01-12-08: Ben & Ari's - Fishers, Indiana

Saturday night at Ben & Ari's. What a way to end the tour. Call it a homecoming, if you will, and maybe even a reunion. And it was definitely one of the best experiences on this trip. I'm not even necessarily talking our performance itself, because things just aren't the same with Dave on drums, but instead I'm talking about the feeling of bringing everyone together after years of not seeing each other and being united and reunited by music. Everyone that attended were all friends of ours, whether they were from high school, relatives of friends, our own relatives, peers from other bands, etc. Not only were we excited to see them, they were all excited to see each other. Even on top of that, we met a lot of new people who were all very, very supportive, and we can't thank our old friends and new friends enough for all of their support.

Right before our set, John Deluca (manager of Ben & Ari's) introduced us, touching upon the subject on how they started these "student nights" seven years ago, where Zach & I were their first band to ever perform there. (We were called Crash at the time.) I never really realized we had began there so long ago, and were the first to start off their years of student nights. For us, as a young and beginning band, it was an amazing opportunity to perform regularly for our friends and meet new people. For Ben & Ari's, not only a great business move, it was also a way to give teenagers a safe place to go with a great environment. Ever since that first show, all of us have grown and learned through so many experiences that may have never happened if timing hadn't been right.

We performed a split set again, kicking off with All Because of You, Runaway, El Scorcho, and Same Things. Then we broke it down to play Get Low and Cold acoustic. We finished off with The End and Untitled. It was a great set and we had a great time doing, but it went so fast. Oh wait... at the end of it all, we performed Dammit (Blink 182) unplugged style on guitar with three part harmonies. Brought me so close to tears...

After everything was over... well that was a chance to meet a bunch of new people who hadn't heard us before. We signed some cds and shirts for these new faces, and just spent time talking to everyone and thanking them for all their support. I really don't think I've ever said thank you more than I did these past several shows, but it's true that I am so thankful for everyone who came to see us. A few friends and family from Ohio; my mom drove up from South Carolina; and several different people from colleges all over Indy. It was just such a great feeling.

In the end, I am sincerely going to miss everyone, because it's not every day that we get a chance to visit our hometown of Carmel. At the same time, I'm finally back to my apartment and in my own bed. I probably slept on the floor way too much, and a couch here and there, but my bed feels so much better. I'm looking forward to the next trip.

Oh yeah, I'm still behind on photos. I didn't actually get anyone to take pictures on my camera for the last show but I'll do what I can when I find some. In the meantime, I finally found some pictures of Common Grounds. Yes... that's me on drums. My cousin posted some photos too at www.ria6677.blogspot.com.

Here's a few photos from Ben & Ari's, courtesy of Hannah Commeville:










From Common Grounds, on my camera:

01-11-08: Common Ground's - Lebanon, OH

I have to make this short and sweet, simply due to time constraints. Duty calls, and that duty happens to be Skyline Chili. We're on our way to get a quick lunch and then head into Indy for our final show on this wonderful winter tour at Ben & Ari's.

Common Grounds was a great place to play, and a great place for lots of high school kids to go to to listen to local live music. There's really not a whole lot going on in Lebanon, considering it was a Friday night and this place was packed. Apparently the cops came three times, so they must not have anything better to do either. In fact, I figured maybe there was some kind of drug bust or underage drinking, but the only incident that arost was some kids under 18 smoking cigarettes. If that's the worst of the town's problems, well, that's not a bad town to live in.

My friend Jessica took a lot of really good pictures, so I'm going to hold off on posting anything from the show until I get a few from her. It was the first set we had without Dave, and it went incredibly well. I hadn't played drums with a band for a while, but everything went very smoothly. We split the set up with two acoustic songs in between four electric. It's something we've never tried before, and it seemed to go over very well.

Anyway, only one more show to go, and when I get some downtime I will definitely upload some photos from Common Grounds. Maybe I'll find some time to sleep, too.

