call me westerns.

the man. but not "the man." pete's the man. i'm just the guy. the guy called westerns. once...

but now, right now, at least:

iz back. i iz in yer computer jackin yer blogz.

lets play ketchup, and you be the bun: you and me are through, morning day and night have passed. it's a new day a new tour a new world out there. unfortunately, i am not taking part in this summer 07 journey. which is sad. but don't worry about me... everything's coming up roses for your old buddy puppins. i'm just not out there on the golden road, a-rocking and a-trekking.

so in lieu of ACTUALLY being on tour, i was able to briefly catch up with this rolling revue as it made its way to the upper west side of the isle of manhattos. i was merely an observer. no merch to deal with, i was free to watch the show as a humble spectator (albeit one with an All Access pass... hehehe).



so i show up at the beacon a few hours early on wednesday and am waiting for tour manager rick "balls" marino to come outside.... but before ricky makes an appearance, who do i see walking down the street? why it was none other than my cousin himself. Le P.Y.! He couldn't see me, cuz his head was in his sidekick (figuratively, obvs). and i walked up very close and he looked up and there i was, grinning in a manner not unlike a cheshire cat.

we decided to explore the hood. it was nice to see him, as it had been a few weeks. he caught me up to speed on how the tour had been going as we wandered around the upper west side, navigating our way though the sticky filthy summer air. we also sang a bit of "Candy," the Iggy Pop/Kate Pierson song.

Pete had never been to the legendary Zabar's, so we went in. the air conditioning was so intense, maybe even too much. a person can catch a cold constantly moving betwixt places of heat and cold. i know from experience. anyway, Zabar's was fun, especially the man announcing specials over the p.a. system. we tried to find him to see what he looked like, but we didn't see him. i imagined him in a little crow's nest up above the cheese section.



then we went back to the venue, to the teensy backstage closet. pete was joking about how you play tiny clubs in small towns and have huge dressing rooms, and then you play the big theaters in the big cities and there ain't a lot of space. crowded house didn't appear to have that much more space anyway. pete had been mentioning liam finn, son of neil finn, and the first opening act. he's a one-man-band. pete thought we looked similar. then he popped out into the hallway and we snapped a picture. similar? or just two bearded guys? you decide.



anyway, we watched his set and it was awesome. he's using a boss loop station (i think) to build his songs up, a la jon brion. really strong sense of melody. i'm a fan.

some moments in the cramped dressing room (what's one more body to stand there pointing a camera in people's faces and occupying a coupla square feet, right?):







here's pete moments before his set. that's on big hand, am i right? huh!?!?



and again, the moment before taking the stage. notice the setlist in hand. notice rick marino. notice the ever-dapper joe kennedy.



notice simon's new seven-string martin. i had never heard of a seven-string before. it's like this: it's strung and tuned just like standard acoustic guitar, except that the high B string is doubled, in the fashion of a twelve-string guitar. it's a cool sound. and simon is super stoked about it and it sounded radicooools.



ah, the glorious beacon theatre! I love me an old timey music hall. this is one of those cavernous places with a few tiers of balconies shooting straight up as you look out from the stage. i would have liked to get that angle as well, but a surly man quickly told me that one is only allowed to take pictures from out in the house: stagehand union rules..... hmmm, interesting.





there's pete, in one of the shots i was able to take from the side of the stage, before any foto-fascism. the set was well-received by the crowd. i've said it before, but here i am saying it again: it's difficult to be the opening act. but pete came out rocking and winning.



here's the view from the soundboard (why do they put seats behind the soundboard? a lady told me to sit down as i was blocking her view, which i can respect, but i mean.... really? low seats behind the soundboard?!):







there's everybody on stage! it was great to see all those cats again. and i have to mention that pete sounded amazing. mad props to sound captain steve madden for bringing it all back home.



and then...



sir mal x, basking in the postshow glimmer.

didn't think i'd be back for the thursday night show, but i found myself in the neighborhood as the set was ending, so i was able to run backstage and watch the last song. the second night pete played all covers. it can't be done, you say? well he did it.



leave you with this final image from backstage. i may be signing off for now, and the tourbus may be rolling away, but it sure as shit ain't sayonara. as certainly as the bright sun rises in the east and sets in the west, your old pal from the latter will return.

some day, some way, we shall all be reunited.

lurve,
westerns

p.s. if you miss the constant bloggage and photographic merriment, take it upon yourselves to flood the internets with YOUR OWN YORN content! take pictures at shows and post comments! film little clips and put them on youtube! go crazy! CRAZY!

hello all you special peoples!

it's your old buddy, pete's young cousin, WESTERNS here.... just back from the 2007 bonnaroo arts and music festival in manchester, tennessee. it was an action packed weekend! the whole thing was a quick little tease of the craziness of being on tour... the real summer touring doesn't begin for another month, so this was a one-off fly-out gig for PY and le gang.

pete played on sunday, but had some press at the festival on saturday, so pete, tour manager rick "balls" marino, and i arrived in nashville on friday night. we love nashville. it is home to some of my favorite places i discovered on the road: robert's western world, grimey's new and preloved records, and hatch show print. it is also the location where one night i danced better than ever before. it is primarily for this reason that i love nashville.

