about an items condition than to shrink wrap it.
i was at the cleveland show as well, and i, like many longtime sp fans, was a little skeptical, but i knew in my heart everything would be great because i have never been let down by billy and the pumpkins. in fact, i knew it would be ok so much that we drove from EASTHAMPTON MASS to cleveland just to see the show (it was the closest show by the time we figured out we could afford tix) and i must say, mike killed it man, he did great and out of the 7 or 8 times ive seen the pumpkins, cleveland may have been the best, musically and moodwise…i just HATE that rock shows have to be associated with beer and assholes who could care less whos playing and just keep shoving you out of the way every 5 mins to get more beer, that part of general admission rock shows is obnoxious and enough to make me not want to go to shows like that, but still, up close at a very exciting pumpkins show is well worth it. keep up the great work sp, its good to see a band onstage thats playing music for musics sake. nicole and jeff tore it up too, great players!