01-10-08: The Night Owl - Dayton, OH

I'm just going to come out and say it right away for anyone who didn't know before. Last night (Thursday) was our last show with Dave for a while. He's going on a semester abroad, which is incredibly exciting, but unfortunate for the band. He also turned 21 while we were on stage at midnight. All in all, it was a great show, and a phenominal way to end our time with Dave. We all will miss him sincerely, but also we wish him the best with his travels. We're all very tired after last night though. We had to get Dave to the airport around 4:30 AM, and now I'm starting to feel the lack of sleep catch up to me. Luckily, we all got to sleep in beds for the first time on this tour, due to the hospitality of our aunt and uncle.

We arrived at the club last night to find that the only other local band on the bill had cancelled, due to the fact that their drummer decided to quit. I usually try to leave out negative opinions or emotions from what I write in these blogs, but I can't deny that we were all very upset with this, and even though two members still came and performed acoustic, their decision to bail on us was pretty unprofessional.

Aside from that one obstacle, we played incredibly. It was definitely our best show on this trip, which made it a great way to say farewell to Dave. Two people from the audience bought him different shots right at midnight, so he didn't even have to get offstage to get his first taste of alcohol. I got to see several friends and family members that I haven't seen in a while also.

Anyway, we still have two more shows on this trip. We're going to perform half acoustic and half electric (yes, which means I'll be attempting the drums in honor of Dave), so while it's a change of pace from the last two weeks, it still should be a great time.

With our cousin:


Happy Birthday, Dave:

01-08-08: Birdy's - Indianapolis, IN

It's been a few days since I've written, which means a lot has happened. Our last show was Saturday, which left us a few days to explore the land of Indiana. Dave and Alex have never been in this glorious state, so it only seemed appropriate for Zach and me to show them around. We hit up the first CiCi's Pizza we could find. For anyone not familiar, CiCi's is a pizza buffet for only $4.50. We were probably there for two hours, for a very good reason. It's the one place you can get Macaroni & Cheese Pizza, among other classics such as barbecue, buffalo chicken, broccoli, and many more types.

We played at Birdy's, which turned out pretty good. Smaller crowd but mostly our close friends. Great soundsystem as well. In terms of set list, nothing out of the ordinary. "The Answer Is Always C" is really coming together, so I'm thinking that will become make a regular appearance at Beautiful Lies shows. Aside from spending a lot of time with my good friends Sean and Chris, other activities from the past few days have included:

- Lots of little dog humping big dog. Lisa and Robby (our friends in which we have stayed with each night) found one of the cutest little puppies ever. Except it is incredibly prone to... attack... Lisa's dog.
- Vatos Locos reunited. I recorded with Chris and Sean, the master minds behind the Cholos. Actually, check out the myspace for old recordings, and expect 4 new songs within the month.
- We played a lot of Mario Kart: Double Dash on Gamecube. Nothing else needs to be said.
- I bought an octave pedal. Well not yet, as I am writing this. But by the time I post this, hopefully I'll have an amazing new awesome pedal, courtesy of Robbie.
- Half-Priced Books, an amazing store where most of my CD collection comes from.
- Carmel High School. We visited the ol' place to try to find some copies of the school paper, which rumors had stated we'd be in. Didn't find anything about us though. It's okay, there's still the Carmel Current and Nuvo. We visited a couple teachers and gave our cd to the radio station.
- Broadripple. It's the scenic part of Indy. To those in Boston, it's like the Newbury Street of Indy.
- Yats, followed by Luna Music. Delcious Cajun food, and my favorite record shop in Indy, probably even America. I was disappointed to find out that the original location of my favorite store moved, but at least it didn't shut down completely.

Tonight's another night off, but Lisa is hosting a little gathering for all our friends in the area. Tomorrow we'll be in Ohio for two more shows, and then back in Indy for our last show. There's also two articles about us in the newspapers around here. The first is a cover story for the Carmel Current. There's a nice big photograph on the front page taken by none other than Dave Stadler (the man and legend behind the photography for "Words Are All We Have"). The second is a story in the Nuvo. I have yet to see it, but I am on my way to round up a few copies.