SATURDAY:

so everyone had been telling us about the Loveless Cafe, outside of nashville... sort of a mom and pop version of Cracker Barrel (which we don't have in california, so we're obsessed with it). anyway, we finally made it to loveless in the morning before our journey to bonnaroo...



cool old timey place. it used to be a motel. we had to wait a while and were nervous that we may not make it to the festival in time, but ultimately we made it. was it worth the wait? tough to say.... the biscuits were darn good, and the carnivores said the fried chicken was mighty fine. but the pancakes didn't achieve the magic of those at ye olde cracker barrel...

so we drove to the festival and there ws no traffic because it was a little later in the day and that was cool, but then once we got into the grounds, nobody working there seemed to have any idea where we should park... leave it to marino to kind of make his own parking space.

we went into the artist area to stock up on free water. it was pretty hot out and super dusty. in fact, as i type this, i'm still audibly wheezing from all the dusty craziness. no wonder so many people were wearing bandanas.



saw this dude in the artist area. don't know what his deal was, but he has an... interesting look. another big fashion trend among festivalgoers was that a number of people had painted their bodies a solid color. lots of encounters with random purple people and green people..... was this commentary on race in america? or just a tripped out idea that you regret the next morning?

the big press event for pete on saturday was a group press conference.



here you see britt daniel of spoon, wayne coyne of the flaming lips, pete yorn of the pete yorn, and nathan followill - drummer of kings of leon.



and this picture reveals the legendary bob weir, of the grateful dead and ratdog. not pictured, but still in the press conference were chali 2na of jurassic 5 and ratdog drummer jay lane. it was a cool little event.... lots of talk of the diversity of music at the festival and the positive vibes.



after the press conference, balls and i went off to see a bit of spoon. i took this picture on the way. they had free wine from a local vineyard.



my favorite picture that i took. i think this girl was on something.

on some trash cans! hahahahahahahah.



me and rick drinking wine while watching a bit of spoon. he went red, i went white. later rick painted himself red and i painted myself white. we called ourselves ketchup and mayo.



beautiful dusk. on our way to the comedy tent to enjoy some air conditioning and the humourous stylings of demetri martin and flight of the conchords...



backstage at the comedy tent. we met demetri, who was really awesome. i'm not much of a stand-up fan, but his set killed and he totally made a new fan. pete was in stitches throughout. check out video of him online. anyway, demetri told pete that people are always saying he looks like pete yorn, so there's the photo..... you decide.



then we saw the police! we were right down in front! i was so close to sting that i could see his pixelation!

SUNDAY:



the band flew in saturday night, as did our old buddy steve madden who was front of house during the you and me tour.... he would be our front of house dude for the bonnaroo show. here's madden line-checking the drumkit... with meg white's drumsticks! they were headlining our stage later that day and their red gear was all over the place and steve borrowed some sitcks. coolness.



here's pete, joey and sid on their way to record a radio session. it's really quite cool: they have a mobile studio setup in a trailer on the festival grounds... amps, drumkit, keyboard... the full setup. and there are all these bales of hay surrounding the trailer, which act as soundproofing material. pretty wild. they record one act each hour and then play the tracks on bonnaroo radio and service the live sessions to radio stations all over the country.



mal came in and found a bucket full of percussive toys. gleeful mal!



they cut some nice versions of alive, broken bottle, and the man. maybe you'll hear them sometime soon....



meanwhile, back in the artist's compound, tim and simon explored swag city. there was lots of free stuff to be had. in order for bands to get sweet kicks from asics, they wanted to take pictures of you. we love free stuff! we really do.



here's the gang at the side of the stage, preparing to go on. pete was the first act to play on the which stage on sunday. it was the final day of the four-day festival and we wondered if it would be possible to draw a huge crowd...



pete came out alone, with just an acoustic guitar...barefoot, in the spirit of the festival. he said "good morning." and jumped into "friend of the devil" by the dead. i think this was a real wakeup call to the festival-goers. you could see in the distance lots of sleepy people perking up.... intrigued..... heading towards the stage.... who's this pete yorn guy?



and then, the band quietly set up behind him and when he hit the final G chord in "friend of the devil" he was simultaneously hitting the first G chord in "life on a chain." the crowd ate it up.



lots of people started watching, as you can see. it was really cool.... that's the power of good music. you can be some smelly purple dude who's never heard of pete yorn, totally there for string cheese incident ...but you hear something that strikes a chord and suddenly you've been introduced to something new.



here's tim tearing it up @ the pedal steel during "i feel good again"



...and pete roaming the stage with a wireless mic during "strange condition."





it's exhilerating to see that many people waching a band, especially if you're used to going to shows in tiny clubs. the first time i ever saw pete play was at this super tiny place called "the mint" in l.a. this was in the late 90's... at that point i couldn't have imagined pete playing in front of thousands of people.... pretty awesome.