Chris, Sean, Ben:


Lisa, Robby:

01-05-08: Doc's Music Hall - Muncie, IN

Yesterday was quite a busy day for us. We were all in good spirits after a great night's sleep at Scott's. They were very accommodating, and had such a nice house. I was also very impressed with the automatic opening trash can in which they possessed. I tried uploading a video I took (I know, I know. How lame of me) and I'd post a photo of it, but a still shot would just resemble an everyday trash can. Wouldn't do much good.

Nine hours on the road left us feeling restless upon arrival, and a little over 90 minutes of music took all the rest of the energy we had. I haven't been in Indiana since this same time last year, so it was nice to be back. Unfortunately, it was already dark upon our arrival, which prevented us from getting the full effect of the endless cornfields.

Doc's Music Hall was incredibly impressive, with a large stage that even had a drum riser. The staff was sincere and very friendly, and also took care of us with free food and drinks. No complaints in that department. There was even some word on the street about a black leather jacket gang that had been causing trouble and the bouncer at Doc's said he's escort us if we needed to go out of the venue. Quite surprising, if you ask me, considering just a few night ago we were in the streets of Trenton where someone got mugged.

We started our set around 11:30, playing the better part of an hour's worth of material. We took a break to get some refreshments, and played another thirty minutes. I'd post the set list, but it included pretty much everything in our repertoire. Failure's "Stuck On You" came out for the first time in a live setting, which was such a powerful song to play on that big of a stage. We also performed "The Good Life" by Weezer for the first time since our Pinkerton Show.

I definitely hope to return to Doc's in the future, and with more than two days to promote this show, we could definitely get a packed house with our friends and those at Ball State. As each show on this Winter Tour is getting better and better, I'm really looking forward to our next four shows. I don't even want to call it winter if we don't have to, because it's much warmer in the Midwest. No more 20 degree weather; we're living in mid 50's. It's weird to think we've only got four shows remaining, but we still have plenty of time off to see some friends and show Dave and Alex around these parts. It's home to me, and even though we don't have a show until Tuesday, I'll definitely try to write about our activities over the next few days. We'll definitely be hitting some of the classic midwest establishments of CiCi's Pizza, Half-Priced Books, Steak n Shake, Meijer, Skyline Chili, BW3's, Luna Music, and much more. Unfortunately, my laptop is pretty much unusable due to a broken screen, so I'll try to write when I have the opportunity.

01-04-08: EJ's Landing - College Park, MD

After I wrote my last entry, our day really took off. I guess the guys almost finished the entire first season of "Californication," which could only be followed up by a nice meal of 25 cent wings at a very nice local restaurant whose name I cannot recall. It was here i found myself in heaven, where Zach, Alex, and I each consumed a dozen wings, while Dave buried himself in a mound of celery and lemon wedges. We also came across something we had never seen before, which I guess is found pretty commonly in south Jersey. It was called a "beer tower," which was basically a cylinder-like container about 6 inches in diameter but probably four or five feet high, and naturally full of beer. Maybe someday we'll come across this again.

We arrived at EJ's earlier than expected, which left us some time to explore the place. EJ's is actually attached to some fancy hotel, which was designed to appear outdoors, while still being inside. There was an amazing sink that I have never seen before: a bowl with a waterfall-like faucet. Dave took the opporunity to improve his putting game on an artificial green, while I found time to hit the gym. We also entertained ourselves with "Bubble Boy" on the hotel lobby television.









However, I can't omit our unfortunate trip to 7-Eleven, where the clerk tried charging me $2 more for the exact same thing he charged Alex for. We argued for a bit and I was about ready to pistol-grip pump that bitch. Instead, I maturely said, "whatever" and walked out in a rage.

On a more serious note, It's only been 4 days and 3 shows into this tour and I'm already satisfied and smiling. The hospitality of all the friends and new faces we've encountered has been a real blessing. College Park, MD is a very, very friendly place and I would go back anyday. I'm not sure if it was because we were out of the north (though Maryland isn't really sure where it fits in the north/south region according to our sources), but there was a real difference in the way people treated and accepted our band.