"clap, people!" says pete



and they respond with their hands.



all in all it was a super tight hour of music. i think pete gained some new fans and left his mark. it was a sprawling festival.... 4 days, over 100 bands... but "the man" represented.



after the set, pete cooled down in a nice chair. we had to leave for the airport quickly, so there was only a little bit of postshow chillout time.



we had popsicles, grabbed some more water for the road and went off to the nashville airport.



at the airport there was a big wall that said "greetings from nashville" and had all the big country stars on it. i took a picture with another big star.

..
that's all for now, but do not forget to GET TICKETS for the upcoming summer shows!

You didn't hear it from me, but you may hear a new song or two.....

global cooling,
westerns

dearest pete yorn friends,

it is i: westerns, puppins, cousin max, the merch guy...

and i am happy to report a few items:

1. The Morning, Day & Night Tour is officially over and it was a great success.

2. We are all safe and at home and attempting to catch up on sleep.

3. Joe Kennedy's bag has been located, it's contents intact! It seems that somebody mistook it for someone else's bag and it took them two weeks to realize that it was, in fact, Joe Kennedy's bag. wow.

In the words of the bard of avon, all's well that ends well!

NOW i would now like to bring to your attention a maelstrom of photographs from the final few days of the tour. i will intersperse witty asides and contextual quips where i deem appropriate. please read through all the way to the end, as there is a special video down there, after a few miles of pretty pictures.

NASHVILLE



i'm kinda enamored of nashville.... look! it's the famous ryman, where pete has played (and sold out) before. this photo was taken as we walked down to broadway to grab a rockabilly-accompanied bite at Robert's Western World, followed by a perusal of posters at Hatch Show Print (and wow, i bought a poster and had it shipped back and it just arrived at my house as i was writing this).



later, in the elevator... pete shares a laugh with tor manager extraordinaire rick "balls" marino.



at the show! it was at this place called city hall. it was like a big old warehouse. i dug it. here's pete joining minibar's set during "retrospect" and doing some backing vocals with malcolm delacroix.



backstage antics and funny facemaking can only lead to an awesome show, correct?



and i made them pose again, right before going onstage. ultimately, the truth is that i like sepia.









look at that crowd. they were young and healthy and energetic! they brought with them a distinctly nashville energy that was present at the exit-in and the mercy lounge last year.... there's something about that town......













here's the view from dave's world of guitars, at the side of the stage. dave is so awesome.



here's mal. he plays a mapex kit exclusively, and mapex is located in nashville, so they had a dude come out and take lots of pictures of mal playing. very exciting. i took this picture, though... not him.





dig the clapping, but also dig the restroom signs.



if you couldn't tell, the nashville show kicked serious ass. then we went to hang and party at a club next door...



this is joe. unfortunately, nobody got pictures of me dancing at the top of my game with my female dancefloor doppleganger. she said it best when she said "you dance just like me: you're a total spaz, but it's sexy." one of my favorite things ever uttered by one uman to another.





upon returning to the hotel, it is evident from these photos that people were a bit tipsy. i love this elevator pose. it's totally the band photo for some other strange band. i don't know what they should be called though.... simon and the ferrets? leave your best bad band name for this band in the comments, please.

BIRMINGHAM

woke up and drove to birmingham. it is the home of moses mayfield. we went to dreamland bbq and even though i am a vegetrian i felt its awesomeness. great banana pudding.

so at the show, at this big complex called workplay, matthew from moses mayfield asked pete to come do a duet of wonderwall with them, which he happilly obliged. it was kinda awesome, actully . ironically one of the opening acts in the smalled venue next door, where cartel was headlining, had covered wonderwall earlier in the night. that was a sign that it had to be done.







then this girl ashley did malcolm's makeup all glammy-like (i think that Of Montreal concert we saw really rubbed off on old mal) and he wore my cape and pranced around the greenroom.

more preshow antics:











then there was a show. the venue was a big soundstage, and the stage itself was quite high off the ground.







it's so strange, in that this photo looks like i blatently cut pete's head out of one photo and then pasted it on this one, but i swear that is not the case. this is what happens when omeone in the audience flashes their camera at the same time you do and then it all goes haywire. i did adjust the color and contrast and such, but no copying or pasting.... kinda creepy, no?







it's rare you see sid jordan without a cigarette. it's rare you see sid jodan without his hat.



i've been trying to get a good shot of tim playing steel for this enire tour and i think i finally got the shot i wanted.





liked this sign. what can i say? i'm a sign guy.

NEW ORLEANS

we arrived in new orleans in the morning. again, i beseech you people to go to new orleans and support the local economy or go and help in the cleanup. it's such a unique city and it's always a priviledge to be there.



we went in search of lunch and it was crazy. maspero cafe had a huge line. so we walked all the way to port of call.... an even longer wait. finally we went to emeril's place, nola and were able to injest food a few hours later than we initially wanted.





here's a unique peek at the inside of or trailer. all the gear is inside getting set-up for soundcheck. this is the back wall, the nose, aka my little mess of a merch world. this was it before it had to all be pcked up and shipped home. i've spent som freezing and sweat-drenched times in this trailer, pulling out more shirts and hoodies and trying not to crack cd jewel cases when i'm tossing boxes around. gonna miss that dirty little trailer...



simon. he look funny.



it was freezing in the house of blues, so pete borrowed a hoodie from merch, which he wore during soundcheck, then signed and i sold to the highest bidder.... why didn't we think of that on the You and Me Tour?!



broken bottle......



it was the last show, so there was mad tomfoolery. here's matt taylor, keyboard player in moses mayfield, joining minibar on sax. he ripped it up during "soho", i must say.



somebody had a little fun with a sharpie and moses' drum kit. here's wil and the potentially offensive scribblings.



warming up for the final show.













the crowd was truly one of the most energetic i've seen, packed into that little house of blues. there was the perfect last show energy from start to finish. lotsa kids singing along, lotsa nice people coming to merch and lotsa travellin fans converging on the big easy to come see the final show. positivity!



matthew mayfield grabbed a tamborine and shaked it up during dead flowers. at the end of the song he handed it into the audience, but dave rushed over to grab it. we all know that when something winds up in the adience, it isn't always meant to be taken home as a souvenir...



here's the part at the beginning of murray with the aw-aw-aw-aw-aw-aw's. malcolm likes to pop out from behind the kit and encourage the audience.







once again, simon found me back pehind pete's amp and made a series of faces and i took a series of pictures.





during there is a light that never goes out, pete leaves the stage to let the band shine in the spotlight. and mal goes insane on his kit.



this one was taken during the finale and you can see the audience is just going crazy! this photo is emblematic of the greatest moments of the tour. i wanted this to be the final shot of the blog, of this tour.

but our flight home the folling day was in the early evening. so we kind of had an extra day off in new orleans. so... more photos.



saying goodbye to our bus.... cleaning out the bunks. again, where is sid's hat?

pete's brother rick was in town and we all had a celebratory brunch at the world famous restaurant brennans. we walked from the hotel...







it was a wild menu, filled with crazy new orleans specialities like eggs sardou and turtle soup. in this photo, sid is talking to our waiter alex. this is what he said. imagine it in sid's accent. "one question for ya: the turtle soup. do the turtles suffer?"



my two drinks. left: absinthe suisette. right: the best bloody mary ever.



dave's eggs benedict.



alex preparing dessert, bananas foster (invented at brennan's). sid said "i'll foster our bananas in a minute." then malcolm said, upon being served, "now let's see what all this flaming nonsense is about." it was a very funny meal, can you tell?



the team (from left to right): dave holman (stage technician), joe kennedy (keyboard, electric guitar), rick "balls" marino (tour manager), simon petty (acoustic guitar), tim walker "texas ranger" (electric guitar, pedal steel), malcolm cross (drums), pete yorn (vocals, guitar), sid jordan (bass guitar), steve taylor (front of house), rick and christina yorn (brother and sister-in-law, #1 fans)... kneeling: max goldblatt (cotton wrangler, webmeister), not pictured: jeff james (lights) he had to catch an earlier flight that morning...



rick was full after brunch.

then we got in a little party van, minibus type thing en route to the airport. there were beads. i wore them and didn't have to show any skin to get them.





on the way out of new orleans we passed by the superdome.



mal and dave prepare for takeoff.



the final picture of the tour, pete reading my magazine, dismayed at the state of music journalism... no, actually he just really wanted to get on that plane and go home..

and now we are home.

but tomorrow morning pete gets back on a plane to go do the bruce tribute at CARNEGIE HALL!!! big up.

friends, the man himself would like to have a word with you.... ladies and gentlemen, pete yorn.



you heard it here first, people.

on a personal note, it has been an honor to serve you these past few months. meeting so many nice people all over our great country (and canada! and australia!) has made the last 10 months of my life exremely memorable.

there will obviously be fewer updates during our time off, but i will be popping in from time to time to say hello and deposit digital goodies.

this tour may be over, but you have not heard the last of westerns.

sincerely yours,
max

pete yorn presents a miniphotoblog (there was a day off, one show, now another day off).

so here are photographs from yesterday in raleigh, north carolina, accompanied by ryhming couplets in iambic pentameter, shakespeare style.



here's pete in lincoln theatre's sparse backroom,
no toilet, bucket, food, nor ev'n a broom.



a photograph: guitar pedals of tim,
what's that? it's pete! look not on them but him!



inside an amplifier it is hot.
a riff could melt your face off (we hope not!)



here's many malcolm crosses to behold.
what's more he's keeping rhythym! oh, how bold!



a flick'ring image, grainy blurry: frame,
looks like the world where silent stars found fame.



like cinema, this one has merit too.
emotion! foreground, background movement true.



"these pedals must do something!" i concur.
the answer rests with monsiour tim walker.



oh i see pete and sid and simon p.
blue songwriters, each one of them: the three



he whipped the neck of his guitar, such fun!
I saw it! that's how cool photos are won.



right there in front is bass-man sidney j.
behind is pete and spaceman joey k.



here's minibar. well three quarters of four.
so where is sid? the hotel room next door.