A lot of times in Boston, NYC, or NJ, venues always put off this attitude of "give us a reason to let you play," while in the south and midwest, they are so much more accommodating and interested in out-of-state bands. I have yet to experience anything out west yet, though Dave has hinted at some good things where he is from... the future - I mean, California. Wherever this neutral state of Maryland fits into place, tonight the turnout was great, and apparently word spread around fast about Beautiful Lies, simply based on the fact that we had travelled to their city from Boston. For many people tonight, that was enough of a reason to give us their time and attention. Maybe I'm just not used to that side of people, which is why it's definitely something none of us took for granted.

A songwriter and acoustic guitarist by the name of Nick Willard kicked off the night. He played some really interesting originals, as well as a cover of "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab, and that classic Oasis "Wonderwall" hit. He was very friendly, too, and I hope to see more of him in the future.



We played a lighter set than usual, playing more of what we could consider our catchier tunes. The audience responded very well and supported us in the end by buying a several cds and shirts, as well as requesting an encore. We performed "El Scorcho" for the first time on tour (though it's pretty common to hear otherwise) as well as "I Melt With You" for the first time in a long, long while. In the end, College Park was a great place to be on a Friday night. As I'm finishing this entry, we're crashing at our good friend Scott's home before hitting the road for eight or so hours to make our way to Muncie, IN. I'll probably have to go back and proof-read all this tomorrow, as it's already 3:30 AM. For now, goodnight.

01-03-08: Chamionship Bar & Grill - Trenton, NJ

Well, I've had probably the best night's sleep in a while, probably due to the fact that I know this is the last time I'll be in New Jersey for a while. No, I'm seriously kidding. Last night's show turned out a lot better than the first, so I can definitely feel things starting to pick up on this tour. I figured I've got some extra time to work on this show's blog, as the rest of the guys are enjoying what Showtime portrays as the idealistic lifestyle on "Californication." And the sad part is we can't stop watching... David Duchovny's still got it.

I've got to be honest though, I was a little nervous in Trenton after I overheard someone from the opening band mention how he got mugged. Lost his wallet and brand new phone, too! And considering I only had pretty much everything to live on in our brand new van... well let's just say it made me a little weary. One wrong turn can lead you into a pretty bad part of town. Last time we (or I) played in Trenton, I had to do an acoustic set before Pull A Star Trip (the German band we toured with last summer and are travelling with in Europe in the spring, no big deal), and we got lost while trying to get home. It's not the most ideal area to be wandering around. Luckily, the only problem with direction we encountered occurred at the confusing border between NJ and PA (the exits are marked very strangely to those of us who aren't from the area), and after enjoying a great set by Call It A Getaway, we ended up safe and sound at our friend Joe's.

This show featured the debut of "The Answer is Always C," which closed the show with a bang. It's still a little sloppy at parts, but I know by the end of the trip it'll be better than ever. There's a demo of it on my myspace, too, so you can preview the song there. Other than that, we're starting to incorporate most of our newer songs along with some of the classics. Overall, it was a great show (aside from the soundguy showing up a half hour late and leaving immediately after the last band finished) and we have much to look forward to over the next two weeks.

Did I mention we just added a show in Muncie, IN? Check out the full list at our website. It was a last minute deal, but we're very excited to add a third show in Indy.

Anyway, here's some photos from the show:

01-02-08: Arlene's Grocery in NYC

Tonight officially kicked off the Beautiful Lies Winter Tour and beginning of 2008. After a long day of sleeping and eating at the Mavraganis home, we headed into NYC. It was a good way to start things off, as we haven't had a real rehearsal since our last show. There weren't a lot of people at this show, but the response was good, and so was the sound and stage. Tonight also debuted a vocoder, which will surely be making appearances in future performances. Look for it in "Cold" and "Stay Away."

With the new van, we didn't have to worry about a trailer this time, which made things a lot easier. Unfortunately, we returned to the van after our performance to find a lovely parking ticket. NYC parking violations aren't cheap either, which isn't surprising. I've tried, but I have to admit I'm just not a fan of New York.

We're still throwing around ideas for titles for "Untitled." Tonight we tried out "Whatever (As If)." We'll see if it sticks.