(this only makes sense if you understand that sid is actually in the room adjacent to me as i write this blog in the hotel in nashville. make sense now?)



and here's the view from from of house, you know.
the house of steve who mixes ev'ry show.



this shirt is black but looks red under light.
i'm telling you it's black! you wanna fight?



it 'twas a cool crowd up on balcony
it's higher up: a better view to see.



once more a double-view of malcolm cross:
a king of the drum throne! sir skins! beat boss!



watch pete "jam out," the kids all say these days.
the youth will start a new linguistic craze.



it's mal on mobile phone in the carpark.
show's over, bus must leave, it's getting dark.



you toss and turn in sleep, you should not care.
when waking up you will have simon's hair.

xoxo
pupsterns

salutations, screen squinters.

your old buddy old pal westerns here with the latest in yornews. it's monday and we have the day off here in charlotte, n.c. i think that it's the prettiest state... have i said that before? maybe last summer. man it's been a long time. under a week of touring remains for mr. yorn down here in america's south. time certainly does fly, folkies.

you should know that the internet connection in this hotel is spotty (let's say it works for a few seconds every once and a while), so uploading the photos for this blog has become an arduous task. it's destroying me, i tell you.

lets get straight to the evidence before i lose it.

haiku part deux:



we did not stay at
the four seasons atlanta
cuz it's upsidedown



abandoned storefront
looked so creepy and barren
straight out of fight club



malcolm on the street
it's now warm enough for him
to remove his shirt



a radio show
for dave fm hotlanta
had rad style posters



hand of steve taylor
fingers in control of all
his nails clipped and scrubbed



soundcheck at the place
is it called center stage or
earthlink live or both?



mirror mirror on
purple walls. it's the wrongest
"green room" of them all



I caught sid smiling
you can't tell anybody
especially sid



here's simon petty
still looking like a zombie
and tim looking left



joe plays the guitar
and looks like he just got back
from a bar mitzvah



atlanta vampyre
with pete's shadow on the crowd
drumstick silhouette



malcolm cross times two
playing drums and tinted blue
a rhyming haiku



they snapped a picture
when i snapped a picture too
i'd like to see theirs



dunno what to say
about this one except that
I think it looks nice



check dem silhouettes
made nice by an amber light
and atlanta's vibes



it's a harp solo
a mouth harp, not a "harp" harp
which would be cool too



pete played driver 8
by r.e.m. from georgia
the crowd sang along



north carolina
the following night: charlotte
it was very hot



and under the lights
on stage was even hotter
that it got sweaty



and it blurred the lens
and made it tough to focus
these pictures all suck



maybe this one's cool
there was no good place to stand
it's the same angle



you can see the crowd
but you can't see them too well
all this frustrates me



from the balcony
i'll get a good shot of pete
no. blocked by a pole



here's the view from merch
why can't i get a good shot?
it's driving me mad!



nobody touch me!
i'm liable to destroy!
you will all perish!



unless you tip me
what's this? a five dollar bill?
thank you. i'll calm down.



later on the bus
simon p. played the banjo
and they restrained me.



this is what happens
when it's too hot and you don't
drink enough water

xoxox
I am westerns of the west
master puppins best

greetings smurthlings.

day off in atlanta.
I am happy to report that we are suddenly in the south and it's suddenly the spring.
I've thrown my winter coat in the suitcase.
it's time for t-shirts and sweat.

I hope people will still buy hoodies from me at the pete yorn shows.

wow, only a few shows left.... it's crazy. this tour has flown by, but it also feels as though we have been out on the road for eternity and a day. paradoxical, no? quizzical look on my face.

ok it's time to peep at some pictures and hear some tales from your old uncle westerns...



so after boston and the drag queens we overnighted it to our nation's capital to the always great 9:30 club for the first of pete's two sold-out nights there. from the perspective of a touring band, the 9:30 is one of the best.... they really have it all worked down to a science over there. and the nachos are heavenly.



you see that glowing thing up there on the left? that's the tube in joey's amp glowing all crazy-like during one of his guitar solos.



it's become a bit of a game now. simon sees me taking photos on or at the side of the stage and mugs for the camera. in turn i am expected to snap a picture of him. i call this simon the pensive, peering simon.



simon and pete do that back to back thing that we all know and love.



i'm sure i took a very similar shot last time we were at the 9:30 club, but that balcony is just so conducive to cool overhead angles. plus the crowd was much sexier this time than in september.... grrrr.







there's three vibey shots. do i say vibey too much? is it a useless adjective? it may be. let's see.... ok. scratch vibey. these shots are colorful and play with light in fresh ways. the one in the middle, taken from below the stage, is the work of marc rothschild. marc is the brother of seth rothschild. this is seth.



yes. this is seth after the show, passed out under the stage... around where the drumkit is. if you look closely you can see a gash on his face near his glasses. he was under there for a while. seth remembers none of this. when i showed him this picture he said "that's my album cover."



the following day.

rick and pete explored the smithsonian jams. we went to many fun museums and ate my favorite food of the tour so far: the cafeteria of the national museum of the american indian. it's a must eat. we sampled delicious tamals and maple aquas frescas and beans and indian pudding. totally awesome and tons of veggies for me and i kinda felt like a pilgrim. we also saw the "treasures of american history" exhibition at the air and space museum. we saw dorothy's ruby slippers and edison's lightbulb and the lunch counter from the woolworth's in north carolina where that famous sit-in went down.



one of these two men in hats is a spy. but which?



diceratops looks like the devil sign, dude.



night two at the 9:30 club. sound man steve taylor rests on the very special dressing room bunkbeds (i told you they had it all figured out at that club, right?) while mister cross sketches matt, the keyboard player for moses mayfield who you cannot see because i held the camera vertically.



here's mal's preshow warmup, captured from the vantage point of one of those excellent bunkbeds.



if "pete yorn" were a band, this would be their promotional photo. this is the stairwell that leads from the dressing rooms to the stage. this is also the first time i've been able to get everyone to pose.



mal's new shoes truly get cooler and cooler each time i look at them.



again, simon plays to the camera. though this time he has turned into a completely scary, blood drinking monster. very 28 days later.



fuzzy guitar tone meets fuzzy photo.



after a song, malcolm straight-up collapsed onto his kit. and i was there.



I always love pete's harmonica moment in strange condition. as does the crowd, obviously. and here you can see the equally sexy crowd of night two. if you were at BOTH nights then you are most sexy.



again, love that balcony for giving me a some new angles. this is a very formal shot during the always crowd pleasing "georgie boy." notice joey's "vampyre" snare drum... always there, but only used for one song.



mal's famous backwards collapse move during "there is a light that never goes out." always collapsing that mr. cross.

we slept another night in d.c. before a quick morning jaunt to baltimore, home of john waters. back to the sonar, a venue we hit during the summer. my friend told me they have this crazy indie rock dance party called taxlo on thursdays, but, alas, it was actually every friday. so no post-show boogie for me...



here's a good look at tim's pedalsteel. i always liked the playing card icons on the frets, but doubt that they're visible from the audience. so, check them (and tim's beanie) out.



pete jumped up to play drums during minibar's set and the lighting in the sonar was super vibed-out (there i go again) and this picture captures the action.



after a day off, seth was back to play his last show with minibar. another shot aided by sonar's kickass lights.





there's also a haze machine at sonar. it is very powerful. it is an instant vibe creator. the hazer would make the plainest of bands look downright mysterious up on that stage. but p.y. and the boys are already mysterious. so the haze simply rendered them more difficult to see.



here is joe kennedy between his and pete's amps. it should be noted that joe is not actually that small. it is the amps that are large.



another show down, six to go. we hope that you, f.o.p.s and f.o.b.s (friends of pete, friends of the blog) are doing well, wherever you may be. hopefully spring is upon you as it is upon us.

we head deeper into the south, into regions of great warmth and greater portions.

be well

maximal puppinstein westleyan

foto haiku.



here's pete and conan
I did not get to see it
anyone tivo?



clouds taste metallic.
the snow in new york city...
it tastes so shitty.



money and guitar
making the blues sound dirty
Ifeel good again



simon acoustic
goes perfectly well paired with
pete yorn electric



pete caught a large fish
during the show at roseland
and he threw it back



the show was sold out
new york city braved the storm
welcome to the show



a harmonica
perfectly placed in a song
makes the crowd go wild



simon is blurry
am i a master or is
my camera broke?



when pete turns around
he looks at malcolm's drum kit
and all hell breaks loose



the audience claps
but was this during murray?
I must ask simon



this is a great pic
taken by the dave wilson
of pete yorn crouching



star curtains are rad.
jeff saved it for the crystal
village finale



it's me about town:
western westerns westerns wes
puppins puppins pup.



philadelphia
gamblers sit in a dark room
p.y. and chauncey



sid is funnier
when he's not wearing his clohes
but someone else's



during minibar
pete plays drums for retrospect
and there's seth rothschild



simon is undead
he will eat your flesh
even from the stage



neon squiggle bolt
for tim is a lightning rod
electric timmins



look at all dem peeps.
the electric factory
was buzzing like woah



look at pete holler
whilst playing on his guitar
the dude has mad skills



later in boston
walking into the river
radio station



hi this is pete yorn
and you're tuned to the river
ninety two point five



paper yorn headlights
and a mic stand in boston
symmetry and such



he makes it sound good.
what do all those buttons do?
only steve knows that.



look at those axes!
first act guitar studio
is the coolest place



joe looks so new wave
not like french new wave films
like devo, the cars



he has gone beyond
the valley of the malcolm
cross, wearing my cape



joe plays that synth part
in "for nancy" upsidedown
and backwards as well



pinwheel windmill pete
pete yorn and pete townshend merge
making motion blurrr



sometimes red lights suck
and make your shots look bad
this is not that shot



sid jordan defies
the space time continuum
with bass smoking skills



mal got some gold shoes
and immediately played drums
like a shiny man



see tim and simon.
what could they be laughing at?
p.y.'s "kick me" sign?



simon loves to pose
when i'm out taking photos
but this face scares me



minibar in hats
at my old merchandise booth
so where's tim walker?



tim's in the green room
while some drag queens change their clothes
I swear that's the truth.

xoxox am westerns of the west puppins if you jest

et voila!

we've returned from canadu. always a pleasure.... now in neuvo yorke, the isle of manhattos. roseland tonight! conan tonight (but really this afternoon... sorry to shatter the illusion...)! no time really, but i have a free moment, so here's the latest visual tone poem of the adventures of Pete Yorn And His Band (And Crew)...



this chair was ye olde chaire of toronto. in the hotel lobby. it makes everyone look small and delicate. musty...



and here's the show at the phoenix, a sorta legendary place. they had nice lights and i had a good night at merch with all dem canadian friendly folks. i even figured out their wacky play-money! still have a few twooneys burning a hole in my pocket...





the show was mad super fun. pete was beaming when he came offstage before the encore. word up.



the next day we went to mtv canada which is in an old masonic lodge. the ballroom is pretty awesome. that's where the performance was. here dave and pete look like male models. it's berry funny.







these were all taken during soundcheck. the show is not a TRL- like music video show, but more of a teen talk show with a musical guest at the end. little did we know that in a few hours the room would be filled with a buncha energetic candian kids giving each other haircuts and talking aboot body image.





between soundcheck and the live taping, pete and i went to bravo (which is more of a music/arts channel in canada) for an interview. there was a piano and pete started playing somber "film-score" chords. impressive. then he was interviewed under studio lights and i took the second picture.



zippy.



noel and pete gallagher.





then they did an interview and played. the kids were all gathered 'round and the camera crane was flying around and the lights were swirling and it was cool.



here's the exterior. this was after mal and i went to tim horton, but before we drove back across the border.



waiting in a room full of pamphlets and daleks. it took awhile, but we made it folks.



then we played in albany. in... the egg. a huge performing arts structure built in the 70s, the egg is in the middle of this crazy square full of bizarro architecture and sculptures. totally europeanesqueish.



backstage, pete makes up a new song about the egg...."the egg song" to be featured on his next album, "tomorrowland."



malcolm makes the appropriate adjustments to the set.



and here it is.... cool room, strange room. i can imagine seeing modern dance on that stage.



jeff james works his lighting majik once again.



here we are driving to do radio in new jersey. it was a good time. pete even played a tune for cuz larry.





then we went back to new york for an xm session and they let us peek in oprah and gail's room which was righ across the hall. there it is!!!!!!

ok. off to roseland and to grab a falafel from qwik meal, my fave. j'aime new york!

peace pup.

friends! romans! yornymen! lend me your bandwidth. today i'm coming to you from the great white north... the morning, day & night tour has arrived in toronto and it's a pleasure to be here. should be a fun show tonight... pete's first in toronto in quite some time. i might add that it's my first time in this fine city...

but won't you join me as i step back and do the timewarp again? i take you to... columbus, ohio.... on wednesday the seventh...



oh look, it's 3/4 of minibar! fine blokes they are those minimen. i got to introduce them at the chicago show and i called them "the men of minibar." here in columbus simon's phone broke and he went by foot on a wild goose chase for a verizon store. i stayed at the venue all day... blogging and faxing and whatnot. i did not see the albanian food vendor, alas.... but simon did make me a very nice sandwich for dinner. as a thank you, simon will be featured prominently in the photos of this blog.



look at that crowd. we sold out the basement, sold out the newport and sold out the lifestyle communities pavillion. it's an awkward name, i know. but columbus loves pete. and pete loves columbus. there's dave, doing all his final adjustments before pete hits the stage. dave is instrumental to everything running smooth. get it? instrumental? ok. i'll shut up.



there's simon again. i was hiding behind the amps, next to the drum riser, taking pictures, and simon found me.... cheeky



sometimes an amp doesn't sound exactly as you would like... here's pete fine-tuning his sound.





more action shots, more simon.... joe's sneaky harmonica at the end of "just another" really brings it home. i must say that i am a fan.

later on during the show my laptop broke.



after the show we went to a hidden bar called the treehouse. there's a tree trunk growing through the center of one room. very cool. it was also open-mic night. simon's response to the dude with the guitar was to plug his ears. later some dude mangled "racing in the streets" and joe and i couldn't contain ourselves.....



so sid and simon got up thee and knocked it out of the park. it was like they were the headliners of this open-mic night. when they finished, it was last call and we had to gun it to get back to the bus in time.



but we made it. and then the bus sat around for a while because our driver as running behind. the 6-string banjo came out once more and joe proved himself as a master. what can this man not do?

we had the day off in cleveland but it was far too cold to go out and do much of anything. rick and pete and i watched "lost" on rick's laptop (very good episode compared to the last few).... i was mostly bored without a computer, so i went to bed early and got in some well-deserved rest.



the following day we were at cleveland's house of blues. it was aqualung's last show of the tour... they are off to sxsw. we had a lot of fun with those guys.... the show would prove to be a fun, celebratory affair...



we added the buzzcocks cover back into setlist rotation, and the guys took soundcheck to fine-tun it. the ended up pulling it out that night and i think it went over quite well. it is such a high-energy song how could you not dig it?



some of us from the yorn camp jumped on stage during aqualung's set to add some additional percussion to "brighter than sunshine." we made a bit of a scene. i had a nice meal shaker.



this is the sign i made which would allow me to go film parts of the show and take pictures and run around on stage. i got aqualung's appearances during pete's encore on tape, though i missed pete and matt doing guest stints during minibar's set... lots of antics.



'twas another killer show, injected with extra crazy fun time. mad legit.



we had a great time with aqualung. nice and talented people. their new record is out tuesday. check it out... champagne was a-flowing after the show and t-shirts were exchanged. sad to see them depart.

but the next day (which happened to be yesterday) we met the guys of moses mayfield, who will be the support act through the rest of the tour. they're alabama boys. and they shred.



here's the line for the grand rapds show.... which sold out (what else is new)... we just found out that tonight's toronto show is sold out as well. lots of sell-out. there are only a handful of tickets left for the new york show @ roseland, the biggest of the tour. the sweet smell of success!









another really fun show. the setlist was nightcrawler heavy (why not?) and featured "ever fallen in love" again and the return of "burrito." grand rapids! nice people! attractive people! good times.

after the show we packed up quickly and moved towards the border. before going to sleep, mal made good use of some fresh fruit.



we went to bed, woke up at the border, got out, waited around, got our passports stamped and here we are. canadia. this is the joy of touring... the days pass, the cities pass, you find yourself in another country and you find something to eat (or simon makes you something to eat), you go to sleep and repeat.

maxster pupins westing

we're still on the road and we're still freezing our assets off. today's locale is columbus, ohio.... my mother's alma mater and the home of fun times. i'm in the production office of the lifestyles pavilion... this is where panic at the disco were playing last summer when we had our show next door at the basement. well now we're in the big venue.... looks like we made it! top of the world, ma!

please keep enjoying (or not enjoying) our controversial "morning day and night" videos, a glimpse into the absurdities of life... on the golden road.

so anyway, here's the tale of our arduous journey told, as always, with the help of visual aids. do enjoy... and:



peeps, i said the skyways in minneapolis were cool.... but they looked even cooler from my hotel room... check it out.... totally blade runner style.



as you must know by now, first avenue was prince's club... the one in the purple rain movie, to be exact. it's a totally nice place.... good people. here's tim and mal during soundcheck..... reflected in aqualung's piano....



from across the street at the hard rock cafe. it was getting darker, windier and more freezing.... i had to get inside. earlier in the day i lost my balance holding a box of hoodies and fell backwards into a little hill of plowed snow... it was a sad moment. the more time spent outside in winter in minneapolis, the more it dawns on me that i am a wuss.



the crowd was electric, feeling it so hard. there is nothing like a sold out venue... when it's difficult to move through the crowd, it's a good night. unless you don't like crowds. in which case, i would suggest breathing deeply and thinking of a tranquil place...



from one cold-ass sold-out show to another! the midwest loves themselves some p.y. and i love old marquees.... so it worked out well.



during aqualung's soundcheck pete wandered on stage and started banging along on the extra "vampyre" snare drum. but my question is... why the long face?



backstage.... mal + tea = the norm. actually, the backstage catering at the riviera was really awesome. some nights you're lucky to get bread, cheese, deli meats and pb & j. like last night, for instance, i went without dinner. these things happen. but amazingly, not only did the riviera provide us with the basics, they had terrific lunch and dinner offerings, plus sensible veggie options. living the dream....









so the show was killer. the best of the tour thus far. as i told pete afterwards, aside from the fact that i've seen him play hundreds of time, this was one of the best concerts i'd seen in a while... a huge success, really. the crowd went ballistic, singing along to so much of the set. rousing cheers greeted each song. total triumph... as you can see from the action shots above, everyone really rocked out. legendary.

then in the morning we woke up to find out that a window in the back lounge of the bus had been smashed and there was cardboard on it, so the back lounge was very cold as we drove to madison, wisconsin... home of my father's alma mater!



we woke up and had a nice indian brunch next to the venue, another neato old movie theater... dates back to the early days .... geek out. they're going to have all the molding restored soon..... too geeky.



for sure 'twas another cool show... pete teased out a new cover for the first time on stage... a little bit of "i am the cosmos" by chris bell. oh it was good. some other pete covers that you've heard before may be reintroduced to the setlists soon enough... stay tuned for some of that.



students: in composition, one must always search for the naturally occurring frames within the frame. taking note, budding photobugs.



at the end of the night, an old movie theater just looks like an old movie theater...



dave put on malcolm's hoodie and became david, pattern supermodel. then we drove onward and i was hanging in the back lounge and it was super cold. th